‘Universities, as we are all immediately aware when we leave them and sometimes when we are within them too, are in many ways the most strange, illogical and exotic human communities of all.’ Yet universities, and their sometimes stranger, more illogical, and more exotic components, the colleges, have always reflected and sought to influence the concerns and ideals of their societies. For the pre-Reformation institutions, these aspirations are chiefly articulated in papal bulls of foundation and related documents, and in college statutes.

For the universities, such material becomes available as formal processes of foundation evolve in the thirteenth century, their primary document being a papal bull. While validating the foundation, this also commented – briefly – on the ideals behind the new creation, although practical considerations were also significant imperatives.

The idealisation of learning swiftly found voice. In 1289 Pope Nicholas IV, supporting the University of Montpellier, lauded that learning which illuminates the hearts of men and impels them towards virtue, driving away the shadows of ignorance and the fog of error so that men might act in the light of truth. This was explicitly a social role, reiterated at length in Boniface VIII's bull founding Avignon university in 1303, and more succinctly by Alexander V for the University of Aix in 1409. Such study would augment the catholic faith, enhance justice, deal usefully with public and private matters, and increase the prosperity of the human condition.