Punishment and Medieval Education

An exploration of the contours imposed on physical punishment by education, establishing how pedagogues accommodated violence into a system of rules, rituals and objectives.

What meanys shall I use to lurne withoute betynge?, asks a pupil in a translation exercise compiled at Oxford in 1460s. One of the most conspicuous features of medieval education is its reliance on flogging. Throughout the period, the rod looms large in literary and artistic depictions of the schoolroom: it appears in te...