Old University of Leuven

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University of Leuven
Universitas Lovaniensis
Coat of arms of the old University of Leuven[1]
NamesStudium Generale Lovaniense; Academia Lovaniensis; Universitas Lovaniensis
FoundedDecember 9, 1425
FounderPope Martin V
Established1425
ClosedOctober 25, 1797
CityLeuven
StateDuchy of Brabant
CountryBelgium

The Old Catholic University of Leuven is the name historians give to the medieval university, or studium generale, founded in Leuven, Duchy of Brabant (then part of the Burgundian Netherlands, now part of Belgium), in 1425.

In the late 15th century and during the first half of the 16th century, the university was under the administration of the Spanish Netherlands, a period in which it enjoyed an enormous intellectual and humanistic flourishing.

The university was closed in 1797, one week after the cession to the French Republic of the Austrian Netherlands and the Principality of Liège (together the future Belgium) by the Treaty of Campo Formio.

Its name was, in medieval Latin, Studium generale Lovaniense[2] or Universitas Studii Lovaniensis,[3] in Humanist Latin Academia Lovaniensis,[4] and most commonly,[5] Universitas Lovaniensis,[6] in Dutch Universiteyt Loven[7] and also Hooge School van Loven.[8]

It is commonly known as the University of Leuven, sometimes with the qualifier "old" to distinguish it from the Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) (established in 1835 in Leuven), or from the short-lived but historically significant State University of Leuven, which was active from 1817 to 1835.

History

John IV, Duke of Brabant, founder of the University of Leuven in 1425

In the 15th century the civil administration of the city of Leuven, with the support of John IV, Duke of Brabant,[9] a Prince of the House of Valois, made a formal request to the Holy See for the creation of a university.[10]

Portrait of Pope Martin V, author of the bull which on December 9, 1425 confirmed the creation of the University of Leuven.[11]

Pope Martin V issued a papal bull dated December 9, 1425 founding the University of Leuven as a Studium Generale. This university was institutionally independent of the local ecclesiastical hierarchy.

From the founding of the university until its abolition in 1797, Latin was the main language of instruction.[12]

In the late 15th century and during the first half of the 16th century, under the administration of the Spanish Netherlands, the university enjoyed an enormous intellectual and humanistic flourishing, inspired by the Italian Renaissance. From this period date the time spent at the university by Erasmus of Rotterdam and other great thinkers of the age, such as Gemma Frisius (geographer and astronomer), Gerardus Mercator (cartographer, whose cartographic systems are still used today), Andreas Vesalius (physician and anatomist) and Gabriel Muyden (jurist).

In 1517 Jerome de Busleyden founded the "Collegium Trilingue", based on the minor colleges of the University of Salamanca, created in 1511, where Latin, Greek and Hebrew were taught. Busleyden served as a diplomat during the reign of Philip I of Castile, and died unexpectedly in August 1517 during a stay in Spain. The date of his will, June 22, 1517, is generally regarded as the founding date of the Collegium, which would be recognized as a university institute by the council of the University in March 1520.

In 1519, the Faculty of Theology of the University, together with that of the University of Cologne, became the first institution to condemn a series of statements drawn from the Ninety-five Theses of Martin Luther (preceding the papal bull Exsurge Domine by several months).[13] Many of the University's professors of Theology took part in the Council of Trent, which gave rise to the Counter-Reformation. Because of this stance the university suffered a period of crisis during the second half of the 16th century, when the city and the university were taken and sacked by the troops of William of Orange during the wars of religion.

Erasmus of Rotterdam

Nevertheless, the history of the University, and of the Collegium Trilingue in particular, during the 16th century was one of enormous academic success, largely owing to the enduring popularity of Erasmus's scientific and theological program. This program was inspired by Renaissance humanism and, in particular, by the practice of reading literary texts of classical antiquity. The famous polemicist Lorenzo Valla (c. 1407–1457) had extended the method to the study of the Holy Scriptures in his Annotationes in Novum Testamentum. Erasmus had discovered a copy of this work in 1504, at Park Abbey, and Valla became the inspiration behind much of Erasmus's own theological thought. The Valla-Erasmus method can be summed up in the maxim "Ad fontes": the scientific study of theology must be based on a critical reading of the original texts, and must not start from the authorities of medieval scholasticism. To engage in such reading, a solid knowledge of the three sacred languages, Latin, Greek and Hebrew, is indispensable. This is the need the Collegium Trilingue addressed: the courses organized there were specifically intended to provide students with the basic linguistic skills they needed to read and study the Scriptures.

