CENT.

that city [c], and the college of Montpelier, where XII. law and physic were taught with great success, had already acquired a considerable reputation. [d]. The same literary spirit reigned also in Italy. The academy of Bolonia, whose origin may certainly be traced higher than this century, was now in the highest renown, and was frequented by great numbers of students, and of such more especially as were desirous of being instructed in the civil and canon laws. The fame of this academy was, in a great measure, owing to the munificence of the emperor LOTHARIUS II. who took it under his protection, and enriched it with new privileges and immunities [e]. In the same province flourished also the celebrated school of Salernum, where great numbers resorted, and which was wholly set apart for the study of physic. While this zealous emulation, in advancing the cause of learning and philosophy, animated so

many

[c] BOULAY, Hist. Acad. Paris. tom. ii. p. 215. PASQUET DE LA LIVONIERE, Dissert, sur l'Antiquité de l'Université d' Angers, p. 21. published in 4to at Angers, 1736.

[d] Histoire Gen. de languedoc, par les Benedictins, tom. ii. p. 517.

[e] The inhabitants of Bolonia pretend, that their academy was founded in the fifth century by THEODOSIUS II. and they shew the diploma by which that emperor enriched their city with this valuable establishment. But the greatest part of those writers, who have studied with attention and impartiality the records of ancient times, maintain, that this diploma is a spurious production, and allege many weighty arguments to prove, that the academy of Bolonia is of no older date than the eleventh century, and that in the succeeding age, particularly from the time of LOTHARIUS II. it received those improvements that rendered it so famous throughout all Europe. See KAR SIGONII Historia Bononiensis, as it is published, with learned observations, in the works of that excellent author. MURATORI Antiq. Italic medii avi, tom. iii. p. 23. 884. 898.-JUST. HEN. BOHMERI Præfat. ad Corpus juris ad Canon. p. 9. as also the elegant History of the Academy of Bolonia, written in the German language by the learned KEUFELIUS, and published at Helmstadt in 8vo, in the year 1750.

XII. PART II.

many princes and prelates, and discovered itselfc E N T. in the erection of so many academies and schools of learning, the Roman pontif, ALEXANDER III. was seized also with this noble enthusiasm. In a council held at Rome, A. D. I 179, he caused a solemn law to be published, for the erecting new schools in the monasteries and ca thedrals, and restoring to their primitive lustre those which, through the sloth and ignorance of the monks and bishops, had fallen into ruin [f]. But the effect which this law was intended to produce was prevented by the growing fame of the new erected academies, to which the youth resorted from all parts, and left the episcopal and monastic schools entirely empty; so that they gradually declined, and sunk, at last, into a total oblivion.

sciences.

IV. Many were the signal advantages that at- A new ditended these literary establishments; and what is vision of particularly worthy of notice, they not only rendered knowledge more universal by facilitating the means of instruction, but were also the occasion of forming a new circle of sciences, better digested, and much more comprehensive than that which had been hitherto studied by the greatest adepts in learning. The whole extent of learning and philosophy, before this period was confined to the seven liberal arts, as they were commonly called, of which three were known by the name of the trivium, which comprehended grammar, rhetoric, and logic; and the other four by the title of quadrivium, which included arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. The greatest part of the learned, as we have formerly observed, were satisfied with their literary acquisitions, when they had made themselves masters of the trivium, while such as, with an adventurous flight aspired after

the

[f] See B. BOHMERI Jus. Eccles. Protestant, tom. iv. p. 705.

CENT. the quadrivium, were considered as stars of the XII. first magnitude, as the great luminaries of the PART II. learned world. But in this century the aspect of

leiters underwent a considerable and an advantageous change. The number of the liberal arts and sciences was augmented, and new and unfrequented paths of knowledge were opened to the emulation of the studious youth. Theology was placed in the number of the sciences; not that ancient theology which had no merit but its simplicity, and which was drawn, without the least order or connexion, from divers passages of the holy scriptures, and from the opinions and inventions of the primitive doctors, but that philosophical or scholastic theology, that with the deepest abstraction traced divine truth to its first principles, and followed it from thence into its various connexions and branches. Nor was theology alone added to the ancient circle of sciences; the study of the learned languages, of the civil and canon law, and of physic [g], were now brought into high repute. Particular academies were consecrated to the culture of each of these sciences in various places; and thus it was natural to consider them as important branches of erudition, and an acquaintance with them as a qualification necessary to such as aimed at universal learning. All this required a considerable change in the division of the sciences hitherto received; and this change was accordingly brought about. The seven liberal arts were, by degrees, reduced to one general title, and were comprehended under the name of philosophy, to which theology, jurisprudence, and physic, were added. And hence the origin of the

