THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
It is no longer necessary in writing the history of the
University of Oxford to discuss or even to record the
mythical accounts of its origin. There was some excuse
for Brian Twyne's attempt to discover an ancestry for
Oxford more ancient than that claimed for Cambridge
by John Caius, but even in his own time Twyne's
opinions on this subject were received with amused
tolerance by the better informed of English antiquaries.
When Anthony Wood, only too readily accepting the
credulities of his master, recorded them in his Historia
Universitatis Oxoniensis (1674) a disservice was done
to the pursuit of knowledge, which was still further
increased when the English edition of the History was
published by John Gutch in 1792. It is now generally
agreed that the University had no founder, and that its
rise was due to causes which in the 12th century were
operating in other parts of Europe. The intellectual
activity which at length converged in the University of
Paris was already being felt in England although in too
slight a degree to make itself manifest. It is perhaps
more profitable to try to explain why Oxford, rather
than some other town, should have become the first
home of secular learning in England. The obvious
reasons were its central position and easy accessibility,
and being on the borders of the diocese of Lincoln it was
less liable to constant ecclesiastical interference. Oxford
was, moreover, an attractive town, and scholars from
classical times to the present day have always tried to
choose as places of study localities with pleasant natural
surroundings. Wyclif styled Oxford 'locus amenus,
fertilis et optimus et habitationi deorum convenientissimus. (fn. 1) '
From early times there were certain religious houses
in the neighbourhood of Oxford which were concerned with learning—the Augustinian priory of St.
Frideswide's, founded in 1122; (fn. 2) the abbey of Oseney,
founded as an Augustinian priory in 1129; (fn. 3) and also
the college of the secular canons of the church of St.
George in the Castle of Oxford established by Robert
d'Oilly and Roger d'Ivri in 1074, which is thought to
have some claim to be the most likely source from which
the schools immediately sprang. (fn. 4) In the first quarter of
the 12th century Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford and
Provost of the College, was a man remarkable for his
learning and ability, to which both Henry of Huntingdon and Geoffrey of Monmouth bear witness. Geoffrey
himself may also have been a canon of the church of
St. George in the Castle, and contemporary with him
was Robert de Chesney, afterwards Bishop of Lincoln,
another canon eminent for piety and learning. (fn. 5) As
regards Oxford studies in the 12th century only isolated
facts can be recorded. About the year 1117 Theobaldus
Stampensis, a secular priest and 'Magister Oxenefordie',
is stated to have lectured to audiences of clerks ranging
in numbers from sixty to a hundred. (fn. 6) In the second
quarter of the century Robert Pullen lectured on the
Bible at Oxford for five years and preached every
Lord's Day to the people. (fn. 7) Another ecclesiastic who
may have contributed to the cause of learning was
Robert of Cricklade who became prior of St. Frideswide's in 1141 and is said to have been an erudite man
to whom Hebrew was not unknown. (fn. 8) There is also
good reason to believe that somewhere about the year
1170 Vacarius, a Lombard jurist who had come to
England at the invitation of Theobald, Archbishop of
Canterbury, visited Oxford, lectured on Roman law, and
wrote for poor students a compendium of the Codex and
the Digest, a text-book later much studied at Oxford. (fn. 9)
It is also probable that, about the time Vacarius began
to lecture, Oxford received many students who would
normally have proceeded to Paris had not the king,
who had quarrelled both with Becket and the Pope,
forbidden English clerks to go overseas without royal
licence. (fn. 10)
The best evidence that a school flourished at Oxford
in the 12th century rests on a statement by Giraldus
Cambrensis who says that, having finished his Topographia, he decided to read the work at Oxford 'ubi
clerus in Anglia magis vigebat et clericatu praecellebat'.
The recitation lasted three days; on the first he received
the poor scholars, on the next the doctors of the various
faculties with their more distinguished pupils, and on
the third day the rest of the scholars together with
townsfolk and soldiers. (fn. 11) Very few names of these
early Oxford scholars have been preserved. A certain
Stephanus studied at Oxford about 1180; (fn. 12) John de
Constantiis was there between 1186 and 1190; (fn. 13)
Alexander Neckam lectured in theology at Oxford; (fn. 14)
Nicholas of Hungary received allowances from the king
from 1193 onwards to support him while at the
schools; (fn. 15) and, shortly before 1200, Thomas de Marleberge, afterwards Abbot of Evesham, lectured on canon
and civil law. (fn. 16)
In the 12th century Giraldus Cambrensis alone
gives any detailed account of an organized body of
students at Oxford, but at the end of that century or at
the beginning of the next some incidents in the life of
Edmund of Abingdon provide a more intimate view.
Edmund was born between the years 1170 and 1185,
and when about 12 years of age was sent to a grammar
school at Oxford. Later he studied Arts and remained
at Oxford for about seven years. He then went to
Paris and, returning to Oxford, for nearly six years
lectured in Arts. Then, perhaps after another period of
study at Paris, he returned to lecture on Theology, in
which he is the first recorded Oxford scholar to have
proceeded to the doctorate (fn. 17) —'cathedram magistralem
ascendit'—which in all probability was about the year
1214. It is during the period when Edmund was a
regent in Arts that references are found to the magister
or rector scolarum, an officer probably appointed by
episcopal licence. (fn. 18) John Grim, magister scolarum,
occurs in 1201, (fn. 19) and Alardus, almost certainly identical
with the subdean of Wells (1213), was rector scolarum
in 1210, (fn. 20) but no information as to their functions
has been preserved. The organization of the Oxford
studium generale prior to 1210 can be briefly stated. It
consisted of a free society of scholars presided over by a
magister scolarum. Its curriculum was based on that of
Paris and embraced the faculties of Theology, Canon
and Civil Law, and Arts. The faculty of Arts included
the Seven Liberal Arts which were divided into two
sections, the Trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and logic)
and the Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy,
and music): later the three philosophies, Natural,
Moral, and Metaphysical, were also studied for the
degree of M.A. It was through the faculty of Arts
alone that the other faculties could be approached.
Those who had proceeded to the degree of master and
had received the licentia docendi then spent a certain
number of years as regent masters, lecturing to and
receiving fees from those seeking degrees. (fn. 21) Edmund of
Abingdon is definitely stated to have taught as a regent
master and to have received payment from his pupils. (fn. 22)
The recognition of the Oxford studium by the
appointment of a special Chancellor was due to a
commonplace incident. In 1209 two clerks were
hanged by the townsmen in revenge for an alleged
murder of a woman. (fn. 23) Doubtless feeling that they
would be likely to receive little support from King
John, whose country lay under an interdict, the community of Oxford scholars decided to leave the town.
Some went to Reading, Maidstone, and Paris; others
to Cambridge and thus became the founders of that
University. When the king in 1213 made his peace
with the Pope, the townsmen had perforce to follow
his example, and accordingly submitted themselves to
papal authority. (fn. 24) On 25 June 1214 the Pope's legate,
Nicholas, Bishop of Tusculum, issued an ordinance
which contains a recital of the penalties inflicted on the
townsmen and the privileges granted to the scholars.
For ten years clerks who rented houses (hospitia) were
to have a remission of half of the rent which had been
fixed by burgesses and clerks in common before the
outbreak; at the end of ten years the houses were to
be let at the former rent. Hospitia erected after the
secession of the scholars or to be erected in the future
were to be assessed by taxors, four being masters and
four townsmen. Also a penalty of fifty-two shillings a
year was to be devoted to the use of poor scholars and
distributed by the Abbot of Oseney and the Prior of
St. Frideswide's on the advice of the Bishop of Lincoln,
or the Archdeacon or his official, or of the Chancellor
whom the Bishop might set over the scholars. The
ordinance also commanded the townsmen to feast
yearly one hundred poor scholars, and to swear that
they would sell to scholars victuals and other necessaries
at reasonable prices. Furthermore, clerks arrested by
the laity were to be committed to the diocesan
authorities above mentioned if their surrender was
demanded, and every year fifty influential townsmen
were to take an oath to observe the articles of the
ordinance. Lastly those who had confessed to the
hanging or had been convicted of it were condemned
to do penance, and those who had remained in the
town and had lectured after the secession incurred suspension from lecturing for three years. (fn. 25)
In this document the Chancellor of the University is
first mentioned, not however as an existing officer, but
as one to be appointed. The earliest date at which a
Chancellor is mentioned as actually existing is 1221,
and he was probably Grosseteste. (fn. 26) On the authority
of Bishop Sutton in 1295 it is said that his predecessor
in the see would not acknowledge Grosseteste as
Chancellor, but only as magister scolarum. (fn. 27) From the
year 1221 there is an unbroken succession. The chief
privilege gained in 1214 was that the townsmen were
obliged to hand over to the ecclesiastical authority any
clerk arrested by them. This was the first step towards
the independence of the University from the town and
the foundation of the immunity of members of the
University from lay courts, an exemption which has
existed in some form or other to the present day. The
obligation of money payments and the feeding of poor
scholars was undertaken at the request of the town,
and no doubt for value received, by the Abbot of
Eynsham, a liability which continued until the Reformation when it was transferred to the Crown. (fn. 28) The
University still receives yearly from the PaymasterGeneral a sum 'for a poor scholar'. (fn. 29) The ordinance of
1214 supplements our knowledge of the studium by
indicating a community of scholars entirely dependent
on the town for accommodation, the rents being controlled by a mixed panel of townsmen and masters.
There is little further information about the progress
of the University until the advent of the Orders of
Friars into England, an event which was to have a
great influence on the constitution of the University.
The year 1221 saw the coming of the Dominicans, who
proceeded at once to Oxford. Three years later nine
members of the Franciscan Order landed at Dover under
Agnellus of Pisa. Two of the party proceeded to
Oxford, where they first rented a small house in St.
Ebbe's parish. They at once received many recruits,
and won so great popularity that within five years
they had already twice moved to larger quarters. (fn. 30)
A dispute which arose in Paris in 1229 gave Henry
III an opportunity of inviting to England Parisian
students to whom he promised welcome, quietness, and
liberty. (fn. 31) Although it is not possible to assess the result
of this invitation, yet some abnormal accession to the
number of students at Oxford may have been responsible for certain royal writs addressed to the sheriff and
to the mayor and bailiffs in 1231. (fn. 32) By these the mayor
and bailiffs were ordered to place at the disposal of the
Chancellor the king's jail for the detention of clerks;
to be content with a fair rent of houses occupied by
scholars, and to accept the assessments of a joint board
of two masters and two burgesses (in the 1214 ordinance the number was doubled); and the sheriff was
ordered to take action at the request of the Chancellor
against rebellious clerks and malefactors, and to make
proclamation that no clerks remain in the town unless
under the charge of a master (Magister scolarum). A
serious affray broke out in 1236 which demanded
royal intervention, (fn. 33) and in 1238 the University found
itself seriously compromised by some students who had
been provoked to make an attack on the retinue of a
papal legate. The riot was so serious that the legate was
compelled to take refuge in the tower of Oseney Abbey,
whence he was rescued by soldiers sent by the King,
who was then at Abingdon. The University was thereupon placed under an interdict by the legate. Some of
the culprits were arrested and imprisoned at Oxford,
Wallingford, and London: others had already made
their escape and had dispersed to various towns. By
the united efforts of Grosseteste and other bishops
peace was restored. The offenders were pardoned after
having done penance, and the interdict on Oxford was
removed. Most of the students returned, but some
appear to have remained at Northampton and others
at Salisbury. (fn. 34)
No better appointment, from the University's point
of view, could have been made than Grosseteste's
elevation to the bishopric of Lincoln in 1235. (fn. 35) His
interest in the University took a very practical turn in
1240. At that time the only fund which the University
possessed consisted of the annual sum of fifty-two
shillings, paid under the settlement of 1214. As no
ordinance had been made for the safe keeping and
distribution of the money Grosseteste drew up regulations under three heads. These provided that the
money, together with any benefactions which might
be received, should be placed in a chest to be kept at
St. Frideswide's and to be in the charge of a canon of
that house and of two persons elected by the University.
Loans under pledge were to be made to such poor
scholars as did not hold a benefice worth more than
10 marks: if pledges were not redeemed within a year
they might be sold and any surplus handed to the
borrower, the Chancellor being sole arbitrator in any
disputes. Every year accounts were to be submitted by
the custodians to specially appointed auditors. (fn. 36) Three
years after this ordinance had been issued the University received its first voluntary benefaction consisting
of 8 marks a year from the estate of Alan Basset,
paid by Bicester Priory to two scholars at Oxford to be
selected by his heirs, who should pray for himself and
his wife; it appears that Grosseteste himself was
actually responsible for the allocation of the money to
scholastic uses. (fn. 37)
In the numerous disputes between the town and the
University the former body is almost invariably represented as the aggressor, but a disturbance in 1244 was
the result of robberies by scholars from the Jews. The
scholars responsible were arrested and imprisoned by
the bailiffs, but on the intervention of Grosseteste the
king ordered them to be delivered to the Abbot of
Oseney, the Prior of St. Frideswide's, and the official
of the archdeacon, thus following strictly the terms of
the 1214 ordinance. (fn. 38) In May 1248 the king conceded
that if any injury were done to a scholar an inquisition
should be held by a jury composed partly of townsmen
and partly of men from the neighbourhood; that if a
scholar were murdered or injured the townsmen should
be punished and fined, the bailiffs being also punished
if found to have been negligent; that Jews were not
to exact for the loan of a pound interest at a higher rate
than twopence a week; that when the mayor and
bailiffs took the oath to preserve the liberties and
customs of the University the Chancellor or his deputy
should be invited to attend; that burgesses should be
responsible for physical injuries done to clerks by
members of their household; and that the Chancellor
and proctors should be informed of the taking of the
assize of bread and ale so that they might be present if
they pleased. (fn. 39) The punishment of clerks by the town
authorities was again a vital question in 1251 when the
Chancellor, as deputy of the bishop, was given the right
of punishing clerks for crimes, except atrocia crimina,
the chief of which were manslaughter and murder:
these demanded deposition or deprivation, penalties
which could be inflicted by the diocesan only. (fn. 40) In
1252 and again in 1254 the king delivered offending
clerks of this kind to the judgement of the Chancellor. (fn. 41)
The second benefaction which the University received was from the executors of William of Durham,
who died in 1249 and gave the sum of 310 marks for
the support of about twelve masters who were to study
Theology. A portion of this money was invested in
tenements and the remainder lent to scholars upon
security. At this period of its development the University had neither the experience nor the organization to
deal with such benefactions. Much of the money had
been lost by 1280 partly owing to loans not having
been repaid and partly to the University having itself
borrowed money. Certain sums had also been used for
political purposes. It was then resolved that from the
proceeds of the remaining property four masters, who
were Masters of Arts, should receive grants to enable
them to proceed to the doctorate of Divinity, and that
a Hall should be provided in which they might live. (fn. 42)
In 1292 and in 1311 the University drew up statutes
for the masters, and the community developed on
collegiate lines until it gradually became a self-governing
body having no dependence on the University. (fn. 43)
It has already been mentioned that the organization
of the University of Oxford was based on that of Paris,
the mother of European universities. Nowhere is this
better shown than in the division of students into
'nations'. At Paris there were four; (fn. 44) at Oxford there
were only two, the Northern (Boreales) and the
Southern (Australes), the former being the English
north of the Trent and the Scots; the latter the English
south of the Trent, the Welsh, and Irish. (fn. 45) The
'nations' at Oxford first came into prominence in 1252
when after a serious fight between the Northerners and
Irish a treaty of peace was arranged by the representatives of the two parties. (fn. 46) The oath taken by the
signatories on this occasion remained the standard oath
pro pace conservanda until the year 1864. On the
occasion of another outbreak in 1267 it was ordered
that in future representatives of both parties should be
elected as arbitrators and the parties bound in a sum
of £30 to keep the peace. (fn. 47) Seven years later
there was a serious fight in which no fewer than fifty
men were charged with homicide. Mediators and
arbitrators were appointed, and it was agreed that if any
one was suspected of disturbing the peace he should
find sureties, and that a general oath to keep the peace
should be taken both by senior and junior members of
the University. The terms of peace ended with the
command that no faction should be formed or named
in the University which henceforth should be unum
collegium et unum corpus, (fn. 48) a counsel of perfection in a
society which was composed of men brought together
from more than one country, who, although professing
one faith, had their own racial prejudices.
The terms of peace drawn up in 1252 were promulgated in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in full
Congregation (in plena congregatione) and that of 1274
'de pleno consensu omnium magistrorum regencium et
non regencium, dominorum et bachelariorum, maiorum
et minorum Universitatis'. The former is the earliest
reference to the Great Congregation, or, as it was called
later, Convocation, the chief legislative body of the
University. In its first years the University had no code
of statutes. Its procedure was based on custom which
could only have had its origin in the University of
Paris. Grosseteste insisted, for instance, on the necessity of conforming to the regulations of the regent
theologists at Paris, (fn. 49) and in 1246 received from the
Pope a verdict that no one should teach in any faculty
unless he had been examined secundum morem Parisiensem either by himself or his deputy. (fn. 50) The statutes
which are earliest in date are really proclamations
issued in the name of the Chancellor, and references to
customs precede those to statutes. (fn. 51) There is some
reason to believe that as late as 1253 there was no
written code of statutes to which appeal might be
made. (fn. 52) When statutes were first promulgated there
is no doubt that they were put forward by the whole
body of masters, regents and non-regents. The regents
were those masters and doctors, Masters of Arts being
largely predominant, who were engaged in teaching.
Some of them were 'necessary regents' who were
required to give lectures for two years after their
degrees; but the majority were regents ad voluntatem,
who as Principals of Halls made a living by teaching.
The non-regents were those who were proceeding to a
higher degree or had retired from active teaching. The
regents formed a separate body called the Congregatio
regentium.
The first recorded statute is one promulgated in 1253
requiring that those who wished to take the degree of
Doctor of Divinity must first have taken the Arts course
and obtained the degree of Master of Arts. (fn. 53) At
Oxford the approach to the higher degrees was
through the Liberal Arts. The religious orders were,
however, debarred by their regulations from following
secular studies. The statute had its origin in a petition
presented to the University requesting that a friar,
Thomas of York, should be allowed to incept as a D.D.
although he had not 'ruled' in Arts. A commission of
seven was appointed and recommended that Thomas
be allowed to incept, but that henceforth no one should
incept in Theology who had not previously incepted in
Arts, lectured on a book of the Bible or on the Sentences,
and publicly preached in the University; the right of
granting dispensations being reserved to the Chancellor
and masters. The decision of the commission was given
the force of a statute. (fn. 54)
The accession of Henry of Lexington as diocesan in
1254 was marked by a significant grant of privileges
by Innocent IV, who, in 1254, took the masters and
scholars with their property under his protection;
confirmed their liberties, customs, and constitutions;
and also granted that for five years they should not be
summoned outside Oxford by papal and legatine
letters for contracts undertaken within the town. The
Bishops of London and Salisbury were appointed conservators of the rights, liberties, and immunities of the
University. (fn. 55) In March 1257 a deputation was sent
to the king to lodge a complaint against the bishop who
was attempting, against the ancient and approved
statutes of the University, to subvert the liberties of the
scholars, but the nature of the dispute is nowhere
recorded. The point at issue seems to have been the
right of the Chancellor to assent to statutes without
reference to the bishop whose representative he was.
The only action taken by Henry of Lexington was to
enter his protest through the Archdeacon of Derby. (fn. 56)
Peace, one of the chief essentials of the early
University, was strengthened in June 1255 when the
king increased the number of the town officials concerned with that matter. Four aldermen and eight
influential burgesses were to take oath of fealty to the
king and to assist the mayor and bailiffs in the keeping of the peace and of the assize. In every parish
there were to be two persons chosen to inquire every
fortnight about suspicious characters frequenting the
town; retailers were ordered not to buy victuals in the
market before 9 a.m., a regulation designed to give
scholars an opportunity of buying first; a layman
seriously in juring a scholar was to be imprisoned in the
Castle until he had given satisfaction according to the
judgement of the Chancellor and the University; and a
scholar doing similar injury to a layman was likewise
to be imprisoned in the Castle until the Chancellor
demanded him. Regulations against dishonest bakers
and brewers were strengthened, and it was ordained
that the assize of bread and ale should be held twice a
year, and that the Chancellor or his deputies should be
present. (fn. 57)
During the first fifty years of the University's
corporate existence the scholars had no visible bond of
union in the way of buildings. Academic exercises took
place in schools (i.e. lecture rooms) (fn. 58) which for the
most part were religious property, and the more solemn
functions in the parish church of St. Mary the Virgin.
The scholars, all potentially migratory and many
actually so, found accommodation in hospitia belonging
to townsmen and the religious houses. It appears
that, even before the legatine ordinance of 1214, the
rents to be charged were controlled by taxors (i.e.
assessors) appointed for a stated period. Generally
speaking these hospitia were rented by masters who
provided teaching and shelter for their lodgers; they
also provided a dining-room and a kitchen, but the
students made their own arrangements with the
manciple about their food. These principals of halls
were gradually brought under University control and
were held responsible for the conduct of scholars in
their charge. One matter which proved a source of
trouble was that of assessment. For its better regulation
a royal writ issued in May 1231 reduced the number
of the taxors from eight to four, (fn. 59) and in 1256 another
writ reduced the intervals between reassessment from
ten to five years. (fn. 60) A further stage was reached in
1269, when not only houses occupied by scholars but
rooms were brought under the same regulations. (fn. 61)
The foundation which has some claim to be considered the first Oxford college dates its inception from
about 1260, when Sir John de Balliol undertook to
maintain a certain number of scholars at Oxford in
perpetuity. When he died in 1269 the charge was
undertaken by his widow, Dervorguilla, who, in 1282,
provided endowment and gave the scholars corporate
status. The Society was developed as a community of
young students proceeding to the degree of M.A.,
working under the direction of a principal elected by
themselves, and governed by two external proctors. (fn. 62)
Between Oct. 1262 and Sept. 1264 Walterde Merton,
Chancellor of England, made over his estate at Maldon, Surrey, to a community of scholars. In a brief
code of statutes drawn up in 1264 provision was
made for twenty scholars residing 'in scolis Oxon. vel
alibi ubi studium vigere contigerit'. By 1270 the
community was definitely settled at Oxford and in
1274 a final code of statutes was promulgated. (fn. 63)
The geographical position of Oxford which made
it so convenient a place of assembly had occasional
disadvantages. During the troubled reign of Henry III
the scholars experienced some of the inconvenience
arising from political activities. In 1261 the king had
permitted schools to be founded at Northampton and
sent a writ to the mayor and bailiff of that town bidding
them receive scholars hospitably. (fn. 64) Although several
Cambridge students accepted the invitation it is unlikely that many went from Oxford. Shortly afterwards
the invitation proved opportune. The passage of
Prince Edward near Oxford in 1264 had led to a
serious affray between citizens and scholars. (fn. 65) This
event and an order to the scholars in 1263 to retire
from Oxford, as the king proposed to assemble there
his armed forces, (fn. 66) led to a general secession with the
result that when the king besieged Northampton he
found the Barons' party usefully reinforced by a band
of young Oxford scholars who fought very gallantly
with slings and arrows. The king's first intention was
to hang them all, but on its being represented to him
that many of the scholars were the sons of nobles he
decided to forgo vengeance. (fn. 67) When peace was concluded with the Barons the Oxonians were ordered to
return. (fn. 68)
The authority of the Chancellor of the University
was materially strengthened in 1260 by the confirmation of his jurisdiction over Jews, who at Oxford formed
a powerful community accountable to no authority save
that of the king whose chattels they were. As the Jews
were the principal money-lenders many disputes with
scholars about the rate of interest and contracts must
have come before the Chancellor for settlement. The
Chancellor's right to exercise jurisdiction in this connexion was questioned by the Constable of the Castle.
