upon his time in leading men's minds away from science and into
the foolish absurdities of superstitious practices. Pope John XXII. is
one of the special betes noires of the sometime President of Cornell.
Yet, I am sure that when the formal documents which Pope John has left
relating to education and science are read by modern educators, they
cannot help but consider him as one of their most enterprising
colleagues in the realm of education. Indeed, a number of his bulls
read very much like the documents that issue occasionally from college
presidents with regard to the maintenance of standards in education,
and his encouragement of the giving of the best possible opportunities
for scientific and literary studies, and especially that the smaller
colleges shall be equal as far as possible to the greater institutions
of learning, will arouse the sympathetic interest of every educator of
the modern day.

The documents that I shall quote in translations (the originals may be
found in the appendix) will show that the Pope wanted the doctorates
in philosophy and in medicine to be given only after seven years of
study, at least four of which were to be devoted to the post-graduate
work in the special branch selected. He wished, moreover, to insist on
the necessity for preliminary education. He wanted the permission to
teach these branches, which in that day was equivalent to our term of
doctorate, to be given in all institutions for {142} the same amount
of work and after similar tests. These are just the matters that have
occupied the thoughts of university presidents for the last quarter of
a century, and have been the subjects of discussion in the meetings of
various college and university associations. Pope John's bulls would
be interesting documents to have read before such associations even at
the present time, and would form excellent suggestive material on
which the discussion of the necessity for maintaining college
standards might well be founded. This is so different from what is
usually thought in the matter, that personally I have found it even
rather amusing. It is not amusing, however, to think that this great
progressive, yet conservative educator should have been so
misrepresented by modern educators and historians, simply because they
did not study the man in his own writings, but knew him only at second
hand from those who judged his character from another standpoint.

All this will show John as really one