Universities

The Latin word "universitas" simply means a collection of individuals, banded together through fraternal, regional, religious, or professional bonds. Such groups — often craftsmen and artisan guilds — gathered to gain some form of autonomy, protecting them from secular, ecclesiastical, or municipal interference. Collections of scholars are "universitas magistrorum et scholarium" (university of masters and scholars) in the long form, and they seek independence from outside social and political intrusions in the pursuit of knowledge. To differentiate them from other types of schools, and to reflect their collective nature, the early universities used the phrase "studium generale" to refer to themselves in their charters. For Ars Magica game purposes, the term "university" will refer exclusively to the educational institutions and system described in this chapter.

The thirteenth century is the beginning of a wave of medieval universities. In 1220 there are nine, but this number will double in twenty years and quadruple in forty, if your saga follows medieval history. Universities are popular and well attended, and produce learned men of various ranks and calibers. Pope Honorius III has granted several privileges to Paris and Bologna, the two most prominent universities, and has suggested that all clerical scholars attend one or other university to ensure their theological or legal knowledge. His predecessor, Pope Innocent III, was a university man. Kings, princes, and town burghers all see universities as useful institutional models, finding ways to gain personal advantages from the autonomous institutions.

This chapter details the universities of Mythic Europe in 1220. It offers descriptions of the students, the courses, the curriculum, and the length of time necessary to achieve a teaching license. It also includes information on masters, their duties and responsibilities, and rules to allow player characters to pursue both vocations.

With such increased attention to university and learned characters, several new Social Status Virtues are offered to reflect a myriad of careers and social positions. As a rule, these Virtues are only available for male characters. Exceptions to this rule are noted in the descriptions.

An Ars Magica character generally has only one Social Status Virtue, and you should pick the one that most accurately applies. Selecting the most apt Social Status Virtue is important primarily during character generation. Social Status Virtues may change as a character advances through his career, and it is not necessary to balance Social Status Virtues after character generation. For example, a character starts as a simple student, taking the minor Virtue that must balance within his total selection of Virtues and Flaws. After many sessions of play, he becomes a Magister in Artibus. It is not necessary to re-calculate the character's Virtues and Flaws now that he has a major Social Status Virtue.

Every university student receives the benefit of clergy, meaning that he has taken minor orders, is tonsured and clothed like a cleric, and enjoys the legal status of being tried under canon law. Students in a municipal school do not receive this benefit, but all of the universities detailed in this chapter require that their students take minor orders.

The career of a professional schoolman begins at the baccalaureus stage, which runs for three years, followed by the master-student stage, a five-year program whose successful completion will make the schoolman a magister in artibus. Some continue on for two more years, as a specialist student, eventually becoming a doctor in (faculty). Taking the Baccalaureus, Magister in Artibus, or Doctor in (Faculty) Virtue means the character has arrived at a certain finishing point in his career, receiving a set number of additional experience points as described by the Virtues. A master-student character must have the Baccalaureus Virtue and still be continuing in his academic career. A specialist student must have the Magister in Artibus Virtue, and is continuing his education as well.

Several new Virtues grant experience points in Academic Abilities. Scholastic characters are by default educated, making it unnecessary to select the Educated Virtue for such characters. Thus, any character with a Social Status Virtue that grants experience points in Academic Abilities may buy Academic Abilities with any experience points during character creation. You can pick Educated in addition to a scholastic Social Status Virtue, and receive the additional experience points supplied by both Virtues. The character must have had an exceptional teacher during his off-stage life (character generation) before entering play.

New Virtues

Baccalaureus
Social Status, Minor

The character has completed a three-year program at a university to receive a baccalarius artium (Bachelor of Arts degree). He is typically between 16 and 19 years old, and has 90 experience points that he may spend on Latin and Artes Liberales — 30 experience points per finished year of studies. His future decisions are varied once he gains his degree: he can extend his university career, teaching extraordinary lectures as he works toward his magister in artibus degree; teach in a cathedral or secular school; become a private tutor for a noble family; or find work in ecclesiastical or secular circles. The character has an Academic Reputation of 1.

This Virtue is compatible with the Hermetic Magus, Mendicant Friar, and Priest Virtues.

Beadle
Social Status, Minor

The character is an assistant to a university dean. He is a townsman or student of merit employed by the university to carry the university's insignia in parades, collect dues and fines, read mandatory announcements at university congregations, and announce disputationes. The character may purchase Academic Abilities at character generation.

Cathedral School Master
Social Status, Major

The character teaches at a cathedral school, one of the many that dot Mythic Europe. He is at least (30 – Intelligence) years old and must have scores of 5 in Latin and Artes Liberales, and a Teaching of at least 3. He may learn any Academic Ability, and may teach it to his students. He is typically not a university man, but was instructed at a cathedral school. He receives 240 additional experience points, which may be spent on Academic Abilities and Teaching. The character has an Academic Reputation of 2.

This Virtue is compatible with the Baccalaureus and Priest Virtues. Characters with higher university degrees should take those Virtues instead; a magister or doctor gains no additional status from teaching at a cathedral school.

Doctor in (Faculty)

Social Status, Major

The character has graduated from one of the higher faculties of a university, in medicine, civil or canon law, or theology, having already received his magister in artibus license, and may instruct fellow students. The character may teach anywhere, even at a university that he didn't attend. This is the highest educational license in Mythic Europe. A doctor of medicine is also titled magister in medicina (see Chapter Four: Medicine), having typically been taught in one of the southern universities.

A character starting the game with this Virtue must be at least (27 – Intelligence) years old. He must have a score of 5 in Latin, Artes Liberales, and the Ability that correlates to his faculty degree. The character has spent ten years at a university and receives an additional 300 experience points, which must be spent on Latin and Academic Abilities. He also begins the game with an Academic Reputation of 3.

Like other working characters, he must spend two seasons a year practicing his profession, either teaching or working in a secular or ecclesiastical court. Both the Wealthy Virtue and the Poor Flaw are allowable, but players must decide what calamity befell such an erudite scholar if he is Poor, for which he receives a Bad Reputation at a level of 2.

This Virtue is compatible with the Hermetic Magus, Mendicant Friar, and Priest Virtues.

Jurist
Social Status, Minor

The character is a judge, advocate, or procurator — essentially a medieval lawyer in some capacity. At character generation he may purchase the Abilities Latin, Artes Liberales, and Civil and Canon Law. He is not necessarily university trained, having obtained his education through private schools, tutors, or a cathedral school, and need not have a degree. If he is a cleric, he works in an ecclesiastical setting: the papal curia, the College of Cardinals, or a bishop's or archbishop's office. If he is a layman, he works for a secular prince or town municipality.

This Virtue is compatible with the Baccalaureus, Magister in Artibus, and Doctor in (Faculty) Virtues, as a jurist may have a university education. It is also compatible with the Priest and Mendicant Friar Virtues.

Lupus (the Wolf)
Social Status, Minor

The character is employed by the university to watch over the students and ensure that they speak only Latin in their colleges and hostels. He is a member of the urban community where the university is located. He may begin play with scores in Latin or Artes Liberales, although a score of more than 1 in Artes Liberales would be rare. He may live with the students if he is unmarried, but if he has a family then he lives with them, possessing keys to the students' housing to allow unannounced entry.

Magister in Artibus
Existing Social Status, Major

In addition to the description of this Virtue in the regular rules (ArM5, page 45), the character begins with an Academic Reputation of 2. This Virtue is compatible with the Hermetic Magus, Mendicant Friar, and Priest Virtues.

Nuntius
Social Status, Free

The character is a nuntius (messenger), charged with delivering messages, mail, and monetary donations between students and their families. He is employed by a university nation and is not necessarily educated. He is affected by the Wealthy Virtue and Poor Flaw as normal. The character can be either male or female, although travel is obviously more dangerous for a lone female.

Prestigious Student
General, Minor

The character is a son of a nobleman or a prosperous merchant, matriculated in a university that specializes in either Civil Law or Medicine. He has a small group of retainers with him, two or three servants who attend to his needs while at the university. He was trained in Artes Liberales and Latin by a private tutor, and may purchase Academic Abilities at character generation. The character must take a Social Status Virtue to reflect where he is in the educational process.

Simple Student
Social Status, Minor

The character is a university student who has not yet taken a degree. He is typically between 14 and 16 years old and somewhere along his university program. He receives 30 experience points per finished year that he can apply to Latin or Artes Liberales. If he has finished his second year of studies, he is in the liminal position of either applying for work or continuing his education.

More than half of all university students are Simple Students.

University Grammar Teacher
Social Status, Minor

The character is employed by a university to teach its younger members grammar. The character can be of any age and either gender. He may purchase the Academic Abilities: Latin and Artes Liberales at character generation, and should have a score in Teaching. He must teach two seasons out of the year.

New Flaws

Failed Student
Story, Minor

The character has studied for a specific university license and failed his final examination. If he passed earlier exams, he may have a scholastic Social Status Virtue showing how far he got. (Obviously, this cannot be Doctor in (Faculty).) The character has a Bad Academic Reputation of 2.

Poor Disputer
General, Minor

The character has a difficult time with disputationes and suffers a –3 penalty on disputatio die rolls.

Rector/Proctor
Story, Major

The character is the representative leader of his faculty or nation, depending on whether he is a master or a student. He is responsible for his colleagues' behavior and is obliged to deal with their academic concerns. The character must have a Social Status Virtue dictating his place within the university. The character can expect to spend considerable time sorting out his fellows' affairs.

University Dean
Story, Major

The character is the head of a university, having already acquired his doctor in (faculty) license. The character has been chosen to lead the university, overseeing external affairs with the town and internal affairs between students and masters. Though prestigious, the position imposes serious demands on the character's time. The character can expect many interruptions in his teaching during the school year. The character must have the Virtue: Doctor in (Faculty), be at least 40 years old, and cannot have the Poor Flaw or any other Flaw that grants a Bad Reputation.

A university is a group of masters and students who have obtained a degree of autonomy from papal or imperial authorities for their organization. With other educational models, instruction centers on the single master. Universities focus on the group, and no single educator holds ultimate influence in the university. This is the single most important distinction between universities and cathedral, municipal, and private schools. It is not defined by any physical structure or joint property, but by the rights conferred to the assembled scholars. It must have at least two branches of instruction, called faculties and described in detail below, one of which is a Faculty of Arts and the other one of the higher faculties: medicine, civil and canon law, or theology. Universities are urban establishments. They have affiliations, agreements, and tensions with ecclesiastical, imperial, secular, and town rulers. Their autonomy is paradoxical, for without these outside political structures, they wouldn't exist.

There are two types of universities: the student-run university and the university of masters. They can also be distinguished geographically. Universities of masters are northern universities, like Oxford, Cambridge, and Paris, while southern universities are generally student-run, like Bologna, Montpellier, and Salamanca. But even within these broad definitions, no two universities are exactly alike, with the same statutes, regulations, offered courses, and awarded degrees.

Both types of universities mirror each other in statutes for masters and students; the distinction is in who sets the statutes, not what they are. Examples of these statutes are given later. Ars Magica characters should follow master or student statutes, as determined by the character's Social Status Virtue rather than the type of university. There tend to be more statutes for masters than students in the south, and more rules for students than masters in the north. As the Middle Ages progresses, the two types of universities will converge into a single type of organization.

