CHAPTER V.

THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS DURING THE MIDDLE

AGES.

By JOHN W. HOYT, A. M., M. D., LL. D.

[Author of Official Reports on Education in Connection with the Paris (1867), Vienna, and Philadelphia Universal Expositions, Progress of University Education, Outline Histories of the Universities of Bologna, Oxford, and Cambridge during the Middle Ages, and of a Memorial (to the United States Senate) concerning a National University, etc.]

PREFACE.

The University of Paris holds an important place in the history of higher education during the Middle Ages, surpassing in some respects, especially in the early completeness of its organization, that of the University of Bologna. It has accordingly received a careful study, with such consultation of authorities as the libraries at Washington have made possible, though only such have been mentioned as have seemed entitled to first consideration and were made the author's final dependence.

The volume of this account could have been greatly and readily increased by the inclusion of many details under each heading, but the object has been rather to present such leading facts as are most important, forming an historic outline that would be at once readable and easily remembered. And for the same reason the author has not burdened the account with the great number of references that would have been necessary, if footnotes were used at all.

The following are the authors that have been chiefly relied on: P. Denifle: Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, Paris, Delelain, 1889-1891. Crevier: Histoire de l'Université de Paris, 7 vols., 1761. Bulæus: Historia Universitatis Parisiensis, 4 vols., 1665-1673. Jourdain: Histoire de l'Université de Paris, 6 vols., 1761. Boudousky: Die Universität Paris und die Fremden an derselben im Mittelalter, 1 vol., Berlin, 1875. Thurot: De l'organization de l'enseignement dans l'Université de Paris au moyen âge, 1 vol., Paris, 1850. De Remusat: Abelard, 2 vols., Paris, 1845. Duvernet: Histoire de la Sorbonne, 2 vols., 1790. Rashdall: Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, 2 vols., Oxford, 1895. Compayré: Abelard and the Origin and Early History of Universities, 1 vol., New York, 1893. Laurie: Rise and Early Constitution of Universities, 1 vol., London, 1886. Matthew Arnold: Schools and Universities of the Continent. Hauréau: Histoire de la philosophie scholastique, 2 vols., Paris, 1880. Rawlinson: The Five Monarchies of the Eastern World, Lond., 1862-1867. Davidson: History of Education, 1893, 1900.

I. ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS--CAUSES.

While it is extremely difficult to determine the origin of the University of Paris with the exactness which attaches to modern institutions, nevertheless quite satisfactory conclusions have been reached, and the originating causes of its rise have been found exceedingly interesting. For convenience, they will be presented as causes general and causes more direct.

1.-GENERAL CAUSES.

1. Among the general causes which brought about its establishment we may properly consider—

(1) THE MOVING SPIRIT OF THE ONCOMING RENAISSANCE.

The eighth-century awakening, so ably inaugurated and vigorously led by Charlemagne, brought important results in all departments of Europe's intellectual activity. But they were necessarily short-lived, since so soon after his death they were followed by the break-up of the Frankish Empire, with succes

sive and sweeping invasions from the north, and by repeated inroads of conquering armies from Arabia. Moreover, in so far as this earliest renaissance is educationally concerned, the great work done by him in the planting of schools of superior rank, in different parts of Europe, was chiefly, though by no means wholly, as some have thought, confined in purpose to the advancement of the church in the world.

Finally, under this head, history shows that, besides the famous Palace School established at Charlemagne's seat of empire and placed under direction of the renowned Alcuin, brought from York in 782, he founded yet others of almost equal importance, giving them into the hands of eminent prelates; and, while Bulæus, as quoted by Newman, maintains that Charlemagne, having in mind the great schools of Athens, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Berytus, fostered those at Paris, Pavia, and Bologna with the intent to make them equally great, there yet seems no sufficient warrant for such an assumption other than that furnished by the comprehensive views, high aims, and unbounded ambition of the man himself. It certainly has not been shown that in the founding of great schools he either planted one at Paris or had direct part in furthering even the preliminary efforts of the school out of which the University of Paris is now known to have sprung. Nevertheless, the great Charles may justly be credited with the furtherance of agencies whose influence, by transmission from generation to generation, served in some measure to inspire the efforts of noble men in after times.

