From this it was that the place where any of them taught and disputed was called schola , which in their tongue signifieth “leisure”; and their disputations, diatribae , that is to say, “passing of the time.” Also the philosophers themselves had the name of their sects, some of them from these their schools: for they that followed Plato’s doctrine were called Academics; the followers of Aristotle Peripatetics, from the walk he taught in; and those that Zeno taught Stoics, from the Stoa; as if we should denominate men from Moorfields, from Paul’s Church, and from the Exchange, because they meet there often to prate and loiter.

Nevertheless, men were so much taken with this custom that in time it spread itself over all Europe and the best part of Africa; so as there were schools publicly erected and maintained, for lectures and disputations, almost in every commonwealth.