h less important seat of learning than Oxford, was
formally recognised as a Studium Generale by Pope John XXII. in 1318;
but its claim to the title had long been admitted, at all events
within the realm of England. After 1318 Cambridge could grant the
_licentia ubique docendi_, which Oxford did not formally confer,
although Oxford men, as the graduates of a Studium Generale, certainly
possessed the privilege.

Long before the definition of a Studium Generale as a school
possessing, by the gift of Pope or Emperor, the _jus ubique docendi_,
was generally accepted throughout Europe, we find the occurrence of
the more familiar term, "Universitas," which we are now in a position
to understand.

A Universitas was an association in the world of learning which
corresponded to a Guild in the world of commerce, a union among men
living in a Studium and possessing some common interests to protect
and advance. Originally, a Universitas could exist in a less (p. 011)
important school than a Studium Generale, but with exceptional
instances of this kind we are not concerned. By the time which we have
chosen for the central point of our survey, the importance of these
guilds or Universitates had so greatly increased that the word
"Universitas" was coming to be equivalent to "Studium Generale." In
the fifteenth century, Dr Rashdall tells us, the two terms were
synonymous. The Universitas Studii, the guild of the School, became,
technically and officially, the Studium Generale itself, and Studia
Generalia were distinguished by the kind of Universitates or guilds
which they possessed. It is usual to speak of Bologna and Paris as the
two great archetypal universities, and this description does not
depend upon mere priority of date or upon the impetus given to thought
and interest in Europe by their teachers or their methods. Bologna and
Paris were two Studia Generalia with two different and irreconcilable
types of Universitas. The Universitates of the Studium of Bologna were
guilds of students; the Universitas of the Studium of Paris was a
guild of masters. The great seats of learning in Medieval Europe were
either universities of students or universities of masters, imitations
of Bologna or of Paris, or modifications of one or the other or of
both. It would be impossible to draw up a list and divide medieval (p. 012)
universities into compartments. Nothing is more difficult to classify
than the constitutions of living societies; a