It is manifest that results of such transcendent importance could not have come in a single decade or a single generation, and that the enthusiasm of one or two brilliant revolutionists was not, as some writers have assumed, equal to so great an achievement.

(2) A LONG LINE OF EMINENT FORERUNNERS.

I mean such men as the great Alfred, most learned sovereign of his time (848-901), who, half a century after the death of Charlemagne, also founded a palace school, with the help of such renowned apostles of learning as Greenbold and Erigena; such men as Lanfranc, of Pavia (1005–1083), whose abilities and zeal in the cause of education won him the archbishopric of Canterbury at the hands of William the Conqueror; as Anselm (1033-1109), pupil of Lanfranc, whose rare genius and devotion made him originator of the scholastic theology, gave distinction to the school at Bec, made him Lanfranc's successor as archbishop, as well as practical reviver of metaphysical studies, and enabled him to profoundly stir the intellect of all Europe; such men as Peter Lombard (11001164), pupil in turn of Anselm and author of the Book of Sentences; and as William of Champeaux (1030-1117), also pupil of Anselm, afterwards archdeacon of Notre Dame, founder of that famous scholastic center, the Abbey of St. Victor, Bishop of Chalons-sur-Marne, leading realist of his day, and for a short time teacher of the youthful Abelard, who soon became yet more famous than he.

All these, and others only less distinguished, served to keep the torch which Charlemagne lighted from utter extinguishment during a period of three hundred years. No one of them became actual founder of the University of Paris; but who knows that it did not come a whole century, or even centuries, earlier on their account?

Indeed, when we come to deal more directly with that spirit of the twelfth century renaissance which we have recognized as one of the general agencies concerned in giving origin to the university, we trace it with confidence to these very masters, but more than all to the one last mentioned-that supreme

genius, whose breadth of view, coupled with an acuteness and subtlety of intellect unparalleled in his time, a passionate love of truth, familiarity with all past achievements, and power in dialectics made him master in the great fields of scholastic philosophy and scholastic theology, and whose high courage, enthusiasm, and eloquence enabled him to kindle zeal for learning throughout Europe. It was Abelard who, after the defeat of his master, William of Champeaux, in philosophic discussion, and a short period of knight-errantry in philosophy, planted himself on the heights of St. Geneviève, at Paris, and there so dealt with the disturbing questions of the time as to gather about him students from the whole of Europe, even to the number of 5,000 and more. Most important of all in this connection, it was Abelard whose method of fearlessly, exhaustively, and impartially searching every question, and of drawing his pupils into the most faithful service of this sort, that opened the way for a university in the true sense of that term.

This view has able support. Père Denifle, most exhaustive worker in tuis particular field, as quoted by Compayré, has said: "That Abelard's method was introduced into the schools and never departed thence can be doubted by none who will compare the works which preceded Abelard with those that succeeded him, notably, the Questiones, the Disputationes, the Summæ, composed by the professors of those times. * We encounter this method again in the cele

brated book which during several centuries has been, as it were, the text of theological instruction, I mean the Sentences, by Peter Lombard. The influence of the same method is felt even in the famous work which has been like the code of the schools of canon law, the Decretals of Gratian."

To this Compayré adds:

"It is, therefore, permissible to conclude that we are not deceived in attributing to Abelard the first place in a study of the origin of the universities and the causes which gave them birth. Abelard was the real founder of the University of Paris, and by that fact promoter of all the universities created in its image. He was its founder in several ways: At first through his representation, by habituating foreigners to come to Paris for the purpose of studying there, and by assembling vast audiences around him; afterwards by so popularizing the studies and the methods that they were held in honor for centuries in the Parisian schools. He raised the level of instruction by substituting in the place of the old routine of the trivium and the quadrivium ** ** * the lofty lessons of reasoned theology and abstract philosophy. He was the first professor of superior instruction, and he did his work with an incomparable éclat."

