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THE MIDDLE AGES.
year 1348 at Prague, the residence of the Emperor CHARLES
IV. An ardent friend and patron of all scientific and
artistic effort, this prince was anxious to make the subjects
of his empire and especially of his patrimonial possessions
in Bohemia, acquainted with the advantages of Italian and
French civilization. On this account, he created in his '
capital a studium generate which was arranged after the
pattern of the university of Paris. It comprehended four
faculties in all, and fixed stipends were assigned to the
professors. The students, as in Paris and Bologna, were
divided into four nations namely Bohemian, Bavarian,
Saxon, and Polish. At their head was the Rector,, who
had to belong to the clergy, though not to any monastic
order, i.e., he was obliged to have received one of the lower
forms of consecration; also to be of at least 25 years of
age, of legitimate birth and to have passed a blameless 1
life.* Even students could be elected to this dignity. The
supreme control of the university was conferred on the
Archbishop of Prague—on a high prelate, as was usual in
many academies at that period. The university of Prague
rose quickly into prominence. BENESCH DE WAITMUEL
an author of the 14th century said that " in no place in
Germany did the sciences receive such careful cultivation as
in Prague, students coming thither from England, France,,
Lombardy, Hungary, Poland and the adjacent countries,
among them. being the sons of nobles and princes, and
high prelates from the different parts of the world."t
Even if the reports of the number of students, which the
academy mustered at that time are exaggerated,%—and in
* W. TOMEK : Geschichte der Prager Universitat, Prag. 1849.
t DENIFLE op. cit. i, S. 600.
X According to these there are said to have been in Prague at that time
30,000 students; similar reports exist in the cases of Bologna, Oxfor.d, and
Louvain. Probably not only the students and scholars who were being prepared
for university studies, were included, but also all who had studied there in
former years as well as the officials and artificers. who had business relations
with the academy. Cf. PAULSEN in SYREL'S histor. Zeitschr. 1881, Bd. 45, S.
2 9< etseq. . ; rt