Old University of Leuven

In the 15th century the civil administration of the town of Leuven, with the support of John IV, Duke of Brabant,^[16] a prince of the House of Valois, made a formal request to the Holy See for a university.^[17]

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.^[18]

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 (Pope Adrian VI), 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 (preceding the papal bull Exsurge Domine by several months).^[19]

After the French Revolutionary Wars, by the Treaty of Campo Formio signed on 17 October 1797, the Austrian Netherlands were ceded in perpetuity^[20] to the French Republic by the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, 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.^[21] The University of Leuven was abolished by decree of the Département of the Dyle on 25 October 1797.^[22]

What remained of the university's movables and books were requisitioned for the École centrale [fr] in Brussels.^[23] 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.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the University of Leuven was until its closure a great centre of Jansenism^[24] in Europe. To shake off this reputation,^[25] the faculty of theology thrice declared its adherence to the papal condemnation of Jansenist beliefs in the papal bull Unigenitus (1713)^[26] but without effect.^[24] The University of Louvain, with Baïus and Jansenius, the cradle of Jansenism and remained, during the 17th and 18th centuries until its closure, the bastion^[27] and the hub^[28] of Augustinian theology^[29] known as Jansenism, in Europe, with professors like Jansenius, Petrus Stockmans, Johannes van Neercassel, Josse Le Plat and especially the famous Van Espen and his disciple Febronius, and as Henri Francotte^[30] says: "Jansenism reigned supreme at the University of Louvain”.

This fidelity to the spirit of Van Espen remained alive in the University of Louvain until its abolition in 1797, as evidenced by what Charles Lambrechts wrote^[31] in 1818, former rector magnificus and successor to the chair of canon law of Van Espen : "The encroachments of the Catholic clergy and their claims were so vexatious that, at a time when their religion was dominant, no other remedy had been found for their abuse of power except the appeals in question. This is what prompted the famous Van Espen to write, at the age of eighty, his treatise De recursu ad principem, in order to put a barrier against the ever-recurring abuses of clerical jurisdictions; but this virtuous ecclesiastic, who distributed to the poor all the revenues of the chair of canon law which he occupied at the University of Louvain, was soon obliged to have recourse to appeal as an abuse for himself; still, this remedy could not save him entirely from the persecution of intolerant priests. Loaded with years, glory and infirmities, he was compelled to seek shelter in Holland from their vexations; he soon died in Amsterdam in feelings of piety and resignation, after having employed his life in defending the discipline and customs of the primitive church, of which he was the most zealous supporter".

The first attempt to found a successor university in the nineteenth-century was the secular State University of Leuven, 1817–1835, where a dozen professors of the old University taught.^[32] This was followed by a private Catholic university,^[33] the Catholic University of Leuven, established in Leuven in 1835 (initially the Catholic University of Mechlin, 1834–1835). This institution was founded with the intention of restoring the confessionally Catholic pre-Revolutionary traditions of learning in Leuven.^[34][35] In 1968 this split to form the two current institutions: the Dutch language Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the French language Université catholique de Louvain.

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,^[36] and was enlarged in 1725 in a baroque style.

This library, with its various additions, was transferred in 1797 by Charles Antoine de La Serna Santander to the Central School, the official continuation of the old university.^[37] Wauthier, head of office of the department of Dyle and the ex-Jesuit De la Serna Santander, librarian of the Central School of Brussels, were responsible for the application of this measure. On October 26, 1797, they went with Michel-Marcel Robyns, receiver of national domains, to the municipal administration of Louvain, to notify it,^[38] while its most precious works and manuscripts were deposited in Paris among the national treasures of the National Library.

It is also very likely that on the occasion of the troubles of the wars of this time, many precious works and documents surreptitiously followed an unofficial route, sometimes with the high aim of saving them from disaster,^[39] sometimes with the sordid goal of profiting from it.

In 1797, much of what remained of this library was sent to the Central School of Brussels, established as the official replacement of the abolished university, although its most precious books and manuscripts were deposited in Paris at the National Library of France.^[36] 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 the library of the Catholic University of Leuven at the beginning of the First World War, but this library did not contain the books and archives of the old university, or of the State University, but only those of the 19th-century founded Catholic University of Leuven.

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.^[40] 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^[41] by UNESCO, until today there is no complete history of the old University of Leuven.^[42]

Chronological list of colleges by foundation, the oldest 4 (Castle/Pork/Lely and Faulcon) were considered as Grand College.^[43] in the early 18th century there were 18 colleges.^[44]

• Academic libraries in Leuven
• Catholic University of Leuven
• Catholic University of Mechelen
• Collegium Trilingue
• Faculty of Theology, Old University of Leuven
• Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
• List of colleges of Leuven University
• List of medieval universities
• State University of Leuven
• Université catholique de Louvain
  • Louvain-la-Neuve
• Universities in Leuven