The “Depositio Cornuti” at wittenberg University

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size NotesF. Paulsen, Geschichte des gelehrten Unterrichts (Leipzig, 1919), p. II9, n. 2, remarks in this connection: “Der Staat tritt an die Stelle der Kirche als Kulturträger.”For relative figures see Paulsen, op. cit., Beilage n, p. 629.For an account of Andreas Meinhard see J. Hausleiter, Die Universität Wittenberg vor dem Eintritt Luthers (Leipzig, 1903), p. 7f.This study is based on a photostatic reproduction in the University of Chicago Library made from a copy in the Preussische Staatsbibliothek, Berlin. At the bottom of the last page, Nia, is found : Impressum Lips per Baccalaureum Martinum Herbipolensem Anno a reconciliata divinitate Millesimo quingentesimo octavo.Alois Bömer, Die Lateinischen Schülergespräche der Humanisten, I and n, Berlin 1897, 1899, first analyzed twenty-three such dialogue collections. Meinhard’s work is not in­ cluded in Bömer’s work. Since that time other collections have come to light so that W. I. Schreiber, The Social Elements of the Humanistic School-Dialogues of the 15th and 16th Centuries, Thesis, Urbana, Illinois, 1933, is based on twenty-eight such collections. L. Geiger, Renaissance und Humanismus in Italien und Deutschland (Berlin, 1882), II, 471, enumerates a great number of “city poems” and concludes concerning this genre: “Jede Stadt wird gehuldigt, in'der der Dichter länger oder kürzer verweilt.” Not only is Geiger the first one to give the full title of this dialog\!e (op. cit., p. 578), but also calls: “Meinhards kulturgeschichtlich wichtiger Dialog über Wittenberg” an exception to the average “city poem.” A. Taylor, Problems in German Literary History of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries (Oxford University Press, 1939), p. 122, speaks of “Meinhard’s verses,” the dialogue is, however, in prose. His conclusion (op. cit., p. 123) “Meinhard’s use of the dialogue for_m, which is rare if not unique in city-eulogies, is of uncertain origin,” seems correct, if it is not taken as a school-text.Desiderius Erasmus, Familiarum Colloquiorum Formulae, et aliae quaedam per Des. Erasmum Roterodamum. Basileae apud Joannen Frobenium mense novembri AN. MDXVIII . This first edition of the Colloquia is but a compendium of Latin phrases of Erasmian versatility and fiourish. Very much like Erasmus proceeds Hermannus Schot­ tenius Hessus, Confabulationes Tironum literariorum, ad amussim Colloquiorum Erasmi Roterodami, MDXXV Augustae Vindelicorum, per Simpertum Ruff. Anno a nato Jesus MDXXV. A later model is Martinus Duncanus, Praetextata latine loquendi ratio, per Colloquiorum formulas, nunc ioculariter, nunc serio, studiosis pueris non modo bene loquendi, sed etiam bene vivendi modum praescribens, et miscens utilia dulcibus. Antverpiae apud Joan, Latium, datus Bruxel. an. MDLII. Still more elaborate is Mathurinus Corderius, Colloquiorum scholasticorum libri /III, ad pueros in sermone Latino paulatim. exercendos. Anno MDLIIII Excudebat Henricus Stephanus, illustris viri Huldrici Fuggeri typographus .The Dialogus opens in true humanistic fashion, after the title page with the seal of the university and the “argumentum dialogi,” with a poem of recommendation by M. Chilianus Eques from Mellerstadt; then follows the dedication to the elector Frederick the Wise; hereupon again an ascription to Martin (Pollich) de Mellerstadt, sponsor and first rector of the university, who bad suggested this book. The Dialogus concludes with another dedication to the ruling prince, to the “candidati viri cujusque ordinis,” and to the “studiosi bonarum artium.” Thereupon follows an explanation of the name Witten­ berg (“a fundatore Witkind”), and finally there are two more laudatory poems, one by Otto Beckmann von Wartberg, and the other addressed to the reader by the Italian humanist Richardus Sbrulius.Quoted in Hausleiter, op. cit., p. 26, also ibidem, note 1 from Zeitschrift für Kirchen­geschichte, XVIII (Gotha, 1898), 409.Meinhard, Dialogus, pp. Hiib-Kia.The only authors who have mentioned Meinhard and bis Dialogus so far are, in addi­ tion to Geiger, Hausleiter, Schreiber, and