Keep taking the tablets: how Prudentius’ account of St Cassian shaped medieval school stories

In about 400 Prudentius visited the shrine of St Cassian at Imola and wrote a poem describing his martyrdom. Cassian, a schoolmaster, had been killed by his own pupils using their styli and wax tablets. The story was popular throughout the Middle Ages and its medieval reception has attracted attention. In addition, and hitherto unnoticed, features of Cassian’s death became motifs in narratives of violence in the medieval schoolroom, and this article explores these and reflects on what they can tell us about changes in the teacher–pupil relationship from Late Antiquity to the end of the twelfth century.