PARENS SCIENTIARUM
. This papal bull, issued in 1231 by Gregory IX, was a major step in establishing the
independence of the corporation of masters vis-à-vis the bishop of Paris and the
chancellor of the cathedral school of Notre-Dame in Paris. After earlier papal statements
giving support to the masters in regulating the lives and duties of masters and students,
Parens scientiarum made much clearer the freedom and right to self-regulation of the
corporation of masters. The chancellor was obliged to bestow the license to teach
(licentia docendi) upon anyone the masters judged worthy; the masters’ right to
regulation of teaching conditions, clothing, and the like was recognized, and the right to
suspend classes in certain situations was confirmed. The publication of Parens
scientiarum followed the return to Paris of masters and students after the cessation of
classes and scattering of students and masters after riots in 1229.
Grover A.Zinn
[See also: GREGORY IX; PHILIP THE CHANCELLOR; UNIVERSITIES]
Leff, Gordon. Paris and Oxford Universities in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. New
York: Wiley, 1968.
Thorndike, Lynn. University Records and Life in the Middle Ages. New York: Columbia University
Press, 1949.
PARIAGE.
When two lords agreed to share the administration of certain lands belonging to one of
them, and to divide the nonlanded revenues equally, they drew up a contract called
variously in Latin a conventio, pactio, or pariagium. The party furnishing the land often
simply “associated” (associare) the other over his land. In either case, the terms of
association were stated with precision. Pariages were common from ca. 1150 to ca. 1300
and are best known in the royal domain, Champagne, Burgundy, and the Midi.
Pariages could serve several purposes, but we know most about the agreements
between powerful secular lords and ecclesiastics, who usually furnished the land and
preserved the contracts in their archives. Economic interests prevailed when a monastery
desired to develop raw land into new villages by attracting colonists more willing to settle
under an enlightened secular lord than a monastic one. The Cistercians often resorted to
pariages in the 13th century when they were unable to find sufficient lay converts to
work their lands. Where villages already were shared by two lords, pariages simplified
the administration under a single mayor responsible to both parties.
Pariages also served political and military purposes. Louis VII and Philip Augustus
extended royal influence southward by pariages, and Philip IV consolidated his grip on
the Midi by forcing bishops and abbots to accept pariages, whereby they created
common courts and jointly appointed judges. The modern principality of Andorra
continues to embody the medieval pariage established in 1278 by the count of Foix and
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