Life in the Medieval UniversityRait, Robert S. (Robert Sangster)
History
Life in the Medieval University
Rait, Robert S. (Robert Sangster)
College students -- Europe -- History; Education, Medieval; Universities and colleges -- Europe -- History
At Avignon, the Confraternity of St Sebastian existed largely for the
purgation of bajans and the control of the abuses which had grown up
in connection with the jocund advent. One of its statutes, dated about
1450, orders that no novice, commonly called a bajan, shall be
admitted to the purgation of his sins or take the honourable name of
student until he has paid the sum of six _grossi_ as entrance money to
the Confraternity. There is also an annual subscription of three
_grossi_, and the payment of these sums is to be enforced by the
seizure of books, unless the defaulter can prove that he is unable to
pay his entrance fee or subscription, as the case may be. The Prior
and Councillors of the Fraternity have power to grant a dispensation
on the ground of poverty. After providing his feast, and taking an (p. 113)
oath, the bajan is to be admitted "jocose et benigne," is to lose his
base name, and after a year is to bear the honourable title of
student. Noblemen and beneficed clergy are to pay double. The bajan is
implored to comply with these regulations "corde hilarissimo," and his
"socii" are adjured to remember that they should not seek their own
things but the things of Christ, and should therefore not spend on
feasts anything over six _grossi_ paid by a bajan, but devote it to
the honour of God and St Sebastian. The Court of the Abbot of the
Bajans, at the College of Annecy, in the same University, throws a
little more light on the actual ceremony of purgation. The bajans are
summoned into the Abbot's Court, where each of them receives, _pro
forma_, a blow from a ferule. They all stand in the Court, with
uncovered heads and by themselves ("Mundus ab immundo venit
separandus"); under the penalty of two blows they are required to keep
silence ("quia vox funesta in judiciis audiri non debet.") The bajan
who has patiently and honestly served his time and is about to be
purged, is given, in parody of an Inception in the University, a
passage in the Institutes to expound, and his fellow-bajans, under
pain of two blows, have to dispute with him. If he obtains licence,
the two last-purged bajans bring water "pro lavatione et purgatione."
The other rules of the Abbot's Court deal with the duties to be (p. 114)
performed by the youngest freshman in Chapel (and at table if servants
are lacking), and order bajans to give place to seniors and not to go
near the fire in hall when seniors are present. No one, either senior
or freshman, is to apply the term "Domine" to a bajan, and no freshman
is to call a senior man a bajan. The Court met twice a week, and it
could impose penalties upon senior men as well as bajans, but corporal
punishment is threatened only against the "infectos et fetidissimos
bejannos."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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