PARIS
496
PARIS
John of Celles, twenty-first Abbot of St. Albans, Eng-
land, was admittod as a member of the teaching corps
of Paris after h<' had followed the courses (Vita Joaii-
nis I, XXI, ahhat. S. All)an). Again, the masters as
well as the students were divided according to prov-
inces, for as the same historian states, Henry II,
King of England, in his difficulties with St. Thomas
of Canterbury, wished to submit his cause to a tribunal
composed of professors of Paris, eho.sen from various
produces (Hist, major, Henry II, to end of 1169).
This was probably the germ of that division according
to "nations" which was later to play an important
part in the university. Lastly, mention must be made
of the privileges then enjoyed by the professors and
students. In virtue of a decision of Celestine III, they
were amenable only to the ecclesiastical courts. Other
decisions dispensed them from residence in case they
possessed benefices and permitted them to receive
their revenues.
These three schools of Notre-Dame, Ste-Genevifive, and St-\'ictor may be regarded as the triple cradle of the Vnivcrsilas scholarium, which included masters and students; hence the name University. Such is the common and more probable opinion. Denifle and some others hold that this honour must be reserved to the school of Notre-Dame (Chartula- rium Universitatis Parisiensis), but the reasons do not seem convincing. He excludes St-Victor because, at the request of the abbot and the religious of St- Victor, Gregory IX in 1237 authorized them to re- sume the interrupted teaching of theology. But the university was in large part founded about 1208, as is shown by a Bull of Innocent III. Consequently the schools of St-Victor might well have furnished their contingent towards its formation. Secondly, Denifle excludes the schools of Ste-Genevieve because there had been no interruption in the teaching of the liberal arts. Now this is far from proved, and moreover, it seems incontestable that theology also had never ceased to be taught, which is sufficient for our point. Besides, the role of the chancellor of Ste- Genevieve in the university cannot be explained by the new opinion; he continued to give degrees in arts, a function which would have ceased for him when the university was organizefi if his abbey had no share in its organization. And while the name Universilas scho- larium is quite intelligible on the basis of the common opinion, it is incompatible with the recent (Denifle's) view, according to which there would have been schools outside the university.
Organization in the. Thirteenth Century. — As com- pleting the work of organization the diploma of Philip Augustus and the statutes of Robert de Courgon are worthy of note. The king's diploma was given "for the security of the scholars of Paris", and in virtue of it from the year 1200 the students were subject only to ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Hence the provost and other officers were forbidden to arrest a student for any offence, and if in exceptional cases this was done it was only 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. In no case could the king's officers lay hands on the head of the schools or even on a simple regent, this being allowed only in virtue of a mandate proceeding from ecclesia-sticafauthority. The statutes of the ApostoUc legate are later by some years, bearing the date 121.5. They had for their object the moral or intellectual part of the instruction. They dealt with three principal points, the conditions of the profes.sor- ate, the matter to be treated, and the granting of the lieence. 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 profes-sor 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 at the same time devoted to special
cx)urses of lectures in preparation for the mastership.
These studies hatl 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 not less requisite
than learning. 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, wit hout oath or condition. !^Iasters 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.
A denial of justice by the queen brought about in
1229 a suspension of the courses. Appeal was taken to the pope who intervened in the same year by a Bull which began with a eulogy 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 commis- sioned the Bishoijs of Le Mans and Senlis and the Archdeacon of Ch&lons 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 antl giving guaran- tees for the future, he sanctioned and developed the concessions of Robert de Courgon by empowering 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 obse- quies of masters and students. What was chiefly important was that the pope recognized in the univer- sity or granted it the right, in case justice were denied it, to suspend its courses until it should receive full satisfaction. It must be borne in mind that in the schools of Paris not only was the granting of licence gratuitous but instruction also was free. This was the general rule ; however, it was often necessary to depart from it. Thus Pierre Le Mangeur was authorized by the pope 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.
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, rightly judging that such frequent changes caused serious inconvenience, de- cided 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 procura- tors of the four nations. The "Nations" appeared in the second half of the twelfth century; they were mentioned in the Bull of Honorius III in 1222 and in another 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 12.')4, 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 re-
