History ofUniversities

Oldest university in Europe, founded in Bologna, Italy, in 1088 [AD]. It became in the 12th–13th centuries the principal centre for studies in civil and canon law, and it served as a model for the organization of universities throughout Europe. Its faculties of medicine and philosophy were formed c. 1200. The faculty of science was developed in the 17th century. In the 18th century women were admitted as students and teachers. The modern university includes faculties of law, political science, economics, letters and philosophy, natural sciences, agriculture, medicine, and engineering. http://www.merriam-webster.com/concise/bologna+university+of?show=0&t=1351875210

In response to the Protestants, Roman Catholics developed a counter-image, depicting the High Middle Ages in particular as a period of social and religious harmony, and not "dark" at all.[18] The most important Catholic reply to the Magdeburg Centuries was the Annales Ecclesiastici by Cardinal Caesar Baronius. Baronius was a trained historian who kept theology in the background and produced a work that the Encyclopædia Britannica in 1911 described as "far surpassing anything before his day"[19] and that Acton regarded as "the greatest history of the Church ever written".[20] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Ages_(historiography)

Why no Universities?

Significantly, Baronius termed the age "dark" because of the paucity of written records capable of throwing light on it for the historian. The "lack of writers" he referred to may be illustrated by comparing the number of volumes in Migne's Patrologia Latina containing the work of Latin writers from the 10th century (the heart of the age he called "dark") with the number of volumes containing the work of writers from the preceding and succeeding centuries. (Of course, only a minority of these writers were historians.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Ages_(historiography)

Why no Universities?

Why no Universities?Originally the term [Dark Ages] characterized the bulk of the Middle Ages, or roughly the 6th to 13th centuries, as a period of intellectual darkness between the extinguishing of the "light of Rome" after the end of Late Antiquity, and the rise of the Italian Renaissance in the 14th century.[5] [3] This definition is still found in popular usage,[1][2][6] but increased recognition of the accomplishments of the Middle Ages since the 19th century has led to the label being restricted in application. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Ages_(historiography)

Why no Universities?Since the 20th century, it is frequently applied only to the earlier part of the era, the Early Middle Ages (c. 5th–10th century).[7][8] However, many modern scholars who study the era tend to avoid the term altogether for its negative connotations, finding it misleading and inaccurate for any part of the Middle Ages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Ages_(historiography)

Why no Universities?

The Corpus Juris (or Iuris) Civilis ("Body of Civil Law") is the modern name[1] for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence, issued from 529 to 534 by order of Justinian I, Eastern Roman Emperor. It is also sometimes referred to as the Code of Justinian, although this name belongs more properly to the part titled Codex. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Juris_Civilis

A New Byzantine Law

They were intended to be, together, the sole source of law; reference to any other source, including the original texts from which the Code and the Digest had been taken, was forbidden. Nonetheless, Justinian found himself having to enact further laws and today these are counted as a fourth part of the Corpus, the Novellae Constitutiones (Novels, literally New Laws).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Juris_Civilis

Justinin made New Laws

In 489 AD, the Nestorian theological and scientific center in Edessa was ordered closed by the Byzantine emperor Zeno, and transferred itself to become the School of Nisibis,[2] also known as "Nisibīn, then under Persian rule with its secular faculties at Gundishapur, Khuzestan. Here, scholars, together with Pagan philosophers banished from Athens by Justinian in 529 [AD], carried out important research in Medicine, Astronomy, and Mathematics".[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_of_Gundishapur

However, it was under the rule of the Sassanid emperor Khosrau I (531-579 AD), called Anushiravan literally "Immortal Soul" and known to the Greeks and Romans as Chosroes, that Gondeshapur became known for medicine and erudition. Khosrau I gave refuge to various Greek philosophers, Syriac-speaking Christians and Nestorian Christians fleeing religious persecution by the Byzantine empire. The Sassanids had long battled the Romans and Byzantines for control of present day Iraq and Syria and were naturally disposed to welcome the refugees. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_of_Gundishapur

