ABSTRACT
Most medievalists have come across this story before: it is almost ritually invoked in discussions of medieval schools. In the times of the persecutions of Christians, a certain Cassian of Imola is brought before the judge and condemned to die for his faith. Since he is a teacher of grammar and shorthand, the judge thinks it would be amusing to turn him over to his own pupils to kill. The vignette is a good starting point, for it encapsulates many of the features of a fairly substantial tradition of texts in which pupils attack masters and, casting a wider net, also the other way around or pupils attacking pupils or masters attacking masters. The linguistic violence is contained, almost ritualized, and at least in part playful. The animosity between the combatants is not entirely genuine: teachers and pupils may be, in Walter Ong's words, 'natural enemies', but the antagonism is not complete and not entirely serious.
