seas, of the ancient Scandinavians; Dana, the tutelar goddess of Denmark; Norda (according to the Edda, Njord,) the god of the weather and cold, &c. The poem is in Alexandrines, which render it rather monotonous. The historical facts are elucidated by notes and supplements.

Besides several smaller didactic poems, he has also composed a long one on poesy; which, as far as I know, has not appeared in a finished state. The first song is contained in the Samling af Suensk Vetterhets stykken, (Stockholm, 1799, 8vo.) I. page 36, &c.

The counsellor of the chancery, and knight of the northern star, Gudmund Föran Adlerbeth, one of the eighteen of the academy, and its perpetual secretary, is one of the most fertile poets for the national theatre. The first volume of his works appeared in 1797, and contains four plays, viz. Iphiginia at Aulis, a tragedy, in four acts; Edipus, a tragedy, with chorusses, in three acts; Phædra and Hippolytus, in five acts, after Voltaire; and Cora and Alonza, an opera, in three acts. The subject of the latter piece, (to which Naumann has composed the music) is borrowed from Marmontel's history of the Incas, and is sufficiently known Rrough Kotzebue's Virgin of the Sun and other imitations. C. W

AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE UNI VERSITY AT LEIPZIG.

THE

'HE university of Leipzig, which has had a considerable influence on the diffusion of the sciences in Germany and the north of Europe, was founded in the year 1409. The Germans, being totally destitute of inland universities, travelled, till the middle of the fourteenth century, to Bologna and Paris, till, at last, emperor Charles IV. who had studied at Paris, in 1347, founded the first German university at Prague, in Bohemia, upon the plan of that at Paris, and endowed it with considerable immunities and privileges. These, as well as the charming situation of Prague, soon rendered it eminently superior to those at Heidelberg, Vienna, Cologne, and Erfurt, which were erected a short time after.

It was entirely framed upon the plan of the university at Paris, and divided into four nations, namely, the Bohemians, the Polish, the Bavarian, and the Saxon, each of whom had

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one vote in all academical meetings, and on the election of academical officers and professors.

The great superiority of the Germans, under which denomination the Bohemians comprehended the three other nations, excited, under the reign of Wenzeslaus, a high degree of jealousy, which afterwards degenerated into mutual hatred, and, at last, manifested itself by open acts of violence, when the Bohemians attempted to usurp three votes, leaving only one to the Germans.

But their mutual animosity was raised to a higher degree of acrimony in the beginning of the fifteenth century, through the religious commotions, occasioned by John Huss; whom the ecclesiastical council of Constance ordered to be burnt alive. Huss being excluded by the Germans, by means of their majority of votes, from the possession of a certain ecclesiastical benefice, the Bohemians espoused the cause of their countryman, made him the head of their party, and consulted him in all their disputes with the other three nations. Huss gained every day more followers amongst the Bohemians, on account of the superior purity of his doctrine; whilst the Germans pronounced his tenets and principles erroneous and heretic. This raised their mutual hatred to such a degree, that the Bohemians accused the Poles, Bavarians, and Saxons, of having conspired entirely to extirpate them; whilst the Germans retorted the same accusation upon the Bohemians. The charge exhibited by the Germans against their antagonists was not quite unfounded, as a great number of the first families in the country had espoused the cause of the Bohemian party, since Huss had publicly avowed his principles, and actually exerted all their influence to assist Huss in oppressing the Germans. Huss was the more inclined to crush his antagonists, as he could plainly foresee, that his endeavours to obtain promotion and to dif fuse his principles would be fruitless, whilst the Germans possessed three votes. Therefore, when on the 11th of May, 1408, a new decanus was to be elected, in the great hall of the Collegii Carolini, at a meeting of the four nations, Huss, relying upon the assistance of his countrymen, publicly attacked the right of voting possessed by the Germans, maintaining, that the Bohemians, by virtue of a clause in the act of foundation framed by Charles IV. were entitled to three votes. This was the signal for the most violent tumult, and the most passionate disputes, which terminated in murder and assassination, both in the colleges and the streets; and, at last, were laid before. Wenzeslaus, then residing at the castle of Döcznic, near Prague The Bohe

mians contrived to gain a powerful party at court, partly by means of bribery, and partly through the influence of Huss, who was confessor to the queen. Sophia, and to procrastinate the decision of their dispute, whereby the election of a rector of the university was likewise interrupted. This induced, at last, the king Wenzeslaus to appoint his head cook rector of the university, and afterwards, by instigation of the queen Sophia, to publish, through him, a royal mandate; by virtue of which, the Poles, Bavarians, and Saxons, or. the German nation, as they were called, were to have only one vote, whilst the Bohemians were to have three.

The appointment of such a singular rector had already incensed the Germans to such a degree, that they took the singular resolution of quitting Prague. No sooner had the royal decree been published, than they appointed a general meeting of the three nations, at which all masters and doctors, together with the burgomasters of the city were present. Henning Boldenhagen, who then was rector of the university, resigned, in this meeting, the academical insignia, and, after having made a solemn protestation against the infringement of the privileges of the Germans, concluded the meeting May 11, 1409. Some, however, maintain, that John Hoffman, of Schweidnitz, had been the last rector, and performed this solemn act of resignation.

