The Nations of the University of Paris: The Rise and Fall of a Medieval Corporation
by Katie Russell

The Rise of the University of Paris as one of the primary centers of knowledge in Europe is linked to a series of auspicious coincidences. These twists of fate led Paris to emerge as the educational capital of northwestern Europe in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries. In the middle ages, the success of a university depended on administrators being able to hire and retain "teachers of sufficient eminence" who could then attract an ample supply of preferably rich and noble students to make the operation of the studium worthwhile (Vandermeersch 229). Masters collected fees directly from the scholars who registered under them; if the teachers were paid well by the students they attracted, they were happy and stayed. Students were more attracted by teachers than by the name of the school, and Paris had William of Champeaux and later his student and principal contradictor Peter Abelard on its long list of distinguished lecturers (Daly 18). The University of Paris also flourished as a result of the focus on and specialization in theology, then referred to as the "queen of the sciences" (Daly 19). Scholasticism's basic premise in that era, according to historian Joseph Dahmus, was that "faith and reason complemented one another and that reason was useful in explaining the faith" (qtd. in Rice 71). Military expeditions had returned with works by Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Galen as well as new knowledge from Islam and the Byzantine Empire (Rice 71).

As scholasticism grew in popularity and the interests of scholastics broadened, the road was paved for the transformation of traditional cathedral schools of the church into medieval universities like the University of Paris. Universities were essentially educational guilds. The word universitas basically meant "all, in a collective sense" and could be used to describe any group of people coming together and "cooperating for a common end" (Painter 468). Similar to ancient Athens and Alexandria, teachers and students came together in Paris informally to pursue common interests; in Paris, this was theology. These informal bands of students and masters came to be known as studium generale1 (Brubacher 430). Within this organization existed the universitas (guilds). Paris, like Bologna and Oxford, was never formally founded, and its date of origin is uncertain. All three were recognized studium generale by the fourth quarter of the twelfth century (Adamson 201). Paris received confirmation from the pope of their official status as studium generale in 1292 (Verger 36), although the university had all the characteristics of that title long before as evidenced by the accomplishments and records of Abelard who had died in 1142. In addition, a charter in 1200 by Philip Augustus (King Philip II of France) granted privileges to students and masters of Paris and made a specific reference to the university (Painter 470).

Fortification of the Masters

But conflict and discrimination was inevitable as masters and scholars from various geographical and cultural backgrounds came together in a foreign land. Two-time Pulitzer Prize Winner and historian Barbara W. Tuchman comments on the Parisian atmosphere surrounding the medieval studia:

As a capital city with a great university, Paris was host to a turbulent horde of students from all over Europe. They had privileged status not subject to local justice but only to the King, with the result that their crimes and disorders went largely unpunished. They lived miserably, overcharged for dirty rooms in dark neighborhoods. They sat on stools in cold lecture halls lit only by two candles and were perennially complained of for debauchery, rape, robbery, and all other enormities hateful to God. (qtd. in Rice 72)

According to Brubacher, quarrels between town and gown (Parisian citizens and the studium generale) existed almost as long as higher education, often arising over rents or the quality or price of supplies, food, and drink. Because universities initially rented rooms for their lectures and were not really tied to any particular town (except in name), they often threatened to "exercise the right of cessatio" (relocating class to another town and not holding class in that town any longer). Cessatio was comparable to the threat of a union strike today, as the town's economy would have suffered immensely without the university. After the university came to own permanent buildings, this was no longer a real threat to the town (434).

A portion of the underlying cause of the clashes was the chronological immaturity of both the masters and students in the Faculty of the Arts at Paris. Fifteen was not an uncommon age for a new student (Brubacher 435). In the fourteenth century, Cobban asserts the age range was between 21 and 28 for masters of the arts, many under the age of 25. In contrast, regent masters in theology were mainly in their late thirties and forties, with a few in their fifties. This age discrepancy between masters was primarily due to the lure of positions outside of the university or the pursuit of study in another faculty (English 59). The separateness of each nation instilled a loyalty to the nation instead of to the faculty or the university. This often led to bitter feuding usually fueled by geographic origins2 and disputes over elections or boundaries (Cobban, Medieval 88). Dr. Sidney Painter, former chairman of the Department of History at John Hopkins University, notes that a German master, who had previously slain several of his colleagues, was finally dismissed after stabbing a fellow master to death in a faculty meeting (475).

