Editing University of Paris (section)

===15th–18th century: Influence in France and Europe===
[[File:Old.Sorbonne.1670.before.fire.jpg|thumb|right|The Old Sorbonne on fire in 1670.]]
[[File:Sorbonne 17thc.jpg|right|thumb|The Sorbonne, Paris, in a 17th-century engraving]]

In the fifteenth century, [[Guillaume d'Estouteville]], a cardinal and [[Apostolic legate]], reformed the university, correcting its perceived abuses and introducing various modifications. This reform was less an innovation than a recall to observance of the old rules, as was the reform of 1600, undertaken by the royal government with regard to the three higher faculties. Nonetheless, and as to the faculty of arts, the reform of 1600 introduced the study of Greek, of French poets and orators, and of additional classical figures like [[Hesiod]], [[Plato]], [[Demosthenes]], [[Cicero]], [[Virgil]], and [[Sallust]]. The prohibition from teaching civil law was never well observed at Paris, but in 1679 [[Louis&nbsp;XIV]] officially authorized the teaching of civil law in the faculty of [[decretal]]s. The "faculty of law" hence replaced the "faculty of decretals". The colleges meantime had multiplied; those of Cardinal Le-Moine and [[Collège de Navarre|Navarre]] were founded in the fourteenth century. The Hundred Years' War was fatal to these establishments, but the university set about remedying the injury.

Besides its teaching, the University of Paris played an important part in several disputes: in the Church, during the [[East-West Schism|Great Schism]]; in the councils, in dealing with heresies and divisions; in the State, during national crises. Under the domination of England it played a role in the trial of [[Jeanne d'Arc|Joan of Arc]].

Proud of its rights and privileges, the University of Paris fought energetically to maintain them, hence the long struggle against the mendicant orders on academic as well as on religious grounds. Hence also the shorter conflict against the [[Jesuits]], who claimed by word and action a share in its teaching. It made extensive use of its right to decide administratively according to occasion and necessity. In some instances it openly endorsed the censures of the faculty of theology and pronounced condemnation in its own name, as in the case of the [[Flagellants]].

Its patriotism was especially manifested on two occasions. During the captivity of King John, when Paris was given over to factions, the university sought to restore peace; and under Louis{{nbsp}}XIV, when the Spaniards crossed the Somme and threatened the capital, it placed two hundred men at the king's disposal and offered the Master of Arts degree gratuitously to scholars who should present certificates of service in the army (Jourdain, ''Hist. de l'Univers. de Paris au XVIIe et XVIIIe siècle'', 132–34; ''Archiv. du ministère de l'instruction publique'').