The University of Paris (French: Université de Paris, pronounced [ynivɛʁsite də paʁi]) was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated with the cathedral school of Paris, it was considered the second-oldest university in Europe. Officially chartered in 1200 by King Philip II and recognised in 1215 by Pope Innocent III, it was nicknamed after its theological College of Sorbonne, founded by Robert de Sorbon and chartered by King Louis IX around 1257.
Highly reputed internationally for its academic performance in the humanities ever since the Middle Ages – particularly in theology and philosophy – it introduced academic standards and traditions that have endured and spread, such as doctoral degrees and student nations. Notable popes, royalty, scientists, and intellectuals were educated at the University of Paris. A few of the colleges of the time are still visible close to the Panthéon and Jardin du Luxembourg: Collège des Bernardins (18 rue de Poissy, 5th arr.), Hôtel de Cluny (6 Place Paul Painlevé, 5th arr.), Collège Sainte-Barbe (4 rue Valette, 5th arr.), Collège d'Harcourt (44 Boulevard Saint-Michel, 6th arr.), and Cordeliers (21 rue École de Médecine, 6th arr.).
In 1793, during the French Revolution, the university was closed and, by Item 27 of the Revolutionary Convention, the college endowments and buildings were sold. A new University of France replaced it in 1806 with four independent faculties: the Faculty of Humanities (French: Faculté des Lettres), the Faculty of Law (later including Economics), the Faculty of Science, the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Theology (closed in 1885).
In 1896, a new University of Paris was re-founded as a grouping of the Paris faculties of science, literature, law, medicine, Protestant theology and the École supérieure de pharmacie de Paris. It was inaugurated on November 19, 1896, by French president Félix Faure. In 1970, after the civil unrest of May 1968, the university was divided into 13 autonomous universities, which today are Sorbonne University, Panthéon-Sorbonne University, Assas University, Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris Cité University, PSL University, Saclay University, Nanterre University, Sorbonne Paris North University, Paris-East Créteil University and Paris 8 University. The Chancellery of the Universities of Paris inherited the heritage assets of the University of Paris, including the Sorbonne building, the "La Sorbonne" brand, control of the inter-university libraries, and management of the staff of the Paris universities (until 2007).
Contents
History
Origins
In 1150, the future University of Paris was a student–teacher corporation operating as an annex of the cathedral school of Paris. The earliest historical reference to it is found in Matthew Paris's reference to the studies of his own teacher (an abbot of St Albans) and his acceptance into "the fellowship of the elect Masters" there in about 1170, and it is known that Lotario dei Conti di Segni, the future Pope Innocent III, completed his studies there in 1182 at the age of 21. Its first college was the Collège des Dix-Huit, established in 1180 by an Englishman named Josse and endowed for 18 poor scholars.
The corporation was formally recognised as an "Universitas" in an edict by King Philippe-Auguste in 1200: in it, among other accommodations granted to future students, he allowed the corporation to operate under ecclesiastic law which would be governed by the elders of the Notre-Dame Cathedral school, and assured all those completing courses there that they would be granted a diploma.
The university had four faculties: Arts, Medicine, Law, and Theology. The Faculty of Arts was the lowest in rank, but also the largest, as students had to graduate there in order to be admitted to one of the higher faculties. The students were divided into four nationes according to language or regional origin: France, Normandy, Picardy, and England. The last came to be known as the Alemannian (German) nation. Recruitment to each nation was wider than the names might imply: the English–German nation included students from Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.
The faculty and nation system of the University of Paris (along with that of the University of Bologna) became the model for all later medieval universities. Under the governance of the Church, students wore robes and shaved the tops of their heads in tonsure, to signify they were under the protection of the church. Students followed the rules and laws of the Church and were not subject to the king's laws or courts. This presented problems for the city of Paris, as students ran wild, and its official had to appeal to Church courts for justice. Students were often very young, entering the school at 13 or 14 years of age and staying for six to 12 years.
12th century: Organisation
Three schools were especially famous in Paris: the palatine or palace school, the school of Notre-Dame, and that of Sainte-Geneviève Abbey. The latter two, although ancient, were initially eclipsed by the palatine school, until the decline of royalty brought about its decline.
The first renowned professor at the school of Ste-Geneviève was Hubold, who lived in the tenth century. Not content with the courses at Liège, he continued his studies at Paris, entered or allied himself with the chapter of Ste-Geneviève, and attracted many pupils via his teaching. Distinguished professors from the school of Notre-Dame in the eleventh century include Lambert, disciple of Fulbert of Chartres; Drogo of Paris; Manegold of Germany; and Anselm of Laon. These two schools attracted scholars from every country and produced many illustrious men, among whom were: St. Stanislaus of Szczepanów, Bishop of Kraków; Gebbard, Archbishop of Salzburg; St. Stephen, third Abbot of Cîteaux; Robert d'Arbrissel, founder of the Abbey of Fontevrault etc. Three other men who added prestige to the schools of Notre-Dame and Ste-Geneviève were William of Champeaux, Abélard, and Peter Lombard.
