Oxford made people swear an oath about a man more than 500 years dead
December 21, 2023 10:08 PM Subscribe
Why Master of Arts graduates at Oxford had to swear an oath against a man who'd been dead for over 500 years
"In 1827 the University undertook a major review of its statutes. The statutes were, and still are, the written set of rules and regulations which governed everything that went on in the University. A product of many centuries, some of these were over already 500 years old by 1827. In going through the statutes as part of this review, the University found something rather odd in the section relating to Bachelors of Arts and the oaths they had to swear in order to become a Master of Arts.
As well as being required to swear that they would observe the University’s statutes, privileges, liberties and customs, as you might expect; and not to lecture elsewhere, or resume their bachelor studies after getting their MA, the Bachelors of Arts also had to swear that they would never agree to the reconciliation of Henry Symeonis (‘quod numquam consenties in reconciliationem Henrici Simeonis’).
Nowhere in the statutes did it explain who this Henry Symeonis (or Simeonis) was, what he was supposed to have done or why those getting their MAs should never agree to be reconciled with him. Who was Henry Symeonis and why was he specifically named like this in the University’s governing regulations? What had he done to offend the University so much?
For much of the operational lifetime of the oath, no-one appears to have known. Brian Twyne, first Keeper of the Archives and renowned antiquary of the 17th century, claimed in his Antiquitatis Academiae Oxon Apologia of 1608 that Symeonis was a Regent in Arts at Oxford who fraudulently claimed he had a BA in order to obtain admission to a foreign monastery. Twyne gave no evidence or source for this so we don’t know where that might have come from.
Anthony Wood, in his published Life and Times writes about the University’s earlier review of its statutes in January 1651/2 when it was first proposed to abolish the statute concerning Henry Symeonis. He notes that the proposal to remove the oath was refused but gives no reason why. Even by that time, one suspects that the oath was of such antiquity that no-one knew anything about it and it was thought best to leave it be.
The identity of Henry Symeonis was only (re-)discovered in 1912 by the then Keeper of the University Archives, Reginald Lane Poole. In an article for the English Historical Review, he looked at the curious statute and tried to get to the bottom of the Henry Symeonis mystery.
Poole identified the man in question as Henry, son of Henry Symeonis. Henry Symeonis the elder was the son of a man named Simeon, hence the patronymic surname of Simeonis (or Symeonis) being passed down to his son and grandson. Henry Simeon, our Henry’s father, was a very wealthy townsman of Oxford; in the early 1200s, there were few richer. Our Henry was also wealthy, owning several properties in Oxford and both their names are found in many property deeds of the period.
For example, Henry is listed as a witness to a grant of c1243 of a boundary wall in Cat Street from William Burgess to Nicholas de Kingham. He is named as ‘Henry son of Henry son of Simeon’.
But what was the reason for Henry’s condemnation by the University to five and a half centuries of infamy? It was a murder. In 1242 he and a number of other men of the town of Oxford were found guilty of murdering a student of the University. Henry and his accomplices were fined £80 by King Henry III in May 1242 and were made to leave Oxford as a result, forced to stay away (and allowed no closer than Northampton) at least until the King returned from abroad. The King returned in the autumn and by the spring of the following year, we know (from records of his property dealings) that our Henry, son of Henry Symeonis, was already back in Oxford."
"In 1827 the University undertook a major review of its statutes. The statutes were, and still are, the written set of rules and regulations which governed everything that went on in the University. A product of many centuries, some of these were over already 500 years old by 1827. In going through the statutes as part of this review, the University found something rather odd in the section relating to Bachelors of Arts and the oaths they had to swear in order to become a Master of Arts.
As well as being required to swear that they would observe the University’s statutes, privileges, liberties and customs, as you might expect; and not to lecture elsewhere, or resume their bachelor studies after getting their MA, the Bachelors of Arts also had to swear that they would never agree to the reconciliation of Henry Symeonis (‘quod numquam consenties in reconciliationem Henrici Simeonis’).
Nowhere in the statutes did it explain who this Henry Symeonis (or Simeonis) was, what he was supposed to have done or why those getting their MAs should never agree to be reconciled with him. Who was Henry Symeonis and why was he specifically named like this in the University’s governing regulations? What had he done to offend the University so much?
For much of the operational lifetime of the oath, no-one appears to have known. Brian Twyne, first Keeper of the Archives and renowned antiquary of the 17th century, claimed in his Antiquitatis Academiae Oxon Apologia of 1608 that Symeonis was a Regent in Arts at Oxford who fraudulently claimed he had a BA in order to obtain admission to a foreign monastery. Twyne gave no evidence or source for this so we don’t know where that might have come from.
