Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/101

UNIVERSITIES AND OTHER CENTRES OF LEARNING 89 it is not among the least that, by persevering study, he can make himself master of those pearls of science and learning which point the way to a good and useful life, and place the learned far above the ignorant. Further- more, education brings man to a nearer likeness of God, and enables him to read clearly the secrets of the universe. True education and learning lift the meanest of earth to a level with the highest.' ' For this reason,' continues the Pope, ' the Holy See has always encouraged the sciences and contributed to the establish- ment of places of learning, in order that men might be enabled to acquire this precious treasure, and, having acquired it, might spread it among their fellow-men.' It was his ardent desire ' that one of these life-giving fountains should be established in Basle, so that all who wished might drink their fill at the waters of learning.' The same Pope had long before written to the Duke of Bavaria : ' The Apostolic See wishes for the greatest possible spread of learning, which, unlike all other good things of this life that are diminished by division, in- creases more and more abundantly the more widely it is distributed.' The annals of the various universities show how zealously the majority of the clergy acted on the Pope's exhortation to follow the study of science. Among the 1,200 students entered at Basle during the first ten years after its opening there were a large number of high dignitaries of the Church. In the first year after the opening of the University of Freiburg also, by far the greater number of its 234 students were of the clerical profession. 1 That university studies were encouraged and patronised by many Church institutions 1 Schreiber, i. 30, 81. For information with regard to the clergy at