The historic
University of Paris (
French:
Université de Paris) first appeared in the second half of the 12th century, but was in 1970 reorganised as 13 autonomous
universities (University of Paris I–XIII). The university is often referred to as the
Sorbonne or
La Sorbonne after the collegiate institution (
Collège de Sorbonne) founded about 1257 by
Robert de Sorbon, but the university as such is older and was never completely centred on the Sorbonne. Of the 13 current successor universities, the first four have a presence in Sorbonne, and three include Sorbonne in their names.
The 13 universities still stand under a common chancellor, the
Rector of the
Académie of
Paris, with offices in the Sorbonne. As of 2006, the Rector of the Academy of Paris and Chancellor of the Universities of Paris is Maurice Quénet. The Vice-Chancellor of the Universities of Paris is Pierre Gregory.
[1] [2].
The University of Paris remains one of the most famous and prestigious of universities in the world
The original schools In 1200,
King Philip II issued a diploma "for the security of the scholars of Paris" that made the students subject only to ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The provost and other officers were forbidden to arrest a student for any offence, unless this was done to hand over the culprit to ecclesiastical authority, for in the event of grave crime royal justice was limited to taking cognizance of the procedure and the verdict. The king's officers could never lay hands on the head of the schools or even on a simple region unless they had a mandate from an ecclesiastical authority. This action was motivated at least in part by a violent incident between students and officers outside the city walls at a pub.
In 1215, the statues of the Apostolic legate,
Robert de Courçon, dealt with three principal points regarding the moral and intellectual part of university instruction: the conditions of the professorate, the matter to be treated, and the granting of the license. To teach the arts it was necessary to have reached the age of twenty-one, after having studied these arts at least six years, and to take an engagement as professor for at least two years. For a chair in theology the candidate had to be thirty years of age with eight years of theological studies, of which the last three years were devoted to special courses of lectures in preparation for the mastership. These studies had to be made in the local schools and under the direction of a master, for at Paris one was not regarded as a scholar unless he had a particular master. Lastly, purity of morals was as important as reading.
Priscian's "Grammar",
Aristotle's "Dialectics", mathematics, astronomy, music, certain books of rhetoric and philosophy were the subjects taught in the arts course; to these might be added the Ethics of the Stagyrite and the fourth book of the Topics. But it was forbidden to read the books of Aristotle on Metaphysics and Physics, or abbreviations of them. The licence was granted, according to custom, gratuitously, without oath or condition. Masters and students were permitted to unite, even by oath, in defence of their rights, when they could not otherwise obtain justice in serious matters. No mention is made either of law or of medicine, probably because these sciences were less prominent.
In 1229, a denial of justice by the queen led to suspension of the courses (see
University of Paris strike of 1229). The pope intervened with a Bull that began with lavish praise of the university: "Paris", said
Gregory IX, "mother of the sciences, is another Cariath-Sepher, city of letters". He compared it to a laboratory in which wisdom tested the metals which she found there, gold and silver to adorn the Spouse of Jesus Christ, iron to fashion the spiritual sword which should smite the inimical powers. He commissioned the Bishops of Le Mans and Senlis and the Archdeacon of Châlons to negotiate with the French Court for the restoration of the university. The year 1230 came to an end without any result, and Gregory IX took the matter directly in hand by a Bull of 1231 addressed to the masters and scholars of Paris. Not content with settling the dispute and giving guarantees for the future, he empowered the university to frame statutes concerning the discipline of the schools, the method of instruction, the defence of theses, the costume of the professors, and the obsequies of masters and students (expanding upon Robert de Courçon's statutes). Most importantly, the pope recognized in the university or granted it the right to suspend its courses, if justice were denied it, until it should receive full satisfaction.
In the schools of Paris, the general rule was that the granting of licence was gratuitous and instruction was also free. However, it was often necessary to depart from the rule. Thus the pope authorized Pierre Le Mangeur to levy a moderate fee for the conferring of the licence. Similar fees were exacted for the first degree in arts and letters, and the scholars were taxed two sous weekly, to be deposited in the common fund.
Organization in the thirteenth century The university was organized as follows: at the head of the teaching body was a
rector. The office was elective and of short duration; at first it was limited to four or six weeks.
Simon de Brion, legate of the Holy See in France, realizing that such frequent changes caused serious inconvenience, decided that the rectorate should last three months, and this rule was observed for three years. Then the term was lengthened to one, two, and sometimes three years. The right of election belonged to the
procurators of the four
nations.
The Rector The "Nations" appeared in the second half of the twelfth century; they were mentioned in the Bull of
Honorius III in 1222 and in that of
Gregory IX in 1231; later they formed a distinct body. In 1249 the four nations existed with their procurators, their rights (more or less well-defined), and their keen rivalries; and in 1254, in the heat of the controversy between the university and the
mendicant orders, a letter was addressed to the pope bearing the seals of the four nations. These were the French, English, Normans, and Picards. After the Hundred Years' War the English nation was replaced by the Germanic or German. The four nations constituted the
faculty of arts or letters. The expression "faculty", though of ancient usage, did not mean what it does in modern
American English; instead, it indicated a division by subject within the university (as it still does in
British English). In a Bull of
Gregory IX the word is used to designate the professional body, and it may have had the same meaning in a university Act of 1221 (cf. "Hist. Universitatis Parisiensis", III, 106).
