ABSTRACT
Of the four faculties which made up the university — theology, law, medicine, liberal arts — the arts faculty is the only one which we need to scrutinise in detail. Then as now theology, law, and medicine were special schools, professionally orientated towards preparing young people for specific careers. The arts faculty alone was an organ of general culture, with no special vested interest and fulfilling a function analogous to that which it fulfils in our secondary schools today. Indeed within the University it played a role which was identical to that which is now played by secondary education. It was in fact like the common vestibule through which everyone had to pass in order to enter the three other faculties. The student had to spend a certain amount of time there before going on to study courses in theology, medicine or law. It was a preparatory school where the student was expected to complete a sort of general education before devoting himself to specialist studies. The education given there was essentially introductory in character, just as is the one which students receive in our secondary schools today.
