d anyone think
of it who realized that John became Pope at the age of 72, after
having a very wide personal experience in political affairs as well as
ecclesiastical matters, an experience which took him over many parts
of Europe and must have greatly broadened his intellectual horizon,
and that he remained in full possession of his wonderful intellectual
powers until he was well past 90. Within two years before his death he
issued the bull which laid the foundation of the University of Cahors,
his native place. This he did at the request of the citizens of the
town, who pleaded that no better memorial of their great fellow
citizen who had become Pope could be raised among them than a
university.

In the light of these other bulls it is not surprising to find that
John should also have endeavored to maintain the standard of the
University of the City of Rome. It must be remembered that at this
time the Popes were at Avignon, and that as a consequence the
population of the city of Rome had greatly decreased and there were so
many civic dissensions that very little attention could be given to
educational matters. Pope John issued a {164} bull, however, from
Avignon, confirming the erection of the University of the City of Rome
by his predecessor of happy memory, Boniface VIII. (the same who is
said, though falsely, to have hampered the development of anatomy),
and further laying down regulations for the maintenance of the
standard of education in the Roman University. In this bull John says
that he considers that a Pope could confer no greater favor on the
City of Cities so closely attached to the Roman Church, than to bring
about the re-establishment of the university there, so that the
inhabitants and the visitors to Rome might all have the opportunity
and also the incitement to seek after wisdom, for this is a gift which
comes from on high, which cannot be bought for a price, but which is
only granted to those who seek it with good will.

John proceeds to say that he hopes that the city of Rome shall, under
the favor of Providence, produce men of pre-eminent worth in science,
and that in order that the wishes of Pope Boniface VIII. in this
matter may be fulfilled he confirms and extends all the privileges
which had been originally granted. In the University at Rome there
were also professors of medicine, and there is good historical
authority for the assertion that John himself offered to pay out of
the Papal revenu