Faculty mobility has been a hallmark of universities since their inception. The connections forged between distant campuses has facilitated the exchange of manuscripts and students, nurturing academic productivity and the spread of ideas. This column surveys the academic landscape in Europe from 1000 to 1793, focusing in particular on how the Protestant Reformation affected the network of universities and their individual importance within that network. The Reformation did less harm to Protestant universities than to Catholic ones, which experienced a reduction in connectivity and subsequent decline in significance.
Faculty mobility is essential for university quality and development. When scholars move, they gain new insights and share their knowledge, fostering intellectual growth. Mobility also ensures academic freedom by providing alternatives to government control over teaching and research (Becker et al. 2024). Barriers to mobility can slow the exchange of ideas and hinder progress.
Professor mobility has been a hallmark of universities since their inception, as evidenced by historical case studies (see Giraud 2009 for a 12th-century example). With the new database on university scholars that we’ve built over the past seven years, we can now provide a comprehensive view of professor mobility across Europe. In de la Croix et al. (2024), we examined the factors influencing professors’ location choices, particularly the role of university quality. Now, in de la Croix and Morault (2024), we analyse the data from a different perspective by constructing a network of universities based on mobility patterns.
The network is constructed as follows: nodes represent universities, and an edge (or connection) between two universities is established by the presence of the same scholar at both institutions. For example, the English philosopher Roger Bacon (1219–1292) lectured at Oxford (c. 1233) and later taught in Paris (c. 1237), creating a link between these universities. This connection facilitated the exchange of ideas, manuscripts, and students between the two locations. Our primary motivation for studying the university network is the belief that network structure significantly influences information diffusion (Jackson et al. 2017). The historical connections between universities through scholar mobility likely affected the speed of knowledge propagation, the spread of ideas, and the intensity of academic production.
The period under study spans 1000 to 1793, divided into seven distinct epochs based on significant historical events rather than centuries. These periods are:
- From the formation of the first associations of professors and students dedicated to education in 1000 until 1199.
- From the establishment of the University of Paris in 1200 until 1347.
- From the onset of the Black Death in 1348 until 1449.
- From the invention of the printing press in 1450 until 1522.
- From the founding of the first Protestant university in 1523 until 1597.
- From the issuance of the Edict of Nantes in 1598 until 1684.
- From the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 until 1793, when all French universities were abolished during the Revolution.
Our network maps can be used to give a crash course on the history of the academic landscape in Europe. The positioning of universities in the following figures is determined by the standard Fruchterman-Reingold force-directed algorithm that groups universities more closely together when they are linked to each other. So, the positioning of universities is not based on geography, religion, or other university attributes. The size of each node is proportional to the closeness/centrality of the university, calculated as the reciprocal of the sum of the length of the shortest paths between the node and all other nodes in the graph. Thus, the more central a node is, the closer it is to all other nodes. The thickness of edges is proportional to the number of professors making the link.
During the first period (1000–1199), Paris and Bologna emerge as the two most central universities, a result that aligns with expectations. Additionally, the medical centres of Montpellier and Salerno, along with the cathedral school of Chartres, also hold significant centrality. Oxford (which is situated close to Paris) and Cambridge are depicted in a distinct colour due to their future Protestant affiliation post-Reformation. It’s worth noting that some universities appear before their official foundation year, indicating scholars were teaching there within institutions that preceded the university itself (see de la Croix and Vitale 2022).
Figure 1 Mobility network of European universities, 1000–1199
During the second period (1200–1348), the influential group consisting of Bologna, Paris, Oxford, and Montpellier is joined by Padova, Avignon (possibly bolstered by its proximity to the Papal court), and Toulouse. Meanwhile, Salerno’s prominence diminishes, and Chartres no longer appears on the map. Cathedral schools, like the one in Chartres, either evolved into universities (as in Paris) or were surpassed by emerging universities. Notably, all universities at this time remained concentrated within the borders of the former Roman Empire.
Figure 2 Mobility network of European universities, 1200–1348
After the black death (1349–1450), the Italian moment of the Renaissance arrives. The studium in Florence, the Papal university in Rome (Sapienza), and Parma rejoin the ranks of highly central universities. Numerous other Italian universities also emerge prominently. Within the Holy Roman Empire, there is a wave of foundations, with the universities of Vienna and Louvain close to the graph’s centre. Meanwhile, in Iberia, Salamanca and Valladolid remain on the periphery. Additionally, we observe the establishment of the first Scottish university, St Andrews.
Figure 3 Mobility network of European universities, 1349–1450
During the last period before the Reformation (1451–1522), there are additional newcomers, some of which will ultimately become Protestant, such as the universities of Leipzig, Greifswald, and Wittenberg. Paris is still there, Louvain centrality has grown, Oxford’s centrality has shrunk.
Figure 4 Mobility network of European universities, 1451–1522
The period of the Reformation (1523–1597) sees many universities display a high degree of centrality. The network is comprised of a core of universities with multiple links to each other and a periphery of less connected places. A new type of university appears in blue: those founded by the Jesuits or in which the Jesuits played a key role. Meanwhile, Protestant universities have embraced various denominations: Anglican institutions are depicted in pink, Lutherans in orange, Calvinists in yellow, and Presbyterians in brown
Figure 5 Mobility network of European universities, 1523–1597
In the period during which Protestantism was tolerated in France (1598–1685), the network is split into two blocks, Protestants and Catholics. Catholic universities are still the most central, but they are of two types: the secular Catholic, not run by any specific monastic order, and the Jesuit universities. We observe that the mothership of all Jesuit universities, the Gregoriana, is indeed the most central university in their network. It is surprising not to see the Dutch universities emerging at this stage. Many German universities were engulfed in the Thirty Years’ War.
Figure 6 Mobility network of European universities, 1598–1685
In the last period (1686–1793), the situation is reversed, at least seen from the point of view of centrality. The Lutheran universities, led by the newly founded Universities of Gottingen and Halle, are now the most central, followed by the Calvinist universities in Holland. The other nodes in the network have lost their centrality, including the Jesuit universities (except Vienna). We remark that the edges are particularly thick between Jesuit universities, as Jesuit professors were frequently reassigned by their superiors.
Figure 7 Mobility network of European universities, 1686–1793
The comparison of the network between 1598–1684 and its predecessors is striking. Following the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the network divided into two distinct parts. This division is highlighted by the significant decrease in connections between universities that converted to Protestantism and those that remained Catholic: from 27.51% of all links before the Reformation to 5.75% during 1598–1684. By 1685–1793, interfaith links further declined to 3.99%, indicating a lasting impact of the Reformation on scholarly mobility.
To disentangle the influence of religion from geographical and linguistic factors, we employ dyadic regressions to forecast each network link. These regressions reveal that religion has a substantial impact on network structure. To assess the Reformation’s effect on university centrality, we simulate networks both with and without religious considerations. In the hypothetical secular scenario where religion is absent, there are no religious barriers to mobility. This approach enables us to compute the anticipated centrality of universities in a non-religious context.
Comparing these two simulated centrality measures reveals that the divisions stemming from the Reformation and Counter-Reformation had predominantly negative consequences for universities. The extent of the impact varied across periods, religious affiliations, and the specific centrality metrics employed. Analysing scholarly publications, we observed a direct positive correlation with Protestant affiliation, independent of centrality. This positive effect mitigated the negative repercussions of declining network positions among Protestant universities. Conversely, Catholic universities, experiencing a reduction in connectivity, declined with respect to their pre-reform levels.
Source : VOXeu
