Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/144

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COLLEGE


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COLLEGE


tablished by the Teutonic Knights in the fourteenth century; the Beriin gymnasium (1540), formerly St. Peter's School (1276); the Mary Magdalen Gymna- sium of Breslau, a Prote^ant school (1528), which grew out of City School (1267); the Gymnasium II- lustre of Brieg (1569), a combuiation of the ancient Cathedral School and the City School ; the Lutheran school of Sagan (1541), originally a Franciscan school (1294). During the RenaLssance and Reformation period a few institutions of this kind went by the name of Collegium, but more were styled Gymnasium, Lyceum, Atheneeum, Pcedogogium, or Academia, al- though these names in some cases were given to schools which were rather universities. Institutions of collegiate rank were also termed Studia Particularia, to distinguish them from a Studium Generals, or uni- versity. In its character the gymnasium was a hu- manistic school, the classical languages being the main subject of instruction. Not only the Catholic colleges of the post-Reformation period, but also the Protestant school systems, were based on the pre- Reformation schools, particularly those of the Nether- lands. The famous school of Zwickau in Saxony was organized between 1535 and 1546 by Plateanus, a na- tive of Liege, on the model of the school of the Brethren of the Common Life in Liege. John Sturm had studied in the same school at Liege, in the Col- legium Trilingue at Lou vain, and in the University of Paris, and from these schools he derived most of the details of his gymnasium at Strasburg, which was one of the most typical and most celebrated of early Prot- estant schools. Sturm's ideas in turn largely influ- enced another class of German institutions, the fa- mous Filrstenschulen of Grimma, Pforta, etc. Again, Melanchthon, honoured by the title of " founder of the German gymnasium", based his system on the educa- tional principles of Erasmus and other humanists.

Many features of college life are legacies of the past ; some have already been pointed out, namely attend- ance at chapel and the common life in the great boarding-schools. Various forms of distinctly aca- demical dress have grown out of college practices ; no particular form of garment was prescribed by uni- versity authority in medieval institutions, but in col- leges they soon began to wear a "livery" of uniform colour and material. The modern viva voce examin- ation is the successor of the former oral disputation, the examiners now taking the place of the " oppo- nents" of olden times. As has been shown, the sup- port of poor and deserving scholars was the root idea of the foundation of colleges ; the scholarships in Eng- lish and American schools, the bursarships and slip- endia in the schools of Germany and other countries, have sprung from, and perpetuate, the same idea. In the provision for the Senior Scholars, in the fellow- ships of the medieval colleges, and in the practice of endowing professorships with prebends, there was an early systematic attempt at solving the question of professors' salaries. In these and other features, modern college systems are intimately linked with the Catholic past.

Rashdall. The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1895), I. II; Bbodrick, History of the University at Oxford (London, 1886); Mulunger. The University of Cam- bridge (2 vols.. Cambridge. 1883); Idem. History of the Univer- sity of Cambridge (London, 1888); Denifle and Chatelain, Chartularium Univcrsitatis Parisiensis (Paris, 1889-1896); BoDQUiLTXiN, The IMivc-rsity of Paris in Catholic University BuUelin (July, Oct., 1895. Jan., 1896); Brother Azarias, Uni- versity Colleges in Am. Calh. Q. Rev. (Oct., 1.S93. Jan.. 1894); Woodward. Vittorino da Feltre and other Ilinuani.-^l Educators (Cambridge. 1897); Idem, Studies in Bducniu.n dnrinf} the .Age of the Rcnni.Manw (Cambridge, 1906); Einstk.in. The Italian Henaissance in England (New York, 1902); Russell. German Higher Schools (New Vork. 1899); Paulsen, Gesch. des gelehrten Unterrichts auf den deutschen Schulen und Universitdten (2nd ed., 2 vols., I^cipzig, 1896); SrHMiD, Geschichte der Erziehmin (.Stutt- gart. 1889 and 1901). II, ii and V, i; N'lusus. ;/is(onV/i( Sketches, III: Rise and Progress of friiV ,, , liinniiiKlv

written, hut with no great value as histr,r\ I .-i ili. Inslury of the word: New English Dictionary on lli-,l,Tiral VViiictp/is. ed. MuHKAV (Oxford, 1893). II.


The American College. — The continuity of edu- cational ideals, and the diversity of their application, according to national needs and characteristics, is well illustrated by the American college. As regards its origin, it is an outgrowth of the English college, in particular of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where John Harvard had been educated. In more than one respect, especially in the fundamental idea of liberal training as the jjroper preparation for the higher or professional studies, it perpetuates the educational traditions which spread from Paris, and later from the humanistic schools of Italy, to Oxford and Cam- bridge, and thence were transplanted to the New World. However, the elements derived from Europe were modified from the very beginning and have been still more changed since the foundation of Harvard, so much so that at present there is no exact counterpart of the American college in any other country. There- are at present (1908) in the United States over four hundred and seventy institutions which confer de- grees and are called universities or colleges, not count- ing those which are for women exclusively. In some cases, as has well been said, the name "university" is but a "majestic synonym for college", and some of the colleges are only small high schools. Before the American Revolution 11 colleges were founded, chief among them Harvard (1636), William and Mary (1693), Yale (1701), Princeton (1746), University of Pennsylvania (1751), Columbia (1754), Brown (1764), Dartmouth (1770); from the Revolution to 1800, 12, one of them Catholic, at Georgetown, District of Co- lumbia; 33 from 1800 to 1830; ISO from 1830 to 1865; and about 240 from 1865 to 1908. The older foundations in the East are independent of State con- trol, but possess charters sanctioned by legislation. Many of the more recent foundations, especially in Western and Southern States, are supported and con- trolled by the State; on the other hand, denomina- tional control has largely disappeared from the old colleges and is excluded from most new foundations. At present about one-half of the colleges are registered as non-sectarian. From the early part of the nine- teenth century efforts were made to offer to women the same educational opportunities as to men. Mount Holyoke Seminary, Massachusetts (1837), and Elmira College (1855), were nearly equivalent to the colleges for men. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York (1865), however, has been styled the "legitimate par- ent" of the colleges for women, as it established the same standard as that of colleges for men. Vassar College, Wellesley College (1876), Smith College (1S75), Mount Holyoke College (1893), Bryn Mawr (1885), and the Woman's College, Baltimore (1885), are the most important women's colleges in the United States. Others are affiliated with colleges or universities for men, as Radcliffe, with Harvard. Many Western and Southern colleges are co-educa- tional.

The American college has been the main repositorj' of liberal education, of an advanced education of gen- eral, not technical or professional, character. The "old-fashioned" college had a four-year course of prescribed studies: Latin and Greek, the inheritance of the humanistic period, and mathematics, to which had been added in the course of time natural sciences, the elements of philosophy, and still later, English lit- erature. Modern languages, especi;dly French, were taught to some small extent. Since the Civil War changes have been introduced which are truly revolu- tionary. Some colleges have grown into universities with different faculties after the model of European, especially German, universities; these institutions have two principal departments, the tmiversity proper, for gniduate, or professional work, and the collegiate depiLrtiiuMit in the stricter sense of the word. But this very collegiate course has undergone a far-reaching transformation; the line of separation