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The Instructional Programme of the Mendicant Convents at Paris in the Early Fourteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2016

William J. Courtenay*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin
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Extract

The history of teaching and study at the Parisian convents of the mendicant orders has largely been viewed and written as part of the history of the university of Paris. The Parisian doctors of theology at the Dominican, Franciscan, Augustinian, and Carmelite convents, from the time of Bonaventure, Albert, Thomas, and Giles of Rome until the end of the Middle Ages, were regent masters, or professors, at the university, at least for a year or more after inception as masters. And presumably mendicant students sent to Paris for theological study were being sent there for university studies; the brightest of them would be expected to complete the university degree in theology. The connection between the mendicant masters and the intellectual history of the university of Paris in the second half of the thirteenth century is so strong that it is almost impossible to think of these convents except as religious colleges attached to the university of Paris.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1999 

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References

1 Rashdall, I, pp. 371–6; Leff, , Paris and Oxford, pp. 3538Google Scholar; Hinnebusch, W. A., The History of the Dominican Order, 2 (New York, 1973), pp. 44–9, 5 862Google Scholar; Verger, J., ‘Studia et universités’, in Le Scuole degli ordini mendicanti (secoli XIII-XIV) (Todi, 1978), pp. 173–203, esp. pp. 189–90Google Scholar: ‘Les historiens distinguent habituellement les studia Mendiants intégrés dans les universités et ceux qui ne l’étaient pas, coexistant simplement avec l’université dans la même ville et généralement le même quartier. Dans le premier cas, illustré avant tout par Paris et Oxford, les studia Mendiants … étaient considérés comme des écoles de théologie analogues aux écoles séculières ou canoniales, l’ensemble de ces écoles formant la faculté de théologie.’

2 Rashdall, , Universities, i, pp. 471–86.Google Scholar

3 Ypma, E., La Formation des professeurs chez les ermites de Saint-Augustin de 1216 à 1334 (Paris, 1956), pp. 72–3.Google Scholar

4 While Hinnebusch (History, 2, p. 59) gave the impression that Dominican students sent to Paris were sent there for the university degree in theology, other Dominican historians (e.g., A. Dondaine, ‘Documents pour servir à l’histoire de la province de France: L’appel au concile (1303)’, AFP, 22 (1952), pp. 381–39) acknowledged that the quota system through which the provinces were obliged to send students to Paris produced a body of students (around 150 by his estimate) far larger than could be accommodated at the level of the baccalaureate.

5 Courtenay, W.J., Adam Wodeham (Leiden, 1978), pp. 45–53, at 48–9.Google Scholar

6 CUP, 2, pp. 469–71, #1006.

7 Franciscan legislation regarding the qualifications, quota, and selection process for study at the Parisian convent remained relatively the same from the mid-thirteenth to mid-fourteenth century. For the legislation from the constitutions of 1260 at the general chapter at Narbonne, sec Ehrle, F., ‘Die altesten Redaktionen der General-Constitutionen des Franziskanerordens’, Archiv fur Literatur una Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters, 6 (1892), 1–136, at pp. 33–5Google Scholar. The relevant legislation from the constitution of 1292 appears in CUP, 2, pp. 56–9, #580.

While requirements and procedures for study at Cordeliers may have remained relatively stable, the larger Franciscan educational system of which it was a part probably underwent expansion and change between 1280 and 1330. It is difficult to know to what extent the levels and geographical range of the educational programme as described in the constitution ‘Redemptor noster’ of Benedict XII in 1336 (CUP, 2, pp. 469–71, #1006) reflect conditions in 1300. Unfortunately, standard works on the early development of Franciscan education, such as M. Brlek, De Evolutione iuridica studiorum in ordine minorum (Dubrovnik, 1942), depend heavily on fourteenth-century evidence, but Beaumont-Maillet, L., Le Grand Couvent da Cordeliers de Paris (Paris, 1975), pp. 20–8Google Scholar, is more sensitive to late thirteenth-century conditions. The following description depends primarily on the legislation of 1292.

8 CUP, 2, p. 57: ‘Item mittendi Parisius ad studium generale primo exerceantur tribus vel duobus annis post novitiatum in aliquo studio provincie sue vel vicine, nisi adeo litterati fuerint quod post novitiatum continuo possint mitri. Non mittantur tamen nisi de auctoritate ministri cum Consilio et assensu Capiruli provincialis.’

9 Although four years of pre-baccalaureate study at Paris for the Franciscan order is generally accepted, the text on which this calculation is based seems to apply to the baccalaureate rather than the lectorate. Ibid.: ‘Mi autem qui mittuntur Parisius studeant quatuor annis ad minus, nisi adeo provecti fuerint, quod merito judicentur ydonei ad doctoris officium exequendum.’ The difference in length of Parisian study among the three major orders may not be accurate, since the statutory language usually expresses minimum requirements rather than fixed terms of residency.

