--To
give permanency to the work thus happily begun, the states of Normandy
preferred their petition to Pope Eugene IVth, who issued two bulls,
dated the thirtieth of May, 1437, and the nineteenth of May, 1439, by
which the new university received the sanction of the holy see, and was
placed upon the same footing as the other universities of the kingdom.
The Bishop of Bayeux was at the same time appointed chancellor; and
sundry apostolical privileges were conceded, which have been confirmed
by subsequent pontiffs.--Thus Normandy, as is admitted by De
Bourgueville, owed good as well as evil to her English sovereigns; but
Charles VIIth had no sooner succeeded in expelling our countrymen from
the province, than jealousy arose in his breast, at finding them in
possession of such a title to the gratitude of the people, and he
resolved to run the risk of destroying what had been done, rather than
lose the opportunity of gratifying his personal feeling. The university
was therefore dissolved in 1450, that a new one might hereafter be
founded by the new sovereign. The king thought it necessary to vary in
some degree from the example of his predecessor; and for this purpose he
had recourse to the extraordinary expedient of abolishing the faculty of
law.
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