from taxes and civil jurisdiction. In Prague it was the theological, but in Vienna and Heidelberg the philosophical, faculty which possessed from the first greater privileges and the most important revenues. In Erfurt, also, there were benefactors of the University, but the ever-returning calamities of war and civil feuds placed the revenues in constant jeopardy, and prevented for two centuries and a half any lasting prosperity. With the close of the Forty Years' War and the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648, there came a period more favorable to intellectual activity and university studies.

The Origin of the College.-From the best information that can be obtained, colleges (collegia) were common to all the universities of the fourteenth century, but those of Prague were most numerous and richly endowed. As first constituted, they were designed for professors who engaged to deliver certain courses of lectures on condition of receiving their support from property incorporated for this purpose. These collegiates lived together as in a cloister, dined at the same table, and, so long as they remained, were forbidden to marry. Usually once a year a manager (præpositus) was chosen out of their number, whose duty it was to care for the property intrusted to them and superintend all the household affairs. The college formed a corporate body distinct from the university, though admitting no one who was not a member of it. The oldest and largest of these colleges was the collegium carolinum at Prague, which was founded July 30, 1366, and for which it was thought necessary to secure the papal sanction. It was originally intended for only twelve Masters of Arts, two of whom must be theologians. In the German colleges of this period only teachers were received, while in the Paris Sorbonne and in Oxford and Cambridge both teachers and students, though the latter did not enjoy equal freedom with the former. It is evident that the chief endeavor of Charles IV. was to assure to the professors a comfortable support, that they might be able to devote themselves more fully to science, and especially, as he expressed it, to the "beatissimum theologiæ studium." By presents of valuable manuscripts he made the colleges the storehouses of the rarest treasures. As the first academic buildings they became in time the receptacles for the libraries and archives; here, too, were the lecture-rooms and the place of assembly for the university senate.

I

Under his successor the colleges already established were specially favored and several others added, and to the later ones, and probably to all, both teachers and students were admitted. Thus it happened that the greater part of the University was merged into these col

1 The first university building proper was built in Vienna in 1423.

leges. In this way it became easier to watch over the industry and deportment of the students, and bitter were the complaints of the præpositi upon whom this duty was laid.

Not until 1498 do we learn of the formation of a college at Heidelberg, and this, perhaps, ought rather to be classed among the later "seminaries" than among the colleges of this century. Yet, in another way, that is, through the acquisition of numerous and rare manuscripts,-Heidelberg gained an early advantage over the other Universities of Germany. These manuscripts were the gifts of princes and other literary men who seemed to vie with each other in their zeal to make the "bibliotheca academica" of this university. the first in Europe, and secure its free use to all friends of learning. We have no particulars regarding the colleges at Cologne, and only know that they existed, but in Erfurt the university was rich in these institutions which were privately endowed, the most celebrated being the College of Amplonianus,-named from its founder,—and the "School of Law." Vienna seems also to have established colleges, and to have endeavored in this respect, as in many others, to show herself a rival to Prague, but sufficient means were not at her command. University Commons (Bursæ). -The bursa played an important part in the school-life of this period. The word is derived from the Greek Búgoa, and in the Middle Ages was used to denote the fee paid for promotion, but in the fourteenth century it came to have the meaning of a University Commons. In the two oldest universities a particular quarter of the city was assigned to professors and students, and by such unions as the burse the object thus designed was more fully attained, since each union had its own president, who was subject to the rector of the university. These unions were also found in the other universities. In Erfurt as early as 1393, or shortly thereafter, several had already been established. For them, as for the colleges, particular statutes were enacted by the princes or private founders. Though the statutes were not always regarded, still it is undeniable that at the beginning these unions operated for the best interests of the Universities, for one of the chief aims sought in establishing them was to bring about a closer personal relation between teachers and students, and thus promote the development of character while seeking to give the highest culture. It was thought that the regulations which governed the unions and entered into all the minutiae of University life,-determining the price of board and the price of every article purchased by the student, would leave more time for undisturbed study, and take away the occasion for conflicts between students and citizens, such as had often occurred in

Italy. Great pains were taken to guard the morals of the students, and all hazings and other disorders were either held in check or visited with severe penalties.

And just here it is, perhaps, in place to notice the relation in which the so-called beani, or unmatriculated students, stood to those who enjoyed academic freedom. While in Italy and France the former were subjected to many indignities, and were constantly involved in difficulties growing out of these, we find only insignificant traces of anything similar in Germany, though the stringent relations against such disturbances would seem to indicate that occasional outbreaks were not unknown. The unions in bursa were of comparatively short duration. As early as the beginning of the fifteen century they had ceased to be beneficial, and a little later more favorable conditions of culture caused them to disappear altogether.

