(Copenhagen, Bibl. roy. 487) was copied in the 13th century at Corbie, to which Robert
gave relics he had stolen in Constantinople.
Leah Shopkow
[See also: CRUSADES; HISTORIOGRAPHY; VILLEHARDOUIN, GEOFFROI
DE]
Robert de Clari. La conquête de Constantinople, ed. Philippe Lauer. Paris: Champion, 1924.
——.The Conquest of Constantinople, trans. Edgar Holmes McNeal. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1936.
Dufournet, Jean. Les écrivains de la IVe croisade: Villehardouin et Clari. 2 vols. Paris: Société
d’Édition d’Enseignement Supérieur, 1973.
ROBERT DE COURÇON
(ca. 1160–1219). Robert, a sometimes brusque and unpopular Englishman, studied with
Peter the Chanter toward the end of the 12th century at Paris. Within a few years of
Peter’s death (1197), Robert was teaching in Paris, where he composed a theological
Summa and served on several missions as papal judge-delegate. On March 15, 1212,
Pope Innocent III named him cardinal and the following year charged him with the task
of making preparations in France for the Fourth Lateran Council, which was held in
- At the same time, Robert was to rally support for another Crusade to the Holy
Land. During these years, Robert also accompanied the Albigensian Crusade, confirming
in 1214 the conquests of Simon de Montfort.
In August 1215, in perhaps his most lasting contribution, Robert promulgated a papal
charter for the University of Paris (a royal corporation since 1200) that set out the
relationship between the schools and the cathedral chapter, regulated the number of
chairs in theology, and stipulated the qualifications of masters in theology. Of special
interest here is the prohibition of the arts faculty to teach the Metaphysics of Aristotle; the
arts masters, especially in the medical faculty, were thought to have exceeded the limits
of their expertise in dealing with this subject.
In the fall of the same year, at the beginning of the Lateran Council, Robert was
recalled to Rome, where he remained until 1218, when he joined the Fifth Crusade. He
died the following year at the siege of Damietta.
Mark Zier
[See also: ALBIGENSIAN CRUSADE; ARISTOTLE, INFLUENCE OF;
INNOCENT III; UNIVERSITIES]
Robert de Courçon: The Paris statutes, in Chartularium universitatis Parisiensis, ed. Denifle and
Châtelain, Vol. 1.20, pp. 78ff. (ET in Lynn Thorndike, University Records and Life in the
Middle Ages (1944), pp. 27–30.)
——. Le traité De usura de Robert de Courçon, ed. G.Lefèvre. Travaux de l’Institut Catholique de
Lille (1902).
Dickson, M. and C. “Le cardinal Robert de Courson: sa vie.” Archives d’histoire doctrinale et
littéraire du moyen âge 9 (1934):53–142.
Kennedy, V.L. “Robert Courson on Penance.” Medieval Studies 7 (1945):291–336.
——.“The Contents of Courson’s Summa.” Medieval Studies 9 (1947):81–107.
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