The “old lawless democratic spirit” has reference to the 
decentralist, oral organization of society that preceded print 
and nationalism. Centralism of the newly released national 
energies required greatly increased interdependence. Here the 
printed text books made themselves felt very soon. And just as 
papyrus made the Roman road, print made for the speed and 
visual precision felt in the new monarchies of the Renaissance. 
It is fascinating to move ahead a century and to Cambridge to 
observe the strong centralist action of the printed book. 
Christopher Wordsworth tells the story of the strange reversals 
and interplay of the written and the oral modes in his Scholae  
Academicae: Some Account of the Studies at the English  
Universities in the Eighteenth Century  (p. 16):

          Before entering upon the details of the university 
     exercises and examinations, we ought to try to divest