Anónimo de Lovaina, the first Spanish school grammar for French speakers

In 1555 the first Spanish school grammar for French speakers was published, known as the «Anónimo de Lovaina», issued from the workshops of Bartolomé Gravio, to whom several works of a similar nature are owed, such as the so-called Leuven Bible, commissioned by Charles I of Spain from the Faculty of Theology to revise the Vulgate. The King also commissioned him to print translations of that work into French and Flemish.

Because of the struggles for control of the territory between the Spanish monarchy and the United Provinces, supported by the King of France, the academic and scientific level of the University deteriorated greatly during the 17th century. University life was dominated by internal struggles between Jansenists and anti-Jansenists, which ended with the final expulsion of the supporters of Jansenism.

During the Siege of Leuven the students of the University joined forces, together with other sectors of the civilian population, with the Spanish military resistance to repel the Franco-Dutch aggressors. The well-known plundering and killings committed by the French and Dutch in the Spanish Netherlands, the latter mainly against Catholic populations, undoubtedly influenced this alignment of the academic estates with the military resistance of the Spanish forces,[14] which helped the attack to be finally repelled despite the overwhelming numerical superiority of the assailants.

By the 18th century, Flanders was controlled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and after the French Revolutionary Wars, by the Treaty of Campo Formio signed on October 17, 1797, the territories of the Austrian Netherlands were ceded in perpetuity[15] to the French Republic by Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, in exchange for the Republic of Venice. Once it was formally integrated into the French Republic, a law dating from 1793 that ordered the closure of all universities in France came into force.[16] The University of Leuven was abolished by decree of the Department of the Dyle on October 25, 1797.[17]

What remained of the university's furniture and books was requisitioned for the École centrale [fr] in Brussels.[18] This was the immediate successor and official and legal heir of the old University, according to the laws in force at the time. In turn, it would be closed in 1802.

Cultural influence

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the University of Leuven was, until its closure, a great center of Jansenism[19] in Europe. To rid itself of this reputation,[20] the Faculty of Theology declared three times its adherence to the papal condemnation of Jansenist beliefs in the papal bull Unigenitus (1713),[21] but to no effect.[19]

This fidelity to the spirit of Van Espen remained alive at the University of Leuven until its abolition in 1797, as shown by what Charles Lambrechts, former rector magnificus and successor to Van Espen's chair of canon law, wrote[22] in 1818: "The encroachments of the Catholic clergy and their pretensions were so vexatious that, at a time when their religion was dominant, no other remedy had been found for their abuse of power than the appeals in question. This is what prompted the famous Van Espen to write, at the age of eighty, his treatise De recursu ad principem, in order to put a barrier against the ever-recurring abuses of clerical jurisdictions; but this virtuous ecclesiastic, who distributed among the poor all the income from the chair of canon law he held at the University of Leuven, was soon obliged to resort to the appeal against abuse for himself; even so, this remedy could not entirely save him from the persecution of intolerant priests. Laden with years, glory and infirmities, he was forced to seek refuge in Holland from their vexations; he soon died in Amsterdam with sentiments of piety and resignation, after having spent his life defending the discipline and customs of the primitive church, of which he was the most zealous supporter".

Later institutions

The first attempt to found a successor university in the 19th century was the secular State University of Leuven, 1817–1835, where a dozen professors of the old University taught.[23] This was followed by a private Catholic university,[24] the Catholic University of Leuven, established in Leuven in 1835 (initially the Catholic University of Mechelen, 1834–1835). This institution was founded with the intention of restoring the pre-revolutionary confessionally Catholic traditions of learning in Leuven.[25][26] In 1968 it split to form the two present-day institutions: the Dutch-language Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the French-language Université catholique de Louvain.

