The Free lance. (State College, Pa.) 1887-1904, February 01, 1904, Image 26

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    things artistically, while he who is not interested in
art has his eye untrained, and he does not see its
beauties.
“The University Student of the Fourteenth Century,”
ibject of an article appearing in the January number
ount Holyoke. The scarcity of such matter makes it
teresting. We regret that .we haven’t the space to rep:
e whole article. Following is an extract:
The curriculum of the fourteenth century uni
versity differed essentially from ours. The student
attended, on an average, three lectures a day be
sides various disputations, “exercitia,” as they were
called, and ‘“resumpciones,” in which he was ex
amined on the subjects of the lectures. Tlie lec
tures began at five o’clock in summer and at seven
in winter, often in the dark without artificial light,
and sometimes lasted for three hours. No food
was served until ten o’clock; a meal earlier than
this was regarded as an indulgence allowed only to
the weaker brethren. The time between ten and
twelve or one was given up to exercise and relaxa
tion. Lectures then began again and lasted till five,
when dinner was served, and the evening was usu
ally left for amusement.
The discipline in the universities of the four
teenth century seems very strange to us. Fines were
imposed for all sorts of misdemeanors, and these
fines were often payable in wine. A student was
compelled to pay the same amount for hilarity at
meals as for cruelly beating his servant. The pun
ishment for grave crimes was slight, the most
severe beifig imprisonment or excommunication..
From the records we find that one student killed an
other in a drunken brawl; his punishment was the
confiscation of his goods. Another student who killed'
a professor in cold blood was, for the crime, merely
expelled from the university.