The beadle: an indispensable role with a touch of magic

Last month Judith Jens, one of our beadles, retired. But what exactly is a beadle? What do they do? For many people inside and outside the academy, it is a mysterious role. The magic is further enhanced by the fact that the beadle carries a tinkling, silver-tipped baton. Time for some answers. 

Putting down money to become a beadle

The beadle is as old as the university itself. The ‘bedellus’ already existed in the Middle Ages. This page, because that is what he actually was, had virtually the same duties as the beadle of today. These were ceremonial and administrative. From the foundation of Utrecht University, the beadle – usually two – worked for the rector and the joint professors. 

Until the end of the eighteenth century, anyone who wanted to become a beadle had to pay the so-called ‘recognition fee’. It was one of those official positions for which you had to pay a sum of money in order to be allowed to exercise it. This amounted to twelve guilders for the beadle and could be recouped by exercising the position itself. 

A student who wanted to be admitted to the compulsory public defence of his work (a disputation) had to pay money to the beadle. Students who wanted to enrol at the university were also required to be accompanied by the beadle. That cost a few pennies. The same applied to escorting ‘aensienlicke luyden’, or ‘VIPs’, to their seats during ceremonies.

The beadle was regularly told off

Relations between the beadles and the university were not always smooth sailing. In 1761, it turned out that the beadles themselves had decided that a professor had to pay six guilders for his inaugural lecture. Such a creative revenue model was deemed illegal and was firmly suppressed. They were also regularly called to account for dereliction of duty. 

For example, the beadle had to ensure that the professors’ benches in the Dom Church were kept free during services, but they apparently had little interest in doing so. There were complaints that children were constantly sitting on those benches and that ordinary people, the ‘common folk‘ or ‘vulgo homines‘, were also sitting there unlawfully.

It was not always smooth sailing between the beadles and the university.

Order and tidiness in the lecture hall

Extensive instructions were provided for the beadles. For example, one of them always had to accompany the rector in official attire and with a baton on official occasions. With the baton, the beadle expressed the dignity of the rector and the institution he represented. 

During examinations, they were expected to wait outside the door until the exams were over. In the morning, it was their job to open the lecture halls at a fixed time and to close them again in the evening and keep the rooms clean. The beadle also had to ensure that the students knew when they had lectures by posting the timetable, known as the  ‘series lectionum’. 

The university was sometimes like a secondary school

What we sometimes forget is that in the early modern period, the university was very similar to a secondary school. Students sometimes arrived at university at a very young age: fourteen or fifteen was not unusual. The combination of young students and older ones who felt freed from parental supervision, meant that lectures could be quite rowdy. And here too, the beadles had a job to do, which they did not always perform satisfactorily, as reports in the university archives show.

After their work was done in the evening, the beadles had to deliver their staff and the university seals to the rector's home. A special task was laid down in the instructions of 1651: "to dust the professors' chairs every day". Whether this task was actually carried out every day is anyone's guess.

The beadle of the nineteenth century received a fixed salary

Before the nineteenth century, there were already instructions for the beadle, which were read aloud upon appointment. But when the universities became state universities in 1815, the position became much more official. The beadles now received a fixed salary. 

They no longer had to dust the professors’ chairs, and other staff were hired to keep the buildings clean. The position also became more ceremonial and administrative. The beadles also assisted the university secretary, who in the nineteenth century ran the university almost single-handedly.

The beadle always had to accompany the rector in a gown and with a staff at official occasions.

Part of the show

In the 1950s and 1960s, the beadle’s administrative responsibilities were reduced to registering and managing exam results and PhDs. The beadle‘s office, consisting of one beadle and some administrative assistance, eventually had to hand over the registration of examinations to the faculties. But with the increase in the number of doctorates (from 73 in 1960 to more than 600 last year), the beadles have their hands full.

Nowadays, the most visible part of the work of the three beadles is ushering professors seated behind the table in the Senate Hall and ending the questioning of PhD candidates (hora est!). Or, as beadle Kugel said in a farewell interview in 1986: “The beadle is part of the show”. At the same time, that is only the tip of the iceberg.

In the nearly four hundred years that the university has existed, much has changed for the beadle as well. In 1971, Utrecht welcomed the first female beadle in the Netherlands. And the beadle who had to maintain order during lectures is a thing of the past. But something of that has remained. At graduations and official occasions, do not try to participate in the ceremony wearing white trousers under your gown or trainers. Because then there will be repercussions and the beadle will ring her silver staff.