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Patterns of Attendance at the University of Paris, 1400–1800

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

L. W. B. Brockliss
L. W. B. Brockliss
Affiliation:
University of Hull
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Extract

During the past ten years, historians of early modern Europe in Britain, France and the United States have shown an increasing interest in the history of education. Doubtless encouraged by the contemporary formulation of an educational sociology, they in turn have begun to investigate the form and function of education in pre-industrial societies. For the most part, however, research has been limited to the study of elementary education with the purpose of understanding the effect of its expansion on literacy and popular attitudes. Less attention has been paid to the social history of higher education, particularly to the role of the universities. The one exception is the case of Oxford and Cambridge for which studies abound through the efforts of Professor Stone and his pupils. But outside England, apart from Kagan's work on the Spanish universities, studies have been few and limited to accounts of patterns of attendance over relatively short periods of time that give little indication of the general picture. Indeed, information about the history of attendance at most universities in the early modern period has still to be gleaned from nineteenth- and early twentieth-century studies – useful as sources of administrative history, but seldom revealing on questions that interest the present-day historian. Apparendy, too, there is little chance of the position improving in the future. With the exception of a project envisaged by the French early modernists, Chartier, Frijhoff and Julia, interest in the social history of universities seems to be diminishing.

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Articles
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The Historical Journal , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , September 1978 , pp. 503 - 544
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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References

1 For a recent example, cf. the work of Vovelle, M. and his pupils, ‘Y'a-t-il une révolution culturelle au xviiie siècle? L'éducation populaire en Provence’, Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine, XXII, 1 (1975), 89–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 It would be a lengthy business to list all the works on attendance at the English universities that have appeared in the last decade inspired by the pioneering study of Stone, L., ‘The educational revolution in England’, Past and Present, XXVIII (1964), 41–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Stone was not the first to view the English universities in a social context; see also Curtis, M. H., Oxford and Cambridge in transition, 1558–1642 (Oxford, 1959)Google Scholar. But he was the first to treat patterns of attendance quantitatively. For the most recent studies, Stone, L. (ed.), The university in society (2 vols., London, 1974), vol. I.Google Scholar

3 Kagan, R., ‘Universities in Castile 1500–1700’, Post and Present, XLIX (1970), 44–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Students and Society in early modern Spain (London, 1975)Google Scholar. For an idea of the more limited studies, cf. the work of Verger, J. on French universities in the fifteenth century: ‘Le rôle social de l'université d'Avignon au xve siècle’, Bibliothèque d'humanisme et renaissance, XXXIII, 3 (1971), 489–504Google Scholar; ‘Le recrutement géographique des universités françaises au début du xve siècle d'après les suppliques de 1403’, Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'école française de Rome, LXVIII (1970), 855–902Google Scholar. ‘Les universités françaises au xve siècle: crise et tentatives de réforme’, Cahiers d'histoire, XXI (1976), 43–66.Google Scholar

4 For their initial if largely speculative findings about French universities, see Chartier, R., Compère, M. M. and Julia, D., L'éducation en France du xvie au xviiie siècle (Paris, 1976), pp. 249–92.Google Scholar

5 Although a large number of matriculation and graduation records have been published (especially in Germany), and many more remain unsifted in the archives, they often give no more information than the student's name.

6 Stone, , The University in society, I and II, Introd., vii.Google Scholar

7 In 1793, the University of Paris, like other French universities, was officially closed in anticipation of a complete restructuring of higher education. Barnard, H. C., Education and the French revolution (Cambridge, 1969), pp. 124–6.Google Scholar

8 For the ban, see Rashdall, H., The universities of Europe in the early middle ages (3 vols., Oxford, 1936 edn), I, 322Google Scholar; for the edict of 1679, Fonds français (hereafter franc.), Bibliothèque Nationale (hereafter B.N.), 15593, fos. 565–9.

9 The early history of the faculties can be traced in Rashdall, , The universities of Europe, I, 269–585Google Scholar; for later developments, Ch. Jourdain, , Histoire de l'université de Paris aux xviie et xviiie siècles (Paris, 1862–1866)Google Scholar; for the separate faculties: Feret, P., La faculté de théologie à Paris, époque moderne (5 vols., Paris, 1894–1910)Google Scholar; Periès, G., La faculté de droit dans l'ancienne université de Paris (Paris, 1890)Google Scholar; Corlieu, A., L'ancienne faculté de médecine à Paris (Paris, 1877)Google Scholar; Targe, M., Professeurs et régents des collèges dans l'université de Paris au 17e et 18e siècle (Paris, 1902).Google Scholar

10 Details of these changes are to be generally found in the secondary works quoted in the previous footnote; for a more specific study see Brockliss, L. W. B., The university of Paris in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (university of Cambridge doctoral dissertation, 1976), pp. 55–67.Google Scholar

11 For a fuller discussion, see Brockliss, , The university of Paris, pp. 67–76.Google Scholar

12 Except for the years 1601–73 wnen theology graduates had to have a Paris M.A., it was always possible for students in theology and medicine to take a degree without one. The practice, though, was discouraged by forcing M.A.s from other universities to study in the faculties' ‘schools’ for a longer time.