A commission appointed to inquire into the matter
reported that all jurisdiction concerning disputes and
contracts between scholars and Jews pertained to the
Chancellor without prejudice to the royal prerogative,
as the Chancellor derived no pecuniary benefit from a
jurisdiction which he exercised solely in the cause of
peace. (fn. 69) The Jews nevertheless still enjoyed royal
favour which was sufficient eight years later to protect
them from vengeance when a member of that race
insulted the cross which was being carried in a solemn
procession of scholars, priests, and citizens. The only
penalty imposed on the Jews by the king was the
building of a marble cross and the provision of a
processional one. (fn. 70)
It was not until 1277 that the University was subjected to ecclesiastical visitation. In that year Robert
Kilwardby, Archbishop of Canterbury, visited the
University and made inquiry about certain errors in
grammar, logic, and natural philosophy which were
held by the Oxford Dominicans. These were condemned by the archbishop with the consent of the
regents and non-regents. Masters who continued to
teach and maintain them were to suffer deposition,
and bachelors were to be expelled from the University. (fn. 71) The condemnation had special significance as
Kilwardby had once been provincial prior of the
Dominicans, and it received further authority when
Archbishop Peckham, who was a Franciscan, confirmed
it in 1284. (fn. 72) Peckham also confirmed the privileges
of the University in 1279 and granted that the sentence
of excommunication issued by the Chancellor, his
deputies, or by the Chancellor and the University
(either the regents alone or the regents and non
regents) should be effective throughout the southern
province and also that the benefices of clerks convicted of disturbing the peace should be sequestered
for three years; unbeneficed clergy were liable to be
deemed incapable of institution for five years. (fn. 73)
Oliver Sutton, who was appointed to the see of Lincoln
in 1280, proved himself a sharp critic of University
procedure and aspirations. He called in question the
University's right to certain customs (consuetudines)
which it alleged had been enjoyed a tempore quo non
extat memoria. The customs in dispute were that a
scholar might cite a defendant, if found within the
liberties of the University, before the Chancellor; that
the Chancellor had the right of granting probate of
wills of scholars dying in the University; that regent
masters might hold inquisitions concerning crimes of
masters and scholars by juries of scholars, rectors, priests,
and laymen; and that no master could be cited outside
the University for contracts entered into either within
or without the University. (fn. 74)
The dispute was continued in the following year
(1281) when Sutton cited the Chancellor and proctors
to appear before him to answer charges of injury to and
contempt of his office in the matter of visitation and of
correcting misdemeanours committed by masters and
scholars. The Chancellor, proctors, and other representatives of the University asserted that the right (jus
visitandi et corrigendi magistros et scolares) was part of
what was conferred on the Chancellor at the time of his
admission (prefeccio) and had been approved by long
custom. They asked that the correction of offences
should come to the bishop only if there was an appeal
made to him against the action of the Chancellor. The
Archbishop of Canterbury with other bishops brought
the parties to terms which allowed the Chancellor, (fn. 75)
when an episcopal visitation was held at Oxford, to have
the correction of offences as the bishop's representative,
with the condition that he should inform the bishop
what penalties he had inflicted. The dispute broke out
again in 1284 at the next visitation of the archdeaconry,
when the Archbishop of Canterbury addressed a letter
to Sutton requesting him not to molest the University
in the matter of the Chancellor's jurisdiction; although
jus commune was on his side, yet the University could
plead consuetudo. (fn. 76)
The chief dispute with Oliver Sutton was, however,
concerned with the confirmation of the Chancellor of
the University, a cause of contention which continued
with successive bishops of Lincoln for eighty years.
The points at issue were whether the Chancellor was
elected or merely nominated by the University, and
whether he was bound to come in person to the bishop
or need only send deputies. The bishop held that, as
he was asked to confirm, the University could only
nominate, and that it was necessary for the Chancellor
to come in person as he was unwilling to give a commission, which extended to ecclesiastical government,
to an official who was unknown to him. The bishop
had in practice always confirmed, but only as an act of
grace. In 1290 the king intervened in the dispute and a
middle course was followed. It was finally agreed that
if the bishop was sufficiently near Oxford the Chancellor
elect should appear before him: if not, the bishop
should give his commission by proxy de gratia speciali. (fn. 77)
The chief clash between the two authorities came in
1350, when Bishop Gynwell refused to confirm the
election of William de Polmorva. The Archbishop of
Canterbury thereupon ordered him to confirm the
election within six days or to appear before him. (fn. 78)
On the bishop's refusal the archbishop himself confirmed the election (fn. 79) and on meeting with further
opposition the bishop was cited to appear at Canterbury
for contempt and the town of Banbury, where the bishop
had a chapel, was placed under interdict. (fn. 80) In 1367 a
bull of Urban V granted that any one lawfully elected to
the chancellorship should be deemed confirmed and
should need no further confirmation, (fn. 81) but two years
later the bishop maintained that it was nevertheless
necessary for the Chancellor to obtain a commission to
exercise spiritual powers. (fn. 82) This again was rendered
inoperative by a bull dated 10 Feb. 1370, when the
Pope's indult was extended to a grant of commission as
well as to one of confirmation. (fn. 83)
At the end of the 13th century the University
consolidated its position by two notable successes over
the municipal authorities. The University had been
drawn into a lengthy dispute with Robert de Welles,
bailiff of the North Gate Hundred, concerning jurisdiction in that area. This suburb was practically the
parish of St. Mary Magdalen and included Balliol
College and academic halls in Broad Street. The
University's case was that it had from early times
possessed the jurisdiction in causes between scholars
and laics in the suburb. Robert de Welles, however,
had cited masters to appear in the king's leet (in curia
privata), had imprisoned a bedel, and had generally
organized resistance to the Chancellor. On being
excommunicated he cited the Chancellor's deputy, the
proctors, and other members of the University to
appear before the King's Bench in 1288. The University appealed to the King in Council, who confirmed
it in its liberties and removed Robert de Welles from
office. (fn. 84)
The University had as yet little property of its own.
It possessed a few houses, including Canon School,
which was let on lease. (fn. 85) It had also the money in
the St. Frideswide's Chest. In 1293 Ela, Countess
of Warwick, gave the University 120 marks to be
deposited in a chest which should be under the charge
of two masters. Grants were to be made to poor
scholars on sufficient security as laid down in the
regulations for St. Frideswide's Chest. (fn. 86) In the following year the University received under the will of
Reginald le Bedel a tenement worth 40s. for the
community of poor scholars. This tenement was
finally sold in 1452 and became part of St. Mary Hall. (fn. 87)
The end of the 13th century is also signalized by
the advent of the monastic orders. About 1280 the
Cistercians founded an abbey at Rewley as a studium
for the scholars of that order. (fn. 88) Their action had been
anticipated by the Benedictines, who in 1277 decided
to levy a tax on all their communities in the province of
Canterbury to provide a habitation where the brethren
of the order might live when engaged in study. This
project did not materialize until 1283, when Sir John
Giffard founded in the north suburb of Oxford a small
priory as a cell of St. Peter's, Gloucester, which a few
years later became the locus communis for all Benedictine monks of the southern province. In 1298–9 this site
was conveyed to the abbey of Malmesbury, but monks
were admitted from other houses and were given equal
rights, the priory being maintained by funds supplied
by the general Benedictine Chapter. (fn. 89)
For over eighty years the University had continued
to live in amity with the friars. The action taken by the
University in 1253 had left their general relations
undisturbed. The friars still received graces to proceed
to theological degrees without having taken the Arts
course. But the Dominicans were unwilling to continue
to seek de gratia what they doubtless thought they
should have by right. They were concerned with
Bible teaching only, and the approach to Theology
through Arts and Philosophy was not only unnecessary
but was against the rules of their Order. So too, in the
opinion of the Franciscans, was learning itself, but the
training, the opportunities it offered for enlisting
recruits, and the dignity which was attached to degrees,
were a sufficient inducement to persuade them to
ignore the stricter demands of their founder. On the
University's part there was probably a feeling of
jealousy. The friars had a firm hold over the affections
of the people and considerable influence over young
scholars. They also possessed buildings very suitable for
scholastic exercises, and being static they gave no
support to the University when, in self-defence,
it threatened to betake itself elsewhere. The
dispute, however, had a wider aspect and was but a
preliminary step in the general conflict between the
mendicant orders and the secular clergy. The first
move by the University was to release itself from
obligations to the friars, and in so doing it robbed the
friars of their valued privilege of providing a dignified
setting for certain University ceremonies. In 1303 the
University decided that the examinatory sermons of
bachelors of Theology should be preached in future not
at the Dominican and Franciscan convents, but at the
church of St. Mary, and a few years later the University
also transferred to St. Mary's the theological Vespers,
one of the most important ceremonies at Inception.
It was further ordained that no one should lecture on
the Bible until he had taken the degree of B.D., which
required lectures on the Sentences of Peter Lombard,
a difficult subject for many friars. About the year
1303 the University had decreed that any statute
carried by the regents of two faculties together with a
majority of the non-regents should be binding, and it
was alleged by the friars that two of the statutes of
which they complained were carried by the faculty of
Arts, a solitary regent Doctor of Medicine, and a
majority of the non-regents, the principal faculties of
Theology, Canon and Civil Law being thus overwhelmed by the lesser faculties of Arts and Medicine.
The friars also revived their old grievance about the
statute of 1253. The case against the University was
presented to the Papal Court by the friars in 1311.
The University immediately took counter-action.
Masters refused to perform academical exercises with
friars, and tried to prevent their association with
scholars and the laity. The University had also
prevailed on the Archbishop of Canterbury to excommunicate them. The chief concession which the friars
asked of the Pope was that the privilege accorded to
their Order by the University of Paris, which was
secured by the bull Quasi lignum vitæ, might equally
obtain at Oxford, this privilege being that a theological
degree might be conferred after examination by the
Chancellor himself without reference to the faculty. (fn. 90)
The cause of the friars was actively espoused by the
King, who addressed several writs to the Chancellor on
their behalf, in one of which he refers to an attack
by scholars on the houses and church of the Friar
Preachers. (fn. 91) In another he intimated the examination
of the offending statutes, a statement which he explained later had been wrongly taken by the University
to mean that he intended to annul their statutes and
privileges. (fn. 92) The king also sent letters to the pope
and officials of the Papal Court, and later in 1318
went so far as to order the Chancellor to desist from
exercising authority over the Friar Preachers since they
were exempt from secular jurisdiction not only by
reason of their Order, but by apostolic privilege. (fn. 93) The
award, which was given in 1313, was in the main a
victory for the University, and so far satisfied the claims
of the friars as to ordain that every B.D. should preach
one sermon in the Dominican Convent; that masters
should swear that they would not refuse graces out of
malice; that in assembly voting a majority should
consist of three faculties, of which Arts must be one,
and the non-regents; and that due notice must be
given of the promulgation of statutes. (fn. 94) This award
was confirmed by the king in 1314. (fn. 95) It was not,
however, until 1320 that the parties came to a final
agreement, (fn. 96) and it was presumably on this occasion
that the University wrote to the Bishop of Carlisle
that the Friar Preachers in full congregation, having
asked for pardon on their knees, were restored to grace
and favour. (fn. 97) To meet the heavy expenses incurred by
the University, all abbots, priors, rectors, and vicars
were urged to make some gratuitous contribution. (fn. 98)
The beginning of the struggle with the Friar
Preachers was contemporaneous with a display of great
activity on the part of the University in proceedings
against the town. The year 1305 is, for instance,
particularly noteworthy for the number of University
petitions to the Crown. These had reference to the
sale of victuals by strangers; the provision for a
separate prison for women; the closing of posterns into
the suburbs against men of ill fame; the limitation of
regrators; the punishment of delinquent bakers and
brewers; the prompt arrest of malefactors; the excessive
toll exacted by millers; the granting of a general power
of attorney to the University; the arrest of prostitutes
frequenting the town but living outside; and the
injurious effects to health due to the working of skins
and parchments within the walls. The corresponding
writs to all these petitions except the last two are still
extant. (fn. 99) In 1318 the king addressed to the Chancellor
and the University an important prohibition by which
the Chancellor was debarred from having cognizance
of cases between two laymen when one party had
transferred his action to a clerk. (fn. 100)
A long and troublesome dispute arose in 1325 with
Gaillard de la Mote, an absentee Archdeacon of
Oxford. The archdeacon alleged that the University
had usurped his jurisdiction in granting probate of wills
and punishing clerks found guilty of immorality, and
made an attempt to cite representatives of the University in the Papal Court. The king at various times
interceded on the University's behalf with the Pope,
the archdeacon, and various cardinals. In 1330 the
University drew up a basis of agreement, but it was
not until 1346 that a final agreement was reached.
This gave to the Chancellor archidiaconal jurisdiction
over all doctors, masters, scholars; over rectors, vicars,
and chaplains within the University unless they held
cures in Oxford; and over the servants of masters and
scholars, the bedels, the stationers, and scribes, but the
testamentary instruments of the last named were to
remain with the archdeacon. (fn. 101)
The Chronicles speak of an affray between scholars
and masters in 1327 ending with the deposition of the
Chancellor; but no corroboration of this story can be
found, and no Chancellor is known to have been deposed in this year. (fn. 102)
A hopeful augury for the future was the building
about 1320 of a Congregation House with a library
above by Thomas Cobham, Bishop of Worcester. (fn. 103) The
supervision of the building, which proceeded very
slowly, was placed in the hands of Adam de Brome,
founder of Oriel College. When the bishop died in
1327 he bequeathed to the University the sum of 350
marks and a collection of manuscripts. Unfortunately
he died so heavily in debt that some of the manuscripts
had to be pawned to pay the funeral expenses. Adam
de Brome himself completed the building, and having
redeemed the manuscripts for £50 placed them in his
newly founded College of Oriel. The manuscripts were
restored by force in 1337, but a dispute between the
University and Oriel College continued for over
seventy years. (fn. 104) In 1410 Archbishop Arundel compensated Oriel, and two years later an elaborate code
of rules for the management of the library was drawn
up. (fn. 105) The Congregation House below seems to have
been used from the completion of the building, and
continued to serve as an assembly house until the
beginning of the 17th century.
The town and the University were busily engaged in
disputes about the assize of bread, ale, weights and
measures in 1327 and the following year. (fn. 106) A querulous
petition was sent to the king by the burgesses complaining that the Chancellor demanded bonds to an
exorbitant amount, that he would not allow the arrest
of clerks after hue and cry had been raised, that he put
difficulties in the way of the bailiffs when they collected
felons' goods due to the king, and so forth. (fn. 107) In the course
of these disputes, to which the crown could not pay
attention until 1328, both the town and the University
were ordered to attend the king and council at York
and to produce their charters and other muniments. (fn. 108)
By October 1328 the disputes seem to have reduced
themselves to the assize of bread and ale and to the
assize of weights and measures. On October 25 the
king granted (during pleasure) to the Chancellor and
the mayor jointly the custody of the assize of bread and
ale and of the weights belonging thereto, and to the
Chancellor, along with the aldermen, the survey of
the assize of measures. (fn. 109)
In 1334 a serious quarrel broke out between the
northern and the southern scholars with which the
Chancellor tried to cope by committing the chief
offenders to the Castle prison, a course which drew a
protest from the sheriff of Oxford, the Keeper of the
Castle. (fn. 110) Proclamations in the king's name were read
forbidding the importation into the town of arms and
armour and the holding of unlawful assemblies. (fn. 111) The
result of these disturbances was that some of the
northern clerks migrated to Stamford, there to pursue
their studies in peace, as they said. In August a royal
writ was directed to the sheriff of Lincoln to cause
proclamation to be made in Stamford that none should
presume to study elsewhere than in the king's universities. (fn. 112) As this had little or no effect similar orders
were given in March and again in June 1335. (fn. 113) In an
inquisition dated 26 July 1335 is a list of those persons
who had remained at Stamford after the king's
proclamation. (fn. 114) The first name on the list is that of
William de Barneby, who seems to have been the chief
offender since the Chancellor addressed letters to the
Chancellor of Cambridge in 1337 asking him not to
allow Barneby to incept there inasmuch as he had
stirred up strife at Oxford and had induced students to
migrate to Stamford. (fn. 115) At that date the danger had
passed, but it had been so serious to the University
that a special oath was administered henceforth to all
inceptors binding them not to lecture at Stamford, an
oath which continued to be taken by every M.A. until
the year 1827.
An important inspeximus and confirmation of privileges, with additions, was granted by the king in a
charter dated 12 April 1336. The additions included
clauses by which the 'taxation' of scholars' houses in the
town was extended to the suburbs; persons bringing
woollen and linen cloths into the town for sale were to
be allowed to sell by piece and not only by whole
lengths; and further the Chancellor was to be protected
against writs of oyer and terminer or of false imprisonment with respect to the imprisonment of scholars or
others. (fn. 116) In 1339 these privileges were supplemented
by prohibiting the slaughtering of great beasts within
the walls, (fn. 117) and granting the Chancellor the power of
holding the assize of ale by himself if the mayor should
make default. (fn. 118) Certain other disputes were settled by
common agreement in 1348: scholars and laics accused
of disturbing the peace were not to be bound by other
guarantees if they could produce two laymen to be
sureties for them; laymen, except in certain reserved
cases, might proceed in the Chancellor's court by
deputy; and no 'cession of an action' might be given
or sold to clerks or laymen. (fn. 119)
In 1349 came something much more disturbing
than internal and civic strife—the Black Death. It is
hardly possible that Oxford fared any better than the
rest of the country, but there are, strangely enough, no
definite references to the mortality at Oxford due to the
plague. The nearest approach is a statement made in
1363 by Simon Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury, who
refers to the loss in all branches of learning of learned and
expert men, owing to epidemics, adding that at that time
there were very few left to pursue the study of letters. (fn. 120)
A steady increase of benefactions in the form of
establishments of chests came to the University from
the time when the Countess of Warwick founded her
chest in 1293. In 1306 the executors of John de Pontyssera, Bishop of Winchester, gave 200 marks under
conditions similar to those of the existing chests. Only
poor scholars were to be beneficiaries; a regent master
might borrow up to 40s., a non-regent master up to
2½ marks, a bachelor up to 2 marks, and a sophist up to
1 mark. (fn. 121) The executors of Henry de Guildford gave
£100 in 1314, the limits for the respective classes
being in this case, 30s. for a regent, 20s. for a nonregent, I mark for a bachelor, and ½ mark for a sophist. (fn. 122)
Gilbert de Routhbury bequeathed 250 marks in 1321.
In 1336 Philip de Turvyle, Canon of Lichfield, endowed another chest with 100 marks with limits similar
to those of the Winchester chest; there were to be three
guardians of whom one was to be a southerner and
another a northerner. (fn. 123) In the following year John de
Langton, Bishop of Chichester, gave £100 to found a
chest which differed from the earlier chests in that loans
from it were permitted to others than poor scholars.
The regulations, which were approved by the founder,
provided for loans to the wardens of Merton and
similar Halls up to 60s.; to masters, 40s.; to bachelors,
2 marks; to scholars, 1 mark. The keepers were to be
three masters, one northern, another southern, and the
third a non-regent. (fn. 124) It was the rule with these chests
that when money was borrowed some article, generally
a book, was left as 'caution' for the amount. If the sum
was not repaid at the end of a year, the book was sold
and the original sum returned to the chest; the
remainder, if any, belonged to the owner.
The reputation of Oxford stood high among universities of Europe in the 14th century. By that time it had
produced Roger Bacon, the father of the experimental
method; Duns Scotus, the most formidable rival of
Thomas Aquinas; Walter Burley, who was still studied
in the Schools in the reign of Henry VIII; and William
of Ockham, the 'Invincible Doctor', who brought about
the final separation of Philosophy from Theology. (fn. 125)
In national affairs, too, the influence of Oxford was
becoming felt. Academic disputation ranged over a
large number of human (and divine) activities. This
training in mental dexterity exercised on every branch
of learning and on many matters of current interest
had produced by the end of the 13th century a class of
politically minded ecclesiastics who by degrees became
a national force and on occasions were collectively
powerful enough to resist the royal authority. (fn. 126) Moreover, in the 14th century the constitution of the
University assumed definite form. The victory over the
friars brought increase of power and confidence, and
about this time the University's privileges and statutes
were first put on permanent record. The Liber
Cancellarii (Registrum A) contains this earliest attempt
at registration and codification: its date may be as early
as the first quarter of the 14th century. (fn. 127) It will therefore be convenient to give here a brief account of the
constitution and administration of the University as it
had developed by 1350.
