f conversation. All the members of (p. 083)
a college, had to be within the gates when the curfew bell rang.
Bearing arms or wearing unusual clothes was forbidden, and singing,
shouting and games were denounced as interfering with the studies of
others, although the Parisian legislators were more sympathetic with
regard to games, than their English contemporaries. Even the Founder
of the Cistercian College of St Bernard, contemplated that permission
might be obtained for games, though not before dinner or after the
bell rang for vespers. A sixteenth-century code of statutes for the
College of Tours, while recording the complaints of the neighbours
about the noise made by the scholars playing ball ("de insolentiis,
exclamationibus et ludis palmariis dictorum scolarium, qui ludunt ...
pilis durissimis") permitted the game under less noisy conditions
("pilis seu scophis mollibus et manu, ac cum silentio et absque
clamoribus tumultuosis"). The use of dice was, as a rule, absolutely
prohibited, but the statutes of the College of Cornouaille permitted
it under certain conditions. It might be played to amuse a sick fellow
on feast days, or without the plea of sickness, on the vigils of
Christmas, and of three Holy Days. But the stakes must be small and
paid in kind, not in money ("pro aliquo comestibili vel potabili").

Penalties for minor offences were much the same as in England--forfeiture
of commons for varying periods, pecuniary fines, and in the (p. 084)
sixteenth century, whipping. In the College of Le Mans, bursars who
were not graduates were to be whipped for a first offence in a school,
and for a second offence in the Hall ("prout mos est in universitate
Parisiensi"). The obligation of reporting each other's faults, of
which there are indications in English statutes, was almost universal
at Paris, where all were bound to reveal offences "sub secreto" to the
authorities. The penalty of "sconcing," still inflicted at Oxford, for
offences against undergraduate etiquette, finds a place in the
Parisian statutes among serious punishments. We find it in the
Statutes of Cornouaille for minor offences; if a man carries wine out
of the College illicitly, he is to pay for double the quantity to be
drunk by the members who were present at the time; if anyone walks
through the confines or chambers in pattens ("cum calepodiis, id est
cum patinis") he is to be mulcted in a pint of wine. If a stranger is
introduced without l