13 As can be seen from Table 3.

14 Rashdall, , The universities of Europe, 1, 497–536Google Scholar; for a list of colleges in 1600, Jourdain, , L'université de Paris, p. 38Google Scholar; Fonds franc., B.N. 18828, fos. 372–400, printed: Statutes of foundation, coll. de Mazarin, 1689.

15 Details about the boursiers of individual colleges have to be gleaned from the patents of foundation which can be found in the surviving university archives: série (hereafter sér.) M, Archives Nationales (hereafter A.N.), 79–104; sér. M M, A.N., 333–469; Archives de l'université de Paris, Bibliothèque de la Sorbonne (hereafter A.U.P., Bib. de la Sorb.), cartons 17–22; also Félibien, M., Histoire de la ville de Paris (5 vols., Paris, 1725), III–V, pièces justicatives, passim.Google Scholar

16 ‘Comptes du collège du Plessis, 1581–1634’, sér. H3, A.N., 2748; in 1621 the college was running a current deficit of 6,000 livres and a permanent overdraft of 20,000 livres.

17 The earliest move to amalgamate the smallest colleges was in the reign of Henry IV. See Raneé, A. J., ‘La réforme de l'université de Paris’, Revue sextienne, XIII (1885), 13–20Google Scholar. For the eventual amalgamation with Louis-le-Grand, , Jourdain, , L'université de Paris, p. 399.Google Scholar

18 ‘Comptes du collège de Beauvais’, 1630–50, sér. H3, A.N., 4785 (30–1).

19 It is easiest to list the sources for each faculty separately. Faculty of arts: Fonds latin, B.N., 9951–8, matriculands and masters of arts, 1519–54, 1567–1633, 1643–6; Fonds latin, B.N., 9153–6, masters of arts 1634–1793; A.U.P., Bib. de la Sorb., reg. 97, matriculands 1650–79; Denifle, , Chatelain, , Von Moé, and Samaran, (eds.), Auctarium universitatis Parisiensis (5 vols., Paris, 1894–1942)Google Scholar, transcriptions of the minute books of the nations of Germany 1333–1492, France 1443–56, and Picardy 1476–84. These contain the names of new M.A.s who joined the nation each year; as it is easy to discover a nation's annual share of new M.A.s after 1519 once records begin, as the lists are divided accordingly, it is possible, on the assumption that the proportion was relatively constant, to estimate the total number of M.A.s in the fifteenth century too. Faculty of theology: Fonds latin, B.N., 15440, 16573, licentiates 1373–1788, bachelors 1601, 1620–1, 1642–7, 1652–61; ‘Conclusions de la faculté de théologie’, 1661–1789, sér, M M. A.N., 253–9; the number of bachelors, licentiates and doctors is revealed each year in the minutes; Clerval, A. (ed.), Registre des procès-verbaux de la faculté de théologie, 1501–21 (Paris, 1917)Google Scholar, for similar lists. Faculty of law: sér. M M, A.N., 1111–2, 1114–26, bachelors, licentiates and doctors 1587–8, 1632–5, 1651–1790; sér. M M, A.N., 1059–80, matriculands, 1660–1790; Fournier, M. (ed.), La faculté des décrets de l'université de Paris au; xve siècle (3 vols., Paris, 1895–1946)Google Scholar, transcription of the faculty minutes 1415–1500 with annual lists of bachelors, licentiates and doctors. Faculty of medicine: Bibliothèque de la faculté de medicine (hereafter Bib. de la fac. de med.), MSS 1–24, ‘Commentaires de la faculté’, 1397–1789; th;e number of bachelors, licentiates and doctors is recorded in the accounts section of the minutes; the accounts sections of MSS 15-–24 also occasionally record the number of matriculands in medicine under the item droit d'inscription; Bib. de la fac. de med., MS 2005, register of matriculands 1753–74.

20 These privileges were essentially fiscal and judicial; for an account Rashdall, , The universities of Europe, I, 398–432.Google Scholar

21 This was a long-standing tradition; the requirement was repeated in a University decision of 1550; see du Boulay, C. Egasse, Remarques sur la dignité du recteur (Paris, 1668), p. 18.Google Scholar

22 This was insisted upon by an edict of Louis XII; see Fonds franc., B.N., 21734, fos. 47–51.

23 This seems a reasonable assumption. Admittedly, not all students would want to become doctors; only those anxious to benefit from the particular privileges the doctoral bonnet bestowed. The majority, though, must have been interested in a bachelor's or licentiate's degree for without a certificate of competency hard years of training could be put to no professional use; the licence, for instance, was essential for students of law and medicine who wanted to practice (if in the former's case, it had to be a licence in civil and canon law if they wanted to practice in secular courts).

