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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011
As many had done long before, John Henry Newman, in his sermon of 1842 on ‘The Christian Church an imperial power’, drew his model of the corporate life of the Church from the state: ‘We know what is meant by a kingdom. It means a body politic, bound together by common law, ruled by one head, holding intercourse part with part, acting together’. This description, little changed, could have applied as well to the university community of Newman's Oxford, and it is not implausible that an experience of fellowship there, strained and divided as it sometimes was, could have provided an unconscious model for his understanding of the ecclesial community. Even if it did not become explicit in Newman's thought, the analogy of head and members was present to the thinking of university men at Paris with regard to their own corporate life in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, particularly when relations were strained and division of the body threatened. Whatever the origins of conciliarist theory, then, in the reflections of canonists and theologians, there was an experience of ecclesial community in the corporate life of medieval Paris that could have given living content to speculation about the Church in the most influential intellectual centre of Christendom. The shaping of that experience deserves some attention as a matrix for conciliarist thought.
A draft of this paper was read at the ninety-eighth Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, San Francisco, 1983. I profited there from comments by Professors John F. Benton, Alan E. Bernstein, Constantin Fasoli and Stephen C. Ferruolo. (Fr Osmund Lewry died on 23 April 1987. The Editors acknowledge with thanks the assistance of Sir Richard Southern in revising the author's typescript.)
1 Newman, J. H., Sermons bearing on Subjects of the Day, 2nd edn, London 1891Google Scholar, Sermon xvi, 220.
2 See Deniflc, H. and Chatclain, E., Chartualrium Universitates Parisiensis (hereinafter cited as CUP), 4 vols, Paris 1889–97Google Scholar, repr. Brussels 1964, i. 215–16 no. 187 (Oct. 1249). Rashdall, Hastings, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, i. ed. Powickc, F. M. and Emdcn, A. B., Oxford 1936, 314–15Google Scholar, finds the first clear distinction of rector and proctors in a statute of the faculty of arts of 1245, CUPi. 179 no. 137, although the distinction probably came about at some time after 1237. For the schism of 1249. see Rashdall, op. cit. i. 219–20; for the rector as head of the University of Paris. 325–34.
3 CUPi. 449–58 no. 409 (27 Aug. 1266).
4 Gauthier, R. A., ‘Notes sur Siger de Brabant: i. Siger en 1265’, Revue des Sciences Philosophiques et Théologiques (hereinafter cited as RSPT) lxvii (1983). 201–6Google Scholar, argues that Sigcr's role in the conflict of 1265–6 was only a secondary one.
5 ‘In primis quod predicta nacio gallicana tribus aliis nacionibus et ipse illi sine contradictione ac difficultate qualibet invicem uniantur, ac ipsum corpus studii facultatis predicte deintegratum atque divisum sine more dispendio reintegrent et reforment, eique constituant unum caput, ac rectoribus quod sibi monstruose prefecerant sine omni dilatione dimissis eidem unicam personam ydoneam juxta formam que infra scquitur preficiant in rectorem… ’: CUP i. 453.
6 Ibid. 454.
7 Ibid. 455–6.
8 Ibid. 521–30 no. 460 (7 May 1275).
9 ‘Et sic duobus rectoribus tunc in ipsa Universitate electis pars quelibet modo consimili sibi rectorem, procuratores atque bedellos creavit proprios suis temporibus successive, uni corpori plura preficiendo capita quasi monstrum: ibid. 522.
10 Ibid. 526.
11 Ibid. 526–30. See, too, van Steenberghen, F., Maílre Siger de Brabant, Louvain-Paris, 1977, 129–32Google Scholar; Gauthier, R. A., ‘Notes sur Siger de Brabant: ii. Siger en 1272–1275. Aubry de Reims et la scission des Normands’, RSPT lxviii (1984), 20–5.Google Scholar
12 CUP i. 532 no. 461 (5 Dec. 1275).
13 Ibid. 576–7 no. 492 (1 Oct. 1279). Cf. p. 455 no. 409 (27 Aug. 1266). In 1337 the proctor of the English nation was concerned that a dispute over the choice of an elector for the rectorial election should be resolved within the nation, lest the rector should send for the junior theologian as a substitute. See Denifle, H. and Chatelain, E., Liber procuratorum nationis anglicanae (alemanniae) in Universitate Parisiensi i, Paris 1894, repr. 1937, col. 20.Google Scholar
