Collège de Montaigu

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The Collège de Montaigu was one of the constituent colleges of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Paris. The college, originally called the Collège des Aicelins, was founded in 1314 by Giles Aicelin, the Archbishop of Rouen. It changed its name after it had been restored by his relative Pierre Aicelin de Montaigu, the Bishop of Nevers and Laon.

In 1483 Jan Standonck became Master of the College and made it prosper. Under the his leadership and that of his disciple Noël Béda, Montaigu was one of the leading theological colleges of Paris. Students at the college included Erasmus of Rotterdam, John Calvin, and Ignatius of Loyola (before moving to Collège de Sainte-Barbe). Other notable students were the philosopher, John Mair, (who went on to teach theology there) and John Knox, the Scottish reformer.

[edit] Erasmus's memories of the College

In his Colloquies Erasmus left a memoire of his time at the College under Standonck. Erasmus was a privileged paying student, but his memories were not pleasant.

"It is thirty years now since I lived in a college ruled over by Jan Standonck, a man whose intentions were praiseworthy, but who was totally without judgement. Remembering his own youth, which he passed in extreme poverty, he did not neglect the poor. We ought to approve of this most highly. And if he had been content to relieve their misery, to get the young people the modest resources needed for their studies, he would have deserved great praise indeed. But he set about his business with an authority so hard, he subjected them to such a rough regime, to such abstinence, to vigils and labours so painful, that several of them, fortunately gifted and of whom there were great hopes, died or who became, through his fault, blind, mad or lepers in their first year of trial there. No one could stay there without running some danger or other. Is that not a barbarous way to treat one’s neighbour? Not content with these rigours, he made them all wear a simple hooded cloak. He forbade them absolutely to eat meat. In the middle of winter, they were fed a little bit of bread and made to drink, from the well, water which was dangerously spoiled, when it had not been frozen by the morning cold. I knew many people who, even today, are not able to recover from the illnesses they contracted at Montaigu. There were several low-lying rooms, with fungus all over the plaster, which the nearness of the toilets made unhealthy. No one ever lived in these without catching a serious illness. I will not talk about the cruelty with which they whipped the scholars, even when they had done nothing. It was claimed that they were fighting against pride in doing this. By pride they meant any natural nobility, and this they found ingenious ways to destroy, so that the adolescents would be made fit for the monastic life. How many times did we eat rotten eggs there? How often did we drink wine that was sour?"

• From Erasmi Opera, 426, I, Colloquia p. 806 et seq. translated into French by Augustin Renaudet, Préréforme et Humanisme à Paris pp267-8