College of Sorbonne

The College of Sorbonne (French: Collège de Sorbonne) was a theological college of the University of Paris, founded in 1253 by Robert de Sorbon (1201–1274), after whom it was named. With the rest of the Paris colleges, it was suppressed during the French Revolution. It was restored in 1808 but finally closed in 1882. In recent times it came to refer to the group of academic faculties of the University of Paris, as opposed to the professional faculties of law and medicine. It is also used to refer to the main building of the University of Paris in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, which houses several faculties created when the University was divided up into thirteen autonomous universities in 1970.

Robert de Sorbon was the son of peasants from the village of Sorbon in the Ardennes, who had become a master of theology, a chanoine of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, and the confessor and chaplain of King Louis IX (Saint Louis). At the time that he founded his college, the University of Paris had already been in existence for half a century, and already had thousands of students. Obtaining a higher degree in theology could take as long as twenty years, and therefore required considerable financial support. Students who belonged to the religious orders of the Franciscans and Dominicans, or from the large monasteries of Cluny or Citeaux, received housing and board from their religious orders, but independent students did not. Sorbon founded his college to provide housing and board for poorer students of theology who did not have such support.

Sorbon purchased several houses on Rue Coupe-Gueule (now Rue de la Sorbonne) and made them into lodging for students. The college opened in 1257 with about twenty students, called socii. As the college grew, Sorbon provided a library containing over a thousand volumes by 1292, the largest in the university, and a chapel.

The Sorbonne became the most distinguished theological institution in France, and its doctors were frequently called upon to render opinions on important ecclesiastical and theological issues. In 1470, the Sorbonne had one of the first printing presses in France. It was particularly active in the effort to suppress heresy and the spread of Protestant doctrines. Its students included Cardinal Richelieu, who studied there from 1606 to 1607. Richelieu became Proviseur, or administrator of the college on 29 August 1622. Between 1635 and 1642, Richelieu renovated the Sorbonne; he consolidated the Sorbonne with two smaller colleges, and built a complex of new buildings, including a domed chapel, around a large courtyard. Richelieu left a large part of his fortune and his library to the Sorbonne, and he was buried in the chapel. Only the chapel remains of the Richelieu era buildings.

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