"Among his immediate pupils," says Crévier, "were 20 cardinals, 50 bishops and archbishops, and Pope Celestine II."

In like manner, though with characteristic conservatism, Rashdall says: "It was the teaching of William's great pupil and opponent, Abelard, that first attracted students from all parts of Europe and laid the foundation of that unique prestige which the schools of Paris retained throughout the mediæval period. And it was undoubtedly to the intellectual movement of which Abelard is the most conspicuous representative that the rise of the university must ultimately be ascribed."

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(3) ECCLESIASTICAL NEEDS WERE ALSO CAUSES.

In the mediaval period diverse opinions in the great field of theology were a source of disturbance that often proved most painful and serious. And this diversity was the result of ignorance on the part of great numbers of the clergy. Paganism, pantheism, materialism, and other "isms," bred or imported, were in perpetual conflict. Heresies abounded. Even the sacred orders with the

church could not always understand the Scriptures exactly alike. There must needs be enlightenment on the one hand or suppression on the other, if the church would avoid the trials and periods of perpetual conflict.

To add to the embarrassments of the time the ghosts of those immortal Greeks, Plato and Aristotle, had appeared, and would not down at the bidding, Aristotle especially possessed for many who could read him an irresistible charm. And the coming by way of the Orient and in Arabian dress, while it gave zest to his appearance, yet, on the other hand, increased the difficulty of making his acquaintance. The printing press had not yet come, and the making of manuscript copies by the thousand was tedious and unsatisfactory. A common center or centers, where the living teacher could in person present, explain, and reenforce or overthrow the resurrected Grecian or any other philosophy whatsoever that had been or might be offered, was a necessity. The means of defense and of propagation were both in high demand, and the church wisely made itself efficient in the work of constituting Paris such a center.

(4) CIVIL GOVERNMENT WAS NO LESS IN NEED.

Kings and emperors must have for support and furtherance men not only richly endowed intellectually, but also thoroughly disciplined and duly versed in a knowledge of the world, past and present, in political and social science, in statesmanship, and in the great art of diplomacy. If only half conscious of this need, there would be more or less of a craving for some high agency or agencies to which the qualification of coworkers could be safely committed. And herein lies the secret of the readiness with which they were often brought into sympathy with generous plans for the founding and protection of institutions of learning.

II. MORE DIRECT CAUSES.

(1) National needs and aspirations.—Whether the needs were at first realized or not, they existed and were bound to manifest themselves to men of necessity concerned in the welfare of their country-even to men selfish in the performance of their functions and desirous of its prosperity on their own account only, In this case there was at the time of which we are speaking the beginning of a very marked realization of such needs. The few men of genius and learning, of whom mention has already been made, had so brought to light the greatness and glory of other lands as to make thinking Frenchmen everywhere feel that they belonged to a nation of barbarians and to kindle in their hearts earnest aspirations for better conditions. It was a new order of patriotism, and was followed by a new readiness to further agencies that were designed to promote the intellectual development of a people of genius and of great possibilities.

(2) Municipal ambitions ready to be enlisted.-Paris was already recognized as one of the choice spots, if not the choicest, in all Europe. Nature had done her very best and left no desirable element wanting. And to all her endowments the genius of men supremely gifted had made beginnings, suggestive to their successors, which have resulted in a city the most charming in the world. But there were those who cherished for their beloved capital a loftier ambition than any that limited itself to supremacy in things material, who entertained the hope of making Paris the recognized seat of intellectual culture for all the nations; and these were ready to join hands as best they could for a beginning that would very surely realize, in course of time, their highest hopes and aspirations.

(3) The "cradle" already there.-Not in the school of Remigius, for which