four

[g] The word physica, though, according to its etymology, it denotes the study of natural philosophy in general, was, In the twelfth century, applied particularly to medicinal studies, and it has also preserved that limited sense in the English language.

XII.

four classes of science, or, to use the academical c E N T. phrase, of the four faculties, which took place in PART II. the universities in the following century.

of Roman

V. A happy and unexpected event restored in The study Italy the lustre and authority of the ancient Ro-law reviman law, and, at the same time, lessened the cre-ved. dit of all the other systems of legislation that had been received for several ages past. This event was the discovery of the original manuscript of the famous Pandect, of JUSTINIAN, which was found in the ruins of Amalphi, or Melfi, when that city was taken by LOTHARIUS II. in the year 1137, and of which that emperor made a present to the inhabitants of Pisa, whose fleet had contributed, in a particular manner, to the success of the siege. This admirable collection, which had been almost buried in oblivion, was no sooner recovered, than the Roman law became the grand object of the studies and labours of the learned. In the academy of Bolonia, there were particular colleges erected expressly for the study of the Roman jurisprudence; and these excellent institutions were multiplied in several parts of Italy, in process of time, and animated other European nations to imitate so wise an example. Hence arose a great revolution in the public tribunals, and an entire change in their judicial proceedings. Hitherto different systems of law were followed in different courts, and every person of distinction, particularly among the Franks, had the liberty of choosing the body of laws that was to be the rule of his conduct. But the Roman law acquired such credit and authority, that it superseded, by degrees, all other laws in the greatest part of Europe, and was substituted in the place of the Salic, Lombard, and Burgundian codes, which before this period were in the highest reputation. It is an ancient opinion, that Lo. THARIUS II. pursuant to the counsels and solicitVol. III. ationa.

D

PART II.

CEN T.ations of IRNERIUS [b], principal professor of the XII. Roman law in the academy of Bolonia, published an edict enjoining the abrogation of all the statutes then in force, and substituting in their place the Roman law, by which, for the future, all without exception were to modify their contracts, terminate their differences, and to regulate their actions. But this opinion, as many learned men have abundantly proved [i], is far from being supported by sufficient evidence.

Ecclesiastical, or ca

VI. No sooner was the civil law placed in the non law. number of the sciences, and considered as an important branch of academical learning, than the Roman pontifs, and their zealous adherents, judged it not only expedient, but also highly necessary, that the canon law should have the same privilege. There were not wanting before this time certain collections of the canons or laws of the church; but these collections were so destitute of order and method, and were so defective both in respect to matter and form, that they could not be conveniently explained in the schools, or be made use of as systems of ecclesiastical polity. Hence it was, that GRATIAN, a Benedictine monk, belonging to the convent of St FELIX and NABOR at Bolonia, and by birth a Tuscan, composed about the year 1130, for the use of the schools, an abridgment, or Epitome of

[b] Otherwise called WERNER.

canon

See HERM. CONRINGIUS, De origine juris Germanici, cap. xxii.—GUIDO GRAGDUS, Epist. de Pandectis, p. 21. 69. published at Florence in 4to, in 1737.-HENRY BRENCmann, Historia Pandectar. p. 41.-LUD. ANT. MURATORI Pref. ad Leges Langobardicus, scriptor, rorum Italicar. tom. i. part II. p. 4. Antiq. Ital. medii ævi, tom. ïi. p. 285. There was a warm controversy carried on concerning this matter between GEORGE CALLIXTUS and BARTHOL. NIHUSIUS, the latter of whom embraced the vulgar opinion concerning the edict of LoTHARIUS, obtained by the solicitations of IRNERIUS; of this controversy there is a circumstantial account in the Cimbria Literala of MOLERUS, tom. iii. P. 142.