Old University of Leuven


The Old University of Leuven is the name historians give to the university, or studium generale, founded in Leuven, Brabant, in 1425. The university was closed in 1797, a week after the cession to the French Republic of the Austrian Netherlands and the principality of Liège by the Treaty of Campo Formio.
, author of the bulla confirming on December 9, 1425 the creation of the University of Louvain
: à Johanne IV. Brabantiae Duce An. 1425. fundata et à Martino V. P. M. An. seq. 5. Id. dec. Confirmata.
, participated in the pro-Protestant movement at the University of Louvain. He fled to the United Provinces.
, professor and rector of the University of Louvain, founder of the doctrine of "Baïanisme", precursor of Jansenism.
, the father of Jansenism and a rector and professor of the old University of Leuven.
, founder of the febronianism.
, professor of canon law, rector of the University of Louvain in 1786 and freemason member of the lodge "the true and perfect Harmony" in Mons and Minister of Justice of the French Republic from 3 vendémiaire year VI to 2 thermidor year VII.
The name was in medieval Latin Studium generale Lovaniense or Universitas Studii Lovaniensis, in humanistical Latin Academia Lovaniensis, and most usually, Universitas Lovaniensis, in Dutch Universiteyt Loven and also Hooge School van Loven.
It is commonly referred to as the University of Leuven or University of Louvain, sometimes with the qualification "old" to distinguish it from the Catholic University of Leuven. This might also refer to a short-lived but historically important State University of Leuven, 1817–1835. The immediate official and legal successor and inheritor of the old University, under the laws in force in 1797, was the :fr:École centrale de Bruxelles|École centrale de Bruxelles, which itself closed down in 1802.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the University of Leuven was until its closure a great centre of Jansenism in Europe, with professors such as Cornelius Jansen, Petrus Stockmans, Johannes van Neercassel, Josse Le Plat and especially Zeger Bernhard van Espen and his famous disciple Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim under the pseudonym Febronius. To shake off this reputation, the faculty of theology thrice declared its adherence to the papal condemnation of Jansenist beliefs in the papal bull Unigenitus.

History

In the 15th century the civil administration of the town of Leuven, with the support of John IV, Duke of Brabant, a prince of the House of Valois, made a formal request to the Holy See for a university.
Pope Martin V issued a papal bull dated 9 December 1425 founding the University in Leuven as a Studium Generale. This university was institutionally independent of the local ecclesiastical hierarchy.
From the founding of the university to its abolition in 1797, Latin was the sole language of instruction.
In its early years, this university was modelled on those of Paris, Cologne and Vienna. The university flourished in the 16th century due to the presence of famous scholars and professors, such as Adriaan Florenszoon Boeyens, Desiderius Erasmus, Johannes Molanus, Joan Lluís Vives, Andreas Vesalius and Gerardus Mercator.
In 1519, the Faculty of Theology of Leuven, jointly with that of the University of Cologne, became the first institution to condemn a number of statements drawn from Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses.
After the French Revolutionary Wars, by the Treaty of Campo Formio, the Austrian Netherlands was ceded to the French Republic by Austria in exchange for the Republic of Venice. Once formally integrated into the French Republic, a law dating to 1793 mandating that all universities in France be closed came into effect. The University of Leuven was abolished by decree of the Département of the Dyle on October 25, 1797.
What remained of the university's movables and books were requisitioned for the :fr:École centrale de Bruxelles|École centrale in Brussels. This was the immediate official and legal successor and inheritor of the old University, under the laws in force at the time. It was in turn closed down in 1802.

Subsequent institutions

The first attempt to found a successor university in the nineteenth-century was the State University of Leuven, 1817–1835, where a dozen professors of the old University taught. This was followed by a private Catholic university, the Catholic University of Leuven, established in Leuven in 1835. This institution was founded with the intention of restoring the confessionally Catholic pre-Revolutionary traditions of learning in Leuven. In 1968 this split to form the two current institutions: the Dutch language Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the French language Université catholique de Louvain.