Humanistic instruction comprised grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy (trivium and quadrivium). To the higher instruction belonged dogmatic and moral theology, whose source was the Scriptures and the Patristic Fathers. It was completed by the study of Canon law. The School of Saint-Victor arose to rival those of Notre-Dame and Ste-Geneviève. It was founded by William of Champeaux when he withdrew to the Abbey of Saint-Victor. Its most famous professors are Hugh of St. Victor and Richard of St. Victor.
The plan of studies expanded in the schools of Paris, as it did elsewhere. A Bolognese compendium of canon law called the Decretum Gratiani brought about a division of the theology department. Hitherto the discipline of the Church had not been separate from so-called theology; they were studied together under the same professor. But this vast collection necessitated a special course, which was undertaken first at Bologna, where Roman law was taught. In France, first Orléans and then Paris erected chairs of canon law. Before the end of the twelfth century, the Decretals of Gerard La Pucelle, Mathieu d'Angers, and Anselm (or Anselle) of Paris, were added to the Decretum Gratiani. However, civil law was not included at Paris. In the twelfth century, medicine began to be publicly taught at Paris: the first professor of medicine in Paris records is Hugo, physicus excellens qui quadrivium docuit.
13th–14th century: Expansion
In 1200, King Philip II issued a diploma "for the security of the scholars of Paris," which affirmed that students were subject to only ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The provost and other officers were forbidden to arrest a student for any offence, unless to transfer him to ecclesiastical authority. The king's officers could not intervene with any member unless having a mandate from an ecclesiastical authority. His action followed a violent incident between students and officers outside the city walls at a pub.
In 1215, the Apostolic legate, Robert de Courçon, issued new rules governing who could become a professor. To teach the arts, a candidate had to be at least twenty-one, to have 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 under the direction of a master. In Paris, one was regarded as a scholar by studies with only particular masters. Lastly, purity of morals was as important as reading. 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. 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 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, but by the end of 1230 they had accomplished nothing. Gregory IX then addressed a Bull of 1231 to the masters and scholars of Paris. Not only did he settle the dispute, 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 granted the university the right to suspend its courses, if justice were denied it, until it should receive full satisfaction.
15th–18th century: Influence in France and Europe
In the fifteenth century, Guillaume d'Estouteville, a cardinal and Apostolic legate, reformed the university, correcting its perceived abuses and introducing various modifications. This reform was less an innovation than a recall to observance of the old rules, as was the reform of 1600, undertaken by the royal government with regard to the three higher faculties. Nonetheless, and as to the faculty of arts, the reform of 1600 introduced the study of Greek, of French poets and orators, and of additional classical figures like Hesiod, Plato, Demosthenes, Cicero, Virgil, and Sallust. The prohibition from teaching civil law was never well observed at Paris, but in 1679 Louis XIV officially authorized the teaching of civil law in the faculty of decretals. The "faculty of law" hence replaced the "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.
Besides its teaching, the University of Paris played an important part in several disputes: in the Church, during the Great Schism; in the councils, in dealing with heresies and divisions; in the State, during national crises. Under the domination of England it played a role in the trial of Joan of Arc.
Proud of its rights and privileges, the University of Paris 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 extensive 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).
1793: Abolition by the French Revolution
The ancient university disappeared with the ancien régime in the French Revolution. On 15 September 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, no more than those of the provinces.
1806–1968: Re-establishment
The university was re-established by Napoleon on 1 May 1806. All the faculties were replaced by a single centre, the University of France. The decree of 17 March 1808 created five distinct faculties: Law, Medicine, Letters/Humanities, Sciences, and Theology; traditionally, Letters and Sciences had been grouped together into one faculty, that of "Arts". After a century, people recognized that the new system was less favourable to study. The defeat of 1870 at the hands of Prussia was partially blamed on the growth of the superiority of the German university system of the 19th century, and led to another serious reform of the French university. In the 1880s, the "licence" (bachelor) degree is divided into, for the Faculty of Letters: Letters, Philosophy, History, Modern Languages, with French, Latin and Greek being requirements for all of them; and for the Faculty of Science, into: Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Natural Sciences; the Faculty of Theology is abolished by the Republic. At this time, the building of the Sorbonne was fully renovated.
