Henry Symeonis (fl. 1225–1264) was a wealthy Englishman from Oxford, who became the target of "a very strange" c. 550-year-long grudge at the University of Oxford. Until 1827, Oxford students had to swear an oath never to be reconciled with Henry Symeonis–despite Oxford apparently having forgotten by the 17th century who he was or what he did. His identity and his offence were only rediscovered in 1912.
Biography
Henry was the son of Henry, son of Symeon, from whom the patronymic surname is derived. Symeon was a witness to royal charters and possibly one of the reeves of Oxford during the reign of King John. Symeon's son, Henry, was one of the richest men in early-13th-century Oxford. Henry, son of Henry and grandson of Symeon, first appears in 1225. He too was rich and owned multiple properties in the city.
Henry Symeonis was among the men who, on 22 May 1242, were fined £80 and ordered to leave Oxford by King Henry III for murdering an Oxford scholar. They were allowed to stay in Northampton or further north, but were not to approach Oxford until the king returned from Aquitaine. The king returned to England later that year and Henry Symeonis was apparently in Oxford in early 1243. He sold an island to the king, who in 1245 granted it to the Order of Friars Minor.
In 1264 many Oxford scholars left Oxford, and King Henry suspended the university on 12 March 1264. On 25 March 1264 King Henry issued a letters patent declaring that Henry Symeonis had been forgiven and ordering the university to let him to live in Oxford in peace so long as he should show good behavior. Oxford archivists differ in their interpretations of this episode. Reginald Lane Poole argues that the exodus of the scholars from Oxford was in protest over the return of Henry Symeonis. Alice Millea notes that Henry Symeonis had returned years earlier. According to Millea, King Henry suspended the university because Oxford had become the center of the royal military operations during the Second Barons' War. Millea concludes that Henry Symeonis bought the king's pardon, but later that year the king was imprisoned and the Oxford scholars ignored his order to be reconciliated.
Oath
Magister, tu jurabis quod nunquam consenties in reconciliationem Henrici Simeonis, nec slatum Baccalaurei iterum tibi assumes.
— Oath taken by Oxford students, Corpus Statutorum (Statute Tit VII section 1. 5)
The hostility towards Henry Symeonis entered the statutes of the University of Oxford. Until 1827, all Bachelors of Arts (BA) who sought to become Masters of Arts had to swear an oath to never be reconciled with Henry Symeonis. The statutes did not explain who Henry Symeons was or what he had done. The archivist Brian Twyne wrote in his 1608 book, Antiquitatis Academiae Oxon Apologia, that Henry Symeonis was a Regent in Arts who falsely claimed to be a BA in order to enroll into a foreign monastery. Twyne cited no source, however.
17th-century antiquary Anthony Wood reports that the removal of the oath referring to Henry Symeonis was proposed and rejected, for reasons he does not mention, during the University of Oxford's review of the statutes in 1651–52. Alice Millea of Oxford's Bodleian Library presumes that by that time the origin and meaning of the oath had already been forgotten. The oath was finally abolished in February 1827, possibly because nobody knew exactly what they were abolishing
. The English bishop Christopher Wordsworth, who described the oath as "quaintly personal", wrote in 1874: "It is thought that the culprit had, to gain some end, dissembled his degree in king John's reign."
Millea cites the university's c. 550-year-long grudge against Henry Symeonis as a very strange example of the longevity of some University customs, long after they've lost relevance or meaning
. The identity of Henry Symeonis was only rediscovered in 1912 by Oxford's keeper of the archives, Reginald Lane Poole.
References
- ^ Millea, Alice (13 December 2023). "The persistence of tradition: the curious case of Henry Symeonis". Archives and Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
- ^ Poole, Reginald L. (1912). "Henry Symeonis". The English Historical Review. 27 (107). Oxford University Press: 516–517. ISSN 0013-8266. JSTOR 550611. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
- Wordsworth, Christopher (1874). Social Life at the English Universities in the Eighteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge, Deighton, Bell, and Co. p. 245. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511692840. ISBN 978-1-108-00052-9. Retrieved 14 January 2025.