Taylor in the works noted above; Schulze und Bauch, Die Geschichtsquellen der Provinz Sachsen im Mittelalter und der Reformationszeit (Halle, 1893), p. 105, and in Neues Archiv für Sächsische Geschichte und Altertumskunde (Dresden, 1899), xx, 3 u; Meinhard is not mentioned in such important works as W. Fabricius, Die akademische Deposition, Frankfurt, 1895; O. Schade, über Jüng­ lingsweihen. Ein Beitrag zur Sittengeschichte in Weimarisches Jahrbuch für deutscheSprache, Litteratur und Kunst (Hanover, 1857), VI, 2; R. S. Rait, Life in the Medieval University, Cambridge, 1931, where the entire chapter VI is devoted to initiations; Hast­ ings Rashdall, The Universities of Euope in the Middle Ages, new ed., Oxford, 1936; F. Rauers, Hänselbuch, Essen, 1936 . It is interesting to know what this German scholar, perhaps the latest who has spoken on the subject of student initiations, has to say: “Insbesondere bei den Schulen und Universitäten ist ein wahrer Gallimathias der merk­ würdigsten Wucherungen der Phantasie entstanden. Das ergab sich daraus, daß sie wie die Zünfte die Anregung zur Weiterausgestaltung der alten Bräuche aus dem Beruf geschöpft haben, und das, bedeutet in diesem Falle zugleich aus der antiken scholastisch humanistischen Vorstellungswelt, die die Gelehrten besser kannten als ihre eigene Umwelt. Das · halbtierische Barbarentum, ·das die neuen Lateiner erst ablegen müssen, stammt daher. Allerhand Reminiszenzen an antike Mysterienbünde, Sophisten- und Rhetorenschulen, Novizenprüfungen usw., die noch neueren Gelehrten bei ihren Erklärungen der Hänsel­ bräuche verhängnisvoll geworden sind, haben bei den Universitätsbräuchen ihren Einzug gehalten. Die Gelehrten schlossen mit einem falschen Schlüssel und verachteten den richtigen, daß ganz nahe bei den Handwerkerzünften der Knoten lag.” Op. cit., p. ·62f.“Manuale Scholarium qui studentium Universitatis aggredi ac postea in eis proficere instituunt. Reprinted in Zarncke, Die deutschen Universitäten im Mittelalter, Leipzig, 1857. R. F. Seyboldt, Manuale Scholarium, An Original Account of Life in the Medieval University, translated from the Latin (Harvard University Press, 1921), who has made this important document on student life available to American readers, tries to follow closely the student Jingo of the time.Hausleiter, op. cit., Textbeilagen r, 51, refers to Janssen, Geschichte des deutschen Volkes (Freiburg, 1893), VII, 206-207.Cf. Meinhard, Dialogus, Argumentum Dialogi; Manuale Scholarium, Prologue.That the deposition was apparently an obligatory academic ceremony, see Schade, op. cit., p. 327f.; Rashdall, III, 378, n. 2, cites the earliest known university statute of Greifswald of 1456. Paulus Niavis (Schneevogel), who assembles a whole dialogue collection, Dialogus, in quo litterarum studiosus cum beano quarumvis Paeceptionum imperito loquitur (without place and year, but probably at the turn of the Fifteenth Century), speaks in Chapter I of this necessity.Dialogus, p. Diia. The acrostic definition, “Beanus est animal (or asinus) nesciens vitam studiosorum,” appeared first in Wichgrew’s Comelius Relegatus of 1600. In the Manuale, p. 6, the beanus is addressed: “o beane, o asine, o foetide hirce, o olens capra, o bufo, o cifra, o figura nihili, o tu omnino nihil.”In the Manuale the depositio is merely perfonned as “antiquus adventus.” Cap I, p. 4.Dialogus, Cap. IV, p. Diia.Most illuminating of all deposition accounts is the Ritus Depositionis (author un­ known) of Strassburg, 1664, which has a Latin and a German text explaining some twenty woodcuts. The title page has this motto :Ludicra dum simulant spectacula, seria tractant:Was die Alten in dem Scherz lachend haben vorgespielet’Dessen Würkung, Krafft und Ernst hat man erst im End gefühlet.This Ritus is very weil reproduced in Max Bauer, Sittengeschichte des deutschen Studententums (Dresden, n.d.), between pp. 76-77.Apocalypse, 7: 4-9.Dialogus, XIII, 4b,Schade, op. cit., p. 323, gives a summary of the arguments in favor of the term “depositio cornuti.”Meinhard finds bis most precious herbs: “circa saepes post tergum,” ·P· Iiiia. Compare, Manuale, II, f where the