The Chancellor, who was either a Doctor of
Divinity or a Doctor of Canon Law, was elected by the
regents and confirmed in his office by the Bishop of
Lincoln. (fn. 128) He was the chief officer of the University;
presided over both assemblies of the University, namely
Convocation and Congregation, and conferred the
licence on bachelors and inceptors. He had wide
judicial powers and had sole archidiaconal jurisdiction
over certain classes of persons. He punished offenders
by excommunication, imprisonment, expulsion, suspension, loss of privilege, and fines. In 1322 the Chancellor
was holding office for two years, but in the earlier
period he probably held office for a short indefinite
term of years. His commission could be recalled by
the Bishop of Lincoln and he himself could be removed
from office by Convocation and the proctors. He
exercised jurisdiction over all members of the University, that is, over doctors, masters, scholars, and
privileged persons; and had cognizance of cases in
which one party was a scholar. (fn. 129) Many of his duties
were undertaken by a deputy appointed by himself
and known as his Commissary: (fn. 130) his minor judicial
duties were undertaken by hebdomadarii who were
bachelors of Canon and Civil Law, but were not
competent to try cases in which the parties were
regents. Appeal could be made from the hebdomadarii
to the Chancellor, from the Chancellor to the regents,
and from the regents (Congregatio) to the regents and
non-regents (Convocatio). (fn. 131)
The proctors, who are first mentioned in a grant of
1248, represented the northern and southern 'nations'.
Elected by the regents and holding office for one year,
they were peculiarly the representatives of the faculty
of Arts, were entrusted with much public business, and
were responsible for the good order of the University
both as regards studies and conduct. They summoned
Congregation and pronounced graces there. (fn. 132) The
servants (ministri) of the University included the six
bedels, who were responsible for routine duties chiefly
at inceptions, funerals, and other ceremonies; and the
four stationers who, in addition to being booksellers,
were entrusted with the care of exemplaria and the
valuation of pledges deposited in the various chests. (fn. 133)
The principal University assembly was the Congregatio plena (Convocation), which consisted of the
regents and non-regents of all faculties. The chief
function of Convocation was to enact, repeal, and
amend statutes. The lesser assembly, the Congregatio
regentium (Congregatio minor) or simply Congregatio,
which naturally was composed of the younger men,
legislated on minor matters and dealt with the more
formal business of the University such as elections,
granting of graces, studies, and other administrative
matters. There was also a rather undefined body called
the Congregatio artistarum (Congregatio nigra—the
Black Congregation) which claimed the right of deliberating on measures to be brought before Convocation. In all these assemblies the Faculty of Arts was
dominant, and the faculty claimed that its consent was
necessary in all matters brought before the two
assemblies. The voting in assemblies was by faculties,
the non-regents forming a separate body. (fn. 134)
The academic body consisted of the faculties of Arts,
Medicine, Civil Law, Canon Law, and Theology, of
which the largest and the most influential was the
faculty of Arts. The study of Arts comprised grammar,
rhetoric and logic, arithmetic, music, geometry, and
astronomy. The authors studied were Aristotle,
Boethius (Ars metrica and the Topica), Priscian, Euclid,
Donatus, Joannes de Sacro Bosco, together with the
Computus ecclesiasticus and the Algorismus integrorum.
Every student of the faculty had to be on the roll of a
regent master from whom he heard ordinary lectures.
After having spent about four years in attending lectures
and disputations he could then become a candidate for
determination (i.e. for the Bachelor of Arts degree). If
his supplicatio was approved he received licence from the
Chancellor to lecture on any book of the faculty of
Arts. A further series of disputations was then gone
through. Between determination and inception (i.e.
the Master of Arts degree) at least three years had to
elapse, during which time the bachelor studied and
disputed in philosophy. The candidate for the degree
of M.A. then supplicated, and if approved was presented by a regent master and received licence from
the Chancellor to lecture, dispute, and perform all that
which pertained to the status of a master in the faculty.
Further disputations followed at a ceremony called
Vesperiae (vespers) and again on the day of his inception.
After inception a master had to dispute again and
continue his lectures as a regent master for at least two
years, after which he might remain a regent 'at will',
teaching for pay. When he ceased to lecture he became
a non-regent. Many Masters of Arts after regency
proceeded to one of the higher faculties. (fn. 135) Procedure
in the other faculties was similar to that of Arts. The
faculty of Medicine was small but not unimportant. Six
years had to be spent in the study of medicine before
inception. The prescribed authors were Galen, Hippocrates, Issac (Liber febrium), and Nicholas (Antidotarium). (fn. 136) Similar periods were required for those
proceeding to degrees in Canon and in Civil Law. (fn. 137)
In the faculty of Theology seven or eight years
spent in the study of the Bible and the Liber Sententiarum of Petrus Lombardus were necessary before the
degree of B.D. could be taken, and two more years for
the degree of D.D. (fn. 138) One of the chief duties of
graduates of the faculty was to preach sermons by
which scholars could at the same time be instructed in
doctrine and directed towards the virtuous life. In
order to make these sermons more easily memorized
the headings of the various divisions were cast in
rhythmic form. The importance of preaching is often
emphasized in the statutes, and is perhaps the only
academical activity which has remained more or less
unchanged and unimpaired to the present day. (fn. 139)
The period at which the University had reached its
full constitutional development is also notable for one of
the most tragic chapters in its history. On the feast of
St. Scholastica (10 Feb.) 1355 a serious riot broke out
between the town and the University which led to a
general arming on both sides. (fn. 140) The townsmen asserted
that the scholars armed with shields and swords fought
in battle order, set fire to the town, pillaged, wounded,
and killed. (fn. 141) On the other hand, the scholars alleged
that the townsmen pillaged their halls, killed some of
their number, and mutilated and imprisoned others.
Many fled, some found safety at Merton and in other
Halls. The University appealed to the Bishop of
Lincoln. The town was immediately placed under
interdict, and the king, taking the University under his
protection, appointed a special commission to inquire
into the matter. (fn. 142) Both the University and the town
submitted all their privileges to the king. (fn. 143) On 20 May
the scholars received the royal pardon for any trespasses
committed and the restoration of their former liberties
and privileges. (fn. 144) On 27 June the king granted a new
charter to the University enlarging its privileges. The
assize of bread and ale, the assize and supervision of
weights and measures were committed wholly to the
Chancellor; also the cognizance of forestallers, regrators,
and those who sold unwholesome victuals. To him
also was given the sole authority over the cleansing of
the streets; the punishment of offenders therein; and
the right of assessing the taxes to be paid by the servants
of scholars, scribes, illuminators, and parchment sellers.
All goods which had been taken from scholars during
the riot were to be restored, and it was ordained that
when the sheriff and the under-sheriff were admitted to
office they should swear to protect and defend the
scholars and their privileges. (fn. 145) In July the mayor and
bailiffs were ordered to levy £250 on the town and
suburbs as an indemnity, and to restore all stolen goods.
The restoration of the town's liberties was made on
26 July, with the exception of those mentioned above. (fn. 146)
The interdict was removed in Mar. 1356, (fn. 147) and in May
1357 it was agreed that every year on St. Scholastica's
day the town should celebrate a mass at St. Mary's for
the souls of the slain at which the mayor, bailiffs,
aldermen, and a certain number of burgesses should
attend and each make at the high altar the offering
of one penny. (fn. 148)
In 1356 the position of the University was also improved by an important extension of the Chancellor's
jurisdiction. A dispute had arisen between Richard
d'Amory and the Chancellor respecting liberties and
privileges exercised in the hundred outside the North
Gate. Both parties claimed the assize and assay of bread,
wine, and beer together with its fines and forfeits. The
University in fact claimed privileges similar to those
which it already enjoyed within the town. This perhaps
was the less unreasonable since many of the houses were
inhabited by members of the University. The parties
appeared before the King in Council and it was
decided that the Chancellor should have cognizance of
all cases where the preservation of the peace and offences
against the statutes and privileges of the University were
concerned, as well as cognizance of pleas, where one
party was a scholar or a privileged person, except in
pleas of murder, maim, and freehold: further that he
should have the right to punish all vendors of food
who contravened the University's regulations, and to
compel persons to clear and cleanse the streets and to
repair pavements. Lastly to the Chancellor was given
the assize of bread, wine, and ale with the assize and
assay of weights and measures, but this did not apply
to the sale of wool and false measurement therein.
It was also agreed that the rents of houses of scholars in
the hundred were to be revalued every five years. (fn. 149)
By the middle of the 14th century the University
had finally established its ascendancy over the town. At
the outset there was a very natural tendency on the part
of the citizens to reap as much profit as possible from
the food and lodging supplied to a casual population of
students. Gradually security of tenure of houses and
rooms at equitable rent was established; right of
obtaining food at reasonable prices and of good quality
was secured; the assize of bread and ale had by various
stages come wholly into the Chancellor's hands,
together with the supervision of weights and measures;
the Chancellor was empowered to call upon the town
authorities to maintain order and to take charge of
rebellious clerks in their prison; he could enforce
measures of sanitation; and he had finally obtained the
full right to try all causes (except murder, maim, and
freehold) in which a scholar was a party either as
prosecutor or defendant, as well as those in which a
privileged person was concerned—a large class including the servants of scholars, University servants, and
persons engaged in the book-trade. But beyond all
these privileges and immunities the town was brought
into something like subjection by being compelled to
take an annual oath in October to respect the privileges
and liberties of the University and to do annual
penance on St. Scholastica's day. But, as Dr. Salter
has pointed out, although the University had been
granted large powers, it was not to the injury of the
town:
'When the assize of bread and beer was given to the
University, the town was allowed to deduct from its annual
fee-farm an amount equal to the profits from that assize.
If the Chancellor could inflict fines on those who failed to
repair their portions of the road, he did not keep the fines;
the money was paid over to the town … The control of
the market by the University was to the advantage of all
purchasers, whether clerks or laymen. Even the medieval
power which the Chancellor had of banishing from Oxford
people of vicious life, was easily defensible in the Middle
Ages… and here also the privilege given to the Chancellor
was to the benefit of the University and of the town itself.' (fn. 150)
The injury suffered by the town was the psychological
one of frustration. The unhappy relations of the two
bodies persisted until the middle of the last century.
Three colleges were founded in the first half of the
14th century—Exeter, Oriel, and Queen's. Exeter
College was founded in 1314 by Walter de Stapeldon,
Bishop of Exeter, for the support of twelve scholars
born or resident in Devon or Cornwall. The scholarships were tenable for fourteen years, a term sufficient
to carry the holders to completion of regency. In
addition there was a scholar-chaplain who was to study
Theology or Canon Law. The statutes allowed the
scholars to elect a rector from their own number and to
frame statutes which did not contravene the founder's
ordinance. (fn. 151) In 1324 Adam de Brome founded (and
in 1326 refounded) his college of Oriel consisting of
ten scholars, already B.A.s, elected without preference to
locality, place of birth, or kindred. By the statute of
1326 seven of the fellows were to study Theology, the
rest Canon or Civil Law. (fn. 152) The Queen's College was
founded by Robert de Eglesfield in 1341 with Queen
Philippa as patron. It consisted of a provost and twelve
fellows. Candidates for election must have reached the
degree of M.A., preference being given to natives of
Cumberland and Westmorland and to founder's kin. (fn. 153)
The agreement made with the friars in 1314 was of
no long duration. There are records of disputes in
1357 and 1358 in which the friars are accused of
preaching heresy, attacking individuals, reviling the
University as a school of heretics, and speaking slightingly of the faculty of Arts, which 'inter omnes artes et
scientias est singulariter commendanda, sicut janua
et apertura ad omnes scientias alias'. The University
also fulminated against those who obtained degrees
through influence, such persons being mostly found
among the friars. They were also accused of enticing
young boys to enter their order, an abuse which the
University sought to check by passing a statute forbidding youths under 18 years of age to join any mendicant
order. (fn. 154) The Pope demanded, in June 1365, that this
statute should be annulled, and a few weeks later cited
the Chancellor and masters to appear before the Archbishop of Canterbury to show cause why certain other
statutes said to be directed against the friars should not
be revoked. (fn. 155) . In the following year the objectionable
statute was annulled, and all proceedings taken by the
friars against the University were stayed. (fn. 156) Richard II
proved himself a good friend of the friars and sent
mandates to the Chancellor requesting him to admit
friars to degrees and not to refuse graces maliciously. (fn. 157)
The University presumably had good reason to restrict
the number of graces since in 1390, on petition of the
order itself, the king was asked to decree that no friars
of evil life having fraudulently obtained overseas the
degree of master or graces of exemption should be
admitted to the privileges of Doctors of Theology. (fn. 158)
The great event in the history of the University in
the second half of the 14th century is the rise of Wyclif
and Lollardism. (fn. 159) When Wyclif first came to Oxford
is unknown. He took the degree of Master of Arts in
1361, and that of D.D. in 1372. His heretical opinions
on the temporal dominion of the Pope, excommunication and absolution, and the power of the civil authority
over the Church were first officially challenged early in
1377. (fn. 160) How novel these conclusions were it is impossible to say, but the seventeenth conclusion, which
asserted that the king had power of deprivation over
clerks and ecclesiastics of evil life, had been maintained
in the University in 1358 by a mendicant friar. (fn. 161)
In May 1377 Gregory XI issued a series of bulls one
of which ordered the Chancellor of the University to
prevent the heretical conclusions of Wyclif being held
in the University, and to deliver him to the Archbishop
of Canterbury. (fn. 162) The Pope had also addressed a
similar bull to the Archbishop and to the Bishop of
London asking for an inquiry into the authorship of the
heresies, and commanding the imprisonment of Wyclif
if he was responsible for them. (fn. 163) No action was taken
by the Archbishop and the Bishop of London until
December, when they addressed a mandate to the
Chancellor bidding him to report through a committee
of doctors on the alleged heresies, and to cite Wyclif
to appear before them. The committee reported the
conclusions to be true, but male sonare in auribus
auditorum, a well-known result of academical subtlety.
Early in 1378 Wyclif replied to his accusers before the
archbishop and bishop, but again the proceedings were
abortive owing to his popularity both with rich and
poor. (fn. 164)
The turning-point in the history of Wyclifism at
Oxford came in 1380, when Wyclif's views on the
doctrine of the Eucharist, grouped under twelve conclusions, were examined and condemned by a council
composed of ten Doctors of Divinity, two Doctors of
Law, and William de Berton, Chancellor of the University. The first of the conclusions was that the consecrated host seen on the altar is neither Christ nor any
part of Him, but an effective sign. The fact that six
of the doctors were friars shows that the cleavage
between Wyclif and the mendicants was at last complete. (fn. 165) Before he had developed the main line of his
attack Wyclif had much in common with the friars,
partly due to his sympathy with their ideals of poverty,
and partly to a common enmity to monasticism. Wyclif
had now ranged against him both monks and friars,
most of the faculty of Theology, and the whole faculty
of Law. In objecting to the study of canon and civil
law by regulars and the religious, Wyclif could at least
claim papal authority, since Alexander III in 1163 had
decreed that spirituales viri, who under pretext of
learning concerned themselves with secular studies and
attended lectures in physics or law, should return
straightway to their cloisters under pain of excommunication, (fn. 166) a regulation renewed by Honorius III
fifty-six years later in his bull Super speculam. (fn. 167) Nor
was Wyclif's hostility to legal studies due to unfamiliarity: it was combined with an actual knowledge of
law. In the papal system only the Canon Law had
place, but at Oxford both Canon and Civil Law were
studied by religious and secular alike. (fn. 168) After the
Chancellor had prohibited the teaching of the conclusions in the University, Wyclif published his
Confessio in which he elaborated his views on transubstantiation. In 1382 a new Chancellor, Robert Rigge,
showed his sympathy with Wyclif by inviting Nicholas
Hereford, an avowed opponent of the friars, to preach
the sermon on Ascension Day. In a provincial synod
called in May 1382, at which many mendicants were
present, twenty-four conclusions were condemned, ten
as heretical and fourteen as erroneous. The decree
was published both in the Province of Canterbury and
at Oxford, where the Chancellor, Robert Rigge, again
displayed his enmity to the friars, on this occasion
through the agency of Philip Repingdon. (fn. 169) On 12
June Rigge made his submission, as did Repingdon
later in the year. (fn. 170) No action was taken against Wyclif,
who with logical obstinacy finally turned against all
learning not directly concerned with the Bible and
would have dispensed alike with colleges and universities. (fn. 171) In 1381 he left Oxford for Lutterworth,
where he died in 1384. His influence at Oxford was
short-lived. It was in remote country districts among the
poor and uneducated that his doctrines at length took
root.
But there were other reasons besides heresy to
account for the distressed state of the University. The
most important of these were the difficulties graduates
experienced in obtaining advancement in the Church
and the dissension in the Church itself caused by the
Papal Schism. Church preferment was in the Middle
Ages the normal reward which graduates reasonably
expected. From about 1334 letters to the Pope asking
for the provision of benefices for members of the University became increasingly common, but the statute against
provisors at length made such applications illegal. (fn. 172)
During this troubled period the University received
a few small additions to its material resources. In 1360
the sum of 100 marks was bequeathed by William de
Selton, Canon of Wells. The money was placed in the
New Chest which was then called the Selton and
University Chest. The Heads of Halls might borrow up
to 60s.; masters, if actually studying, 40s.; likewise
bachelors, 2 marks; and scholars, 1 mark. (fn. 173) Other
benefactions were received for similar purposes and
became respectively the Vaughan, Neel, and Scapeia
Chests. (fn. 174)
An important augmentation of the power of the
Chancellor was effected in 1390 by a charter which
confirmed the privilege respecting personal pleas in
which one party was a scholar or a privileged person,
and specifically empowered the Chancellor and his
successors to proceed 'secundum eorum leges et consuetudines vel per legem regni'. (fn. 175)
In the second half of the 14th century the body of
the University was enlarged by two more colleges.
Simon Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1361
founded Canterbury College for both seculars and
regulars. About five years later the college was
organized on purely secular lines with John Wyclif as
its first warden. During the next decade the scheme
was reversed and the foundation put upon a purely
monastic basis notwithstanding the opposition of Wyclif
and his associates. The college then passed, with the
consent of the king, to Christ Church, Canterbury. (fn. 176)
The College of St. Mary of Winchester in Oxford, the
most magnificent of collegiate foundations up to that
time, was erected in 1379 by the munificence of
William of Wykeham. The college was endowed to
support a warden, seventy scholars, ten chaplains, three
clerks, and sixteen choristers. (fn. 177)
The dispute with the ecclesiastical authorities which
had subsided with the death of Wyclif was revived in
1395. The question was again that of visitation, which
at various times had led the University to oppose the
King, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishop
of Lincoln alike. The Wyclif controversy now clearly
showed the distribution of parties. The supporters of
freedom of thought and action were the faculty of Arts
and a few secular theologians, with the general support
of the northern 'nation'. Those who ranged themselves
with authority and orthodoxy were the faculties of
Canon and Civil Law, most of the faculty of Theology,
the friars and monks, and generally the southern
'nation'. The power of the faculty of Arts was formidable. On that faculty the University itself was founded.
It was the source and origin of all the other faculties,
and it rightly claimed that it was primum docta,
instituta, et fundata. The degree of M.A. conferred
upon its recipients all the privileges the University had
to bestow. In number the faculty far exceeded the
others, and was composed of the younger and more
energetic men. In theological matters it took little
interest. Masters of Arts were in fact not allowed to
teach Theology. If from time to time they overstepped
the bounds of orthodoxy they did so merely by the
accident of academical argument. As a rule the faculty
was well content in matters of faith to hold the opiniones
probabiles it had always held. (fn. 178) Moreover, there had
always been some hostility between the faculty of Arts
and the faculties of Theology and Law, the latter
tending to set itself apart. In 1376 there was a dispute
between the faculties of Theology and Arts and those
of Canon and Civil Law which was settled by episcopal arbitration, but with so little permanency that the
award had to be confirmed by the king in 1397. (fn. 179) The
faculty of Arts and their supporters succeeded in 1395,
with the assistance of William Courtenay, Archbishop
of Canterbury, in obtaining from Pope Boniface IX
a bull confirming the Chancellor's sole jurisdiction
over all members of the University, including priests,
and students belonging to exempt monasteries and to
the mendicant orders. The bull, therefore, at last made
the University free of all ecclesiastical visitation. (fn. 180)
The exact circumstances in which it was obtained are
not known, but it was denounced as an exemption
surreptitiously secured and was formally renounced by
the representative of the faculty of Law in a convocation held at St. Paul's in February 1397. In March the
king ordered the Chancellor and masters to renounce
publicly the alleged exemption, and later declared that
the visitation of the University belonged to the Archbishop of Canterbury. (fn. 181)
For a few years the University remained at peace
with those in high authority and even received two
valuable privileges. In 1401 the bounds of the University were enlarged, and the Chancellor's jurisdiction
accordingly extended. (fn. 182) It has already been stated that
the Chancellor had no power to deal with cases of
felony and maim, which could be tried only before the
king's justices. In 1406 the University obtained a
charter by which any of its members accused of treason,
insurrection, felony, and maim should be brought
before a steward nominated by the Chancellor. The
steward was authorized to call a mixed jury of townsmen and privileged persons and to proceed 'secundum
leges et consuetudines regni Angliae ac privilegia
Universitatis'. (fn. 183) This remarkable privilege was not
allowed to pass unchallenged, and a petition of the
Commons against it was presented in the following
year. The first steward mentioned in University
records is John Norys, who was nominated and confirmed in 1432. (fn. 184) The appointment was for life.
