UfTTVEXS/T/ES, SCHOOLS, STUDENTS. 



at the death of Louis X., and 'in 1328, at the death of Charles IV., its vote 

 went a long way towards securing the triumph of the Salic law, and pre- 

 venting the government of France from falling into the hands of an English 

 prince. Councillor of the kings, instructor of the people, the University 

 ///* piTiiidiiciit Council of the Gauls pursued its high mission with great 

 credit, and this was the period when it reached the apogee of its splendour. 

 Then it was that all its members, masters and pupils alike, were recognised 

 as inviolable, exempt from all tolls, subsidies, imposts, and military service of 

 every kind. Then it was that, to complete the measure of its honours, 

 Charles V. conferred upon the University the proud title, which it never let 

 drop, of Eldest Daughter of the Kings. . 



But the period of its decadence was soon about to begin. Venality, 

 sophistry, and party spirit took possession of its leaders. In 1380 the gold 

 of the house of Burgundy was the stipend of several political creatures in 

 the ranks of the doctors* in theology. In 1407 the Duke of Orleans, 

 brother of the King, was' waylaid and murdered, and Master Jean Petit took 

 up the murderers' part, in the pulpit, and justified political assassination. 

 Then came the English, to whose yoke part of the University submitted with 

 so much cowardice as to provoke, with a sort of complacent fanaticism, 

 the iniquitous sentence which condemned the heroic Joan of Arc to the 

 stake. Reprisals and. punishment were not long in overtaking them. King 

 ( 'liarles VII. inflicted the first blow upon this ancient institution, which his 

 royal predecessors had protected, and it almost seems as if he punished the 

 University for not having sustained its ancient reputation for patriotism and 

 good sense. Not only did he recognise and confirm the existence of several 

 new universities in the provinces (Figs. 10 13), but, rejecting the demand 

 of the Paris University, which insisted that its only tribunal should be the 

 King's Council, ordered its disputes to be judged by the Parliament (1445). 

 Fifty-five years later, Louis XII., taking into consideration the wishes of 

 the States-General convoked during the reign of Charles VIII., curtailed 

 many of the privileges of the University; and, by his edict of August 

 '}Jst, 1498, brought it within the jurisdiction of the common law. The 

 University attempted to resist, and, as in its palmy days, to resort to its 

 traditional practices. The rector ordered the schools to be closed, and no 

 sermons to be preached in the churches ; but the King, absent from the 

 capital, received his eldest daughter with a bad grace. Upon his return, 



