Deposition (university)

The deposition (from Latin depositio cornuum, "taking off the horns") was a semi-official initiation ritual which was common at universities throughout Europe from the Middle Ages until the 18th century.

A basis for the deposition was the idea that the arriving student was still wild and unpolished before their immatriculation – like an animal – and had to be relieved of the signs of their uncivilised state before they could be accepted as part of the university.

The deposition consisted of scolding, in which the unworthiness of the new student would be clarified to them, in ritualistic removal of animal-like artificial body parts with the help of over-dimensioned tools, as well as beating and other abuse, which would have the function of a purification ritual.

Reference would be made to the examination of the Spartan youth, to the customs of the Academy of Plato, and the water consecration among the Athenian Sophists of Late Antiquity.

The arriving student would in the Middle Ages be known by the term beanus, derived from the French bec jaune, "yellow beak" (cf.

In the Middle Ages, the deposition was led by the Rector, as the students in question would live and study under monastery-like circumstances.

In the late Middle Ages, the new craft of book printing would be established in the vicinity of universities, and the printers – who, at the time, had no old traditions of their own – would borrow the custom of deposition.