The question of heresy was again revived by the
Archbishop of Canterbury in 1407. A strict censorship
of disputations was ordered to be maintained, and all
the works of Wyclif and his adherents were to be
examined by two boards of twelve persons chosen
respectively by the two universities, and ordinance which
marks the beginning of the censorship of books in this
country. (fn. 185) At this period the University was disturbed
by an internal dispute. Richard Fleming, afterwards
Bishop of Lincoln, had in 1409 maintained in a
disputation a proposition which, it was said, was
Wyclifite. The question was referred to a committee,
whose verdict was given in Fleming's favour in so far
as it refrained from actual censure. Deeming this
unsatisfactory, Fleming appealed to the king, the
dispute being finally settled by a joint committee of
eight nominated by Fleming and his accusers. (fn. 186) It is
worthy of note that in the statute-book which Fleming
gave to the University, and in that register only, is
entered a statute inflicting heavy penalties on any
doctor, master, or student teaching, defending, or
holding any of the conclusions lately condemned to the
end that the tares of heresy and error which inimicus
homo de barathro sui cordis evomuit might be rooted
out. (fn. 187) The Committee of Twelve, which consisted of
six northerners and six southerners, seems to have taken
little action as regards the examination of Wyclif's
books. It was again asked to proceed and to draw up a
list of errors. In June 1410 a list of sixty-one errors was
condemned in a University Convocation, and about the
same time some of Wyclif's works were publicly
burnt. (fn. 188) The main task of sifting out the heresies,
which ultimately numbered 267, was not completed
until 1411, when on 23 June five persons were
appointed to administer to all members of the University an oath that they would avoid the errors and heresies
enumerated by the Twelve. (fn. 189)
Apart from heresies, there were disturbances of
sufficient gravity for the king to send letters patent to
the Chancellor commanding him to hold an inquisition. (fn. 190) Early in 1411 Thomas Arundel had begun a
metropolitan visitation of the diocese of Lincoln, in
the course of which he had expressed his intention of
visiting Oxford. Although the University as a whole
had never recognized the right of visitation, it had
nevertheless been forced to accede to the revocation of
the bull of 1395. The Chancellor, Thomas Prestbury,
published the archiepiscopal citation on 28 June,
but by a proctorial veto was prevented from sending
the certificate of citation. On the resignation of Prestbury, Richard Courtenay was elected Chancellor. The
University's opposition to the metropolitan visitation
was based on the assumption that the Archbishop contemplated inquiring into matters other than heresy,
which led them to appeal to the king against the
violation of their privileges. The visitation, which
began in August, was vigorously opposed by Courtenay
and Thomas Birch, one of the proctors. The difficult
and dangerous situation that had then developed was
ended by the intervention of the king, who promised
to mediate between the parties. The Chancellor and
the proctors having made their submission the matter
was finally settled by a bull (20 Nov. 1411) of John
XXIII revoking the bull of Boniface which in 1395
had exempted the University from visitation. (fn. 191) Notice
of a visitation was given early in 1414 by Philip Repingdon, Bishop of Lincoln, to deal with the question of
heresy only; what happened is not known. (fn. 192)
The heretical period may be said to end with the
letter which the University sent to the king in 1414 on
the eve of the Council of Constance which had been
called to provide a solution of the Papal Schism. With
the letter was enclosed a list of forty-six articles for the
reformation of the Church. These were more or less
orthodox, but highly critical. The University stated
that, although John XXIII was the lawful Pope, a
general resignation would be beneficial. The articles
severely condemned simony, the sale of indulgences,
the immorality and rapacity of prelates, absenteeism
and pluralities, and lavish expenditure on food and
shelter. Protest was made against the promotion of
unworthy persons by influence, the non-observance of
the Sabbath and saints' days, the assumption of mitres
and sandals by abbots, and the neglect of hospitals. The
University demanded the removal of all ambiguity
about friars hearing confessions, the restraint of friars
enticing young persons into their orders, the cessation
of the practice of friars begging in churches during
service, and the extirpation of all heretics and Lollards.
It advocated discipline and punishment for delinquent
religious, the defining of the prerogatives of Canterbury
and York, and the censorship of religious books translated into English. The fourth article of Church reform
contained an appeal for the promotion of graduates
to benefices, then the most pressing need of the universities. (fn. 193) In 1399 Richard II granted licence to Oxford graduates to sue for provisions at the Holy See, (fn. 194)
and in 1403 Henry IV, at the special request of
the queen, permitted doctors, masters, bachelors, and
others of the two universities to sue for provisions
to benefices in cathedral, collegiate, and conventual
churches of England, Wales, and Ireland. (fn. 195) The result
was not as great as had been hoped, and for many years
to come the University pressed for more effective steps
to be taken for the promotion of their graduates. (fn. 196)
The Commons in 1416 presented a petition on
behalf of the poor clergy studying at Oxford and
Cambridge, (fn. 197) and in the following year the Warden
of Merton spoke in their favour at a Convocation at
St. Paul's. The faculties of Theology and Canon Law
in both universities were at this time petitioning that
members of religious orders should be allowed to incept in those faculties without having fulfilled all the
requirements of the statutes. This concession had the
full support of Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury, who informed the universities of his views and
at the same time drew up an ordinance for the promotion of their graduates. As the universities were
prepared neither to accept the petition of the two
faculties nor the ordinance as it stood, they were at once
met by the archbishop's refusal to go forward with his
scheme of relief. In 1421 the universities weakened in
their resistance, and, having accepted the petition,
received in return the archbishop's welcome ordinance. (fn. 198)
Heresy campaigns, visitations, poverty, and general
unrest both in Church and State did not interfere with
administrative zeal within the University. In this
respect there was no appreciable decline until the
middle of the century, when lack of preferment,
crushing internal indebtedness, and civil war had an
accumulative effect. The year following the archbishop's visitation in 1411 was marked by a statute
which was at once a measure of reform and a peace
offering. Richard Courtenay, the Chancellor, was undoubtedly responsible for the ordinance, which opened
with promises of masses for the king as well as for his son,
Prince Henry, who had been the successful mediator
between the University on the one hand and the king
and Archbishop Arundel on the other. It provided that
principals of halls were in future not to admit, except
under certain conditions, scholars who had been
expelled from other halls; the proctors were made
responsible for entering new statutes in the statutebooks; investigation was to be made concerning guardians of chests and all pledges remaining in chests;
collections for doctors, masters, and bedels were to be
regularly paid; and a new Chest with Five Keys was to be
created for the reception of whatever goods might
accure to the University. (fn. 199) In the same year and under
the same Chancellor a comprehensive statute was
drafted for the management of the University library.
This remarkable code of rules for the good ordering
of a library provided for the election of a chaplainlibrarian whose duties, salary, hours of attendance, and
holidays were clearly stated. It also laid down regulations for the qualification and admission of readers, the
proper treatment of books, the commemoration and
public recognition of benefactors, the custody of keys,
and the cataloguing of books. The oath which was
to be administered to readers survived until the 19th
century. (fn. 200)
At the beginning of the 15th century the relations
between the town and the University had improved.
A new threat to internal peace then came from a
turbulent element composed of Irish clerk beggars
collectively called Chamberdekyns. All Irishmen had
been banished from the realm in 1413, exception being
made in the case of graduates actually studying in the
universities. (fn. 201) A statute of about this date, perhaps a
year or so earlier, dealt with this trouble by instituting
a very comprehensive series of fines for disturbance of
the peace, by requiring all scholars (Chamberdekyns
are also mentioned) to reside in halls or colleges, and
forbidding townsmen to receive scholars into their
houses for bed or board unless by leave of the Chancellor. This statute, frequently referred to as Cum effrenata
from its opening words, was ordered to be publicly
posted in various places. (fn. 202) It was further enforced by a
royal ordinance of 1420 for the better preservation of
the peace. All scholars and their servants were required
on their first arrival at the University to swear to obey
the statutes, to be under the government of a principal,
and on no account to live in private houses. Principals
were to swear that they would admit to their halls only
students of good character, and those who would
observe the statutes and regularly pay their dues. (fn. 203) This
royal ordinance was re-enacted in 1552, (fn. 204) when the
names of all students and their servants then resident in
the University were entered in the Chancellor's book,
and it anticipated in its intention and to some extent
in its procedure the matriculation statute of 1565.
The question of the payment of tithes, which had
always been a grievance with the mendicants, was again
raised in 1425 by William Russell, a Franciscan, who
asserted that as personal tithes did not fall under Divine
command, 'if custom were not unto the contrary, it
were lawful to Christ's people for to dispose them into
uses of pity to poor men'. The University at once
repudiated a doctrine which touched them so nearly
and assured the Archbishop of Canterbury that in this
matter they were unanimous in support of the true doctrine of the Church. Russell's heretical conclusions were
placed in the statute-book, and until 1565 every inceptor
had to take an oath that he would not support them. (fn. 205)
The University at this period had little corporate
property, and that which it had was ill cared for. An
attempt to remedy this was made in 1427 by an
ordinance for another Chest of Five Keys in which the
jewels and moneys, apart from payments made specifically to the Chancellor and proctors, were to be kept.
The keepers of this chest were the Chancellor, two
regents of Arts, and two non-regents of Arts being
members of colleges. (fn. 206) A statute was also made restricting the use of the common seal of the University.
Documents were to be sealed only in the full Congregation of regents in term, and in Convocation in vacation,
previous deliberation in both cases being necessary. (fn. 207)
It would appear that the testimonial to John Wyclif
which was sent to Prague in 1407 with the University
seal attached must have been prepared at some thinly
attended assembly. (fn. 208) The solicitude of the University
for its property is also shown by an indenture drawn up
in 1427 in which all the official insignia then held
by Thomas Chace, the Chancellor, are recorded. (fn. 209)
The movement of reform was in 1431 continued by
Gilbert Kymer, the only Chancellor who was a Doctor
of Medicine. The first measure under his regime
instituted a course designed for those studying the
Seven Liberal Arts and the Three Philosophies (in
other words, Arts) and made precise regulations for the
organization of such lectures and the method of conducting them. (fn. 210) This statute seems to have led to a
promise by the Duke of Bedford to found a lectureship
in Arts. (fn. 211) In 1437 and 1438 the University appealed
to Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, for help, adding that it
had carried on the lectures to that time, but could maintain them no longer. (fn. 212) It is clear, therefore, that if any
pecuniary assistance was received it was of a temporary
character only. A further reform was introduced in
1432 by another statute which strangely enough opens
with a statement that solemn processions should be
arranged in order to alleviate the attacks of enemies
inflicted on the University by Divine wrath. The
statute deals with various subjects, including the teaching of elementary subjects such as French, the preservation of the peace, and the orderly conduct of University
assemblies. It suppressed all non-graduate Principals
of Halls, provided more stringent oaths for the
Chancellor and proctors, and, reaffirming the value of
sermons, ordered that copies of all sermons preached
before the University should be deposited in the
University library. (fn. 213) A later resolution also provided
for their cataloguing. (fn. 214)
Side by side with the University's concern with
administration and academical reform went a desire
which amounted almost to a passion to build schools of
its own. Hitherto the schools in which lectures were
given were rented from various owners, chiefly religious
houses. As early as 1423 the University had taken in
hand the building of a School of Theology, and for
nearly seventy years the authorities were collecting
donations from all quarters and, when asking the
Benedictines for financial help, went so far as to add that
benedicta manus monastica nostræe Universitatis posuerat
fundamenta. (fn. 215) The school was planned on too elaborate
lines, but although retrenchments had ultimately to be
made it remains the finest room possessed by the
University, and one of the outstanding specimens of
15th-century vaulted work in this country. The later
history of its building is connected with the second
library of the University. In 1435 the University
received from Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, a gift of
books and money, and four years later no fewer than
129 manuscripts valued at over a thousand pounds.
The statute for the custody and use of the books provided also for the borrowing, under proper security, of
books used in the study of the Three Philosophies and
Seven Liberal Arts. Between the years 1435 and 1444
the duke had not only given more than 270 manuscripts but had contributed liberally to a proposal that
a library should be built over the Divinity School to
hold his books, the existing library at St. Mary's being
already overcrowded. (fn. 216) Perhaps the chief importance
of the gift lies in the fact that the books were those of
a private collector and were not directly related to
the University curriculum. It was its catholicity, as
Bodley's was later, which lifted the new library out
of the class of purely academical collections mainly
concerned with scholasticism. Duke Humfrey's books
included the works of many classical authors, translations from the Greek and Italian, scientific works, and
even the works of Dante in Italian. The duke died in
1447, but it was not until 1481, and then by the
munificence of Thomas Kempe, Bishop of London,
that the building was completed. (fn. 217) About ten years
later the rebuilding of the Canon Law School was also
finished. (fn. 218)
The poverty of the University received some small
relief in 1432 from Archbishop Chichele, who endowed
a chest of two hundred marks, of which one hundred
shillings might be borrowed by the University, and
lesser sums by colleges, masters, licentiates, bachelors,
and scholars. (fn. 219) The Exeter Chest, founded ten years
later by the Duke of Exeter, was organized on the lines
of the Langton Chest, which, although it permitted loans
to halls, made no provision for the University itself.
In 1457 Joanna Danvers endowed a chest with £100. (fn. 220)
Three colleges were founded at Oxford in the first
half of the 15th century. Richard Fleming, Bishop of
Lincoln and once proctor of the University, in his
early days suspected of heresy, and an eloquent preacher
at the Council of Constance, founded Lincoln College
in 1429 with the definite object of combating the
heresies which then threatened the Catholic Church.
The foundation was to be a 'collegiolum theologorum',
but owing to Fleming's death early in 1431 'dictum
collegium in edificiis, possessionibus, et statutis et
ordinationibus, imperfectum et semiplenum reliquit'.
The statutes given to the College in 1480 by Bishop
Rotherham fulfilled the wish of the founder by including a stringent oath against heresy to be taken by all
fellows on admission. (fn. 221) The second college, that of All
Souls, was founded by Henry Chichele, Archbishop of
Canterbury, in 1438. The third was Magdalen College,
founded in 1448 by William of Waynflete.
The earliest of these 15th-century colleges was
London College, which existed for five years only,
from 1416 to 1421. It consisted of a master and twelve
scholars or fellows, maintained by the alms of Richard
Clifford, Bishop of London, who in 1416 leased from
Balliol College the hall known as Burnel's Inn (fn. 222) for a
term of ten years, on condition that, if he should transfer
to the college lands and tenements within that time to
the value of £10 a year, the freehold of Burnel's Inn
should be his. (fn. 223) It is certain that the bishop never
obtained the freehold, which belonged to Balliol until
Cardinal College was founded. The bishop died in
1421, and in his will ordered that his executors should
spend 1,000 marks on the maintenance of his poor
scholars, viz. a master and fellows dwelling in Burnel's
Inn, at the rate of £40 a year, until the sum was
exhausted. The only other information respecting the
college is contained in a petition (fn. 224) to the Lord Chancellor, probably soon after 1426, complaining that
Bishop Clifford had bought lands and tenements in
Oxford and handed them to feoffees, declaring to them
that his will was that with these lands, and others to be
acquired, a college should be founded if a licence in
mortmain could be obtained; if not, the lands were to
be sold and twelve honest persons were to be maintained at the University, as the bishop had done in his
lifetime. The feoffees, however, had sold the lands for
£140 and the poor scholars could obtain no rent from
the houses, and had been ousted from the mansion, that
is Burnel's Inn, which the bishop had provided for them
in his lifetime. References are found to London
College in 1456 and 1465, (fn. 225) but it is only as a synonym
for the building called Burnel's Inn.
From the middle of the 15th century a steady decline
is noticeable in the discipline, administration, and
corporate well-being of the University. The Wars of
the Roses, the languishing state of the Church, the lack
of great teachers, and the University's preoccupation
with building schemes far beyond its means, began to
be severely felt, and the situation was aggravated when
in 1447 the executors of Cardinal Beaufort gave 500
marks towards the building of the Divinity School on
condition that if the building was not completed within
five years the money should be returned. In the regulations for the supervision of the building and the raising
of money, the internal weakness of the University is
clearly seen. Graces were to be granted in return for
money payments, and the Pope, the archbishops, and
bishops were to be requested to grant indulgences to
those who contributed money to the building. The
University, in return for a sum of £100 given by the
monastic foundations, granted the members of those
bodies the right to proceed to the degree of B. Can.L.
without a grace, and also shortened in their favour the
time of study required for the degree of B.D. and further
agreed to waive regency in Arts before inception in
Theology in consideration of individual money payments. The faculty of Arts, therefore, which in 1339
had strongly asserted its claim to be the foundation of
all studies, was at length willing to capitulate when a
financial crisis threatened the University. (fn. 226)
To add to its anxieties the University heard in 1450
that Parliament contemplated resuming the lands which
had been granted for pious purposes by the king. In
various letters the University pointed out that if this
were done the colleges, the source of 'the principal
beams of virtue and cunning' by which the University
'shineth and lighteneth this noble Realm', would lose
their rents, would be compelled to reduce the number
of their fellows, and that students would cease to be
attracted to Oxford. These letters have a further
interest as containing the first testimony of the University to the importance of the colleges as a goal and a
reward for students. (fn. 227) The rise of the collegiate system
and the almost continual plague from 1440 to 1540
were instrumental in closing many halls. By the middle
of the 15th century their number had been about 70,
in 1470 not more than about 60; (fn. 228) by the beginning
of the next century it had fallen to 56, (fn. 229) and by 1534
to about 12. (fn. 230) Most of these halls were then owned
either by local religious houses or by the colleges which
gradually incorporated them. It is curious that in the
period of their decline an elaborate code of aularian
statutes should have been formulated. The date of
these statutes is 1483–90, but they appear to have been
based on earlier regulations. (fn. 231)
An important agreement respecting the Chancellor's
jurisdiction was made with the town in 1459, the terms
of which were that scholars and their servants arrested
by the town should on demand be delivered to the
Chancellor; and that those who enjoyed the privilege
of the University were the Chancellor, doctors, masters
and other graduates, students, scholars, and clerks
dwelling in the University, together with their servants, the steward, the bede men of the University and
their menials, bedels with their servants and households,
stationers, bookbinders, illuminators, scribes, parchment-sellers, barbers, the bell-ringers, poor children of
scholars or clerks, and other persons of their livery, and
the common carriers of the University. (fn. 232)
The printing-press reached Oxford in 1478, the
first production being a treatise on the Apostles' Creed.
Three years later appeared an edition of Alexander de
Ales's commentary on the De Anima, the colophon of
which gives the printer's name, Theodoric Rood. (fn. 233)
About 1483 Rood was joined by Thomas Hunte, the
official University stationer. The press ceased in 1486,
having printed about seventeen books, among them an
edition of Cicero's Pro Milone (c. 1480), the earliest
classical text printed in England. No contemporary
reference to the press has so far been found, but there
can be little doubt that a printer no less than a stationer
would have required the Chancellor's licence. The
charter granted to the University in 1636 asserts that
the University from the earliest times had permission
to print and sell books subject to the licence of the
Chancellor, (fn. 234) but the charter on which the right is
based is one of 1254 and deals only with contracts in
respect of movable property. When the question of
quo warranto was debated many years later between the
University and the Stationers' Company the University
claimed that it had always possessed the right to publish
books, and that its right was based on common usage
as well as on common law, since Henry VIII had
granted to the Chancellor and scholars, their servants,
and privileged persons, power and licence to exercise
any kind of artifice whatsoever within the town. (fn. 235)
The decline of the University in the second half of
the 15th century exhibited itself in several ways. The
University itself lamented in 1466 that grammar, the
very root of other sciences, was almost exiled. (fn. 236) The
fees received from grammar masters, which had once
augmented the payments due to regents, had in 1477
finally ceased. (fn. 237) There was also a noticeable falling off
in the number of students. In 1465 the University,
having previously complained to the Archbishop of
Canterbury, wrote in some alarm to the General
Council of the Order of the Benedictines stating that
members of their order were being withdrawn from the
University and sent elsewhere. (fn. 238) Another contributory
cause was the prevalence of plague at Oxford. There
was, moreover, a general weakening of the moral sense.
The chief manuscript authority for this period is the
letter-book (Reg. F) in which are entered the letters
sent by the University to influential persons, letters
testimonial, &c., a large number of them being
requests for financial aid. The letters also reflect very
clearly the complaisance and pliancy of the University
in political affairs. (fn. 239) The restoration of Henry VI in
1470 is attributed to Divine favour; in the next year
the victory of Edward IV is described as a miracle; in
1484 the University rejoiced in the victories of
Richard III, and in 1485 expressed delight in the
triumph of Henry VII. The University also showed
little resentment to royal interference in connexion with
elections; but it must be stated that in graver matters,
such as the command to surrender the Bishop of Bath
and Wells, it offered resistance. The material benefits
received from the four monarchs during the period
were inconsiderable. Edward IV, it is true, was
thanked for founding a lectureship in Theology in
1482, but as he died a few months later the project
remained unrealized. (fn. 240)
A great constitutional change was the preference of
the University for non-resident chancellors who had
political influence and could watch the University's
interests at court. The first of such chancellors was
George Neville, son of the Earl of Salisbury, Bishop of
Exeter (1458–65), and Archbishop of York (1465–76).
John Russell, Bishop of Lincoln, who held office for ten
years from 1483(?) to 1494, was specially exempted
from residence and so became Oxford's first perpetual
Chancellor. Russell was followed by John Morton,
Archbishop of Canterbury, who, although he refused
to take the Chancellor's oath, was elected and remained
Chancellor for six years. (fn. 241)
A growing interest in theological studies is shown in
the action of the Lady Margaret, Countess of Richmond, who from 1497 provided at her own expense a
public lecture in Divinity. Notwithstanding the renaissance of classical studies and the reaction against
scholasticism, the first lecturer, Edmund Wylford,
began his course with the Quodlibeta of Duns Scotus.
