Goliards

An image from the 11th-13th century. Carmina Burana, Benediktbeuern Abbey, a collection of goliard love and vagabond songs

The goliards were a group of generally young clergy in Europe who wrote satirical Latin poetry in the 12th and 13th centuries of the Middle Ages. They were chiefly clerics who served at or had studied at the universities of France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and England, who protested against the growing contradictions within the church through song, poetry and performance. Disaffected and not called to the religious life, they often presented such protests within a structured setting associated with carnival, such as the Feast of Fools, or church liturgy.[1]

  1. ^ P. Brown ed., A Companion to Chaucer (2008), p. 94.