eave ("ad mensam communitatis ad comedendum vel
videndum secretum mensae"), the penalty is a quart of good wine for
the fellows present in Hall. For unseemly noise, especially at meals,
and at time of prayers, the ordinary penalty is a quart of ordinary
wine ("vini mediocris"). For speaking in the vernacular, there is a
fine of "the price of a pint of wine," but, as the usual direction
about drinking it, is omitted, this was probably not a sconce; at (p. 085)
the Cistercian College, the penalty for this offence was a sconce. So
far, the offences for which a sconce is prescribed, might in most
cases, be paralleled in more recent times in an English college, but
the statutes of Cornouaille also make sconcing the penalty for striking
a servant, unless the injury was severe, in which case, more serious
punishments were imposed. The whole sentence is an illustration of the
lack of control over outbursts of bad temper, which is characteristic
of medieval life. All the scholars are to be careful not to strike the
servants in anger or with ill-will, or to injure them; he who inflicts
a slight injury is to be fined a quart of wine; if the injury be more
severe, the master is to deprive him of his burse for one day or more,
at his own discretion and that of a majority of the scholars: if there
is a large effusion of blood or a serious injury, the provisor (the
Bishop of Paris or his Vicar General) is to be informed, and to
deprive the offender of his burse, or even punish him otherwise. At
the Sorbonne, an assault on a servant was to be followed by the
drinking of a quart of specially good wine by the Fellows, at the
culprit's expense; for talking too loud in Hall, the sconce was two
quarts (presumably of ordinary wine). Dr Rashdall quotes from the MS.
Register of the Sorbonne, actual instances of the infliction of
sconces: "A Doctor of Divinity is sconced a quart of wine for (p. 086)
picking a pear off a tree in the College garden, or again, for
forgetting to shut the Chapel door, or for taking his meals in the
kitchen. Clerks are sconced a pint for 'very inordinately' knocking
'at the door during dinner ...' for 'confabulating' in the court late
at night, and refusing to go to their chambers when ordered.... The
head cook is sconced for 'badly preparing the meat for supper,' or for
not putting salt in the soup." Among the examples given by Dr Rashdall
from this source are a sconce of two shillings for drunkenness and a
sco