Faculty of Theology, Old University of Leuven

The Old University of Leuven was established in 1425 with Faculties of Arts, Medicine, Law; however, the university did not have a Faculty of Theology initially. In 1426 a Faculty of Canon Law was added, and at that time both Law Faculties functioned together in one Collegium utriusque iuris.

During the Middle Ages, a studium generale was often rounded out after a short time with the foundation of a Faculty of Theology. After repeated requests from the municipal government, from the Duke of Brabant and from Philip the Good, the university received permission to grant theological degrees from Pope Eugene IV on 7 March 1432. Professors for the new faculty were first recruited from already existing theological faculties, particularly those of the University of Paris and the University of Cologne. Instruction in the old faculty of theology was thus closely based on the theological developments of these sister faculties. Students wishing to earn the degree of Sacrae Theologiae Licentiatus were taught and required to comment upon the Scriptures and Peter Lombard’s Book of Sentences, and they took part in disputations that were a typical part of medieval university education. The most famous theologian from the 15th century faculty was Adrian Floriszoon of Utrecht. He taught in Leuven from 1491 to 1515 and later became Pope Adrian VI.

Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Adrian’s successors made a name for themselves by resourcing theology through a renewed study of Augustine. The Leuven Faculty and its magisters anticipated several of the theological trends that emerged in their time. An example of this is seen in Jacobus Latomus’s De trium linguarum et studii theologici ratione dialogus, which was published in 1519 as a response to the challenge posed by the work of Desiderius Erasmus, who was active at the Collegium Trilingue in Leuven. Later theologians such as Johannes Driedo also strongly opposed Erasmian thought, saying it was a contemporary brand of Pelagianism. At the same time, the faculty also opposed Martin Luther’s thought, by refuting his early writings in a censure published on 7 November 1519. Ruard Tapper, another Leuven theologian, led the controversy by drawing up a summary of the Catholic position in 59 articles, later reduced to 39 articles.

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