THE VILLON LEGEND PART FOUR

This is the fourth part of Balladeer’s Blog’s look at the swashbuckling legends that surround Francois Villon (1431-1463?), remembered as one of France’s greatest poets and a notorious outlaw.

FRANCOIS VILLON PART FOUR – We left off last time with Villon back in Paris, where, in December of 1456, he gathered nine criminal colleagues for one of the most well-known thefts of his life.

Among those in Francois’ ad hoc gang were the usual names like Guy Tabary and Colin de Cayeux as well as a new name, Father Nicolas, the inside man for this robbery.

The target was the College of Navarre, the wealthiest of the 22 colleges in the Sorbonne University system. Remember, at the time even though God was revered, even by men like Villon, organized religion was viewed by the suffering populace as the callous friend of the ruling class. Many clergymen were themselves so corrupt that they could be compared to those modern-day televangelists whose activities brought them into disgrace. 

You may wonder “Why rob a theological seminary?” Well, the answer would be the same as it was to Willy Sutton’s rhetorical question about why he robbed banks – because that’s where the money was. Rather than be charitable, many churches of the period hoarded their wealth. 

Statute of Villon

At any rate, with Father Nicolas as the inside accomplice, Francois and his fellows covertly climbed over the outer wall and entered the College of Navarre after dark on December 20th. After penetrating the vault and then picking the locks of the multiple padlocks on the chests full of gold, AND picking the locks on the inner chests, Villon and the other thieves loaded their pouches with as much gold as they could carry.   

They retraced their steps and made it over the wall while Father Nicolas tidied up to obscure any signs that the vault or its contents had been violated. The only thing that went wrong in the two-hour operation was a dog barking and biting at Guy Tabary, the last thief over the wall.

The gang divided their criminal proceeds and went their separate ways for the moment. Villon shrewdly fled Paris, even though his band had taken the precaution of committing the robbery when the College of Navarre was two entire months away from its periodic audit by the higher church authorities.

In late February of 1457 the scheduled audit exposed the theft. Church officials raged and the police were informed, but their investigation turned up nothing. Laurence/ Laurent Poutrel, the Dean at the College of Navarre, still felt enmity toward Francois Villon going back to their early years in St. Benoit.

Poutrel felt only Villon, whose irreverent poetry scandalized the nation and whose criminal tendencies were well known, was bold enough to pull off this largest ever theft from a college vault. Laurence talked a curate from a parish outside of Paris to infiltrate the tavern frequented by Villon’s gang – the Pomme de Pin (Pine Cone). (“Padre, you’re going under cover!” Had to be said.) 

Gradually, the curate let it be known he knew the location of church treasure and would willingly conspire with capable thieves in a caper to steal it. Guy Tabary was one of the Pomme de Pin regulars who expressed a willingness to work with Poutrel’s man.

When the curate fished for Tabary’s qualifications he blurted out his participation in the College of Navarre job. The curate informed Poutrel, who had Guy Tabary arrested. Under torture, Tabary revealed the names of his accomplices, Villon among them.

Francois, as stated above, had fled Paris months earlier, as had one or two of the other thieves. Guy Tabary and the other gang members who could be rounded up were fined fifty gold pieces each. The fines were paid – via other thefts for those felons who had already blown their score on women and wine. The police pocketed their share and turned over the remainder of the fines to the College of Navarre.

Before fleeing Paris in December, Villon had penned Le Petit Testament, one of his poetic works which have survived through the centuries. (Its sequel, Le Grand Testament, was written by the poet years later and was his final work before he composed The Ballade of the Hanged while he awaited execution.)

Le Petit Testament, 240 lines of it, was found in his Porte Rouge bedroom the morning after the College of Navarre caper. No immediate connection was made between Villon’s poem before disappearing and the undiscovered theft.   

Francois had made his way to the Province of Anjou, where he committed additional robberies while on the run. I will pick up with those next time around. FOR PART FIVE CLICK HERE.

NOTE: Colleges and universities were targets of plunderers for several more centuries. Even during the English Civil Wars of the 1640s the silver at Oxford and Cambridge were “appropriated” by the warring armies.