goliard
Sign in to saveright|thumb|An image from the 11th-13th century. Carmina Burana, [[Benediktbeuern Abbey, a collection of goliard love and vagabond songs]]The goliards were a group of generally young clergy in Europe who wrote satirical Latin poetry in the 12th and 13th centuries of the Middle Ages. They were chiefly clerics who served at or had studied at the universities of France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and England, who protested against the growing contradictions within the church through song, poetry and performance. Disaffected and not called to the religious life, they often presented such protests with
Article
11 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Origins of the goliardic tradition
- Goliardic poetry
- Satirical poets
- Significance
- Revisionist view
- Modern day
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Further reading
right|thumb|An image from the 11th-13th century. Carmina Burana, [[Benediktbeuern Abbey, a collection of goliard love and vagabond songs]]The goliards were a group of generally young clergy in Europe who wrote satirical Latin poetry in the 12th and 13th centuries of the Middle Ages. They were chiefly clerics who served at or had studied at the universities of France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and England, who protested against the growing contradictions within the church through song, poetry and performance. Disaffected and not called to the religious life, they often presented such protests within a structured setting associated with carnival, such as the Feast of Fools, or church liturgy.
==Etymology== The derivation of the word is uncertain. It may come from the Latin gula, gluttony. It may also originate from a mythical "Bishop Golias", a medieval Latin form of the name Goliath, the giant who fought David, later King David, in the Bible—thus suggestive of the monstrous nature of the goliard or, notes historian Christopher de Hamel, as "those people beyond the edge of society". Another source may be gailliard, a "gay fellow".