Bloody riots, robberies, and burglaries were fairly frequent occurrences and all too common. Painter adds that many criminals used the fairly easy to acquire status of student as a cloak for their actions because of their secular exemption and the mild punishments of the ecclesiastical authorities. "In Paris of the fifteenth century the worst criminal section of the city lay just behind the university, and many of its inhabitants masqueraded as students" (Painter, 475). In conjunction with the internal conflicts of the studium, local townspeople posed serious threats to the masters and scholars. Strangers were rarely welcomed in medieval towns and were often considered "legitimate prey" by the towns' citizens (Brubacher 431). Because of this hostility, nations arose out of practicality for protection against the exploitation of the town, upon whom they relied on for food, lodging, and supplies. Over time, these organizations of masters and students took on the medieval legal form of universitas. These corporate organizations of higher learning came to be called universitas magistrorum et scholarium, later shortened to university for convenience (Brubacher 430).

Division of the Faculty of Arts into Nations

As a result of the abuses, both within the studium and at the hands of the Parisian citizens, the masters banded together and formed alliances within their respective faculties (arts, theology, medicine, and law). The Faculty of the Arts was by far the largest group because students had to first obtain a degree in arts as a prerequisite to medicine and theology, although, interestingly enough, it was not a prerequisite for canon or civil law (Painter 473). According to revered medieval historian and renowned author Alan Cobban, the masters and scholars of the arts comprised about two-thirds of the total university membership in the thirteenth century. Prior to 1219, the masters of the four faculties acted together, as one body, and occasionally after that year. But, for the most part, the masters of the arts acted on behalf of the entire university. They developed a strong, corporate identity and "eventually became the most powerful constitutional unit in the studium" (Medieval 84). The four nations within the University of Paris developed out of necessity—for protection. Yet in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the nations began to resemble powerful, albeit financially meager, corporations more than asylums for their foreign members.

The nations reached full development sometime between 1215 and 1222 (Daly 48). The earliest existing reference to the nations at the University of Paris was revealed in a letter sent by Pope Honorius III on May 31, 1222 (Gabriel 1). But by 1219, the masters of the arts had divided themselves into four nations: France, Normandy, Picard, and England (Painter 470-471). The French nation included masters and students of the Ile de France, the south of France, the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor. The Norman nation was comprised of those masters and students from the province of Roven. Students and masters from northeastern France and the Old Low Countries made up the Picard nation (Ridder-Symoens, "Mobility" 283). And the English-German nation consisted of the British Isles, the German Empire, Eastern Europe, and Scandinavia (Leff 333). Unlike the nations at Bologna, local masters of the arts took shelter under the umbrella of a nation. Why the nations were limited to four is unclear. However, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, nations were central in the function of the Paris studium (Cobban, Medieval 90).

Nations as Corporations

The nations of Paris had many similarities with corporations today, and were, in fact, considered as such in medieval times. Upon admission, a student joined the society freely. They were able to seal deeds with their own seals, sue civilly in their own name, and enforce their own laws and statutes on members (Verger 38). There were four stages in the growth of the university at Paris as a corporate organization according to Dr. L. J. Daly, Professor of History at St. Louis University. First, there was the codification of unwritten customs into a body of written law that governed the university (Daly 21). Second, the university acquired the right to sue or be sued (Daly 21). Third, an official seal was created to affix to bonds to ensure repayment of borrowed money (Daly 21-2). The university, as well as each individual nation, had their own official seal (Gieysztor 112). And fourth, they elected or appointed officials to conduct their business (Daly 22). This was especially important because each nation maintained their own arts schools, most located in the Rue du Fouarre on the left bank of the river (Cobban, Medieval 89). In addition, universities had to get charters because they were corporations. These could be attained either from the church or from the state (Brubacher 430). Each individual nation had a distinct, corporate society: elected officers headed by a proctor, statutes and archives, finances, a seal (much like corporate letterhead today), schools, assembly points, and feast days (Cobban, Medieval 87). Proctors, bursars, librarians, and other officials of the nations kept books and records, which included finances, the geographical and social origin of their members, and information from everyday life for the nations' members (Gieysztor 115-16).

