educational impulse. They failed to see how education would help them in their drudging toil, and hence were not responsive to any effort for their intellectual improvement.

(H.) BRETHREN OF THE COMMON LIFE.

In the fourteenth century a brotherhood, founded by Gerhard Groot, and known as Hieronymians, or Brethren of the Common Life, devoted themselves to the work of education, with special reference to the poorer classes. Without assuming monastic vows, the members of this brotherhood led a life of purity, and labored with unselfish devotion for the good of others. Establishing a community of goods, they supported themselves by the work of their own hands. By its pure and self-sacrificing life, the brotherhood rapidly grew in popular favor, was extensively patronized, received papal recognition and protection, and soon spread over the northern part of Germany. It maintained its existence till the sixteenth century.

Special emphasis was laid upon religious education, as will be seen from the following words of the founder: "Spend no time either on geometry, arithmetic, rhetoric, logic, grammar, poetry, or astrology. All these branches Seneca rejects; how much more, then, should a spiritually-minded Christian pass them by, since they subserve in no respect the life of faith! Of the sciences of the pagans, their ethics may not be so scrupulously avoided, since this was the special field of the wisest of them, as Socrates and Plato. That which does not improve a man, or, at least, does not reclaim him from evil, is positively hurtful. Neither ought we to read

pagan books, nor indeed the Holy Scriptures, in order merely to penetrate into the mysteries of Nature by that means." Practically, however, the order departed considerably from this religious narrowness, and devoted itself not simply to the elementary instruction of the people, but also to the higher education. The two most celebrated members of this order were Thomas à Kempis, and Nicholas Cusanus, who interested himself with success in educational work, as well as in reformatory measures for abuses in the Church.

"In the schools of the brotherhood," says Johannes Janssen, a painstaking Catholic writer, "Christian education was placed high above the mere acquisition of knowledge, and the practical religious culture of the youth, the nurture and confirmation of active piety, was considered the chief object. All the instruction was penetrated with a Christian spirit, and the pupil learned to regard religion as the most important human interest, and the foundation of all true culture. At the same time, a considerable amount of knowledge and a good method of study were imparted, and the pupil acquired an earnest love for literary and scientific activity. From all quarters studious youth poured into these schools."

(1.) THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT.

But a single point remains to be considered to complete our review of education in the middle ages. This is the growth of the scientific spirit. To the awakening of this spirit, two principal causes contributed. The first of these was the increase of human knowledge growing out of the crusades, the growth of the cities,

and the social elevation of the laity; the other was the influence of the Arabian or Mohammedan schools.

(J.) MOHAMMEDAN LEARNING.

After the establishment of Mohammedanism in the seventh century, it was carried by the force of arms over large portions of Asia, Africa, and Europe. Empires were established, in which learning kept pace with political power. The caliphs of Cordova and Bagdad became rivals in their patronage of learning, no less than in political power and ostentatious luxury. The writings of the Greeks, especially those of Aristotle and Euclid, were translated into Arabic. Flourishing schools were established in all the principal cities, notably at Bagdad and Damascus in the East, and at Cordova, Salamanca, and Toledo in the West. Here grammar, mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, chemistry, and medicine were pursued with great ardor and success. The Arabians originated chemistry, discovering alcohol, and nitric and sulphuric acids. They gave algebra and trigonometry their modern forms; applied the pendulum to the reckoning of time; ascertained the size of the earth by measuring a degree, and made catalogues of the stars. For a time, they were the intellectual leaders of Europe. Their schools in Spain were largely attended by Christian youth from other European countries, who carried back with them to their homes the Arabian science, and through it stimulated intellectual activity in Christian nations. In the eleventh century, having imparted its intellectual treasures to the Christian world, Arabian learning began to decline, and has since fallen into utter insignificance.

(K.) RISE OF THE UNIVERSITIES.

The richest fruit of this newly awakened scientific spirit in Europe was the founding of the universities. They arose independently of both Church and state. In the beginning they consisted of free associations of learned men and aspiring youths, who were held together alone by their mutual interest in science. In this way the University of Bologna had its origin in the twelfth century for the study of law, and the University of Salerno shortly afterward for the study of medicine. Toward the close of the twelfth century the University of Bologna numbered no less than twelve thousand students, most of whom came from distant countries. During this century the cathedral school of Paris was enlarged into a university, in which the study of theology was pre- . dominant. This became the most distinguished seat of learning in Europe. At one time it was attended by more than twenty thousand students, who for the purpose of better government were divided into bodies according to nationality. They had special halls called colleges, in which they lodged and boarded under official supervision. The professors were divided into the four faculties-philosophy, theology, medicine, and law-which have since been retained in universities, though the studies in each department have been greatly enlarged.

The moral tone of the universities was low; there were brawls, outbreaks, and abominable immoralities. "The students," say the Vienna statutes, "shall not spend more time in drinking, fighting, and guitar-playing, than at physics, logic, and the regular courses of lectures; and they shall not get up public dances in the

streets. Quarrelers, wanton persons, drunkards, those that go about serenading at night, or who spend their leisure in following after lewd women; thieves, those that insult citizens, players at dice—having been properly warned and not reforming, besides the ordinary punishment provided by law for those misdemeanors, shall be deprived of their academical privileges and expelled." These prohibitions give us a clear insight into the university life of the time, for it was not worse at Vienna than at Paris and elsewhere.

The influence and power of the universities were speedily recognized; and, though originally free associations, they were soon brought into relation with the Church and the state, by which they were officially authorized and endowed with privileges. "Although the universities were free associations," says Karl Schmidt, "yet as intellectual forces they were soon drawn into the various spheres of life, and Church as well as state, princes as well as cities, rivaled each other in winning their influence by bestowing favors upon them. First, the Church sought to attach them to itself, in order to join to the power of faith the power of knowledge: the first privileges that the universities received proceeded from the popes. On the other hand, the emperors desired and sought the development of a free secular culture, in order to procure for their might and power an intellectual foundation; and they hastened, therefore, to circumvent the ecclesiastical influence, and to give the new universities an independent position. Thus, in November, 1158, Frederick I. gave the University of Bologna a privilege, whereby the students from abroad were granted his protection, and a court of their own