Middle Ages Research Paper

While most students in modern-day universities won’t strum their guitar for attention and while fathers don’t often throw off their sons for being dissolute creatures, the time of the Middle Ages does contrast in some aspects of the lifestyle of students. For example, the letters between fathers and their sons illustrates an interesting point that is not so much taken up among current universities. One student writes that “ Dear father, deign to help me! I fear to be excommunicated; already have I been cited, and there is not even a dry bone in my larder. If I find the money before this feast of Easter, the church door will be shut in my face: wherefore grant my supplication, for I send you word of greetings and money.”11 Again drawing to the conclusion that many students (both old and new) were heavily reliant upon their parents for money, there is the fact that if a student of the Middle Ages were to not to pay for certain supplies, be it tuition or books, that student was excommunicated. This is dissimilar to an extent in the modern world. For example, if one were to not pay their financial bill (consisting of say tuition, living costs, books, possibly a meal plan) that student would be barred from enrolling in the succeeding semester, but this wouldn’t go as

Well the common thing that most people of our society might do is to get a job, one that might be able to provide for them so that they don’t have to live off of their parents. In the Middle Ages, however, errant students and idle clerks roamed the highways as free spirits, searching for adventure or at least for diversion. Some had given up their studies for lack of funds; others were restless or unable to secure the position they desired.12 These vagabonds sometimes amused themselves by composing poetry that ridiculed clerics and sang the praises of wine, gambling, and