The lectureship in Divinity was permanently endowed
and founded in 1502. A lecturer was to be appointed
every two years and to be elected by all doctors,
inceptors, and bachelors of Divinity who had already
been regent masters of Arts. The first lecturer under
the endowment was John Roper. (fn. 242)
The revival of classical learning reached Oxford
slowly and quietly. There is no trace of it in the
statutes and official registers, but it may be seen in the
activities of individuals whose studies, lectures, and
example prepared the way for the pursuit of classical
research at the beginning of the next century. The
first foreign humanist known to have taught in Oxford
was the Milanese Stefano Surigone, who lectured on
Latin rhetoric between 1454 and 1471. Another
Italian humanist, Pietro Carmeliano, who later became
Latin Secretary to Henry VII and Henry VIII, edited
the Latin grammar of John Anwykyll which was
printed at Oxford in 1483 by Theodoric Rood. Some
informal teaching of Greek may have been given by the
Greek scribe, Emanuel of Constantinople, but of that
the evidence is not conclusive. Cornelio Vitelli has also
been claimed as an Oxford teacher of Greek on the
strength of Polydore Vergil's statement that 'omnium
primus Oxonii bonis literis juventutem erudivit'; this,
however, may merely mean that he taught Latin
rhetoric as conceived by the Italian humanists. (fn. 243)
William Grocyn lectured on Greek towards the end of
the century, and later Thomas Linacre, founder of the
College of Physicians, published some editions of
Galen's works and two Latin grammars. William
Latimer, of Magdalen College, assisted both Grocyn
and Linacre. William Lily, also of Magdalen, wrote a
famous Latin grammar which survived as a popular
school-book for more than three centuries. To these
must be added Erasmus and Colet, whose scholarship
and eloquence remained an enduring influence, and
Oxford scholars like William Grey, John Free, and
John Tiptoft, who had visited Italy and helped to
widen the scope of Oxford studies. (fn. 244)
In 1506 the University made a good choice in electing William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, as
Chancellor. His attention was soon called to the
ambiguities of the statutes, (fn. 245) and a committee was
appointed in 1514 for their revision; but by the year
1517 the work seems to have devolved entirely upon
John Yonge, titular Bishop of Gallipoli. In the following year the University, noting the rise of Wolsey and
deciding to stand well with the highest authorities, asked
the cardinal, notwithstanding the protest of Warham, to
undertake the revision of the statutes—a remarkable
lapse from constitutional rectitude. Although a reference is found in 1527 to a book of statutes having been
dispatched to Wolsey, no revised code was forthcoming. (fn. 246)
In spite of discouraging conditions, two colleges,
Brasenose and Corpus, were founded in the first quarter
of the 16th century. (fn. 247) The former was established and
founded by William Smyth, Bishop of Lincoln, and Sir
Richard Sutton in 1509. The latter founded by Richard
Fox, Bishop of Winchester, in 1516, was intimately
associated with the permanent establishment of the new
learning in Oxford, in that three public lecturers in
Latin, Greek, and Divinity were to be appointed, the
Greek lecturer being ordered not only to teach
grammar but also to read from a specified list of Greek
authors. The Divinity lecturer was especially instructed,
in lecturing on the Bible, to follow the interpretation of
the Fathers and not of the Schoolmen. A regulation
recognizing the value of co-operation in academic
studies is that which provides for the attendance of
students of theology and B.A.s at daily lectures at
Magdalen College. (fn. 248) The study of Greek, however,
by this time securely established at Cambridge, was
bitterly opposed by an obscurantist faction known as
the Trojans. Only when this faction had been sharply
rebuked by Sir Thomas More, High Steward of the
University, were the Grecians allowed to pursue their
studies unmolested. (fn. 249)
A more hopeful sign of the revival of learning was the
establishment of a printing-press in 1517, even though
it produced only a few small scholastic tracts, the most
interesting of which is the Quaestiones of Johannes
Dedicus (1518), which was protected by the Chancellor
for a term of seven years, the first instance in this
country of copyright in a particular book. (fn. 250) About this
time, too, Cardinal Wolsey began to make provision for
public lectures, but how far he proceeded is uncertain.
Thomas Brynknell was appointed lecturer in Divinity,
and Nicholas Kratzer in Mathematics: other lecturers
were Thomas Moscroffe, Matthew Calphurne, John
Clement, Thomas Lupset, and Ludovicus Vives. These
lectureships were later developed by Henry VIII into
the five public professorships of Divinity, Hebrew,
Greek, Law, and Medicine. (fn. 251) In 1524 Thomas
Linacre established two lectureships in Medicine which
were attached to Merton College in 1549, though it
was not until 1558 that any lecturers were appointed. (fn. 252)
A princely benefaction to the University by Wolsey
was the foundation in 1525 of Cardinal College
(Collegium Thomae Wolsey, Cardinalis Eboracensis),
made possible by the dissolution of St. Frideswide's and
endowed with lands and other revenues to the value of
£2,000 a year. Among the numerous canons, students,
and others whom it was designed to support were to be
public professors of Theology, Canon Law, Civil Law,
Philosophy, Medicine, and Literae Humaniores. (fn. 253)
The relations between the town and the University
were generally disturbed, the disputes being on small
matters such as the summoning of court leets and the
extension of University privilege to those exercising
trades outside certain classes. (fn. 254) The chief conflict
came in 1523, when Wolsey procured a charter of
liberties for the University dealing fully with judicial
matters and the relations between the two corporations,
and so drafted that it placed the town almost entirely
in the hands of the Chancellor. By the charter, the
Chancellor (or his deputy) was ex officio a justice of the
peace in Oxford and the neighbourhood; the University was to receive the fines and amercements due to the
Crown from cases tried before the circuiting justices in
Oxford, including the goods of felons, a privilege of
value when a wealthy Oxford man committed suicide;
the Chancellor's jurisdiction was extended, in causes
where one party was a scholar, servant, or privileged
person, to the suburbs, hundreds, and county of Oxford,
and to any other part of the kingdom. Persons privileged by the University were to be allowed to exercise
any trade, and the Chancellor was empowered to form
corporations. (fn. 255) The charter was not sent to Oxford
until 1528, when it was delivered into the custody of
the Dean of Cardinal College. (fn. 256)
Heresy, as well as local dissensions, continued to
harass the University. In 1523 it informed Sir Thomas
More that the number of students was diminishing in
consequence of the disinclination of abbots to send their
monks, noblemen their sons, and priests their relations
to Oxford. (fn. 257) The Lutheran heresy was sweeping
through Europe and at last had found a foothold at
Oxford through certain Cambridge Lutherans whom
Wolsey had unsuspectingly appointed canons of his
new foundation. The story of the chief of these
heretics, Thomas Garret, is stirringly told in the pages
of John Foxe. (fn. 258) The two universities in May 1530
were ordered by the king to appoint committees to
examine suspected books, (fn. 259) and a stringent proclamation of the king forbade the circulation of heretical
books, English versions of the Scriptures, and the
printing of books on scriptural subjects without the
bishop's leave. (fn. 260) A prohibition by the Bishop of
Lincoln shows that many heretical books were sold at
St. Frideswide's Fair. (fn. 261)
In 1530 the great political question of the king's
divorce became the concern of the two universities.
Cambridge had early in that year returned an evasive
answer to the question of the legality of the marriage of
Henry to Catherine, an answer nevertheless construed
by Henry as favourable to his cause. When Oxford
was invited to express its opinion the faculty of Arts,
which was frankly hostile to the divorce, insisted on
being adequately represented on the proposed committee. This provoked a kingly rebuke that persons 'of
right small learning … should … stay their seniors in
so weighty a cause', and a sharp letter from Warham,
the Chancellor, written in English so that nothing
should be otherwise interpreted. The proposal that
the matter should be referred to a committee of thirtythree was carried, although again opposed by the
faculty of Arts. The decision of the committee was
based on that of Cambridge to the effect that 'ducere
uxorem fratris mortui sine liberis cognitam a priore
viro per carnalem copulam' was prohibited alike by
divine and natural law. (fn. 262)
On Wolsey's fall, Cardinal College was suppressed
and re-established in 1532 as King Henry the Eight's
College. In 1534 the king, who had already been
acknowledged supreme head of the Church by the
Convocation of Clergy, requested the universities to
give a decision on the question whether the Pope had
greater jurisdiction than any other foreign bishop. The
universities confirmed the opinion that the Pope was
merely Episcopus Romanus. (fn. 263)
A visitation of the University by Richard Layton and
John London followed in 1535. No official record of
its proceedings survives, and the little that is known
about it is derived from a letter addressed by Layton to
Cromwell. (fn. 264) Few changes were made in University
procedure. Following the example of Waynflete and
Foxe, the Visitors established public lectures in Greek
and Latin at New College and All Souls, Greek at Magdalen, and Latin at Merton and Queen's. Lectures in
Civil in place of Canon Law were established, and
scholars of religious houses were ordered to be more
strictly confined to their houses. In the following year
the king ordered that licence to practise medicine or
to proceed to a medical degree was to be given by
the Physick Professor, but only after examination. (fn. 265)
Further provision was made in 1536 by relieving
colleges of payments of first-fruits and tenths on condition that they maintained at their own cost a public
lecturer to be called King Henry the Eight's Lecturer.
The contribution of the colleges amounted to £13. 10s.
8d. and is the first instance of the colleges combining
to make a common contribution to a general need. (fn. 266)
Other reforms introduced at the same time were that
spiritual persons over 40 years of age should leave the
University and return to their benefices, (fn. 267) and that
clergy with benefices worth £100 a year should contribute to the support of scholars. (fn. 268)
The suppression of the monasteries began in 1536.
The alarm which this proceeding caused in the University was somewhat relieved by the king's assurance that
as regards colleges he would not 'impaire the revenewes
of anie one House by a penie'. (fn. 269) An Act was also
passed requiring all persons proceeding to degrees to
take the Oath of Supremacy, the first of several University tests imposed by the Tudors. (fn. 270) Five years later the
king himself commented on the state of the University,
'Our Universitie of Oxenford hath of late dayes by lack
of ordre fallen in to no small ruin and decaye as well in
lernyng as in vertues, behavor, and good manners'.
The lack of order he remedied in a small degree by
regulating the election of proctors and attendance at
public sermons. (fn. 271) In 1545 the newly established Henry
the Eight's College and the Cathedral Church at Oseney
surrendered their charters and the king established by
letters patent (4 Nov. 1546) the foundation of Christ
Church which was to maintain a dean, eight canons,
and one hundred students. Five Regius Professorships
of Divinity, Hebrew, Greek, Civil Law, and Medicine
were also established, the first three being chargeable to
the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church, the others to
the Exchequer. (fn. 272)
When Edward VI succeeded to the throne in 1547
the trend towards Protestantism became more pronounced. One of the first Acts of Parliament of the new
king's reign gave some reassurance. In enacting that
colleges, free chapels, and chantries be vested in the king,
exception was made in favour of the colleges of the
universities, with a saving clause that the king might
specially deal with the chantries there established. (fn. 273)
To help the Protestant cause Peter Martyr, a noted
Lutheran, was brought from Strassburg to Oxford to
lecture on Divinity. From lecturing on the Epistle
to the Corinthians he passed to the highly controversial
subject of the Holy Sacrament, which aroused much
learned and sectarian opposition. The debates were
conducted with such freedom that the Protector
Somerset and the Council had to admonish the disputers
to treat such mysteries with 'sobriety, reverence, and
lowliness of spirit'. (fn. 274) In 1549 the University was subjected to visitation by commissioners who were
empowered to inquire into all that pertained to
colleges and halls; to exercise disciplinary powers; to
divert money being used in the support of grammar
schools and purely church purposes to the teaching of
the Arts; to amalgamate colleges if necessary; to assign
the money of chantries to other purposes; to enforce
and, where necessary, to vary statutes; to exact oaths of
obedience and fidelity; and, if thought fit, to localize
the study of Arts at New College, of Civil Law at All
Souls, and to assign one college to the study of Medicine. The need of a revival in the study of Civil Law
was especially emphasized, and great care was to be
taken in teaching it. (fn. 275) The colleges were visited and on
the whole were dealt with tenderly. Strangely enough,
a spirited and successful protest came from the townsmen, who saw with alarm that the closing of Magdalen
College School would shut the chief door of education
to their children. (fn. 276)
At the same time the commissioners offered the
University certain regulations pending the consideration of the statutes then in force. Several innovations
were introduced. Greek made its first appearance in
the general statutes; the law of the realm was to be
studied by jurists; canon law disappeared; and practical
work in anatomy was required for degrees in medicine.
A statute governing the election of the Vice-Chancellor
was for the first time formulated. A closer relation
between college tuition and that of the University is
shown in the regulation which orders college lecturers to
submit at the beginning of every term lists of the names
of their general sophisters, and also to supply their
quota of disputants in the general disputations. The
code also established an official connexion between the
University and the Reformed Church of England in
providing for the celebration of Holy Communion in
every college and hall at the beginning of each term.
The increasing prestige of the colleges is seen in regulations as to matters on which the heads of houses were to
be consulted. Although the Edwardian Code was
provisional, it nevertheless marks a considerable advance
in University administration, but it fell into desuetude
on the king's death and was never entered in any
official register of the University. (fn. 277)
The other acts of the commissioners were less
beneficial. Their agents destroyed carvings, statues, and
stained glass windows, and despoiled libraries. The
books of the public library of the University entirely
disappeared, but the collections in college libraries
escaped lightly. (fn. 278) The well-known statement by Bale
about despoliation refers to the whole country, but in
speaking of the treatment of libraries he says 'Yea, the
vnyuersytees of thys realme, are not all clere in this
detestable fact', which suggests that there was no wholesale purge of college libraries. (fn. 279) How far religious
persecution affected the University cannot well be
estimated. The statement of a contemporary writer
that in 1552 there were scarce left in the universities a
hundred students out of every thousand (fn. 280) may be
compared with a list of members of Oxford colleges and
halls, taken in that year which gives the number as
1,021, but it is not possible to say how many of these
were privileged persons (servants, &c.). (fn. 281)
Wood's statement that on the accession of Queen
Mary 'religion and learning put on another face' is
certainly true of the former and perhaps of the latter. (fn. 282)
John Jewel, later Bishop of Salisbury, on behalf of the
University addressed a wary letter of congratulation to
the new sovereign, (fn. 283) more Visitors descended on the
University, and the imported Protestant, Peter Martyr,
returned to Strassburg. Protestants had the alternative
of leaving the University or of bending without breaking; many preferred to show their suppleness. (fn. 284)
Ridley, Latimer, and Cranmer were brought to Oxford
to defend their views on the Real Presence and suffered
glorious martyrdom. Mary, in the first year of her
reign, granted to the University three benefices chiefly
to repair the public schools then lying waste or in use
by the citizens as private gardens. (fn. 285) A University
account book shows that over £200 were expended
during the years 1557–1559 on that undertaking. (fn. 286) In
July 1556 a general visitation of the University began
under the direction of Cardinal Pole, Archbishop of
Canterbury. The injunctions presented to the University were to serve only until the existing statutes had
been examined and revised by a delegacy. They were
largely concerned with administrative and doctrinal
matters. The duties of the Vice-Chancellor and the
proctors were set out in some detail, and regulations
were laid down for halls and their principals. Some of
the recommendations offered to lecturers are interesting
not only on account of their soundness but because they
were incorporated into the Laudian Code without
reference to their provenance. (fn. 287) During Mary's brief
reign the Registers of the University show some increase
in numbers, and it is fair to date from her accession a
revival in academic studies and a return to better
discipline.
In 1555 the last two colleges of the old faith were
founded. Trinity College was established by letters
patent (8 Mar. 1555) by Sir Thomas Pope 'ad proventum et publicam patriae utilitatem, orthodoxae fidei
religionisque Christianae incrementum et ad perpetuam
pauperum scholarium in Academia degentium sustentationem'; (fn. 288) and on 1 May 1555 Sir Thomas White
obtained licence by letters patent to found a 'collegium
perpetuum eruditionis scientiarum, sacrae theologiae,
et philosophiae, ac bonarum artium', to be called St.
John Baptist College. (fn. 289) By this time a great change
was taking place in the University by the conversion of
colleges into places of instruction. Originally they
were founded to provide means whereby students
might proceed to a higher degree; the education of the
young at Oxford was never contemplated by any of
the early founders. (fn. 290) Until Brasenose was established
there was no college where the ordinary undergraduate
could apply for admission after the modern fashion.
To-day All Souls College alone is privileged non super
antiquas stare sed ire vias, and to remain a college of
graduates.
On the accession of Queen Elizabeth Oxford was
again visited by commissioners, who on this occasion
concerned themselves chiefly with the colleges. (fn. 291) Many
who would not acknowledge the queen's supremacy
either resigned or were deprived of their offices, among
them being the heads of University College, Merton,
Balliol, Queen's, Lincoln, Magdalen, Corpus Christi,
Christ Church, and Trinity. For the moment a more
conciliatory and cautious policy prevailed throughout
the country, and England at last had a monarch who
was determined to form closer ties with the people.
The visits which Elizabeth paid to Oxford in 1566 and
1592 established a new and intimate relation between
the Crown and the University. (fn. 292) 'Her sweet, affable,
and noble carriage', her learning and enthusiasm
appealed strongly to the scholars, but close political
ties inevitably brought in their train loss of liberty
and freedom of choice. The election of the powerful
Earl of Leicester in 1564 introduced a succession of
statesmen-Chancellors. Leicester nominated successive
Vice-Chancellors, leaving only the formal election to
Convocation. The political trend of the time is plainly indicated in University enactments. (fn. 293) Religious tests were
first introduced, and it was the Earl of Leicester who
recommended that motions to be submitted to Convocation should previously be considered by a select
delegacy of doctors and heads of houses—a recommendation which gave support to the practice of conducting
University business by means of small committees, and
which led to the formation of a permanent Weekly
Meeting. (fn. 294) A minor result of the election of Leicester
was that English and not Latin henceforth became the
medium for communications between the University
and its Chancellor.
When Elizabeth succeeded to the throne the Marian
statutes were in force. On their repeal the University
quietly continued in its traditional ways. The new
statutes which were promulgated in 1565 were only
provisional pending a general revision: they had been
submitted to the Chancellor in English, and then
translated into Latin. The opening sentence is significant, Vetera statuta observabunt, which seems to imply
the abrogation of the Edwardian Code. The statutes
(Nova Statuta) for the most part dealt with disputations,
the exercises necessary for the various degrees, and
courses of study. The chief authors to be studied were
Virgil, Horace, Cicero, Aristotle, Plato, Porphyry,
Boethius for arithmetic and music, Euclid, and Orontius and Joannes de Sacrobosco for astronomy—a
curriculum which indicates that the learning of the
Middle Ages was not yet entirely discredited. Particular emphasis, as in the Edwardian Code, is laid on the
preaching of sermons which were ostensibly to teach
persons their duty towards God, but were more
particularly intended to inculcate obedience to their
lawful rulers and magistrates. The old statutes against
Wyclif and William Russell were amended, and all
statutes affecting monks, friars, masses, and prayers for
the dead were removed. (fn. 295) At the same time a still
greater reform was introduced. A matriculation statute
was introduced securing the registration of all scholars,
servants, and privileged persons. Heads of houses and
principals of halls were required to present students to
the Vice-Chancellor within a week of their admission
into the University so that their name, age, residence,
and date of entry might be recorded in a Register.
Students who were not members of a college or hall
were to be under the charge of a master who was a
member of some society, and all who had reached the
age of 16 were required to take an oath to obey the
statutes of the University. (fn. 296) The first matriculation
register begins with the academical year 1564/5, but
was not regularly kept until 1581. From 1571 to 1602
the number of students matriculated, distributed in
seventeen colleges, eight halls, and one private hall,
was 8,530, which gives a yearly average of about 266.
The earliest age at which a student is found entering the
University is 7: the usual age was from 14 to 20. (fn. 297)
The University had of course no power of choice
respecting its new members: its function was merely
one of registration. (fn. 298)
In 1576 were issued a new order 'for the reformation
of excess in apparel' and a general statute in English for
the better observance of public exercises which included
a clause that no one should be admitted to any degree
unless he subscribed to the XXXIX Articles. (fn. 299) A
statute against heresy was also promulgated in 1579 and
specified the various Protestant catechisms which might
be used in the University. (fn. 300) In the following year the
Oath of Supremacy was made obligatory on all those
taking degrees, (fn. 301) and students living in private houses
were recalled to colleges and halls. (fn. 302) A still more drastic
measure was introduced in 1581 which required every
person of the age of 16 and over to take the general
University oath and also to subscribe to the Articles of
Religion and take the Oath of Supremacy. (fn. 303) Most of
these statutes were obviously directed against the Romish
recusants who, in order to avoid the tests, preferred to
lodge in private houses. The passing of such measures
became more and more frequent, and provoked an
exodus of Roman Catholics, which, although it helped
to relieve the political situation, yet left Oxford poorer
in scholarship. Learning abroad, however, was enriched and Oxford traditions were carried into foreign
lands. John Rastell of New College became ViceRector of the Jesuit College at Ingolstadt; Richard
White, also of New College, became Professor of Laws
at Douay; and William Allen, of Oriel, founded the
English College at Douay. In such circumstances the
foundation of Jesus College, the first Oxford Protestant
college, was a notable event. The college is described in
the letters patent of 27 June 1571 as of Queen Elizabeth's foundation, but it was erected and endowed at
the charge of Hugh ap Rice, treasurer of St. David's. (fn. 304)
The relations between the city and the University
showed no improvement. As the charter of 1523 was
still the chief matter of dispute, an Act was passed in
1571 íncorporating the two universities by the name of
the Chancellor, masters, and scholars of the said universities with special mention of the charter of Henry VIII
to Oxford and that of 3 Elizabeth to Cambridge. (fn. 305) In
speaking of privileges affecting the prerogative granted
to the University of Oxford, Sir William Blackstone has
made a memorable statement: 'But yet, notwithstanding
these charters, the privileges granted therein, of proceeding in a course different from the law of the land,
were of so high a nature, that they were held to be
invalid; for though the king might erect new courts,
yet he could not alter the course of law by his letters
patent. Therefore in the reign of queen Elizabeth an
act of parliament was obtained, confirming all the
charters of the two universities, and those of 14 Hen.
VIII and 3 Eliz. by name.' (fn. 306)
An important event in the history of learning was the
setting up of a printing-press in 1585 by Joseph Barnes.
This desirable and requisite addition to the equipment of a University was sponsored by the Earl of
Leicester and given legal sanction by the Star Chamber
decree of 1586. Although Barnes was Printer to the
University, his press was his own financial venture, for
which the University accepted no liability. He was
Printer to the University only in the sense that, if the
University had any printing to be done, it used his
facilities. Most of his publications were sermons and
minor scholastic books, but among the more important
works printed by him were the first Catalogue of the
University Library (1605) and the first history of the
University, Antiquitatis Academiae Oxoniensis apologia.
Authore Briano Twyno (1608). Just before the death
of Elizabeth the University received a benefaction
which in course of time became of world-wide importance. In 1602 Sir Thomas Bodley restored and
refurnished the old University Library. By his own
efforts and those of 'a great store of honourable friends',
the Library contained over 2000 volumes at the time
of its opening on 8 November. (fn. 307)
The first Public Acts of the reign of James I in
which the University is mentioned throw light on the
general state of affairs at Oxford. The enactments
related to tippling in inns, the relief of persons infected
with the plague, and to 'dangers which may grow by
Popish Recusantes'. (fn. 308) By the last enactment recusants
were disqualified from presenting to benefices, which
were then committed to the two universities. The
plague which broke out in 1603 was unusually severe.
