utes of the Papal Legate, Robert de Courcon, for the
University, prescribe in detail what shall, and what shall not, be
studied:

The treatises of Aristotle on Logic, both the Old and the New,
are to be read in the schools in the regular and not in the
extraordinary courses. On feast-days [holidays] nothing is to be
read except ... the Ethics, if one so chooses, and the fourth
book of the Topics. The books of Aristotle on Metaphysics or
Natural Philosophy, or the abridgments of these works, are not to
be read.[21]

In other words, the Old and New Logic are prescribed studies; the
Ethics, and Topics, Bk. IV, are optional; the Metaphysics and the
Natural Philosophy are forbidden.

Sixteen years later (1231) the Statutes of Pope Gregory IX for the
University prohibit only the Natural Philosophy, and even these works
only until they are "purged from error":

Furthermore, we command that the Masters of Arts ... shall not
use in Paris those books on Natural Philosophy which for a
definite reason were prohibited in the provincial council [of
1210], until they have been examined and purged from every
suspicion of error.[22]

The final triumph of Aristotle in the University is indicated by the
statute of the Masters of Arts in 1254.[23] It must have had at least
the tacit approval of the pope or his delegate. The statute is too long
to quote effectively to the point. None of the works are forbidden, and
a large number are prescribed. The list of works mentioned includes--

(1) The six logical treatises of the Organon; (2) Ethics, Bks. I-IV; (3)
Physics, On the Heavens and the Earth, Meteorologics, On Generation, On
Animals, On the Soul, On Sense and Sensible Things, On Sleep and Waking,
On Memory and Recollection, On Life and Death; (4) Metaphysics. To these
are added two other works then believed to be Aristotle's,--On Plants,
and On Causes,--and numerous books by other authors (named on p. 137)
which do not concern the present discussion. A comparison of the list
above with the list on page 40 will show that nearly the whole range of
Aristotle's works is prescribed. Comparison with the statute of 1215
will show not only a change of view regarding the works then forbidden,
but also an immense broadening of the studies of the Faculty of Arts in
the course of forty years.

The foregoing details are cited to give an idea of the first stage of
the question of Aris