14 CUP i. 577–9 no. 493 (19 Oct. 1279). See, too, 575–6 no. 490 (5 Aug. 1279).
15 Ibid. 590 no. 505 (l'i July 1281).
16 Ibid. 591 no. 506 (23 July 1281).
17 Ut autem cognitìone … investiretur humanus intellectus, provisor circumspectus Deus ipse homini providit de virgulto, probe cujus medium fontem apperuit egregium, in quatuor derivatum rivulos, aquain in suo orificio conservantem. qui sue plantule irrigate fructum afferunt informantem intellectum humanum in cognitionc sui et omnium creatoris. Virgultum est Parisiensis civitas; hujus autem fons est magistrorum et scholarium universitas; orificium fontis sunt ibidem actu regentium ora: aqua orificii eorumdem documenta; plantule virgulti, sophiste celerisque regentium auditores; rivuli sunt quatuor facultates: artistarum, medicorum, canonistarum, necnon theologorum… Hec theologia est rivulus spiritualis ceterisque suppremus, cujus unda inbibitus obhorret vitia, speculatur supprema, ex delectatione illius speculacionis cathegorizando ferventi desiderio verbum Christi. Probatum est ergo, ac etiam declaratum, quod quicumquc in partibus facultatis artium suffficienter eruditur, habilis redditur ut capacior sit doctrine et saporis aliarum facultatum. Iste fons in agro Parisiensi orificum faciens est, ad quem de Dyaborigenes, Dyaboristenes, Dyarrifeos, ceterisque mundi climatibus affluentes, ibidem aquam sapientie hauriunt; et tanto, pater sancte, debet plus vestra Sanctitas eniti ad istius fontis custodiam, quanto Parisius ilium aperiri voluit Deus, per quern facta sunt omnia, cujus locum tenetis in terris; et quanto novistis, per doctrinam ibi sumptam, os vestrum et ora regentium ibidem ac qui rexerunt, corda lapidea inducere ad culturam ecclesiastice discipline': ibid. 605–6 no. 515 (beween 1283 and Oct. 1284).
18 ‘Quod si rector negligens fuerit in premissis, ad arbitrium facultatis puniatur: CUP ii. 18 no. S44 (17 lan. 1288).
19 Ibid. 26–7 no. 554 (Jan. 1289).
20 Ibid. 158–9 no. 699 (12 Mar. 1313).
21 Ibid. 186–8 no. 731 (17 Nov. 1316).
22 ‘…venerabilis matris nostre, que nos creavit in Domino, tota intencione tenemur appetere, totoque conatu querere ejus inmarcessibilcm gloriam et honorem, maxime cum ex ejus viribus preciosissima sumpta sint alimenta, desiderabilia super aurum et lapidem preciosum multum, et dulciora super mel et favum, quibus universalis ecclesia clara claret virtutibus, et sciencie fulgoribus decorata; cujus edam rami tota orbe terrarum diffusi sic mundum illuminant et decorant, ut quasi stelle splendeant in medio firmamenti, omnibus evangelizantcs populis verbum bonum, ut non sint “loquele neque sermones, quorum non audiantur vcrba corum. In omnem terram exivit sonus corum, et in fines orbis terre verba eorum”, [Ps. xviii. 4] verba doctrine, verba salutis, verba preconizantia laudes Christi, quibus aperitur populis janua paradisi, et tandem ad beatitudinem perveniunt sempiternam. Ad hec igitur et hujusmodi diligencius attendentes, videntes nichilominus que sequuntur, si doloribus afficimur non est mirum, considerantes quod Universitas mater nostra, que temporibus retroactis in tantum venerabilis apud homines habebatur, ut “sicut lilium inter spinas, sic amica nostra inter filias”, [Cant, ii. 2] quam laudabant omnes gentes et commendabant populi, terribilis apud omnes sicut castrorum acies ordinata [cf. Cant. vi. 3]: perversa nunc hominum raderne, totum vcrti in opusitam qualitatem. Nain cui, Deo teste, honor debetur et gloria, nunc, quod animi amaritudine referimus “obprobium est hominum et abjcctio plcbis. Omncs videntcs cam, dcriscrunt cam; loquti sunt labiis, et movcrunt caput” [Ps. xxi. 8]. Obprimitur, conteritur, et subponitur que est libera quasi serva, et etiam jam sint spreti filii cjus, et non sit qui consoletur eos, nisi Dominus Deus noster. Quibus sic stantibus, satis rationabilitcr est cavendum, ne dolenda, quod absit, conclusio subsequatur, ut scilicet venerabilis mater nostra, quam infirmam aspicimus et jaccntum in lectulo, resurgerc non valeat, nisi divina prudencia relevctur': ibid. 186–7.
