Parisian Licentiates in Theology, A.D. 1373-1500: A Biographical Register. Vol. II: The Secular Clergy (review)

Reviewed by: Parisian Licentiates in Theology, A.D. 1373-1500: A Biographical Register. Vol. II: The Secular Clergy Andrew G. Traver Parisian Licentiates in Theology, A.D. 1373-1500: A Biographical Register. Vol. II: The Secular Clergy. By Thomas Sullivan, O.S.B. [Education and Society in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Vol. 37.] (Leiden: Brill. 2011. Pp. xii, 636. $255.00. ISBN 978-9-004-20270-2.) The work under consideration is the second volume of Thomas Sullivan's prosopographical study of Parisian graduates in theology from the years 1373-1500. This volume concerns itself with the secular licentiates in theology. Modern interest in identifying the actual graduates of the theological faculty of the medieval University of Paris began with the four-volume Chartularium universitatis parisiensis of Heinrich Denifle and Émile Chatelain (Paris, 1889-97) and continued with Palémon Glorieux's two-volume study of the Parisian theological masters in the thirteenth century, Répertoire des maîtres en théologie de Paris au XIIIe siècle (Paris, 1933-34). More recently, James Farge has pionereed the biographical study of sixteenth-century Parisian theologians in his Biographical Register of Paris Doctors of Theology, 1500-1536 (Toronto, 1980). In the last decade, detailed and thoughtful studies both by William Courtenay and James Farge have provided scholars with a better description of the Parisian academic community and its milieu within the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries respectively. Sullivan's earlier prosopographical study of Benedictine monks at the University of Paris from 1229 to 1500 (New York, 1995) identified and provided valuable biographical information about Benedictine and Cluniac monks who attended the University of Paris during that time period. As his chief source for the present volume, Sullivan utilizes the Registrum Facultatis theologiae. Ordo licentiatorum 1373-1694, found in the manuscript Paris, BnF ms lat 5657-A and compiled by Philip Bouvot, beadle of the Parisian Faculty of Theology in the seventeenth century. This work presents a biographical register of 461 secular clerics licensed in theology from 1373 to 1500. Sullivan begins his study with a detailed discussion of Bouvot's register and then examines the most useful reference sources for the University of Paris, its Faculty of Theology, and its colleges for the period under review. He next presents a chronological list of all theological graduates, both secular and religious, totaling 1044 names (pp. 9-44). The bulk of the work is a biographical register of the secular graduates in theology arranged alphabetically. What follows is a detailed biographical survey of each graduate, providing variations in the form and spelling of his name. He then notes the date of the graduate's licensing ceremony, the rank earned by the individual within the total number of students graduating within his licentiate class, and the date when the individual was magistratus as a master of theology. Sullivan next identifies the geographical origin of the licentiate and, through his detailed [End Page 369] biographical study, is able to place each licentiate within a meaningful historical context. Following the entry for each licentiate is a bibliography of his writings and the sources for that bibliography. Sullivan also has included two appendices; one arranges the secular licentiati according to their first name, whereas the second organizes them according to their college affiliation. What Sullivan has compiled here is an extremely useful reference tool for historians of the University of Paris. He has filled a large lacuna in the historical scholarship by first identifying the names of the secular graduates in theology of the University of Paris for the last quarter of the fourteenth century and all of the fifteenth century, and then providing them with a thorough and scholarly biographical analysis. Sullivan's work—in the tradition of Glorieux, Farge, and Courtenay—will remain one the standard reference manuals for anyone studying the Parisian Faculty of Theology in the medieval and early-modern periods. Andrew G. Traver Southeastern Louisiana University Copyright © 2012 The Catholic University of America Press

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