Sorbonne, the earliest, as it was by far the most famous, of all the colleges of the mediæval university of Paris. The system of colleges, of which the Sorbonne was the first example, dates only from the later part of the 13th century, more than a hundred years after the beginnings of the university itself. The system sprang out of the necessity for the adequate accommodation of the vast numbers of students who flocked to Paris from all the countries of Europe. Previous to the erection of colleges the students had mainly to content themselves with such lodging as they could find, and experience had shown that they had suffered both in their purse and their morals from this system.
It was the happy inspiration of Robert of Sorbon, in the diocese of Rheims, to conceive and carry out the idea of combining a place of residence and a place of study. With the consent of St Louis, to whom he acted as chaplain, Robert founded the college of the Sorbonne in 1253, though it was not formally opened till 1256. By a bull of Clement IV. (1268) the new institution received the indispensable sanction of the pope as the head of all the mediæval universities. At the head of the college was the provisor, who was chosen by the whole university, though its business was mainly in the hands of the prior, elected every year from the members of the college itself. The members were divided into two classes, Hospites and Socii. The Hospites received the full benefit of the educational provisions of the college, but they had no part in its administration. On the attainment of the doctorate in theology at the age of thirty-five their residence came to an end. The Socii, who were restricted to the number of thirty-six, had the entire management of the college in their hands, and all, whatever their age or academic rank, were on a footing of absolute equality. The life of the college was according to the strictest monastic rule, and its inmates with proud humility styled themselves 'the poor masters of the Sorbonne.'
The Sorbonne was exclusively devoted to the study of theology, and no student could enter it till he had taken the diploma of Bachelor of Arts, and had sustained a thesis, known as the Sorbonica or Robertina, before all the members of the college. The discipline through which he had then to pass was the severest in all the Paris colleges. It was above all by the system of disputation that his progress was stimulated and his proficiency tested. By its rigorous methods of conducting these disputations the Sorbonne gained the reputation of being the first theological school in Europe; and its opinion on disputed points of doctrine was universally accepted as the weightiest that could be obtained. In affiliation with his larger college Robert of Sorbon in 1271 also founded a smaller college—that of Calvi, or the Little Sorbonne—where students were prepared in subjects preliminary to their study of theology. It was the distinctive feature of the Sorbonne, however, and one which greatly helped to win for it its predominance in the university, that its members were drawn from every country in Europe, and not confined to a particular 'nation.'
The history of the Sorbonne is a signal instance of a great institution admirably fulfilling its original intention, but incapable of making a new departure when such a departure was necessary for its continued vitality and efficiency. Till the close of the 15th century, when the scholastic theology was fast losing its hold on all the best minds, the Sorbonne filled a place of the first importance in the intellectual life of Europe. Throughout the middle ages the theological faculty of Paris was the main support on which the highest teaching had rested, claiming for itself the right, denied to the pope himself, of sovereign decree on the truth or falsity of all religious doctrine. But the Sorbonne virtually constituted the theological faculty, and in common speech was identified with it. Its voice therefore carried an authority that influenced the councils of the nation. Through its efforts France was saved from Peter's Pence and the Inquisition; and it was due to its encouragement that printing was introduced into Paris immediately subsequent to its invention.
From the beginning of the 16th century, when the new studies of the Revival of Learning found their way into France, the Sorbonne gradually ceased to represent the best thought of the country. To all reform alike in studies and religion it offered the most dogged resistance, and it was largely due to its action that Paris lost its place as the first school in Europe. Among the men of the new order the 'Sorbonnian bog' became a byword for bigotry and obscurantism. In the succeeding centuries the Sorbonne followed the same retrograde policy. In 1621 it actually obtained an edict, mainly directed against Descartes, forbidding all teaching that ran counter to accepted authorities. On the occasion of the erection of new buildings by Richelieu (1627), who was provisor of the college, a satirical Latin couplet declared that so long as its original home was in decay the Sorbonne was unassailable, but now that that home was renewed it would certainly go to ruin. The butt of the wits of successive generations, Boileau and Voltaire among the rest, the Sorbonne clung to its original traditions till at the Revolution (1792) its property was confiscated to other objects.
When in 1808 Napoleon reorganised the university of France, the Sorbonne was revived and became the seat of the Académie of Paris (see UNIVERSITY) and of the three faculties of theology, science, and literature. In 1884-93 a new set of buildings was erected at a cost of £880,000, to take the place of the college erected by Richelieu; the largest theatre can seat 3000. By a curious fatality the Sorbonne is still associated in France with undue respect for tradition in matters of education.
See the various histories of the university of Paris by Du Boulay, Crevier, and Denifle; also Duvernay, Histoire de la Sorbonne (2 vols. Paris, 1790), and Franklin, La Sorbonne (Paris, 1875).