REBIRTH, REFORM AND RESILIENCE Universities in Transition 1300-1700 Edited by James M. Kittelson and Pamela J. Transue $25.00 REBIRTH, REFORM, AND RESILIENCE Universities in Transition, 1300-1700 Edited by James M. Kittelson and Pamela]. Transue In his Introduction to this collection of original essays, Professor Kittelson notes that the university is one of the few institutions that medieval Latin Christendom contributed directly to modern Western civilization. An export wherever else it is found, it is unique to Western culture. All cultures, to be sure, have had their intellec­ tuals—those men and women whose task it has been to learn, to know, and to teach. But only in Latin Christendom were scholars—the company of masters and students—found gathered together into the universitas whose entire purpose was to develop and disseminate knowledge in a continu­ ous and systematic fashion with little regard for the consequences of their activities. The studies in this volume treat the history of the universities from the late Middle Ages through the Reformation; that is, from the time of their secure founding, through the period in which they were posed the challenges of humanism and con­ fessionalism, but before the explosion of knowl­ edge that marked the emergence of modern science and the advent of the Enlightenment. The essays and their authors are: "University and Society on the Threshold of Modern Times: The German Connection," by Heiko A. Ober­ man; "The Importance of the Reformation for the Universities: Culture and Confessions in the Criti­ cal Years," by Lewis W. Spitz; "Science and the Medieval University," by Edward Grant; "The Role of English Thought in the Transformation of University Education in the Late Middle Ages," by William J. Courtenay; "University Migrations in the Late Middle Ages, with Particular Reference to the Stamford Secession," by John M. Fletcher; "The University of Cracow and the Conciliar Movement," by Paul W. Knoll; "The Careers of Oxford Students in the Later Middle Ages," by Guy Fitch Lytle; "University Studies and the Clergy in Pre-Reformation Germany," by M. A. Screech; and "European Universities, 1300-1700: The Development of Research, 1969-1981, and a Summary Bibliography," by J. M. Fletcher and Julian Deahl. REBIRTH, REFORM, AND RESILIENCE REBIRTH, REFORM AND RESILIENCE Universities in Transition 1300-1700 Edited by James M. Kittelson and Pamela J. Transue OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS: COLUMBUS Frontispiece from Gregor Reisch, Margarita Phi / / losophica noua. (Ex Argentoraco veteri, J. Griiningerus; 1515), sig. Av. 324 leaves. 4° in eight. Reproduced by permission of Special Collections, The Ohio State University Libraries. Copyright © 1984 by the Ohio State University Press All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Rebirth, reform, and resilience. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Universities and colleges —Europe —History— Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Kittelson, James M. II. Transue, Pamela. LA621.3.R43 1984 378.4 83-25095 ISBN 0-8142-0356-6 CONTENTS JAMES M. KITTELSON: OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY Introduction: The Durability of the Universities of Old Europe 1 HEIKO A. OBERMAN: UNIVERSITY OF TUBINGEN University and Society on the Threshold of Modern Times: The German Connection 19 LEWIS W. SPITZ: STANFORD UNIVERSITY The Importance of the Reformation for Universities: Culture and Confession in the Critical Years 42 EDWARD GRANT: INDIANA UNIVERSITY Science and the Medieval University 68 WILLIAM J. COURTENAY: UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN The Role of English Thought in the Transformation of University Education in the Late Middle Ages 103 JOHN M. FLETCHER: UNIVERSITY OF ASTON IN BIRMINGHAM University Migrations in the Late Middle Ages with Particular Reference to the Stamford Secession 163 PAUL W. KNOLL: UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA The University of Cracow in the Conciliar Movement 190 GUY FITCH LYTLE: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS The Careers of Oxford Students in the Later Middle Ages 213 JAMES H. OVERFIELD: UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT University Studies and the Clergy in Pre-Reformation Germany 254 M. A. SCREECH: UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON Two Attitudes toward Hebrew Studies: Erasmus and Rabelais 293 JOHN M. FLETCHER and JULIAN DEAHL: UNIVERSITY OF ASTON IN BIRMINGHAM European Universities, 1300-1700: The Development of Research, 1969-1979, with a Summary Bibliography 324 Notes on Contributors 359 Index 361 INTRODUCTION: THE DURABILITY OF THE UNIVERSITIES OF OLD EUROPE James M. Kittelson niversities are one of the few institutions that are a direct contribution of medieval Latin Christendom to contemporary Western civili­ zation. Being an export