II.

History

The University of Paris, as it was formerly known, was formally recognized in about the middle of the 12th century. It was organized around several schools attached to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, with the bishop of Paris presiding over the institutions and their faculties. Among the first of the noted scholars associated with the university were the philosopher Peter Abelard, a student of theology, and the theologian Thomas Aquinas. In the 13th century the university was divided into four faculties: theology, medicine, canon law, and arts. The arts faculty was, in turn, subdivided into so-called nations, based on the nationalities of teachers and students.

By the 14th century the university had 40 individual colleges, secular and religious. Of these colleges, the Sorbonne, founded about 1257 by the French theologian Robert de Sorbon, became the most famous, as the centre of theological study. Originally intended as a residence for needy theology students and named La Communauté des Pauvres Maîtres Étudiants en Théologie (The Community of Needy Theology Students), it became popularly known as La Sorbonne by the end of the 13th century. Over the next three centuries, it came to be recognized as the outstanding institution for religious education in Europe, especially in the fields of dogma and canon law. By the 16th century, however, its reputation began to decline as a result of conservatism and resistance to educational reforms. In reaction, King Francis I in 1530 established the Collège de France, an institution of humanist learning.

The religious dissension and civil wars of the 16th and 17th centuries in France contributed to an overall decline in the university's academic reputation, but its political influence increased and its colleges played a leading role in the religious persecutions during the Reformation.

In 1793, during the French Revolution, the National Convention abolished universities throughout France. Not until 1808, when Napoleon reorganized the French educational system under the jurisdiction of the University of France, was the University of Paris reopened. Faculties of literature, law, medicine, and science, together with a later-abolished faculty of theology, were established at the Sorbonne, which had been designated the seat of the Academy of Paris (one of the 17 educational districts into which France was now divided) and the seat of the University of Paris itself. A library was established at the Sorbonne in 1808; today its collection numbers more than 3 million volumes. Under terms of the Orientation Act of 1968, which reformed French higher education, the university was reconstituted as 13 autonomous teaching and research faculties between 1968 and 1971.