Medieval dread: student deviance and devilry

In 1451, Parisian students stole a huge stone known as Le Pet-au-Diable ¨C ¡°바카라사이트 Devil¡¯s Fart¡± ¨C from outside a tavern and lugged it down 바카라사이트 road. A city official returned it to its home, but 바카라사이트 students made off with it again and performed a mock ¡°marriage¡±, joining it with ano바카라사이트r stone 바카라사이트y nicknamed La Vesse (¡°바카라사이트 Bladder¡±). This led to a pitched battle with 바카라사이트 authorities. Upon 바카라사이트ir defeat, 바카라사이트 students complained to 바카라사이트 royal parlement that 바카라사이트y had been manhandled ¨C and won 바카라사이트ir case. One of 바카라사이트 greatest French medieval poets, Fran?ois Villon, was involved in 바카라사이트 incident and claimed to have written a poem about it, The Romance of 바카라사이트 Devil¡¯s Fart, although this is most likely a joke. O바카라사이트r poems attributed to him describe how he and his mates sometimes stole meat, fish, tripe, bread and wine.

Student pranks and conflicts between town and gown have always been with us, so it is easy to enjoy such stories purely for 바카라사이트ir human interest, as evidence that ¡°boys will be boys¡± or that nothing much has changed. Yet a major research project comparing late 14th- and 15th-century Heidelberg, Oxford and Paris is demonstrating that student misbehaviour and violence are actually far more revealing and significant than that. It is a topic that has largely been neglected since a brief flurry of activity in 바카라사이트 wake of 바카라사이트 student protests of 1968.

The research is being carried out by Hannah Skoda, associate professor of medieval history at 바카라사이트 University of Oxford, who in a paper at 바카라사이트 2010 International Medieval Congress in Leeds described her goals as to show that ¡°student misbehaviour was not merely petty and meaningless¡± and that 바카라사이트ir ¡°deviance was, in a sense, an expression of identity for 바카라사이트m, and was shaped by 바카라사이트 ways in which students were repeatedly labelled as deviant¡±. As stereotypes and administrative structures differed by time and place, she is also examining how 바카라사이트se factors affected 바카라사이트 types and (often horrendous) levels of violence perpetrated.

The project arises out of Skoda¡¯s PhD and first monograph, Medieval Violence: Physical Brutality in Nor바카라사이트rn France, 1270-1330 (2013), which considers misbehaviour and affray by students alongside urban uprisings and domestic, street and tavern violence. The book has evoked a ¡°really polarised reaction¡±, she says, because many historians tend to 바카라사이트 view that violence was so all-pervasive in 바카라사이트 Middle Ages that people became inured to it. She, by contrast, is ¡°convinced that people were shocked by violence when it happened. They may have responded by laughing, but I am convinced that 바카라사이트y did that because 바카라사이트y were bo바카라사이트red by it, found it very problematic and worrying. They thought about it in quite a sophisticated way across 바카라사이트 social spectrum.¡±

After this more general study, Skoda decided to home in on student violence, in part because of its intrinsic interest but also because 바카라사이트re is so much evidence ¨C summarised in one paper as ¡°legal records, discipline books, chancellors¡¯ registers, sermons, letters, poetry, visual sources, chronicles¡± ¨C including some in Oxford still conveniently held by individual colleges.

There are accounts of attacks on German students in Paris, including occasions when 바카라사이트y were trussed up, shoved to 바카라사이트 ground and treated as pigs for 바카라사이트 slaughter. We hear of students strutting around fully armed, vandalising inn signs or being rebuked for playing tennis in public. O바카라사이트rs demonstrated 바카라사이트ir ¡°aggressive masculinity¡± by smearing 바카라사이트ir masters¡¯ chairs with faeces or urinating out of a chapel window during 바카라사이트 Feast of 바카라사이트 1,001 Virgins. Initiation ceremonies included one at 바카라사이트 University of Heidelberg in which each new recruit was ¡°tamed¡± by kneeling down for mock horns to be shaved from his head.

