Old University of Leuven explained

University of Leuven
Latin Name:Studium Generale Lovaniense ; Academia Lovaniensis ; Universitas Lovaniensis
Established:1425
Closed:1797
City:Leuven
State:Duchy of Brabant

The Old University of Leuven (or of Louvain) is the name historians give to the university, or studium generale, founded in Leuven, Brabant (then part of the Burgundian Netherlands, now part of Belgium), in 1425. The university was closed in 1797, a week after the cession to the French Republic of the Austrian Netherlands and the principality of Liège (jointly the future Belgium) by the Treaty of Campo Formio.

The name was in medieval Latin Latin: '''Studium generale Lovaniense'''[1] or Latin: '''Universitas Studii Lovaniensis''',[2] in humanistical Latin Latin: '''Academia Lovaniensis''',[3] and most usually,[4] Latin: '''Universitas Lovaniensis''',[5] in Dutch Dutch; Flemish: '''Universiteyt Loven'''[6] and also Dutch; Flemish: '''Hooge School van Loven'''.[7]

It is commonly referred to as the University of Leuven or University of Louvain, sometimes with the qualification "old" to distinguish it from the Catholic University of Leuven (established 1835 in Leuven). This might also refer to a short-lived but historically important State University of Leuven, 1817–1835.

History

In the 15th century the civil administration of the town of Leuven, with the support of John IV, Duke of Brabant,[8] a prince of the House of Valois, made a formal request to the Holy See for a university.[9]

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

From the founding of the university to its abolition in 1797, Latin was the sole language of instruction.[10]

In its early years, this university was modelled on those of Paris, Cologne and Vienna. The university flourished in the 16th century due to the presence of famous scholars and professors, such as Adriaan Florenszoon Boeyens (Pope Adrian VI), Desiderius Erasmus, Johannes Molanus, Joan Lluís Vives, Andreas Vesalius and Gerardus Mercator.

In 1519, the Faculty of Theology of Leuven, jointly with that of the University of Cologne, became the first institution to condemn a number of statements drawn from Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses (preceding the papal bull Latin: [[Exsurge Domine]] by several months).[11]

After the French Revolutionary Wars, by the Treaty of Campo Formio signed on 17 October 1797, the Austrian Netherlands ware ceded in perpetuity[12] to the French Republic by the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, in exchange for the Republic of Venice. Once formally integrated into the French Republic, a law dating to 1793 mandating that all universities in France be closed came into effect.[13] The University of Leuven was abolished by decree of the Département of the Dyle on 25 October 1797.[14]

What remained of the university's movables and books were requisitioned for the in Brussels.[15] This was the immediate official and legal successor and inheritor of the old University, under the laws in force at the time. It was in turn closed down in 1802.

Cultural role and influence

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the University of Leuven was until its closure a great centre of Jansenism[16] in Europe. To shake off this reputation,[17] the faculty of theology thrice declared its adherence to the papal condemnation of Jansenist beliefs in the papal bull Latin: [[Unigenitus]] (1713)[18] but without effect.[16] The University of Louvain, with Baïus and Jansenius, the cradle of Jansenism and remained, during the 17th and 18th centuries until its closure, the bastion[19] and the hub[20] of Augustinian theology[21] known as Jansenism, in Europe, with professors like Jansenius, Petrus Stockmans, Johannes van Neercassel, Josse Le Plat and especially the famous Van Espen and his disciple Febronius, and as Henri Francotte[22] says: "Jansenism reigned supreme at the University of Louvain”.

This fidelity to the spirit of Van Espen remained alive in the University of Louvain until its abolition in 1797, as evidenced by what Charles Lambrechts wrote[23] in 1818, former rector magnificus and successor to the chair of canon law of Van Espen : "The encroachments of the Catholic clergy and their claims were so vexatious that, at a time when their religion was dominant, no other remedy had been found for their abuse of power except the appeals in question. This is what prompted the famous Van Espen to write, at the age of eighty, his treatise Latin: De recursu ad principem, in order to put a barrier against the ever-recurring abuses of clerical jurisdictions; but this virtuous ecclesiastic, who distributed to the poor all the revenues of the chair of canon law which he occupied at the University of Louvain, was soon obliged to have recourse to appeal as an abuse for himself; still, this remedy could not save him entirely from the persecution of intolerant priests. Loaded with years, glory and infirmities, he was compelled to seek shelter in Holland from their vexations; he soon died in Amsterdam in feelings of piety and resignation, after having employed his life in defending the discipline and customs of the primitive church, of which he was the most zealous supporter".