The University of Bologna is the model for this type of university. Student-run universities exist in the south: Italy, southern France, and Spain. Bologna is the purest model, with Montpellier a close second. Iberian universities are closely allied with the power of the provincial king, so while structured as a student-run university, they are less autonomous and more tied to their local ruler. Southern universities typically teach medicine and law as their primary focus. Most of the masters are laymen, who have been awarded the right to be legally treated as clerics, but often have other businesses or financial concerns.

The studium generale was formed by the students. Initially, a large percentage of the students were foreigners in the university's city, with no rights to property or legal redress for confiscated goods. Urban citizens had certain rights that the students wanted to mirror, and their collective strives to acquire and maintain social parity with the townsfolk. Secondly, students were determined to set the standards for their education, and the university is managed by student pressures. While statutes exist to ensure their proper behavior, far more regulations exist for the masters, who must conform to them to keep their position. The focus is on the quality of the education, set texts and determined lengths of time that they are studied, keeping teachers accountable for their instruction, and maintaining a safe living environment for their continued studies.

The governing body of the university is staffed by senior students, who are chosen from the student body by their peers. Many regulatory and enforcement agents are students. While the head of the university is a master, he is selected by the elected student government.

Some examples of the many statutes imposed on masters are:

• Masters must be on time for their lectures.
• Masters may not miss more than one lecture per term.
• A master must prepare original instruction for his courses, and may not merely repeat information from one term to the next.
• A master may not read directly from the text during his lecture, but must offer commentaries and arguments that gloss the text.
• A master may only leave the city for one week per year.
• A master should not marry. If he is married, he must still conform to all other statutes.
• A master must attend all university meetings and observe all religious holidays.
• A master must march in religious parades with the university staff.
• A master must host a disputatio at least once a term.
• A master must attend the student examinations of his faculty.
• A master must retain a good reputation with the city and the university and should be of unquestionable moral character.

In northern Mythic Europe, it was the masters who initially sought the right to teach from the towns and political powers. Seeking initially to free themselves from the authority of the chancellor in the cathedral school system, they later included provisions to regulate the lives of their students. They also desire control over their own careers, so that they can't be moved around Mythic Europe on an ecclesiastical master's whim.

Faculty Titles

The full version of doctor in (faculty) for each faculty is as follows:

Doctor in theologia (theology)
Doctor in legibus (law)
Doctor in medicina (medicine)

The corresponding magister in (faculty) titles are used interchangeably at many universities.

The University of Paris is the model for this type of university, copied by both Oxford and Cambridge, and popular north of the Alps. Northern universities focus on the liberal arts and theology. The majority of masters are learned clerics. They do not receive salaries but are provided with prebends (an awarded percentage of a cathedral's income) or benefices (rights to the agricultural profits and tithes of a diocese or parish). The pope has recently allowed the rector of a parish, the regular recipient of the benefice, the right to live apart from his parish. This arrangement allows him income from a place where he does not have to live.

The university is governed by the masters, at all levels except the lowest, which allows representative student government. The masters set the standards of education, the curriculum, and the hours of instruction. They also make statutes defining proper student behavior.

Some of the student statutes are:

• Students must wear academic robes and may not dress flamboyantly.
• Students may not bear arms.
• A student may not ride a horse to lectures.
• A student may not keep dogs as pets or affect other types of noble behavior.
• Students must not gamble.
• A student must be in his residence by nightfall.
• Women are not allowed in student residences.
• A student must always speak Latin, at class and in his residence.
• All students must attend mandatory university meetings.
• A student must own his own textbooks.
• A student must be matriculated into his faculty and must swear his Oath of Matriculation.
• A student cannot be absent from the university for more than a week, except during the "Great Vacation" that happens in the summer.
• If fined, a student must pay his fine, usually in liters of wine, promptly.

Like any institution, universities are subdivided into smaller organizations. The primary subgroups are the faculties, after which come nations. Some universities, specifically Paris and Bologna, also have hospices, a newly-created additional student subgroup. Every university has faculties, most have nations, and only Paris and Bologna have hospices. The number of any individual subdivision will differ. For example, Paris has four nations and Oxford only two.

Faculties

A faculty is the complete course of learning necessary to achieve a license within a specific subject. There are four faculties: a Faculty of Arts, which every university has, and faculties of medicine, canon or civil law, and theology. The faculties are ranked according to their perceived religious characteristics, coupled with the intellectual dignity and social usefulness that each awards. Theology is judged the highest, with medicine and law tying for second place. All three are seen as higher academic endeavors than the liberal arts. Higher faculties also require a degree in Artes Liberales. The faculty of Art only teaches Artes Liberales, and the higher faculties teach only the subject they are named for. Law is grouped as a single faculty, even in the rare situation where both canon and civil law are taught. Canon and civil law courses are different enough to warrant separate faculties, but don't have them.

Each faculty is led by a rector, the master who is the eldest and still teaching, although he is nominally elected by the other professors of his faculty. His duties are many, from juggling the minutiae of daily finances and student quibbles to overseeing the awarding of degrees and political interactions with church officials, secular princes, and town leaders. In some instances, the rector is also called the chancellor, mimicking the title of the cathedral representative. In others, the rector actually is the chancellor, who is usually appointed by the bishop. He is infinitely busy, using a group of assistants, called beadles, to run errands and perform minor functions. He marches first in the feast-day parades, and should be an exemplar of moral fortitude and virtue. One of the rectors is elected the rector of the university, usually called a dean but not always. The dean is the representative head of the institution and deals with kings and the pope in receiving new teaching privileges and maintaining existing ones.

Nations

Nations are a collection of students who all come from the same geographic area. Initially, foreign students did not have any legal rights in the university's town. A Bolognese student attending the University of Bologna didn't have to worry about it, since he was already a citizen of the commune, but his fellow student from Milan did. This situation prompted the foreign students of Bologna to seek the right to incorporate themselves into a studium generale, subdivided into representative nations that corresponded with their original home.

Nations live, study, and play together, offering foreign students the familiarity of home through their student association. They have gained the same rights as the local citizens and no longer have to fear legal discrimination. For convenience, local students have organized into nations as well, even though they don't legally need to. Thus, the University of Paris has a French Nation.

Nations are led by a proctor, an older student elected to act as the nation's representative with the masters, who has both administrative and financial powers.

Not every student in a nation will study in the same faculty. Religious parades are grouped by faculties, so nations will not walk together. Still, this is a stronger bond than the faculty for most nation members.

Hospices

A hospice, sometimes called a "college", is a building funded by a benefactor that provides room and board for a small group of students. There are only a few in 1220, and they exist at the Universities of Bologna and Paris. They are either Dominican houses or funded by other ecclesiastic patrons. In the years ahead, secular lords will found hospices for secular students, but this practice is premature in 1220. Hospices are primarily for poor or exceptionally intelligent ecclesiastical students. Most students must find their own residences. Colleges for secular students do not historically occur until mid-century.

Each hospice allows for a specific number of student residents and a layman caretaker. Hospices typically house eight to twenty students, all of whom belong to the same religious order. Members are called "fellows" (Latin: socii), who live, eat, study, and socialize together, all the while maintaining their religious rule. In theory, hospices provide a safe haven from the trials and temptations of town life.

For all its hard-won independence, a university does not exist in a social vacuum. Relationships exist between the church, the state, and the Order of Hermes. All of these ties are both beneficial and problematic at times. A university strives for its autonomy, working within the system to provide for its members' personal and financial security. The church and the state like to maintain control of university appointments, promoting like-minded fellows and suppressing polemical or outspoken scholars. Both view universities as a means to maintain the status quo.

The Church

Most universities are ultimately beholden to the church because academic licenses can only be awarded by the bishop's chancellor. Even if the degree is awarded based solely on the committee of masters' acknowledgment, it is the chancellor who is empowered to confer the actual title of magister or doctor. The few who don't receive degrees from chancellors receive them from a king, so a similar relationship exists. From this vantage point, universities are subject to the ecclesiastical leader of the diocese.

They are, in essence, an extension of the church, both as a training facility for future clerics and as an arena of intellectual thought. Plagued by recent heresies, most notably the Albigensians, the church relies on the faculties of theology to correctly interpret scripture and the various commentaries made by scholastics. The mendicant orders, especially the Dominicans in 1220, have entered universities, learning alongside layman and the regular clergy. Many masters see this as an intrusion, since friars are sworn to each other rather than to a master, and they can be some of the most demanding students he teaches. It is, however, the will of the pope, so refusing to teach friars is futile. Most universities are willing to give the pope a little political power over their institution, and demand more from him in return.

The King

Universities owe their political autonomy to Frederick I Barbarossa, who granted Bolognese scholars the freedom to move throughout the Holy Roman Empire and safe residences once they arrived at their destination. This initial royal grant of protection, given in 1190, has been copied throughout western Mythic Europe, with many kings granting resident scholars royal protection, legal immunities, and travel privileges, regardless of their nationality.

Since universities are interested in the intellectual and spiritual application of knowledge over the practical, they do not pose much of a threat to ruling kings and princes. Restless students are a problem for a king's bailiff, rather than the king in person. Only in the most grievous instances will a king intervene. Most are content to let the scholars think and teach inside their straw-floored classrooms. A university adds to a king's reputation as an enlightened sovereign. Politically, the university can also be used as a tool against the pope. In some instances, most commonly Spanish universities, the king appoints the cathedral chapter of regular canons, sometimes with the bishop's advice, and has influence over the chancellor.

What tension there is shows at the city level, between scholars and townsmen. The town's citizens have to deal directly, sometimes daily, with the resident scholars. Students bring wealth to a town, but make demands that are hard to live with at times. Rent control, prices for books and food, and drinking establishment hours are all hotly contended. If trouble arises, it is the town's bailiff who has to deal with it. Despite the hassles, the town burghers generally appreciate how the university's members bolster the town's finances.

The Order of Hermes

Both universities and the Order of Hermes are interested in knowledge, academic on the one hand and arcane on the other, so it is natural that both keep tabs on the other. The Order is more interested in universities than the reverse, watching both the methods of instruction and the areas of knowledge taught. The formulae devised by natural philosophers are interesting, but in general the Order views them as minor effects that even a simple apprentice can mimic with magic.

On the other hand, universities provide a pool of potential covenant employees. Baccalaurei can be hired as private instructors, accountants, or autocrats responsible for overseeing a covenant's administrative needs. Simple students can become scribes, living and working at the covenant under less-strict regulations than with a secular prince. As the mundane book trade flourishes, many covenants have increased the number of scribes copying academic books so that copies may be traded. University students are also used to living away from home, so the transition from town to covenant is relatively easy.

Covenants located near university towns have been known to sneak members into the university for free training. This is more common with poor covenants that do not have the resources to hire a teacher. Universities are large enough for a lone student to unobtrusively "steal" an education from it by quietly sitting in the back of a classroom and taking notes. Usually it is an under-educated scribe that a covenant sends, although cases have arisen of a magus sending his apprentice to a university to learn basic Latin and Artes Liberales; apprentices without the Gentle Gift are prone to drawing attention, however.

More fascinating are the libraries that university masters keep. The university does not itself maintain a library, unlike cathedral and monastic schools. Instead, each individual master uses his personal library as his source for teaching. Hidden beneath stacks of academic material are "secret books" — tomes the masters have collected but don't include in their curriculum or even their catalog of titles. Most scholars are notorious bibliophiles, and will collect books on any subject, solely for the sake of possessing them. Summae and tractatus on the Hermetic Arts can be found in a master's personal library, often simply for the reason that they are books. Some few masters find Hermetic texts interesting if eccentric reads, many think them rubbish or a lunatic's misunderstanding of Platonic forms, and a large percentage of masters scrape the pages clean and re-use them for their own purposes.

False Scholars

If a character desires, he may attempt to gain an education from a university illegally, by posing as a student and not paying the mandatory matriculation fees. He must dress as a student, which isn't difficult, and inconspicuously slip into lectures and participate in disputationes. Since most universities have a large number of visiting masters and students, this isn't as hard as it sounds.

Each season, the player must make a Communication + Guile + stress die roll against an Ease Factor of 9 to pass the character off as a regular student. Penalties from The Gift apply to this roll. If the roll is successful, the student gains the same amount of experience points as a regular student. If the roll fails, the student doesn't attend disputationes – for fear of discovery – and gains only half the normal experience points. If the roll botches, the character is discovered and caught, and brought before the law courts of the municipality. Depending on the character, the other player characters could stage a dazzling rescue to retrieve their companion.

Story Seed: The Undelivered Deal

A neighboring magus has discovered that a summa on Herbam is owned by a university master, and has made a clandestine deal with one of his students to copy the work, since the magus' Gift prevents him from doing it himself. The student pretends to copy another work, to allay the suspicions of his master, and is all the while copying the desired tome. A season passes, and the ruse seems to be working. The student promises the magus that he will have the finished copy ready at the end of a second season.

When the time for delivery comes, the student fails to show at the appointed rendezvous. Subtle inquiries from the magus' companions reveal that the student had been discovered and fled in the night, fearful of his master's reprimand. At a loss for the proper response to this situation, the magus visits the players' covenant and confesses his situation to the player characters. He has the Blatant Gift and refuses to enter the university town to investigate the student's disappearance. Where has the student gone, and more importantly, does he have the copy of the book he promised to make?

After arriving at his destination, a student must find a master to register under. Even in the communal education system of southern universities, every student must be attached to a specific master, who has the responsibility of overseeing the student's studies and private life, and who assumes some legal responsibility for the student's civil conduct. There are no educational prerequisites for being accepted, and students are judged on their moral character alone. Naturally, gifts from affluent parents can grease this process. Having found a master, the student must matriculate into the university, which involves paying an entrance fee and swearing the Oath of Matriculation to the master. Each master keeps a private register of the students sworn to him, and in 1220, such a register remains the private property of the master. Universities will not compose registers of all their students until the end of the century. A master usually has twenty to thirty students sworn to him.

While it is necessary to find a master, it is not vital that a student matriculate before attending classes. Many students, particularly those who lack funds, make verbal agreements with a master, promising to live by the statutes of the university and matriculate into the university before their academic career ends. Matriculation entails paying a fee, signing the master's register, and swearing the Oath of Matriculation, in which the student must swear to obey his master and the statutes of the university, promote the welfare of the university, and renounce private vengeance from injustice, both academic and private. To swear a binding oath the student must be at least 16 years of age, forcing younger students to wait until they have come of legal age.

Since registers are private, not all masters know who all the students at a university are, nor even if any particular student is matriculated, or even legally bound to the university. Students study from the collection of masters in a faculty, learning grammar from one master, for example, and logic from another. A high student-master ratio and private registers allow some men to sneak an education out of the university. These falsi scholares, or false scholars, are usually local men who can easily slip into the classroom dressed in student garb. They receive an education without ever paying for it, or binding themselves to the university through oaths. False scholars are common in the Faculties of Arts, less so in the higher faculties that have a smaller student-master ratio.

Once accepted by a master, matriculating or not, the student finds his representative nation and joins his fellows. He will live with these young men until his educational program is complete. He enjoys the fixed rent and boarding fee of the nation, and the companionship of his countrymen. He will also assume their prejudices, and will loyally participate in pranks against other nations.

There is also a group of students called poor students, who are unable to pay for even the most meager education. The church sees itself as responsible for the instruction of the laity, so it awards a handful of able students the opportunity for advanced studies. Poor students usually live in squalid conditions and attend a Faculty of Arts. Note that this is not the same as the Flaw: Poor Student, which emphasizes a student's learning ability rather than his income.

Besides lectures, students are expected to attend mass daily, as well as the weekly sermon delivered on Sundays. Ordinary lectures begin at sunrise. They are taught by masters in a house that they rent for that purpose. Crude wooden tables and chairs are provided for the students, and fresh straw is strewn about the room in the winter. The student is expected to bring a copy of the text the master is lecturing about, as well as quills and ink to make personal notes in the margins. Lectures are not interactive; the master dictates and the students madly take notes. Attendance is mandatory, but absences are not always noted. Some masters employ an assistant to mark absentee students, but many merely arrive and launch into their prepared presentation. Late students are refused entry, and disruptive students dismissed. The master lectures for two or three hours, after which the students are excused and can mill about until lunchtime.

Universities follow a strict curriculum, every text being approved by the masters and any ecclesiastical superiors they may have. Few students are rich enough to buy the text outright. Most rent a few pages of the text that the master will cover from a book seller, and make personal copies. The course load is large, and copying texts is a daily chore. They also rewrite their notes made during class, converting them from hasty scribbles into legible, logical ideas. Since a student is taking classes during the same season, it takes longer than the normal copying rules (ArM5, page 166). Overall, it takes twice as long as normal, so that a character can carefully copy half a tractatus or gain points equal to 3 + Profession: Scribe/2 to accumulate toward a summa. If a character copies quickly, he may copy one and a half tractatus in a season or gain 9 + 1.5 times his Profession: Scribe score of points accumulated toward a summa's level. Copying quickly still reduces the source text's Quality by 1. Chapter Two: Artes Liberales discusses the authoritative texts used in the curriculum of each discipline of the Artes Liberales, and the Who's Who in Philosophy appendix lists these texts' Level and Quality.

Academic Learning and Experience Points

Typically, a character earns experience points in a single Ability or Art in a season, regardless of whether these experience points are earned by practice, teaching, training, or exposure. Adventures break this rule, allowing players to distribute experience points gained from a story in any Art or Ability the character used. Academic learning is another exception, allowing characters to distribute earned experience points to more than one Ability.

Each time a character earns experience points from being taught an Academic Ability, the player may apply those experience points to the specific Academic Ability taught, or to Latin or Teaching. He must put at least half of the gained experience points in the Academic Ability taught, distributing the remaining experience points however he wishes. If the character is taught Latin, the player may put some of those experience points in Artes Liberales as well, since Latin is taught using the classics and displaying the grammatical and rhetorical skill of the ancient authors. If a player puts experience points gained from Latin instruction into Artes Liberales, he must put at least half of them in Latin.

This is a common practice at a university for student characters with no prior learning in Latin.

Story Seed: On the Nature of Magic

An advanced student at a nearby university has begun teaching Magic Theory to students as part of an extra-ordinary lecture series. The group meets in a brothel after dinner, crowding a rented room and listening to the instructor. The time or location of the meeting isn't as odd as the subject matter, causing the brothel owner to wonder if her renters are up to something nefarious. She is considering informing the university masters, the town officials, or the local clergy. An incidental meeting with a covenant grog brings this matter to the magi's attention.

This raises serious questions. Who is this advanced student? Why is he teaching Magic Theory, and why are a group of students interested enough to listen? Is the teacher or any of the students Gifted? What was the grog doing at a brothel in the first place?

In fact, the instructor is a magus, Theopholus of House Jerbiton. He has the Gentle Gift, and is teaching Magic Theory to students to see if any of them have a natural inclination for it. Perhaps such an individual would also have the Gentle Gift. Even if he doesn't find a Gifted person, he can still cull the university flock looking for scribes, copyists, and other potentially useful covenant members. He is doing this without the authority of his covenant, hoping to increase his personal power at home by returning with an apprentice or fresh employees. Your magi might find his intrusions unacceptable.

After lunch, extra-ordinary lectures take place, lasting until the late afternoon. These lectures are not taught by masters but by baccalaureates, student-masters, and specialist students to younger members. Extra-ordinary lectures are not as regulated by university officials as ordinary lectures are, so the topics may vary considerably. Teachers base their lectures on recent commentaries on authoritative texts rather than the originals, so the lectures are more vibrant and contemporary. Alchemy and astrology are sometimes taught, as are other esoteric classes on natural philosophy. These lectures do not meet any requirements for any license; they are electives that are meant both to entice young minds and provide the new teachers with classroom experience. Because they have the potential to be controversial, they are incredibly popular with the students. After these lectures, students have a few hours of free time before supper, eaten together in their college or rented rooms.

The pattern of ordinary lectures in the morning and extra-ordinary lectures in the afternoon is not universal among universities, and different types of lectures are held at different times and different locations. For example, the University of Paris has a penchant for having the students gather in the meadows outside the city. The academic distinction between the two types of lectures is universal, however; ordinary lectures count toward a license and extra-ordinary lectures do not.

One day of the week the students participate in a formal debate called a disputatio. Certain students are selected to debate either each other or a master. This is the test to see if they have understood their studies. Disputationes vary in difficulty, depending on the material, personality of the master, and age of the participants. Weekly disputationes cannot be failed, per se, although participants can certainly do poorly. The master uses them to measure the students' progress.

Students also meet periodically to discuss matters important to their college, nation, and faculty. These organized gatherings are led by the nation's proctor. He ensures that university statutes are being followed, and imposes fines on students who have made infractions. Fines are paid in liters of wine rather than cash. The proctors of the various nations also act as the university dean's councilors, advising him on administrative matters that concern the students.

Tuition, food, and rent usually cost a student two Mythic Pounds a year. Books, parchment, and writing supplies typically cost another two Mythic Pounds. These prices fluctuate slightly, with costs being steeper at Bologna and Paris and lower at Salerno and Arezzo.

A student character spends two seasons a year studying and has two "free" seasons, like any other Ars Magica character (ArM5, page 163). This abstraction is to keep academic characters in line with other Ars Magica characters. Historically universities taught classes for most of the year, with sizeable breaks for religious holidays and a larger break during the summer.

With such a heavy load of academic work, it's hard to imagine that students would have time to get into trouble. But like all young men, they find the time. Resentments lie like a thick fog between students and townsfolk. Students find the locals dim-witted, lazy, and mean-spirited, while townspeople think students are over-privileged, idlers, and arrogant. Racial prejudices color both perspectives, "race" denoting the community or area someone is from, as the nations find the locals noisome and the townsfolk resent the legal protection and urban intrusion of the foreigners. University masters and town leaders try their best to keep this tension to a low boil, but they sometimes fail and violence spills into the streets.

Many student statutes are aimed at preventing such violence, hence the prohibition on drinking, gambling, and visiting local women. Each nation has imposed a curfew that members are supposed to follow. However, statutes are commonly ignored and rented rooms are easy to sneak out of. For many young men, the call of the urban nightlife is too loud to resist. Outside of the purview of rectors and proctors, students have their favorite drinking holes and gambling dens. Certain brothels cater specifically to university students and masters, and offer a modicum of discretion to individual clients.

If your saga is set in a university town, town and student rivalries offer exciting moments of tension and conflict resolution. Player characters do not necessarily have to be either a student or a townsman, and could simply be innocent bystanders who are unfortunately in the wrong place when violence stirs. Insults and slurs quickly lead to punches and kicks, and non-lethal brawling could easily evolve into drawn swords. Typically, those engaged do not have weapons with them, since these are barred by both university and town laws, and instead race home, gather weapons and fellows, and search for the offenders in the dead of the night. This has happened more than once in a university town, and will likely happen for years to come.

University students take only one exam per stage of their academic careers. There are no periodic or regular examinations, and a typical student will study for three years before undergoing his only examination. Called a private examination, this exam is exhaustive. The prospective graduate is tested before all the masters of his faculty, who propose complex questions and points of debate that must be answered and defended. Theoretically, these questions concern the entire academic career of the candidate to date. This is an oral examination, lasting an entire day or more, at the end of which the masters decide if the candidate has expressed enough knowledge to be awarded the sought-after degree. Most candidates fail this examination, both because it is extremely difficult and because failing means they must spend another year studying if they hope to attempt it again. This means another year of tuition and living expenses, much of which goes to the examining masters.

Following the private examination is a public examination. Having passed his private examination, the candidate must participate in the public examination, which is an extremely ceremonial procedure conducted in front of the entire membership of the university. He delivers a lecture to the audience, purposefully similar to a lecture he would teach to a class, displaying his teaching style and expert knowledge. At the end of the public examination, the candidate is awarded his license by the diocesan chancellor or secular agent who is empowered to award the license. He cannot fail his public examination, and while it is only a formality, it is a necessary one. While he might receive the right to his license after passing his private examination, the actual document is awarded after the public examination.

Not every student who passes the private examination takes the public examination. The rub is that the candidate must pay for the ceremony, including the mandatory feast and individual gifts given to the masters of his faculty. This entire ceremony can cost as much as an entire Mythic Pound, more for the higher degrees. The difficulty of the private examination, and the cost of the public, means that very few students who begin their journey to an academic degree finish it. The only career that is absolutely barred to a student without a degree is university teaching. While a degree is helpful in gaining a job, it is not vital. Nor does it guarantee post-graduate employment outside the university.

Gilpatrick

Characteristics: Int +2, Per +1, Pre -1, Com +2, Str +1, Sta 0, Dex 0, Qik 0

Size: -1

Age: 19 (19)

Decrepitude: 0

Warping Score: 0 (0)

Confidence Score: 1 (3)

Virtues and Flaws: Baccalaureus; Entrancement; Book Learner, Intuition, Latent Magic Ability; Favors, Overconfident; Small Frame

Personality Traits: Overconfident +3, Chatty +2, Self-obsessed +2

Reputations: Good Astronomer 1 (academic)

Combat:

Dodge: Init +0, Attack n/a, Defense +0, Damage n/a

Soak: +0

Fatigue Levels: OK, 0, –1, –3, –5, Unconscious

Wound Penalties: –1 (1–4), –3 (5–8), –5 (9–12), Incapacitated (13–16), Dead (17+)

Abilities: Arabic 2 (astronomical terms), Artes Liberales 3 (astronomy), Athletics 2 (contortions), Awareness 1 (alertness), Bargain 2 (writing supplies), Charm 2 (flattery), English 3 (slang), Entrancement 3 (social equals), Folk Ken 1 (clergy), French 4 (slang), Greek 3 (mathematical terms), Irish 5 (slang), Latin 5 (academic usage), Swim 1 (long distances), Theology 3 (ontological arguments)

Equipment: Scholar's robes

Encumbrance: 0 (0)

Appearance: Gilpatrick has blue eyes, ruddy cheeks, and dark hair poking out of the hood of his scholastic robes. He is short with a slight build.

Gilpatrick is an Irish-born student studying at the University of Paris. He is indebted to the bishop of Dublin for his initial scholastic placement, a debt he has yet to repay. He has used his Entrancement Ability to his advantage, finding cheap housing, a master, and securing school supplies. Unfortunately, he can't use it in disputationes, which are as difficult as combat for those who want to look someone in the eye. He has studied for three years at the university and (barely) received his baccalaureate license. Presently, he is preparing to enter the Faculty of Theology.

Gilpatrick is never at a loss to talk about himself. He loves the university environment, both the learning and the wilder side of student life. His overconfidence has led him to some of Paris' seedier drinking establishments, where he has heard rumors of an order of "philosophers", men and women who can manipulate reality at their whim. He would be very interested in meeting such a person.

Gilpatrick is a companion-level character. He is easily customized for universities other than Paris. If, for example, your saga is set closer to Italy, replace Gilpatrick's French with Italian, and his Theology with Canon and Civil Law. He also has room for three more points of Virtues and Flaws. He knows the Latin, Greek, and Arabic writing systems.

Story Seed: The End of the Oral Oath?

A group of magi, taken with the bureaucratic practices of kings and bishops, has convinced House Guernicus that a publicly available written ledger listing the names of all Hermetic magi would be a good thing. They further argue that merely having a maga say her Oath of Hermes is problematic, and that every magus and maga should sign a written Oath of Hermes, which should be compiled and stored at Durenmar. The Roman Tribunal of 1207 has granted the first privilege, but was unconvinced of the second.

This same group is determined to record the names of every magus in Mythic Europe, and, while doing so, advance their case for written oaths in other Tribunals. They hope to garnish enough support to present their proposal at the next Grand Tribunal. There is already House reluctance; Ex Miscellanea finds the proposal ludicrous and is certain that there are ulterior motives at play, Bjornaer resents the proposed intrusion on their House and Mystery, and Bonisagus, a generally conservative House, resists because it is new. Houses Guernicus and Mercere, who may already have such compilations, are reluctant to share this information with the Order.

The player characters become intractably involved, their number being just enough to propel the proposal forward, or squash it forever. Hopefully, the group will be in disagreement, allowing the proponents to curry favor with bribes and future promises. If your saga is not politically orientated, the incomplete ledger could lead to clues about missing and forgotten magi. Seekers would want a look at this list. Some magi, who are perhaps dabbling in things best left alone, would rather not have their names on the list, instead drifting to the edges of Hermetic memory to pursue their ambiguously legal research.

Passing Examinations

Examinations are deliberative disputationes, as explained below in the disputatio section. Characters who spend the required time studying are eligible to take a private examination. If your saga is sufficiently academic, and your troupe would enjoy running multiple disputationes against the candidate character, you may follow the rules listed under Disputatio. If, however, you wish to spend time on other aspects of your saga, you can simply calculate a candidate character's Examination Total at the end of the season to see if he passes his private examination. The character must have spent the required time studying at a university before this is allowed. A baccalaureate candidate must have spent three years at the university, a candidate for magister in artibus five more, and a candidate for doctor in (faculty) ten years total.

The character must also have a required score in a Good Academic Reputation before the masters will allow him to attempt the private examination. Bad Reputations should also be considered. If the Bad Reputation is academic, subtract it from the positive Good Academic Reputation to see if the character has the required minimum. A Bad Reputation: Drunkard, for example, would not necessarily detract from a Good Reputation: Diligent Student. A baccalaureate candidate needs a Good Academic Reputation of at least 1, a magister in artibus candidate 2, and a doctoral candidate needs a minimum score of 3.

Calculate the candidate character's Communication + Academic Ability + Good Academic Reputation – relevant Bad Reputation. The Academic Ability is specific to each license. The Ease Factor depends on the desired license.

Baccalaureus License Exam Total: Communication + Artes Liberales + Good Academic Reputation - Bad Academic Reputation + Stress Die vs. 6

Magister in Artibus License Exam Total: Communication + Artes Liberales + Good Academic Reputation - Bad Academic Reputation + Stress Die vs. 12

Doctor in (Faculty) License Exam Total: Communication + Faculty's Academic Ability (Theology, Medicine, or Canon or Civil Law) + Good Academic Reputation - Bad Academic Reputation + Stress Die vs. 12

There is no in-game mechanic to pass the public examination, and it is purely a matter of whether the candidate character has the funds to do so. The public examination for a baccalaureate license costs one Mythic Pound, the magister in artibus public examination costs three, and the doctor in (faculty) public examination costs five Mythic Pounds.

After graduation, many university students seek careers. Only a few continue their studies, passing from simple student to masterstudent and perhaps on to specialist student. Most clerical students likely find a position in a cardinal's court or a bishop's household, with a lucky few obtaining jobs in the papal curia. This office is responsible for the many bulls, letters, correspondences, land grants, benefices, and other legal documents of the pope, and has steadily grown as the western church has grown in power. Each document is copied many times, for the papal archives and multiple distributions, and the curia employs hundreds of scribes, jurists, and copyists. Other ecclesiastical courts operate in the same way, albeit on a much smaller scale.

Other learned clerics occupy parishes and dioceses, using their knowledge in letters to the benefit of their flock. Land ownership and inheritances are commonly disputed with lay neighbors, especially those of means and political power, and the cleric needs to be able to contest against the equally educated jurists working for the secular lord. Some graduate clerics continue to work for the university, as grammar teachers, beadles, or in other middle management positions.

Lay graduates seek nearly the same functions in the courts of lords or towns. Both the French and Angevin courts are growing, employing advocates, administrators, judges, and jurists. Just as one bad apple spoils the barrel, as soon as one political faction has a lawyer, his opponents will want one to counter him. The book trade is growing as well, and many lay scholars are gainfully employed by guildsmen as copyists and scribes. Several become private tutors, teaching the children of nobles and wealthy townsmen simple grammar and mathematics.

Hermetic covenants also employ learned laymen, and this knowledge is more common than the Order may wish. Several covenant autocrats are university men, and many scribes were simple students, who learned just enough of the liberal arts to be useful.

Chapter Six: Institutional Education, offers game mechanics for university students seeking gainful employment.

Masters are trained professionals, men who have undergone rigorous educational training and continued on to teach in a university. Most, but not all, were educated in a university. Exceptions occur in the southern schools, where famous surgeons and lawyers teach medicine and law, and in the northern schools where a charismatic teacher can rise from the cathedral schools. Most masters begin teaching at around thirty years of age.

Masters are primarily responsible for teaching Academic Abilities, through their daily lectures and weekly disputationes. Statutes exist to keep their teaching fresh, so that they do not fall into a routine. Each day's lecture must be prepared beforehand, since the master cannot instruct his students using notes. He must have intimate knowledge of his source text, which he will explain piecemeal to his students throughout the academic term. Theoretically, he should not comment on more pages than a student can copy in a night. Ideally, a student copies three or four pages from a text, and the master comments on those pages in the next day's class. Since lectures are not interactive, the master gains little feedback on his teaching style or the pace of his instruction, and proceeds at his pace, rather than the students'.

Each week the master must hold and oversee a disputatio, either arranged between students or in which he disputes against a single student. If his class is small, he holds the disputatio in the rented room where he teaches. For larger classes, and more important disputationes, he holds it in the church that the university uses for congregations, assemblies, and other larger events.

The academic workload also includes making sure that the copies made of authoritative texts are accurate. The most reliable copy of a text is used to make second copies, which are then rented by the students to make their own copies. Masters must ensure that these second copies are accurate.

Several administrative matters also occupy the masters. Each is responsible for a clutch of students, and acts as the personal adviser of each, overseeing his studies and academic progress. He also acts as his judge if the student is caught breaking a town or university law. Masters and students have the right to be tried under ecclesiastical law, so the master should have a score in Canon Law. If he does not, he will defer the case to a university superior or urban cleric who has the necessary skill — either the town's cathedral chancellor, archdeacon, or bishop.

Masters are also in charge of the reformatio, the practice of reviewing the universities statutes, classes, and lectures and imposing necessary reforms. Continually critical of itself, the university routinely explores its organization and body of knowledge to ensure accuracy and educational stability. Reforming committees are made up of students and masters, but it is the latter who are under the most pressure to maintain the high standards of their institution and profession.

Masters also have a monopoly on their professional positions. They choose by consensus who is accepted as a master, having wrested this right from the hands of ecclesiastical and secular administrations. Masters who have teaching positions, called chairs and funded by ecclesiastical benefices, are called resident masters. A resident master's position is guaranteed for as long as he wants it, usually until he is too old to teach. He can be dismissed by his fellows, but such a dismissal must be grounded in his poor behavior, heretical writings, or excessive absences.

Visiting masters are teachers who teach for a limited time, usually a year, and are paid a salary. A visiting master does not sit on any of the university's committees, does not accept students in a personal register, and is not guaranteed a position once his specific term of hire ends. He is usually hired to teach basic grammar or some of the other fundamentals of a higher faculty. Visiting teachers are usually foreigners, trained at another university as magisters in artibus, with a Good Reputation as a teacher or foremost authority on a particular subject.

As students are split primarily into nations, masters are divided into faculties. Each university has a specified number of endowed chairs for masters of a particular faculty, usually ranging from six to a dozen. Added to this number are half again as many visiting masters, fulfilling the contractual obligation and perhaps vying for a soon-to-be-vacant chair. At a large university, with four faculties, there could be as many as 30 resident masters and just as many visiting masters.

Master characters must teach two seasons of every year, and like other normal characters, receive two "free" seasons to pursue other interests. They gain exposure experience points for the seasons spent teaching.

Heresy is an opinion or doctrine that expresses a different view than that endorsed by the faith. It is also an adherence to these views. Heresy is thus having an unorthodox opinion and expressing it. The Church is vehemently opposed to doctrines that threaten its universal orthodoxy, and has taken a strong stance against heretics since its formation. Radical scholastic thought runs the risk of being deemed heretical, and the consequences are drastic. The lesser punishment is destruction of the book and all its copies, and the promise to abandon heretical thoughts. The greatest and most dire punishment is being burned alive. As intellectual academics weave their often-tangled arguments, they must be constantly vigilant that their theories do not stray into heresy.

This does not mean there is no room for free or original thought. Church authorities recognize that it is not a sin to investigate God's work by rational methods. Many theories that seem like heresy at first are merely errors, and need only correction, not suppression and censure. For example, the theory that there were two predeterminations, one good and one evil, is only an error, corrected by John Scottus in the ninth century. Two of Peter Abelard's theories were heresies, however, and Bernard of Clairvaux condemned his works to the flames.

Two of the most important unrepentant heretics of the thirteenth century were teachers at Paris, magisters in artibus who were still at the university pursuing their theology license. They both taught a type of pantheistic philosophy, claiming that God and the universe are one. "God is everything and everything is God." This violated the idea that God is separate and outside reality. It also denied transubstantiation (that the eucharist becomes the body of Christ), among other fundamental theological ideas. The first heretic, Amaury de Bene, had a substantial following. When his sect of clerics, priests, and laymen was uncovered and their heresy discovered, they were suppressed. Amaury, four years dead, was exhumed, excommunicated, and his bones tossed into unhallowed ground. Four of his followers were imprisoned for life, and six others were released to the secular authorities to be burned at the stake.

The second heretic is David of Dinant. His heresy was discovered in 1215 by Cardinal Robert de Courçon, after a reading of his book, Quaternuli ("little note-books"). His book confiscated, David refused to recant his beliefs and fled the city during the night. His current whereabouts are unknown. Where Amaury's theories were only heretical, David's are also infernal. The Quaternuli is a tractatus describing the Infernal Virtue: Incantation, with a Quality of 13. Incantation is an Infernal Supernatural Ability (see Realms of Power: The Infernal, page 104) that grants the Unholy Method: Incantation. Rumor has it that David is writing a second book detailing an Unholy Power. The combination of the two, the Unholy Method and an Unholy Power, can cause ruinous effects.

A teaching character may wish to use a scribe to record his academic lectures. These notes can be bound into a tractatus, offering commentaries on the Academic Ability the teacher was teaching. Done in the same season that the character is teaching, both the teaching character and the scribe are considered to be working, receiving exposure experience points for the season (ArM5, page 165). At season's end, the scribe produces a tractatus with a Quality of the teaching character's Communication + one half the scribe's Profession: Scribe score.

Lecture Commentary Quality: Teacher's Communication + scribe's Profession: Scribe/2

A character could then spend an additional season and edit his lecture commentary. This is like glossing a text (see Covenants) but includes more rewriting. When finished the tractatus' quality is increased by one. Bonuses from Virtues concerning writing are also applied.

Edited Lecture Commentary Quality: Original Quality + 1 + bonuses from Virtues

Lecture commentaries will never be as high a quality as a tractatus written by the schoolman. The benefit is that they do not count against the number of regular tractatus that a character can write. A character can produce a number of lecture commentaries equal to his relevant Academic Ability score. For example, a scholar with Artes Liberales 4 can write 2 tractatus and produce 4 lecture commentaries.

Arcane Abilities are sometimes taught in the same manner as Academic Abilities. If a teacher, mundane or magus, teaches more than one student an Arcane Ability, he can use a scribe to make a lecture commentary. The teaching of Hermetic Arts is much more interactive, and commentaries cannot be made from those seasons of instruction.

As a scholar increases his knowledge, his reputation in academia also increases. Since academic interests extend outside educational circles, a schoolman's reputation influences and attracts secular attention. Academic Reputations can be both good and bad, and characters can have both a good and bad Academic Reputation at the same time. Peter Abelard, for example, would have had both an excellent Good Academic Reputation: Logician, and a substantial Bad Reputation: Argumentative.

Every character who receives institutional education during character generation has a Good Academic Reputation score of 0. Characters with the Virtue Famous can, with the troupe's agreement, have a starting Academic Reputation of 4. For most characters, those who don't pursue an academic career, this Reputation is negligible, and need not be recorded. It is vital to characters with an academic vocation, and may interest any Hermetic characters who might brush elbows with scholastic characters. An Academic Reputation builds like an Ability, increased by experience points gained solely through academic events. Academic Reputation experience points cannot be used in any other way than to raise Academic Reputations.

A Good Academic Reputation is increased through scholarship. Each time a character does any of the following, he gains one Academic Reputation experience point:

• Write a summa with its level equal to half the relevant Ability score
• Write a tractatus
• Write two lecture commentaries
• Translate an academic text into Latin
• Increase his score in Artes Liberales, Philosophiae, Theology, or Civil and Canon Law (see the exception for Common Law below)
• Gloss a text that is used in a school's curriculum
• Get accepted by a school or master as a student
• Gain a teaching position
• Gain an ecclesiastical post
• Do something academic that the troupe deems exceptionally notable during an adventure

A character trained in Common Law gains an experience point of Academic Reputation for writing a summa or tractatus on Common Law, and for increasing his score in that Ability. However, this is only appreciated in England. Such a character should have a second Good Academic Reputation to cover his reputation in England.

Some example Good Academic Reputations are: Good Logician, Good Grammarian, Good Disputer, Fast Learner, Prolific Writer, Engaging Lecturer, Fervent Platonist, Enthusiastic Learner, and Passionate Pupil.

Slurs are heard louder than praise, and it is easy to gain a Bad Academic Reputation. The following list describes various deeds and the resulting gain of experience points that increase a Bad Academic Reputation. Storyguides are allowed to increase the number of experience points if the specified deed is exceptionally heinous or frequently repeated.

• Being forced to leave an academic post grants 5 experience points
• Not writing a summa within a five-year period grants 5 experience points
• Not writing a tractatus or lecture commentary within a two-year period grants 1 experience point
• Losing a clerical benefice or prebend grants 5 experience points
• Losing a clerical position grants 10 experience points
• Being caught engaging in immoral activities grants at least 5 experience points.
• Stagnating gains a character 1 experience point per year. A character stagnates when he does nothing to advance his scholarship. If a year passes and the character does not gain any experience points towards a Good Academic Reputation, he gains 1 experience point toward a Bad Academic Reputation

Some examples of Bad Academic Reputations are: Poor Mathematician, Poor Astronomer, Argumentative Student, Inattentive Student, Absentee, Belligerent Disputer, Reluctant Writer, and Miserable Penmanship.

Studying, increasing, or writing about the Hermetic Arts does not award Academic Reputation experience points, which is why most magi disdain any Good Academic Reputation they might have. A maga's Academic Reputation holds no sway in any Hermetic gathering. However, some magi do pursue scholarly interests, with the resulting gain in Academic Reputation, most notably magi of House Jerbiton. Those who do gain the same boons that regular academics gain as they increase their Academic Reputation.

A disputatio (plural disputationes) is an extremely formal style of verbal debate or dispute used by scholastics as a training exercise for students and in sparring matches between accomplished scholars. Based on the rhetorical writings of Cicero, two challengers engage in a structured argument to prove some point, opinion, or academic issue. Every university scholar participates in disputationes, and some have achieved great renown for their ability in these theoretical discussions.

Disputationes are used by academics in academic environments. There are three types of disputationes: epideictic, which attempt to praise or blemish an opponent; deliberative, which express a point or opinion; and forensic, used judicially to prosecute or defend a legal issue. A cocky magister might engage a new teacher in an epideictic disputatio to show the student body that he is still the most prestigious instructor, advanced theology students might have a deliberative disputatio debating if animals have a soul, and an accused magister might have a forensic disputatio with the leaders of his university defending against charges of adultery.

The first challenger is called the opponent, the defender the responder, and both contestants are called disputers. The disputers debate until one has proved the other's argument inadequate or faulty, thus defeating his challenger and winning the disputatio. Every disputatio has a judge, someone who is more versed in the topic to be disputed, such as an older student for classroom disputes, an elder magister for teacher disputationes, or an experienced legal judge for forensic debates. This judge then poses a series of questions germane to the disputed topic. The disputer who has been selected as the opponent offers the first statement, to which the respondent replies in defense. Then, the respondent offers his counter argument, and the opponent replies in response.

This exchange of the opponent's statement and the respondent's reply, and the respondent's statement and the opponent's reply, constitute one exchange of the disputatio. Once finished, the judge offers a second question, and a second exchange is undertaken by the disputers. Disputationes have a set number of questions, determined beforehand and usually numbering seven, nine, or twelve. Mechanically, both exchanges are treated like a round, although this is an abstraction used to govern the flow of the disputatio, since each posed statement and its rebuttal could take several minutes. The exchange begins when the opponent offers his first statement, and ends when he defends against the respondent's statement.

In Ars Magica 5th Edition, a disputatio is settled very much like a certamen contest between magi. Disputers try to wear down their opponent's arguments, symbolically rendering their logical argument "unconscious." A disputer's arguments have 5 Fatigue Levels, just like the character. Once a disputer has lost these 5 Fatigue Levels, his opponent wins. Only the argument falls unconscious, however.

A disputatio depends on five totals generated for each disputer. These totals are generated by combining a specific characteristic with a specific Ability. The Ability depends on the subject debated, and includes Artes Liberales, Philosophiae, Theology, and Civil and Canon Law. Unlike certamen, disputationes do not have an Initiative Total, since the opponent and responder are determined before the disputatio begins. The opponent is usually selected because he is the favorite of the judge or audience, or has a higher Good Academic Reputation than the scholar chosen as the respondent.

Attack Total: Communication + Ability + stress die

Defense Total: Perception + Ability + stress die

Attack Advantage: Attack Total – Defense Total (if Attack Total is higher)

Weakening Total: Intelligence + Attack Advantage

Resistance Total: Presence + Highest Positive Academic Reputation

Lost Fatigue Levels are not real fatigue for the characters, but do impose the normal penalties on their disputatio as if they were regular fatigue. Certain Virtues and Flaws influence disputationes, and only disputationes, in the following way:

• Afflicted Tongue penalizes the Attack Total by –2
• Clear Thinker decreases the penalties for lost Fatigue Levels by one point
• Enfeebled penalizes die rolls by a cumulative –1 past the first round of the disputatio
• Good Teacher adds +3 to the Attack Total of a deliberative disputatio
• Incomprehensible penalizes the Attack Total by –6
• Inspirational adds +3 to the Attack Total of epideictic disputatio
• Piercing Gaze adds +3 to the Weakening Total
• Puissant Ability adds +2 to the roll, if the Virtue matches the disputatio Ability; this is just the normal effect of the Virtue
• Short Attention Span penalizes the Defense Total by –3
• Strong-Willed adds +3 to the Resistance Total

The opponent calculates his Attack Total and compares it to the responder's Defense Total. If the Attack Total is higher, he applies his Weakening Total against the responder's Resistance Total to determine if any of the responder's symbolic Fatigue Levels are lost. Then, the responder calculates his Attack Total and compares it to the opponent's Defense Total, following the same procedure described above to determine if the opponent loses Fatigue Levels. Once a disputer has lost all his symbolic Fatigue Levels, he has lost the disputatio.

A disputatio ends when either disputant loses all his Fatigue Levels, or at the arranged number of exchanges. If neither disputer has lost all his Fatigue Levels by the time the disputatio ends, the winner is the disputer who has lost the least number of Fatigue Levels. If both disputants have lost the same number of Fatigue Levels, the disputatio ends in a draw, with neither receiving a decisive victory.

At the end of the disputatio, both challengers must make a Stamina + stress die roll to see if they have lost real fatigue, possibly becoming over-exerted due to their disputatio. The Ease Factor is the number of exchanges (rounds) of the disputatio. This fatigue lost is real, not symbolic like the fatigue lost during a disputatio, and a failed roll results in the loss of 1 Long-Term Fatigue Level. Botching this roll adds additional Long-Term Fatigue Level losses, 1 per 0 on the botch dice. This is important if either challenger then participates in a second, immediate disputatio. Both "real" Long-Term Fatigue Levels and "symbolic" Fatigue Levels apply penalties to disputatio die rolls.

Disputatio Over-Exertion Check: Stamina + stress die vs. Ease Factor equal to the number of rounds of the disputatio

Since disputationes are used in a variety of situations, the storyguide may impose special modifiers on the challengers. The most common modifier is for the judge to declare that the challengers in a disputatio must make extremely precise statements, displaying their knowledge of the argued subject. Each Attack Total must exceed an Ease Factor, set by the storyguide to express the difficulty of the statements. Attack Totals that fall below the Ease Factor are deemed incorrect statements that the respondent does not need to refute, essentially wasting the opponent's portion of the round. The Ease Factor could be 6 for a deliberative disputatio between simple students, 9 for disputing baccalaureates, or 12 for a candidate disputing his masters for his license (see below). Forensic disputationes usually have such an Ease Factor, the value depending on the crime of the accused.

Another odd variation is that, in epideictic and deliberative disputationes, the judge could call for questions from the audience to replace one or more of his own. In such a case, the storyguide generates an Attack Total against the opponent's Defense Total, determining an advantage and proceeding as usual. He then does the same thing for the respondent. Neither disputer gets to return a statement to the crowd, effectively meaning that both must suffer free "attacks" from the crowd. An exchange ends once both disputants have defended themselves.

At Advent and Lent, universities host public disputationes. Both opponent and respondent field questions from the crowd, one after another, offering no reply or counter-argument in response to the field of questions. Set in academic environments, at universities or cathedral schools, these disputationes last all day long. The winner is the disputer who lasts the longest.

To determine a crowd's Attack and Weakening Totals, the only important disputatio totals since they are not responding to statements, consider that a typical crowd is likely filled with schoolmen, fellow masters and students — rather than the common riffraff the notion of a medieval crowd conjures. Roll a stress die (no botch) to determine the Attack Total. Add 6 for a deliberative disputatio, the most common situation when a judge might call for questions from the audience, and add 3 for epideictic disputationes. Add an additional +3 modifier for the highly attended Advent and Lent disputationes. The storyguide may make new rolls for each "attack" and each round, if she wishes, or keep existing values. In-game, this would mean that one member of the crowd asks more than one question before the judge chooses another.

Finally, a graduate candidate's private examination is a disputatio against a panel of magisters. He is the respondent in this disputatio, and must defend his statements from the assembled magisters. He does not have to win the disputatio, but must manage to keep his argument "conscious" until the final exchange. Following this first disputatio, he must then dispute the other masters until all of them have questioned him. This is a grueling exercise that only a quarter of the eligible candidates pass. In game terms, the storyguide should determine the number of magisters on the panel (four to eight) and the number of exchanges in which each will engage the character (seven to ten). Passing the Disputatio Over-Exertion check becomes of primary importance as the candidate continues from one master to the next.

Disputationes are flamboyant, flagrant displays, entertaining and enlightening, but they do not change legal codes or laws. Church officials and secular potentates have much more demanding, painstakingly slow processes for such changes, and while they can be influenced by a dramatic argument, they will ultimately make laws based on other criteria.

Characters should receive some benefit from engaging in and winning a disputatio. The winner of an epideictic or a deliberative either receives one experience point with which he can increase a positive Good Academic Reputation, or force the loser to gain one experience point to apply to a Bad Academic Reputation. The winner of a forensic disputatio proves his case, either for his innocence or someone else's guilt. Disputatio experience point rewards should not be granted more than once a season.

Schoolmen's Disputationes and House Tytalus' Debates

House Tytalus also has a system of debating, honed over time so that they have the reputation for being the finest debaters in the Order of Hermes. This system, detailed in the Tytalus chapter of Houses of Hermes: Societates, is similar to the academic system of disputatio, but not an exact copy. Because of this more flexible system, a Tytalus magus can instantly argue in the academic's style. The reverse is not true, however, and a trained schoolman can only argue in the type of disputatio detailed here.

If an academic character and a Tytalus character ever do engage in a debate, let each character use his style of debate. Calculate the Tytalus character's Debate Totals as per the rules listed in Houses of Hermes: Societates. Use the disputation rules here to calculate the academic character's Disputatio Totals. Engage in the debate as normal, back and forth, allowing the Tytalus character to switch his debate tactics. The academic is restricted to his more rigid style.

Because disputationes are social situations, a maga's Gift can penalize her interaction with mundane agents. Storyguides must determine if a –3 penalty is appropriate, depending on the situation. It is surely called for if the disputatio happens in front of a crowd. If the disputatio happens in front of just a judge, who is used to the Gifted disputer, the penalty can be ignored.

The four largest and most famous universities in Mythic Europe are Bologna, Paris, Oxford, and Montpellier. Several smaller universities exist, and many more will be founded in the near future. In 1220, the smaller universities are Salerno, Reggio, and Arezzo in Italy, Palencia and Salamanca in Spain, and Cambridge in England. While these are smaller than the four most famous, they are not paltry, and several hundred students attend lectures there.

Parisians claim that the University of Paris was founded by Charlemagne, an extension of his Palatine School, and that the ghost of its most famous teacher, the Englishman Alcuin of York, still haunts the classrooms. They are not keen to be reminded that the Palatine School was at Aachen, not Paris. In the eleventh century, Paris was famous for three schools, each with its own succession of dynamic teachers: the cathedral school of Notre Dame, led by William of Champeaux; the Collegiate Church of St Geneviève, where Peter Abelard taught; and the Church of Canons Regular of St. Victor. The cathedral school grew in popularity, surpassing the other two, which failed to attract students as the cathedral school succeeded. Paris was a city of teachers, and it was their large numbers coupled with the success of the cathedral school that led to the university.

Originally teaching in the Ile-de-la-Cité, an island in the River Seine and the very center of Paris, the masters moved to avoid the dominating control of the bishop's chancellor. Crossing to the left bank, the masters live in an area named the Rue de Fouarre, "the street of straw", named after the straw that covers the masters' schoolroom floors. A ramshackle collection of jumbled houses and twisted avenues, this section of Paris will soon be called the Latin Quarter, because of the perpetual drone of the speaking students.

Unlike the south, with its permissive attitude, the University of Paris is conservative, hieratic, and dogmatic. Focusing on theology, it is almost an extension of the church, and while it struggles for autonomy, it embraces attitudes very similar to ecclesiastics. Like their predecessors, many of the masters are regular members of the clergy, priests who have committed themselves to education. They do not continue the ambiguous clerical affiliations of the students, but take holy orders and receive benefices. In fact, no resident master of the University of Paris can be paid through student tuition, and each receives his income through benefices bestowed by the bishop.

Paris is a university of masters, who make the rules for themselves and their students. There are four faculties at Paris: the Faculties of Arts, Theology, Law, and Medicine. Of the four, Paris is most known for educating theologians, and the only doctoral license it grants is a doctor in theologia. Though it presents itself as the ideal university, not every course of instruction is taught, nor is every available source text employed. In 1219, the masters were forbidden to teach civil law, banned by Pope Honorius III because he was upset by civil law's growing popularity. The university has also been banned from teaching the New Aristotle, preferring its more conservative curriculum.

More than 5,000 students attend the university. They are divided into four nations: France, Normandy, Picardy, and the England nation that includes German students and those who come from any region not covered by the other three nations. Their structure and responsibilities mirror those of their Bolognese brothers, but they do not have the political power that the southern students have. The masters have won the battle between student guild and master guild, and jealously maintain the advantage. A few hospices exist, all for ecclesiastical students. Besides Dominican hospices, there are Saint-Thomas de Louvre, St. Honore, and Dix-Huit ("The Eighteen").

In 1200, a terrible outbreak of town versus gown rivalry resulted in the death of several students and citizens, the most severe case to date. The masters sought protection from the crown, and were awarded the right to suspend lectures and cease teaching if they felt their rights were infringed upon by city officials. This has left a lingering resentment, especially in the provost of Paris, the head burgher, and the chancellor of Notre Dame, Philippus de Grevia. The chancellor has the power to confer degrees and excommunicate members of the university, and he uses these rights to maintain his influence over the university masters. They, in return, seek imperial and papal protection from the chancellor's abuse of his privileges. By 1220, papal decree has demanded that the chancellor bestow degrees based on the masters' recommendation alone, and has stated that he is compelled to follow their recommendations. This has only exacerbated the tension.

Another source of conflict is the newly arrived Dominican friars, living apart in private hospices but studying the same texts under the same masters. The Dominicans are extremely orthodox in their views and strictly adhere to papal authority and the rules of their Order. They are all too ready to criticize a teacher who tries to incorporate possibly heretical ideas into his lectures.