23 The University of Paris is the channel of the river that waters the paradise of the Church in letters of Gregory ix of 14 and 16 Nov. 1229, CUP i. 127–9 nos 70–1 urbs beata Jerusalem in a letter of to May 1230, ibid. 133 no. 75; Cariath Sepher, civitas litterarum, adorned like the bride of Christ, in ‘Parens scientiarum’ of 13 Apr. 1231, ibid. 137 no. 79; cf. 149 no. 97). In Alexander iv's ‘Quasi lignum vite’ of 14 Apr. 1255 the opening words include a comparison of the university to the tree of life. The paradisa! imagery coloured the address of Jean of Maligny to Martin iv in 1283–4. See the citation in n. 17 above. An earlier instance is found in a letter of the university of 4 Feb. 1254, regarding the dispute between seculars and mendicants, ibid 252 no. 230. Alexander iv, in a letter to the bishop of Paris of 26 June 1259, described the university as ‘mater studere volentium et magistra scientiarum’, ibid. 390 no. 342. The university, in a letter of 28 June 1277, refers to its injured scholars as ‘lesi Universitatis filii matris’, ibid. 561 no. 476. Jean of Maligny speaks of the faculty of arts as a mother coming to the defence of her daughters, ibid. 618 no. 515. The proctors' book of the English Nation has ‘reverenda matre sua Universitate Parisicnsi’ and ‘per reverendam matrem nostram universitatem magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensium’ in 1357, Auctarium CUP i. cols 212, 215; ‘mater nostra sancta Universitas’, ‘ad graciam amicabilem et misericordiam piissime favorabilis matris nostre benedicte Universitatis Paris’. and even ‘mater nostra nacio Anglicana’ in 1382, ibid. cols 634, 638.
24 CUP ii. 286–8 no. 845 (26 Aug. 1325).
25 Ibid. 405–7 no. 955 (26 Feb. 1332’ June 1333).
26 Ibid. 443–7 no. 989 (20 May 1335). Cf. 467 no. 1004 (31 Aug. 1336), 489 no. 1028 (28 Oct. 1339).
27 Ibid. 455–9 no. 997 (12 Feb. 1336).
28 Ibid. 515–19 no. 1051 (20 Apr. 1341).
29 CUP iii. 45–6 no. 1234 (25 Jan. 1356).
30 Ibid. 47–50 nos 1,235–6 (25 Nov., 23 Dec. 1357).
31 Ibid. 56–9 no. 1,240 (12 July 1358).
32 ibid. 61–9, no. 1,246 (before 14 Feb. 1359). Cf. CUP ii. 606–7 1143 (June to 19 Oct. 1347).
33 (I) Primo ponit et probnrc intendit dictus procurator…quod magistri in facultate theologic [… a] x, xx, xxx, xl et l annis citra et ultra, et a tanto tempore dc quo non cxtat memoria [soleant sua statuta reg]ulare per se, habentes per se unum decanum ex se ipsis pro capite dicti corporis, sigillum et archum […quando] sic placet. Et nichilominus fucrunt et sunt de corporc Universitatis Parisiensis studii et cum aliis facultatibus […foriunt] ipsam Universitatem …': CUP iii. 61–2 no. 1246.
34 Ibid. 62–3 (viii-ix).
35 ‘…ipsa Universitas tanquam superior et domina judicat etcognoscit: Ibid. 63 (XII).
36 Ibid. 63–4 (XIII-XIV).
37 ‘Item licet prefatus rector, sic creatus et electus, Universitatis negotia juxta mandatum et deliberata ejusdem habeat procurare executioni [mandando, non] tarnen theologis, decretistis aut medicis in aliquo preest tanquam superior aut caput, in tantum eciam quod in privilegiis Universitatis [ipsius] nominatur aut inscribitur regulariter, quinimo hujusmodi privilegia communiter diriguntur universitati magistrorum et studentium [Parisius, minime] ipsius rectoris mentione facta, licet ipsa Universitas nunquam ipso rectore careat': ibid. 64 (xv).
38 Ibid. (XVI-XIX).
39 Ibid. 64–6 (XX-XXIIII [bis]).
40 Ibid. 66 (XXVII).
41 ‘…ipsam Universitate aut facultates theologie, dccretorum et medicine non regat, sed ab ipsa Universitate regatur, dirigatur et destinetur ad negocia ejus, prout per earn deliberata fuerint, procuranda et executioni mandanda, quod et necessario per suum juramentum tenetur explere’: Ibid. (XXIX).On 18 Jan. 1354, in general congregation, the faculties of theology and law contested a form of address of a letter to the king of Navarre, beginning ‘Rector’. The following day congregation agreed to its inclusion. Sec Auctarium CUP i. cols 167–8.