Colleges had to close their doors, but generously opened
their pockets for the relief of the townsfolk. (fn. 309) The
University supported the legislature in 1605 by a
decree against Popish recusants which required all
privileged persons, their families, and servants to
attend divine service regularly at their parish churches; (fn. 310)
and in the following year by another decree inflicting
heavy fines on any one (graduates as well as privileged
persons) who haunted taverns. (fn. 311) This was reinforced
by another decree in 1610 which prescribed open and
public whipping at St. Mary's Church for young
delinquents. At the same time it was again ordered
that no scholar should lodge in the town either with a
privileged or non-privileged person. (fn. 312) But it was not
only against recusants that the hand of authority was
raised. Both Jesuits and Puritans were known to be
meddlers in matters of state. The Puritan preaching
activities of John Sprint and Robert Troutbeck in 1602
had almost resulted in another University Visitation, (fn. 313)
and the remarkable thesis sustained in 1622 by William
Knight, that in certain circumstances a subject might
take up arms against the King, had caused the Commentary of David Paraeus on the Epistle to Romans to
be publicly burnt, his propositions condemned, and the
unlawfulness of resisting the Sovereign publicly proclaimed in Convocation. (fn. 314)
In 1617 the king sent certain edicts to be published
and observed in the University. The first of these
ordered that all who took degrees should subscribe to
the three Articles of the thirty-sixth canon approved
in the London Synod of 1604; the other edicts were
concerned with preachers who had not conformed, the
orderly attendance of students at sermons, the inculcation of the doctrines of the Church of England in
sermons and academic disputations, and the careful
supervision of theological students. There was also to
be 'a great restraint for schollers haunting of townesmens houses especially in the night'. (fn. 315) Another matter
which greatly troubled the authorities at this time was
the wearing of caps by Masters of Arts in University
assemblies. It was then customary for M.A.s to sit
bare-headed, but a certain Henry Wightwick, finding
authority for their remaining covered, reintroduced the
custom, for which he was banished on a charge of
trying to subvert the honour of the University. (fn. 316) He
was, in fact, merely asserting the supremacy of his
faculty. In 1622, on the petition of fifty-three regent
masters, among them being Gilbert Sheldon, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, the wearing of square
caps by Masters of Arts in Congregation and Convocation was given statutory sanction. (fn. 317)
The most important privilege received during
James's reign was a grant to the two universities by
letters patent (12 Mar. 1604) to elect two burgesses,
a favour which was obtained at the instance of Sir
Edward Coke. (fn. 318)
In 1610 the University Library received its greatest
privilege by an agreement made by Sir Thomas Bodley
with the Stationers' Company that a copy of every new
book printed by a member of the company should be
sent to his library. This agreement theoretically meant
that Bodley's Library had thenceforth the right to
receive a copy of every book newly printed in England,
with the exception of those printed at Cambridge, since
only three towns, London, Oxford, and Cambridge,
had the right to set up printing-presses. This privilege
received royal recognition in a Star Chamber Decree in
1637, and virtually made the University Library the
National Library until the establishment of the British
Museum in 1759. An elaborate code of library
statutes, drafted by Bodley himself, was also promulgated in 1610. Two years later Sir Thomas Bodley
built the east wing, now called the Arts End, and made
provision for adding a third story to the quadrangle of
the Schools which were to be erected, and for building
a west wing. (fn. 319) In 1619 Sir Henry Savile established
two lectureships in mathematics, one in geometry,
the other in astronomy. A significant clause in the
Savilian statute is that the choice of professors should
not be restricted to natives of this country. (fn. 320) Sir
William Sedley, by his will dated 29 Oct. 1618,
endowed a chair of Natural Philosophy. (fn. 321) A professorship of Moral Philosophy was founded by Thomas
Whyte in 1621. (fn. 322) In the same year Henry, Lord
Danvers, purchased for the University a piece of
land as a Physic Garden, and by his will endowed
it with the rectory of Kirkdale. (fn. 323) The only faculty
under a cloud was that of Civil Law, which seemed
to be near abolition in 1603. (fn. 324) In recording the
achievements of scholarship at this period it should be
mentioned that Oxford supplied two companies for the
revision of the Bible which resulted in 1611 in the publication of the Authorized Version.
During the eighteen years, 1603 to 1621, the
average number of students matriculated annually was
320. The matriculation of 1621 reached the extraordinary number of 784, the largest contribution of any
one society being Magdalen Hall with 113. (fn. 325) A
distinguished alumnus among those who matriculated
in 1616 was Prince Charles. (fn. 326) Wood gives the total
number of students in 1611 as above 2,420, (fn. 327) and
John Scot in 1622 as 2,850 including servants, &c. (fn. 328)
Two colleges were founded in James's reign.
Wadham College, founded by Nicholas and Dorothy
Wadham in 1610, was built on the site of the Austin
Friars without Smith Gate, provision being made for
a warden, fifteen fellows, fifteen scholars, two chaplains, and two clerks. (fn. 329) Pembroke College was
nominally founded in 1624 by James I, who had been
supplicated by the town of Abingdon to constitute a
college within Broadgate Hall. The cost and charges,
borne by Thomas Tesdale and Richard Wightwicke,
provided for a master, ten fellows, and ten scholars. (fn. 330)
The Stuarts inherited one troublesome obsession of
the Tudors, namely that of heresy, which changed
its spots as circumstances demanded. In the reign of
King James the struggle in the University lay between
the Calvinists and Puritans on the one hand, and the
Episcopalians and Arminians, later to be known as the
Anglican Party, on the other. The king, who saw that
an hierarchy of bishops would be a welcome support
for the Crown, inclined naturally to the Episcopalians.
It was also with this party that William Laud, who had
first become prominent in connexion with a supposed
heretical sermon in 1615, was associated. (fn. 331) In 1611
he had been elected to the presidency of St. John's,
which he resigned in 1621 on being promoted to the
see of St. David's.
The accession of Charles in 1625 was marked like
that of James I by a serious outbreak of plague, necessitating the removal of Parliament from London to
Oxford. Royal intervention in academic matters had
now become a commonplace. As the elections of
proctors continued to be attended with great disturbances, largely owing to the presence of nonresidents, the king in 1628 referred the matter to
arbitrators with full power to elect, and later on
settled the matter permanently by imposing on the
University an ordinance by which the colleges, in a
prearranged order, should elect proctors from their
own members, a method which with some modifications
is still in force. (fn. 332) To this ordinance regulations were
added for the appointment of collectors at University
disputations. The king also sent down rules in 1631
for appeals in the Chancellor's Court and a decree for a
weekly meeting (Conventus Preæfectorum) consisting of
the Vice-Chancellor and heads of colleges and halls
who should meet every Monday to consider University
affairs, and, if necessary, to bring forward matters for
the consideration of Congregation before submission to
Convocation. (fn. 333) This finally abolished previous deliberation by the faculty of Arts, a form of procedure which
by that time had fallen into desuetude. On the part of
the Crown it was good policy to place the effective
government in the hands of a small body of influential
officials, but the University was thereby fettered for
over two hundred years.
On the death of the Earl of Pembroke in 1630 the
University chose for its Chancellor William Laud, (fn. 334)
who at once declared his intention of reforming the
University, which, in his opinion, had departed from
all discipline. In order to keep in touch with University
affairs he desired the Vice-Chancellor to send him a
weekly report. His chief reform was the revision and
recodification of the statutes of the University. In
1614 a delegacy of twenty-eight, including William
Laud and Brian Twyne, had been appointed to arrange
the statutes. Its work terminated after three years, but
in 1619 it appears that the revision had not been completed. The Earl of Pembroke took the first effective
step in 1629, when he wrote to the Vice-Chancellor
asking that a new delegacy should be appointed and the
business settled. A committee of sixteen was chosen
which largely deputed the main work to a subcommittee of four, of which Dr. Zouch and Twyne
were the most active members. As the various sections
were drafted they were voted upon by the whole
delegacy and by the Conventus Praefectorum. By 1633
the body of statutes was finished, revised by the ViceChancellor, and submitted to the Chancellor. The
code was printed in 1634 and placed on trial for one
year, afterwards extended to two years. Finally, on
22 June 1636 the statutes in their corrected form,
written in a large folio volume, ratified, sealed, and
confirmed by a royal charter, were received by the
University at the hands of the king's commissioners. (fn. 335)
The code was not a new collection of statutes, but
rather a recodification of those existing, elaborated and
arranged in an orderly way, and including the royal
edicts mentioned above—Ipse multus in eo Carolus.
Not only was the codification the result of some
hundred years of reform, but it is still the foundation of
the present statutes of the University. The main
divisions of the code are terms, vacations, matriculation, and residence; public lectures and attendance;
time required for the taking of degrees and the exercises
to be performed; the ceremonies of Inception, Vesperies, and the Act; disputations; Congregation and
Convocation; sermons; officers and servants; public
goods and places; and the Chancellor's Court. Laud
attached great importance to the statute respecting the
examination of candidates for degrees and was gratified
to hear that it was working successfully, the examiners
'asking fundamental questions, not propounding studied
subtilties to gravel and discourage young students'. (fn. 336)
An appendix contains the statutes relating to the Lady
Margaret Readership, the Bodleian Library, professorships, the election of proctors, and to halls. Congregation was defined as consisting of the Chancellor or
Vice-Chancellor, the proctors, the necessary regents, and
the optional regents who comprised the resident doctors,
professors and public lecturers, heads of houses who
had been regent M.A.s, the masters of the schools and
the deans or censors of colleges, and M.A.s during the
second year of their regency if dispensed with. Its
functions were to deliberate on the resolutions of the
Hebdomadal Board; to grant graces, and, in certain
cases, dispensations; to admit to degrees; to grant
incorporations; and to give letters testimonial. Convocation was to consist of the Chancellor or Vice-Chancellor,
the proctors, and regent and non-regent doctors and
masters. Its functions were to accept or reject any
motion respecting statutes, &c., of the Hebdomadal
Board after it had been submitted to Congregation;
to elect officers, professors, and public lecturers; to
nominate delegates; to grant dispensations; to present
to benefices; to examine accounts; to control the letting
of lands; to dispatch letters to royalty, &c.; to grant
honorary degrees and to deprive offenders of degrees.
The constitution of the two assemblies, Congregation
and Convocation, remained unchanged until 1854.
The constitution and procedure of the Chancellor's
Court were modified in 1854 and again in 1862. The
royal ordinance regarding appeals survived until 1894,
when an Order in Council provided that the enactments and rules of the Supreme Court relating to
appeals from county courts should apply to the
Chancellor's Court. (fn. 337)
The year in which the Laudian Code was received
was also that of the last of the Great Charters granted to
the University. The charter was primarily one of
confirmation, but its wide explanations and enlargements make it of great importance. The material for it
was prepared by Twyne, who paid special attention to
the privileges granted to Cambridge, particularly to
those contained in the charter of 3 Elizabeth. New
privileges were that the Chancellor's Court should be a
Court of Record; that the University might have two
coroners; that the town be inhibited from building
cottages without leave of the Chancellor; and that the
Vice-Chancellor might claim the bodies of such as
suffered death by law for the use of the anatomy
lecturer. The charter also provided that the clerk of
the market should be placed in control of the ordering
of the market, and that the number of vintners should
be reduced to three, all to be licensed by the Chancellor.
The chief explanations were concerned with the
exemption of members of the University from being
impleaded in the courts of Westminster; power to hold
a full and complete court-leet over the town; the right
to make orders and by-laws to bind townsmen in certain
matters affecting the University; the right to felons'
goods within the precincts of the University, with
power of search; the right to all privileged persons to
trade in the same way as townsmen; and exemption to
all members of the University from musters as well as
discharge from all subsidies. The final section related
to printing, and exemplified and amplified letters patent
granted in 1632 and 1633 by which the University
was allowed to have three printers with the right to
print all kinds of books not publicly forbidden. The
amplification gave the University the right to print all
those classes of books which were specially mentioned
in the charter of the Stationers' Company. (fn. 338)
The year 1636 may be taken as the year in which the
University under the old dispensation reached its
zenith. The reform of its statutes, which had occupied
the attention of the University since the time of Wolsey,
was brought to a successful conclusion in the Laudian
Code, and the charter was the most ample the University had ever received. It was appropriate, though
accidental, that the king and queen in that year should
visit Oxford, and be pleasantly entertained, not by
learned arguments in Greek and Latin, but by witty
comedies. Unfortunately the code, based as it was on a
medieval system, came just as learning was being
re-born and immediately before the great social
upheaval which, as far as this country is concerned, was
to introduce the modern world. Laud's charter gave
the University all that it could reasonably desire,
but it went too far at the expense of the town. No
compromise was henceforth possible; civic resistance
stiffened, and the town secured its first triumph when
in 1690 the University failed to get its great charter
confirmed by Parliament. (fn. 339)
In the Caroline age considerable benefits accrued to
scholarship. William Camden founded a lectureship in
History in 1622; (fn. 340) and in 1624 a lectureship in
anatomy was founded by Richard Tomlins. (fn. 341) William
Heather in 1626–7 gave an endowment for the support
of a master of musical praxis and a lecturer on the
theory of music, (fn. 342) and a chair of Arabic was founded by
Laud in 1636 with the great orientalist, Edward
Pococke, as first professor. (fn. 343) The provision of the
materials of scholarship was also remarkable. Bodley's
Library received in 1629 from the Earl of Pembroke a
large collection of Greek manuscripts formed by
Giacomo Barocci and a further smaller gift of Greek
manuscripts from Sir Thomas Roe. In 1634 Sir
Kenelm Digby presented 238 medieval manuscripts
especially rich in treatises of science, and from 1635 to
1640 Archbishop Laud presented nearly 1,300 manuscripts, oriental as well as western. These munificent
benefactions made Oxford one of the chief centres of
research in Europe, and necessitated the enlargement of
the University Library, which was effected by the
addition of the west end, begun in 1638 and opened in
1640. (fn. 344)
On the outbreak of civil war the University, with the
help of the town, began the work of fortification, and
in July 1642 opened its coffers at the request of the
king, who promised a just and speedy return of loans
with interest at 8 per cent. Parliamentary forces
entered Oxford in Sept. 1642, but abandoned it in
the following month. From Oct. 1642, when the king
entered the town, until 1646 Oxford was the headquarters of the Royalists. The Oxford press found
employment in printing royalist proclamations and
pamphlets, college plate was requisitioned on loan,
disputations were discontinued, and the schools were
used for the storage of munitions. (fn. 345) Nevertheless, there
was little falling off in the number of degrees conferred,
since, on the recommendation of the king, academic
honours were freely bestowed on 'great multitudes
of very noble Gentlemen of all rankes who have done
the University much honour in accepting of her
favours'. (fn. 346) At the beginning of 1644 Parliament
assembled at Oxford. Laud was executed in 1645,
and on 24 June 1646 Oxford surrendered to Fairfax.
The government being now in the hands of the
Parliamentarians, a visitation of the University was
ordered on 1 May 1647 for the reformation of the
University and the several colleges and halls. The
Visitors were commissioned to inquire by oath concerning those who had neglected to subscribe to the
Solemn League and Covenant and to take the Negative
oath, and those who opposed the execution of the
ordinances of Parliament respecting discipline and
divine worship. The colleges adopted obstructive
tactics. Non-submitters were ejected and new heads
and several new professors were appointed, among the
latter being Seth Ward and John Wallis. The Engagement and the Negative oath were imposed on all
members of colleges and halls. From 1648 to 1660 an
important administrative innovation was effected by the
appointment of delegates for the management of general
University business, their resolutions being subject to
approval by Convocation. The board of delegates was
independent of the Conventus Praefectorum, which still
continued to meet. (fn. 347)
The Chancellor, the Earl of Pembroke, died in 1650
and was succeeded by Oliver Cromwell. From this
time onwards there was a gradual improvement in the
state of the University, especially under the ViceChancellorship of John Owen, Dean of Christ Church,
a good administrator, a stern disciplinarian, but a
determined apponent of formalities. In 1652 the
Parliamentary Committee was dissolved. A petition
was then sent to Parliament asking that a new Board of
Visitors be appointed, few in number and resident in
Oxford, and empowered to revise and reform University and college statutes. (fn. 348) The petition having been
approved and confirmed by Cromwell, a board of ten
Visitors was appointed. The Visitors, who began their
activities in June 1653, introduced various regulations
respecting tutors and their pupils; attendance at and the
recording of sermons; the studies of gentlemen-commoners; and the election of probationers, fellows, and
chaplains. In 1655 and 1656 several important reforms
touching the studies of B.A.s, examinations, promissory
oaths, and 'collectors' were carried through. Notwithstanding this substantial progress, Wood states that John
Owen was willing to move still faster along the path of
reform. Opposed in some of his measures by Convocation, Owen then proceeded to take steps to reform
that body, and to put it entirely 'in the hands of godly
and prudent men'. The plan was so strongly opposed by
John Conant, Rector of Exeter, and others that Owen
desisted from further action. From Oct. 1657, when he
was succeeded by Conant as Vice-Chancellor, the
reformers disappear. During Conant's period of office
(1657–9) academical dress was restored, the heads of
houses were joined to the Delegates, and an ill-advised
attempt to set up a university at Durham was for good
and sufficient reasons defeated.
In the Commonwealth period there was a notable
advance in the study of science associated with the
names of Bathurst, Wren, Petty, Wallis, Boyle,
Goddard, Seth Ward, and Wilkins. Oriental studies
were under the direction of the great scholar Pococke.
The only faculty which continued to languish was that
of Civil Law, on behalf of which the University
petitioned Parliament for the fostering of a study which
was 'very suitable to the present government as well
for forraigne commerce and negotiations abroad' …. (fn. 349)
The University Library received in 1654 some Greek
manuscripts from Cromwell, and between 1654 and
1659 the valuable library of John Selden, one of the
burgesses of the Universities from 1640 to 1653 (fn. 350) . In
1658 the first Architypographus was appointed. (fn. 351) This
important official was to be a good classical scholar, a
philologist, a practical printer, and a capable manager. (fn. 352)
The most distinguished holder of the office was
Thomas Hearne.
So far the town and the University had worked fairly
amicably together. The town's sympathies were
largely with the Parliamentarians, which may have
encouraged them to present a list of grievances against
the University on traditional lines in 1649. (fn. 353) The
University made a general levy on its members to defray
the expenses of the suit, (fn. 354) and although proposals for a
treaty between the parties were made the negotiations
seem to have been abortive.
The Interregnum left the academic life of the
University little changed. Both universities were
looked upon by Cromwell as national institutions and
assets. Oxford itself was governed not by men who
were strangers to its traditions, but by its own members
who differed from their predecessors mainly in politics
and forms of religious observance. The pursuit of
knowledge was still directed (at least officially) towards
the same great end: in the medieval university for the
good of the Church, in the Cromwellian Academy that
it might 'be useful to the great and glorious Kingdom
of our Lord Jesus Christ'. The Laudian Code was
never more strictly administered as regards moral
discipline and studies, not even by Dean Fell, than it
was by John Owen and John Conant. Obvious differences were those of dress and dogma. Whereas a
Caroline Vice-Chancellor sat in Convocation in cap,
gown, and hood, Owen presided in cocked hat, velvet
coat, and jack-boots with cambric tops. (fn. 355) Wood's
testimony is conflicting. His autobiography exhibits
him during this period as a contented student, peacefully studying in the Bodleian, and fiddling for recreation, (fn. 356) although there was of 'preaching and praying
too much'. In his History and his Athenae he becomes
frankly political and shows the influence of more
prejudiced contemporaries sometimes indicated by
such expressions as 'I was told' or 'I have heard'. (fn. 357)
The tribute of Clarendon to the University's learning
and devotion to duty is valuable as coming from one
who had no cause to think well of Cromwellian
administrators. (fn. 358) In 1657 Oliver Cromwell resigned
his office of Chancellor, and was succeeded by his son,
Richard, who resigned in May 1660. He was succeeded by the Marquis of Hertford, who, dying five
months later, was in turn succeeded by Sir Edward
Hyde, later Earl of Clarendon. (fn. 359) The first act of the
Restoration affecting the University was an order of
Parliament to the Chancellors of Oxford and Cambridge to secure the government of the colleges according to their respective statutes, and to restore those who
had been unjustly ejected. A commission appointed
in July 1660 restored some and ejected others, but
Wood remarks that those who were reinstated did not
amount to a sixth part of those ejected in 1648 and
after, 'they being either dead, or married, or had
changed their Religion'. (fn. 360) In 1662 the Act of Uniformity led to a few more ejections, the chief of the
sufferers being John Conant, Rector of Exeter, one of the
ablest of the Commonwealth Vice-Chancellors. (fn. 361) The
proctorial cycle, which had been interrupted in 1648,
was readjusted by Clarendon, (fn. 362) and on 25 Jan. 1667
all acts promulgated in Cromwell's time from 23 Oct.
1647 to 6 Sept. 1659, 'famæ bonæ et honestati publicæ
repugnantia,' were expunged from the Register. (fn. 363)
Parliament in 1665 returned thanks to the University
for refusing to sign the Solemn League and Covenant
and for resisting Visitation in 1647. (fn. 364) The final
gesture of the academic bodies against the Interregnum
was the ceremonial burning in 1683 of works by Milton,
Hobbes, John Owen, Knox, Buchanan, and others; and
the removal, in 1684 at the request of the king, of
John Locke from Christ Church. (fn. 365) On the accession of
James II in 1685, the rebellion in the West produced a
loyal outburst in the University; arms and ammunition
were obtained from Windsor, regimental colours were
provided, and drums purchased; and finally the ammunition and arms were returned to Windsor unused, all
at a cost of about £140. (fn. 366) But the king soon lost his
popularity by his attempt to Romanize the University,
imposing a President on Magdalen College, and
ejecting the fellows. The firm and honourable opposition of the college to the attempted violation of their
statutes recalls the heroic corporate resistance of the
earlier University to despotic intervention. (fn. 367)
The licence of the Restoration period, which so
profoundly influenced English social life, was naturally
felt in academic circles. The number of ale-houses
increased, and coffee-houses, where members of the
University discussed all the 'news and the affairs of
Christendom,' became popular. (fn. 368) A more acceptable
amenity, from the official standpoint, was the introduction of 'common rooms' in colleges where fellows
might meet for relaxation and private conversation. (fn. 369)
The 'pass-man' also appears on the scene, determined to
live like a gentleman and to do only enough to carry
him through the exercises of his college and to secure a
degree. (fn. 370) Great efforts were made by Dean Fell when
he was Vice-Chancellor from 1666 to 1669 to restore
discipline and encourage studies. Some minor reforms
in the conduct of examinations were introduced by
Fell's successor, Ralph Bathurst, President of Trinity,
whose regulations for the instruction of undergraduates
at Trinity are a good example of an efficient college
curriculum. In the history of study Bathurst's provision
of a special library for undergraduates also deserves
mention. (fn. 371) The study of law continued to decline.
