UNIVEX&TIES, SCHOOLS, STUDENTS. 15 



from the fee paid by all the students, a multiplicity of legacies and charitable 

 foundations, the annual produce of the Pr^-aux-Clercs and that of the office 

 of messenger. 



The registrar, secretary, or scribe, took notes or read documents at the 

 meetings of the University, and preserved in the archives the registers, of 

 which only a few are still extant. . 



The name of grand messager was given to certain of the principal 

 burghers of Paris who, established in the capital, acted as correspondents for 

 the scholars from the different provinces of France and the various countries 

 of Europe. Accredited by the scholars' families, and sworn servants of the 

 University, they were exempted from the service of the urban guard, and 

 enjoyed other immunities. They were bound to supply the students, 

 under certain securities, with the money which they might require. The 

 number of these messengers was limited to one for each diocese. They had 

 under their orders a number, varying according to circumstances, of sub- 

 messengers, or mere postmen, who were perpetually coining and going to 

 and from Paris with letters and parcels for the students and their rela- 

 tives. This organization may be looked upon as the origin of the Letter- 

 post and the Messageries, which have since been raised to the rank of public 

 services the Post by Louis XL, the Messageries by Louis XIV. (Figs. 18 

 and 19). 



The University had', in addition, its beadles, also called sergeants, massitrs, 

 or apparitors, to the number of fourteen, each nation and each faculty 

 appointing two, an upper and an under one. The rector was generally 

 preceded by the two beadles of the nation to which he belonged. These 

 functionaries, whose duties at first were purely ceremonial, afterwards were 

 employed in the transcribing of public documents, and so came to be looked 

 upon as half-copyists, half-literary persons (Fig. 19). 



To these officials, of high and low degree, must be added the two chan- 

 cellors, attached to the churches of Notre-Dame and St. Genevieve, the two 

 conservators of the privileges of the University. One of these, the royal 

 conservator, was the provost of Paris, who, upon his appointment, took an 

 oath that he would respect and maintain the rights of the University, while 

 the second, or apostolic conservator, was selected from amongst the three 

 Bishops of Mcaux, Bcauvais, and Senlis. 



The titles borne by the superior and subordinate officers of the University 



