As thoughtful minds became restless over questions the Schoolmen proposed they began to come together for discussion. This is how universities sprang up. Originally the university was neither an educational institution nor a collection of buildings. The first university was a guild of students at Bologna, organized for the protection of the students from the local townspeople. Later it came to include all the students there. In Paris, where a number of teachers set up a school of dialectic, they formed a university organization that became a model for later universities. Even then it was only a guild. Some of the universities were an outgrowth of monastic schools, others an enlargement of lay schools. At first, there was no system or discipline but eventually, recognition of both students and teachers became necessary, and, for purposes of regulation, a system of degrees became organized. Later the universities attained permanency by erecting buildings and libraries which were funded through public or private donations.
Impact: Though the universities held to accepted philosophy and theology, some of them became centers of progressive thought. Out of the universities came all the great reformers and progressive leaders including John Wycliffe at Oxford, Martin Luther at Wittenberg, John Calvin at Geneva, and John and Charles Wesley at Oxford.