Anthony Wood, in his published Life and Times writes about the University’s earlier review of its statutes in January 1651/2 when it was first proposed to abolish the statute concerning Henry Symeonis. He notes that the proposal to remove the oath was refused but gives no reason why. Even by that time, one suspects that the oath was of such antiquity that no-one knew anything about it and it was thought best to leave it be.
The identity of Henry Symeonis was only (re-)discovered in 1912 by the then Keeper of the University Archives, Reginald Lane Poole. In an article for the English Historical Review, he looked at the curious statute and tried to get to the bottom of the Henry Symeonis mystery.
Poole identified the man in question as Henry, son of Henry Symeonis. Henry Symeonis the elder was the son of a man named Simeon, hence the patronymic surname of Simeonis (or Symeonis) being passed down to his son and grandson. Henry Simeon, our Henry’s father, was a very wealthy townsman of Oxford; in the early 1200s, there were few richer. Our Henry was also wealthy, owning several properties in Oxford and both their names are found in many property deeds of the period.
For example, Henry is listed as a witness to a grant of c1243 of a boundary wall in Cat Street from William Burgess to Nicholas de Kingham. He is named as ‘Henry son of Henry son of Simeon’.
But what was the reason for Henry’s condemnation by the University to five and a half centuries of infamy? It was a murder. In 1242 he and a number of other men of the town of Oxford were found guilty of murdering a student of the University. Henry and his accomplices were fined £80 by King Henry III in May 1242 and were made to leave Oxford as a result, forced to stay away (and allowed no closer than Northampton) at least until the King returned from abroad. The King returned in the autumn and by the spring of the following year, we know (from records of his property dealings) that our Henry, son of Henry Symeonis, was already back in Oxford."
The British Establishment are great with the cursing. The Book of Common Prayer for the Anglican Communion [used to] include the Service of Commination, regularly scheduled for Ash Wednesday but allowable at other times as directed by the local bishop. Commination is a word rarely used today but it is basically bringing down anathema on specific categories of sinner:
CURSED is the man that maketh any carved or molten image, to worship it.
And the people shall answer and say: Amen.
Minister: Cursed is he that curseth his father or mother.
Answer: Amen.
Minister: Cursed is he that removeth his neighbour's land-mark.
Answer: Amen.
Minister: Cursed is he that maketh the blind to go out of his way.
Answer: Amen.
Minister: Cursed is he that perverteth the judgement of the stranger, the fatherless, and widow.
Answer: Amen.
Minister: Cursed is he that smiteth his neighbour secretly.
Answer: Amen.
Minister: Cursed is he that lieth with his neighbour's wife.
Answer: Amen.
Minister: Cursed is he that taketh reward to slay the innocent.
Answer: Amen.
Minister: Cursed is he that putteth his trust in man, and taketh man for his defence, and in his heart goeth from the Lord.
Answer: Amen.
Minister: Cursed are the unmerciful, fornicators, and adulterers, covetous persons, idolaters, slanderers, drunkards, and extortioners.
Answer: Amen.
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:53 PM on December 21, 2023 [17 favorites]
CURSED is the man that maketh any carved or molten image, to worship it.
And the people shall answer and say: Amen.
Minister: Cursed is he that curseth his father or mother.
Answer: Amen.
Minister: Cursed is he that removeth his neighbour's land-mark.
Answer: Amen.
Minister: Cursed is he that maketh the blind to go out of his way.
Answer: Amen.
Minister: Cursed is he that perverteth the judgement of the stranger, the fatherless, and widow.
Answer: Amen.
Minister: Cursed is he that smiteth his neighbour secretly.
Answer: Amen.
Minister: Cursed is he that lieth with his neighbour's wife.
Answer: Amen.
Minister: Cursed is he that taketh reward to slay the innocent.
Answer: Amen.
Minister: Cursed is he that putteth his trust in man, and taketh man for his defence, and in his heart goeth from the Lord.
Answer: Amen.
Minister: Cursed are the unmerciful, fornicators, and adulterers, covetous persons, idolaters, slanderers, drunkards, and extortioners.
Answer: Amen.