24 A conclusion based on the knowledge that the proportion of students who gained their degrees on the same day was only a third; it is, of course, impossible to know what proportion failed to fulfil the stipulated period of study as there is no statistical evidence, only references to the fact by interested parties.

25 The droit des gradués was not simply a privilege of M.A.s of the university; all bachelors and licentiates of the higher faculties, and initially even those in actu studentis, could benefit from it, if clerics. The rotuli then is a useful source for studying the comparative if not the actual size of the higher faculties at different times in the period. Rotuli survive for all faculties 1551–1675, though only for sporadic years, and for the faculty of law 1492–1517, 1537–45; see A.U.P., Bib. de la Sorb., reg. 71–8, sér. M M, A.N., 264–5. Rotuli for earlier centuries can be found in the Vatican archives, cf. Verger, ‘le recrutement géographique’, pp. 855–70; Verger worked in particular on the rotuli from the French universities for the year 1403.

26 Other faculties for which matriculation registers survive in the first half of the sixteenth century were certainly smaller. Two of the most famous universities, Louvain and Cologne, had from 500–700 and 500–800 students matriculating in all disciplines, while Heidelberg had seldom more than 100. (See Reussens, E. H. J., Matricule de l'université de Louvain, 1426–1797 (10 vols., Louvain, 1903–1974)Google Scholar; Keussen, M., Die Matrikel der Universität Köln, 1389–1559 (3 vols., Bonn, 1919–1931)Google Scholar; Toepke, G., Die Matrikel der Universität Heidelberg, 1386–1662 (Heidelberg, 1884).Google Scholar

27 In January 1568 all students were ordered to swear their allegiance to the catholic religion and thereafter none could take the oath of loyalty or proceed to a degree without a certificate of orthodoxy; see Crevier, J. B. L., Histoire de l'université de Paris (7 vols., Paris, 1761), VI, 215–24.Google Scholar

28 Precise figures, of course, are impossible; according to Livet, G., Les guerres de religion (Paris, 1970)Google Scholar, there were 2,150 reformed churches in 1561; and only 951 in 1598 (p. 33); the latter ministered to 1,250,000 souls or 274,000 families: the population of France at the time was c. 15–16 million. Admittedly, however, these figures are deceptive, for protestants formed a much greater proportion of the social and economic elite, and it will be shown that only those with a substantial income could afford to attend the University of Paris. Arguably, therefore, the huguenots' absence would have a greater effect than the figures suggest. This is to forget, though, that throughout the era of the religious wars, protestants formed a much greater percentage of the noblesse d'épée than of professional groups whose occupation demanded an arts education. It was only in the early 1560s that protestants could be found in large numbers throughout the country among lawyers, officiers, physicians, etc.; thereafter huguenot professionals tended to be restricted to south of Loire, an area we will see that at no time sent many students to Paris. For a survey of the recent literature, Salmon, J. H. M., Society in crisis: France in the sixteenth century (London, 1975), pp. 117–45.Google Scholar

29 Matriculations certainly rose by 50%, but the low annual average in the 1590s was completely due to the total collapse of intake in the era of the Ligue, when the rival armies clashed in northern France, and Paris was besieged for part of the time. Matriculations declined from 450 in 1587–8, to 40 in 1591–2, then rose again with the entry of Henry IV to the capital in 1595–6 to 427; further evidence, if this be needed, that the effect of the wars was essentially short term.

30 The best introduction to the history of pedagogical theory in the first half of the sixteenth century in Garin, E., L'éducation de l'homme moderne (Paris, 1968 edn), pp. 142–89Google Scholar. For the new provincial colleges, Boyd, W., The History of Western education (London, 1969 edn), pp. 183–208Google Scholar. In England the colleges were generally called grammar schools.

31 In Lower Normandy alone, for instance, there were foundations at Lisieux, Le Havre, Caudebac, Aumale, Verneuil, Bernay and Dieppe; see de Beaurepaire, Ch. de Robillard, Recherches sur les établissements d'instruction publique et la population dans l'ancien diocèse de Rouen (2 vols., Rouen, 1872), II, 20 ffGoogle Scholar. For the Jesuit foundations, Delattre, P., Les établissements des Jésuites en France depuis quatre siècles (5 vols., Enghien, 1940–1955), passimGoogle Scholar; for Paris, Ferner, G. Dupont, Le collège de Clermont et le lycée Louis-le-Grand (3 vols., Paris, 1921), esp. IGoogle Scholar; estimates of attendance are given in appendix F1.

