Faculty of Arts Research Master Historical, Literary and Cultural Studies Academic year 2018-2019 / 2019-2020 23-12-2019 Between sin and mitigating factor Defining and constructing ‘drunkenness’ in late medieval Europe, 1140-1500 Master’s thesis in Historical Studies Pieter Sleutels (4485130) Supervisors: dr. Bert Roest (Nijmegen) & dr. Claire Weeda (Leiden) Second reader: dr. Janna Coomans (Amsterdam) Word count: 29.972 Sleutels, 2019 Between sin and mitigating factor Table of contents Table of contents ................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................ 6 Abbreviations ........................................................................................................ 9 Notes on transcription and translation ...................................................................... 9 Introduction Between sin and mitigating factor ........................................................................... 10 Drunkenness in the late Middle Ages: a short overview........................................... 11 Approach and topics ........................................................................................... 14 Region, period, sources and structure .................................................................. 18 Chapter 1 The ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ drunk Late medieval scientific debates on drunkenness ...................................................... 21 Judging drunkenness in court and penance (1140-1265) ........................................ 21 The forum externum: Gratian and the decretists ................................................. 21 The forum internum: the first confessors’ handbooks .......................................... 27 Thomas Aquinas on the case ............................................................................ 30 Drunkenness after 1265: further developments ..................................................... 33 Penance, confession and the laity...................................................................... 33 Quodlibeta on drunkenness and punishment....................................................... 36 Legal opinions from 1300 on ............................................................................ 37 The rise of secular law ..................................................................................... 39 Concluding remarks ........................................................................................... 41 Chapter 2 The one pleading to save his life ‘Negotiating’ drunkenness in letters of remission ...................................................... 42 Letters of remission, quintessential sources of negotiation ...................................... 43 Introduction to the source type ......................................................................... 43 ‘Negotiating’ drunkenness: a proof of concept .................................................... 45 Drunkenness in letters of remission ..................................................................... 48 The implications of phrasing ............................................................................. 48 Appeals to one’s own drunkenness .................................................................... 50 Appeals to someone else’s drunkenness............................................................. 52 Further considerations ........................................................................................ 56 Concluding remarks ........................................................................................... 59 3 Sleutels, 2019 Between sin and mitigating factor Chapter 3 The purported ‘alcoholic’ Constructing meanings of student drunkenness ........................................................ 60 Medieval students: a history and a historiography.................................................. 61 Problematic images ......................................................................................... 61 The ‘true’ and the ‘false’ student ....................................................................... 65 The bibulosity of medieval student life .................................................................. 72 Enjoying and bonding ...................................................................................... 72 Regulating and punishing ................................................................................. 75 Students and drunkenness: a complex(ion) relationship ......................................... 79 Concluding remarks ........................................................................................... 82 Conclusion Between sin and mitigating factor ........................................................................... 83 Bibliography......................................................................................................... 86 Primary sources ................................................................................................. 86 Archival / manuscript sources ........................................................................... 86 Printed sources ............................................................................................... 86 Sources printed in literature ............................................................................. 88 Secondary literature........................................................................................... 88 Abstract .............................................................................................................. 94 4 Sleutels, 2019 Between sin and mitigating factor Veni, veni, venias Ne me mori facias (Come, come, please do come) (You must act, lest I succumb) This Latin citation, transmitted through the ages, can be found in: Carmina Burana, MS Munich Clm 4660, fol. 69v (c. 1230-1300) Carl Orff, ‘Carmina Burana’, cantata, piece nr. 20 (‘Veni, veni, venias’) (1937) Nobuo Uematsu, ‘片翼の天使’ (‘Katayoku no Tenshi’), also known as ‘One-Winged Angel’, piece written for video game Final Fantasy VII (1997), afterwards reorchestrated by Nobuo Uematsu, Masashi Hamauzu and Yasunori Nishiki into ‘One-Winged Angel – Rebirth’ for Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020) 5 Sleutels, 2019 Between sin and mitigating factor Acknowledgements Writing this thesis has been… quite the endeavour. That is not to say I did not enjoy it to some degree, perhaps in a masochistic attempt to attain intellectual self-satisfaction. But it would suffice to say that, were I not a teetotaller, this thesis would have driven me nuts enough at certain points to reach for a drink, or a few. (The irony of someone who does not drink alcohol studying drunkenness has not been lost on me, nor on many, many others.) Thankfully, hypothetically speaking, I would not have been a lonely drunk. There are many people that have contributed something to this project, either consciously or unconsciously, and it is only natural that I thank those who did. First of all is dr. Bert Roest. As my primary supervisor, he helped in many ways, be it by providing feedback that sometimes seemed harsh but was always helpful, providing suggestions for places and at times even source types to look next, or regularly sending me lists of obscure French and Italian publications he suggested I look at. His careful reading of my chapters was invaluable to pinpointing arguments more precisely and to avoiding overly general statements that might not completely reflect historical truth. Were it not for him, this thesis would not have been nearly as refined. The second person to thank is dr. Claire Weeda, who – even though she only agreed to be the second reader of this thesis – fundamentally acted as a second supervisor who read my texts just as thoroughly and gave me a great deal of advice and many tips throughout the writing process. I have grown to share her immediately gleeful state of alertness whenever a reference to medical discourse comes up. The second perspective she provided proved to be very helpful at many points. Due to their different areas of expertise, the two of them supplemented each other extraordinarily well. However, ironically, the fact that she contributed so much as a supervisor made her unfit to be a second reader. Thus, I thank dr. Janna Coomans for agreeing to do so. Completing this holy trinity is prof. dr. Maaike van Berkel. While she found the topic of my thesis a little too distant from her own field to supervise, she has supported me at all times by being my tutor during the timespan of my Research Master. Throughout these two and a half years, I have never gotten tired of speaking with her. Not only did she assist me in selecting my courses and figuring out my track as a scholar, she also acted as a confidant that listened to whatever troubles I had at a specific point in time, whether they be about my studies or personal life. Her accessible attitude, unlimited patience and overall friendliness constituted that I knew I always had someone to count on should things go awry, for which she deserves immense amounts of thanks. The foundation for this thesis was laid in Paris, in the large and imposing library halls of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Sorbonne University. Several people watched over my travails in Paris. First and foremost is dr. Joël Chandelier, who took me on as a sort of pupil but still let me very free in doing as I pleased. I thank him greatly for