Library

From its founding in 1425 until 1636, there was no official university library. It is very likely that students had access to manuscripts and printed books kept in the houses of their professors or in the colleges.

In 1636, however, a University Library was founded in the Cloth Hall, formerly the seat of the cloth weavers' guild,[27] which was enlarged in 1725 in Baroque style.

This library, with its various extensions, was transferred in 1797 by the Spanish bibliographer Antonio Laserna to the Central School, the official continuation of the old university.[28] On October 26, 1797, Laserna, together with Wauthier, office head of the Department of the Dyle, and Michel-Marcel Robyns, receiver of the national domains, went to the municipal administration of Leuven to give notice of the transfer,[29] while its most prized works and manuscripts were deposited in Paris among the national treasures of the National Library.

It is also very likely that, on the occasion of the disturbances of the wars of this period, many precious works and documents surreptitiously followed an unofficial route, sometimes with the lofty aim of saving them from disaster,[30] sometimes with the sordid aim of profiting from them.

In 1797, much of what remained of this library was sent to the Central School of Brussels, established as the official replacement of the abolished university, although its most prized books and manuscripts were deposited in Paris in the National Library of France.[27] The library of the Central School of Brussels came to hold some 80,000 volumes, which later became part of the Library of Brussels, and then of the Royal Library of Belgium.

At the beginning of World War I the invading German forces burned the University library, but this library no longer contained the books and archives of the old university, only those of the new University that had been founded in the 19th century.

Archives

The rich archives of the old University of Leuven, after its suppression by the law of the French Republic, like all the other Universities of the French Republic, were transferred to a "Commission charged with the management of the property of the abolished university in Leuven", created in 1797 and active until 1813.[31] They passed to the National Archives of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and finally to the National Archives of Belgium.

Although the archives of the old University of Leuven have been recognized as world heritage[32] by UNESCO, to this day there is no complete history of the old University of Leuven.[33]

Notable people

Notable professors in chronological order

Juan Luis Vives taught the Naturalis historia of Pliny the Elder and the Georgics of Virgil at the University of Leuven.
Gerardus Mercator (1512–1594), the celebrated cartographer, a student of the University of Leuven