The library

From the founding of the University in 1425 up until 1636, there was no official library of the university. Very likely the students had access to manuscripts and printed books preserved in the homes of their professors or colleges.
In 1636, however, a university library was founded in the Cloth hall, previously the seat of the cloth weavers’ guild, and was enlarged in 1725 in a baroque style.
In 1797 much of what remained of this library after the depredations of the French occupying forces was sent to the École centrale de Bruxelles, established as the official replacement of the abolished university, although its most precious books and manuscripts were deposited in Paris at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The library of the Central School of Brussels came to number about 80,000 volumes, which later became part of the Library of Brussels, and then the Royal Library of Belgium. When invading German forces burned Leuven university library at the beginning of the First World War, it did not contain the books of the old university, or of the State University, but only those of the 19th-century Catholic University of Leuven. Nonetheless, some 300,000 "invaluable books" were lost. This act was used for anti-German propaganda and, a new larger library was built in 1928 funded largely by the Belgian Relief Fund initiated by Herbert Hoover.

The archives

The rich archives of the old University of Leuven, after its suppression by the law of the French Republic, so as all the other Universities of the French Republic, were transferred to a "Commission in charge of the management of the goods of the abolished university in Leuven", set up in 1797 and active until 1813. They passed to the National Archives of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and ultimately to the National Archives of Belgium.
Although the archives of the old University of Leuven have been recognized as world heritage by UNESCO, until today there is no complete history of the old University of Leuven.

List of Colleges

Chronological list of colleges by foundation, the oldest 4 were considered as Grand College. in the early 18th century there were 18 colleges.
FoundationNameRemarks
1.1431Grand College de Burchtfounded by Godfrey de Goimpel
2.1430Grand College het Varkenfoundation by Henri de Loë
3.1493Grand College de Leliefoundation by Charles Viruli
4.1546Grand College de Valkfoundation by Guillaume Everaerts
5.1442Grand College of TheologyFoundation by Louis de Rycke
6.1662Minor College of Theology
7.1483College of Saint-YvoFoundation by Robert van den Poele
8.1484College of Saint-DonatianFoundation by Antoine Haveren
9.1499Houterlé-CollegeFoundation by Henry of Houterlé
10.1504Winckele-CollegeFoundation by Jean de Winckele
11.1509Arras-CollegeFoundation by Nicolas Ruistere
12.1490Standonck-CollegeFoundation by Jean Standonck
13.Three Tongues-CollegeFoundation by Jerome of Buyslede
14.1523Pontifical CollegeFoundation by Adrian VI
15.1535Saint-Anne's CollegeFoundation by Nicolas Goublet
16.1551Savoye's CollegeFoundation by Eustache Chapuis
17.1559Druite CollegeFoundation by Michel Druite
18.1569van Daele's CollegeFoundation by Peter van Daele
19.1569Viglius' CollegeFoundation by Viglius ab Aytta Zuichemus
20.1574Craendonck CollegeFoundation by Marcel Craendock

Related People

List of Chancellors

Chronlogical list of Chancellors.
BeginEndNameRemarks
1.14261477Guillaume van de Noot d'AsscheDean of St-Peters in Leuven
2.14771487Dominic de BassadonisDean of St-Peter
3.14871509Nicolas de RuistereArch-deacon of Brabant
4.15091532Conrard von GhingenHerzog von Brunswick
5.15321593Rogier, prinz von TaxisProtonotary in Antwerp
6.15931619Georg of AustriaGrandson of the emperor Maximilian
7.16191634Gajus Anthoine Hopperus
8.16341659François-Jean de Roblesbishop of Ypres
9.de Spinola
10.1666Charles HoviusPresident of the Privy Council
11.1666don Eugenio de Velasco
12.1692Ferdinand-François de TrazigniesBishop of Tournay
13.16921734Alexius-Antoine, Prince of Nassau-SiegenTitular Archbisshop of Trapezopolis

Notable alumni and faculty members

Notable alumni and faculty members of the pre-1797 University of Leuven include: