had fled from amongst the generation of which we are now speaking it was but natural that many instances of youthful attachment and friendship in its purest and most beautiful form should arise even in such an aspect of the University as then existed. Gregory of Nazianzus finely describes his own relation to St. Basil as based upon an utter absence of all mean emulation, and a devotion on both sides to what was morally ennobling and associated with honorable hopes and purposes for the future.' 42. The munificent liberality of the Roman Caesars which had given such extent and completeness to the academic system of the ancient world was not without many happy effects upon literature and learning in the declining ages of the Empire. Athens, which about the birth of Christ had grievourly fallen into decay, from the withdrawal of the wealthiest and noblest class of students to the schools of Marseilles, Milan, Apollonia, and other thriving provincial towns' became the chief University town of the world for all who were desirous of obtaining the most exact and thorough training in the study of eloquence, political science, and philosophy. In the fourth century, though laboring under the disadvantage of notoriously heathen predilections, it continued to assert a species of priority over the contemporary schools of Constantinople, Antioch, and Berytus,* and the superior dignity of its professors is admitted even by those of rival Universities. Athens became again the focus of learned activity in an age which marred as it was by increasing tendency to pedantry and affectation, still succeeded in reviving some reminiscences of the nobler past, and exhibited what has not inappropriately been described as the after summer of Greek genius. 5 43. It is not to be denied that not only in the ordinary class of publicly endowed schools which during the reign of Marcus Aurelius and the succeeding Emperors multiplied to such an extent throughout the provinces of the Roman empire, but even in those institutions which assumed academic rank and consequence, the instruction imparted had in a great measure lost that direction of the depth and fullness of philosophic principle into the forms and channels furnished 1. ἔργον δ ̓ ἦν ἀμφοτέροις οὐχ ὅστις αὐτὸς τὸ πρωτεῖον ἔχοι, ἀλλ' ὅπως τῷ ἑτέρῳ τούτου παραχωρήσειεν ἔργον δ' ἀνφοτέροις ἡ ἀρετὴ καὶ τὸ ζῇν πρὸς τὰς μελλούσας ἐλπίδας, Orat. XX, p. 330. 2. ἐν δὲ τῷ παρόντι καὶ τοὺς γνωριμωτάτους τῶν Ρωμαίων πέπεικεν (ή Μασσαλία) ἀντὶ τῆς εἰς ̓Αθήνας ἀποδημίας έκεισε φοιτᾶν φιλομαθεῖς ὄντας. Strabo IV, p. 248. See also Zumpt über die philosoph. Sch. in Athen, p. 19. Bernhardy Gr. der Röm. Litt., p. 53. 3. Gräfenhahn Gesch. der class. Philol. IV. p. 29. 4. Bernhardy Gr. der Gr. Litt. I, p. 442.) 5. Liban Ep. 1449, 1511. 6. Bernhardy Gr. der Gr. Litt. I, p. 406 sqq. Lucian. Longinus, and the philosophers Hermogines, Sextus Empiricus, Plotinus, Arnobius, and Lactantius may be mentioned as specimens of the writers and thinkers of this period. by the avocations of after life which we have pointed out as the essential feature in the University study of the best ages of antiquity. Even at an earlier period the author of the Dialogus de Oratoribus laments over the change that had taken place in this respect, and does not hesitate to prefer the somewhat meagre and narrow utilitarianism of Roman education in the ruder stages of their national development to the unsubstantial generalities which in his day were communicated under the name of higher intellectual culture. This, however, was no solitary or accidental occurrence, but a phenomenon radically in harmony with the mental condition of that entire epoch. We have already alluded to the fact that the ancient world in general only conceived of the Absolute as beheld in its most general and prima facie aspect. Few besides Aristotle seem to have been enabled to discern that the fruitful and advancing knowledge of the highest Entity must ever take place, by means of, or at least in conjunction with the study of its self utterances and exponents in the individual and concrete. The contemplation of truest Being after having shown itself with astonishing brilliancy and power had been so speedily withdrawn that the world had only become assured of the reality of the latter without having time, as it were, to discern and distinguish the specialties of its essence. The utter degeneracy which had taken possession of all philosophic enquiry during the declining ages of the empire could not but exercise a peculiarly baneful influence upon that nobler form of educational discipline which in ancient times more especially had its keystone and centre in that science. The spirit of philosophy had so completely evaporated, leaving behind a mere caput mortuum of phraseology, negations, and truisms that the whole serious labor of academic instruction eventually concentrated itself upon rhetorical exercises, whose aim was directed towards giving a certain manual dexterity in dealing with the conventional expressions