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:53 PM on December 21, 2023 [17 favorites]
You only write a law (or curse) like those once an offence has occurred that seems to make it necessary. I want to know about the specific incidents that prompted numbers two, three and four.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:15 AM on December 22, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Paul Slade at 12:15 AM on December 22, 2023 [3 favorites]
Those go back to Deuteronomy so I'm afraid the answers are probably forever lost.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 1:15 AM on December 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 1:15 AM on December 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
The fact that Symeonis was a murderer doesn’t mean he didn’t also fake a BA. I think the dons might have been more annoyed about that than his merely killing one of the undergraduates (‘Why, I myself have sometimes felt…’)
posted by Phanx at 1:18 AM on December 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Phanx at 1:18 AM on December 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
The persistence of tradition in the University is famous
Oh yes. This is both lighter in impact and of shorter duration than the Simeonis censure, but I just spent two weeks doing some contract work for my alma mater and a fortnight on campus reminds me that policies that were helping no one when I was an undergrad in the eighties are still helping no one today.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:37 AM on December 22, 2023 [6 favorites]
Oh yes. This is both lighter in impact and of shorter duration than the Simeonis censure, but I just spent two weeks doing some contract work for my alma mater and a fortnight on campus reminds me that policies that were helping no one when I was an undergrad in the eighties are still helping no one today.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:37 AM on December 22, 2023 [6 favorites]
A mentor of mine once described Oxford's Registrar's office as "....exemplifying the culture of a university dragging itself kicking and screaming into the 17th century."
posted by lalochezia at 4:11 AM on December 22, 2023 [20 favorites]
posted by lalochezia at 4:11 AM on December 22, 2023 [20 favorites]
Ho! The Megapode!
posted by humbug at 4:16 AM on December 22, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by humbug at 4:16 AM on December 22, 2023 [8 favorites]
Minister: Cursed is he that smiteth his neighbour secretly.
Pretty sure this is a wanking euphemism.
posted by chavenet at 4:18 AM on December 22, 2023 [4 favorites]
Pretty sure this is a wanking euphemism.
posted by chavenet at 4:18 AM on December 22, 2023 [4 favorites]
Disappointed to read that Symeonis wasn't a 13th century version of "A Sphincter Says What" from Wayne's World. There's gotta be some ancient puerile nonsense baked into those archaic rules
posted by scruss at 4:30 AM on December 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by scruss at 4:30 AM on December 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
This story has some real Musgrave Ritual energy.
posted by basalganglia at 4:44 AM on December 22, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by basalganglia at 4:44 AM on December 22, 2023 [3 favorites]
oxford's kind of been coasting on its reputation for the past few hundred years
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 6:01 AM on December 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 6:01 AM on December 22, 2023 [2 favorites]
They should revive this tradition for alumni who go on to do terrible deeds ("quod numquam consenties in reconciliationem Davidis Cameronia, Terasiae Maius, Alexandri Johnson, Elisabethae Truss, vel Rishis Sunak"...)
posted by jedicus at 8:02 AM on December 22, 2023 [14 favorites]
posted by jedicus at 8:02 AM on December 22, 2023 [14 favorites]
Wow so much shade to Northampton that it didn't get it's own college until 2005? No one holds a grudge longer than the British.
posted by tafetta, darling! at 9:51 AM on December 22, 2023
posted by tafetta, darling! at 9:51 AM on December 22, 2023
The uk universities that seem “new” are usually renamed older institutions - polytechnics, teacher training courses, and other institutions were lumped together under the title university from the 90s onward.
posted by The River Ivel at 10:22 AM on December 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by The River Ivel at 10:22 AM on December 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
Minister: Cursed is he that smiteth his neighbour secretly.
Pretty sure this is a wanking euphemism.
This why whenever I smiteth my neighbor I put a sock on the doorknob
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 11:45 AM on December 22, 2023 [4 favorites]
Pretty sure this is a wanking euphemism.
This why whenever I smiteth my neighbor I put a sock on the doorknob
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 11:45 AM on December 22, 2023 [4 favorites]
Expect this element to turn up in an Alan Moore novel any day now.
The whole story feels one feckless don away from tipping over into an M.R. James story.
posted by doctornemo at 2:15 PM on December 22, 2023 [6 favorites]
The whole story feels one feckless don away from tipping over into an M.R. James story.
posted by doctornemo at 2:15 PM on December 22, 2023 [6 favorites]
« Older Duran Duran's Holiday Album! | Un projecte col·lectiu... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
Librarians. Is there anything they can't do?
allowed no closer than Northampton
Expect this element to turn up in an Alan Moore novel any day now.
posted by Paul Slade at 11:44 PM on December 21, 2023 [14 favorites]