Honesti et Probi Adolescentes: Pardon Letters and Student Violence at the University of Louvain (Sixteenth-Seventeenth Centuries)

Gielis, Gert;Giraudet, Luke;Verreycken, Quentin
(2025) Students, Scholars and Their Books at the University of Louvain (1425–1797) — ISBN: [978-2-503-61817-3], 281-316, published

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This contribution examines the early modern pardon letters granted to students and members of the University of Louvain. A privileged place of teaching and knowledge, but also of agitation, late medieval and early modern universities were occasionally theatres of violence. Student delinquency has been particularly well-documented in fifteenth-century France, particularly due to the popularity of the Parisian poet François Villon, known as much for his literary work as his criminal activities. In the Burgundian and Habsburg Low Countries, members of the University of Louvain were also the subject of judicial inquiries, and in these cases they could (and did) petition the monarch for a pardon letter to remit their crimes and avoid punishment. These letters highlight a diverse range of crimes and altercations (including homicide, assault, and theft) and reveal the tensions that arose between students and the rest of society. They also illustrate the legal efforts undertaken by students to escape the rigours of justice. Analysing this unique documentation, this article addresses the nuanced and varied ways in which petitioners from the University of Louvain wielded their legal knowledge to navigate the conditions of royal mercy.
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Gielis, G., Giraudet, L., & Verreycken, Q. (2025). Honesti et Probi Adolescentes: Pardon Letters and Student Violence at the University of Louvain (Sixteenth-Seventeenth Centuries). In Violet Soen, Wouter Druwé, Wim François, Ralph Dekoninck (ed.), Students, Scholars and Their Books at the University of Louvain (1425–1797) (pp. 281-316). Brepols. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/259971