entury and 1500 A.D. at least
seventy-nine universities were established in western Europe. There may
have been others of which no trace remains. Several of them were
short-lived, some lasting but a few years; ten disappeared before 1500.
Since that date twenty others have become extinct. The forty-nine
European universities of to-day which were founded before 1500 have all
passed through many changes in character and various periods of
prosperity and decline, but we still recognize in them the
characteristic features mentioned above, and the same features reappear
in the "most modern, most practical, most unpicturesque of the
institutions which now bear the name of 'University.'" This is one
illustration of the statement on page 2 that the daily and hourly
conduct of university affairs in the twentieth century is to a
surprising degree influenced by what universities did seven centuries
ago.

4. The term "University" has always been difficult to define. In the
Middle Ages its meaning varied in different places, and changed somewhat
in the centuries between 1200 and 1500 A.D. In these pages it signifies
in general an institution for higher education; and "institution" means,
not a group of buildings, but a society of teachers or students
organized, and ultimately incorporated, for mutual aid and protection,
and for the purpose of imparting or securing higher education.
Originally, universities were merely guilds of Masters or Scholars; as
such they were imitations of the numerous guilds of artisans and
tradesmen already in existence. Out of the simple organization and
customs of these guilds grew the elaborate organization and ceremonials
of later universities.

There were two main types of university organization,--the University of
Masters, and the University of Students. In the former,--which is the
type of all modern universities,--the government and instruction of
students were regulated by the Masters or Doctors. In the latter, these
matters were controlled by the students, who also prescribed rules for
the conduct of the Masters. Paris and Bologna were, respectively, the
original representatives of these types. Paris was the original
University of Masters; its pattern was copied, with some modifications,
by the universities of England, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Scotland.
Bologna was the archetypal University of Students; its organization was
imitated, also with variations, by the universities Italy, France