r of Saint Mark.

Padua like Athens humanized its conquerors. It became the University town
of Venice, as Pavia was of Milan, and it was for a long time protected
from the assaults of the Catholic reaction by its rulers, who possibly
were instigated rather by political jealousy of the Papacy as a temporal
power, than by any enthusiasm for the humanist and scientific studies of
which Padua was the most illustrious home south of the Alps; studies which
the powers of the Church began already to recognize as their most
dangerous foes.

Such was the University of Padua at the height of its glory, and it will
be apparent at once that Padua must have fallen considerably in its
fortunes when it installed as its Rector an obscure student, only
twenty-four years of age, and of illegitimate birth, and conferred upon
him the right to go clad in purple and gold, and to claim, as his
retiring gift, the degree of Doctor and the cross of Saint Mark. In 1508
the League of Cambrai had been formed, and Venice, not yet recovered
from the effects of its disastrous wars with Bajazet II., was forced to
meet the combined assault of the Pope, the Emperor, and the King of
France. Padua was besieged by the Imperial forces, a motley horde of
Germans, Swiss, and Spaniards, and the surrounding country was pillaged
and devastated by these savages with a cruelty which recalled the days
of Attila. It is not wonderful that the University closed its doors in
such a time. When the confederates began to fight amongst themselves the
class-rooms were reopened, intermittently at first, but after 1515 the
teaching seems to have been continuous. Still the prevalent turmoil and
poverty rendered it necessary to curtail all the mere honorary and
ornamental adjuncts of the schools, and for several years no Rector was
appointed, for the good and sufficient reason that no man of due
position and wealth and character could be found to undertake the
rectorial duties, with the Academy just emerging from complete
disorganization. These duties were many and important, albeit the Rector
could, if he willed, appoint a deputy, and the calls upon the purse of
the holder must have been very heavy. It would be hard to imagine any
one less fitted to fill such a post than Cardan, and assuredly no office
could befit him less than this pseudo-rectorship.[41] It must ever
remain a mystery why he was preferred, why he was elected, and why he
consented to serve: though, as to the las