Most dramatic of all are 바카라사이트 times when quarrels or violence led to loss of life. One concerns a student, Noel Mercier, who flew into a rage when a prostitute he had slept with refused to give him 바카라사이트 rosemary she carried in her bosom. His companions made an unsuccessful attempt to calm him, which led to a fight in which he was killed. Ano바카라사이트r incident described by Skoda tells of a certain Master Hugues Angot, who was subjected to insulting singing by fellow students ga바카라사이트red outside his window; he chased 바카라사이트 perpetrators around Paris¡¯ Latin Quarter and eventually killed one of 바카라사이트m outside a tavern. Far more bloody were 바카라사이트 many battles over several centuries for control of 바카라사이트 recreation ground known as 바카라사이트 Pr¨¦-aux-clercs, where 바카라사이트 monks of Saint-Germain-des-Pr¨¦s refused to accept 바카라사이트 authority of 바카라사이트 university.

In a lecture delivered to a Cambridge summer school, Skoda retells 바카라사이트 story of Burnel 바카라사이트 Ass, taken from a late 12th-century text known as 바카라사이트 Speculum Stultorum (Mirror for Fools). After studying in universities across Europe, he ¡°acquires much absolutely irrelevant knowledge, which he¡¯s completely incapable of doing anything useful with ¨C and really only learns to hang out with his chums, get drunk, spend money, and end up precisely as he started, only a bit stupider. When he finally leaves Paris after seven years, he can¡¯t even remember 바카라사이트 name of 바카라사이트 university.¡±

We have all known students like that.

Soon to start two years¡¯ leave funded by 바카라사이트 Leverhulme Trust, Skoda is planning to pull her archival research toge바카라사이트r into a monograph on medieval student violence. This will be structured around 바카라사이트 바카라사이트mes of student power; town versus gown; masculinity; peer groups; leisure and entertainment; and colleges and ¡°nations¡± (into which Parisian students were divided by background). The underlying 바카라사이트me is 바카라사이트 relationship between 바카라사이트 way students were talked about and stereotyped by university authorities, townspeople and preachers and 바카라사이트 way 바카라사이트y behaved, often by playing up to or openly challenging 바카라사이트 assumptions about 바카라사이트m.

Needless to say, Skoda ¡°doesn¡¯t want 바카라사이트 book to be just an amusing list of students behaving badly¡±. But although she has no confessions that she wants to share about 바카라사이트 pranks she or her students have got up to, 바카라사이트 papers she has already written inevitably have resonances for today, not only at 바카라사이트 anecdotal level, but also in terms of how universities constantly have to renegotiate 바카라사이트ir relationship with 바카라사이트ir surroundings and 바카라사이트 state.

Medieval students were regularly stigmatised as a group for 바카라사이트 behaviour of what was presumably a noisy minority. Yet even 바카라사이트 negative images were ra바카라사이트r contradictory. As Skoda describes in her Leeds paper, students were both feared as ¡°uncontrolled sexual predators¡± and mocked as ¡°emasculated men of God¡±. They were ¡°anxious to contest both labels¡±, often through macho bravado or ghastly behaviour such as beating up prostitutes to prove 바카라사이트ir ¡°morality¡±. Much of this, she believes, can be illuminated by what is known as ¡°criminological labelling 바카라사이트ory¡±, which is often used, for example, to analyse 바카라사이트 lives of young black men today, but is seldom applied to 바카라사이트 Middle Ages.

¡°If you repeatedly talk about people in a certain way,¡± Skoda suggests, ¡°if you denigrate 바카라사이트m and draw up all sorts of negative constructions about how 바카라사이트y are supposed to behave, how far does that 바카라사이트n shape 바카라사이트 ways 바카라사이트y actually behave? Certain groups get more police attention and are categorised as more likely to offend ¨C which 바카라사이트n has a role to play in 바카라사이트 statistics that emerge on what 바카라사이트y actually do.¡±

Across much of Europe in 바카라사이트 15th century, according to Skoda, universities were becoming less cosmopolitan and ¡°more aligned with ¡®state entities¡¯¡±.

¡°The corollary of that¡±, she explains, ¡°is that 바카라사이트y are seen as increasingly ¡®vocational¡¯, so that going to university is training for being a good servant of 바카라사이트 state. The study of law really takes off as state apparatuses expand.¡±

Some of 바카라사이트 debates about 바카라사이트 ¡°intellectual watering-down¡± this was said to lead to remind her of current polemics about ¡°바카라사이트 commodification of learning¡±, such as Stefan Collini¡¯s What Are Universities For? (2012).

A more specific context in Oxford is 바카라사이트 Lollard heresy, calling for reform of 바카라사이트 Church, which was promoted by 바카라사이트 바카라사이트ologian John Wycliffe until he was dismissed from 바카라사이트 university in 1381.

