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THE POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS IN THE MIDDLE AGES The University of Paris was distinguished from all other univer- sities of the Middle Ages by its prominence in political affairs. While the great schools of Italy, Germany, and England held aloof from secular politics, the civitas pliilosoplionun on Mt. Ste. Genevieve often asserted itself as a potent factor in the political life of France. The learned doctors of Paris seem indeed often to have been more interested in the strife of party factions than in the disputations of their scholars, and at times the University acted as if it were an im- portant organ of the state rather than a school of learning.' We hear little of its participation in political affairs before the years 1356-13 58, when it took part in the stirring events associated with the name of Etienne Marcel. Its political role in the conflict between Marcel and the Dauphin of France has often been exag- gerated. The University was twice called upon to mediate between the two parties, but did not openly espouse the cause of either fac- tion, though it was inclined to favor the cause of the Dauphin.' It does not seem to have intervened in secular politics during the reign of Charles V. (i 364-1 380), but came into political prom- inence under his successor, Charles VI., especially during the strug- gle between the Burgundians and Armagnacs. In fact, the years 1405-1422 comprise the period when the University was most active in the affairs of the state. During this period it was usually in sympathy with the Burgundians, but strove to mediate between the two parties and to establish peace. Its attitude as a peace-maker is illustrated by many documents in the Chartulanitin. In 1405 the rector and divers " solemn " doctors admonished the Duke of Orleans to look to the reforma- ' The older historians of the University, Du Boulay, Crevier, and Dubarle, devote little attention to its political activity, but some of the documents in Du Boulay' s book are useful. Nor does this subject fall within the scope of the first volume of Denifle's epoch-making work (^Die Universitaten des Mittelalters, 1885). It is briefly examined in Rashdall's Universities of the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1895 ), Vol. I., Ch. V., I 6. The fourth volume of Denifle's Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis (Paris, 1897), which covers the years 1394-1452, now enables the investigator adequately to deal with the subject. 2Jourdain, in Revue des Questions Historiques, 1878, XXIV. 548-566 ; and in his Excursions Historiques {^m%, 18S8), 339-361. (440)