The four nations To classify professors' knowledge, the schools of Paris divided into faculties. These arose gradually and consequently no precise account of their origin can be given. Professors of the same science were brought into closer contact until the community of rights and interests cemented the union and made them distinct groups, which at the same time remained integral parts of the teaching body. The faculty of medicine seems to have been the last to form. But the four faculties were already formally designated in a letter addressed in Feb., 1254, by the university to the prelates of Christendom, wherein mention is made of "theology, jurisprudence, medicine, and rational, natural, and moral philosophy". In the celebrated Bull "Quasi Lignum" (April, 1255),
Pope Alexander IV speaks of "the faculties of theology" of other "faculties", namely those of canonists, physicians, and artists. The masters of theology often set the example for the other faculties, e.g. they were the first to adopt an official seal.
The faculties of theology, or canon law, and medicine, were called "superior faculties". The title of "
Dean" as designating the head of a faculty, was not in use until the second half of the thirteenth century. This habit seems to have started in the faculties of decretals and medicine, followed by the faculty of theology, for in authentic acts of 1268 we read of the deans of decretals and medicine, while the dean of theology is not mentioned until 1296. It seems that at first the deans were the oldest masters. The faculty of arts continued to have four procurators of its four nations and its head was the rector. As the faculties became more fully organized, the division into four nations partially disappeared for theology, decretals and medicine, though it continued in arts. Eventually the superior faculties were to include only doctors, leaving the bachelors to the nations. At this period, therefore, the university had two principal
degrees, the
baccalaureate and the
doctorate. It was not until much later that the
licentiate, while retaining its early character, became an intermediate degree: Besides, the university numbered among its members beadles and messengers, who also performed the duties of clerks.
Faculties The scattered condition of the scholars in Paris often made lodging difficult. Some students rented rooms from townspeople, who often exacted high rates while the students demanded lower. This tension between scholars and citizens would have developed into a sort of civil war if Robert de Courçon had not found the remedy of
taxation. It was upheld in the Bull of Gregory IX of 1231, but with an important modification: its exercise was to be shared with the citizens. The aim was to offer the students a shelter where they would fear neither annoyance from the owners nor the dangers of the world. Thus were founded the
colleges (colligere, to assemble); these were not usually centers of instruction, but simple student boarding-houses. Each had a special object, being established for students of the same nationality or the same science. They also enabled students to use their time more wisely, under the guidance sometimes of resident masters and out of the way of dissipation.
Four colleges appeared in the twelfth century; they became more numerous in the thirteenth, including
Collège d'Harcourt (1280) and the
Collège de Sorbonne (1257). Thus the University of Paris, which in general was the model for other universities, assumed its basic form. It was composed of seven groups, the four nations of the faculty of arts, and the three superior faculties of theology, law, and medicine. Ecclesiastical dignities, even abroad, seemed reserved for the masters and students of Paris. This preference became a general rule, and eventually a right, that of eligibility to benefices. Church officials lavishly praised the university: St. Louis, in the diploma which he granted to the Carthusians for their establishment near Paris, speaks of this city, where "flow the most abundant waters of wholesome doctrine, so that they become a great river which after refreshing the city itself irrigates the Universal Church".
Clement IV uses a no less charming comparison: "the noble and renowned city, the city which is the source of learning and sheds over the world a light which seems an image of the celestial splendour; those who are taught there shine brilliantly, and those who teach there will shine with the stars for all eternity" (cf.
César-Egasse du Boulay, "Hist. Univers. Paris", III, 360-71).
Besides the famous Collège de Sorbonne, other
collegia provided housing and meals to students, sometimes for those of the same geographical origin in a more restricted sense than that represented by the nations. There were 8 or 9
collegia for foreign students: the oldest one was the Danish college, the
Collegium danicum or
dacicum, founded in 1257. Swedish students could, during the 13 and 14th centuries, live in one of three Swedish colleges, the
Collegium Upsaliense, the
Collegium Scarense or the
Collegium Lincopense, named after the Swedish dioceses of
Uppsala,
Skara and
Linköping, the
cathedral schools of which the scholars had presumably attended before travelling to Paris. The German College,
Collegium alemanicum is mentioned as early as 1345, the Scottish college or
Collegium scoticum was founded in 1325. The Lombard college or
Collegium lombardicum was founded in the 1330s. The
Collegium constantinopolitanum was, according to a tradition, founded in the 13th century to facilitate a merging of the eastern and western churches. It was later reorganized as a French institution, the
Collège de la Marche-Winville. The
Collège de Montaigu was founded by the
Archbishop of Rouen in the 14th century, and reformed in the 15th century by the
humanist Jan Standonck, when it attracted reformers from within the
Roman Catholic Church (such as
Erasmus and
Loyola) and those who subsequently became
Protestants (
John Calvin and
John Knox).
