The University of Strasbourg was founded in 1621 on the basis of an already existing academy which, under the direction of John Sturm attracted students from all parts of Eu rope, and especially from Portugal, Poland, Denmark, France and England. The method of Sturm's teaching became the basis of that of the Jesuits, and, through them, of the public school in struction in England. In 1621 Ferdinand II. conferred on this academy full privileges as a university. In 1681 Strasbourg be came French. It was refounded by the emperor William I., and before the close of the century numbered over ijoo students. At the end of the 18th century it was distinguished by an intel lectual activity with which the name of Goethe is connected, after its reversion to Germany. Since 1918 the university has again become French, and is now enjoying much prosperity.
At the beginning of last century Russia possessed but three universities—that of Moscow (1755), founded by the empress Elizabeth; of Vilna (1578), which was Polish; and of Dorpat (Tartu) (1632) which was virtually Ger man. Alexander I. founded the University of Kharkov (5804) for New Russia, that of Kazan (1804) for the countries about the Volga, but designed also for the populations of Finland and Siberia, and that of St. Petersburg (1819). Each of the foregoing six universities had a definite district assigned to it, and, as a further incentive to the pursuit of academic studies, a ukaz pro mulgated in 1809 proclaimed that in all appointments to official posts throughout the empire the holders of a university degree would receive the first consideration. In 1832 the foundation of the St. Wladimir university of KieV absorbed the university at Vilna. Odessa, founded in 1865, was designed to represent the university of New Russia. Although at St. Petersburg considerable attention was regularly given to the teaching of languages, espe cially those of Armenia, Georgia, and Tartary, the general status of the Russian universities continued, throughout the greater part of last century, exceptionally low; and in 1884 they were all recon stituted by the promulgation of a "universal code"; with this the statutes of the universities at Dorpat (1632) and Warsaw (1886) were essentially in agreement. The study of the Slavonic lan guages received a considerable stimulus, especially when, by a decree in May 1887, the use of the Russian language was made obligatory in all places of instruction throughout the Baltic provinces.
The University of Tomsk in western Siberia, founded in 1888, depended chiefly on a grant from the State, aided by private liber ality. After 186o the general influence of Dorpat rapidly spread far beyond the Baltic provinces, while the number of students, which in 1879 was 1,106, rose to nearly 2,000 in 1882. In 1889 the Russification of the university went far to deprive the university of its claim to be considered German. Since the World War it has naturally become an Estonian university, and is now known as Tartu.
In 1826 the university at Abo in Finland was removed to Helsingfors, and still preserves the charter whereby, in its original home, it had been constituted a university by Queen Christina and her chancellor, Oxenstierna, in the year 1640.
At Prague, where a Czech university had been established on an independent basis, the German university began its separate career in the winter session of 1882-83. The German
foundation retained certain revenues accruing from special en dowments, but the State subvention was divided between the two. It is still in existence, though the country is now Czecho slovakia.
Bamberg.—The earliest university whose charter represented the counter-Reformation was that of Bamberg, founded by the prince-bishop and opened Sept. 1, 1648. At first, however, it comprised only the faculties of arts and of theology; to these was added, in 1729, that of jurisprudence, and in 1764 that of medicine. The university library contains a collection of manu scripts from some 3o suppressed monasteries, convents, and religious institutions at the time of the "secularization." Innsbruck.—The University of Innsbruck was founded in 1672 by the emperor Leopold I. In the following century, under the patronage of the empress Maria Theresa, it made consider able progress, and received from her its ancient library and bookshelves in 1745. In 5782 the university was reduced by the emperor Joseph II. from the status of a university to that of a lyceum, although retaining in the theological faculty the right of conferring degrees. In 1791 it was restored to its privi leges by the emperor Leopold II.
The University of Breslau was founded by the em peror Leopold I. in 1702. When Frederick the Great conquered Silesia in 1741, he took both the university and the Jesuits in Breslau under his protection, and when, in
the order was sup pressed by Clement XIV. he established them as priests in the Royal Scholastic institute, at the same time giving new statutes to the university. In 181s the university was considerably augmented by the incorporation of that at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, and was ultimately reconstituted on lines similar to those of the newly founded University of Berlin.
In no country was the influence of the Jesuits on the universities more marked than in France. The civil wars in that country during the 3o years which preceded the close of the 16th century told with disastrous effects upon the condition of the University of Paris, and with the commence ment of the 17th century its collegiate life seemed at an end, and its 4o colleges stood absolutely deserted. To this state of affairs the obstinate conservatism of the academic authorities not a little contributed. The Jesuits did not fail to profit by this excessive conservatism on the part of the university, and during the second half of the 16th century and the whole of the 17th they had contrived to gain almost a complete monopoly of both the higher and the lower education of provincial France. Their schools rose at Toulouse and Bordeaux, at Auch, Agen, Rhodez, Perigueux, Limoges, Le Puy, Aubenas, Beziers, Tournon, in the colleges of Flanders and
Douai and Pont-h-Mousson places beyond the jurisdiction of the parlement of Paris or even of the Crown of France. Their banishment from Paris itself had been by the decree of the parlement alone, and had never been confirmed by the Crown. "Lyons," says Pattison, "loudly demanded a Jesuit college, and even the Huguenot Lesdiguieres, almost king in Dauphine, was prepared to erect one at Grenoble. The university was rescued from the fate which seemed to threaten it only by the excellent statutes given by Richer in 1598, and by the discerning protection extended by Henry IV.