The school of law was founded by Placentinus, a doctor from Bologna university, who came to Montpellier in 1160, taught there during two different periods, and died there in 1192.
Montpellier's arc de
Triomphe
The school of medicine was founded perhaps by a graduate of the Spanish medical schools; it is certain that, as early as 1137, there were excellent physicians at Montpellier. The statutes given in 1220 by Cardinal Conrad, legate of Honorius III, which were completed in 1240 by Pierre de Conques, placed this school under the direction of the Bishop of Maguelonne.
Pope Nicholas IV issued a Bull in 1289, combining all the schools into a university, which was placed under the direction of the bishop, but which in fact enjoyed a large measure of autonomy.
Theology was at first taught in the convents, in which St. Anthony of Padua, Raymond Lullus, and the Dominican Bernard de la Treille lectured. Two letters of King John prove that a faculty of theology existed at Montpellier independently of the convents, in January, 1350. By a Bull of 17 December, 1421, Martin V granted canonical institution to this faculty and united it closely with the faculty of law.
Rue Foch, Montpellier, looking towards the Porte du Peyrou
In the sixteenth
century the faculty of theology disappeared for a time, when
Calvinism, in the reign of Henry II of France, held complete
possession of the city.
It resumed its
functions after Louis XIII had reestablished the royal power
at Montpellier in 1622; but the rivalries of Dominicans and
Jesuits interfered seriously with the prosperity of the
faculty, which disappeared at the Revolution.
The faculty numbered among its illustrious pupils of law Petrarch, who spent four years at Montpellier, and among its lecturers Guillaume de Nogaret, chancellor to Philip the Fair, Guillaume de Grimoard, afterwards pope under the name of Urban V, and Pedro de Luna, antipope as Benedict XIII.
But after the fifteenth century this faculty fell into decay, as did also the faculty of arts, although for a time, under Henry IV of France, the latter faculty had among its lecturers Casaubon.
The Montpellier school of medicine owed its success to the ruling of the Guilhems, lords of the town, by which any licensed physician might lecture there; there was no fixed limit to the number of techers, lectures were multiplied, and there was a great wealth of teaching. Rabelais took his medical degrees at Montpellier.
It was in this school that the biological theory of vitalism, elaborated by Barthez (1734-1806), had its origin. The French Revolution did not interrupt the existence of the faculty of medicine. The faculties of science and of letters were re-established in 1810; that of law in 1880.
It was on the occasion of the sixteenth centenary of the university, celebrated in 1889, that the Government of France announced its intention -- which has since been realized -- of reorganizing the provincial universities in France.
Credits
: This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the
Wikipedia article
"Montpellier".
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