Founding of University of Paris

The University of Paris was one of the first and most influential universities of medieval Europe. It grew out of the cathedral school of Notre-Dame and other church schools in the twelfth century, with a guild of masters and students who won privileges from the French king and the pope. It became the leading centre of theology in Christendom, and teachers such as Peter Abelard and Thomas Aquinas taught there. The Sorbonne, a college for theology students, was founded in the thirteenth century and gave its name to the university in popular usage. The institution was abolished during the French Revolution, refounded in the nineteenth century, and divided into several separate universities after the student unrest of 1968.

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