how far, we shall see as our story progresses. The city
authorities tried ineffectually to curb the universities and to
prevent migrations, but the students, with the support of the Papacy,
succeeded in maintaining the strength of their organisations, and (p. 018)
when, in the middle of the fourteenth century, secessions from Bologna
came to an end, the students had obtained the recognition and most of
the privileges they desired. In course of time the authority of the
State increased at Bologna and elsewhere, bodies of Reformatores
Studii came to be appointed by republics or tyrants in Italian
university cities, and these boards gradually absorbed the government
of the universities. The foundation of residential colleges, and the
erection of buildings by the universities themselves, deprived the
students of the possibility of reviving the long disused weapon of a
migration, and when the power of the Papacy became supreme in Bologna,
the freedom of its student-universities came to an end. This, however,
belongs to a later age. We must now attempt to obtain some picture of
the life of a medieval student at Bologna during the greatness of the
Universitates.

We will choose an Englishman who arrives at Bologna early in the
fifteenth century to study law. He finds himself at once a member of
the English nation of the Trans-montane University; he pays his fee,
takes the oath of obedience to the Rector, and his name is placed upon
the "matricula" or roll of members of the University. He does not look
about for a lodging-house, like a modern student in a Scottish
University, but joins with some companions (_socii_) probably of (p. 019)
his own nation, to take a house. If our new-comer had been a Spaniard,
he might have been fortunate enough to find a place in the great
Spanish College which had been founded in the latter half of the
fourteenth century; as it is, he and his friends settle down almost as
citizens of Bologna. The success of the universities in their attempt
to form a citizenship outside the state had long ago resulted in the
creation also of a semi-citizenship within the state. The laws of the
city of Bologna allowed the students to be regarded as citizens so
long as they were members of a University. Our young Englishman has,
of course, no share in the government of the town, but he possesses
all rights necessary for the protection of his person and property; he
can make a legal will and bring an action again