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Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium)

by Ivan Sache

Presentation of the University of Leuven
Flag of the University of Leuven
University of Louvain Yacht Club

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Presentation of the University of Leuven

The Catholic University of Leuven is one of the oldest European universities. It is the oldest Catholic university still in existence and the oldest university in the historical Low Countries.

Upon request of Duke of Brabant John V and the city of Leuven, Pope Martin V (1417-1431) signed on 9 December 1425 the bull enacting the foundation of the University of Leuven. The University was then composed of the three faculties of Law, Medecine and Arts. The first professors came from Paris, Cologne and Vienna. The Faculty of Theology was created in 1432.

The University of Leuven became one of the largest and most renowned European universities, and attracted scholars and scientists from all Europe.
In 1527, the Dutch humanist Erasmus (Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, c. 1469-1536) founded in Leuven the Collegium Trilingue, for the study of Hebrew, Latin and Greek, the first of its kind.
Cardinal Adriaan Floriszoon (1459-1523), from Utrecht, young Charles V's private tutor and later Pope as Adrian VI (1522-1523), taught Theology in Leuven.
Other famous professors at the University were the Flemish physician Andre