Year Contemporaneous location

Current location

Name Notes

1088 Papal States

Bologna, Italy

University of Bologna

The first university in the sense of a higher-learning, degree-awarding institute, the word university having been coined at its foundation.[10]

1150 Kingdom of France

Paris, France

University of Paris

It was founded in the mid-12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1170 (or, possibly, as early as 1150). After many changes, including a century of suspension (1793–1896), it ceased to exist as such in 1970 and 13 autonomous universities (University of Paris I–XIII) were created from it. The university is often referred to as the Sorbonne or La Sorbonne after the collegiate institution (Collège de Sorbonne) founded about 1257 by Robert de Sorbon. In fact, the university as such was older and was never completely centered on the Sorbonne. Of the 13 current successor universities, the first 5 have a presence in the historical Sorbonne building, and three include "Sorbonne" in their names.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_universities_in_continuous_opaerationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_universities_in_continuous_operation

Year Contemporaneous location

Current locatio

n

Name Notes

1167 (1254)

Kingdom of England

Oxford, UK

University of Oxford

"Claimed to be the oldest university in the world, there is no clear date of foundation of Oxford University, but teaching existed at Oxford in some form in 1096 and developed rapidly from 1167, when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris."[11] Teaching suspended in 1209 (due to town execution of two scholars) and 1355 (due to the St. Scholastica riot), but was continuous during the English Civil War (1642–1651) - the University was Royalist. All Souls College and University College have repeatedly claimed that they own documents proving that teaching in Oxford started in the year 825, but these documents have never seen the public light (allegedly, John Speed dated his famous 1605 Oxford maps based on these documents). However, it was not until 1254 that Pope Innocent IV granted to Oxford the University charter by papal bull ("Querentes in agro").

1209 (1231)

Kingdom of England

Cambridge, UK

University of Cambridge

Founded by scholars leaving Oxford after a dispute caused by the execution of two scholars in 1209, and royal charter was granted in 1231.[12] The university takes 1209 as its official anniversary.[13]

1218 (prob-ably older)

Kingdom of León

Salamanca, Spain

University of Salamanca

It is the oldest university in operation in Spain. Although there are records of the University granting degrees many years before (James Trager's People's Chronology sets its foundation date in 1134), it only received the Royal chart of foundation as "Estudio General" in 1218, making it possibly the fourth or even the third oldest European university in continuous operations. However, it was the first European university to receive the title of "University" as such, granted by king of Castile and León Alfonso X and the Pope in 1254. Having been excluded from the University in 1852 by the Spanish government, the Faculties of Theology and Canon Law became the Pontifical University of Salamanca in 1940.

1222 (prob-ably older)

Commune of Padua

Padua, Italy

University of Padua

Founded by scholars and professors after leaving Bologna.

1224 City of Naples

Naples, Italy

University of Naples Federico II

Founded by Frederick II, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

1229 Kingdom of France

Toulouse, France

University of Toulouse1240 Commune

of SienaSiena, Italy

University of Siena

Originally called Studium Senese, was founded by Commune of Siena in 1240. In 1321, the studium was able to attract a larger number or pupils due to a mass exodus from the prestigious neighbouring University of Bologna. Closed temporarily in 1808–1815 when Napoleonic forces occupied Tuscany. On November 7, 1990 the university celebrated its 750th anniversary.

During the 11th century, developments in philosophy and theology began to stimulate intellectual activity. There was debate between the realists and the nominalists over the concept of "universals". Philosophical discourse was stimulated by the rediscovery of Aristotle and his emphasis on empiricism and rationalism. Scholars such as Peter Abelard (d. 1142) and Peter Lombard (d. 1164) introduced Aristotelian logic into theology. The late 11th and early 12th century also saw the rise of cathedral schools throughout western Europe, which signaled the shift of learning from monasteries to cathedrals and towns.[167]

Cathedral schools were then in turn replaced in the late 11th century by the universities established in major European cities.[168] Philosophy and theology fused in scholasticism, an attempt by 12th and 13th-century scholars to reconcile Christian theology with itself, which eventually resulted in a system of thought that tried to employ a systemic approach to truth and reason.[169] This culminated in the thought of Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274), who wrote the Summa Theologica, or Summary of Theology.[170]