In consequence of the resolutions adopted in this meeting, 20,000 masters, doctors, and students, led by M. John Reinerus, M. Petrus Rudbertus Salisburgensis, and M. John Hoffman, quitted Prague, in the course of a few days, and dispersed themselves all over Germany. Dubravius states, that the number of students who emigrated on this occasion, amounted to 24,000; Lauda, a cotemporary writer, and Balbino, rate them at 36,000; Hagecius at 40,000; and Pekenstein even at 45,000. Thus much is certain, that 20,000 masters, doctors, and students, headed by John Hoffman, John Otto, of Münsterberg, and Henning Boldenhagen, repaired to Leipzig, or Lipzk, as that city, at that time, was called, by its Sorbian name, which signifies Lindentown, where they found a zealous friend and protector in M. Vincentius Gruner, of Zwickau..

Gruner being much respected at the court of Frederic the martial, and William, he prevailed upon these princes not only to afford the fugitive muses an hospitable asylum, but also to intercede with pope Alexander V. to grant them an act for founding an university, which was signed at Pisa, September 9, 1409; upon which the foundation of this new seat of the muses was solemnly executed September 2, 1409,

in

in the refectory of the regular prebendaries of St. Thomas, at Leipzig, in presence of the two illustrious founders, a great number of bishops, prelates, masters, and doctors.

As it was intended that the new university, in every respect, should be put upon an equal footing with those of Paris and Prague, Alexander V. in the act of foundation, divided all teachers and pupils likewise into four nations, namely, into the Saxon, Misnian, Bavarian or Franconian, and Polish nations, and nominated the bishop of Merseburg perpetual chancellor of the university. Among the Saxon nation were included the electoral circle, the Marks of Brandenburg and Pommerania, Mecklenburg, Holstein, Magdeburg, Halberstadt, Hildesheim, Verden, Bremen, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, to which were added, by a decree of the duke George, Westphalia, Treves, Cologne, and the Netherlands. The Misnian nation includes only Misnia and Thuringen; the Bavarian, or Franconian comprehends East and West Franconia, Bavaria, Suabia, Aus tria, the Upper and Lower Palatinate, the Upper Rhine, Mayence, Hessia, Wetteravia, Brabant, Lorraine, Alsace, Switzerland, Tyrol, Carynthia, Styria, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, England, Scotland, and Ireland; and the Polish nation includes Upper and Lower Lusatia, Poland, Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, Silesia, Prussia, Curland, Livonia, and Russia. Each of these four nations has one vote, and an equal share in all emoluments of the university.

The founders of the university, at the same time, endowed it with two spacious buildings, namely, the grosse and the kleine Fürsten-Collegium, exempting them both from all taxes and foreign jurisdiction. They also decreed, that a salary of five hundred guilders should be paid out of their treasury to twenty Magistros; namely, to five out of each nation, till other permanent funds could be assigned for that purpose. These Magistri were divided amongst the two Fürsten-Collegia, twelve being appointed fellows of the larger and eight of the smaller college; each of the former receiving a salary of thirty guilders per annum, whilst those of the latter had an annual allowance of twelve guilders each: These twenty Magistri were, at that time, the only public teachers at the university, in theology, law, and philosophy, who were allowed a regular annual salary.

On the day when the university was founded, John Otto, of Münsterberg in Silesia, who died in 1416, as professor in theology, was elected the first Rector Magnificus. Not long after, namely, December 18, 1409, pope Alexander V. repeatedly confirmed the establishment of the university,

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at the same time appointing the bishop of Merseburg, who had been previously chosen chancellor, conservator or protector of the privileges and immunities which he had granted to the university. In 1414, the popes John XXIII. and Martin V. his successor, presented to the university six cannonicates for the three first professors in theology and the law; to the theologues, two in Misnia and one at Zeitz; and, to the jurists, two at Merseberg and one at Naumburg; the revenues of which, were to serve in lieu of salaries.

As revenues which are derived from landed property at all times are the most secure, the two august founders, in lieu of the annual sum of five hundred guilders, presented the university with the three villages Hohenheyda, Gottscheuna, (called by the vulgar Kötschin) and Merkwitz; which were called the Gros-Probstey der alten Dorfschaften.

The medical faculty being, at length, founded, May 10, 1415, without, however, being filled up with regular professors, the two illustrious patrons nominated, on the day of St. Matthew, 1438, a professor of therapeutics and one of pathology, assigning to them a regular annual salary out of the funds of the university.

Elector Frederic III. and his brother, the duke William, endowed it with several revenues levied upon three towns and forty-two villages, and, in the same year, assigned an annual salary for a lectorem in jure.

In 1440, the Collegium B. Marial Virginis was founded by means of the endeavours of M. John Hoffman, who died on the 12th of May, 1451, at the episcopal castle of Stolpe, and, in his will, left to this college the Silesian village, GrossTing.

The duke George added, in 1504, to the faculty of jurists two new ordinary professors; and, in 1531, also encreased the medical faculty by the addition of a professor of physiology; providing, at the same time, the means of properly maintaining them. In generosity to the university, he was, however, greatly excelled by the elector Maurice, to whose munificence that institution is indebted for numerous advantages. The reformation brought about by Luther, had been introduced at the university already under his father, the duke Henry, in 1539, who had appointed M. Nicolaus Steubelius the first Lutheran professor in theology.

P. W.

(To be continued.)

ORIGINAL