32 Reims (1547), Tours (1557), Rouen (1555–62), Nantes (1557), Paris (1563); Cauly, E., Histoire du collège des Bons-Enfants à Reims (2 vols, in one, Reims, 1885), II, 188 ff.Google Scholar; de Beaurepaire, Robillard, Recherches sur les établissements d'instruction … de Rouen, I, 135 ff.Google Scholar; Fouqueray, H., Histoire des Jésuites en France (5 vols., Paris, 1910–1923), v, 155Google Scholar; Maistre, L., L'instruction publique dans les villes et les campagnes du comté nantais avant 1789 (Nantes, 1882), p. 159ff.Google Scholar

33 Candidates had to provide testimonials of their attendance signed by their professor and from 1637 a transcription of the course they had followed; improperly qualified candidates were sent down and ordered to begin again; A.U.P., Bib. de la Sorb., reg. 26–7, 29–37, ‘Registra congregationum et conclusionum universitatis Parisiensis et facultatis artium’, 1622–1700, passim.

34 At least, no other explanation seems possible. As can be seen from Tables 2 and 4, the number of graduates in theology rose rapidly in the seventeenth century, but the number of graduates in medicine remained stable. No evidence suggests either that a greater number of students in arts were anxious to use the droit des gradués or teach the arts in their turn in the seventeenth century.

35 Two years in a class of philosophy as laid down in the statutes of 1601 and six months in a class of rhetoric according to a decision of 1628; see A.U.P., reg. 26, fo. 120.

36 The figures in either case can only serve as a guide to the age of entrance from the very nature of the records; it is possible, too, that they are not representative as they are only drawn from a host of individual histories, generally of the wealthiest and most influential students, uncovered haphazardly in the process of research.

37 Assuming that the large majority of students, all except boursiers and Parisians unwilling to attend Louis-le-Grand, spent no longer than two and a half years in the faculty.

38 Julia, D. and Presley, P., ‘La population scolaire en 1789’, Annales, économies, sociétés, civilisations, XXX, 6 (1975), 1516–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar; p. 1526 for the estimates of 1834 and 1843 and their own calculation. The early nineteenth-century figures come from general enquêtes into the state of arts education on the eve of the revolution launched by the then ministers of education, Guizot and Villemain; their accuracy depends on the assiduity of the officials entrusted with the investigation. Julia and Presley are dubious about the findings in general, not just the returns for the Paris colleges, as where figures can be checked they are always rather inflated. Cross-checking is impossible where the Paris faculty of arts is concerned, for only the returns survive – carefully broken down into figures for each of the collèges de plein exercise. Their own figure therefore is an adjusted estimate based on the average percentage error.

39 Chattier, , Compère, , Julia, , L'éducation en France, pp. 207–14.Google Scholar

40 This is a calculation based on (1) the annual number of Parisians entering the faculties of law and medicine, who would presumably have also studied their arts at the university once the Jesuits had been expelled, and (2) the annual number of M.A.s. On the assumption that all Parisians stayed for eight years and provincials for two and a half at the most, a figure of 2,200 is reached. It takes no account of students, whatever their regional background, who failed to finish the course, those who finished but took no degree and those provincials M.A.s who for some reason spent longer than two and a half years in the faculty, such as the boursiers. The actual figure therefore may be nearer 3,000.

41 It is not surprising then that the number of regular clergy among the faculty's graduates declined dramatically over the century – from 60 to 20% – and the curriculum became much more orientated towards positive theology – casuistry and matters of doctrinal dispute between catholic and protestant. The status of regulars is given in the records; for the curriculum, see Brockliss, , The university of Paris, pp. 172–80.Google Scholar

42 Maugis, E., Histoire du parlement de Paris (2 vols., Paris, 1913), II, 368–78.Google Scholar

43 du Boulay, C. Egasse, Historia universitatis Parisiensis (6 vols., Paris, 1665–1673), VI, 246Google Scholar ‘arrêt de la cour de parlement’, 13 June 1534. The surviving graduation records reveal many students who gained their degree on the same day and there were plenty of contemporary complaints of the fact, especially in the minutes of the university; A.U.P., reg. 26–7, passim.

44 The former case was certainly true. Chrétien Louis Bazin de Besoms, for instance, son of the intendant, registered for the first and only time in the fourth term of 1662–3.

45 See Verger, J., ‘The university of Paris at the end of the Hundred Years War’, in Baldwin, J. W. and Goldthwaite, R. A. (eds.), Universities in politics, case studies from the late middle ages and early modern period (Baltimore, 1972), pp. 70–1.Google Scholar

46 This requirement was first stressed at the end of the fifteenth century; Guénée, B., Tribunaux et gens de justice dans le baillage de Senlis, 1380–1550 (Paris, 1963), pp. 185–219.Google Scholar

47 ‘Arrêt de la cour de parlement’, 6 09 1656Google Scholar, Collection U, Bib. de la Sorb., 44 (23), PP. 3–4.

