Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the following questions from 6 to 15

The English universities

The University of Paris became the model for French universities north of the Loire and for those of central Europe and England; Oxford would appear to have been the earliest. Certain schools, opened early in the 12th century within the precincts of the dissolved nunnery of St. Frideswide and of Oseney Abbey, are supposed to have been the nucleus around which it grew. But the beginning may have been a migration of English students from Paris about 1167 or 1168. Immediately after 1168, allusions to Oxford as a studium and a studium generale begin to multiply. In the 13th century, mention first occurs of university “chests,” which were benefactions designed for the assistance of poor students. Halls, or places of licensed residence for students, also began to be established. Against periodic vicissitudes, such as student dispersions and plagues, the foundation of colleges proved the most effective remedy. The earliest colleges were University College, founded in 1249; Balliol College, founded about 1263; and Merton College, founded in 1264.

The University of Cambridge, although it came into existence somewhat later than Oxford, may reasonably be held to have had its origin in the same century. In 1112, the canons of St. Giles crossed the River Cam and took up their residence in the new priory in Barnwell, and their work of instruction acquired additional importance. In 1209, a body of students migrated there from Oxford. Then, about 1224, the Franciscans established themselves in the town and, somewhat less than half a century later, were followed by the Dominicans. At both the English universities, as at Paris, the mendicants and other religious orders were admitted to degrees—a privilege that, until the year 1337, was extended to them at no other university. Their interest in and influence at these three centres were consequently proportionately great.

In 1231 and 1233, royal and papal letters afford satisfactory proof that the University of Cambridge was already an organized body, with a chancellor at its head.

Universities elsewhere in Europe

From the 13th to the 15th century, studia generalia or universities proliferated in central and northern Europe and were usually modeled on the University of Paris. Although the earliest was Prague, which existed as a studium in the 13th century and was chartered by Pope Clement VI in 1348, perhaps no medieval university achieved a more rapid and permanent success than Heidelberg. The University of Heidelberg, the oldest in the German realm, received its charter in 1386 from Pope Urban VI as a studium generale and contained all the recognized faculties— theology, canon law, medicine, and the arts, as well as civil law. In the subsequent 100 years, universities were founded at Cologne, Erfurt, Leipzig, Rostock, Freiburg, Tübingen, Ofen (Budapest), Basel, Uppsala, and Copenhagen.

Spain was also an important scene of developments in higher education. Valladolid received its charter in 1346 and attained great celebrity after it obtained the rank of studium generale and a universitas theologiae by a decree of Pope Martin V in 1418. Salamanca was founded in 1243 by Ferdinand III of Castile with faculties of arts, medicine, and jurisprudence, to which theology was added through the efforts of Martin V. The College of St. Bartholomew, the earliest founded at Salamanca, was noted for its ancient library and valuable collection of manuscripts. Other important early Spanish and Portuguese schools were Sevilla, Alcalá, and Lisbon.

According to paragraph 1, which of the following universities or colleges is thought to be the oldest?

On the top of the letter, it reads, “To ______ it may concern.”