It was one of the main centres for the production of Reformed pastors in France for a hundred years.
The Academy of Sedan was modeled on the Academy of Geneva (which is today the University of Geneva), which was founded by John Calvin in 1559.
It was organized by the efforts of Françoise de Bourbon-Vendôme, Princess of Sedan, daughter of Louis III de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier and wife of Henri-Robert de La Marck, Prince of Sedan (the first Prince of Sedan) in 1579.
In 1601, the National Synod of the Reformed Church of France, meeting in Jargeau, voted to transform the College of Sedan into its Academy for the training of pastors.
The Academy of Sedan was suppressed in 1681 as part of Louis XIV's anti-Protestant measures that would climax in the 1685 Edict of Fontainebleau.