48 Cf. de Roye, François, ‘Apolegeticus pro omnibus Galliorum antecessoribus contra Parisiensis canonici iuris professoribus’, 1665Google Scholar, Fonds, franc., 18828, fos. 55–88, printed.

49 For the number of medical students in other faculties, see Chartier, , Compère, and Julia, , L'éducation en France, p. 274, table 39.Google Scholar

50 Some nobles, for instance, believed that for one of their kind to be a doctor of medicine was automatically to renege on his status; this was not the case with other professions. Cf. Michaud, and Poujolet, (eds.), Mémoires de Gaspard de Saulx (Paris, 1836), p. 55.Google Scholar

51 Although qualified physicians had a theoretical monopoly of the diagnosis, and cure of disease, their fees were too expensive and their remedies too uncertain for them to be in great demand. When the majority sought medical advice (which was seldom) it went to the barber-surgeon or the grocer-apothecary, supposedly the doctor's subordinate, or the local quack; cf. Delaunay, P., La vie médicale en France au 16e, 17e et 18e siècle (Paris, 1925), passim.Google Scholar

52 Cf. Verger, J., Les universités au moyen age (Paris, 1973), pp. 66–9.Google Scholar

53 Académie royale de chirugie (1731); Société royale de médecine (1776); collège de pharmacie (1780). Another institution, the Jardin du roi, though in existence since 1626, first began to make a serious contribution to medical research during this century.

54 This is easy where the noble student comes from a prominent family – if he belongs to the grands or the Parisian robe. In other cases, it is admittedly more difficult, but before the eighteenth century it is reasonably safe to suppose that a student who suffixes the name of his terre to his family name is a nobleman; it can often be cross-checked, too, where the surname appears in registers denoting noble status.

55 Ramus, P., ‘Advertissement sur la réformation de l'université de Paris’ (1552), in Cimber, M. L., Archives curieuses de l'histoire de France (35 vols., Paris, 1834), v, 120Google Scholar; Réformation de l'université de Paris (Paris, 1601), pp. 32–3Google Scholar; ‘Mémoire sur le collège de Mazarin’, 1699, sér. M, A.N., 174, pièce 74, printedGoogle Scholar. Tuition was free from 1719; see Targe, , Professeurs et régents des collèges, pp. 195–6.Google Scholar

56 Cf. for instance the student texts of Simon de Colines, Paris printer 1520–45, that sold for a few pence each; Renouard, Ph., L'imprimérie de Simon de Colines (Paris, 1894), p. 91.Google Scholar

57 The figures are given in the accounts section of the ‘commentaires’, under the heading droit d'inscription.

58 Chattier, , Compère, and Julia, , L'éducation en France, p. 285Google Scholar; various figures. Bouquet, L., L'ancien college d'Harcourt (Paris, 1891), pp. 338, 443Google Scholar; the cost in the eighteenth century. Fonds, franc., B.N., 15782, fos. 448–63, printed. ‘Notes sur le factum de M. Beaumanoir, évesque du Mans et des Jésuites, intitulés: Raisons pour lesquelles M. l'évesque du Mans a uni le collège du Mans au collège des Jésuites à Paris’, 1625 (fo. 458).

59 Ramus, , ‘Advertissement’, pp. 120–2Google Scholar; Targe, , Professeurs et régents des collèges, p. 56.Google Scholar

60 Sér. M M, A.N., 1053, fo. 516 ff., report of a commission of the Paris parlement, May 1532; Ramus, , ‘Advertissement’, p. 124Google Scholar; Jourdain, , L'université de Paris, p. 16Google Scholar, a breakdown of the cost of a doctorate in law, 1680.

61 Ramus, , ‘Advertissement’, pp. 125–7Google Scholar, Fonds franc., B.N., 21737, fos. 87–120, printed. ‘Réponse au libelle intitulé: Réquête importante pour les médecins de la chambre royale’; late seventeenth-century memorandum defending the faculty's monopoly of practice in the capital against a society of interlopers calling itself the chambre royale and claiming royal backing. ‘Réquête au avocat général’, Fonds franc., 15593, fos. 610–13; anonymous brief concerning the faculty's organization, late seventeenth century. Lelage, A., Histoire de la thèse de doctorat en médecine (Paris, 1913), p. 128Google Scholar; a sum of 6,685 livres was paid by one Vallet de Viniville in 1789.

