Sixteenth-Century French Legal Education and Calvin's Legal

chapter 4 Sixteenth-Century French Legal Education and Calvin’s Legal Education

Christoph Strohm

In late 1527, when Calvin was in the final stages of his preparatory philosophy studies at the Collège Montaigu, his professional ambitions shifted. Up to that point, he was supposed to study theology, following his father’s wishes and likely also those of the cathedral chapter of Noyon. Apparently this plan also suited the young man’s own inclination and talents.1 However, in early 1528 or possibly already at the end of 1527, he transferred to the law faculty at the University of Orléans.2 His father had changed his mind and expected more profitable career opportunities would arise from the study of law. Thirty years later, Calvin reported: “When I was yet a very little boy, my father had destined me for the study of theology. But afterwards, when he considered that the legal profession commonly raised those who followed it to wealth, this prospect in- duced him suddenly to change his purpose. Thus it came to pass, that I was withdrawn from the study of philosophy, and was put to the study of law.”3 Presumably recent conflicts between the cathedral chapter and Calvin’s father played a role in the latter’s decision. That said, Calvin’s early biographers in- terpret his reorientation away from the study of theology as an indication that he was already beginning to distance himself from Roman “superstition” as a result of his contact with his cousin Pierre Robert Olivétan (ca. 1500–1538).4

1 See CO 21: col. 54. 2 See Pierre Mesnard, “Jean Calvin, étudiant en Droit à Orléans,” in Actes du Congrès sur l’ancienne Université d’Orléans: Recueil des conférences prononcées les 6 et 7 mai 1961 à l’occasion des journées d’étude consacrées à l’ancienne université d’Orléans (Orléans: Comité d’organisation des journées universitaires d’Orléans, 1962), 83–91; Olivier Millet, Calvin et la dynamique de la parole: Étude de rhétorique réformée (Paris: Editions Champion, 1992), 37–55. 3 CO 31: col. 21. Translation from John Calvin, John Calvin: Selections from His Writings, ed. John Dillenberger (Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1975), 26. 4 Cf. CO 21: col. 29, 54, 121.

1 Orléans and Bourges as Centers of Humanist Legal Scholarship

As a student in Orléans and (since the summer of 1529) intermittently in Bourges, Calvin entered a world given to reflection on the future foundations of Europe on a level rivaled only by a few other places.5 Both universities could attribute their recent rise to prominence to the fact that the Sorbonne theolo- gians jealously guarded over the authority of traditional scholasticism. Jurists on the law faculty were equally anxious to preserve the dominance of canon law in the curriculum. In 1219/20 Pope Honorius III (1150–1227) issued an edict establishing that only doctors of canon law could teach on the law faculty of the Sorbonne. In contrast, the universities of Orléans and especially Bourges were conceived from the start as alternative educational institutions special- izing in Roman law. Next to canon law, the foundation of the study of law in Bourges rested on the four components of the civil law code compiled under the Emperor Justinian I in the sixth century: the Codex Iustinianus, the Digest, the Institutes, and the Novels (the latter were known in the sixteenth century as “Authenticum”). Over the course of five years, students heard lectures in rotation on the Codex, the Digestum vetus (Dig. 1–Dig. 24:2), the Infortiatum (Dig. 24:3–Dig. 38), the Digestum novum (Dig. 39–Dig. 50) as well as the Institutes. These were supple- mented by courses on the Novels and a few other texts.6 In the years 1528 to 1531, just when Calvin was studying law in Orléans and Bourges, the law curriculum underwent fundamental changes.7 Of particular importance was the law school in Bourges, which over the next few decades became the European center of the new humanistic approach to legal studies.8

5 See Christoph Strohm, Ethik im frühen Calvinismus: Humanistische Einflüsse, philosophische, juristische und theologische Argumentationen sowie mentalitätsgeschichtliche Aspekte am Beispiel des Calvin-Schülers Lambertus Danaeus (Berlin/New York: De Gruyter, 1996), 223–28. 6 On the instruction program in Orléans, see Marcel Fournier, Histoire de la science du droit en France, III: Les universités françaises et l’enseignement du droit en France au moyen-âge (Paris 1892), 98–106. For an overview of the course of study of a sixteenth-century law student, see Karl Heinz Burmeister, Das Studium der Rechte im Zeitalter des Humanismus im deutschen Rechtsbereich (Wiesbaden: Guido Pressler, 1974), 73–137. 7 On the expansion of humanism in Orléans in the first half of the sixteenth century, see Jacques Boussard, “L’Université d’Orléans et l’humanisme au début du XVIe siècle,” BHR 5 (1938): 209–30. 8 On the founding of the University of Bourges, which was established in 1463, see Marcel Fournier, “La fondation et la première réforme de l’Université de Bourges, avant son apo- gée au XVIe siècle (1463–1530),” RHDF 23 (1899): 540–87 and 697–757; RHDF 24 (1900): 217– 48 and 657–76; on the teaching of law in Bourges, see Edmond Durtelle de Saint Sauveur, “Eguiner Baron et l’école de Bourges avant Cujas,” Travaux juridiques et économiques de l’université de Rennes 15 (1936): 69–114; on the professors of law in Bourges, see Émile Chénon,