Hierarchy of Officials

The University of Paris developed a distinct hierarchy of officials, reminiscent of a modern corporation, which represented and conducted the business of the nations and the university. The first traces of the head of the university, the chancellor, were in 1214 (Painter 471). The chancellor was the official entrusted by the Bishop of Paris to act as his delegate and supervise the university and its colleges, similar to a superintendent or executive officer. Painter explains the chancellor had the authority to issue teaching licenses and permitted qualified masters to hold lectures in houses near cathedral of Notre Dame on the Ile de la Cité—but he could also take licenses away. Degrees for teaching were initially granted by the chancellor even though the masters gave the lectures, conducted the examinations, and collected the fees from the students (Painter 470). The chancellor also supervised parliamentary inspections of the university, sealed all letters dealing with education, and supervised the enforcement of royal regulations in every matter (Ridder-Symoens, "Management" 180). Nevertheless, the masters in Paris defied the chancellor of the cathedral school of Notre Dame when the flower of the university was just beginning to bud. The chancellor tried to exercise too much control of the masters, more than they were willing to accept, and the masters united to defy his power (Brubacher 430). The chancellor's authority was consequently reduced to formally granting licenses to candidates already approved by the examining masters of the faculty involved (Leff 334-35). From the second half of the fifteenth century on, chancellors were usually non-resident dignitaries selected for political influence that could be wielded on behalf of the university (Cobban, English 219).

Because masters rejected the chancellor in the beginning of the thirteenth century, the rector as head of the university was unique to Paris (Leff 334). By 1249, a single rector had emerged as the elected head of all the masters of the arts (Painter 471; Cobban, Medieval 84). Since the arts was the largest of the faculties, Painter contends the rector claimed to be the "chief officer of the university" (471). After a long, bitter battle with the dean of the faculty of theology, the rector was recognized officially as the head of the university in 1274, even though it is presumed that he acted as such prior to that date (Cobban, Medieval 84). Cobban asserts, "But even when the headship of the rector was universally accepted, there was no question of rectorial meddling in the government of the superior faculties which remained independent and self-contained" (Medieval 85). Rectors initially only held office for a month to six weeks, although their term was later extended to three months (Cobban, Medieval 85-86). Hilde de Ridder-Symoens, professor of medieval history at the Free University in Amsterdam, maintains that the rector, or acting rector, represented the university to the outside world, coordinated management of the academic corporations (the nations), chaired the general assembly, served as lord justice of the academic courts of justice, and took responsibility for education, discipline, management and finances, chaired the council and assemblies, and conducted promotions. At the end of his term, he gave the great seal, his books and records, and the cash to his successor (following an audit). The rector was the first in the hierarchy (préseance) of the university and also held high rank in the town or central government. The rector was assisted by one or more secretaries (dictators, registrars, scribes, and clerks), notaries, syndics (agents), and beadles (assistant managers). These aides were all masters of the arts, if not bachelors or licentiates in law ("Management" 173).

The rector, or proctor, was the head of the nation until 1245 when proctors are first distinguished from rectors in records. University charters officially referred to a proctor around 1210 (Painter 470). Each nation had an elected proctor. In 1249, the four proctors of the nations were named as the electors of the rector (Daly 51-52). Proctors had to be at least twenty-one years of age and regent masters (teaching in the university when elected) (Daly 52). They were responsible for the execution of the public business of the university (publica universitatis negocia) (Cobban, Medieval 106). Initially, notes Daly, the proctor collected dues like a treasurer. Later, the receptor (receiver) took over those duties. The proctor became the head of the nation and acted as intermediary between the nation and the university, but his first obligation was to the nation. He was bound by an oath to punish those disobeying the nation's regulations or the university's punitive endorsements (53).

