The University’s Never-Ending Crisis

What indignities those poor magisters suffered at the cathedral school of Paris late in the twelfth century. In these medieval centers of religious learning, early ancestors of the modern university, teachers, known as “masters,” educated clergymen under the authority of a bishop. They were cosmopolitan institutions, but when peripatetic theologians came to a new city, they sometimes faced legal persecution, special taxes, precarious positions, or too much competition. The disorder extended to students’ lives, too. Some found inexperienced masters at the lectern—others studied hard without getting a diploma, or found no master to take responsibility for them. Political and religious authorities soon decided it was time to clean up the mess. Royal (1200) and papal (1215) documents established in Paris a formal community, or universitas, with the right to self-governance and immunity from civil courts, as well as responsibilities including degree standards. The University of Paris was no longer at the mercy of the bishop.