CHAP. II - RISE OF THE ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES

Summary

In the preceding chapter our attention has been mainly directed to the three most important phases in the developement of the great continental university which formed to so large an extent the model for Oxford and Cambridge,—its general organization, the culture it imparted, and the commencement and growth of its collegiate system. We shall now, passing by for the present many interesting details, endeavour to shew the intimate connexion existing in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries between Paris on the one hand and Oxford and Cambridge on the other, and the fidelity with which the features we have noted were reproduced in our own country. The materials that Fuller and Anthony Wood found available for their purpose, when they sought to explore the early annals of their universities, are scanty indeed when compared with those which invited the labours of Du Boulay and Crevier. The university of Paris, throughout the thirteenth century, well-nigh monopolised the interest of the learned in Europe. Thither thought and speculation appeared irresistibly attracted; it was there that the new orders fought the decisive battle for place and power; that new forms of scepticism rose in rapid succession, and heresies of varying moment riveted the watchful eye of Rome; that anarchy most often triumphed and flagrant vices most prevailed; and it was from this seething centre that those influences went forth which predominated in the contemporary history of Oxford and Cambridge.