Subsequent institutions

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

Library

From the founding of the university in 1425 up until 1636, there was no official library of the university. Very likely the students had access to manuscripts and printed books preserved in the homes of their professors or colleges.

In 1636, however, a university library was founded in the Cloth hall, previously the seat of the cloth weavers' guild,[27] and was enlarged in 1725 in a baroque style.

This library, with its various additions, was transferred in 1797 by Charles Antoine de La Serna Santander to the Central School, the official continuation of the old university.[28] Wauthier, head of office of the department of Dyle and the ex-Jesuit De la Serna Santander, librarian of the Central School of Brussels, were responsible for the application of this measure. On October 26, 1797, they went with Michel-Marcel Robyns, receiver of national domains, to the municipal administration of Louvain, to notify it,[29] while its most precious 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 troubles of the wars of this time, many precious works and documents surreptitiously followed an unofficial route, sometimes with the high aim of saving them from disaster,[30] sometimes with the sordid goal of profiting from it.

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 precious books and manuscripts were deposited in Paris at the National Library of France. The library of the Central School of Brussels came to number about 80,000 volumes, which later became part of the Library of Brussels, and then the Royal Library of Belgium.

When invading German forces burned the library of the Catholic University of Leuven at the beginning of the First World War, but this library did not contain the books and archives of the old university, or of the State University, but only those of the 19th-century founded Catholic University of Leuven.

Archives

The rich archives of the old University of Leuven, after its suppression by the law of the French Republic, so as all the other Universities of the French Republic, were transferred to a "Commission in charge of the management of the goods of the abolished university in Leuven", set up in 1797 and active until 1813.[31] They passed to the National Archives of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and ultimately to the National Archives of Belgium.

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

List of colleges

See main article: List of colleges of Leuven University. Chronological list of colleges by foundation, the oldest 4 (Castle/Pork/Lely and Faulcon) were considered as Grand College.[34] in the early 18th century there were 18 colleges.[35]

Foundation NameRemarks
1. 1431Grand College de Burchtfounded by Godfrey de Goimpel
2. 1430Grand College het Varken foundation by Henri de Loë
3. 1493Grand College de Lelie foundation by Charles Viruli
4. 1546Grand College de Valk foundation by Guillaume Everaerts
5. 1442Grand College of Theology Foundation by Louis de Rycke
6. 1662Minor College of Theology
7. 1483College of Saint-Yvo Foundation by Robert van den Poele
8. 1484College of Saint-Donatian Foundation by Antoine Haveren
9. 1499Houterlé-College Foundation by Henry of Houterlé
10. 1504Winckele-College Foundation by Jean de Winckele
11. 1509Arras-College Foundation by Nicolas Ruistere
12. 1490Standonck-College Foundation by Jean Standonck
13. Three Tongues-College Foundation by Jerome of Buyslede
14. 1523Pontifical College Foundation by Adrian VI
15. 1535Saint-Anne's College Foundation by Nicolas Goublet
16. 1551Savoye's College Foundation by Eustache Chapuis
17. 1559Druite College Foundation by Michel Druite
18. 1569van Daele's CollegeFoundation by Peter van Daele
19. 1569Viglius' College Foundation by Viglius ab Aytta Zuichemus
20. 1574Craendonck College Foundation by Marcel Craendock

Related people

List of chancellors

Chronological list of chancellors.[35]

Begin End Name Remarks
1.14261477Guillaume van de Noot d'AsscheDean of St-Peters in Leuven
2.14771487Dominic de BassadonisDean of St-Peter
3.14871509Nicolas de RuistereArch-deacon of Brabant
4.15091532Conrard von GhingenHerzog von Brunswick
5.15321593Rogier, prinz von TaxisProtonotary in Antwerp
6.15931619Georg of AustriaGrandson of the emperor Maximilian
7.16191634Gajus Anthoine Hopperus
8.16341659François-Jean de Robles bishop of Ypres
9. de Spinola
10. 1666Charles HoviusPresident of the Privy Council
11. 1666don Eugenio de Velasco
12. 1692Ferdinand-François de Trazignies Bishop of Tournay
13. 16921734Alexius-Antoine, Prince of Nassau-SiegenTitular Archbisshop of Trapezopolis

Notable professors in chronological order

He returned to President of the Irish Pastoral College 1695.

