Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages

by Dan Jones

Typically each of these far-flung and varied institutions was known as a studium generale, and taught the liberal arts, along with one or more of theology, law, and medicine. There was an international ethos from the outset, and students and masters could and would travel between these universities—with a degree or qualification to teach gained at one being considered valid at all the others. Bands of scholars wearing distinctive clerical dress and subject to their own codes of discipline that sat outside the ordinary laws became a common sight in dozens of “university towns” across the west. The scholar’s moment had arrived.