62 Ramus, , ‘Advertissement’, pp. 129–30.Google Scholar

63 The price of grain rose sevenfold in Paris 1500–1650, stagnated except for years of dearth 1650–1730, then rose by a further 60% 1730–89. See Baulant, M., ‘Les prix des grains à Paris de 1431’, Annales, économies, sociétés, civilisations, XXIII, 3 (1968), 537–40Google Scholar. Grain prices rose faster than most other prices, so it seems fair to conclude that there was an increase in the cost of attendance in real terms over the period too.

64 Cf. for instance the cost in 1789. The chief part of a student's diet was bread. Assuming consumption of 3–4 Ib. per day, on the eve of the revolution this would have required an outlay of c. 150 livres per annum in normal years as bread was 8–9 sous per Ib. If provision is allowed for expenditure on wine, meat and vegetables, the amount a parent would have had to find might have risen by 200 livres. This takes no account of money for clothing, but this was not included in the original calculation either. Figures from Rude, G., The crowd in the French revolution (Oxford 1959), p. 22.Google Scholar

65 Frijhoff, W. and Julia, D., Ecole et société dans la France d'ancien régime (Paris, 1975), pp. 13–21Google Scholar; the colleges were at Avallon, Gisors and Condom.

66 This was true of each of the three nations for which records survive. For a detailed study of the social composition of the nation of Germany in the fifteenth century based on the dues paid by graduates, see Gabriel, A. L., ‘The English-German nation at the University of Paris 1425–94’Google Scholar, in Gabriel, A. L., Garlandia: studies in the history of medieval universities (Notre-Dame, Indiana, 1969), p. 167 ff.Google Scholar

67 A division of noble matriculands and graduates into épée and robe was made in four particular periods: 1544/5–49/50, 1605/6–14/15, 1639–48 and 1679–88. Categorization was relatively easy. As over 80% of the nobles in each sample came from north of the Loire, those who belonged to the robe were virtually certain to hail from the three administrative centres of Paris, Rouen and Rennes. All that was required therefore was to isolate nobles who came from these three particular dioceses and check their names against lists of members of the three parlements and other sovereign courts. Naturally there is plenty of room for error in such a procedure, so all percentages are approximate. But there is no doubt about the general conclusion.

68 A cursory glance has discovered eleven members of the de Harlay family in the registers in the period 1500–1700 – six in the sixteenth and five in the seventeenth century.

69 Take, for example, the house of Lorraine. In the sixteenth century alone, this particular family sent nine of its members to the faculty. Five of these belonged to the house of Guise, three of the sons of the first duc de Guise and two of his grandsons.

70 The provincial épée's indifference en masse to classical education, indeed to any education at all, was proverbial in the sixteenth century. Cf. de la Noue, François, ‘De la bonne nourriture et institutions qu'il est nécéssaire de donner aux jeunes gentilshommes’, in Discours politiques et militaires (Geneva, 1967 edn), pp. 133–4Google Scholar; de Fail, Noel, Oeuvres facétieuses (2 vols., Paris, 1874 edn), II, 166Google Scholar; Frémy, E. (ed.), Mémoires de Henri de Mesmes (Paris, 1886), p. 125Google Scholar; Mémoires de Gaspard de Saulx, p. 55.Google Scholar

71 In the late seventeenth century attendance in the faculty must have cost the average student some 400 livres per annum. In Brittany, 50% of noble families had incomes below this amount; indeed, 1,300 of the 4,000 families were assessed for the capitation in 1710 at under 10 livres, the rate for a skilled artisan. Admittedly, not all areas were as bad. In the Beauvaisis only 23 out of 70 families had an income as low as 400–500 livres, and 400 livres was the bottom. But even families who had incomes way in excess of this sum would have had difficulty in sending sons to the University; money had also to be put by to equip a son for the army, provide some sort of dowry for daughters, etc. Figures from Goubert, P., The ancien régime (London, 1973 edn), pp. 177, 195.Google Scholar

72 de Vilars, Pierre, 1545–1613Google Scholar, later bishop of Mirepoix; he came from a leading house of Languedoc; see Feret, , La faculté de théologie, IV, 129–31.Google Scholar

73 De Tournefort was from an épée family of Aix; biographical details are given in Hazon, J. A., Notice des hommes les plus célèbres de la faculté de médecine, 1110–1750 (Paris, 1773), p. 176.Google Scholar

74 Colbert was later archbishop of Toulouse; Montmorency ended his days as grand-maître de l'ordre du S. Esprit. For details, Anselme, P., Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France, des pairs, grands officiers de la couronne et de la maison du roi et des anciens barons du royaume (9 vols., Paris, 1826–1833), 589Google Scholar; de Sainte-Marthe, D., Gallia Christiana (16 vols., Paris, 1715), xv, 256.Google Scholar

75 Biographical details, Michaud, J., Biographie universelle (44 vols., Paris, 1843 edn), XXIII, 99–100Google Scholar. Lamoignon was a conseiller de parlement in 1668.