for a life and efficiency which had long since utterly departed. The inherent falsity of a plan of education founded upon a system of contemptible pedantry, which, bad as it was, was probably the only method by which the commonest rules and technical routine of ancient civilization could then be preserved, 1. That man can discern the living truth only by what it affirms of itself, and not by his own intellectual scrutiny is a principle common to all the highest forms of religious belief. With the Greeks Zeus was only known to mortals through his self-manifestation in Apollo (see Hesiod Melampod Fr. IX. in Dünzer's Fragmente der epischen Poesie der Gr., p 55.) and in the writings of the apostle whose mind and character are described as peculiarly congenial with the spirit of the founder of Christianity we are told that “no man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." 2. Dial. de Orat, $32. might well cause a Roman like the author of the dialogue referred to, to sigh after any manifestation of nature however coarse and illiberal.' CHRISTIANITY AND ACADEMIC STUDY. 44. Much indeed as was accomplished during the better and nobler ages of the nations of classical antiquity in awakening just and fitting conceptions of the general character and aims of that life of science and thought which it is the purpose of the University to organize and perpetuate, the actual existence of academic institutions in the distinct and specific form they historically assume is emphatically due to the political ascendancy finally achieved by Christianity. Full of interest and lasting instruction as are the records of the learned life of antiquity, the intellectual culture of that period depended for its existence far more upon the impulse communicated by individuals, and had not within itself those seeds of endless progress and unfading youth which a heaven-descended doctrine has implanted in the civilization of modern Europe. The profoundly ethical spirit of the new creed-the deeper and more vital grounds upon which it based all the special duties of life, caused the truths of Christianity to become inseparably intwined with the roots of political and social organization. Again, in virtue of its character as a system of religious Ideas variously revealed in history, in sacred text books, and in the lives and writings of a long succession of semi-inspired men, speculation and learning became the twin pillars of the faith so essentially bound up with all social order. The acknowledgment of Christianity as the religion of the state, in creating a demand for knowledge absolute and historical far more vast and constant than had arisen from the spontaneous striving after enlightenment of a noble and intellectually gifted people, established the existence of the institutions intended to meet those higher wants upon a basis infinitely broader and more enduring than they had ever previously occupied. From being the luxury and charm of existence, the ‘liberalis oblectatio' of an elegant social circle, scientific study assumed more and more the character of an imperative national necessity. A permanent organization was at once required in order to maintain and advance the higher intellectual culture necessary to the comprehension of a form of doctrine with which the best interests of the State and the individual were immediately involved; and we find accordingly that even in the failing energies of the empire a degree of earnest attention was devoted by the state to the endowment and management of the schools of learning almost exceeding what we have noticed as recorded of more 1. Dial. de Orat., § 35. prosperous times. Imperial edicts are still extant regulating the minutest details of the internal economy of the school of the Capitol,' and symptoms of something even like progress, at least in the comprehension of the subject, are to be seen in a more decided disposi. tion to give weight and emphasis to the principle of professional study. In short the University, whose origin, as we have already seen, was simultaneous with that of the professional class, was amplified and confirmed in its existence by the rise of the Christian priesthood, and the more scientific character assumed by legal study in the later ages of the Roman empire. 45. Students before leaving the provinces for Rome were obliged to obtain a written permission from a magistrate in which their names, ages, birthplaces, &c. were distinctly specified. On their arrival at Rome this paper was given to the praefectus urbis, and afterwards to the magister census. The latter enrolled the names of the various applicants in the album of the University, and assigned to them their several departments of study. To these they were henceforward compelled strictly to adhere. We are also informed that a record of the proficiency of each student was sent in to the government, in order that the latter might thereby be guided in the selection of fit individuals for the public service.3 THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS-TETRADISION OF CONSTANTINE. 