Colleges In the fifteenth century,
Guillaume d'Estouteville, a cardinal and
Apostolic legate, carried out a project to reform the university, correcting its abuses and introducing various needed modifications. This reform was less an innovation than a recall to the better observance of the old rules, as was the reform of 1600, undertaken by the royal government, with regard to the three superior faculties. However, as to the faculty of arts, the reform of 1600 introduced the study of Greek, of the French poets and orators, and of additional classical figures like
Hesiod,
Plato,
Demosthenes,
Cicero,
Virgil, and
Sallust. The prohibition to teach civil law was never well observed at Paris, but in
1679 Louis XIV authorized the teaching of civil law in the faculty of decretals. Thus, the name "faculty of law" replaced that of "faculty of decretals". The colleges meantime had multiplied; those of Cardinal Le-Moine and
Navarre were founded in the fourteenth century. The Hundred Years' War was fatal to these establishments, but the university set about remedying the injury.
Remarkable for its teaching, the University of Paris played an important part: in the Church, during the
Great Schism; in the councils, in dealing with heresies and deplorable divisions; in the State, during national crises; and though under the domination of
England it dishonoured itself in the trial of
Joan of Arc, it rehabilitated itself by rehabilitating Joan. Proud of its rights and privileges, it fought energetically to maintain them, hence the long struggle against the mendicant orders on academic as well as on religious grounds. Hence also the shorter conflict against the
Jesuits, who claimed by word and action a share in its teaching. It made liberal use of its right to decide administratively according to occasion and necessity. In some instances it openly endorsed the censures of the faculty of theology and pronounced condemnation in its own name, as in the case of the
Flagellants.
Its patriotism was especially manifested on two occasions. During the captivity of King John, when Paris was given over to factions, the university sought to restore peace; and under Louis XIV, when the Spaniards crossed the Somme and threatened the capital, it placed two hundred men at the king's disposal and offered the Master of Arts degree gratuitously to scholars who should present certificates of service in the army (Jourdain,
Hist. de l'Univers. de Paris au XVIIe et XVIIIe siècle, 132-34;
Archiv. du ministère de l'instruction publique).
Later history The ancient university disappeared with ancient France under the Revolution. On 15 Sept., 1793, petitioned by the Department of Paris and several departmental groups, the National Convention decided that independently of the primary schools, "there should be established in the Republic three progressive degrees of instruction; the first for the knowledge indispensable to artisans and workmen of all kinds; the second for further knowledge necessary to those intending to embrace the other professions of society; and the third for those branches of instruction the study of which is not within the reach of all men". Measures were to be taken immediately: "For means of execution the department and the municipality of Paris are authorized to consult with the Committee of Public Instruction of the National Convention, in order that these establishments shall be put in action by 1 November next, and consequently colleges now in operation and the faculties of theology, medicine, arts, and law are suppressed throughout the Republic". This was the death-sentence of the university. It was not to be restored after the Revolution had subsided, any more than those of the provinces. All were replaced by a single centre, the
University of France. After a century (in 1896), people recognized that the new system was less favourable to study and restored the old system, but without the faculty of theology.
Suppression of the colleges and establishment of the University of France In
1968 it was the starting point of the cultural revolution commonly known as "the
French May" (see also
Situationist International), resulting in the closing of the university for only the third time in history (the first one in
1229 and the second having been the
invasion by the
German army of
1940).
The University of Paris has since been reorganised into several autonomous universities and schools, some of which still carry the Sorbonne name. The historical campus, located in the
Quartier Latin, in the
5th arrondissement of Paris, featuring mural paintings by
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, was split for use between several of the universities of Paris and the Rector's services.
La Sorbonne was occupied again in March 2006 as part of country-wide protests against the introduction of the
CPE (first employment contract).
Student revolt and reorganisation The present thirteen Universities are:
Paris IX's long name is
Université de technologie en sciences des organisations et de la décision de Paris-Dauphine.
See also André Tuilier:
Histoire de l'Université de Paris et de la Sorbonne ("History of the University of Paris and of the Sorbonne"), in 2 volumes (From the Origins to Richelieu, From Louis XIV to the Crisis of 1968), Paris: Nouvelle Librairie de France, 1997 ;
Jean-Louis Leutrat:
De l'Université aux Universités ("From the University to the Universities"), Paris: Association des Universités de Paris, 1997
Philippe Rive:
La Sorbonne et sa reconstruction ("The Sorbonne and its Reconstruction"), Lyon: La Manufacture, 1987
Jacques Verger:
Histoire des Universités en France ("History of French Universities"), Toulouse: Editions Privat, 1986
Taiwanese aborigines
Ethnic groups in Hong Kong and Macau
Cold seeps develop unique topography over time, where reactions between methane and seawater create 
Organisations
Culture and History
History
See also
Pardons and clemency in the United States
Post WWII