The first institutions generally considered to be universities were established in Italy, France, Spain and England in the late 11th and the 12th centuries for the study of arts, law, medicine, and theology.[1] These universities evolved from much older Christian cathedral schools and monastic schools, and it is difficult to define the date at which they became true universities, although the lists of studia generalia for higher education in Europe held by the Vatican are a useful guide. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_university

The university is generally regarded as an institution that has its origin in the Medieval Christian setting.[4][5] Prior to the establishment of universities, European higher education took place for hundreds of years in Christian cathedral schools or monastic schools (Scholae monasticae), in which monks and nuns taught classes; evidence of these immediate forerunners of the later university at many places dates back to the 6th century AD.[6]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_university

With the increasing growth and urbanization of European society during the 12th and 13th centuries, a demand grew for professional clergy. Before the 12th century, the intellectual life of Western Europe had been largely relegated to monasteries, which were mostly concerned with performing the liturgy and prayer; relatively few monasteries could boast true intellectuals.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_university

Learning became essential to advancing in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and teachers also gained prestige. However, demand quickly outstripped the capacity of cathedral schools, each of which was essentially run by one teacher. In addition, tensions rose between the students of cathedral schools and burghers in smaller towns. As a result cathedral schools migrated to large cities, like Paris and Bologna.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_university

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_Muslim_universities

Muslim Universities

Madrasas did not exist in the early beginnings of Islam. Their formation can probably be traced to the early Islamic custom of meeting in mosques to discuss religious issues. At this early stage, people seeking religious knowledge tended to gather around certain more knowledgeable Muslims. These informal teachers later became known as shaykhs; and these shaykhs began to hold regular religious education sessions called maǧālis 'sessions'.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrasah

Established in 859, Ǧāmiʿat al-Qarawiyyīn (located in al-Qarawiyyīn Mosque) in the city of Fas, Morocco, is considered the oldest university in the world by some scholars,[4] though the existence of universities in the medieval Muslim world is debated. It was founded by Fāṭimah al-Fihrī, the daughter of a wealthy merchant named Muḥammad al-Fihrī. This was later followed by the establishment of al-Azhar in 959 in Cairo, Egypt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrasah

Year Current Location Name Other notes Muslim Universities

859 Fes, Mor-occo

Madrasah of Al-Karaouine

Founded by Fatima al-Fihri, originally as a mosque. In addition to a place for worship, the mosque soon developed into a place for religious instruction and political discussion, gradually extending its education to a broad range of subjects, particularly the natural sciences. Al-Karaouine played, in medieval times, a leading role in the cultural exchange and transfer of knowledge between Muslims and Europeans. Pioneer scholars such as Ibn Maimun (Maimonides), (1135–1204),[6] Al-Idrissi (d.1166 AD), Ibn al-Arabi (1165-1240 AD), Ibn Khaldun (1332-1395 AD), Ibn al-Khatib, Al-Bitruji (Alpetragius), Ibn Hirzihim, and Al-Wazzan were all connected with the university either as students or lecturers. Among Christian scholars visiting Al-Karaouine were the Belgian Nicolas Cleynaerts and the Dutchman Golius. Among the subjects taught, alongside the Qur'an and Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), are grammar, rhetoric, logic, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, history, geography and music. However, only a degree in Islamic religious law, the Sharia, was ever granted, which is true for any madrasah.[1] This madrasah is considered the oldest continuously-operating degree-granting madrasah in the world.[2]

970-972

Cairo,Egypt Al-Az

har Madrasah

Founded by the Fatimid dynasty of Egypt, this madrasa served as a center for Arabic literature and Sunni Islamic learning.The Encyclopedia of Islam calls it at most a "religious university", but more often a madrasa and center of higher learning.[3] The transition to an actual university took place in the 1950s, a development termed as "from madrasa to university".[4] The college (Jami'ah) had faculties in Islamic law and jurisprudence, Arabic grammar, Islamic astronomy, Islamic philosophy, and logic.This madrasah is considered by some the world’s second oldest surviving degree-granting institute.[citation needed] Its foundation as a university dates to 1961 when many modern secular faculties were added, such as medicine, engineering and agriculture.

