On February 25th 1411  Bishop Henry Wardlaw established St Andrews as a university.With no national

On February 25th 1411  Bishop Henry Wardlaw established St Andrews as a university.With no national university to develop their academic abilities, Scottish students in the middle ages were forced to pursue their studies abroad. By 1410, most had been driven to Paris from Oxford and Cambridge by the Wars of Scottish Independence with England. So when the Catholic church was divided by two rival popes — with Pope Boniface IX supported by the French cardinals while Scotland remained faithful to Pope Benedict XIII — Scottish students found themselves in a difficult position. The time had come to establish a seat of learning, of international standing, back home in Scotland.St Andrews was the obvious choice — the seat of the greatest bishopric in Scotland and location of a monastery noted as a centre for learning. In May 1410, a group of masters, mainly graduates of Paris, initiated a school of higher studies in St Andrews.By February 1411, the school had established itself sufficiently to obtain a charter of incorporation and privileges from the Bishop of St Andrews, Henry Wardlaw.This granted the masters and students recognition as a properly constituted corporation, duly privileged and safeguarded for the pursuit of learning. However, recognised university status and the authority to grant degrees could only be conferred by the Pope or the Emperor as heads of Christendom.Bishop Wardlaw turned to the exiled Pope Benedict XIII to seek his blessing. King James I, despite being a prisoner of the English, added his weight to the petition. In return for Scotland’s loyalty, Pope Benedict readily agreed, and on 28 August 1413 full University status was conferred by a series of six papal bulls – one of which survives to this day in the University of St Andrews museum, as seen in the photo.So it was that the papal bulls began their five month journey from the Spanish fortress in Peniscola, where Pope Benedict was safely cloistered, over land and sea to St Andrews. They arrived in the town in February 1414 to be welcomed with bells, bonfires, and great celebration.The six bulls included the bull of foundation and a bull confirming Wardlaw’s charter of 1412. Although the text of all six is known, only the confirmation of Wardlaw’s grant survives in the original and still bears its bulla or lead seal.The early years of the young university were not without turbulence. In 1426, King James tried to move the university to Perth, at the time, was the capital of Scotland and it was there he was murdered in 1437.Other interesting troubles during the history of St Andrews University include, in 1470, several masters and students were expelled for attacking the Dean with bows and arrows! In 1544 the University banned beards, the carrying of weapons, gambling and football.St Andrews has over 600 years of continuous existence during which time it has made an enduring contribution to the intellectual and cultural life of both Scotland and the wider world. -- source link
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