76 Bérulle, Richelieu, St François de Sales, the Cardinals de Rochefoucaould and de Sourdis, Alain de Solmanihac, etc.; cf. the comments of Broutin, P., La réforme pastorelle en France au xviie siècle (Paris, 1956), pp. 26–8.Google Scholar

77 The figure of 600 is only approximate; it is based on the number of original and subsequent foundations in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries revealed in the college archives; also Félibien, , La ville de Paris, III–VGoogle Scholar, passim; cf. footnote 15 above. As I cannot claim to have uncovered every patent of foundation, and foundations were often changed after a few years, there is plenty of room for error.

78 ‘Visitation de M. Anthoine du Vivier’, 17 07 1557Google Scholar, sér. M, A.N., 80, pièce 54b. The general conclusion is drawn from information concerning a limited number of colleges: Autun, Tours, Beauvais, Tréguier and le Plessis; see sér. H3, A.N., 2863(1), 2787(6), 2855(1), 2785(20–3); sér. M, A.N., 80, 182. Otherwise it is a conclusion from silence. There is no reference, for instance to alienated bourses in du Boulay, , Historia universitatis, vol. VIGoogle Scholar, a work soundly based on the surviving faculty and university minute-books.

79 12–40 livres if the boursiers were artists, 30–100 livres if theologians. These are figures laid down in the original patents of foundation.

80 A.U.P., reg. 26, fos. 305–7, 309, ‘Registra…conclusionum universitatis’, 11–01 1642–1643Google Scholar; Ferner, Dupont, Le collège de Clermont, vol. I, appendix 4Google Scholar, a list of the original number of bourses in the smaller colleges, and the number on their amalgamation to Louis-le-Grand.

81 Félibien, , La ville de Paris, III, 397–404Google Scholar, ‘arrêt de la cour de parlement’, Dec. 1703.

82 For the foundation in Navarre, see Bibliothèque de St Geneviève, MS 277, fo. 54, ‘L'état de l'université en 1664’; for Mazarin, see footnote 14 above.

83 Fonds franc., 18828, fo. 373, ‘Statuta collegii Cenomanensis’, 1521; Fondsfranc., 18828, fo. 397, ‘Contrat entre R. P. Charles de Beaumanoir, évesque du Mans et les Jésuites du collège de Clermont’, 11 10 1625Google Scholar. ‘Visitation du collège du Plessis’, 1537, sér. M, 182, pièce 3; ‘Comptes du collège du Plessis’, 1634, sér. H3, 2784, no foliation.

84 A student could expect to spend 30–35 livres per annum on bread in the early seventeenth century assuming average consumption of 3–4 Ib. per day.

85 Quicherat, J., Histoire de St Barbe (3 vols., Paris, 1860), II, 4, 151, 166.Google Scholar

86 ‘Comptes du collège de Beauvais’, 1553–1650, sér. H3, 4785 (23–31).Google Scholar

87 Sér. M, A.N., 66b, pièce 56 (printed).

88 Cf. for example, Collection U, Bib. de la Sorb., 54, ‘Mémoire pour le règlement de l'université’, 1610, anon, pp. 319, 23Google Scholar; diary of the theologian Edmund Richer, Fonds latin, B.N., 9947, fos. 91–4.

89 Sér. M, A.N., 133, liasse I (3), lettres-patentes, Nov. 1665.

90 Sér. M, A.N., 133, liasse I (5, 7), liasse 3 (1, 3), ‘arrêts de la cour de parlement’, Sept. 1675, 1696, Aug. 1677, 1707; Félibien, , La ville de Paris, III, 397–404Google Scholar, arrêt, 1703.

91 Sér. M, A.N., 92, pièces 85–6.

92 Liber prions coltegli Harcuriensis, sér. M M, A.N., 451, fo. 84, 198. Jacques was a boursier in theology in 1616, his brother in 1627; for biographical information, Dictionnaire de biographie française, VIII, 1107Google Scholar; x, 1252.

93 The best introduction to this changing attitude is de Dainville, P. François, ‘Collèges et fréquentation scolaire au 17e siècle’, Population, XII, 3 (1957), 474–89Google Scholar; for the eighteenth century, Charrier, , Compère, and Julia, , L'éducation en France, pp. 38–41.Google Scholar

94 Ferrier, Dupont, Le collège de Clermont, vol. I, appendix IVGoogle Scholar, Jourdain, , L'université de Paris, p. 473Google Scholar. In 1780 the annual value of bourses attached to Louis-le-Grand was fixed at the realistic figure of 430 livres.

