AND EDUCATION IN DENMARK. 221 
literary history of Denmark, there is mention of a canon who was 
so illiterate as to be incapable of signing his own name. 
During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the University of 
Paris* maintained the highest celebrity, all over the world. The 
reputation of a Lombard, a Champeaux, an Abelard, constantly at- 
tracted crowds of foreigners to its schools; and, as the philosophers 
then expressed it in their extravagant diction, the Parisian Univer- 
sity was the choicest gem in the jewel-house of Christ, the arsenal 
wherein were fabricated the armour of faith and the sword of the 
spirit! It was the key of Christianity, the paradise of the Catholic 
church, the temple of Solomon, the holy Jerusalem, the tree of Life 
in the garden of the World, the resplendent lamp of the House of 
God! The Rector of this University took precedence of ministers, 
barons, counts and cardinals: his dignity placed him next in rank 
to the pope and the king. They who had studied at Paris were 
ever after reputed as philosophers: whoever took the degree of M.A. 
there, he might aspire to the highest honours ; he was addressed by 
the style of “ magistratus excellentia,” sometimes by that of “ vene- 
rabilis magistrorum majestas,” and not unseldom even by that of 
* deitas,” in illustration of hyperbolical impiety. Many Danes fre- 
quented this university, and four of themn—Henningus de Dania in 
mecexit, Petrus de Dania in mcccxxyv1, Johannes Nicolai in 
mccexivill, and Manaritus Magni in mcccLxv—acquired the dig- 
nity of its rectorate. The Danish scholars constituted a part of the 
Natio Anglicana, and they resided in a house assigned to them in 
the vicinity of the Sorbonne. In the fifteenth century, every chap- 
ter in Denmark was required to send one or two students to Paris; 
and, at that time, it was said of Stangberg bishop of Ripen, that 
this learned man, the friend of learned men, enacted and established 
as a law, with consent of the chapter—that no person should be 
admitted into the order of Canons, unless he had studied diligently 
for three years in some distinguished university. 
These remote pursuits, however, did not prove so beneficial to the 
interests of Science as might have been expected. Already had the 
“universitary” philosophy of Paris fallen into a false direction ; for, 
instead of being applied to erudite researches and serious discussions 
it was prostituted in support of the most pitiful controversies, of the 
* E. C. Burxus.—Historia Universitatis Parisiensis, a Carolo impera- 
tore A.D. necc, usque ad annum mpc; folio, Vol. 1 et 11, Parisiis, 1665; Vol. 
111, Ib. 1666; Vol. 1v, Ib. 16686; Vol. v, 1670; et Vol. v1, Ib. 1673. Inthe 
phraseology of Bibliographers, “ this is a Work of extreme rarity.” 
