SCIENCE AND LETTERS 



THE MIDDLE AGES, 



AXD AT THR 



PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE. 



UNIVERSITIES, SCHOOLS, STUDENTS. 



4 



Legend of the foundation of fhe Paris University by Charlemagne. The Schools of the Nolre- 

 I)ame Cloisters. Origin of the name Unieeriity. The organization of the University. The 

 " four Nations and the four Faculties. The Rector and the other officers of the University. 

 The great and the' lifctle messengers. Privileges of the University. Its power and its 

 decadence. Its political role. Creation of provincial Universiliea. Great Schools of the 

 Rue du Fouarre. TJie Paris Colleges. Turbulence of the Students. Their Games. 

 Their Festivals. The I>ndit Fair. Foreign Universities. 



[HE schools of Marseilles, Autun, Naibonne, 

 Lyons, Bordeaux, and Toulouse, which, 

 under the Roman dominion, had, thanks to 

 the names of their famous professors and 

 pupils, such as the poets Petronius and 

 Ausonius, Trogus Pompeius the historian, 

 the orators Salvian and Cesareus, &c., re- 

 flected so much credit upon Gaul, hud, in 

 the sixth century of the Christian era, 

 ceased to be more than a mere souvenir. 

 The reign of Dagobert (G-'JH) witnessed 

 the extinction of the ancient genius of the 

 land. The clergy, who remained the sole depositaries of human knowledge, had 

 allowed themselves l<> be enveloped, in their turn, in the gloom of ignorance, 

 when Charlemagne set to work to bring about a sort of intellectual regenera- 

 tion throughout his vast empire. By bis orders the Anglo-Saxon monk 



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