# Harvard Rules of Conduct c. 1643



## VirginiaHuguenot (Oct 4, 2008)

_New England's First Fruits_, pp. 26-28:



> 1. When any scholar is able to understand Tullius [Cicero] or such like classical Latin author _extempore_, and make and speak true Latin in verse and prose, _suo ut aiunt marte_ ["to stand, as they say, on his own feet"], and decline perfectly the paradigms of nouns and verbs in the Greek tongue, let him then, and not before, be capable of admission into the College.
> 
> 2. Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well: the main end of his life and studies is "to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life" (John 17.3), and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.
> 
> ...


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## Anton Bruckner (Oct 4, 2008)

Wow, I guess most people today wouldn't be able to attend Harvard.


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## smhbbag (Oct 4, 2008)

Does anybody have more information on the roles of these "tutors"?

Were they analogous to modern Residential Advisors - in that there were a few of them for a floor of students in dormitories, or maybe a one-on-one defined pair between upper and lower-classmen?


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Oct 4, 2008)

smhbbag said:


> Does anybody have more information on the roles of these "tutors"?
> 
> Were they analogous to modern Residential Advisors - in that there were a few of them for a floor of students in dormitories, or maybe a one-on-one defined pair between upper and lower-classmen?



William R. Newman, _Gehennical Fire: The Lives of George Starkey, an American Alchemist in the Scientific Revolution_, pp. 19-20:



> In addition to the president, early Harvard was supplied with tutors, responsible for overseeing a student's success. Each student was allocated a single tutor for his entire three years, in principle, and at the time of Starkey's matriculation there may have been as many as three tutors in residence.



Samuel Eliot Morison, _The Founding of Harvard College_, discusses this in more detail.


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## Blue Tick (Oct 14, 2008)

> 8. If any scholar shall be found to transgress any of the laws of God or the school, after twice admonition, he shall be liable, if not adultus, to correction; if adultus, his name shall be given up to the overseers of the College, that he may be admonished at the public monthly act.



Boy, if the could see things now.


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## Ex Nihilo (Oct 14, 2008)

Blue Tick said:


> > 8. If any scholar shall be found to transgress any of the laws of God or the school, after twice admonition, he shall be liable, if not adultus, to correction; if adultus, his name shall be given up to the overseers of the College, that he may be admonished at the public monthly act.
> 
> 
> 
> Boy, if the could see things now.



The funny thing is, there are still so many inscriptions on campus that proclaim the truth -- and the school won't tear them down because they are so old. I will try to take some pictures one day.


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## Tim (Oct 15, 2008)

Andrew, do you have any more links on the way Harvard used to be? I once came across something of this and it excited me greatly, but I have been unable to find it again.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Oct 15, 2008)

Tim said:


> Andrew, do you have any more links on the way Harvard used to be? I once came across something of this and it excited me greatly, but I have been unable to find it again.



Tim -- Sure, I have a few links that may be of interest. I lived in Harvard married student housing as a child and I've long been fascinated with the then / now aspect of Harvard culture. 

http://www.puritanboard.com/f55/harvard-university-8721/
http://www.puritanboard.com/f29/joh...fare-tale-john-harvards-surviving-book-27441/
http://www.puritanboard.com/f55/dying-light-15315/
http://www.puritanboard.com/f18/increase-mather-15300/
The Rise and Fall of Harvard (1636–1805)
Sequence 1 (Page 1): Harvard University. Constitutional articles and legislative enactments relative to the Board of overseers and the corporation of Harvard university; also rules and regulations of the overseers., Harvard University Library PD
Harvard Charter of 1650
Family Instruction & Christian Public Education in Puritan New England
John Harvard (clergyman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Godly Learning: Puritan Attitudes ... - Google Book Search (limited preview online)
Harvard College in the Seventeenth ... - Google Book Search (not available to read online)

William Ames connection: 



> His most famous work is his Marrow of Sacred Divinity, one of the first systematic theologies of the Puritans, and the standard textbook used at Harvard and Yale for at least 100 years. That work has been reprinted by Baker Book House in paperback. The other work for which Ames is known and regarded, his treatment of conscience, entitled Conscience, with the Power and Cases Thereof, was published in a hardbound facsimile by Walter Johnson, Inc. of New Jersey. That publisher is no longer in business, and copies are available on the used book market. ... Samuel Elliot Morrison, a historian of things related to Harvard, wrote that Ames' Conscience, with the Power and Cases Thereof, is ". . . as a practical exposition of what the Word of God did and did not permit, one of the most valuable sources of Puritan morality."
> 
> Source





> Late in the 1620's he decided he should leave the University for the New World. Ames had received correspondence from his friends in the New World to join them and endeavor there as a pastor, teacher, school or academy head. But William Ames was never to sail for New England. He, instead, ended up in Rotterdam in 1632 to answer a call from an Independent congregation as co-minister with his friend Hugh Peter. The church planned to open a school, having Ames as their head master. But in 1633 the River Maas flooded and the homes of the church members, as well as Ames. Ames was exposed to cold water and cold air and contracted a high fever which his weakened heart could not stand. Medicine and doctors were of no avail; his family and friends watch his courageous spirit endure to the end which was just a few days later.
> 
> Thus, he who was the greatest influence on early America never arrived there. He may have been the first president of Harvard, instead of Thomas Shepherd, but "come what may" were not part of God's ordained plan for his life. According to Daniel Neal, the first furniture at Harvard were the books of Ames, the famous professor of divinity at Franeker. He was of such profound influence upon the theology of New England that he was quoted more than Luther or Calvin combined. Jonathan Edwards often began with the thought of the Franeker professor.
> 
> ...



Trivia:

* The first honorary degree awarded in the New World went to Increase Mather, an S.T.D. given in 1692.

* Latin being required for entrace into Harvard, Boston Latin School became the first public school in the United States. Roxbury Latin, however, is said to be the oldest school in North America in continuous existence. (I went to school across the street from Roxbury Latin.)

* (See links above) It was William Ames' personal library that became the nucleus for Harvard's original library until that library was destroyed by fire in 1764 leaving only one [allegedly] surviving book - written by another famous Puritan.


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## FrielWatcher (Oct 15, 2008)

The Rise and Fall of Harvard link didn't work Andrew. 

Roxbury Latin? I used to work in Roxbury, MA every now and then - I assume Roxbury Latin was in Roxbury proper? Used to live in Providence.

The one time I went to Harvard, I was not able to identify anything about the people of the college to identify them as Puritan, or even bearing the fruits of faith in Christ. (This was back in 2000 - things may have changed now.)


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Oct 15, 2008)

FrielWatcher said:


> The Rise and Fall of Harvard link didn't work Andrew.



Try this.



> Roxbury Latin? I used to work in Roxbury, MA every now and then - I assume Roxbury Latin was in Roxbury proper? Used to live in Providence.



Yes, I went to school in Roxbury which is currently a neighborhood in Boston.


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## Tim (Oct 16, 2008)

Thanks for all those links, Andrew. They will keep me busy for some time.


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