wherever else they are found, they are also unique to Western cul­ ture. To be sure, all cultures have had their intellectuals: those men and women whose task it has been to learn, to know, and to teach. But only in Latin Christendom were scholars-the company of masters and students-gathered together into the universitas whose entire purpose was to develop and dis­ seminate knowledge in a continuous and systematic fashion with little regard for the consequences of their activities. When profes­ sors and students today study and write about universities, they are therefore engaged in more than group therapy in the midst of troubled times for what is now ambiguously called "higher educa­ tion." They are analyzing an essential element in the culture that has come to dominate the entire globe. The studies in this volume, which was preceded by a conference on the theme in 1979, treat the history of universities from the late Middle Ages through the Reformation; that is, following their secure founding and through the challenges of humanism and confessionalism, but before the knowledge explosion that is associ­ ated with the advent of modern science and the Enlightenment. The collective approach of these essays must be characterized as thoroughly eclectic. The first two are rather general in character. Together Professors Oberman and Spitz challenge the notion that REBIRTH, REFORM, RESILIENCE the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were especially difficult times for universities, but they do so from very different perspectives. Professor Grant then describes the important place that scientific education had in the medieval curriculum, and Professor Courte­ nay provides a wide-ranging reinterpretation of the development of "nominalism" as a more or less agreed upon intellectual stance during the fourteenth century. There follow four essays that may be viewed under the heading "university and society." Professor Fletcher challenges the longstanding view that migrations were an important force in creating new universities; Professor Knoll uncovers the roles that the University of Cracow played between Polish royal policy and the turbulent forces that were unleashed in the Western Schism. Professor Lytle treats the career patterns of English university men; Professor Overfield demonstrates that there may well have been something to the complaints of German humanists during the first decades of the sixteenth century that the secular clergy was poorly educated. Professor Screech then returns to the world of high culture by suggesting that solitary figures such as Erasmus and Rabelais could have important effects upon universities even while steadfastly maintaining their indepen­ dence from them. Finally, and appropriately, Professors Fletcher and Deahl provide a valuable aid to future work with their bibliog­ raphy and analysis of research during the past decade. From the very outset, the eclectic approach that marks this vol­ ume has been intentional for the simple reason that the subject and the status of research demand it. The very term universitas suggests as much. At base it conveys the sense of the "aggregate" or the "whole" or the "entirety" of something. It carries with it there­ fore the notion of an integral unit that is complete unto itself. This fundamental meaning was summed up during the Middle Ages in terming a genuine university a studium generate. The idea itself is startling, for within it lies the assertion that here-at Paris, or Cambridge, Prague, Bologna, or even "little Wittenberg," as Dr. Martin Luther called it when he learned he was to teach there — one could study all subjects of importance and acquire knowledge that was universal and transferable. This idea was in fact asserted 2 JAMES M. KITTELSON boldly whenever universities conferred the ius ubique docendi, the right to teach anywhere; and this right was sanctioned, at least initially, by Pope and Emperor, the two figures with claims to universality in the medieval world. It must be granted that then as now individual scholars attracted students and controversy to particular institutions by the brilliance (and sometimes the mere eccentricity) of their ideas or style. None­ theless, the university was and remains something quite different from the trade school, the monastery, or the solitary scholar, all of whose contributions were limited to particular subjects, particular ideas, and frequently enough the work of particular individuals. The university as a whole, complete unto itself, was therefore vastly greater than any of its parts. When, for example, the theolo­ gians at Paris, Louvain, and Cologne condemned the teachings of Luther, they did so with the weight of their entire universities. Perhaps this very claim to universality of knowledge and the right to corporate judgment explains why artists, literati, and professors of special wisdom