From the 1860s onward, women were admitted to the University of Paris. Madeleine Brès was admitted alongside the American Mary Puttnam, the Russian Catherine Gontcharoff and the English Elizabeth Garrett - all holders of diplomas and bachelors in Arts and Sciences.
May 1968–1970: Shutdown
The student revolts of the late 1960s were caused in part by the French government's failure to plan for a sudden spike in the number of university students as a result of the postwar baby boom. The number of French university students skyrocketed from only 280,000 during the 1962–63 academic year to 500,000 in 1967–68, but at the start of the decade, there were only 16 public universities in the entire country. To accommodate this rapid growth, the government hastily developed bare-bones off-site faculties as annexes of existing universities (roughly equivalent to American satellite campuses). These faculties did not have university status of their own and lacked academic traditions and amenities to support student life or resident professors. One-third of all French university students ended up in these new faculties, and were ripe for radicalization as a result of being forced to pursue their studies in such shabby conditions.
In 1966, after a student revolt in Paris, Christian Fouchet, minister of education, proposed "the reorganisation of university studies into separate two- and four-year degrees, alongside the introduction of selective admission criteria" as a response to overcrowding in lecture halls. Dissatisfied with these educational reforms, students began protesting in November 1967, at the campus of the University of Paris in Nanterre; indeed, according to James Marshall, these reforms were seen "as the manifestations of the technocratic-capitalist state by some, and by others as attempts to destroy the liberal university". After student activists protested against the Vietnam War, the campus was closed by authorities on 22 March and again on 2 May 1968. Agitation spread to the Sorbonne the next day, and many students were arrested in the following week. Barricades were erected throughout the Latin Quarter, and a massive demonstration took place on 13 May, gathering students and workers on strike. The number of workers on strike reached about nine million by 22 May. As explained by Bill Readings:
De Gaulle responded on May 24 by calling for a referendum, and [...] the revolutionaries, led by informal action committees, attacked and burned the Paris Stock Exchange in response. The Gaullist government then held talks with union leaders, who agreed to a package of wage-rises and increases in union rights. The strikers, however, simply refused the plan. With the French state tottering, de Gaulle fled France on May 29 for a French military base in Germany. He later returned and, with the assurance of military support, announced [general] elections [within] forty days. [...] Over the next two months, the strikes were broken (or broke up) while the election was won by the Gaullists with an increased majority.
1970: Dissolution
Following the disruption, de Gaulle appointed Edgar Faure as minister of education; Faure was assigned to prepare a legislative proposal for reform of the French university system, with the help of academics. Their proposal was adopted on 12 November 1968; in accordance with the new law, the faculties of the University of Paris were to reorganize themselves. This led to the division of the University of Paris into 13 universities, largely keeping faculties intact. Thus the new universities were mostly specialized by academic discipline.
In 2017, Paris IV and Paris VI universities merged to form the Sorbonne University. In 2019, Paris V and Paris VII universities merged to form the new Paris Cité University, leaving the number of successor universities at 11.
The successor universities to the University of Paris are now split over of the Île-de-France region.
Most of these successor universities have joined several groups of universities and higher education institutions in the Paris region, created in the 2010s.
Notable people
Alumni
The Sorbonne has educated 11 French presidents, almost 50 French heads of government, three Popes (Innocent III, Celestine II, and Adrian IV), and many other political and social figures. The Sorbonne has also educated leaders of Albania, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Gabon, Guinea, Iraq, Jordan, Kosovo, Tunisia, and Niger among others.
Rodolfo Robles, physician
Albert Simard, physician, activist during and post WWII.
Carlos Alvarado-Larroucau, writer
Paul Biya, President of Cameroon
Jean-François Delmas, archivist, director of the Bibliothèque Inguimbertine and the museums of Carpentras
Aklilu Habte-Wold, Ethiopian politician who served in Haile Selassie's cabinet
Leonardo López Luján, Mexican archaeologist and director of the Templo Mayor Project
Darmin Nasution, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs of Indonesia
Maria Vasillievna Pavlova (née Gortynskaia) (1854–1939), paleontologist and academician
Jean Peyrelevade, French civil servant, politician and business leader.
Issei Sagawa, cannibal and murderer
Tamara Gräfin von Nayhauß, German television presenter
Michel Sapin, Deputy Minister of Justice from May 1991 to April 1992, Finance Minister from April 1992 to March 1993, and Minister of Civil Servants and State Reforms from March 2000 to May 2002.
Nobel laureates
Nobel Prize winners who had attended the University of Paris or one of its thirteen successors are:
List of Nobel Prize winners who were affiliated with the University of Paris or one of its thirteen successors.