“The Delicta alumnorum", Latin for "misdeeds of the students", filled whole lists. It originated during the time in which Bebenhausen was a Protestant monastery school. What the later priests of Württemberg got up to was sometimes more than simple school pranks.
Speaking German was not permitted.
Paging through the list of misdeeds shows that children then got into similar mischief as children do today. The historical term for disturbing classes was "Allotria." Climbing the cliffs had pedagogical consequences, as did snowball fights in winter. There were repeatedly punishments for illegible handwriting. Hardly imaginable today: Speaking in German was not allowed. Latin was the exclusive language of the monastery school!
Out of hunger, the students would even steal geese.
An indication of the sometimes very meager food in the monastery school was the fact that not only fruit was pilfered, but sometimes even whole geese! Students were even punished if they gave in to vanity and showed a preference for luxurious clothing instead of the dark uniform. Making coffee and smoking tobacco were also forbidden. Naturally, carousing and drunkenness in the monastery school were also nowhere to be found in the list of behaviors that the headmaster could tolerate.
