Medieval France
(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 1215. 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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