The dean (decanus) first emerged in Paris in the thirteenth century (Gieysztor). He was basically an assistant to the proctor. John Brubacher, a late professor of education at the University of Michigan, notes that the most senior member of the faculty originally held the position (431). Later, deans were chosen from among the councils (Ridder-Symoens, "Management" 169-170). Deans also had the assistance of bursars (receptors), a secretary (notarius), a treasurer, and beadles in completing their tasks (Geiysztor 112; Ridder-Symoens, "Management" 169-170). De Ridder-Symoens adds that responsibility for drafting statutes, deciding the sensible methods of teaching, the programme, the examinations, and the granting of degrees fell to the dean and his council (concilia facultatis).

Similar to businesses today, the assistants and clerks aided the executives in keeping the nations in operation. The temptator was an administrative position that could be held by first-place licentiati. He decided whether the scholars "were sufficiently well instructed to warrant the license in the faculty of arts" (Sullivan 136). Nations had their own bursars (receptors) and beadles (bedelli). Paris elected two beadles annually, the bedellus maior (major beadle), the proctor's man, and the sub-bedellus or bedellus minor to assist the major (Gieysztor 115). Proctors appointed, swore in, and paid messengers (nuntii volantes minores or ordinarii) who took messages and money between a nation's members and their families. Later in the Middle Ages, principal messengers (nuntii maiores) were also appointed by proctors to function as bankers, financiers, and money-changers in the service of the university (Gieysztor 115).

Accounting

As is the case with most corporations, the nations had regulations and procedures in place to oversee their working capital. Astrik Gabriel, director and professor at the Mediaeval Institute of the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, explains that on election day, the receptor, after swearing an oath, receives from the retiring receptor a final financial report and an accounting of his completed term in office. In the event that the receptor was unable to provide a satisfactory accounting of his receipts and did not meet his expenses, the retiring receptor appointed a respondus to pledge on his behalf. After the new receptor took office, he was obligated to present the nation with a bondsman that would insure the funds that would pass through his hands in the course of his duties as receiver or treasurer. The bondsman was usually a reputable and well-known Parisian merchant (most commonly a pharmacist), but sometimes a master or beadle from a fellow nation, and insured anywhere from 20 to 200 pounds. On the occasion that the receptor did not pay his debts to the nation, the bondsman could be held liable up to the maximum amount he insured. If the receptor was unable to provide a suitable bondsman, he was permitted to offer a book3 as collateral. Gabriel notes that on June 15, 1428, the receptor Johannes Johannis offered his copy of Albert the Great's De animalibus as security (175-6).

Finances

The nations came to have their own inheritances (from alumni and benefactors), resources (fees and fines), and income from interest (on loans and real estate). The revenues of the four nations were kept independently of each other despite the legate's (deputy emissary) prohibition of separate treasuries (Daly 51). Although income increased over the course of time, the expenses crept up as well. Many teachers, in addition to a salary, received goods and privileges, fees, honoraria, and other forms of compensation for their services—rewards that often exceeded the salary (Vandermeersch 233). These payments, combined with the inclination of the nations' leaders to consume good food and drink and other operating expenses such as scribes and waivers of bursae (essentially tuition) for impoverished scholars, kept the net profit at minimal levels. Gabriel contends the most prosperous year for the English-German nation, for instance, was 1460/61 in which the net income totaled 170 pounds, four solidi, and two denarii. As a frame of reference, a beadle was gifted ten pounds in 1487 for his marriage, potpourri for a chest was approximately one solidus, and a good meal cost four to five solidi. Gabriel argues that, although the community occasionally lived poorly, sometimes in the red, the goal was not to amass wealth but to reinvest the revenues into the welfare of the corporation members (182-8).

