5 - Learning

Summary

Unlike the Carmelites, the superiors of the Augustinians understood the importance of study from the very beginning. Whereas the hermits had focused on contemplation and withdrawal with limited engagement in pastoral care, the new order would need learned brothers to act as preachers and teachers. In 1259 the prior general, Lanfranco da Settala, purchased a house in Paris for students and by 1260 it was already functioning. There also seems to have been a studium in Bologna by 1264. Within twenty-five years the Paris house was so successful that it was too small to accommodate all those attending and, although a larger house was acquired in Chardonnet, numbers had to be restricted on a temporary basis to one per province. In May 1287 the general chapter therefore ruled that there were to be at least four studia generalia in Italy: in the Roman Curia, Bologna, Padua and Naples (the last three all university towns). As David Gutiérrez has argued, these had probably all already been established as schools before 1287, since in June of that year the Roman province designated a student for the last three and for Florence, indicating that this last too was now established as a studium generale.