Vague Idea of Studium: Petitions and Bulls of the Portuguese University at the Beginning of the Great Schism (1377–1380)

Abstract

The article analyzes argumentation that was used by the Papal curia and the University of Lisbon in the bulls and petitions during the short period when the kingdom of Portugal supported Anti-Pope Clement VII (1380–1381). Rhetoric of observed sources includes legal concepts and images borrowed from earlier theoretical texts and academic privileges. In the Curial practice the main legal conception of medieval university, the Studium generale, could be interpreted in the different ways, as it is demonstrated by the case of the Gregory XII’s bulls addressed to the Portuguese university in 1377. In 1380 the Portuguese academic corporation expected some grants and authorization of its status in exchange for support of the Avignon Pope. But controversial formulas and concepts of Clement VII’s bull In Superne dignitatis (that de jure founded a new Studium generale in Lisbon) rather strengthen his authority in Portugal than favoured realization of proclaimed university privileges