Notable alumni

Andreas Vesalius, famous for his program of renewal of anatomy.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Nelissen, Marc (2000). "Lovaina, Roma en Brabante". In Nelissen, Roegiers; van Mingroot, Eric (eds.). De stichtingsbul van de Leuvense universiteit, 1425-1914 (in español). Leuven: Leuven University Press. p. 70. the university used the coat of arms of the city of Leuven, a silver fess on a field of gules, but added a nimbus in the upper right corner of the shield from which a hand presented an open book..
  2. ↑ In the act of approval of Pope Martin V: "Generale literarum Studium in eodem Oppido ordinari desiderant" et "in dictis Studiis generalibus".
  3. ↑ In the act of approval of Pope Martin V: "Rector Universitatis Studii".
  4. ↑ For example: Nicolaus Vernulaeus, Academia Lovaniensis. Ejus origo, incrementum, viri illustres, res gestae, Lovanii, 1627; Privilegia Academiae Lovaniensis per Summos pontifices et Supremos Belgii Principes concessa, Lovanii, apud Aegidium Denique, 1728.
  5. ↑ Rector et Universitas Lovaniensis.
  6. ↑ For example: Bossuet, Jacques Bénigne (1864), Œuvres complètes de Bossuet, Paris: F. Lachat and Louis Vivès, p. 247: "Epistola LXV Rector Et Universitas Lovaniensis ad Bossuetum"; Jan Frans Van De Velde (1829), Nova et absoluta collectionio synodorum, p. 171: "seu in Universitatibus, praecipuè Lovaniensi, alios non habuisse Magistros, quam errorum similium osores, de quo omnibus Dioecesanis praecipua, et communis debet esse vigilantia : sanè famosa Universitas Lovaniensis".
  7. ↑ For example: Privilegia Academiae Lovaniensi per summos pontifices ..., Leuven, 1728, p. 95: "Gesien het voorschreven Advies, wiert versoght Advies vanden Conservateur vande Privilegien der Universiteyt Loven"; J. B. Lameere (1829), Beschryf van oud en nieuw Loven, gevolgd van de lyst der primussen van de oude Universiteyt Loven, 1829.
  8. ↑ For example: Beschryving der stadt Schoonhoven, 1762, p. 458: "De bovengenoemde Heer ... stigte in het jaar 1557 twee Beursen in de Hooge School van Loven".
  9. ↑ Jan Roegiers et al., "The Old University 1425–1797", in Leuven University, Leuven, Leuven University Press, 1990, p. 57: "The town had promised Pope Martin V that it would provide premises for the University... The municipality also undertook to pay for the repair, maintenance and extension of the four pedagogies"; p. 36: "The Bull of Foundation of 1425 had made the funding and appointment of professors a matter for the civil authorities: the town gave the University its premises and paid its professors"; p. 43: "On 20 June 1425, the magistrates of Leuven agreed to engage the doctors, masters and other persons necessary for the studium".
  10. ↑ Jan Roegiers et al., "The Old University 1425–1797", in Leuven University, Leuven, Leuven University Press, 1990, p. 21: "These universities (the medieval universities) were created by sovereign princes or by towns, and were confirmed by the Pope... The foundation of Leuven was the work of both ducal and municipal authorities. John IV, Duke of Brabant, encouraged by two of his counselors, Engelbert van Nassau and Edmund van Dynter, strongly favored the establishment of a center of higher learning in his duchy".
  11. ↑ Georgius Hagelgans, Orbis literatus academicus Germanico-Europaeus, Frankfurt, 1737, in-fol., p. 30.
  12. ↑ Jozeph IJsewijn, Companion to Neo-Latin Studies, Amsterdam, New York and Oxford, 1977, p. 102: "Latin survived as the language of the University of Leuven until the French Revolution, but the abolition of this institution (1797) was a catastrophe for Latin in the Southern Netherlands".
  13. ↑ Richard Marius, Martin Luther: The Christian Between God and Death (1999), p. 188.
  14. ↑ Kuijpers, Erika; Pollmann, Judith; Mueller, Johannes; Steen, Jasper van der (2013-12-05). Memory before Modernity: Practices of Memory in Early Modern Europe. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-26125-9. Retrieved 2022-09-18.
  15. ↑ Jules Delhaize (1909), La domination française en Belgique, vol. 3, Brussels, p. 171: Les articles 3 et 4 du traité de Campo-Formio consacrèrent enfin, au point de vue international, la réunion de la Belgique à la France. Voici ces articles. Art. 3 – Sa Majesté l'Empereur, Roi de Hongrie et de Bohême, renonce pour elle et ses Successeurs en faveur de la République française, à tous ses droits et titres sur les ci-devant Provinces belgiques, connues sous le nom de Pays-Bas autrichiens. La République française possédera ces pays à perpétuité, en toute souveraineté et propriété, et avec tous les biens territoriaux qui en dépendent.
  16. ↑ The law of September 15, 1793 had decreed the suppression of all colleges and universities in France, except that the universities remained de facto until the new law of 7 Ventôse Year III (February 25, 1795) creating the Écoles centrales. In accordance with this law, the University of Leuven was abolished by Decree of the Department of the Dijle. Louis Trénard, De Douai à Lille, une université et son histoire, Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 1978, p. 37 note 6.
  17. ↑ Jan Roegiers et al., Leuven University, Leuven, Leuven University Press, 1990, p. 31: "With the Law of 3 Brumaire Year IV, which reorganized higher education in the French Republic, there was no place for the University of Leuven, and it was abolished by Decree of the Department of the Dijle on 25 October (1797)".
