formation of the masters into a corporation that could act jointly on issues of university
governance. The masters may in fact have been acting collectively as early as the mid-
12th century, but a corporation, or universitas, of masters was not specifically mentioned
until 1208. By the early 13th century, therefore, the University of Paris had both achieved
corporate status and won independence from local supervision by the chancellor of Paris.
In practice, the University of Paris consisted of several institutions that managed
different aspects of university life. The universitas to which Innocent III addressed his
letter in 1208 comprised all the masters of theology, canon law, and the arts. Already they
were exercising authority over their members in such matters as dress and the order of
lectures, as well as more internal issues, such as the duty of masters to attend the funerals
of dead colleagues. Courçon’s statutes of 1215, moreover, also assigned the masters
jurisdiction over crimes involving one of their members, as well as control over such
issues as the prices to be charged for lodging. The independence of the university of
scholars from local (but not papal) supervision was made still more explicit by Gregory
IX in 1231, when the bull Parens scientiarum commanded the chancellor of
Paris to swear to respect the rights of the university, that is, the corporation of masters.
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1776