Another petition on behalf of Civil Law was made to
the king in 1660, appealing for the promotion of those
who held degrees in that faculty. (fn. 372) Eleven years later a
candidate for the degree of B.C.L. and D.C.L. could
find no one to dispute with him in the Schools. (fn. 373)
With the decline of University exercises a notable
provision was made for the scene of their performance.
The use of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin for the
annual Act had given rise to much disquiet among the
more responsible section of the University. It was often
attended with disorder and unseemly speeches. In
1664 Gilbert Sheldon, Archbishop of Canterbury, who
succeeded Clarendon as Chancellor in 1667, gave
sufficient money to begin the building of the Sheldonian
Theatre, where such exercises could be held; and in that
building the Act, now represented by a commemoration ceremony called the Encaenia, has been celebrated
from 1669 to this day. From the point of view of
learning, the endowment of the Theatre was of importance, as Sheldon provided that any surplus income
should be employed for the advantage and encouragement of the Oxford Press. (fn. 374) The Laudian Code had
already envisaged an officially controlled University
Press. An overseer had been appointed in 1658, and
from 1666 Fell had presented the University with
matrixes for type and had established a type foundry.
When the Theatre was completed in 1669 the printers,
who had hitherto occupied hired premises in the town,
were installed in the new building. From that time
until Fell's death in 1686 the press was practically
under his sole management. (fn. 375) One of its chief works
was Wood's Historia Universitatis Oxoniensis (1674),
which was designedly published 'for the honour of the
University in forreigne countries'. (fn. 376) Copies were
presented to distinguished persons and thereby the
history of the University first became generally known
both in this country and overseas. The publication in
the same year of a catalogue of books in the Bodleian
Library also assisted in spreading abroad the fame of
Oxford. A foundation which helped the advancement
of science was the Ashmolean Museum, built in 1683
by Elias Ashmole to house a collection of natural and
artificial curiosities formed by the Tradescant family.
It also received Ashmole's collection of manuscripts
and printed books, and later the libraries of Anthony
Wood and Dr. Martin Lister, as well as the collections
of Sir William Dugdale and John Aubrey. (fn. 377) The
building also provided a place where experimental
science could be pursued, and it was there that the
Oxford Philosophical Society was founded in 1683. (fn. 378)
In the second half of the 17th century many
important accessions were received by the Bodleian
Library. Thomas, Lord Fairfax, who died in 1671,
bequeathed some valuable manuscripts, including
several early English works (Chaucer, Gower, Wyclif's
Bible, &c.). In 1675 Christopher, Lord Hatton, gave
some precious Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, and three
years later the University received the Anglo-Saxon
manuscripts of Francis Junius, including the Ormulum
and Caedmon's Paraphrase. The collection of Oriental
manuscripts was greatly enlarged by the purchase in
1693 of over 1,000 manuscripts from the libraries of
Edward Pococke and Robert Huntington. The
manuscript resources of the Bodleian and of the college libraries were first made known in 1697 by
Bernard's Catalogi manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae
(Oxon. e Theatro Sheldoniano), a work of reference
which even yet has not been entirely superseded. (fn. 379)
James II had few supporters in the University. On
17 Dec. 1688, a letter of congratulation to William of
Orange was read in Congregation, (fn. 380) and the coronation
of the new monarchs was celebrated in April of the
following year by a special Act in the Sheldonian
Theatre. (fn. 381) Nevertheless, the University failed to
obtain any substantial privileges from the new monarchs.
In 1689 the two Universities petitioned Parliament to
confirm their charters and in particular that of 31
Elizabeth to Cambridge and the great charter of Charles
I to Oxford. The Bill, strongly opposed by the town,
was laid aside by the Parliament, which was prorogued
on 27 Jan. 1690: from that time until the 19th century
the town and the University may be said to have
suspended active hostilities. (fn. 382) With the departure of
James, the University found itself faced with the
problem of non-jurors and politically divided into
Jacobites and Whigs. The Jacobite element was so
strong that soon after the accession of George I in 1714
a number of bishops advocated the presentation of a
Bill giving the king power to nominate all the chief
officers of the two Universities and all heads of houses. (fn. 383)
This and similar schemes for University reform, even
though not carried out, indicate very plainly the
resistance of the University to the Hanoverians. Jacobite
influence gradually declined, but a bitter struggle with
the Whigs was carried on for many years. Our knowledge of Oxford academical life at this period is largely
derived from the partial pen of Thomas Hearne,
staunch non-juror, scholar, antiquary, and shrewd man
of business. (fn. 384) The picture is not a pleasant one; the
dulled conscience of the University is illustrated
by the career of a dissolute head of a college who,
having misappropriated £3,000 of University money
for which he had his living sequestered, yet was afterwards elected Lady Margaret Reader in Divinity. (fn. 385)
The intellectual state of the University, preoccupied
as its members were with clerico-political activities, was
one of profound torpidity. The inflexibility of the
Laudian Code which had been designed to give permanence and direction to a definite course of studies
had defeated its purpose. Its fundamental weakness was
that it perpetuated an obsolete curriculum and so
hindered the pursuit of new studies. As administered
by strong characters like Laud, Owen, Conant, and
Fell the code functioned and provided good training,
but in the hands of lesser men only the forms remained.
Hobbes had scoffed at the University's Aristotelity
tricked out with the jargon of vain philosophy. (fn. 386)
Clarendon had declared that the learning which
scholars got at Oxford was 'impertinent, being only a
pedantick way of disputing and wrangling'; (fn. 387) and
Bishop Butler in 1717 added his testimony that at
Oxford 'we are obliged to misspend so much time here
in attending frivolous lectures and unintelligible disputations, that I am quite tired out with such a
disagreeable way of trifling'. (fn. 388) Amhurst in his periodical Terrae Filius has given a satirist's view of the way
in which University exercises were conducted and the
base intrigues which encompassed them. The title of
Amhurst's periodical is that of one of the principal
speakers of the Act whose scurrilities had in the 18th
century become the chief feature of that once solemn
ceremony, and never failed to attract a fashionable
crowd only too willing and ready to be amused by
ribaldry. The terrae filius was suppressed in 1713 and
from that time the Act survived only in the Sermon
and in the annual ceremony connected with the dedication (Encaenia) of the Sheldonian Theatre. The Act
was, however, revived for the last time in 1733, and it is
memorable that this was the last occasion when the
insignia of the Book, the Cap, and the Kiss were
bestowed on those who proceeded to a master's degree. (fn. 389)
In spite of the low ebb of intellectual life, the
University received several benefactions for the establishment of professorships. A professorship of poetry
was endowed by Henry Birkhead, who died in 1696;
a second chair of Arabic was endowed by the Lord
Almoner, and George I founded a Regius Professorship
of Modern History in 1724. Botany obtained recognition in 1728, when the University received £3,000 to
endow a professorship by the bequest of William
Sherard, who also bequeathed his library and herbarium. (fn. 390) In the reign of George II two notable
chairs were endowed. Richard Rawlinson, who died in
1755, made provision for a chair of Anglo-Saxon but
not to take effect until forty years after his death; and in
the same year Charles Viner left about £12,000 partly
to endow a chair of Common Law, the first occupant of
which was Sir William Blackstone. (fn. 391) In addition to
these endowments the sum of £30 from Lord Crewe's
annual benefaction of £200 was allotted to a Reader
of Experimental Philosophy. (fn. 392)
The cultural resources of Oxford received a notable
addition when the Radcliffe Library was opened in
1749. Arrangements for the building and its equipment
had been made by John Radcliffe, the eminent
physician, before his death in 1714. The intention of
the trustees seems to have been that the library should
be devoted to the acquisition of 'the most modern books
in all faculties and languages not in the Bodleian
Library'. One of the first collections acquired was the
Fraser Collection of Oriental manuscripts. (fn. 393) During
the reign of George II the Bodleian was still further
enriched by the manuscripts and printed books bequeathed by Thomas Tanner, Bishop of St. Asaph,
including the Sancroft and Nalson papers; the State
papers of Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon; and the
library of Richard Rawlinson, a non-juring bishop,
consisting of about 5,000 manuscripts and 2,000
printed books. The Rawlinson manuscripts are very
miscellaneous in character, but include valuable State
papers and the collections and diaries of Thomas
Hearne. The fourth catalogue of the printed books of
the Bodleian Library was published in 1738. (fn. 394)
The printing-house which had been installed in
the Sheldonian Theatre had, before the beginning of the
next century, outgrown its accommodation. A large
building in the classical style was therefore built in 1713
to the east of the Theatre and called the Clarendon
Building, since its cost was defrayed largely from the
profits which came to the University from the sale of
Clarendon's History of the Rebellion. The renaissance
of the press under Fell had been short lived. Great
hopes had been built on the printing of Bibles and the
Book of Common Prayer, of which the University had
secured from the Crown a partial monopoly, but it was
a financial failure. In printing, the University, unable
to withstand the competition of the official London
interests, decided in 1692 to lease the printing of
Bibles to the Stationers' Company and to limit itself to
learned work. (fn. 395) In 1757 Blackstone found University printing in a melancholy condition. The Bible
press was controlled by Baskett and the Learned press
had fallen into the hands of one family which was
content 'to drive a little peddling trade, with a small
but certain gain': it had 'been made the property of a
favourite family, and a nest of imposing mechanics'
while the interests of learning were forgotten or
neglected. (fn. 396) Some improvement in the management
of the press was effected in 1757 by a statute which
provided for its control by perpetual delegates. (fn. 397)
In the first half of the 18th century two new colleges
were founded. In 1714, in consequence of a benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, Gloucester Hall was
refounded as Worcester College, (fn. 398) and Hart Hall in
1740 was incorporated as Hertford College. The
latter was established on a very inadequate endowment
provided by the then Principal, Richard Newton, but
with a remarkable code of statutes. One of the most
striking features of the code is the encouragement given
to English studies. Undergraduates were to write a
theme every week, 'The Theme shall always be an
English Composition, that the Youth of the Society
may learn to write and speak their own Language
readily and properly; the English language being that
wherein they will chiefly have Occasion to Converse,
to Correspond, and to Preach.' (fn. 399) Not until the 19th
century were the claims of English recognized by the
University itself.
The first deliberate proposal to introduce a modification into the Laudian Code was made in 1759 by the
submission of a statute regulating the conditions of
membership of Convocation and thereby affecting the
franchise. Various opinions were expressed. The
proctors, who opposed modification, were convinced
that the University was restrained from altering or
explaining any of the statutes confirmed by the Charter
of Charles I, but learned counsel held that 'the University has the power of making such Statutes without
obtaining a Royal licence, where the subject matter of
them imports an explanation or alteration of such
former Statutes as were specially confirmed by Royal
authority before the compilation of the present body of
Statutes'. After much controversy two explanatory
statutes were added to the code in 1760. (fn. 400) In 1768 an
edition of the code was issued, which, though it really
contained several unnoted additions, purported to be the
approved code of 1636, and still forms the official text
of the Corpus Statutorum. This has been kept up to date
by the publication of addenda, now issued annually. (fn. 401)
The reign of George III brought no considerable
change, but movements of reform were slowly advancing. The progress of religious toleration is shown in
1773 by the support given by a section of Convocation
to a proposal that subscription to the XXXIX Articles
at matriculation should be abrogated. (fn. 402) The question
had been raised in the House of Commons during a
debate in February 1772 on a clerical petition praying
for relief from subscription to the Articles. (fn. 403) Although
the proposal was almost necessarily rejected, it indicated
nevertheless the existence of a considerable body of
opinion in favour of toleration.
The great political disturbances of the reign are
reflected in the proceedings of the University. In a
letter to the king in 1775 the University deplored that
the liberty of the Press had been prostituted to sedition,
and equally deplored the miseries into which their
'deluded Fellow Subjects in America have been by these
seducing Arts betrayed'. (fn. 404) A petition was sent to
Parliament in 1779 against the Bill for the further
relief of Protestant dissenting ministers and schoolmasters, (fn. 405) and in 1792 the University expressed its
gratitude to the king for the course he had taken in
checking and suppressing wicked and seditious publications. (fn. 406) A movement in the other direction was made by
Edward Tatham, Rector of Lincoln, in proposing to the
Hebdomadal Board that the degree of D.C.L. should
be conferred by diploma on Edmund Burke. As a
similar proposal had already been made and rejected by
the Board, no further action was taken. (fn. 407) Revolutionary
principles were again condemned in 1795 when the
University, congratulating the king on his escape from
danger, expressed its abhorrence of 'those pernicious
doctrines which, disseminated under the pretence of
Reform, have produced this Violence and Outrage'. (fn. 408)
A more practical step was the sending of £4,000 subscribed by the University and the colleges towards the
revenue of the country, and by the enrolment of an
armed association to assist in repelling the threatened
invasion. (fn. 409) The loyalty of the Universities was never
questioned, and in the Act for the more effectual
suppression of societies established for seditious and
treasonable purposes (39 Geo. III, ch. 79) a clause
provided that it should not extend to lectures delivered
in the Universities.
Political unrest and the international situation were
not conducive to studies, and serious complaints,
apparently well justified, were made in 1787 about the
lax administration of the Bodleian Library. (fn. 410) In the
same year the first part of Codicum manuscriptorum
Orientalium catalogus a loanne Uri confectus, was
published, and in 1789 the University assigned to the
use of the library the School of Anatomy, to provide
accommodation for the rapidly increasing number of
books. From that time onwards the other schools have
been taken over and appropriated to the library, the
last school having been incorporated in 1884. Science
received a very notable contribution in the building of
an Observatory by the Radcliffe Trustees. The foundation stone was laid in 1772, the building being completed several years later. (fn. 411) In 1780 an endowment
from George Henry Lee, 3rd Earl of Litchfield, took
effect for the reading of clinical lectures in the Radcliffe
Infirmary to the students in medicine. (fn. 412) The study
of botany was advanced in 1793 by a yearly grant from
the king of £200, which was reduced by fees of office
to £182; (fn. 413) and in 1798 professorships of Anatomy, the
practice of Medicine, and Chemistry were endowed by
George Aldrich. (fn. 414) A chair of Rural Economy was also
provided by a benefaction from John Sibthorp, who
died in 1796. (fn. 415) Apart from science, the University
received one of its best-known benefactions in the
bequest of the Rev. John Bampton, Prebendary of
Salisbury, for the endowment of the delivery of eight
divinity lecture sermons on as many Sunday mornings
in term. (fn. 416) Undergraduate talent was fostered by the
Earl of Litchfield, Chancellor of the University
(1762–72), who gave an annual prize of £20 each for
compositions in Latin verse and English prose, two
prizes which have been continued by his successors. (fn. 417)
Prizes were also given for compositions in English
verse, later to be put on a permanent footing by Sir
Roger Newdigate in 1806. (fn. 418)
As regards one phase of University life in the second
half of the 18th century no two opinions are possible,
and that is the deplorable condition of studies. The
University itself did little more than grant degrees,
many of them undeserved. Gibbon's statement that
the time he spent at Magdalen College was 'the most
idle and unprofitable' of his life is well known. (fn. 419) It
is supported from other sources. Candidates declaimed
to bare walls and often read their declamation from a
book. Questions and answers were handed down from
man to man and the professional respondent, who was
willing to sell his services as well as to provide the
arguments, was not unknown. Moreover, the University put a premium on incompetence and idleness
by granting honorary M.A. degrees to gentlemencommoners who had completed two and a half years'
residence. (fn. 420) But as intellectual standards declined,
expenses increased. To meet this evil a statute was
introduced in 1785 for reducing expenses at the
University, especially those resulting from the curses of
that age, gambling, horse racing, and cock fighting. (fn. 421)
The last of the statutes regulating in detail the form of
academical dress was promulgated in 1770, and representations of the various gowns were engraved so that
the prescribed forms might be known as widely as
possible to members of the University and to tailors. (fn. 422)
One administrative matter very prominent in this
period is the number of dispensations granted to
supplicants for degrees by means of 'Chancellor's
letters'. A considerable number of such supplicants had
not resided in the University for the full statutory time,
dispensation for which could be granted only at the
request of the Chancellor, subject to confirmation by
Convocation. In order to check one abuse in the
obtaining of such dispensations the Hebdomadal
Board resolved in 1798 'that no person should be
placed in a more advantageous situation by a Chancellor's letter, than he would otherwise be in, provided
he had proceeded regularly to his degrees'. (fn. 423)
But if University teaching had lost its efficacy, signs
of a revival of learning began to be seen in some of the
colleges. At the end of the century Oriel under
Eveleigh, Balliol under Parsons, and Christ Church
under Cyril Jackson were already reforming the curriculum of their colleges, (fn. 424) and are credited with the
introduction of the examination statute of 1800, which
provided for examination for the B.A., B.C.L., and
M.A. degrees. Six examiners were to be nominated by
the Vice-Chancellor and proctors, and confirmed by
Convocation and Congregation. For the B.A. degree
the subjects were Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Moral
Philosophy, and the elements of Mathematics and
Physics: History and Jurisprudence were added for the
B.C.L. examination. For the M.A. degree the subjects
were Mathematics, Physics, Metaphysics, and History.
One sign of progress was that the examiners were
allowed to conduct the examination in Latin or English
as they thought fit. Provision was also made for an
honours examination (examinatio extraordinaria) for
the B.A. and B.C.L. degrees, the number of candidates
at any one examination being limited to twelve. In
this examination the names of the candidates were to be
published in order of merit. The statute did not become
operative until 1802, when at the first examination
only two candidates presented themselves for honours. (fn. 425)
The importance of the new Examination Statute lay
rather in its intention than in its immediate achievement. Modifications, including an increased number
of examiners and of classes, were introduced in 1807
and later. The most important change came in 1849
and 1850 when a revised Responsions examination
was introduced, together with a First Public Examination embracing classics, mathematics, and the Gospels
in Greek. The Second Public Examination had four
Schools—Literae Humaniores, Mathematics and
Physical Sciences, Natural Science, and Jurisprudence
and Modern History. The successful candidates were
grouped in four classes. (fn. 426)
The predominant studies in the first part of the 19th
century were Theology and Classics. The Prince
Regent had in 1813 and 1818 respectively founded
moderately endowed chairs for Mineralogy and
Geology, (fn. 427) but science could make little progress owing
to the want of suitable accommodation, apparatus, and
endowment, and to the absence of official encouragement. In 1817 the lower room of the Ashmolean
Museum was still the head-quarters of the Professor of
Chemistry who, in reply to a request for more accommodation, was offered a share of the Keeper's kitchen
with the use of the common pump, an offer rejected as
being 'too humiliating to science'. Improvement in
these conditions was effected by Dr. Daubeny, who
fitted up additional rooms in the Ashmolean, partly at his
own expense. It was not until 1830, when rooms were
allocated in the Clarendon Building to scientific pursuits,
that the teaching of science could make headway. (fn. 428)
One of the chief grievances of the teaching staff of
the University at this time was that attendance at
professors' lectures was not obligatory. Tuition was
monopolized by college tutors, and, as there was no
legislation by which attendance at professors' lectures
could be enforced, their entire neglect was threatened.
In 1840 the Professors of Medicine, Sanskrit, Clinical
Medicine, Chemistry, Moral Philosophy, Astronomy,
and Arabic, with the Readers in Mineralogy, Experimental Philosophy, and Natural Philosophy, together
with the Praelector of Logic presented a memorial to
the Hebdomadal Board suggesting that compulsory
attendance at a certain number of their lectures should
be imposed on those seeking distinctions in examinations. It is significant that the memorialists thought it
necessary to state that such attendance would not mean
'weakening the interest now felt in the pursuit of
Classical Literature and Theology', and that it would
be operative only in conjunction with college tutors. (fn. 429)
The professoriate was enlarged by the foundation of
a chair of Political Economy in 1825 endowed by
Henry Drummond; a chair of Sanskrit in 1830 by
Joseph Boden; and a chair of the Exegesis of Holy
Scripture in 1847 by John Ireland, Dean of Westminster. (fn. 430) In 1840 an Act of Parliament directed that
two canonries of Christ Church should be annexed to
two new professorships: the Regius Professorships of
Pastoral Theology and Ecclesiastical History were
accordingly established by letters patent two years
later. (fn. 431) Lastly, an ancient readership was revived in
1839 when a Praelector of Logic was appointed, his
salary being derived, as it was in early times, from a
small tax imposed upon all members of the University
below the degree of Master of Arts. (fn. 432)
A great advance in teaching was effected by the
foundation of the Taylor Institution in 1847. The
founder, Sir Robert Taylor, a surveyor to the Admiralty,
died in 1788. By his will the residue of his estate was
left to the University for the erection of a building and
the establishment of a foundation 'for the teaching and
improving the European languages'. The will was
contested by his son, and it was not until 1835 that the
University came into possession of the sum of £65,000.
With this benefaction the Taylor Building (Aedes
Taylorianae) was built from the designs of C. R.
Cockerell in 1847, and a Librarian, a Professor of
Modern European Languages, and two teachers of
languages were appointed. As the study of languages
was no part of the University curriculum the instruction was of an elementary character, and remained so
until the foundation of the final Honour School of
Modern Languages in 1903. (fn. 433) While building the
Taylorian the University also added the University
Galleries (Pinacotheca Academica). The cost of this
addition was partly defrayed from money left by Dr.