The Platonic Academy (sometimes referred to as the University of Athens)[3][4], founded ca. 387 BC in Athens, Greece, by the philosopher Plato, lasted 916 years (until 529 AD) with interruptions.[5] It was emulated during the Renaissance by the Florentine Platonic Academy, whose members saw themselves as following Plato's tradition.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_higher-learning_institutions

First Possible Reference to a

University

Around 335 BC Plato's successor Aristotle founded the Peripatetic school, whose pupils met at the Lyceum gymnasium in Athens. The school ceased in 86 BC during the famine, siege and sacking of Athens by Sulla.[6]

During the Hellenistic period the Museion in Alexandria, suppressed and burned between 216 and 272 AD (and which included the Library of Alexandria, destroyed between 272 and 391 AD), became the leading research institute for science and technology from which many Greek innovations sprang. The engineer Ctesibius (fl. 285–222 BC) may have been its first head http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_higher-learning_institutions.

The Pandidakterion of Constantinople, founded as an institution of higher learning in 425, educated graduates to take on posts of authority in the imperial service or within the Church.[7] It was reorganized as a corporation of students in 849 by the regent Bardas of emperor Michael III, is considered by some to be the earliest institution of higher learning with some of the characteristics we associate today with a university (research and teaching, auto-administration, academic independence, et cetera). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_higher-learning_institutions

If a university is defined as "an institution of higher learning" then it is preceded by several others, including the Academy that it was founded to compete with and eventually replaced. If the original meaning of the word is considered "a corporation of students" then this could be the first example of such an institution. The Preslav Literary School and Ohrid Literary School were the two major literary schools of the First Bulgarian Empire. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_higher-learning_institutions

In Western Europe during the Early Middle Ages, bishops sponsored cathedral schools and monasteries sponsored monastic schools, chiefly dedicated to the education of clergy. The earliest evidence of a European episcopal school is that established in Visigothic Spain at the Second Council of Toledo in 527.[8] These early episcopal schools, with a focus on an apprenticeship in religious learning under a scholarly bishop, have been identified in Spain and in about twenty towns in Gaul during the 6th and 7th centuries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_higher-learning_institutions

Madrasas were established throughout the Islamic world, the most famous being the 10th century al-Azhar University and the 11th century Niẓāmiyyah, as well as 75 madrasas in Cairo, 51 in Damascus and up to 44 in Aleppo between 1155 and 1260. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrasah

u·ni·ver·si·ty (yÁÅnà vûrÆsi t"), n., pl. -ties.an institution of learning of the highest level, having a college of liberal arts and a program of graduate studies together with several professional schools, as of theology, law, medicine, and engineering, and authorized to confer both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Continental European universities usually have only graduate or professional schools.[1250–1300; ME universite < OF < ML %niversit!s, LL: guild, corporation, L: totality, equiv. to %nivers(us) (see UNIVERSE) + -it!s -ITY] [Webster’s Dictionary]

First use of “university”

Definition of UNIVERSITY1: an institution of higher learning providing facilities for teaching and research and authorized to grant academic degrees; specifically: one made up of an undergraduate division which confers bachelor's degrees and a graduate division which comprises a graduate school and professional schools each of which may confer master's degrees and doctorates http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/university

Institution of higher education, usually comprising a liberal arts and sciences college and graduate and professional schools that confer degrees in various fields. A university differs from a college in that it is usually larger, has a broader curriculum, and offers advanced degrees in addition to undergraduate degrees. The first true university was the University of Bologna, founded in the 11th century; the first in northern Europe was the University of Paris, which served as a model for the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Heidelberg, and others. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/university

1054The

Great SchismEast – West Division

The East–West Schism, sometimes known as the Great Schism,[1] is the medieval division of Chalcedonian Christianity into Eastern (Greek) and Western (Latin) branches, which later became known as the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, respectively. Relations between East and West had long been embittered by political and ecclesiastical differences and theological disputes.[2] Prominent among these were the issues of "filioque", whether leavened or unleavened bread should be used in the Eucharist,[3] the Pope's claim to universal jurisdiction, and the place of Constantinople in relation to the Pentarchy.[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East%E2%80%93West_Schism