A Parisian Saga

Games set in Paris will be affected by the constant tension felt between the students and the citizens. While this has subsided from its peak, small skirmishes continue to erupt between students and citizens. The Latin Quarter will surely draw the attention of neighboring magi, as it is a place of books and learning. It is also a place of drinking and gambling, home to thieves and prostitutes. Visiting player characters are susceptible to all sorts of urban commotions in the nearly lawless streets of nighttime Paris.

Masters and students are spread throughout the Latin Quarter, governed only by their personal adherence to university statutes. Characters might wish to engage one for a personal tutor. Since advanced students teach the extraordinary lectures, especially those concerned with alchemy and astrology, their personal residences offer tempting bait for Hermetic characters interested in those arts. If the chancellor knows of the player characters, he might enlist them in his nefarious schemes to discredit the university masters. Stirring up trouble on the streets is easy; it is more complicated to discredit a master, although a magus may have the means to do so. On the other hand, the masters might seek magical aid in their struggles against the chancellor and provost, since both the king's and pope's aid is often slow coming and at times ineffectual.

The Nature of Students

The English are drunken cowards, the French proud, soft and effeminate; the Germans are quarrelsome and foul-mouthed, the Normans vain and haughty, the men of Poitou treacherous and miserly, the Burgundians stupid brutes, the Bretons frivolous and flighty, the Lombards miserly, spiteful and evil-minded, the Romans vicious and violent, the Sicilians tyrannical and cruel, the men of Brabant are thieves and the Flemings are debauched.

— Jacques de Vitry, commenting on students living in the Latin Quarter in the early thirteenth century

According to legend, the University of Bologna was founded in 433 by the Emperor Theodosius II, who granted a group of masters the right to teach. Private teaching institutions never died out in northern Italy, and many northern towns maintained a tradition of municipal schools led by private instructors. Bologna has always had a reputation for the study of the liberal arts, but it was the emphasis on law that developed in the eleventh century that really put the university on the map, led by two important figures, the jurist Irnerius and the monk Gratian.

Many Italian towns continued to use Roman law as the basis of their legal system. In 1135, the Pandects of Justinian, an exhaustive collection of legal codes, were discovered in Amalfi. Other legal codes, transferred from Ravenna, arrived in Bologna, where Irnerius began to teach them to his students. Charismatic and intellectual, Irnerius was the first to teach the Corpus Iuris Civilis, the complete collection of Roman law as practiced by the Empire, focusing on the thickest, most important section called the Digest. At the same time, the Benedictine monk Gratian completed his Decretum, a similar collection of ecclesiastical laws. Herds of students arrived to study either civil or canon law, and Bologna's reputation as the finest legal school in Mythic Europe began.

Compared to the northern schools, Bologna is deemed free-spirited, lax, and revolutionary — a layman's school. It is a collection of universities and nations, all bound together with the common goal of education. It is a student-run university, with the student nations making many of the decisions for the university. The masters are not entirely at their mercy; a guild of masters has long existed at Bologna, one which fought against the student guilds at every turn of the developmental road. The student guilds are huge, and their terrible threat of boycott and flight overpowered the smaller guild of the masters.

There are many student nations in Bologna, the primary two being the Ultramontane, students from above the Alps, and the Cismontane, made up of the nations of Lombards, Tuscans, and Romans, the latter which includes Campanians. Bolognese students do not join a nation, being already protected by urban rights due to their citizenship. The student-to-master ratio is large, sometimes one hundred to one, and while there are never that large a number of masters teaching, there are literally thousands of students in attendance. The student and master guilds have reached an uneasy alliance, accepting each other's needs. However, at the slightest provocation, any student nation is ready to flee Bologna and take its collection of students elsewhere.

Bologna has a Faculty of Law, in which both civil and canon law is taught, and a Faculty of Arts and Medicine. The university does not teach theology, whose importance has been replaced by an emphasis on canon law. The masters are all Bolognese citizens, which is one of the ways that the bishop and his chancellor vie for control over the university. While the student nations are truly democratic, with students biannually electing a proctor to lead them, the masters are run by a monopoly. They choose who becomes a teacher, keeping as tight a rein as they can on their organization. Still, they consider the students’ opinion, since an unpopular choice could cause uproar.

Instruction is centered around the great cathedral of San Pietro, sitting in the center of the walled town. Nearly 40,000 people call Bologna home, making it one of the largest cities of western Mythic Europe. The population is growing, extending past the recently completed city walls. Nearly 6,000 students live in the northern section of town. During the compulsory university meetings, they gather in San Pietro, packing the cathedral and spilling out into the streets.

The current rector of the Faculty of Arts is Boncompagno, a famous rhetorician who has written several tractatus on various subjects. He is still vibrant and enthusiastic despite being in his sixties, and is currently at the head of a hotly debated topic. Boncompagno thinks the university should have a "body" to house its intellectual "head", and is proposing to the university and the city's government that they should erect a building dedicated to learning. This is being opposed on every front, but Boncompagno is persistent.

The rector of the Faculty of Law, Azo, has recently died, and his replacement has not been selected. The two frontrunners are Accursius, a renowned commentator, and Odofredus, a great debater. Both men have grown incredibly wealthy from their scholastic appointment, and own luxurious townhouses and expansive farms outside the city walls. Their faculty fellows are reluctant to name one above the other as rector, since both are popular choices. To settle this dispute, both have announced that they will write a complete digest, which includes all previous legal commentaries, glosses, notes, and expositions on civil law. In 1220, these projects are underway.

At the same time, the podesta of Bologna, Guglielmo de Pusterla, has forbidden the swearing of oaths to non-city organizations, outlawing the Oath of Matriculation that students must make to their masters. He desires the masters to swear an oath to the city, promising not to leave if the students do. Without the students, though, the masters have no income, and are reluctant to make such a promise to the podesta. They have beseeched the pope for help, and Honorius III has told the scholars to resist the podesta using non-violent measures.

A Bolognese Saga

Games set in or near Bologna could quickly become embroiled in these tensions. The covenant is a convenient third party that any faction would be interested in using to settle strife in their favor. It would be surprising if a nearby covenant did not have university ties, making the university's masters the likely candidates to seek aid from the magi. With their rudimentary knowledge of the scholarly wizards, the masters are sure that the magi can cast spells to change the podesta's mind. Their problem could be solved with a wave of a hand. Magi, remembering their Oath of Hermes, should be reluctant to step in and magically alter the situation.

Pope Honorius III's announcement that the masters should resist non-violently indicates that the situation has grown violent. Armed students fight with the podesta's agents, and blood has been spilled on several occasions. Walking the northern section of town at night is dangerous, and masters and students might request an armed guard or two from the covenant to protect them. They are likely to promise all sorts of favors in return: copying books, money, and other gifts or services.

Both Accursius and Odofredus could ask for help constructing their compilations. Both men are rich, powerful, and egotistical, and either might ask for aid that is not entirely ethical. Neither has a complete understanding of magic, so that their requests could be fantastic. Odofredus could ask the magi to trap Accursius in a spell that suspends him in time, while Accursius might ask them to magically whisk Odofredus to Iceland, buying time while his rival travels home. Historically, Accursius pretended to be sick and retreated to his nearby farm. Thinking his rival ill, Odofredus idled away his time, planning to start his digest once he heard that Accursius was well enough to work. Accursius then completed his digest under this guise. In your saga, Accursius might ask to live with the magi, using their library and scriptorium to complete his work. Odofredus' agents would attempt to penetrate the covenant to keep tabs on the sequestered scholar.

Montpellier has a long history as a school of medicine, visited by wandering scholars throughout the tenth and eleventh centuries. Located in southern France, it has a geographic advantage that fosters interactions with Jewish and Arabic intellectuals. Some say the school was initially formed in the eighth century, when retreating Saracens repelled by Charles Martel initiated the university. Whether due to its location or its history, Montpellier relies more heavily on the translated Arabic texts of Avicenna than the authorities used by other universities, either Galen or Hippocrates.

Montpellier gained its status as an independent fief from France in 1204, making it resemble the student-run organization of Bologna more than the masters' school at Paris. While known as a university, it will not receive a papal grant or formal establishment until 1289. The town is ruled by the Guillems family, vassals to the counts of Melgueil and staunch papal supporters. This makes the connection to Bologna even stronger. Most of the time, the Guillems allow the university to govern itself, as long as it maintains proper ties to Pope Honorius III.

There are two faculties at Montpellier, the arts and medicine, and three nations: Provence, Burgundy, and Catalonia. Montpellier offers some courses in civil law, but does not have a recognized faculty for that branch of academia. Rector Bassianus does his best to increase the reputation of the Faculty of Arts, but it is the Faculty of Medicine that draws students from near and far, and its reputation as the preeminent school of medicine is rivaled only by Salerno. Presently, Montpellier does not confer licenses on its candidate masters, although this situation is changing in 1220. Currently, the Cardinal Legate Conrad of Urach is in Montpellier, preparing to announce the pope's wishes for specific statutes of the university. The Bishop of Maguelone is to become the sole authority of the university, appointing a chancellor to grant licenses to acceptable candidates. Previously, Guillem VIII had allowed anyone to teach medicine at Montpellier. The new chancellor will be counseled by the two rectors of the university and a proctor from one of the student nations.

A Montpellier Saga

A saga set in Montpellier in 1220 will certainly start out with the political ramifications of the cardinal legate's announcements. University and noble characters will seek out the magi, asking them to help influence these appointments. The Guillems might even ask the magi to change the cardinal legate's mind. Although they are papal supporters, the new statutes completely remove the university from their hands. The appointment of a single student from the hundreds living in the three nations will certainly cause a row. The once-peaceful institution is now scrabbling with anxious masters and nervous students.

Montpellier is a center for medical studies, and these will also impact the saga. Each student must spend a year studying anatomy, which is best done with corpses. The town only allows the university to use two cadavers a year, far too few, and students have responded by illegally buying dead bodies to use in their studies. The magi, suspicious because of their Gift, are naturally sought out. Students hope the mysterious player characters can assist them with their morbid need.

Based on the teachings of Avicenna, the faculty of medicine takes a more hands-on approach to medicine and diseases than other universities do with their subjects. Thus, they might well discover a new plague in its early stages. Hermetic magi can be well suited to handle such things, and the university might keep friendly relations with the magi just in case such a development arises. Their support is paid for by allowing magi to use Montpellier's library — a large collection of Jewish, Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin books concerning medicine, the liberal arts, and various other less-savory topics. Both alchemy and astrology are studied at Montpellier, which fills the student register with would-be natural philosophers.

While every university has its own legend of origin, none compares to the fantastic myths told of Oxford's creation. Surviving the fall of Troy, Brutus sailed to England, bringing King Mempric and a collection of Greek scholars with him. He settled in Wiltshire for a while, before relocating to Oxford. The colony prospered, and in the ninth century was legally recognized by Alfred the Great, King of Wessex. Fewer people bother to refute this myth than those of other universities, since Oxford was not a great center of learning before the thirteenth century, nor does it have a monumental cathedral, the springboard for most other medieval universities. Whatever its origins, Oxford grew enormously during the twelfth century, when King Henry II withdrew permission for scholars to cross the English Channel. Locked in his dispute with Thomas Becket, the Parisian masters lent the archbishop support by expelling all English scholars from their schools. Several traveled to Oxford, including some French teachers.

