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WILLIAM OF VAUROUILLON, O.MIN. 299 3. - The years 1431-1450 Why William thus left Paris, is not known. If, however, we may be allowed a conjecture on the basis of current events, it would be to suggest that the capture and coming trial of the Maid was more than he could face. Perhaps he was invited by the Franciscan master Jacques Testor, also of the province of Touraine, to go to Rouen, as did John of Fano, who had begun the Sentences a year ahead of William 50 • Patriotism may well have caused him to refuse. Where did William go upon his departure? Possibly, though rather improbably, to Poitiers, where he was later to teach. There was indeed an exodus at this time from Paris to Poitiers, where Charles VII had established his capital and where plans were being laid to erect a new university. The first meeting to carry out such a project was conducted on 1 February 143151, while formal erection came with a Bull of Eugene IV, 29 May 1431, which put it on equal footing with Toulouse: generate studium instar Studii Tolosani 52 • The King on his part raised it by royal charter (16 March 1432) to a par with Paris, Toulouse, Orleans, Angers and Montpellier 53 • Nonetheless, it was only later the same year (20 July 1432) that the Minorites were asked to help the new University by furnishing teachers in theology. Yvo of Aulnet is listed as professor of theology on 14 September, but other names are not known 51 • On the other hand, the loquacity (a trait he never could control 55 ) of the fourth book of William's Sentences throws some light on the sixteen years before his return. Treating of the Eucharist, he asks whether spelt is valid matter for Mass: Tertia difficultas: si de spelta potest missa celebrari. In answer, he enumerates the types of spelt he has seen in his travels: at Genoa, his horse was fed a oo Cf. Chartul., n.2314, 2347, and esp. 2379, on those present at Rauen. John de Fano was licensed 14 March 1433, and was magister regens for the scholastic years 1433-34 and 1435-36 (ibid., n.2427, 2436, 2469). 51 See Gallia Christiana II, col. 1260A. Spealdng of the University of Paris and the trial of St. Jeanne d'Arc, Lucien Fabre writes: « Such true Frenchmen as there were among them [the professors], taking a lesson from Gerson, Machet, and Gelu, had migrated to Poitiers, along with the Seguins and the Rabateaus. The renegades had stayed on in Paris » (Jean of Arc, New York 1954, 251). Certainly there are many who would consider this too sweeping a statement. 52 The text is found in C.E. Du BouLAY, Hist.Univ.Paris. V, 842-844. 53 Du BOULAY, op. cit., 844-846; cf. also H. RASHDALL, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages II-1, Oxford 1895, 191-194. 54 M. FOURNIER, Statuts et privileges des universites frant;aises depuis leur fondation jusqu'en 1789 III, Paris 1892, 296 and 298. 55 Jn JV Sent., f.316d: « ••• risus iuveniles, lingue precipitationem supportate, que nun– quam duo vincere potui ».