Pope Leo IX and Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Cerularius heightened the conflict by suppressing Greek and Latin in their respective domains. In 1054, Roman legates traveled to Cerularius to deny him the title Ecumenical Patriarch and to insist that he recognize the Church of Rome's claim to be the head and mother of the churches.[2] Cerularius refused. The leader of the Latin contingent, Cardinal Humbert, excommunicated Cerularius, while Cerularius in return excommunicated Cardinal Humbert and other legates.[2] This was only the first act in a centuries-long process that eventually became a complete schism.[5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East%E2%80%93West_Schism

Still, the Church split along doctrinal, theological, linguistic, political, and geographical lines, and the fundamental breach has never been healed, with each side accusing the other of having fallen into heresy and of having initiated the division. The Crusades, the Massacre of the Latins in 1182, the capture and sack of Constantinople in 1204, and the imposition of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and the Latin Patriarchs made reconciliation more difficult.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East%E2%80%93West_Schism

Eastern “Popes”Called

PatriarchsArchiepiscopates

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Catholic_Churches

Eastern Catholic Churches, 2010; data from CNEWA[30]

Name Juridical status Population Eparchies /Jurisdictions Bishops

Albanian Byzantine Catholic Church

Eparchial church 3,845 1 1

Armenian Catholic Church

Patriarchate 593,459 17 15

Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church

Eparchial church 10,000 1 1

Chaldean Catholic Church

Patriarchate 490,371 22 17

Coptic Catholic Church

Patriarchate 163,630 7 10

Ethiopian Catholic Church

Metropolitanate 229,547 6 7

Eparchy of Krizevci

Eparchial church 58,915 3 4

Greek Byzantine Catholic Church

Eparchial church 2,525 2 1

Hungarian Byzantine Catholic Church

Eparchial church 290,000 2 2

Italo-Albanian Byzantine Catholic Church

Eparchial church 61,487 3 2

Maronite Catholic Church

Patriarchate 3,290,539 25 41

Melkite Greek-Catholic Church

Patriarchate 1,614,604 25 30

Romanian Greek-Catholic Church

Major Archiepiscopate 707,452 6 8

Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church

Metropolitanate (in USA) 646,243 6 7

Slovak Byzantine Catholic Church

Metropolitanate 239,394 4 5

Syriac Catholic Church

Patriarchate 158,818 14 10

Syro-Malabar Catholic Church

Major Archiepiscopate 3,828,591 27 40

Syro-Malankara Catholic Church

Major Archiepiscopate 420,081 6 8

Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church

Major Archiepiscopate 5,350,735 31 44

Other jurisdictions Ordinariates 147,600 5 -

Egypt's ancient Coptic Christian church chose a new pope in an elaborate Sunday ceremony meant to invoke the will of God, in which a blindfolded boy drew the name of the next patriarch from a crystal chalice.All three senior clerics whose names were in the chalice were considered consensus candidates who stayed out of disputes both within the church and with other groups. Tawadros will assume the papacy as Egypt's Christians, estimated to make up 10 percent of the country's 83 million people, fear for their future amid the rise of Islamists to power in the wake of the 2011 ouster of longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak. http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/11/04/egypt-coptic-church-chooses-new-pope-om-elaborate-ceremony/?test=latestnews

Egypt’s Coptic ChurchChooses new Pope

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandria#Christianity

Today, the patriarchal seat of the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church is Saint Mark Cathedral in Ramleh. The most important Coptic Orthodox churches in Alexandria include Pope Cyril I Church in Cleopatra, Saint Georges Church in Sporting, Saint Mark & Pope Peter I Church in Sidi Bishr, Saint Mary Church in Assafra, Saint Mary Church in Gianaclis, Saint Mina Church in Fleming, Saint Mina Church in Mandara, and Saint Takla Haymanot's Church in Ibrahimeya.

Pope of Coptic church today