Sorbonne, La

   one of the world's most famous universities, the Sorbonne is a public institution of higher learning in the Latin Quarter of paris. The site of five colleges of arts and sciences, the Sorbonne essentially directs the policy for the administration of the rectorate of Paris, which includes the École de Chartres; some sections of the École pratique des hautes études; the Universities of Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne), Paris IV (Paris-Sorbonne), Paris V (René-Descartes); and is the seat of the Academy of Paris. Established by Robert de Sorbon (1257) to allow poor scholars to continue their education, the college of the Sor-bonne became the center of theological studies and, serving as an ecclesiastical tribunal, was the highest religious authority in the Christian West after the pope. The Sorbonne opposed the Jesuits in the 16th century, the Jansenists in the 17th, and the philosophes in the 18th before being suppressed in 1790. its buildings were given to the university of Paris in 1808. From 1626 to 1642, they were rebuilt by jacques lemercier on the orders of Cardinal richelieu, whose tomb is in the chapel. From 1885 to 1901, the Sorbonne was considerably rebuilt or renovated. in the large auditorium is Le Bois sacrée by puvis de chavannes.