46. In the so-called Octagon or Tetradision founded by Constantine in the capital to which he gave his name, Theology received a preëminence completely equivalent to that formerly accorded to philosophy. Up to this period all professional acquaintance with this most important subject had been obtained by means the most scanty and irregular. Eminent fathers and teachers of the church, by a practice resembling that of the earlier philosophers of Greece, were wont to assemble around them a small number of zealous and sympathizing disciples, to whom they communicated their convictions on the principles of Christian faith and duty. Origen is especially mentioned as 1. L. I. Cod Theod de stud. lib. Urbis Romae et Constantinopol. quoted by Heeren Gesch. der class. Litt. im Mittelalter I, p 24. These enactments are considered by Bernhardy (Grundriss der Röm. Litt., p 91.) as having originated quite as much in a spirit of despotic jealousy, and an apprehension of academic tumults, as in a paternal solicitude for the welfare of the institution. This conjecture receives some color of probability from the fact that students were strictly prohibited from remaining at this University beyond their twentieth year. 2 Ut in primo statim profiteantur introitu quibus potissemum studiis operam navare propenant Edict quoted by Bulaeus Hist. Univ. Par. I, p. 75. 8. Similes autem breves ad scrinia mansuetudinis nostrae annis singulis dirigantur quo meri. tes singulorum institutionibusque compertis utram quandoque sint necessarii fudecemus. Edict quoted by Bulaeus Ilist Univ. Par. I, p. 76. one in whose case this mode of activity constituted the principal direction in which his ecclesiastical usefulness was manifested; and Pamphilus of Caesarea, his adherent and personal friend, is said to have been the first who established a regular theological school.1 The bishops of the earlier church were in the practice of attaching to their persons a number of youthful assistants, who thus served a species of apprenticeship to the duties of the priesthood; and this clerus, as it was technically called, became in many cases the training school for an entire province. All the greatest fathers of the church, Gregory of Nazianzus, Chrysostom, and Augustine strenuously and vehemently insisted upon the necessity of a learned preparation for the duties of the sacerdotal office. In the course of time theological seminaries seem to have grown up in the neighborhood of the chief learned institutions of the day. The first of which mention is made is that of Alexandria. It is a remarkable and significant circumstance that the same city which had first given form and exactness to critical philology, and which at a subsequent period had been distinguished as the home and centre of Neoplatonic philosophy became in a similar manner the birthplace of Christian theology. In consequence of the high tone of intelligence generally diffused throughout the population of Alexandria by means of the learned institutions for which the place was celebrated, it was found necessary in appointing the catachetist, or person designed to instruct converts, and prepare the young for full admission to the church, to select an individual of cultivated mind, and high literary attainments. Clemens Alexandrinus, the instructor of Origen, is described by Neander as being the first who in a deep conviction of its necessity, couceived the design of investing Christian doctrine with the conclusiveness and precision of a strictly scientific study." 1. Neander Ch. Hist. II, p. 497. 3. Neander Ch. Hist. III, p. 211 2. Neander Ch Hist. III, p. 213. 5. Neander Ch. Hist. II, p. 225. 7. Biblical criticism was soon felt to be the basis of all sound and scientific theology. The absolute necessity of the profoundest erudition to every one who aims at an intellectual apprehension of Christian doctrine is emphatically dwelt upon by all the most eminent fathers of the church. St. Basil recommends the study of the ancient classics as the best introduction to the spirit and meaning of Christianity (Gräfenhahn Gesch. der class. Phil. III, p. 16). Clemens Alexandrinus not only maintained opinions identically the same with reference to their general utility in this respect (Strom. I, p. 360. Potter), but regards the philosophy of the ancients as furnishing a dialectic panoply against the attacks of sophists and cavillers (id. p. 377). He maintains moreover that moral goodness is hardly conceivable unless in conjunction with some degree of intellectual insight (p. 348.) that knowledge is necessary for the interpretation of the sacred word; (p. 342.) and that any deficiency in this respect proportionally paralyses the power of Christianity (p. 453.). IIe further insists that all wisdom is from God; that the infinitely varied forms of science all tend to the one highest knowledge; (ibid.) and that the wisdom of the heathens, though differing in form from Christianity, coincides with it in spirit |