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Science & Technology
Oxford Was The Murder Capital of Late Medieval England, And It Was All Because of Students
2023-09-29
[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A deep dive into historical documents reveals that during the late medieval period in the 14th century CE, Oxford had a per capita murder rate four to five times higher than other high-population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.
I was taught that in medieval Paris the university students used to regularly run riot in the streets... much as they and the unions do today, come to think of it.
Posted by:Grom the Reflective

#1  Like cowboys in cow towns - no cow boys, no money.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2023-09-29 10:26  

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