student Camillus describes the ointment: “Pinguendo nonnulla, extorsa ex fabis hircorum, et aqua, destillata e fimeo virgineo, condida ßoribus, qui crescunt noctis tempore mediae, cum diurno cursu mulsum rustici portarunt.Schottenius, Confabulationes, pp. 52, 68. In the latter instance we find this remark by one student: “Non beanum te voco, sed graviter oles, sordes, tanquam diu balneis non fuisses.”Cf. Hausletter, p. 72, n. 2: “Vgl. Erasmus Alberus, Wider die verfluchte Lere der Carlstader, Newenbrandenburg, 1565, in 8vo, Blatt a2b, Nr. 134: Carlstadt schreibt: ‘Ist Christus Leib im Brote, so folget daraus, daß das Brot für uns gekreuziget ist. Lieber, laßt uns singen : 0 Beane Beanorum, pessima substantia ! Das folget wohl daraus. Da sehet, wie Carlstadt ein unsinniger Narr gewest ist.’-Und unter Nr. 267, Blatt h3B, heißt es von einem anderen Gegner: ‘Antwort: 0 beane beanorum, pessima substantia. Denn er ist ein Bachant in keine Universität nie kommen.’ ”Meinhard, 16b. In the Manuale a like climax is reached but with this difference: “perpetrasti videntibus equis.'’ Cap. II, p. 10.These instruments have since become symbolic of the deposition. W. Bruchmüller, Der Leipziger Student 1409-1909 (Leipzig, 1909), p. 21, shows the instruments as preserved in the Deutsche Gesellschaft in Leipzig.Dialogus, p. Kiib.In the Manuale a formal statement of absolution by a master is missing, as is likewise the pouring of the wine over the head of the initiate.In the Manuale (1, 4), three masters, two bachelors, and a few students were gath­ ered after dinner, but they seem to be assembled mainly for Jhe collation so that the neophyte may not acquire the reputation of being parsimonious.Hausleiter, p. 27.Luther, Von Conciliis und Kirchen, Walch, Werke, XVI, 2300.Luther M., Predigt, daß man die Kinder sur Schule halten soU. Walch, Werke, x, 454. Numerous are also the passages in which Luther mentions that if he were not a preacher he would want to be a schoolteacher; e.g., CoUoquia, Walch, XXII, 620, n94; also “Keiner soll Prediger werden er sei denn zuerst Schulmeister gewesen.” l bid., p. 664.Auslegung r Mose 41, 45, Walch, Werke, n, 1409.Berger, “Deutsche Literatur.” Reformation, 1, 137, n. 4, translates, “Spielhäuser junger Gesellen und griechischen Ruhmes.”Berger, op. cit., p. 142.An die Ratherrn aller Städte des Landes. Berger, p. 243.Berger, p. 229.Predigt, daß man die Kinder :sur Schule halten soll. Walch, Werke, x, 428. Similarly in Am Tage Catharina, Math. 25, 1-13; ibid., x1, 2403.Colloquia, Walch, XXII, 904; and Auslegung über die Epistel an die Galater 3, 24. lbid., ·IX, 458.Luther, M., Predigt am 26. Sonntage nach Trinitatis, Walch, x1, 1898. Vide also Ein Ratschlag D. M . Luther, wie man eine beständige Ordnung in der Christlichen Gemeine anfahen und vollenden soll. l bid., xm, 908, Briefe No. 1046, and Predigt, daß man die Kinder zur Schule halten soll. l bid., xx, 457.CoUoquia, Walch, XXII, 1914, Appendix II, No. 894, p. 1914.Ernste Vermahnung und Warnungschrift an die Studenten zu Wittenberg sich vor den “ When reading Luther’s remarksWhen reading Luther’s remarks on the old type of schools it is weil worthwhile to remember Mackinnon’s remark, Luther and. the Reformation (London, 1925), m, 221 : “The recollection (i.e., of the old schools) seems to be rather overcoloured by his sub­ sequent religious experience, which inclines him to see only error and evil in everything connected with the old system.”Quoted from David Müller, Geschichte des deutschen Volkes (Berlin, 1905) No. 342,p. 237.Op. cit., m, 380, n. 2. lt is interesting to note that in the middle of the Seventeenth Century the clergymen of Hamburg for·the first time made a formal complaint to tbe Town Council about “the harm done to religion by the manner in which the sacraments of the Church were made mock of by the printers and others in their Deposition cere­ monies.” Quoted in W. Blades, An Account of the German Morality Play, entitled Depositio Cornuti Typographici, as performed in the 17th and 18th Centuries (London. 1885), p. 72.Colloquia, Walch, XXII, 1525-1526.lbid., p. 1526

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