he German
Universities; _Hurst_, Life and Literature in the Fatherland; _Brother
Azarias_, Essays Educational.

We have seen that the Church had almost entire control of education
during the Middle Ages. Through her influence schools were established
and maintained, learning was preserved, and the interests of
civilization were promoted. She was also influential in the founding of
universities, though not to her alone were these institutions due.
Laurie says:--

"Now looking first to the germ out of which the universities grew, I
think we must say that the universities may be regarded as a natural
development of the cathedral[45] and monastery schools; but if we seek
for an external motive force urging men to undertake the more profound
and independent study of the liberal arts, we can find it only in the
Saracenic schools of Bagdad, Babylon, Alexandria, and Cordova. The
Saracens were necessarily brought into contact with Greek literature,
just when the western Church was drifting away from it; and by their
translations of Hippocrates, Galen, Aristotle, and other Greek classics,
they restored what may be quite accurately called the 'university life'
of the Greeks."

The first universities, however, can hardly be said to have been
inspired by the influence of the Church. Nor did the State assist in
their establishment, though it afterward sanctioned them, and conferred
upon them their peculiar privileges. The first universities grew out of
organizations of scholars and students who joined themselves together
for the purpose of study and investigation. The oldest institution of
this kind was that of Salerno, Italy, which Laurie says was a "public
school from A.D. 1060, and a privileged school from 1100." It
taught medicine only, and was established by a converted Jew. It was
entirely independent of both Church and State, and attracted students
from many countries.

The next university was that of Bologna, Italy. It also had only one
faculty, that of law. In 1158 Frederick I. recognized the institution by
giving it certain privileges. It awakened widespread interest throughout
Europe, so that by the end of the twelfth century it is estimated that
twelve thousand students had flocked to Bologna, most of them from
foreign lands. This is an indication that the revival of learning was
quite general throughout the world.

But the greatest university of the Middle Ages was that of Paris, which
attracted at least twenty