University of Valence

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The University of Valence was founded 26 July, 1452, by letters patent from the Dauphin Louis, afterwards Louis XI of France, in a move to develop the city of Valence, then part of his domain of Dauphiné. It existed until the French Revolution.

[edit] History

Pope Pius II approved its erection in the Bull of 3 May, 1459. In February, 1541, the Canon Pierre Morel opened a college for thirteen poor students.

In the sixteenth century Valence was famous for its teaching of law, entrusted to Italian professors or to those who had studied in Italy. The Portuguese jurist, Govea, taught at Valence, 1554-55; the French jurist, Jacques Cujas (1522-90), from December 1557 to 1559; and François Hotman from the end of 1562 until August 1568. It was at the instigation of Hotman that Bishop Montluc obtained from Charles IX of France the Edict of 8 April, 1565, which united the University of Grenoble with Valence.

Cujas again filled a chair at Valence, August, 1567-75; he had among his auditors Scaliger, the historian Jacques-Auguste de Thou, the jurist Pithou. The university was a Protestant centre. Hotman was a determined Protestant; Cujas passed from Protestantism to Catholicism, but it is doubtful if his conversion was inspired entirely from religious motives. Consequently in 1575 Montluc founded at Valence a college of Jesuits, but this was of short duration.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the University of Valence was of only minor importance. From 1738 to 1764 its transfer to Grenoble was contemplated but this project was abandoned.