Editing Collegium Trilingue (section)

===Foundation===
The Collegium Trilingue was founded thanks to a bequest of Hieronymus Busleyden (c. 1470–1517). Busleyden was born into an influential [[Luxembourgish]] family; his father Gilles was a counsellor to [[Charles the Bold]]. He studied law in [[Louvain]] (during the 1490s), [[Orléans]] (at the close of the fifteenth century), and [[Padua]] (1501–1503). {{cn|date=October 2021}}

During his studies he made the acquaintance of [[Erasmus|Desiderius Erasmus]], one of the leading intellectuals of his age. Busleyden served as a diplomat under [[Philip I of Castile|Philip I of Castile the Handsome]], a function he combined with that of Master of Requests at the Great Council of Mechlin.{{cn|date=October 2021}} 

Busleyden was also a humanist [[Maecenas#Maecenate (patronage)|Maecenas]], as well as an art and music lover. In 1503, he started renovating the Mechlin Busleyden Court, turning it into a Renaissance palace whose beauty [[Thomas More|Thomas]] admired ("''... ut me plane obstupefecerit …''"<ref>From a letter from Thomas More to Erasmus of 17.2.1516 (Allen, II, 388), cited in Papy (2017: 24).</ref>). 

Busleyden died unexpectedly in August 1517, after he had fallen ill during a diplomatic mission to Spain. The date of his will, 22 June 1517, is generally taken as the foundation date of the Collegium Trilingue.{{cn|date=October 2021}}

Busleyden had been advised on the structure and organization of the college by his friend Erasmus. Poor students could apply for one of ten scholarships, while high-born students should pay a fee; and there were three scholarships for professors, one for each language. They should teach publicly, the will stated, and their classes should be free of charge. The supervision of the daily activities of the college and its finances was the responsibility of the president. Erasmus never taught at the Collegium Trilingue, nor did he ever serve in the administration of the college.{{cn|date=October 2021}} 

The executors of Busleyden's will initially wished for the college to be integrated into one of the existing colleges of the [[Old University of Leuven|University of Louvain]]. Their wish did not materialize, however, mainly because of the opposition from the members of the Arts Faculty, which organized Latin courses and did not want competition.{{cn|date=October 2021}}

In April 1519, the executors acquired a number of buildings in the vicinity of the Vismarkt. The building complex was inaugurated in October 1520, after extensive renovation works. In addition to a chapel and auditoria, the complex consisted of a kitchen, refectory, rooms for students and professors (accessible through the so-called ‘Wentelsteen’, which still exists today) and a library, providing storage for Busleyden’s invaluable collection of books of manuscripts, which had been brought over from [[Mechelen|Mechlin]] by boat. The lectures started well before the construction was finished.{{cn|date=October 2021}}

At the instigation of Erasmus, Matthaeus Adrianus (c. 1475–after 1521) started with the Hebrew lectures as early as March 1518, and [[Hadrianus Barlandus]] (1486–1536; Latin) and Rutger Rescius (c. 1495–1545; Greek) followed suit in September of the same year.{{cn|date=October 2021}}

Meanwhile the relationship with the university remained troublesome. The recent [[Reuchlin|Reuchlin affair]] in Cologne and the stir caused by [[Martin Luther|Luther in Wittenberg]] only strengthened the theologians' aversion to the study of Greek and Hebrew, and the Arts Faculty wanted to maintain its monopoly of language teaching. After lingering negotiations and several interventions of important personalities, including the later pope [[Adrian VI]], the Collegium Trilingue was recognized as a university institute by the university council in March 1520. The college was, however, never incorporated into the structure of its natural partner, the Arts Faculty.{{cn|date=October 2021}}