The cause of learning was also disgraced in the latter portion of the Middle Ages by the class called " travelling scholars," who were originally an excrescence from that of charity students. They were mere vaga bonds, without any serious desire of learning, who availed themselves of the free burses to attend the universities, and made a livelihood by steal ing, by begging, or by street-singing in the choruses which had been instituted to support needy students. When compelled to leave one uni versity, they sought another or went through the country practising impositions on the peasants and the clergy. The custom of placing younger pupils under the charge of older ones was also productive of evil, the former being often brought up as beggars and rogues. Romance writers give a poetical embellishment to these things, which, however, in the sixteenth century had grown to be a general pest; nor did they cease until matriculation in the universities was strictly regulated.
Figure 8 (p1. 431 exhibits a lecture-room of the University of Tiibingen in the first half of the seventeenth century. In explanation we have only to add that the persons sitting at the left with hats on are students belong ing to the nobility, who had the privilege of occupying special seats long after they had been compelled, in compliance with the ordinary rules of politeness, to remove their hats. Until the art of printing had spread the means of knowledge and made it more accessible, instruction consisted simply in the dictation of the lesson.
privilege of conferring degrees was early possessed by the universities. The degrees were in the beginning difficult to obtain, and were graded into those of master, licentiate, bachelor, and doctor. At a later period the acquisition of the doctor's degree was celebrated with great festivities, and some universities even incurred the suspicion of selling their degrees.
Primary 6, which is copied from a wood-cut by the Augsburg painter Hans Burckmair, shows the interior of a primary school. The pupils, who were often only half clad, were provided with
slates, and sat upon low benches, without desks, around the teacher, whose instruments of punishment, such as the rod, fool's cap, donkey's face, etc., were more numerous than his implements of teaching. We have already mentioned (p. 276) how limited was the range of knowledge which was acquired, often with great difficulty and through long years, in such schools.
art of fencing was considered part of a good education. In early times the sons of such of the nobles as had ambitious aspirations were placed, after a meagre education by their domestic chap lain, at some court, where they were trained in bodily exercises, less for the purpose of physical development than to fit them for a military career. At the beginning of modern times it was customary for civilians also to receive such a training. Most cities had fencing-schools, which were well systematized and conducted by skilful masters. There are extant a num ber of illustrated manuscript works of the fifteenth century, and some printed works of the sixteenth century, upon the subjects of boxing and wrestling and on the handling of weapons of offence and defence of the most varied kinds. From one of them, illustrated by Tobias Stimmer, we copy our Figure 7, representing a combat with long two-handed swords, which, on account of their weight, required the use of both hands to wield them.
In learning and refinement the Teutonic nations were at this period inferior to those of the Latin countries. In Italy especially intellectual culture had spread through all ranks, and produced an enthusiasm for knowledge which extended even to the female sex. North of the Alps women were but little influenced by the intellectual movement. German culture, however, took deeper root, and eventually received a direction which differed from that of its neighbors as radically as did the ante cedent causes out of which these variations were developed.