Goliard

Revisionist view

This belief that the goliards were the authors of vast parts of this satirical and worldly poetry that originated in the twelfth and early thirteenth century has been criticized in recent revisionist work on the grounds that most traceable goliardic poets were an integral part of church hierarchy and often worked as teachers in the secular clergy. It also claims that they had no communality nor a single provable point of contact with the historical goliards. Instead, the revisionist thesis posits that the cathedral schools of northern France were the decisive historical context of goliardic poetry. Thus, it argues that "goliardic poets" on the one hand and "goliards" on the other hand need to be strictly distinguished. This fringe view runs contrary to the conclusions drawn from established and widely accepted historical and philological research.