NATION

in medieval universities, a group of students from a particular region or country who banded together for mutual protection and cooperation in a strange land. In some universities nations were responsible for educating and examining students. Each one was governed by its own proctor, who was elected for terms varying from one month (at the University of Paris) to a year (University of Bologna). Through participation in elections and meetings, the studentsmany of whom in later life were to serve on committees and councils of kings and princeswere exposed to the practical workings of constitutional government. At Bologna, the original site of the division into nations and the model for this development in other universities, there were four nationsLombard, Tuscan, Roman, and Ultramontane (including French, German, and English). Students who were Bolognese citizens were not admitted to a nation: they did not need the protection afforded foreign students. Also, for a citizen of Bologna there would have been the question of divided loyalties, since members owed their first allegiance to their nation.