Goliards

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 gaillard, a "gay fellow".

Many scholars believe the term goliard is derived from a letter between Bernard of Clairvaux and Pope Innocent II in which Bernard referred to Peter Abelard as Goliath, thus creating a connection between Goliath and the student adherents of Abelard. By the 14th century, the word goliard became synonymous with minstrel, and no longer referred to a particular group of clergy.

Origins of the goliardic tradition

The goliardic class is believed to have arisen from the need of younger sons to develop means of support.