  18. ↑ Leuven University, p. 31: "The university colleges were closed on 9 November 1797 and all objects of use, with all the books, were requisitioned for the new École Centrale, in Brussels"; Analectes pour servir à l'histoire de l'Université de Louvain, edited by P. F. X. De Ram, Leuven, 1840, Vanlinthout en Vandenzande bookshop, vol. 3, p. 58, footnote 1: "De La Serna Santander fut spécialement chargé de faire transférer à Bruxelles les principaux ouvrages de la bibliothèque académique qui déjà, en 1794 et 1795, avait été spoliée par les commissaires français."
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 H. Francotte, La propagande des encyclopédistes français au pays de Liège, p. 28: "le jansénisme règnait en maître à l'université de Louvain".
  20. ↑ Leuven University, Leuven University Press, p. 153: "In 1698 a clandestine group of anti-Jansenists, mainly Jesuits and regular clergy, was formed and denounced the University of Leuven to Rome as 'a hiding place of Jansenists'".
  21. ↑ Toon Quaghebeur, "The Reception of Unigenitus in the Faculty of Theology at Louvain, 1713–1719", The Catholic Historical Review 93:2 (2007), pp. 265–299.
  22. ↑ Charles Lambrechts, Quelques réflexions à l'occasion du livre de M. l'abbé Frayssinous, intitulé : Des vrais principes de l'Église gallicane, 1818.
  23. ↑ Arlette Graffart, "La matricule de l'Université de Louvain (1817-1835)", in Album Carlos Wyffels, Brussels, 1987, p. 177. Arlette Graffart says that: l'Université d'État de Louvain mérite bien plus que l'Université catholique de Louvain d'être considérée comme la 'résurrection' de l'Ancienne université de Louvain.
  24. ↑ R. Mathes, Löwen und Rom. Zur Gründung der Katholischen Universität Löwen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Kirchen- und Bildungspolitik Papst Gregors XVI, Essen, 1975.
  25. ↑ "University of Louvain". Catholic Encyclopedia.
  26. ↑ Note that the Court of Cassation ruled that the two entities were legally separate. November 26, 1846: "The Catholic University of Leuven cannot be considered a continuation of the old University of Leuven". Table générale alphabétique et cronologique de la Pasicrisie Belge contenant la jurisprudence du Royaume de 1814 à 1850, Brussels, 1855, p. 585, column 1, paragraph 2. See also: Bulletin Usuel des Lois et Arrêtés, 1861, p. 166.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Wuyts, Jolan (October 2019). "Leuven's University Library: risen from the ashes". Europeana. Retrieved 2019-10-10.
  28. ↑ Leuven University, p. 31: "The university colleges were closed on 9 November 1797, and all objects of use, with all the books, were requisitioned for the new École Centrale, in Brussels".
  29. ↑ Auguste Voisin, Documents pour servir à l'histoire des bibliothèques en Belgique, Ghent, 1840: "La bibliothèque de Bruxelles s'enrichit aussi des dépouilles de celle de l'université de Louvain, après la suppression de cet établissement M. Antonio Laserna Santander proposa à l'administration départementale et obtint de faire transporter, dans le dépôt confié à ses soins, tous les ouvrages qui se trouvaient encore dans la bibliothèque de l'ex-université et qui manquaient à celle qu'il organisait dans la ville, alors chef-lieu du département de la Dyle. L'administration, dit ce savant bibliographe, dans son mémoire sur la bibliothèque de Bourgogne, ayant examiné cette proposition, la trouva très-convenable, et en conséquence, elle porta un arrêté en date du 22 Brumaire an VI (12 novembre 1797), par lequel je fus chargé de me rendre à Louvain, avec ordre de prendre dans la bibliothèque de l'ex-université tous les ouvrages que je jugerais utiles et convenables, et dont celle de l'école centrale de Bruxelles pourrait avoir besoin. En conséquence de cet arrêté, je me rendis à Louvain, où, malgré la rigueur de la saison, je restai occupé durant dix jours consécutifs à en faire le triage. Les livres dont je fis l'inventaire en présence d'un officier municipal, consistant en sept cent dix-huit items, furent transportés par eau à Bruxelles et déposés dans la bibliothèque publique près de l'école centrale".
  30. ↑ P. F. X. De Ram, ed. (1840), Analectes pour servir à l'histoire de l'Université de Louvain, Leuven: Vanlinthout & Vandenzande, volume 3, p. 58, note 1: "Au reste, l'on sait que c'est à De La Serna que la Belgique doit la conservation d'une foule de manuscrits et de livres précieux qui étaient destinés à devenir la proie des Vandales de cette époque".
  31. ↑ "Commissie beslast met het beheer van de goederen van de afgeschafte universiteit te Leuven".
  32. ↑ UNESCO, /lista-completa-de-patrimonio-registrado/patrimonio-registrado-página-8/los-archivos-de-la-universidad-de-lovaina-1425-1797-patrimonio-universitario-de-significación-global/ "Memory of the World: The Archives of the University of Leuven (1425–1797): University Heritage of Global Significance"
  33. ↑ As early as 1927 Léon van der Essen wrote in L'Université de Louvain, Liège, La Pensée catholique, 1927, p. 30: "Nous ne pouvons songer à donner une idée relatedment complète des mérites et des gloires de l'ancien Studium Generale brabançon : cette histoire n'a jamais été écrite et nous ne pouvons la résumer aquí."
  34. ↑ Initiated in 1778 into the lodge La Vraie et Parfaite Harmonie of Mons. Paul Duchaine, La franc-maçonnerie belge au XVIIIe siècle, Brussels, 1911, p. 103: "dans la suite plusieurs professeurs (de Louvain) et plusieurs étudiants se firent encore initier aux mystères maçonniques, Fery (N. B. Martin François Joseph Fery, professeur de philosophie à Louvain) et Lambrechts, Verhulst et Van der Stegen notamment" and Adolphe Cordier, Histoire de l'ordre maçonnique en Belgique, Mons, 1854, p. 337: "Tableau des loges : 117: Lambrechts, professeur de droit à l'université de Louvain, Init., 1778".