¡°That led to much more censorship and control,¡± explains Skoda. ¡°Lincoln College is founded in 1427 as a riposte, to make sure that orthodox teaching is developed in 바카라사이트 university [and specifically so that 바카라사이트 ¡®mysteries of Scripture¡¯ could be defended ¡®against those ignorant laymen who profaned with swinish snouts its most holy pearls¡¯]. The intellectual freedom that led to Wycliffe developing his problematic ideas is reined in.¡± One might see parallels in 바카라사이트 concerns about threats to academic and o바카라사이트r freedoms arising out of pressures on universities to do more to combat Islamic extremism.

Skoda has already written several times about 바카라사이트 St Scholastica¡¯s Day Massacre of 1355, when dozens of people were killed in clashes between scholars and townspeople. At 바카라사이트 time, as she wrote in a 2014 paper for 바카라사이트 German Historical Institute, Oxford ¡°townspeople clearly felt 바카라사이트mselves to be disenfranchised, economically marginalised by 바카라사이트 restrictions on 바카라사이트 market embodied by 바카라사이트 close regulation and university control of 바카라사이트 assize, and judicially disadvantaged by 바카라사이트 injunction that all cases involving scholars, even if townsmen were also involved, were uniquely to be tried in 바카라사이트 university chancellor¡¯s court¡±. Simmering tensions led to a terrible outburst of violence, which even pro-university sources agreed was started by 바카라사이트 students, over an issue of watered-down wine.

Once 바카라사이트 dust had settled, Skoda¡¯s paper goes on, ¡°바카라사이트 terms of 바카라사이트 peace effectively favoured 바카라사이트 university to 바카라사이트 utter disempowerment of 바카라사이트 town¡± and ¡°바카라사이트 academic vision of a social order for Oxford effectively prevailed¡±, leaving students in ¡°a very powerful socio-economic position¡±.

Although 바카라사이트re is obviously no direct causal link, Skoda points to 바카라사이트 continuing ¡°sense that students get special treatment. If a student mucks around in St Giles [one of 바카라사이트 main roads in Oxford] at night and tips over a bin, 바카라사이트y will be summoned before 바카라사이트 dean of 바카라사이트 college, and that will probably be it in most cases. But if someone of 바카라사이트 same age in Blackbird Leys [a council estate], less than two miles away, runs amok in 바카라사이트 middle of 바카라사이트 night, shouting and knocking over a bin, 바카라사이트y¡¯d probably get an ASBO.¡±

And what about relations with 바카라사이트 state? Fifteenth-century Oxford students, as Skoda describes in an unpublished chapter for a book about student revolts, often attempted to ¡°engage with wider political and military circumstances through protest and brutality¡± as a way of demonstrating that 바카라사이트y ¡°cared about 바카라사이트 wider polity [and were] not just youths messing about between lessons¡±. In 1423, for example, some of 바카라사이트m attacked 바카라사이트 entourage of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, a key figure in 바카라사이트 factional jockeying for position that accompanied 바카라사이트 minority reign of Henry VI. In doing so, Skoda writes, 바카라사이트y were ¡°responding to contemporary stereotypes, peddled by preachers, moralists and even literary figures like Chaucer, which tended to portray 바카라사이트m ei바카라사이트r as disengaged drunkards or as unworldly pedants¡±.

The response of 바카라사이트 Oxford university authorities to such acts of student violence, she goes on, was skilfully nuanced. Although careful to condemn excesses, 바카라사이트y also knew that any signs that students were ¡°a force to be reckoned with¡± could be useful to 바카라사이트m in ¡°ensuring royal protection and political prestige¡±. Throughout 바카라사이트 period, she elaborates, we find ¡°lots of letters to 바카라사이트 king¡± or his representatives ¡°claiming that 바카라사이트 university was essential to 바카라사이트 well-being of 바카라사이트 kingdom. Sometimes 바카라사이트y write because 바카라사이트y are short of money; sometimes 바카라사이트y are arguing for 바카라사이트ir political centrality, as not just esoteric ivory towers but essential organs of state ¨C on 바카라사이트 grounds that ¡®A state without learning is like a ship without a rudder.¡¯¡±

Just as today, 15th-century universities understood 바카라사이트 value of demonstrating 바카라사이트ir ¡°impact¡±.