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THE UNIVERSITIES IN, THE 16TH CENTURY 319
ing that of Ingolstadt, a rough, violent tone prevailed.* The
students lived partly in " Bursen " or boarding-houses, as they
existed in the middle ages, partly at the houses of private
people or professors. The latter found a sometimes highly
desirable source of income in housing and attending to
students. The son of MARTIN LUTHER kept a boarding-
house for students in Wittenberg which was much fre-
quented.t In Heidelberg it not unfrequently occurred that
the professors caused the wine which formed a portion of
their pay, to be publicly retailed : they might safely calcu­
late upon their pupils devoting themselves to it with at
least as much assiduity as to their lectures. Poor students
were exposed to the bitterest want. THOMAS PLATTER
, has given a touching picture of their miserable existence in
his autobiography. Cold and hungry, clothed in rags and
begging for alms, he, with his companions, traversed Swit­
zerland and Germany. The travelling students formed a
vagabond class which put credulity and ignorance under
contribution and in many places became a serious annoy­
ance to the country. A deep social gap divided these
beggar-students from the rich and distinguished young
men to whom, at most universities where they studied, a
privileged position was assigned. These frequently sought
to cut a figure by costly feasts and banquets, by an appear­
ance of prodigality and by excessive luxury in dress. The
pantaloons, "for example, of some students used to cost
above 100 fl.: a sum, the value of which we begin to grasp
when we consider that the midday meal of the Tubingen
students of that period, consisting of three courses and
a quart of wine, was paid for at the rate of 38 florins a
year. Laws, sermons and books inveighed against the
prodigality of the students but, as it seems, without result.
Professor Museums, of Frankfort-on-the-Oder, criticized
severely the fashion of pantaloons in a tractate hearing the
< title: " An Exhortation and Admonition against the decoy-
* B. GEBHARDT op. cit. S. 957.
t PAULSEN ; Gesch. d. gel. Unterrichts S. 16.1.