st a citizen. The
existence of these privileges, unusual and remarkable in a medieval
state, may excite his curiosity about the method by which they were
acquired, and he will probably be told strange and terrible tales of
the bad old times when a foreign student was as helpless as any other
foreigner in a strange town, and might be tortured by unfair and
tyrannous judges. If he is historically minded, he will learn about
the rise of the smaller guilds which are now amalgamated in his
Universitas; how, like other guilds, they were benefit societies
caring for the sick and the poor, burying the dead, and providing (p. 020)
for common religious services and common feasts. He will be told (in
language unfamiliar at Oxford) how the proctors or representatives of
the guild were sent to cheer up the sick and, if necessary, to relieve
their necessities, and to reconcile members who had quarrelled. The
corporate payment for feasts included the cost of replacing broken
windows, which (at all events among the German students at Bologna)
seem to have been associated with occasions of rejoicing. The guild
would pay for the release of one of its members who was in prison, but
it would also insist upon the payment of the debts, even of those who
had "gone down." It was essential that the credit of the guild with
the citizens of Bologna should be maintained.

Many of these purposes were still served by the "nation" to which our
Bologna freshman belonged: but the really important organisation was
that of his Universitas. One of his first duties might happen to be
connected with the election of a new Rector. The title of the office
was common in Italy and was the equivalent of the Podesta, or chief
magistrate, of an Italian town. The choice of a new Rector would
probably be limited, for the honour was costly, and the share of the
fines which the Rector received could not nearly meet his expenses. As
his jurisdiction included clerks, it was necessary, by the Canon (p. 021)
Law, that he should have the tonsure, and be, at all events
technically, a clerk. He could not belong to any religious order, his
obligations to which might conflict with his duty to the Universitas,
and the expense of the office made it desirable that he should be a
beneficed clergyman who was dispensed from residence in his benefice;
he could enter upon his duties at the age of twenty-four, and he was
not necessarily a priest or even a deacon. Our freshman played