La Sorbonne
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. The university as such was older and was never completely centered on the Sorbonne.
Of the thirteen current successor universities, the first four have a presence in the historical Sorbonne building, and three include "Sorbonne" in their names.
The universities are now essentially independent of each other, and some fall under the Académie of Créteil or the Académie of Versailles rather than the Académie of Paris. Some residual administrative functions of the thirteen universities are formally supervised by a common chancellor, the Rector of the Académie of Paris, with offices in the Sorbonne.
As of 2006, Maurice Quénet is the Rector of the Academy of Paris and Chancellor of the Universities of Paris. The Vice-Chancellor of the Universities of Paris is Pierre Gregory. Despite this link, and the historical ties, there is no University of Paris system that binds the universities at an academic level.
The Sorbonne today, from a similar point of view
Origin and early organization
Similarly to the other early medieval universities (University of Bologna, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford), the University of Paris was well established before it received a specific foundation act from the Church in 1200. The earliest historical reference to the university is found in Matthew of Paris's reference to his own teacher's study (an abbot of St.
Albans) and his acceptance into "the fellowship of the elect Masters" at the university of Paris in about 1170. Additionally, it is known that Pope Innocent III, having assumed the papacy at the age of 37, had completed his studies in at the University of Paris by 1182 at the age of 21. It grew up in the latter part of the twelfth century around the Notre Dame Cathedral as a corporation similar to other medieval corporations, such as guilds of merchants or artisans.
The medieval Latin term universitas had the more general meaning of a guild. Later universities such as the Charles University in Prague or the University of Heidelberg had different origins.
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 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.
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 were often very young, entering the school at age 13 or 14 and staying for 6 to 12 years.
The original schools
Three schools were especially famous at Paris, the palatine or palace school, the school of Notre-Dame, and that of Sainte-Geneviève Abbey. 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.
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 St-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 St-Victor. Victor.
The plan of studies expanded in the schools of Paris, as it did elsewhere.
In France, first Orléans and then Paris erected chairs of canon law. Knowledge was proved by examination, the appointment came from the examiner himself, who was the head of the school, and was known as scholasticus, capiscol, and chancellor.
No one could teach without it; on the other hand, the examiner could not refuse to award it when the applicant deserved it.
The School of St-Victor, which shared the obligations as well as the immunities of the abbey, conferred the licence in its own right; the school of Notre-Dame depended on the diocese, that of Ste-Geneviève on the abbey or chapter. The diocese and the abbey or chapter, through their chancellor, gave professorial investiture in their respective territories where they had jurisdiction.
Besides Notre-Dame, Ste-Geneviève, and St-Victor, there were several schools on the "Island" and on the "Mount".
"Whoever", says Crevier "had the right to teach might open a school where he pleased, provided it was not in the vicinity of a principal school." Thus a certain Adam, who was of English origin, kept his "near the Petit Pont"; another Adam, Parisian by birth, "taught at the Grand Pont which is called the Pont-au-Change" (Hist. The chroniclers of the time called Paris the city of letters par excellence, placing it above Athens, Alexandria, Rome, and other cities: "At that time", we read in the Chroniques de St-Denis, "there flourished at Paris philosophy and all branches of learning, and there the seven arts were studied and held in such esteem as they never were at Athens, Egypt, Rome, or elsewhere in the world" ("Les gestes de Philippe-Auguste").
Thomas of Canterbury, wished to submit his cause to a tribunal composed of professors of Paris, chosen from various provinces (Hist. This was probably the beginnings of that division according to "nations" which was later to play an important part in the university.
Henry Denifle and some others hold that this honour is exclusive to the school of Notre-Dame (Chartularium 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 resume the interrupted teaching of theology.
But the university was in large part founded about 1208, as is shown by a Bull of Innocent III. 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).
Then the term was lengthened to one, two, and sometimes three years. The four nations constituted the faculty of arts or letters.
The territories covered by the four nations were:
French nation: all the Romance-speaking parts of Europe except those included within the Norman and Picard nations
English nation (renamed 'German nation' after the Hundred Years' War): the British Isles, the Germanic-speaking parts of continental Europe (except those included within the Picard nation), and the Slavic-speaking parts of the Europe.
The faculty of medicine seems to have been the last to form. The faculty of arts continued to have four procurators of its four nations and its head was the rector.
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. Often, masters lived in each college and oversaw its activities.
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).
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". After a century, people recognized that the new system was less favourable to study.
In 1968 students were protesting the organization of the university and its restrictions, as well as general social issues.
The University of Paris has since been reorganised into several autonomous universities and schools, some of which still carry the Sorbonne name. It was divided for use among several of the universities of Paris, the prestigious École Nationale des Chartes and the Rector's services.
In March 2006 la Sorbonne was occupied again as part of country-wide protests against the government's introduction of the CPE (first employment contract), which some young people thought would adversely affect them
Present universities
The Sorbonne as seen from the Rue des Écoles
The thirteen successor universities to the University of Paris are now split over the three academies of the Île-de-France region.
Thirteen successor universities
Five alliances of universities
Most of these universities have joined, or are in the process of forming (March 2008), new groupings along the lines of a collegiate university.