42 CUP iii. 68 (XXXVII).
43 See above, p. 515.
44 ‘Cum dicat idem cancellarius in ratione per quam nititur declarare se gravatum esse, quod ipse tanquam cancellarius est capud Universitatis, una ncgationc illud capud destruendo, dicimus quod ipse non est capud Universitatis, quoniam, sicut, manifestum est omnibus qui statum Universitatis noverunt, Universitas habet aliud capud a cancellarlo Parisiensis ecclesie; et ideo, si cancellarius predictus vellet se sicut capud corpori Universitatis, quod nobile est, cum vero Universitatis capite alligare, deturparetur corpus Universitatis, nam per hoc Universitas in formam monstri bicipitis redigeretur; quod non sustineretur ab Universitate. Item, si cancellarius vellet esse cum vero Universitatis capite adhuc capud, jam vellet per hoc, ut videtur, Universitatem regi per duo capita; ad quod sequeretur, quod Universitas, et per eum, in processu temporis periret; quoniam dicit philosophus quod perit civitas que pluri uno regitur capite. Item, Universitas, sicut ipsa tota confuctur, nullo medio pertinet ad Romanam ecclesiam; pro quanto, pater sancte, Parisiensis Universitas non credit nee confitetur supra suum rectorem habere capud aliud a vestra Sanctitate; ad quod sequitur quod cancellarius in dicendo se Universitatis capud esse, locutus est contra vestram Sanctitaem capitose et fatue’: CUP i. 618 no. 515 (between 1283 and 24 Oct. 1284).
45 ‘…ipse cancellarius Parisiensis nec est caput Universitatis, nec alicujus facultatis’: CUP. 339 no. 1,500 (May-Aug. 1385).
46 Ibid. 565–7 no. 1,624 (22 May 1379). The text of Charles v's letter is given there, 564 no. 1,623 (21 May 1379).
47 Ibid. 567–72 (24 May 1379).
48 Ibid. 604 no. 1,678 (28 Jan.-25 Feb. 1394).
49 Ibid. 611–12 no. 1,680 (Feb. 1394).
50 Weijers, Olga, ‘Collège, une institution avant le lettre’, Vivarium xxi (1983), 73–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar, has shown that it was only in the second half of the thirteenth century that the colleges of Paris came to be designated collegia, and then primarily in the sense of the community. Collegium was also regularly used at that time and later to designate the whole community of masters and scholars at Paris. Michaud-Quantin, Pierre, Universitas, expressions du mouvement communitaire dans le Moyen-Age latin, Paris 1970Google Scholar, has studied the terminology of cozrporate life that made it possible to talk not only of the academic community corporatcly as ‘universitas magistrorum et scolarium’ but also of the ecclesial community as ‘universitas fidelium’. Post, Gaines, ‘Parisian masters as a corporation, 1200–1246’, Speculum ix (1934), 421–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar, treated the corporate life of the university in an earlier period with a different interest from that pursued here, looking to the origins of juridical status as a corporate body.
51 I have treated this theme in my paper on ‘Papal ideals and the University of Paris, 1170–1303’, in The Religious Roles of the Papacy: ideals and realities, 1150–1300. -Acts of a Conference held at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto, 13–16 May 1985, ed. C.J. Ryan.
52 See Black, Antony, ‘The Universities and the Council of Basle: Collegium and Concilium’, in Ijsewijn, Jozef and Paquet, Jacques (eds), The Universities in the Late Middle Ages, Louvain 1978, 511–23Google Scholar; and idem, Council and Commune: the conciliar movement and the fifteenth-century heritage, London-Shepherdstown 1979, 28–31Google Scholar. Ullmann, Walter, The Medieval Papacy, St Thomas and Beyond, London 1960, 28–9Google Scholar, says that, as a consequence of the decree of the fourth session of the Council of Constance, ‘The Pope is no more than a caput secundarium in this scheme of things and, above all, he becomes structurally a member, admittedly of some importance, of the Church itself: he stands within the congregatio fidelium and has ceased to form an estate of his own, standing outside and above the Church and therefore above the law, the very hallmark of the proper papal monarchic doctrine; his earlier visible detachment from the Church gives way to his being incorporated into the Church, hence the easy applicability of corporation laws’. A comparison might be drawn with the university's understanding of the headship of the rector as a secondary headship under the pope and within the congregatio universitatis and subject to its corporate laws.