Notable alumni

See also

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. In the act of approbation of Pope Martin V: Latin: "Generale literarum Studium in eodem Oppido ordinari desiderant" et "in dictis Studiis generalibus".
  2. In the act of approbation of Pope Martin V: Latin: "Rector Universitatis Studii".
  3. For example: Nicolaus Vernulaeus, Latin: Academia Lovaniensis. Ejus origo, incrementum, viri illustres, res gestae, Lovanii, 1627; Latin: Privilegia Academiae Lovaniensis per Summos pontifices et Supremos Belgii Principes concessa, Lovanii, apud Aegidium Denique, 1728.
  4. Latin: Rector et Universitas Lovaniensis.
  5. For example: Bossuet, Jacques Bénigne (1864), French: Œuvres complètes de Bossuet, Paris: F. Lachat & Louis Vivès, p. 247: Latin: "Epistola LXV Rector Et Universitas Lovaniensis ad Bossuetum"; Jan Frans Van De Velde (1829), Latin: Nova et absoluta collectio synodorum, p. 171: Latin: "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".
  6. For example: Latin: Privilegia Academiae Lovaniensi per summos pontifices ..., Louvain, 1728, p. 95: Dutch; Flemish: "Gesien het voorschreven Advies, wiert versoght Advies vanden Conservateur vande Privilegien der Universiteyt Loven"; J. B. Lameere (1829), Dutch; Flemish: Beschryf van oud en nieuw Loven, gevolgd van de lyst der primussen van de oude Universiteyt Loven, 1829.
  7. For example: Latin: Beschryving der stadt Schoonhoven, 1762, p. 458: Dutch; Flemish: "De bovengenoemde Heer ... stigte in het jaar 1557 twee Beursen in de Hooge School van Loven".
  8. [Jan Roegiers]
  9. 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 either by sovereign princes or by towns, and were confirmed by the Pope ... The foundation of Louvain was the work of both ducal and municipal authorities. John IV, the Duke of Brabant, encouraged by two of his concillors, Engelbert van Nassau and Edmund van Dynter, strongly favoured the establishment of a higher centre of learning in his dukedom".
  10. Jozeph IJsewijn, Companion to Neo-Latin Studies, Amsterdam, New York & Oxford, 1977, p. 102: "Latin survived as the language of the University of Louvain until the French Revolution but the abolition of this institution (1797) was a catastrophe for Latin in the Southern Netherlands".
  11. [Richard Marius]
  12. [Jules Delhaize]
  13. The law of 15 September 1793 had decreed the suppression of all the colleges and universities in France, but the universities remain de facto until the new law of 7 ventôse year III (25 February 1795) creating the Écoles centrales. In accordance with this law the University of Louvain was abolished by Decree of the Departement of the Dijle. Louis Trénard, De Douai à Lille, une université et son histoire, Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 1978, p.37 note 6.
  14. Jan Roegiers et al., Leuven University, Leuven, Leuven University Press, 1990, p. 31: "With the Law of 3 Brumaire of Year IV, which reorganized higher education in the French Republic, there was no place for the University of Louvain, and it was abolished by Decree of the Departement of the Dijle on 25 october (1797)".
  15. Leuven University, p. 31: "The university colleges were closed on 9 November 1797, and all items of use, with all the books, were requisitioned for the new École Centrale, in Brussel"; Analectes pour servir à l'histoire de l'Université de Louvain, edited by P. F. X. De Ram, Leuven, 1840, library Vanlinthout en Vandenzande, vol. 3, p. 58, footnote 1: French: "[[Charles Antoine de La Serna Santander|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."
  16. H. Francotte, French: La propagande des encyclopédistes français au pays de Liège, p. 28: French: "le jansénisme règnait en maître à l'université de Louvain".
  17. Leuven University, Leuven University Press, p. 153: "In 1698 a clandestine group of anti-Jansenists was formed, mainly of Jesuits and regular clergy, and it denounced the University of Louvain to Rome as 'a hide-out of Jansenists
  18. 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.
  19. Philippe Levillain, ed. (1984). "Innocent XII Pignatelli 1691-1700". In French: Dictionnaire historique de la Papauté. Fayard. French: "Bien que la théologie et l’éthique jansénistes dans leurs postulats théoriques et pratiques aient été largement rejetées par le Saint-Siège, elles sont encore bien loin de disparaître de la vie de l’Église à la fin du XVIIe siècle. À l’époque d’Innocent XII, quelques groupuscules plus combatifs ont quitté la France et se sont transférés en Belgique et en Hollande, d’où ils redoublent d’activité, souvent en conflit avec les directives de Rome. L’université de Louvain est leur forteresse".
