excommunication.[20]

In 1215 the statutes of the Papal Legate, Robert de Courçon, 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