Editing Collegium Trilingue (section)

===The 16th century===
The Collegium Trilingue experienced a difficult start, which, as mentioned, was partly due to issues of housing and the tense relationship with the different faculties. 

Both the college and its guiding spirit Erasmus were attacked in academic disputes and sermons by numerous theologians, accusing Erasmus of sympathizing with the Lutheran cause and of other heresies, and claiming that the study of languages was useless at best and harmful at worst for the intellectual development of youngsters.

The concerns and critiques that were voiced by the Louvain theologians were compiled and put to paper in the ''De trium linguarum et studii theologici ratione dialogus'' (1519) of [[Jacobus Latomus]] (c. 1475–1544), a professor of theology and advisor to the Inquisition. 

A further complicating factor was the coming and going of lecturers. Adrianus (Hebrew) left Louvain in dubious circumstances in July 1519, and neither of his immediate successors – [[Robert Wakefield]] (d. 1537) and Robert Sherwood, both English by birth – stayed long either. Barlandus (Latin) left in November 1519 and was succeeded by [[Conrad Goclenius]] (1490–1539). Rescius (Greek) even spent some time in jail.

The story of the Collegium Trilingue during the 16th century is nonetheless one of success, largely due to the enduring popularity of Erasmus’ scientific and theological program. This program was inspired by [[Italian humanism]], and by the Italian humanist practice of reading literary texts from Greek and Latin Antiquity in specific. The notorious polemicist [[Lorenzo Valla]] (c. 1407–1457) had extended the method to the study of the [[Holy writ|Holy Writ]] in his ''Annotationes in Novum Testamentum''. {{cn|date=October 2021}}

Erasmus had discovered a copy of this work in 1504, in the [[Park Abbey]] near Louvain, and Valla was the inspiration behind much of Erasmus’ own theological thought. The Valla-Erasmus method can be summarized by the dictum ‘Ad fontes’: the scientific study of theology should be grounded in a critical reading of the source texts, and should not start from the authorities of [[Scholasticism|medieval scholasticism]]. To engage in such a reading, a solid grasp of the three holy languages – Latin, Greek and Hebrew – is indispensable. This is the need the Collegium Trilingue addressed: the courses that were organized there were specifically intended to provide students with the basic linguistic competences they needed to read and study scripture.{{cn|date=October 2021}} 

The college’s program attracted hundreds of students from the early years onward, and already during the 1520s an extension of the existing auditoria was required to accommodate the ever increasing influx of youngsters.{{cn|date=October 2021}}

Even after the construction works were finished, Goclenius still had to teach the same class twice due to a lack of space. Throughout the period, the number of people actually living in the college – the president, professors, [[bursaries]], paying students, and staff – remained constant, around twenty in total. Their daily routine included attending masses and participating in communal meals, which were usually copious and varied, particularly on special occasions (as when Erasmus visited). The students additionally carried out small household tasks in the college, and they could make use of the college’s five (i.e., ‘pelotte’) facilities for relaxation.{{cn|date=October 2021}}

During the first fifty years after its foundation, the Collegium Trilingue could pride itself on having several prominent figures among its professors. Among them was [[Petrus Nannius]] (1496–1557), who held the Latin chair between 1539 and 1557, succeeding to Goclenius, and is known for his work on [[Virgil]] (''Deuterologiae sive spicilegia Petri Nannii Alcmariani in quartum librum Aeneidos Virgilii'', 1544).{{cn|date=October 2021}}

Nannius’ successor was the [[Utrecht]] scholar and teacher of [[Justus Lipsius]] (1547–1606), Cornelius Valerius (1512–1578). Valerius was a gifted [[Pedagogy|pedagogue]].{{cn|date=October 2021}}

Relying on mainly Virgil and [[Cicero]], who both belonged to the household authors at the college, Valerius wrote a series of textbooks, including one on grammar and one on rhetoric, which were both reprinted numerous times well into the seventeenth century (''Grammaticarum institutionum libri'', 1550; ''In universam bene dicendi rationem tabula'', 1558).{{cn|date=October 2021}}

The college’s alumni from the sixteenth century include several figures who contributed greatly to the advancement of not only philology but a great number of fields of study, including cartography ([[Gerardus Mercator|Mercator]]), (ancient) history ([[Justus Lipsius|Lipsius]]), and medicine ([[Rembert Dodoens|Dodoens]], [[Andreas Vesalius|Vesalius]]).{{cn|date=October 2021}}

This period of prosperity came to an abrupt end during the final quarter of the sixteenth century, when Louvain was occupied by Spanish troops in the course of the [[Eighty Years' War|Eighty Years’ War]].{{cn|date=October 2021}}

The city and its surrounding area were sacked, and suffered from famine and the plague. Most teaching at the Collegium Trilingue was suspended, after student numbers had dropped drastically (both at the university and at the college), and most professors had fled the city.{{cn|date=October 2021}}