Tag: medieval higher education

This is more of a historical question than strictly about ASOIAF–since the people of Westeros aren’t interested in higher learning outside of the Citadel’s–but I recently found out that feudal rulers would grant charters to form Universities in medieval times. What would such a charter typically entail? Since I know you’ve talked about city and town charters before, I figured you’d be the guy to ask.

Good question!

image

So here’s how university charters worked (and incidentally, they could be Royal, Imperial, or Papal): an organization that met certain criteria* would be granted a charter that offered three key privileges known as the “studium generale” following their introduction at Salerno, the first degree-granting institution in Europe (hotly debated):

  1. The “jus ubique docendi” meant that a master who had been educated at and then registered by the Guild of Masters of the University could teach anywhere without going through an examination to prove their bona fides, whereas all universities with this right would examine all teachers who didn’t have this privilege. (Reminds me vaguely of Harvard’s attitude to Harvard PhDs vs. non-Harvard PhDs…) Originally, this privilege belonged only to the Universities of Salerno, Bologna, and Paris, but it spread elsewhere thanks to Pope Gregory IX’s sponsorship of the University of Toulouse, and then the Holy Roman Emperor doing the same for the University of Naples just to show the Pope that he wasn’t in charge.
  2. An exemption (granted by Pope Honorius III) from the residency requirements of benefices, as set down in canon law. See, at this time pretty much all university positions were also religious positions, so becoming a teacher meant becoming a priest. However, because professors weren’t usually paid well, you needed a benefice (i.e, a piece of church property, usually tied to a church or monestary or cathedral) to give you a (usually tax-free) income stream. However, professors have always been more interested in research and teaching than pastoral commitments, so the exemption meant that you could stay in your cosy university post and not have to do pastoral work among the riff-raff. 
  3. The major source of “town and gown” conflict since at least the 13th century, a “studium generale” university would be granted the “privileges of Paris,” which gave them autonomy from local civil or diocesal authorities. This means the universities didn’t pay taxes, it meant that students were immune from local law enforcement (beginning the long tradition of students getting drunk and rowdy and trashing some place in town and then running like hell for the campus dorms which are off-limits to town police) and the university had its own judicial system, and it meant that the university wasn’t under the direct control of the local bishop. This last part became incredibly important when it came to the Protestant Reformation, because it meant that there wasn’t a censor of printed materials, people could debate theology openly without being arrested for heresy, and so on. There’s a reason why almost all of the major Protestant figures all came out of the university systems of Europe…because the ones who didn’t often got burned at the stake.

* In order to qualify for the charter, a university had to meet certain criteria:

  • First, it had to have a “universal” student body, open to students from all nations. (This is especially ironic given how universities are being pressured on foreign and out-of-state students) Student organizations were organized by nationality and sub-nationality, and originally were the main financial organization that hired and paid for teachers – anyone complaining about entitled students trying to run the university should count themselves lucky! 
  • Second, the university had to teach more than just the Seven Liberal Arts (grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy formed the Trivium and Quadrivium respectively). There had to be a faculty of either Law, Theology, or Medicine, showing that even in the Middle Ages the liberal arts are still not treated equally with the law schools and the medical schools (the schools of theology have lost a lot of their influence these days). Eventually, there would be pressure from the students, starting in the Renasisance, to add the Humanities (history, greek, moral philosophy, and poetry) to the curriculum. 
  • Third, a major part of the teaching had to be done by Masters, i.e a teacher graduated from one of the “studium generale” who held not only a bachelor’s degree but also a masters in a given field. Goes to show that even in the Middle Ages, we see boundary-setting fights about credentialism, specialization, and the quality of instruction.
  • Fourth, the whole “jus ubique docendi” thing.