146 Camelot
have a chancellor under a bishop. The number of schol-
ars grew with the establishment in the town of a house of
FRANCISCANS, and in 1238 by a DOMINICANhouse to pur-
sue study at the fledgling university. A bull of June 14,
1233, by Pope GREGORYIX recognized it as a university.
Its solid basis as a corporation derived from its recogni-
tion by three royal writs granted by King HENRYIII in
- From about 1250 the university had a set of
statutes, a chancellor, proctors, beadles, regent masters,
rules for assemblies, legal procedures, and a practice for
the commemoration of benefactors. From the late 14th
century, the affairs of the masters was handled by a senate
consisting of doctors from each senior faculty, representa-
tive from the religious houses, a regent, and a nonregent
master. They were all under the presidency of a chancel-
lor or a vice-chancellor.
Royal grants soon increased scholars’ rights and privi-
leges in the town, and in 1401 a papal grant removed the
bishop from the election of the chancellor. In 1433 Pope
EUGENIUSIV freed the teaching masters from ecclesiastical
jurisdiction. Throughout this period there was constant
tension between the students and faculty of the university
on the one side and the townspeople on the other. In
addition there was much conflict between the clerical and
nonclerical masters and between the mendicants and the
secular clergy. They were all competing for income.
COLLEGES, STUDENTS,
AND SUBJECTS OF STUDYFormally organized colleges developed during the later
Middle Ages. Peterhouse, the first, was founded in 1278.
By 1500 there were 12, each with a dining hall and a
chapel or a place for worship in common. The lay
founders of these colleges were especially anxious to
ensure that masses for their souls were frequently said
and that there was an adequate supply of educated
bureaucrats for the administrative needs of the church
and the state. Many students, however, were self-
supporting and lived in unendowed and seedy hostels.
The richest of the colleges was King’s Hall, established
by EDWARDII and further endowed by EDWARDIII.
The faculties of divinity and canon law were tradi-
tionally dominant. Civil and common law was prominent
in certain colleges. Medical studies were pursued by few
students who often had to study outside England.
Famous scientists and scholastics such as Robert GROS-
SETESTEand JOHNDuns Scotus taught there briefly, but
no Cambridge college produced a scientific or philosoph-
ical tradition to rival that of Merton college at the Univer-
sity of Oxford. The alumni of Cambridge were fewer and
infrequently attained the positions of power and prestige
occupied by those of its rival Oxford.
See alsoBOLOGNA AND THEUNIVERSITY OFBOLOGNA;
PADUA; SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES.
Further reading: M. B. Hackett, The Original
Statutes of Cambridge University: The Text and Its History
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970); A. B.
Emden, A Biographical Register of the University of Cam-
bridge to 1500(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1963); Alan B. Cobban, The King’s Hall within the Univer-
sity of Cambridge in the Later Middle Ages(Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1969); Damian R. Leader,
ed. A History of the University of Cambridge,Vol. 1, The
University to 1546 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1989).Camelot SeeARTHUR,KING, ANDARTHURIAN LITERA-
TURE.camels Camels are ruminants that have been used for
centuries in trade and travel in the arid regions of Central
Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and North Africa. They are
of two types: the lighter Arabian one-humped camel and
dromedary, and the Bactrian two-humped camel. They
could bear heavy loads and were able to travel and live
for long periods on little water. Camels were known to
Europeans through secondhand descriptions by cru-
saders, pilgrims, and merchants. A few were kept in pri-
vate zoos in western Europe. There were literary
references to them in Western literature, especially in
romances with an Oriental setting. In bestiaries they were
characterized by their ability to bear heavy loads. They
were established in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Arabia in
pre-Roman times. By the early Middle Ages they had
replaced almost all wheeled transport and were funda-
mental in the expansion of Islam and in all transport
among Europe, Asia, and Africa.
See alsoANIMALS AND ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; BEAST EPICS
AND FABLES;BERBERS;ISLAMIC CONQUESTS.
Further reading:Michael Brett and Elizabeth Fen-
tress, The Berbers(Oxford: Blackwell 1996); Richard W.
Bulliet, The Camel and the Wheel(New York: Columbia
University Press, 1990).Canary Islands(the Fortunate Islands) The Canary
Islands are an archipelago of seven large islands, Gran
Canaria, Lanzarote, Tenerife, Gomera, Hierro, La Palma,
Fuerteventura, and six smaller ones. They are scattered
over 300 miles westward from the northwest coast of
Africa off Cape Juby. They were known as the Fortunate
Islands in the ancient world. Medieval Europeans knew
little of them and believed the almost mythical islands
were populated with large dogs, or in Latin, canes.The
name of the archipelago derived from the idea. Rediscov-
ered in the 14th century, they became in the 15th among
the earliest targets of European Atlantic expansion and
colonization and can be seen as the model for what
occurred later as Europeans spread over the world.
The islands were rediscovered by Europeans around
1336 when a Genoese captain stumbled on three of them.