Bibliography

  • 1627: Nicolaus Vernulaeus, Academia Lovaniensis. Ejus origo, incrementum, viri illustres, res gestae, Leuven, 1627.
  • 1635: Valerius Andreas, Fasti academici Lovanienses, Leuven, edited by Jean Olivier and Corneille Coenesteyn, 1635.
  • 1829: Baron Frédéric de Reiffenberg, Mémoires sur les deux premiers siècles de l'Université de Louvain, Brussels, 1829–35.
  • 1838: P. De Ram, Laforêt and Namêche, "Analectes pour servir à l'histoire de l'Université de Louvain", in Annuaire de l'Université de Louvain, 1838–65.
  • 1856: F. Nève, Mémoire historique et littéraire sur le collège des Trois-langues à l'Université de Louvain, Brussels, 1856.
  • 1881: Edmond Reusens, Documents relatifs à l'histoire de l'Université de Louvain (1425-1797), in Analectes pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique, vol. XVII ff., 1881–92.
  • 1881: P. De Ram, Codex veterum statutorum Academiae Lovaniensis, Brussels, 1881.
  • 1884: Arthur Verhaeghen, Les cinquante dernières années de l'ancienne Université de Louvain, Liège, 1884.
  • 1945: Léon van der Essen, L'université de Louvain, Brussels, 1945.
  • F. Claeys Boúúaert, L'Ancienne Université de Louvain, Études et Documents, Leuven 1956.
  • 1959: F. Claeys Boúúaert, Contribution à l'histoire économique de l'Ancienne Université de Louvain, 1959.
  • 1977: Claude Bruneel, Répertoire des thèses de l'Ancienne Université, Leuven, 1977.
  • 1990: Emiel Lamberts and Jan Roegiers, Leuven University, 1425–1985, Leuven, University Press, 1990.
  • 1990: Jan Roegiers, "Was de oude Universiteit Leuven een Rijksuniversiteit?", in Archief- en bibliotheekwezen in België, 1990, p. 545.
  • 2007: Toon Quaghebeur, "Quelques caractéristiques de la querelle entre l'Université de Louvain et le Saint-Office sur le Jansénisme louvaniste du XVIIe siècle", in: Controverse et polémiques religieuses. Antiquité-Temps Modernes, Paris, l'Harmattan, 2007, pp. 87–96.
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