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Ecclesiastical Provisions for the Support of Students in the Thirteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Frank Pegues
Affiliation:
Ohio State University

Extract

Those conversant with the history of mediaeval education are generally aware of the fact that clerks studying in a theological faculty were permitted, during the thirteenth century, to enjoy their ecclesiastical rents in absentia1. The Super Speculam of Honorius III is often cited as the basis of this practice, although many scholars also know that the custom was in use, on a local scale, before 1219. The present writer does not wish, at the moment, to inquire into the origins of the practice, nor does he intend to offer any new interpretation of Honorius' famous bull.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1957

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References

1. Professor Gaines Post had occasion, many years ago, to mention non-residence provisions in connection with the salaries paid to masters, in “Masters' Salaries and Student Fees in the Mediaeval Universities,” Speculum, VII (1932), 181198.Google Scholar More recently, Professor E. F. Jacob, in the revised edition of his work on the conciliar period, discussed the petitions of clerks for prebends in the fourteenth century (Essays in the Conciliar Epoch. Second Edition. 1953). The present study is part of a larger project which the author has underway on the financial support of mediaeval education.

2. The bull itself is to be found in Denifle, H. and Chatelain, E. (eds.), Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, I, no. 32.Google Scholar

3. Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland. Papal Letters, I, 114.Google Scholar Hereafter referred to as Cal. Papal Registers.

4. Les registres de Grégoire IX, no. 1454: “… pretextu constitutionis a bone memorie H. papa, predecessore nostro, promulgate, qua statuit ut ab ecclesiarum prelatis et capitulis ad theologice facultatis studium aliqui docibiles destinentur, ex quibus postmodum copia possit haberi doctorum, consequenter adjecto ut docentes in theologica facultate, dum in scolis docueriut, et studentes in ipsa integre per annos quinque percipiant, de licentia Sedis Apostolice, beneficiorum suorum proventus, contraria consuetudine non obstante.” The edition of papal letters used in this essay is, except where otherwise noted, that of the Bibliothèque des Écoles Françaises d'Athènes et de Rome.

5. Les registres d'Innocent IV, no. 897:Google Scholar “…duxeris providendum quod aliqui ex monasterii tui monachis honestis et ad studendum ydoneis Parisius vel alibi ubi melius expedire videbitur commorentur, divine scripture studio sub regulari observantia vacaturi. …”

6. Ibid., nos. 970 and 1962. For the Franciscans at Bologna, see Chart. Univ. Parisiensis, I, no. 185.Google Scholar

7. Post, op. cit., discussed the extension of Super speculam to these studia.

8. Les registres de Grégoire IX, no. 982.

9. Cal. Papal Registers, I, 244.Google Scholar

10. An especially notable example of papal interference in a case which concerned the five-year provision is to be found in Les registres de Grègoire IX, nos. 1310 and 1548.Google Scholar The provost of Seclin wished to use the Super speculam for theological study at Paris. In May, 1233, Gregory wrote to the archdeacon of Arms and to the dean and cantor of Dendermunde and asked them to compel the chapter at Seclin to give such permission to the provost. This letter was apparently not effective. After a lapse of five months, the pope wrote again to the dean and chapter of Seclin and ordered them to give canonical license to the provost so that he could absent himself from the chapter to study theology at Paris.

11. Chart. Univ. Parisiensis, I, no. 4.Google Scholar

12. Layettes du Trésor des Chartes, III, 290.Google Scholar

13. The full text of this important letter is given in Chart. Univ. Parisiensis, I, no. 145.Google Scholar A scant calendar of the letter is to be found in Les registres d'Innocent IV, no. 1366.Google Scholar

14. Les registres de Grégoire IX, no. 1454: “Nolentes igitur ut quod pro eeclesiarurn utilitate statutum est, ad earum dispendium pertrahatur …”

15. Les registres d'Innocent IV no. 986 for Amiens, and no. 932 for Senils.

16. Ibid., no. 1777.

17. Ibid., no. 5080.

18. For Chalons-sur-Marne, see Les registres d'Alexandre IV, no. 1597. Clement's letter to the church of Le Puy is in Les registres de Clement IV, no. 648.

19. Les registres d'Innocent IV, no. 2162.

20. Ibid., no. 2625.

21. Les registres d'Alexandre IV, no. 1659: “… ut non obstante quod singulis annis per tres menses in dicta ecclesia residentiam facere tenetur, theologico studio per quatriennium insistere valeat, necnon interim pereipere praepositurae ac praebendae proventus, quotidianis distributionibus dumtaxat exceptis.”

22. Ibid., no. 1830.

23. Ibid., nos. 2209 and 2210.

24. Les registres de Grégoire IX, no. 3637.Google Scholar

25. Les registres d'Urbain IV, no. 289: “Eidem indulget ut, cum se cupiat ad theologicae facultatis studium transferre, proventus ecclesiasticos quos obtinet, quotidianis distributionibus dumtaxat exceptis, percipere valeat per quinquennium cum ea integritate cum quas perciperet illos, si in ecelesiis in quibus beneficia ipsa obtinet, personaliter resideret.”

26. Ibid., no. 360. The prohibitory clause of Auxerre's statute, restated in Urban's letter, runs as follows: “… prebendarum suarum ipsius ecclesie in scolis pereipiant cum integritate proventus, nisi forte in loco ubi litterarum studio institerint, beneficium ecclesiasticum fuerint assecuti.”

27. Ibid., no. 364.

28. Examples of such dispensation may be seen in Les registres de Grégoire IX, no. 1059; Les registres d'Innocent IV, no. 7258; and Les registres d'Alexandre IV, no. 1833.

29. Denifle, H., Die Universitäten des Miltelalters bis 1400, I, 98100.Google Scholar

30. Les registres de Grégoire IX, no. 1600.

31. Les registres d'Innocent IV, no. 7258.

32. Les registres d'Alexandre IV, no. 1807: “…ut canonici juris et theologiae solemni studio insistat…”

33. Les registres de Grégoire IX, no. 4567: “… qui, de licentia sui capituli, studio juris canonici et civilis per quadriennium duxerat insistendum, et satis laudabiliter profecerat in eodem, concedit desideranti adhuc eidem studio insudare, facultatem studendi adhuc in jure per triennium et percipiendi per idem tempus proventus suos ecclesiasticos.”

34. Les registres d 'Alexandre IV, no. 1830.

35. Les registres d'Innocent IV, no. 3407.

36. Les registres de Grégoire IX, no. 126: “Episcopo Tullensi mandat quatenus Petro, clerico Tullensi, qui pro ipsius episcopi negotiis laborando se multis exposuerat periculis, et fere omnia bona sua expenderat insistendo scolasticis disciplinis…”

37. Ibid., no. 1182.

38. Ibid., no. 1287.

39. Les registres d'Alexandre IV, no. 2380: “…qui diu scolasticis disciplinis institit et in eisdem laudabiliter profecisse dicitur, nec est aliquod, ut asserit, ecclesiasticum beneficium assecutus …”

40. Les registres d'Innocent IV, nos. 2554,3075, 3152, 3249.

41. Les registres de Grégoire IX, no. 1417: “quatenus Arnoldo scholari, ejusdem Theoderici nepoti, cupienti, sicut asserebat, scholasticis insistere disciplinis, in competenti eccesiastico beneficio … provideat.”

42. Ibid., no. 3768.