95 Chisick, H., ‘Bourses d'études et mobilité sociale en France à la veille de la révolution: Bourses et boursiers du collège Louis-le-Grand, 1762–89’, Annales, économies, sociétés, civilisations, XXX (1975), 1562–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

96 The professional orientation of noble matriculanos and graduates in arts from the capital was studied for the years 1527–9, 1545–50, 1571–3, 1581–3, 1600–9, 1618–27, and 1634–54; the professional orientation of noble graduates in law from the capital was studied for the years 1660–80. Information concerning the future careers of nobles in each sample was chiefly extracted from Fonds franc., B.N., 32138–9, 32826, 32785, 32356, 34072 and 29913. These contain genealogical charts of the leading Parisian families compiled by unidentifiable seventeenth-century enthusiasts. They are extremely useful for this sort of study for they provide biographical as well as simple genealogical information. Such records presumably contain many inaccuracies, but cross-checking is possible as a family's genealogy is generally contained in more than one register. It must be pointed out that the sample of noble graduates in law is probably incomplete. Status, of course, is not given in the records and Parisian nobles had to be identified by name.

97 Frijhoff, and Julia, , Ecote et société dans ta France d'ancien régime, pp. 45–90.Google Scholar

98 This conclusion is the result of research into the future career of noble matriculands from Paris, 1527–9, 1545–50, 1571–3 and 1581–3. In each case the sample naturally contains a number of noblesse d'épée, but those revealed to be such were excluded from the final result. Altogether the careers of 72 robins were positively identified, about one-third of the overall sample. Of these 42 entered the bar, 22 the Church.

99 Licensed 1546, 54; biographical information, Sainte-Marthe, , Galliachristiana, VI, 117–18Google Scholar; XIV, 51–4.

100 Fonds franc., B.N., 22832, fos. 1–79, gives a list of doctors of theology of Paris in 1683, 1694, 1704 and 1712. Of the 785 doctors in 1683, 47 were bishops (including one Irish bishop and three bishops designate) and one a cardinal; of the 1,170 doctors in 1712, 68 were bishops (four of foreign dioceses) and two cardinals. The overall strength of the French episcopate at the time was 123. Information about a doctor's position in the Church is given in the lists.

101 Biographical details, Sainte-Marthe, , Gallia Christiana, VII, 159–63.Google Scholar

102 Doctor of law 1671; biographical details, Dictionnaire de biographie française, VIII, 876–7.Google Scholar

103 Based on a study of sér. XIa, A.N., 9327, Matricule des avocats, 1706–53.Google Scholar

104 It was nothing to gain a doctorate of theology in one's forties or fifties in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. I have uncovered ten such doctors in the process of research. Indeed, before 1618 most students of theology were bordering on forty before they gained the doctoral bonnet, as the statutes insisted that they were thirty before they were bachelors, a regulation fairly strictly adhered to; thereafter they had only to be twenty-two.

105 Cf. Verger, , Les universités au moyen age, pp. 141–7.Google Scholar

106 This was certainly true compared with other French universities. Cf. Verger, , ‘Le recrutement géographique’, pp. 877–884Google Scholar; Kagan, R., ‘Law students and legal careers in eighteenth century France’, Past and Present, LXVIII (1975), 45–50Google Scholar; Chartier, , Compère, and Julia, , L'éducation en France, pp. 268–9, 281Google Scholar; the last of the three gives patterns of regional attendance at Dole in the sixteenth century and in the faculties of medicine and law at Angers and Pont-à-Mousson in the eighteenth century.

107 Although only the situation in Spain has been properly studied; see Kagan, , Students and society in early modern Spain, pp. 182–95Google Scholar; in Spain, too, it seems, the opportunities for poor scholars gradually decreased over the period. For general remarks, Kamen, H., The iron century (London, 1970), pp. 289–97Google Scholar. For France: Verger, , ‘Le rôle social de l'université d'Avignon au XVe siècle’Google Scholar; Chartier, , Compère, and Julia, , L'éducation en France, pp. 277–8Google Scholar; Kagan, , ‘Students and legal careers’Google Scholar; Chartier et al. briefly discuss social attendance in the eighteenth century in the faculties of law at Dijon, Douai and Pont-à-Mousson; Kagan, for the same period, but in greater depth, examines the faculties of law at Dijon, Pont-à-Mousson and Avignon.

108 Stone, , ‘The educational revolution in England’, pp. 57–80Google Scholar; Stone, L., ‘The size and composition of the Oxford student-body 1580–1909’, in Stone (ed.), The university and society, I, 16–58Google Scholar. Simon, J., ‘The social origins of Cambridge students, 1603–40’, Past and Present, XXVI (1963), 58–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

109 Stone, , ‘The educational revolution’, pp. 47–50Google Scholar; Kagan, , Students and society in early modern Spain, pp. 197–230.Google Scholar

110 The universities of the north had been founded primarily as law universities; they provided the instruction in civil law that was unobtainable at Paris. As a result other faculties only tended to exist in name. Rashdall, , The universities of Europe, II, 139–201.Google Scholar