Autor: MedaBeda ++++
Datum: 09. 02. 2026 15:02:30
from 1264 until 1827, every Oxford student receiving a Master of Arts degree had to swear an oath that they would never consent to the reconciliation of Henry Symeonis. The Latin oath went: “Magister, tu jurabis quod nunquam consenties in reconciliationem Henrici Simeonis,” meaning “Master, you shall swear that you will never consent to the reconciliation of Henry Simeon.”
By at least the 17th century, nobody at Oxford had any idea who Henry Symeonis was, what he’d done, or why they were supposed to hate him. The statutes said nothing about it. Oxford just kept making people swear the oath anyway.
When it was proposed to remove the oath during a statute review in 1651, the proposal was rejected, apparently because the oath was so old that nobody wanted to be the one to mess with it.
They finally abolished the oath in 1827, but it wasn’t until 1912 that Reginald Lane Poole, then Keeper of the University Archives, actually figured out who the guy was.
Turns out Henry Symeonis was a wealthy Oxford townsman who in 1242 was among a group of men fined £80 and exiled from Oxford by King Henry III for murdering a university student. He later secured a royal pardon and the King ordered the University to let him return and live in peace, but the scholars were outraged and defied the King’s order, aaand then enshrined their grudge directly into the university’s statutes so that every future graduate would have to formally swear never to forgive him.
And then they just… kept doing it for 563 years, long after everyone forgot why. |
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Autor: elem +++++