<P> A medieval university is a corporation organized during the Middle Ages for the purposes of higher learning . </P> <P> The first Western European institutions generally considered universities were established in the Kingdom of Italy, then part of the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of England, the Kingdom of France, the Kingdom of Spain, and the Kingdom of Portugal between the 11th and 15th centuries for the study of the Arts and the higher disciplines of Theology, Law, and Medicine . These universities evolved from much older Christian cathedral schools and monastic schools, and it is difficult to define the exact date when they became true universities, though the lists of studia generalia for higher education in Europe held by the Vatican are a useful guide . </P> <P> The word universitas originally applied only to the scholastic guilds--that is, the corporation of students and masters--within the studium, and it was always modified, as universitas magistrorum, universitas scholarium, or universitas magistrorum et scholarium . Eventually, however, probably in the late 14th century, the term began to appear by itself to exclusively mean a self - regulating community of teachers and scholars recognized and sanctioned by civil or ecclesiastical authority . </P> <P> From the early modern period onwards, this Western - style organizational form gradually spread from the medieval Latin west across the globe, eventually replacing all other higher - learning institutions and becoming the preeminent model for higher education everywhere . </P>

How did intellectual life change in europe with the appearance of universities