Sixth, 14th, and 20th Centuries

February 10 is the Feast Day of St. Scholastica.  Scholastica was the twin sister of St. Benedict, well-known as the founder of the Benedictine order.  The lady, in her service to God, founded a nunnery near Benedict's monastery.¹  While neither could visit the other on the site of their residences, they met once a year at a neutral site for prayers and conversation.  Scholastica died a few days after one of these annual visits, and it is said that Benedict in a vision saw her soul ascend into heaven.  He brought her body to the monastery for interment in the tomb he had constructed for himself.²

St. Scholastica died in 543.  Now fast-forward 812 years.  In Oxford, England on the saint's feast day, two students from university got into a dispute with an innkeeper over the quality of the drinks, continuing to the tossing of said drinks into the barkeep's face.  The immediate result of this contretemps was the death over a period of two days of more than ninety people of whom two-thirds were students.  The end was not to be seen for yet another 600 years.  Events went briefly as follows:

The resolution in favor of the university required the mayor and councillors of the town to march bareheaded through the streets on St. Scholastica's Day each year and pay to the university a penny for each student who lost his life in the riots.  This continued until 1825 when the mayor refused to participate.

Finally, the matter was resolved when, on February 10, 1955, an act of conciliation saw the Mayor awarded an honorary degree from University, and the Vice-Chancellor was made an Honorary Freeman.³

Long memories, those Brits.

¹I first typed "monkery" which is what I have long thought the places should be called, but spell-check objected to the usage.
²Catholic Online
³Wikipedia