The University Nations.-The division into four nations, which was similar to that of Paris, is believed to have existed only in the Universities of Prague and Vienna. These nations, in which both teachers and students were united, deserve no unimportant place in the history of the universities. In Prague they received the names of Bohemian, Bavarian, Polish, and Saxon. Under Bohemian were included those who came from Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, and a part of Silesia; under Bavarian, all from South Germany, Switzerland, and the Tyrol, and in the north from Hesse, Westphalia, a part of Hanover and the Netherlands; under Polish those from the northeast, including Prussia, Lusatia, Thuringia, and other neighboring German lands; and under Saxon those from the remaining portions of Germany, and from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and other countries to the north. Each of these nations chose a procurator, who represented the highest civil authority, but was subject to the rector. It was the duty of the procurators to call together the nations and and carry out their resolves, to give the oath of office to new members, to keep the seal and statutes, and, as councillors of the rector's court, to maintain the existing rights.

Every nation formed in this way an independent corporation, and held to the university the same relation that the guilds and other orders of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries did to the cities. The time was evidently favorable for them, and they seem for a long period to have aided rather than hindered the purpose of good gov

1 Why the universities were usually divided into four nations is not known. In Orleans, in France, there were at first ten, but in 1538 these were reduced to four.

2 According to Von Raumer (Die Deutschen Universitäten), this division into four nations was found also in Heidelberg, and later in Leipsic.

ernment; but when at length the Hussite troubles began, they nat urally arrayed themselves according to affinities of race, and became full of danger. The single Slavonic nation (excluding the Polish, which was largely composed of students from Silesia) was the Bohemian, and when the race-line was drawn this one found itself opposed by the three German nations. So violent did this opposition become that the Bohemians were not only deprived of nearly all offices and dignities, but were with difficulty allowed to participate in their own colleges and bursa.

The dissensions of this period, which nearly proved the ruin of the university, like those which occurred more than a century and a half before in Paris (1229), when large numbers withdrew and went to Oxford and Cambridge, prepared the way for the abrogation of these nations. Their introduction appears to have been forbidden in the later schools of the fourteenth century, and in their stead the facul ties, which had been subordinate to the nations, became the dominant power in the universities. In Vienna the faculties are said to have served as a powerful counterpoise to the corporative spirit which had its origin in Italy and France, and, in the latest German University of this century, the constitution, departing from former usage, limited the jurisdiction to the academical senate, and made the election of the rector independent of the caprice of the students.

(CONCLUDED IN NEXT NUMBER.)

1 Facultas was originally used to denote the separate scientific departments of study embraced in the bounds of University instruction.-SCHNABEL: Geschichte der jurid. Facultät zu Prag.

SOCIETY TO ENCOURAGE STUDIES AT HOME.

BY LILLIAN M. MUNGER, WELLESLEY, MASS.

One turns with interest, in these days which have been so alive to the subject of the education of women, to the formation of a society, the first of its kind in the country, the object of which is to aid and encourage the intellectual development of young women. As stated in the preamble, the purpose of the society is "to induce ladies to form the habit of devoting some part of every day to study of a systematic and thorough kind." In the ten years since the birth of this organization, it has grown into a flourishing alliance, doing in an exceedingly quiet way an immense amount of work.

In the summer of 1873 there came before the attention of the present secretary, Miss Ticknor of Boston, a notice of an English organization, called the "Society for the Encouragement of Home Study." Upon exchange of letters it was found that no correspondence was offered; that a course of reading or study was presented to the student, to be pursued for one year without assistance; and that at the end of that time students were expected to go to London for a competitive examination.

The desire to work out the idea suggested by the title of the English society resulted in the formation of a committee of ten persons, six of its members undertaking the entire correspondence with forty-five applicants, who entered as students the first term. Of the original number, Dr. Samuel Eliot, Miss A. E. Ticknor, Mrs. Ticknor, Miss K. P. Loring, and Mrs. Louis Agassiz still retain their connection with the committee. From this beginning has grown the present organization, which, in the tenth term, consisted of 768 students and 193 correspondents, comprising six departments, with numerous sections and sub-sections.

The society began its existence with only two principles established; viz., that these should not be competitive examinations, and that there should be correspondence. The secretary thus writes:

"We never adopted the methods of the English society, whose similar name gave us, in 1873, the idea for ours. Instead of confining our offers of help,—as the English society did at that time,-to the wealthy class only, we at once endeavored to interest all classes, for we thought all needed us, though for different reasons, as all are liable to the consciousness of a de