HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION. 379 



It then became the College des Trois Langues, when the king, not- 

 withstanding the opposition of the university, created in 1534 a chair 

 of Latin. There was another objection made by the university to 

 the new creation: from the commencement the courses were free; 

 and this feeling was not decreased by the fact that around the cele- 

 brated masters of the Trois Langues a crowd of students was soon 

 congregated. 



The idea in the mind of Francis I in creating this Royal College 

 may be gathered from the following edict, dated in 1545: "Fran- 

 cois, etc., savoir faisons a. tous presents et a. venir que Nous, con- 

 siderant que le sgavoir des langues, qui est un des dons du Saint- 

 Esprit, fait ouverture et donne le moyen de plus entiere connaissance 

 et plus parfaite intelligence de toutes bonnes, honnetes, saintes et 

 salutaires sciences. . . . Avons fait faire pleinement entendre a 

 ceux qui, y voudraient vacquer, les trois langues principales, He- 

 braique, Grecque, et Latine, et les Livres esquels les bonnes sciences 

 sont le mieux et le plus profondement traitees. A laquelle fin, et en 

 suivant le decret du concile de Vienne, nous avons pieca ordonne et 

 establi en notre bonne ville de Paris, un bonne nombre de person- 

 nages de sgavoir excellent, qui lisent et enseignent publiquement et 

 ordinairement les dites langues et sciences, maintenant florissant autant 

 ou plus qu'elles ne firent de bien longtemps . . . auxquels nos lec- 

 teurs avons donne honnetes gages et salaires, et iceux fait pourvoir 

 de plusieurs beaux benefices pour les entretenir et donner occasion de 

 mieux et plus continuellement entendre au fait de leur charge, . . . 

 etc." 



The Statistique, which I am following in this account, thus sums 

 up the founder's intention : " Le College Royal avait pour mission 

 de propager les nouvelles connaissances, les nouvelles decouvertes. 

 II n'enseignait pas la science faite, il la faisait." 



It was on account of this more than on account of anything else 

 that it found its greatest enemy in the university. The founding 

 of this new college, and the great excitement its success occasioned 

 in Paris, were, there can be little doubt, among the factors which 

 induced Gresham to found his college in London in 1574. 



These two institutions played ag;reat part in their time. Gresham 

 College, it is true, was subsequently strangled, but not before its 

 influence had been such as to permit the Royal Society to rise 

 phoenixlike from its ashes; for it is on record that the first step in 

 the forming of this society was taken after a lecture on astronomy 

 by Sir Christopher Wren at the college. All connected with them 

 felt in time the stupendous change of thought in the century which 

 saw the birth of Bacon, Galileo, Gilbert, Hervey, Tycho Brahe, 

 Descartes, and many others that might be named; and of these, it is 



