Protestant Institute of Theology

After the signing of the Treaty of Frankfurt on May 10, 1871, with the loss of Alsace and part of Lorraine, the Faculty of Protestant Theology of Strasbourg must be replaced. The State which has authority since it is a State Faculty wishes to transfer the faculty of Strasbourg to Paris. The Faculty of Protestant Theology of Paris, however, officially opened only six years later, on June 1, 1877, this desire being embodied in the decree of March 27, 1877, which stipulates that "the mixed faculty of Protestant theology whose seat was In Strasbourg is transferred to Paris "1, while the various faculties that made up the University of Strasbourg were resettled as early as 1872. Two professors of the University of Strasbourg, Frédéric Lichtenberger and Auguste Sabatier, who left Alsace after joining Germany, still holding theology chairs, are without posts. The discussions are long before the outcome that allows the opening of a faculty in Paris. A number of issues need to be addressed beforehand: The Faculty of Protestant Theology in Strasbourg had 6 teaching chairs, 5 Lutheran chairs and a reformed pulpit. Lutherans are becoming a minority in France, and the new faculty, if it wishes to attract reformed students, must leave a greater part to the reformed education; During the 1870s, two theological tendencies coexisted in France: an "evangelical" tendency and a "liberal" tendency. The "liberals" were in the majority in Strasbourg, while the evangelicals already had their faculty, that of Montauban.