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Oxford Was The Murder Capital of Late Medieval England, And It Was All Because of Students
[ScienceAlert] Oxford today is known as a place of learning and elite scholarship. Several hundred years ago, the university town had something of a darker reputation.A deep dive into historical documents reveals that during the late medieval period in the 14th century CE, Oxford had a per capita murder rate four to five times higher than other high-population hubs like York and London. And the reason? Bloody students. Like, quite literally. Newly translated documents list 75 percent of the perpetrators of murders with known background as "clericus", a term most commonly used to describe students or members of the then-recently founded University of Oxford. lAnd 72 percent of the victims were also classed as clericus. And here I used to think that higher educations started going rotten in my lifetime.
Posted by: Grom the Reflective 2023-09-29 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=679898 |