  20. Daniel Tollet and Pierre Chaunu, "Innocent XII Pignatelli 1691-1700" French: Le jansénisme et la franc-maçonnerie en Europe centrale au XVIIe et XVIIIe siècle, p. 143: French: "Louvain plaque tournante des idées jansénistes"
  21. French: Histoire genérale du Jansénisme, vol. III, Amsterdam: J. Louis de Lorme, 1700, pp. 343–344 : French: "Il faut avoüer, quoy qu'à nôtre confusion, que nous sommes nous et toute l’Eglise, entierement redevable aux Theologiens de Louvain, de ce que les ouvrages de N: P. Saint Augustin ne demeurent pas ensevelis sous la poussiere, et jettez dans les coins des bibliotheques. Puisque ce sont eux qui ont toujours défendu avec un très-grand zele sa doctrine contre ses ennemis et ses calomniateurs. Ce sont eux qui ont corrigé toutes ses œuvres avec un travail immense et un grand amour pour la Religion, les ayant collationnées avec plus de deux cens exemplaires, et nous en ayant enlevé la gloire et la recompense. Et l'on doit rendre graces à Dieu de ce que cette revûe et cette correction s'est faite, avant que la Societé, et nommément Jean Martinez de Ripalda se mêlât de la faire. Car Saint Augustin seroit sorti de ses mains estropié et mal traité : comme nous verrons plus bas".
  22. Henri Francotte, professor at the University of Liège, French: La Propagande des encyclopédistes français au pays de Liège (1750–1790), Brussels: Hayez, 1880, p. 28: French: "le jansénisme régnait en maître à l'université de Louvain".
  23. Charles Lambrechts, French: Quelques réflexions à l'occasion du livre de M. l'[[Denis Frayssinous|abbé Frayssinous]], intitulé : Des vrais principes de l'Église gallicane, 1818.
  24. Arlette Graffart, French: "La matricule de l'Université de Louvain (1817-1835)", in Album Carlos Wyffels, Brussels, 1987, p. 177. Arlette Graffart says that: French: 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.
  25. R. Mathes, German: Löwen und Rom. Zur Gründung der Katholischen Universität Löwen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Kirchen- und Bildungspolitik Papst Gregors XVI, Essen, 1975.
  26. Note that the Court of Cassation of Belgium ruled that the two entities were legally separate. 26 November 1846: "The Catholic University of Leuven can not be regarded as continuing the old University of Leuven". French: Table générale alphabétique et chronologique de la Pasicrisie Belge contenant la jurisprudence du Royaume de 1814 à 1850, Brussels, 1855, p. 585, column 1, paragraph 2. See also: French: Bulletin Usuel des Lois et Arrêtés, 1861, p.166.
  27. Web site: Leuven's University Library: Risen from the ashes. Wuyts. Jolan. October 2019. Europeana. en-GB. 2019-10-10.
  28. Leuven University, p. 31: "The university colleges were closed on 9 November 1797, and all items of use, with all the books, were requisitioned for the new École Centrale, in Brussel."
  29. [Auguste Voisin]
  30. P. F. X. De Ram, ed. (1840), French: Analectes pour servir à l'histoire de l'Université de Louvain, Louvain: Vanlinthout & Vandenzande, volume 3, p. 58, note 1: French: "Au reste, l'on sait que c'est à [[Charles Antoine de La Serna Santander|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. https://search.arch.be/fr/producteurs-darchives/resultats?text=eac-BE-A0500_112690&inLanguageCode=DUT&view=eac "Commissie beslast met het beheer van de goederen van de afgeschafte universiteit te Leuven"
  32. UNESCO, "Memory of the World: the Archives of the University of Leuven (1425–1797): University Heritage of Global Significance"
  33. Already in 1927 Léon van der Essen wrote in French: L'Université de Louvain, Liège, La Pensée catholique, 1927, p. 30: French: "Nous ne pouvons songer à donner une idée relativement complète des mérites et des gloires de l'ancien {{lang|fr|Studium Generale
  34. Web site: College De Valk: geschiedenis. www.law.kuleuven.be. 23 March 2018.
  35. Supplement aux trophees tant sacres que profanes du Duche de Brabant (etc.): 3-4
  36. Initieted in 1778 at 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".

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