a written application for measures to be taken against Cartesianism at Upsala.
This contained as many teeth as a harrow, and it was intended to root out the spirit of free inquiry forever. The theological faculty was to be the censor of the whole university. Stipends to be given only to loyal Aristotelians. All "disputations" (theses) to be passed on by the theologians as well as all books from foreign countries. The professorship of physics, the hearth of Cartesianism, was to be taken away from the Faculty of Medicine and given to a good Aristotelian in the Faculty of Philosophy.
But Charles XI, conservative and orthodox though he was, did not yield to the black gowns. In 1689, after letting the controversy cool a bit, he decided that though the Christian faith was not to be criticized philosophy should be free "in practice and discussion." "Philosophy" was in effect everything that did not come in under religion. Science had won the right to live.
It had to live, however, in a garment of Latin, like all other learned subjects. This kept the populace reasonably safe from disturbing ideas and equipped scholars with what was still a world language. In Emanuel's childhood and youth he learned to write and to speak Latin. How natural it finally became to the students is best seen by the fact that when one of the professors at Upsala had braved royal wrath by asserting that popular consent was needed for new laws, the students "rushed out into the streets shouting 'Bene nobis, bene nobis, bene republicae litterariae!'" (Good for us, good for us, good for the republic of letters!) 7
The students were young. Upsala seems to have registered them, at least, as early as eleven. They were then called "novitiates." At the age of thirteen Emanuel was called a Junior, but he was not listed as a Senior until he was twenty. Of college life as it is thought of today there was at least one feature that had some resemblance to American colleges—the clubs or societies known as the "nations." It was as if fraternities were not by invitation but as if the students from Iowa all belonged to an Iowa club with their own house, those from Virginia to theirs, and so on. Students from the different provinces of Sweden belonged to their "nation." It was organized with officers and laws, strict control was kept of the members, and
