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272 James A. Brundage 18 The Medieval Battle of the Faculties Theologians v. Canonists Universities recognizably similar to their modern descendants (complete with scheduled lectures that began and ended at the sound of bells and statutes that governed the mode of their presentation, as well as deans, committees, examinations, and academic degrees) first began to appear in western Europe during the decades immediately following 1200. The earliest were those at Bologna and Paris. Others soon emerged at Oxford and Cambridge, and subsequently at Montpellier, Orléans, Toulouse, Salamanca , Padua, and Naples, as well as in a host of other cities.1 Shortly after their initial establishment, teachers at most universities began to separate into specialized subgroups, usually called faculties, whose members lectured on one of the four major disciplines taught in medieval universities: liberal arts, theology, law, or medicine.2 The develIt seems appropriate to focus this tribute to Robert Somerville on the relationship between canon law and theology, in view of his long-standing interest in the ways that medieval canon lawyers regarded themselves and their discipline. 1. Hastings Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, 2nd ed., rev. F. M. Powicke and Alan B. Emden, 3 vols. (London 1936), despite its age remains a basic introduction to medieval university history. Among briefer but more recent treatments see Alan B. Cobban, The Medieval Universities: Their Development and Organization (London 1975); Olaf Pedersen, The First Universities : Studium generale and the Origins of University Education in Europe, trans. Richard North (Cambridge 1997); Jacques Verger, ‘Patterns’ , in A History of the University in Europe, vol. 1, Universities in the Middle Ages, ed. Hilde de Ridder-Symoens (Cambridge 1992) 35–74 at 47–60, and with special reference to law teaching, Helmut Coing, ‘Die juristische Fakultät und ihr Lehrprogramm’ , in Handbuch der Quellen und Literatur der neueren europäischen Privatrechtsgeschichte, ed. Helmut Coing (Munich 1973), vol. 1 Mittelalter (1100–1500): Die gelehrten Rechte und die Gesetzgebung 39–128. 2. Ancient writers used the term facultas to describe a person’s ability and skill in some subject , while medieval writers by extension used it to denote the subject itself. By the early thirteenth century it was also used to describe a corporate body specializing in a particular discipline Theologians v. Canonists  273 opment of autonomous faculties, each with its own rules concerning curriculum , examinations, and degree requirements, fostered and institutionalized rigid boundaries between disciplines. Their members also sought to exclude what they regarded as marginal topics from the curriculum—arts faculties, for example, typically omitted vernacular literatures from their lecture schedules; medical faculties refused to teach surgery; and law faculties showed no appetite for teaching customary law.3 The aggregation of teachers into faculties also led to turf battles, at times remarkably fierce, between these bodies. Medieval scholars commonly regarded their own discipline as more important than its competitors —something not unknown among their more recent successors.4 Faculties struggled against one another to attract students, no doubt in part because student fees provided them with income, and also for prestige, which not only helped to bring in additional students, but furnished teachers with psychological satisfaction as well. Herbert Grundmann (1902–70) maintained that medieval universities came into being ‘neither from national nor ecclesiastical initiative, nor from social or economic developments, but from amor sciendi...in its origin and essence it was directed toward independent thinking, research, and teaching.’5 Since the 1960s, however, scholars have increasingly queswithin a university; Bernard Geyer, ‘Facultas theologica: Eine bedeutungsgeschichtliche Untersuchung ’ , ZKG 85 (1964) 133–45 at 134–37; Jacques Verger, ‘Nova et vetera dans le vocabulaire des premiers statuts et privilèges universitaires français’ , in his Universités françaises au moyen âge (Education and Society in the Middle Ages and Renaissance [hereafter ESMAR], vol. 7; Leiden 1995), 37–52 at 45, and ‘The First French Universities and the Institutionalization of Learning: Faculties , Curricula, Degrees’ , in Learning Institutionalized: Teaching in the Medieval University, ed. John van Engen (Notre Dame Conferences in Medieval Studies, no. IX; Notre Dame 2000), 5–19 at 9; James A. Brundage. Medieval Origins of the Legal Profession: Canonists, Civilians, and Courts (Chicago 2008) 244–48. Facultas in the corporate sense was used more often by medieval writers north of the Alps than by Italian writers; Alfonso Maierù, University Training in Medieval Europe, ed. and trans. Darleen N. Pryds (ESMAR. 3; Leiden 1994) 72–82. 3. Verger, ‘First French Universities’ 10; Yves M. J. Congar, ‘Un témoinage des d...

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