What if the first universities had gone differently?

Bologna, Paris and Oxford become self-governing communities of masters and students.

If it had gone differently: Learning stays locked in monasteries; there is no scholarly institution for the Scientific Revolution to grow out of.

1. 1400The Italian Renaissance, Europe never rediscovers the classical world on its own terms; the break with the medieval mind comes later and shallower.
2. 1517The Protestant Reformation, Western Christianity stays a single church; no confessional map of Europe forms.
3. 1600The Scientific Revolution, Natural philosophy stays deferential to the ancients; no method, no acceleration.