The institutions of learning in southern Europe were
modeled, more or less, upon the university of Bologna. At this Italian city, in
the middle of the twelfth century, a celebrated teacher named Irnerius gathered
about him thousands of pupils for the study of the Justinian code. The
university developed out of his law school. Bologna was the center from which
the Roman system of jurisprudence made its way into France, Germany, and other
Continental countries. From Bologna, also, came the monk Gratian, who drew up
the accepted text-book of canon law, as followed in all Church courts.
What Roman law was to the Empire canon law was to the Papacy.
UNIVERSITY ORGANIZATION
The word "university" [21] meant at first simply
a union or association. In the Middle Ages all artisans were organized in
guilds, and when masters and pupils associated themselves for teaching and
study they naturally copied the guild form. This was the more necessary since
the student body included so many foreigners, who found protection against
annoyances only as members of a guild.
