“Shame and dishonor”

The weeks of late March and early April of 1400 were a remarkable period for city of Strasbourg. That spring, however, the ruling council was determined to purge the city of a group that, according to verdict announced at the end of the trial, brought Strasbourg “great shame and dishonor” by their very existence within its walls. As far as the council was concerned, the heretical presence that brought “shame and dishonor” to their city had been eradicated by expulsion. People of low social standing and of foreign origin constituted a social group the city could easily disavow in order to save its overall reputation from “shame and dishonor”. Moreover, in 1380s, Bishop Friedrich joined forces with the archbishop of Mainz, the bishops of Augsburg and Wurzburg, and members of the territorial nobility in an attempt to curtail urban liberties. Banishment also performed more pragmatic purposes; late medieval magistrates, like their early modern heirs, lacked a permanent law enforcement force.