.]

Hitherto there had been but one faculty--the Faculty of Arts; but among
the students a distribution into four "nations" had been effected. The
_Nation of France_ embraced the students coming from the royal
dominions, which then comprised a limited territory, with Paris as its
capital, together with the students of Italy, Spain, and the east. The
_Nation of Picardy_ consisted of students from the province of that name
and from the neighboring County of Flanders. The _Nation of Normandy_
received youths belonging to the rich provinces of Normandy and
Brittany, and to the west. The _Nation of England_ gathered those who
came from the British Isles, as well as from the extensive territories
in southwestern France long held by the kings of England. After the
reconquest of Guyenne, however, the German students became the
controlling element in the fourth nation, and the designation was
changed to the _Nation of Germany_. The _Rector_ of the university and
the four _Procurators_ of the nations were entrusted with the
administration of the general interests of the vast scholastic
community.

[Sidenote: The faculties.]

[Sidenote: Chancellor and rector.]

With the rise of new branches of science to contest the supremacy of the
old, the institution of other faculties was called for. The demand was
not conceded without a determined struggle of so serious a character as
to require the intervention of two popes for its settlement.
Nevertheless, before the end of the thirteenth century, the three new
faculties of theology, medicine, and law had assumed their places by the
side of the four original nations. The faculties were represented in the
rector's council by three _Deans_, invested with power equal to that
enjoyed by the procurators of the nations. While the rector, always
chosen from the faculty of arts, was the real head of this republic of
letters in all that concerned its inner life and management, the
honorable privilege of conferring the degrees that gave the right to
teach belonged to the chancellor of the university.[40] The former,
elected every three months, began and ended his office with solemn
processions, the first to invoke the blessing of heaven upon his labors,
the second to render thanks for their successful termination. The
chancellor, holding office for life, was an ecclesiastic of the church
of Paris, originally the bishop or some one appointed by him, who, if he
enjoyed less direct control over the