Influence and Control of the Nations

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the corporate nations wielded a great deal of influence and control both within and outside of the university. Backed by numerical advantage and sheer brute force, they controlled the university. The French studia had permanent representatives at the parliaments and the Cour conservatrice des privileges royaux in the form of lawyers and solicitors (Ridder-Symoens, "Management" 178). According to Painter, leaders obtained for themselves extensive secular authority. For example, a student would commit an offense like vandalism or rape; the local law would try to arrest him and a riot would ensue as students were also armed. Royal troops would then be sent to intervene. After the riot, university officials would plead to the king, who then generally increased their secular power. If not, the officials could usually rely on papal support. Either way, they almost always won. Masters and students were "theoretically exempt" from arrest or punishment because they wore a tonsure (the shaved crown or patch worn by clerics) and were in religious orders (472). In 1200, a charter by Philip Augustus specifically states, "Neither our provost nor our judges shall lay a hand on a student for any offense whatever; nor shall they place him in our prison." The charter continues that if an imprisonable offense did occur, the offender was to be turned over to an ecclesiastical judge4 (Wieruszowski 137). This is similar to the diplomatic immunity many foreign visitors receive today. Unlike many cathedral schools, teaching licenses (licentiae docendi) granted by Paris University were licenses ubique docendi, which allowed them to teach throughout over Europe (Verger 36). This not only increased the numbers on the registrar, but also the overall strength of the guilds.

The Decline and Demise of the Parisian Nations

Over time, the need for and power of the nations dwindled. Competing universities were established in Germany, provincial France, Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, Scandinavia, Scotland, and Spain in the late fourteenth century. This caused a decline in attendance at Paris by foreign enrollees as students were encouraged by their homeland leaders to pursue their educations in their mother country (Cobban, Medieval 90). But the nations remained a vital force in university life until they went into a state of decline in the mid-fifteenth century. At universities, emphasizes Painter, masters could grant graces (waiver of certain degree requirements) for students having difficulty meeting degree requirements. Masters at Paris were often cooperative with these student requests for a consideration such as a banquet "with plenty of food and drink." Soon, no one was meeting the requirements but still receiving their degrees via graces, so long as the students had enough time and money. Eventually, no one attended lectures. Since student fees for lectures paid the masters, eventually lectures were no longer held (474). Furthermore, the nations faced dramatic declines in enrollment due to the Hundred Years War and the plague. Henry II ordered all the masters from England home from Paris in 1167 because of "continuous hostilities" between him and Louis VII (Painter 471). Cobban points out that the English-German nation had a handful of members in 1383 and only two masters on record in 1438 (Medieval 89). The four nations also declined in importance in the late fifteenth and especially in the sixteenth century. In 1619, the general assembly of the nations was officially abolished by edict of Louis XIIII (Ridder-Symoens, "Management" 162). The final nail was driven in 1793 when a decree by the National Convention ultimately suppressed the nations entirely (Cobban, Medieval 90).

Endnotes

1 Alan Cobban, Professor of History at the University of Liverpool, interprets studium to mean the organized facilities for advanced study and generale as the ability of the school to attract students from beyond the local region. The studium generale offered more than the four faculties of the arts, medicine, canon and civil law, and theology and was able to attract and retain a core of regent or teaching masters to meet the degree requirements. After the mid-thirteenth century, an endorsement from the king or papacy was required (Cobban, Medieval English University 3-4).

2 Jacques de Vitry (1160/70-1240), a famous preacher who had studied theology at Paris, declared that foreign students were responsible for the debauchery and drunkenness afflicting the Latin Quarter:

The English are drunken cowards, the French proud, soft and effeminate; the Germans are quarrelsome and foul-mouthed, the Normans vain and haughty, the men of Poitou treacherous and miserly, the Burgundians stupid brutes, the Bretons frivolous and flighty, the Lombards miserly, spiteful and evil-minded, the Romans vicious and violent, the Sicilians tyrannical and cruel, then men of Brabant are thieves and the Flemings are debauched (qtd in Ridder-Symoens, "Mobility" 282).

3 A rare and valuable commodity, books were still reproduced by hand mainly by clergymen and scribes. Copyists, as well as paper, were in limited supply.

4 Members of the studia usually faced penalties of fines (to be paid in money or wine), suspension, or expulsion if convicted by the university's court. The University of Paris even had its own prison until it was banned in 1231 (Cobban, English 218).

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