Oxford's university closely resembles Paris' — a master-run university copying all the French university's statutes, obligations, and privileges. However, most of the tension that occupies the university of Paris is not found at Oxford, and an odd harmony exists between masters and students, university and both church and king. This does not mean that tensions never arise, but overall the university exists peacefully. Oxford has all four faculties, each led by a rector, with one of the four acting as the dean of the university. It has two nations, the Australes, those living south of the river Trent and including the Irish and the Welsh, and the Boreales, northerners coming from above the river and including the Scots. There is no need for any continental nations, since not a single student comes from across the English Channel.

Since there is no cathedral, the chancellor is actually a member of the university, usually the most prominent scholar, appointed by the Bishop of Lincoln. Since he is a university man, the chancellor is not at odds with the dean, like at other universities, and since Lincoln is so far removed from Oxford, he is not often at odds with the bishop. The position of the chancellor is recently invented, and hasn't been filled in 1220. Oxford's first chancellor, historically appointed in 1221, will be Robert Grosseteste, famed scholar and mathematician. Born in 1168, Grosseteste is 52 years old, and historically he has a long life ahead of him, filled with accolades and accomplishments to come.

The one great moment of strife occurred in 1209, when most of the students and masters fled Oxford and began a new university in Cambridge. Tensions were already hot, since Pope Innocent III excommunicated King John in 1208. A year later, without the protection of the priests, three infernalist witches crept into town, sowing seeds of wickedness and wantonness. Recognizing their demonic nature, a young student slew one, but was apprehended by the possessed sheriff and a mob of angry townsmen. The youth was imprisoned, and the chancellor called for his release. As a student, he could only legally be tried under canon law. The sheriff refused and hanged the boy. Without delay, the majority of the scholastic population fled to Cambridge. They did not return until 1218, well after King John had grudgingly made amends to the pope and the interdict had been removed. Enough time had passed, though, to provide a stable foundation for the University of Cambridge.

An Oxford Saga

Setting a saga in Oxford is ideal for groups that wish to explore the university setting without the frequent violence that haunts other cities. Such a saga would explore learning, the interaction between university and Hermetic covenant, and the adaptation of interesting parts of one organization to the other. Unafraid of heresies, Oxford has a large number of natural philosophers, whose experimental philosophy could easily draw a magus' attention. Natural philosophers would be eager to peruse a covenant's library, wondering if any of the magi's odd literature could increase their understanding of the natural world.

Some tension does exist between the town and the university, and small acts of violence may occur. The most brutal assaults happen between the two nations; the Scots and the Welsh do not get along well with the English, and the Irish don't get along with anybody. Historically, this conflict grew so great that the two nations were abolished in 1270. If your saga mirrors history, that is fifty years of tavern brawls and midnight sword fights.

A saga could also center around the odd harmony that exists at Oxford. Perhaps the origin myths are true, and a lingering pagan spirit spreads a sense of peace and enlightenment. Merlin prophesied that "wisdom would flourish at Oxford" and perhaps that great wizard knew something that is now hidden. Oxford venerates St. Mary; it could be the saint's benevolence that keeps the people safe. On the other hand, the demon behind the 1209 witches could be luring the population into a false sense of security, biding its time to unleash further havoc.

Cambridge was merely a small collection of grammar schools and a monastic school before the arrival of the Oxford masters and students in 1209. They quickly instituted their university statutes and courses, which took such a firm root that the University of Cambridge continued after the Oxford scholars returned home in 1218. Enrollment dropped for two years, but it is steadily on the rise in 1220. King Henry III's regents encourage Parisian masters to come teach at Cambridge, and many accept the offer, and the accompanying salary. The university is overseen by the Bishop of Ely, who keeps a firmer hand on the university than his peer, the Bishop of Lincoln, does on Oxford.

There are no nations of students at Cambridge, and only two taught faculties: arts and theology. Other than that, Cambridge is run very much like its sister university. Both king and bishop do much to ensure the peaceful continuation of this recent educational tradition.

Cambridge is famous Hermetically for Schola Pythagoranis, a Jerbiton-run covenant that has existed in the town for nearly a century. The magi say they were instrumental in bringing the fleeing Oxford scholars to the town in 1209, which may be true. The covenant is run like a school, with no central building and magi, apprentices, and covenfolk living in separate buildings throughout the town. The magi accept and teach un-Gifted students, mostly as a ruse to keep the population unsuspecting of their true nature, and some magi serve as visiting masters to the Cambridge students. Natural philosophy is a popular extraordinary course, drawing natural philosophers, magicians, and the odd magus to the classroom. The covenant is insistent that all its members have the Gentle Gift, and only reluctantly allow Gifted visitors to study with them. Edward of Milton is the nominated head of Schola Pythagoranis, a Jerbiton archmagus and good friend of the renowned scholar Robert Grosseteste. His personal student register shows that Grosseteste studied under him for two years, in the late twelfth century.

Salerno is a school more than a university, for despite its size and reputation, it does not have any of the institutional structures of the other universities. During the ninth and tenth centuries, Salerno stayed in close connection with the Byzantine Empire, maintaining its Greek language and traditions. Founded on a site of naturally healing hot springs, Salerno maintains the medical tradition of ancient Rome in the thirteenth century. It specializes in medicine exclusively, offering instruction in other subjects only as a precursor to medical training.

Although famous, vying against Montpellier as Mythic Europe's most famous school of medicine, it is not large, having only a dozen or so masters and a couple of hundred students. Masters at Salerno prefer the Greek authorities over foreign wisdom, basing their lectures on Galen and Hippocrates. They do use the medical writings of Constantinus Africanus, translated from the Arabic, but ignore other Arabic sources.

Salerno is an exception to the rule forbidding women from attending university, and so they have a group of women studying medicine. Called "The Salernitan Women", this group is famous as obstetricians and surgeons. Their skill has drawn more than one ailing northerner to their southern climes, and legend has it that they cured Robert, the Duke of Normandy, of his grievous wound received in the First Crusade.

Salerno is a stable, peaceful school, suffering the usual assortment of troubles that plague other universities but lacking the tension that exists at Bologna or Paris. Salerno's true trials will come in 1224, if your saga follows actual history, when Frederick II of Naples institutes his University of Naples and draws on the masters of Salerno to teach in his new creation.

These Italian universities are small copies of the University of Bologna. All had some beginnings as municipal schools, but became universities when Bolognese scholars left their hometown due to various squabbles and took up residences. The University of Vicenza was very short lived, beginning in 1204 and ending when the scholars returned to Bologna in 1210. Reggio and Arezzo still exist, and both are competitors of Bologna, trying to draw masters and students away from there. But neither is faring especially well. Both have maintained their university statutes, although the fickle Bolognese scholars have since returned home. Reggio is located northwest of Bologna and teaches law exclusively. Arezzo, founded in 1215 just south of Florence, offers faculties of law, medicine, and the arts. Both Arezzo and Reggio are student-run universities, with statutes similar to Bologna.

The two Spanish universities differ from all others because they are both royal institutions, founded by a king and overseen by his rule. The cultural mesh of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim thinkers in Spain has been responsible for a long tradition of private teachers and cathedral schools. Most of the translations of foreign and ancient sources happened in Spain, before filtering to the other intellectual centers of Mythic Europe. Saint Dominic studied theology in Palencia's cathedral school in the late twelfth century. The sovereigns have long placed an importance on personal education, for themselves and for their families. Seeing the popularity of other universities, the kings of both León and Castile have started universities in their kingdoms, changing the already famous cathedral schools into proper universities.

Palencia was founded by King Alfonso VIII of Castile in 1208, making it only a dozen years old when a canonical Ars Magica saga starts. Most of the teachers are from Paris and Bologna, lured to Palencia by the king's invitation and promise of a lucrative teaching salary. Tello, the Bishop of Palencia, works with Alfonso to ensure the stability of his fledgling university. Palencia is organized like a master-run university, although some of the masters' highest privileges are muted by the bishop's control. Tello strives to reduce the common tension found between dean and chancellor. He has allowed the masters to form a council that advises the chancellor, but the chancellor has final say over any problematic issue.

Palencia has three faculties: the arts, canon law, and theology. Licenses are granted by the bishop, through the royal authority of the king. Paris and Bologna view these licenses as being inferior to their own, and disallow magisters and doctors graduated from Palencia to teach in their universities. The current king, Ferdinand III, would like to change this, asking Bishop Tello to entreat Pope Honorius III for papal authority to grant universal licenses. Ferdinand is also asking that a quarter of the tithes he collects for the church go to paying the masters' salaries. The pope is interested in helping Palencia, viewing his aid as an extension of papal power, but is reluctant to allow universal licenses. Paris has a monopoly on theology degrees, and since they are so strongly connected to the papacy, Honorius would like to keep it that way.

Salamanca is another royal creation, founded by Alfonso IX of León in 1218. His motivation was selfish; he was tired of seeing his most learned subjects leave his city to study in other universities, rarely returning to their home. He is not interested in papal approval, awarding licenses by his authority alone. Salamanca is run by the masters, but like Palencia, the ultimate decision power belongs to the chancellor of the cathedral school. In 1220, Salamanca is not prosperous, and is barely surviving its fledgling years.

Two very odd practices occur at Salamanca. Besides faculties of arts, law, and theology, the university offers a degree in music, making it a separate faculty from the remaining liberal arts. Other universities find this degree dubious and hardly practical, since it allows a scholar to teach only at Salamanca. Secondly, and odder still, the university allows women scholars to study alongside the men. They are still barred from studying law and theology, although many easily sneak into the ordinary lectures, but they are fully embraced in the faculties of arts and music. This embrace is sometimes taken literally by the male students, and naturally, problems occur.

Paris, Bologna, Oxford, and their smaller versions have set the stage for universities, and the thirteenth century will see many new universities begin. New universities are either "planted" or "swarmed." Planted universities are those founded by a political power, much like the Spanish universities. The king desires a university in his kingdom and starts one. Swarms are great migrations of scholars leaving an existing university and starting a new one in the town they happen to squat in. Cambridge is an example of a swarmed university, as are Arezzo and Vicenza. Neither type of new university is more stable or guaranteed a longer life than the other, nor do either avoid the usual tensions found in university settings. A strong king helps a planted university prosper, but it is susceptible to the king's fortunes. A swarmed university is most likely to succeed if it lands in a town with an established cathedral school, although that was not the case in Cambridge.

The following list shows the founding dates of many historic universities. Whether these occur in your Mythic Europe is up to you.

• 1222 University of Padua, swarmed by Bolognese scholars
• 1224 University of Naples, planted by Frederick II
• 1229 University of Toulouse, planted (through coercion) by Count Raymond VII
• 1235 University of Orléans, planted by Honorius III, based on the famed cathedral school
• 1238 University of Salisbury, swarmed after a dispute between masters and the papal legate, and quickly abandoned when the scholars returned to Oxford
• 1245 University of the Roman curia, planted by Pope Innocent IV
• 1245 University of Valencia, planted by James I the Conqueror
• 1246 University of Siena, swarmed by Bolognese scholars
• 1248 University of Piacenza, founded on a municipal school and planted by the papal bull of Innocent IV
• 1250 University of Angers, a famous cathedral school that taught civil law, bolstered by Parisian swarms, since teaching civil law has been outlawed at Paris
• 1254 University of Seville, founded on a cathedral school and planted by the local archdeacon
• 1261 University of Northampton, swarmed when Oxford scholars left after a usual dispute with townsmen. It was very short lived, with the king demanding the scholars' return to Oxford in 1264
• 1290 University of Lisbon, planted by King Dinis