Paris
City of the French kings on the Seine. Its schools drew masters and students in the twelfth century, and by 1215 the masters and scholars together formed a university with statutes of its own.
Peter Abelard came to Paris as a student because, he says, dialectic flourished there above all, and later taught on the Mont Sainte-Geneviève, then outside the city (Abelard, History of My Calamities 2). In 1200 King Philip II gave its students the protection of the church courts against his own provost (Philip II, privilege for the scholars of Paris (1200) Munro, pp. 4–7). The statutes of 1215 are addressed to all the masters and scholars at Paris (Robert of Courçon, Statutes for Paris (1215)), and in 1231 Pope Gregory IX called the city “the mother of the sciences” (Gregory IX, Parens scientiarum).
What happened here
- about 1150 to 1215, estimated dateThe Schools Become Universities
The schools of twelfth-century Paris grow into a self-governing body of masters and students, and an emperor’s law protects travelling scholars. Abelard, Gratian and Peter Lombard supply a method and books; kings and popes grant privileges.
- about 1265 to 1273, estimated dateThomas Aquinas Writes the Summa Theologiae
The Dominican friar Thomas Aquinas, pupil of Albert the Great and master at Paris, sets out theology in three parts, in questions and articles, drawing on Scripture, church doctors and philosophers. He stops writing at Naples in December 1273 and dies three months later.
- 1287 to 1288, firm dateRabban Sauma, a Monk from Beijing, Visits Rome and Paris
Rabban Sauma, a monk of the Church of the East born in Khanbaliq, comes west as envoy of the Mongol king Arghun. He recites his creed to the cardinals in Rome, meets the kings of France and England, and in 1288 receives communion from Pope Nicholas IV.
- 27 September 1540, firm dateThe Society of Jesus Is Founded
Pope Paul III approves the Society of Jesus, a company of ten priests, masters of the University of Paris, led by Ignatius of Loyola. Its members vow poverty, chastity and obedience, with a special vow to go wherever the pope sends them.
- 24 August 1572, firm dateThe St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre
After the king’s Catholic sister marries the Protestant Henry of Navarre, the Huguenot leader Coligny is shot in Paris. From 24 August 1572 he and thousands of French Protestants are killed there and in other towns. Accounts of who decided it differed from the first.
- 1653 to 1713, firm dateJansenism and the Bull Unigenitus
In 1653 Rome condemns five propositions on grace. The defenders of Cornelius Jansen condemn them too but deny that they are in his book; Rome defines that they are, and in 1713 the bull Unigenitus condemns 101 propositions from Quesnel’s New Testament.
- 1790 to 1801, firm dateThe French Revolution and the Church
The National Assembly takes the church’s lands and in 1790 remakes the French church by law, demanding an oath that Pius VI condemns. Priests who refuse it are killed in Paris in 1792 and outlawed in 1793. In 1801 Bonaparte and Pius VII restore Catholic worship by a concordat.
Primary sources
The History of My Calamities
- Abelard, History of My Calamities 2sourcebooks.fordham.edu
Statutes for the Masters and Scholars of Paris
- Robert of Courçon, Statutes for Paris (1215)sourcebooks.fordham.edu
Parens scientiarum
- Gregory IX, Parens scientiarumsourcebooks.fordham.edu