10 For the Franciscan legislation; CUP, 2, p. 57: Tossit autem quelibet provincia habere duos studentes Parisius sine aliqua provisione, quibus provideatur in libris secundum arbitrium provincialis Capituli et ministri. Quilibet vero studens Parisius de gratia xii libras parisiens, procuret pro conventus ipsius necessitatibus assignari.’

The Dominicans initially permitted three students per province. But when, between 1294 and 1303, the number of Dominican provinces was increased from twelve to eighteen, the number of students sent to Paris from any one province (other than France) at the expense of the order was reduced from three to two. Although Antoine Dondaine interpreted the Dominican rule to mean two or three students per province sent each year, a more reasonable interpretation – one that is supported by the 1303 document referred to earlier – is two students per province in residence at the respective Paris convent at any one time.

11 ‘The ideal cursus honorum is indicated by the language in the margin of the manuscript of the 1292 Franciscan constitution: ibid., p. 58: ‘ad lectoriam, baccallariam, magisterium vel quodcunque Ordinis officium promoveri’.

12 CUP, 2, p. 56: ‘De fratribus lecturis Sententias et ad magisterium presentandis Parisius minister provideat generalis.’

13 Biblical lectures in the faculty of theology were primarily the responsibility of the regent masters. The earliest university statutes that mention pre-magisterial lectures on the Bible are early fourteenth century, but it is unclear whether they reflect university practice as of 1300: CUP, 2, p. 692, #1188 (nn. 9–11). The pre-sentential requirements mentioned in those statutes appear to be more descriptive than prescriptive.

14 CUP, 2, p. 56: ‘Placet tamen generali Capitulo quod illorum qui Parisius sunt lecturi Sententias vel ad magisterium presentandi tertius semper de provincia Francie, alii vero duo de aliis provinciis Ordinis magis ydonei assumantur, ita tamen quod propter hoc non promoveatur aliquis insufficiens ad officia supradicta, nec potestati generalis ministeri prejudicetur in aliquo quin in provisione hujusmodi libere facete possit et preferre unum alteri sicut Ordini viderit expedie.’

15 The Dominicans had two chairs of theology, one reserved for candidates from the province of France and one for candidates from the other provinces. Since they were not allowed to put forward more than one candidate each year for the baccalaureate, the selection alternated between the two chairs.

16 Admittedly, evidence on the dates and names of friars sent to Paris for the lectorate is all but non-existent While this makes it impossible to state categorically that no student was promoted directly from the lectorate to the baccalaureate, in every case where we know the pre-baccalaureate status of the candidate he did not come directly from the lectorate ‘pool’.

17 In the case of Alnwick and Gonteri, the Franciscan list of 1303, discussed below, establishes their presence at Paris in the lectorate programme, while the approximate dates of their theological degrees at Paris have been established from manuscripts of theirs and Scows’ works as well as Alnwick’s regency at Oxford. The evidence on Auriol, Serrescuderio, and Clermont can be found in CUP. The evidence on Wodeham is presented in Courtenay, Adam Wodeham.

18 The date of Durand and James of Lausanne’s presence in the lectorate programme at Paris is established by the Dominican list of 1303; cf. Dondaine, ‘Documents’. Information on the others listed is taken from documents in CUP.

19 For the requirements and length of study as defined in the statutes, see Courtenay, W. J., ‘Progress of study and genres of scholastic theological production in the fourteenth century’ in Hamesse, J., ed., Manuels, programmes de cours et techniques d’enseignement dans les universités médiévales(Louvain-la-Neuve, 1994), pp. 325–50.Google Scholar

20 Paris, Archives Nationales, J.488, no. 595; first edited by E. Longpré, Xe B. Jean Duns Scot: Pour le Saint Siège et contre le gallicanisme (25-28 Juin 1303)’, La France franciscaine, 11 (1928), pp. 37–62; reedited in Courtenay, W. J., The Parisian Franciscan community in 1303’, in Franciscan Studies, 53 (1993), pp. 155–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The document and its context are also discussed in Courtenay, ‘Between pope and king. The Parisian letters of adhesion of 1303’, Speculum, 71 (1996), pp. 577–605.

21 Kaluza, Z., Nicolas d’Autrécourt, ami de la vérité, Histoire littéraire de la France, 42.1 (Paris, 1995).Google Scholar

22 One example among many is Pastor de Serrescuderio, mentioned above; see Courtenay, W. J., Tastor de Serrescuderio (d. 1356) and MS Saint-Omer 239’, AHDLMA, 63 (1996), pp. 325–56.Google Scholar

23 On the careers of Benedictine masters from Paris see Sullivan, T., Benedictine Monks at the University of Paris, AD 1229–1500: A Biographical Register (Leiden, 1995).Google Scholar