DENIFLE
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DENIFLE
learned, but also the genius of the place where it was
commonly taught. The firat and only volume ap-
peared in 1885 under the title "Die Universitaten des
Mittelalters bis 1400" (xlv-814). The wealth of eru-
dition it contains is extraordinary. The worlc was
everywhere applauded; it led, however, to a some-
what bitter controversy. G. Kaufmann attacked it,
but was worsted by the erudite and unsparing author.
The most copious collection on the subject to be found
in any archives is that possessed by the Vatican, and
this Denifle was the first to use. Munich, Vienna,
and other centres supplied the rest. Among his dis-
coveries two may be mentioned; namely, that the
universities did not, as a rule, owe their origin to cathe-
dral schools, and that in the majority of them at first
theology was not taught. The University of Paris
formed an exception. Denifle had planned four other
volumes ; viz .'a second on the development of the organi-
zation of universities, a third on the origin of the Uni-
versity of Paris, a fourth on its development to the end
of the thirteenth century, and a fifth on its controver-
sies with the mendicant orders. But the Conscil Ge-
neral des Facultes de Paris, which had in 1885 decided
on publishing the "Chartularium", or records of the
University of Paris, resolved on 27 March, 1887, to en-
trust the work to Denifle, with Emile Chatelain, the
Sorbonne librarian, as collaborateur. This quite suited
Denifle, for he had resolved not to write before he
had collected all the relevant documents, so with
the assistance of Chatelain he began his gigantic task.
In less than ten years four folio volumes of the "Char-
tularium" appeared as follows: 1889, volume I, A. d.
1200-1286 (xxxvi-714 pp.), 530 original documents,
with fifty-five from the preparatory period, 1163-1200;
1891, volume II, 1286-1.350 (xxiii-808 pp.), 661 docu-
ments; 1894, volume III, 1350-1384 (xxxvii-777 pp.),
520 documents; 1897, volume IV, 1.384-1452 (xxxvi-
835 pp.), 988 documents, and two volumes of the
" Auctarium ". This moninnental work, the " Chartu-
larium Universitatis Parisiensis ", contains invaluable
information regarding its inner life, organization, fam-
ous professors and students, relations with popes and
kings, controversies, etc., during the period when this
university was the chief centre of theoolgical learning.
" With its aid", as Kirsch remarks, " a history of medi-
eval theology has at last become possible." Some idea
of the labour involved in its preparation may be gath-
ered from the fact that all the great libraries and arch-
ives in Europe were visited, that Denifle travelled from
Paris to Rome forty times, and that in the Vatican
archives alone he examined 200,000 letters, of which he
utilized 80,000 in his notes (see II, p. 17), though of
course more material was found in Paris than in Rome.
In order to preserve the unity of the "Chartularium",
any reference to the " nations " was relegated to the
"Auctarium". The two volumes published contain
the "Liber Procuratorum Nationis Anglicana» 1333-
1446". Foumier, who rashly criticized Denifle and
Chatelain, fared badly at their hands. After Denifle's
death the materials he had collected for another vol-
ume were entrusted to Chatelain, so that the work
might be continued. Owing to the vastness and com-
pleteness of his research and to his amazing erudition,
what Denifle gave to the world, even though for him it
was only a preliminary study, has sufficed to make him
the great authority on medieval universities. (See
Merkle, Dreves, etc., or Rashdall's "Universities of
Europe in the Middle Ages", Oxford, 1895.) In order
to publish valuable texts which he had deciphered and
the results of his studies on variou.>< subjert.s, together
with Father Ehrle, S. J., the sub-lil>rarian of the Vati-
can, he founded in 1885 the " Archiv fiir Literatur und
Kirchengescluclitc des Mittelalters". The two friends
were the only eontril)utors. The first five years of
this serial contain several articles from liis pen, on
various universities, on Abelard and other scholars, on
religious orders, on popes, etc.. Denifle's extensive
acquaintance with manuscripts and his skill in palaeog-
raphy were also put at the service of beginners in the
art of deciphering by his annotated "Specimina pa-
Ijeographica Regestorum Pontificum ab Innocentio
III ad Urbanum V" (Rome, 1888). Among its sixty-
four plates, that representing the Vatican transcript
of the "Unara Sanctam" is especially valuable. The
work was the offering of the papal archivists to Leo
XIII on his golden jubilee.
A work of another kind suggested itself to him while gathering in the Vatican archives materials for his annotations on the "Chartularium". Denifle noticed in the three hundred volumes of "Registers of Peti- tions" addressed to Clement VI and Urban V, between 1342 and 1393, that many came from France during the Hundred Years War between that country and England. So for the sake of a change of occupation, or "un travail aKcssoire" as he calls it, Denifle went again through these volumes (each about 600 pages folio). In 1897 he published: "La desolation des <>glises, monasteres, hopitaux, en France vers le milieu du XV® siecle". It contains a harrowing description of the state of France, based on 1003 con- temporary documents, most of which were discovered in the Vatican. Then, in order to give in explanation a similar account of the cause of all these calamities, he published in 1889 : " La guerre de cent ans et la d&ola- tion des ^glises, monasteres, et hopitaux, tom. I, jusqu'a la mort de Charles V" (1.385). Though the work was not continued the enormous amount of recondite information brought together and illus- trated for the first time makes the volume indispens- able to historians (see,e. g., his account of the Battle of Crecy and the Black Prince).
Denifle had for years been studying the history of medieval theology and mysticism, as well as the lives of saints and scholars by whom in both depart.ments progress had been effected ; on the other hand his in- vestigations revealed the decadence of ecclesiastical life during the Hundred Years War and caused him to amass documents (about 12(K)) showing the many abuses then prevalent among the clergy both secular and regular. The contrast was marked. As was his wont he resolved to solve the problem that arose, to see what could have been the result of such moral cor- ruption. These new researches were not confined to France ; they gradually extended to Germany. Deni- fle found proof that in both coimtries, with praise- worthy exceptions, during the fourteenth century things went from bad to worse, but he saw that the end had not been reached yet. He traced the down- ward course of profligacy to the third decade of the sixteenth century, and there he stopped for he had foimd the abyss. Crimes which ecclesiastics and re- ligious were ashamed of in the preceding era now be- came to one section a cause of self-glorification, and were even regarded as miracles and signs of sanctity. .\t the beginning of this painful investigation Denifle had not a thought about Luther, but now he saw that he could not avoid him; to estimate the new depart- ure it was necessary to understand Luther, for of this appalling depravity he was the personification as well as the preacher. So Denifle devoted many years to the task of ascertaining for himself how, and why, and when Luther fell. The Vatican archives and various libraries, particularly those of Rostock and Kiel, sup- plied original documents to which this independent study was confined. As usual Denifle made a series of discoveries. His work, which is di^^ded into three parts, if we take its second edition, is in no sense a biography. The first part is a critique of Luther's treatise on mon.astic vows. It examines his views on the vow of chastity in detail, and convicts him of ignorance, niendaciousness, etc. The second part, which is entitled "a contribution to the history of exe- gesis, literature and dogmatic theology in the Middle Ages", refutes Luther's assertion that his doctrine of