Francis Randolph to erect a building to contain the
Pomfret marbles and other works of art. (fn. 434)
The first half of the 19th century was an era of
reform, a political phase peculiarly unacceptable to
academic Oxford. The identification of the University
with the national Church, which the Earl of Leicester
had so thoroughly inculcated in the reign of Elizabeth,
was then complete. The University could truly say
in 1834 that it had 'constructed a system of education
in strict conformity with the discipline of the Church
of England'. (fn. 435) It was therefore inevitable that schemes
for religious toleration, the redistribution of Church
revenues, reorganizing the Churches of Ireland and
Wales, and Church reform generally, met with unfailing opposition. As regards the proposal to extend the
franchise in 1831 the University contemplated the
measure with 'sorrow and alarm'. (fn. 436) Even the proposed
extension of the Great Western Railway to Oxford was
condemned as being subversive to discipline, detrimental to health, and an incentive to monetary
speculation. (fn. 437) Nothing shows the official attitude of the
University more clearly than the numerous petitions
which it presented during this period. From 1805 to
1829 the measures to grant relief to Roman Catholics
produced numerous appeals; Sir Robert Peel, who
supported the Emancipation Bill, tendered his resignation as University burgess. (fn. 438) The proposal to found
the University of London was viewed with alarm by
Convocation as being the establishment of a society
'disavowing all connexion with the Established Church
and educating its members in no system of religion
whatever'. (fn. 439) A petition on the observance of the Lord's
Day was presented in 1833 (fn. 440) and another on the reform
of the Church in Ireland. (fn. 441) A Bill to remove disabilities
in 1834 evoked opposition on the ground that it would
'subvert the present mode of academical education,
and render impracticable any definite system of religious
instruction', and 'unsettle the minds of the young'. (fn. 442)
Further petitions were against the abolition of Church
rates and the discontinuance of the bishopric of Sodor
and Man. (fn. 443) A Government measure respecting ecclesiastical duties and revenues was put forward in 1838 and
strongly opposed by the University until 1840. (fn. 444) On
the constructive side the University from 1839 to 1841
presented petitions in favour of Church extension and
the employment of State funds for that purpose, since
it was, the memorialists claimed, the interest and duty
of the government and legislature to apply national
resources towards the relief of a national want. This
was by no means the opinion of the Chancellor, the
Duke of Wellington, whose name had formally been
included among the signatories. He informed the
University that if the petition were sent to the House of
Lords he should decline to present it, and would then
declare publicly his dissent and give his reasons. (fn. 445)
Later the Bill to allow Jews to sit in Parliament was
opposed, as also was the appointment of Roman
Catholic bishops in this country. (fn. 446)
Although the University viewed national reform
movements with alarm it yet proceeded to introduce
some minor reforms into its own constitution. In 1819
the statute 'of the ordinary disputations' was repealed
as being ill suited to the times—the first repeal of any
part of the Laudian Code. (fn. 447) In Feb. 1827 the antiquated
oaths that graduates would not be reconciled to Henry
Simeonis (flor. 1242), nor lecture or incept in any
other English University, Cambridge alone excepted,
nor lecture at Stamford, were also repealed. (fn. 448) Many
other improvements in the statutes were also effected,
and in March 1835 a new code of statutes was
approved for the halls, (fn. 449) then only five in number with
about 130 commoners on their books. (fn. 450) In the same
year a very belated reform was brought forward by the
Hebdomadal Board by which a declaration at matriculation was to be substituted for subscription to the
XXXIX Articles, a declaration which merely stated
that the person matriculated assented to the doctrines
of the Church of England. The proposal met with the
most determined opposition and was rejected by
Convocation. (fn. 451) A petition was also presented against a
Bill prohibiting subscription to the Articles of Religion
in certain cases. (fn. 452) Towards the town the University showed a conciliatory attitude in 1825 by releasing
the mayor and citizens from the annual visit to St.
Mary's on St. Scholastica's day: (fn. 453) in 1859, by Act of
Parliament, the town was also relieved of the yearly
oath. (fn. 454) Two minor events of this period may also be
recorded. In 1810 the University Calendar first appeared, and in 1823 the United Debating Society was
formed, later to become famous as the Union Society. (fn. 455)
The rise of Liberalism and the popular demand for
political and ecclesiastical reform which so alarmed
clerical Oxford was responsible for a movement that
had for its main aim the defence of the Church in her
spiritual capacity against the prevalent spirit of latitudinarianism. The pioneers of this Church revival
were John Henry Newman, Hurrell Froude, Keble,
and Pusey, all fellows of Oriel College. The appearance
of Keble's Christian Year in 1827 auspiciously marked
the beginning of the Oxford Movement, and the
publication in 1833 of his sermon on National Apostasy
opened a sustained attack on Erastianism. The sermon
was followed by the publication of the first three Tracts,
all anonymous, but written by Newman. In these the
author emphasized the apostolic descent of the Church
of England, the necessity of the defence of the Catholic
Church, and the sanctity of the liturgy. In 1836 the
Tractarians took an active part in the promulgation
of a statute framed to deprive, on the ground of heresy,
Dr. Hampden, Regius Professor of Divinity, of certain
privileges and duties pertaining to his professorship. (fn. 456)
This again raised the question of the unalterability of
the Laudian Code. Notwithstanding the opinion of
eminent legal authorities, the statute was passed and
came into force. (fn. 457) The publication in 1841 of Tract
90, in which Newman put a Romanist interpretation
on the XXXIX Articles of Religion, aroused a fierce
controversy both in the University and without.
Several secessions to the Church of Rome followed,
including that of Newman himself. The Movement
passed from Oxford and became identified with the
High Church party. Its abiding monument at Oxford
was the foundation in 1870 of Keble College, built
by subscription as a memorial to John Keble and as
a place in which young men then debarred from
University education might be trained in simple and
religious habits according to the principles of the
Church of England. (fn. 458)
The movement of reform from within was continued
in 1837, when the Hebdomadal Board entered upon a
general revision of the statutes and appointed a committee to that end. The decision aroused great opposition among members of Convocation, who resented the
Board's undertaking such a revision without their
sanction or even knowledge. It is here that the curious
conflict of aims at this period between the Board and
Convocation, both normally parties of reaction, is well
seen. The attitude of Convocation was that its members were bound to be jealous of its privileges and
particularly to watch over any infringement of them or
any informality of proceedings. The revision, which
continued for about three years, was never completed. (fn. 459)
A still greater step in this direction of reform was taken
in 1845, when a scheme for University extension was
introduced. A committee was appointed, and in 1851
submitted its final recommendations. These were
(1) that a fund should be raised to establish an independent hall or halls unconnected with any existing
college; (2) that three hospitia be erected, to be placed
under the supervision of three Masters of Arts, for
undergraduates who would be attached to the several
colleges, and (3) that colleges be allowed to annex
lodging-houses to themselves for the purpose of receiving students. The Board rejected its first and second
recommendations, and accepted the third. (fn. 460)
Reform from without had been threatened as long
since as 1772 when the Solicitor-General remarked
that 'the Universities ought to be under parliamentary
cognizance if they did not take care to reform themselves'. (fn. 461) From 1831 to 1835 Sir William Hamilton, in
four articles in the Edinburgh Review, very aggressively
emphasized the need of such state intervention. The
author's opinion was that the colleges had unlawfully
usurped the system of education legally organized in the
University, and that Oxford was rather a collection of
private schools dominated by the heads of houses than
a public university. He further maintained that college
tutors had usurped the place of the professors and that
in its insistence on subscription to the XXXIX Articles
and the manifold oaths taken on all conceivable occasions the University had converted 'the great seminary
of the English Church into a school of perjury'. The
attack was violent, but it called public attention to
many academic abuses, and helped to prepare the way
for government intervention in 1850. (fn. 462)
A Royal Commission to inquire into the state,
discipline, studies, and revenues of the University and
colleges of Oxford was appointed on 31 Aug. 1850.
The commissioners first invited the University authorities to co-operate and then forwarded lists of questions.
A good deal of passive resistance of a courteous kind
was offered. A few colleges declined to give any
information: only Balliol, All Souls, Corpus Christi,
and Pembroke College gave information in full,
including a statement of revenue. The University
itself refused information about revenue. The commissioners estimated the annual income of the University
at £7,500: actually its income was about £9,250. (fn. 463)
In a presentment of their case the authorities of the
University stated that they were anxious to do what
was right in that matter and to show every possible
deference and respect to the Crown, but were equally
anxious not to compromise their rights and privileges.
The case was submitted to their legal advisers, who held
that the commission was not constitutional or legal, or
such as the University or its members were bound to
obey: and that the University was subject to visitation
neither by the Ordinary nor by the Crown. Counsel
recommended a petition to the Queen in Council
against the commission. A few weeks later the. University received the opinion of the law officers of the
Crown: this stated that the commission was not in any
respect illegal or unconstitutional. The University,
acting on the recommendation of its own advisers,
prepared a petition which, however, was refused by
the Crown. (fn. 464)
The report of the commissioners was received in
July 1852 through the Chancellor, who advised the
University that if it should be deemed desirable that
any measure should be adopted it should be prepared
by the University itself. (fn. 465) Its recommendations
embraced the state and discipline of the University,
its studies and revenue, and the colleges. It proposed
that the University should receive an indemnification
in case it had exceeded its power in altering
the Laudian Code and should henceforth have full
authority to make, abrogate, or alter statutes with a
few exceptions. (fn. 466) It recommended the enlargement of
the Hebdomadal Board and the remodelling of Congregation; the abolition of promissory oaths and of grades
of commoners; the admission of non-collegiate students;
reforms in connexion with the professoriate and lectureships; and the building of a science museum. As
regards colleges, the commissioners recommended the
abolition of oaths against change in statutes; throwing
open of fellowships and scholarships; improvement in
the number and value of scholarships; and power being
given to heads and fellows to alter or a brogate statutes. (fn. 467)
A proposal of the Hebdomadal Board in 1852 that the
Crown should be petitioned to grant its licence to the
University to hold lands in mortmain so that it might
extend its public buildings, erect additional museums
and lecture-rooms, and invest in landed security
trust moneys held for the permanent advancement of
learning and education, was accepted, but proved
abortive. (fn. 468) In 1860, however, in response to another
petition, licence to hold lands not exceeding the sum
of £10,000 of yearly income was granted by letters
patent. (fn. 469)
The Act embodying the final recommendations of
the commissioners was passed in 1854. (fn. 470) The most
far-reaching amendment was that all resident members
of Convocation should also be members of Congregation. The Hebdomadal Board became the Hebdomadal Council and was reconstituted to include the
Chancellor, the Vice-Chancellor, the proctors, six
heads of houses, six professors, and six members of
Convocation, each of these three classes to be elected
by Congregation. (fn. 471) The remodelled Congregation,
which included all resident members of Convocation,
naturally embraced a large number of those engaged
in teaching. It received the privilege of using English
instead of Latin in its debates and the power of accepting, rejecting, and proposing amendments to statutes
submitted to it by the Hebdomadal Board. By an oversight the old Congregation of Regents was not abolished,
and it therefore retained those functions which were
not transferred to the new Congregation. It then
became the Ancient House of Congregation, the
functions of which consisted solely in granting graces,
conferring degrees, and confirming the appointment of
examiners. The statute defining the constitution of
Convocation was redrafted, but with little change.
The Act pronounced certain oaths unnecessary, as
well as any oath or declaration at matriculation or on
taking a bachelor's degree. The Vice-Chancellor was
empowered to grant licences to members of Convocation to open private halls, and the University to make
regulations for their government. The Vice-Chancellor's Court was subjected to the rules of the common
law. (fn. 472) Power to amend or frame statutes was given to
the University and the colleges: if they omitted to frame
statutes to meet the objects of the Act the commissioners
were themselves empowered to undertake that duty.
Only three colleges, Exeter, Lincoln, and Corpus,
submitted revised statutes: the rest received com
missioners' ordinances, St. John's protesting to the
last. (fn. 473) The recommendations of the commissioners
were gradually adopted. In 1857 the University dealt
with one phase of extension by arranging examinations
for boys and girls in various centres. (fn. 474) A more
important step was taken in 1868 by the admittance to
the University of students attached to no college or
hall. (fn. 475) These students (nulli Collegio vel Aulae
ascripti) found accommodation in approved private
lodgings under the supervision of a Delegacy. (fn. 476) A great
reform, which had been advocated for about a century,
came in 1871 when by an Act of Parliament those taking
lay academical degrees or holding lay academical or
collegiate offices were not to be required to subscribe to
any Formulary of faith or to make any declaration or
take any oath respecting religious belief or profession. (fn. 477)
The professorships founded under the ordinances of
the commissioners were the Chichele Professorships of
International Law and of Modern History (All Sould);
the Waynflete Professorship of Moral and Metaphysical
Philosophy (Magdalen); the Waynflete Professorship
of Chemistry (Magdalen); and the Linacre Professorship of Physiology (Merton). Corpus Christi College
also founded in 1854 a chair of Latin Literature, and
in 1869 one of Jurisprudence. The University in 1868
endowed a chair of Comparative Philology. Endowments of professorships by individuals in this period
were the professorships of Zoology and of Fine Arts.
The former was founded in 1861 by the Rev. F. W.
Hope, who also gave to the University his entomological
collection and a large and valuable collection of
engraved portraits; the latter in 1869 by a benefaction
from Felix Slade. In 1875 a chair of Chinese was
founded by subscription, and in the following year a
chair of Celtic was endowed by Jesus College. (fn. 478)
In the first seventy-five years of the 19th century
great advance was made in the equipment of learning.
The Bodleian Library, which was gradually absorbing
the Schools, had received the topographical books of
Richard Gough, the collection of dramatic literature
and early poetry formed by Edmund Malone, the great
Hebrew collection of David Oppenheimer, the splendid
library of Francis Douce, the magnificent collection of
prints formed by Alexander Sutherland, and a benefaction of £36,000 from Dr. Robert Mason. A
memorable event in the history of the Library was the
publication from 1843 to 1851 of a catalogue of its
printed books, then estimated to be about 220,000. In
1843 the Bodleian was still larger than the British
Museum and its catalogue was for another forty years or
so the most extensive published record of printed books
in Great Britain. Further accommodation for readers
and space for storage were provided by the loan of the
Camera from the Radcliffe Trustees in 1860. (fn. 479) The
Clarendon Printing House in 1830 moved into larger
premises in Walton Street and, gradually freeing itself
from the interests of managers, was at length brought
under the sole control of the University and was ripe
for mechanical reorganization under Horace Hart at
the end of the century. (fn. 480) One of the recommendations of the commission was realized in 1860 when the
Science Museum was built in the Parks. Designed by
Sir Thomas Deane and Benjamin Woodward, it
is closely associated with the names of John Ruskin
and Sir Henry Acland. Its history is remarkable for
the blending of idealism, artistic integrity, and medievalism with the claims of science. (fn. 481)
Notwithstanding the reforms introduced by the
Commissioners and by the University itself, there
remained a powerful body which was of the opinion
that the University still needed reorganization. The
professoriate was regarded as unsatisfactory and vigorous
protests were made against 'the expenditure of public
money in sinecures for the benefit of persons professedly
devoted to learning and science'. (fn. 482) The commission of
1850 had taken some steps to control collegiate expenditure, but the redistribution of college revenue in aid
of the University at large remained a very pressing
need. A Royal Commission was therefore appointed
in 1872 to obtain 'the fullest information respecting all
matters of fact connected with the property and income
either of the universities themselves or of the colleges
and halls therein'. It was, however, no part of the duty
of the commissioners to pass judgement on the existing
appropriation of those resources or to recommend
alteration. The warrant for the commission was dated
5 Jan. 1872 and the information received prepared
the way for an operative commission five years later.
The Bill appointing the commission was considerably
amended before it received the royal assent in Aug.
1877. The task of the commission was a constructive
one, its chief duty being to provide for greater teaching
facilities. (fn. 483) In Aug. 1877 an Act was promulgated by
which it was provided that the colleges of Oxford and
Cambridge should 'contribute more largely out of
their revenues to University purposes, especially with a
view to further and better instruction in arts, science,
and other branches of learning'. The University and
colleges were given power to make, alter, or repeal
statutes with the approval of the commissioners, and the
commissioners themselves were invested with similar
powers. The main objects of the Act were to secure for
the University adequate contributions for general purposes from the colleges, regard being first had to the
needs of the colleges in themselves; for the creation of a
Common University Fund; for the endowment of professorships or lectureships; for providing new buildings,
libraries, &c.; for reducing the expense of university
education; for founding and endowing scholarships;
and for the keeping and publication of accounts. (fn. 484)
The work of the commissioners extended over several
years. Professors, whose election was to be more
strictly controlled, were required to give instruction to
students, to assist the pursuit of knowledge, and to
contribute to its advancement. The length of time they
were required to be resident in Oxford was laid down,
as well as the number of lectures to be delivered in each
academical year. They were also subject, in the case of
neglect of duties or of wilful disobedience to the
statutes, to a Visitatorial Board. (fn. 485) Many new professorships were created out of suppressed fellowships, &c.,
and others reconstituted: five, circumstances not then
permitting their foundation, were established between
the years 1884 and 1910. Seven readerships at least
were to be established, the duties of the readers being to
lecture and give instruction. (fn. 486) Boards of Faculties were
formed representing Theology, Law, Arts, and Natural
Science. The commissioners also made provision for a
Common University Fund largely derived from moneys
received from colleges. They ordered the publication
of the general University accounts and the accounts of
the colleges, and allotted £1,000 a year to noncollegiate students, who later were to be provided with
offices, &c. at a cost of not less than £7,000. But their
chief work was to promulgate status for all the colleges,
except Lincoln, which had so successfully revised its
statutes in 1854 that no further revision was needed. (fn. 487)
One fundamental weakness of the commissioners'
recommendations was that the contribution of the
colleges to University needs was based 'on the
assumption that the agricultural depression of that day
was temporary only. This assumption proved erroneous, and the result has been that some Colleges were
overloaded with an establishment which they could not
really afford.' (fn. 488)
The problem of University extension had been
before the University for many years. At first the
question was merely one of finding means for the
admission of a poorer class of student to the University.
This had been partly met by the creation of private
halls and by the admission of students attached to no
college or hall. The larger scheme of carrying university tuition into the provinces had been brought before
the commission in 1877, and as early as 1850 had
found in William Sewell an enlightened advocate. In
1878 the University enacted that the Delegates of
Local Examinations should receive proposals for the
establishment of lectures and teaching in the large
towns of England and Wales, and be authorized to
appoint lecturers and examiners for carrying out
such proposals. (fn. 489) In the same year an association for
promoting the higher education of women in Oxford
was formed to establish a system of lectures to be
conducted with general reference to the Oxford
examination of women over 18 years of age which
had been introduced in Nov. 1875. (fn. 490) The question
of the higher education of women had been debated
for some years previously, and in 1873 an organization
was formed with that object in view. In 1879
Lady Margaret Hall was opened for the reception of
women who were members of the Church of England,
and in the same year Somerville Hall, an undenominational society, was also founded. Women, resident or
non-resident, were first admitted to University examinations in 1884, the examinations being those of
Honour Moderations (Classics and Mathematics) and
the final Honour School (History, Mathematics, and
Natural Science). St. Hugh's Hall and St. Hilda's
Hall were established respectively in 1886 and 1893. (fn. 491)
Although religious tests had been abolished in 1871
by Act of Parliament (fn. 492) which permitted Nonconformists
to proceed without restriction to all degrees except those
of theology, it was not until 1886 that they had any
centre in Oxford. The Congregational body had
resolved that their college at Spring Hill, Birmingham,
should be removed to Oxford, be non-residential, and
named after the family of the founder. Mansfield
College was accordingly established to provide a
theological education for men who intended to enter
the Congregational ministry, its aim being 'devoted
entirely to the making of theologians and to preparing
men for the active work of the pastorate'. The
college, which was designed by Basil Champneys, was
begun in 1886 and formally opened in 1889. (fn. 493)
In 1888 another Nonconformist body, associated
with the Unitarians, decided to remove to Oxford.
This body was first founded at Manchester in 1786
as the Manchester Academy. Then, as Manchester
College, it was removed to York in 1803, restored to
Manchester in 1840, and removed to London in 1853.
Four years after its transfer to Oxford Manchester
College was opened as a non-residential society having
as its aim the free imparting of theological knowledge
without insisting on the adoption of particular doctrines. (fn. 494) A member of the Society of Jesus opened in
1896 a private hall for members of that order, and in
1897 a community of Benedictines was also established.
These became respectively in 1918, as permanent
private halls, Campion Hall and St. Benet's Hall.
The first real attempt to solve the problem of the
academic education of the working classes was made in
1899, when Mr. and Mrs. Vrooman founded Ruskin
Hall to make educational opportunities offered by
Oxford accessible to working men and women. In 1902
the hall was moved from St. Giles's to Walton Street,
where in 1913 it was housed in a building of its own
and became Ruskin College. In the same year it was
approved by the University as a society established for
the purpose of higher study. The governing body is
representative of trade unions and other working-class
organizations, but the college is not identified with any
political party. (fn. 495) By the efforts of Sir Monier MonierWilliams Indian studies were encouraged by the opening in 1884 of the Indian Institute to form a centre of
teaching and information on all subjects relative to
India. (fn. 496) The University Galleries were enlarged
(1892–7) and received the contents of the Ashmolean
Museum in 1897. (fn. 497) An important addition to the
architectural amenities of Oxford was the building between 1876 and 1882 of a new range of Examination
Schools, designed by T. G. Jackson, on frontages facing
High Street and Merton Street. (fn. 498)
The twentieth century opened auspiciously with
the building of a new Radcliffe Science Library,
adjoining the Museum, by the Company of Drapers;
and with the establishing, under the will of Cecil John
Rhodes, who died on 26 Mar. 1902, of scholarships for
students from the British Colonies, the United States,
and Germany. Rhodes had matriculated from Oriel
College in 1872 but had never taken any degree.
The terms of his will had both an educational and a
political aspect, Rhodes's object being 'the consolidation of the British Empire, the union of the Englishspeaking peoples, and the promotion of peace throughout the world'. Ninety-six scholarships were allotted
to the United States, sixty to the British Empire, and
fifteen to Germany. Later the Rhodes Trustees
established forty extra scholarships for members of the
British Empire. In the choice of scholars Rhodes
desired that character and athletic qualifications should
be taken into consideration. In connexion with the
scheme the trustees in 1929 built Rhodes House as a
non-resident cultural centre for the scholars, and to
house a library devoted to the history of the Englishspeaking British dominions and Colonies, of the United
States, and of Africa. (fn. 499)
Since the time of the Duke of Wellington the
Chancellor had taken no prominent part in University
administration. Lord Derby had held the office from
1852 to 1869. He was succeeded by the Marquis of
Salisbury, who remained Chancellor for thirty-four
years. Lord Goschen held office from 1903 to 1907,
when he was succeeded by Lord Curzon, who ranks
with the Earl of Leicester and Archbishop Laud as a
Chancellor-reformer. Lord Curzon, in a letter addressed
to the University and dated February 1909, paid
tribute to the two commissions of 1850 and 1877, and
in a Memorandum observed that the academic problem
had 'assumed new shapes with the immense extension
of the boundaries of human knowledge, the vastly
increased demand for higher education, the wider
conception of the duties of a modern university, and
the emergence in the body politic of social strata that
had previously lain lifeless and obscure'. Questions
which the Chancellor asked the University to consider
were its constitution as based on the Hebdomadal
Council, Convocation, and Congregation; the increase
of facilities for the admission of poor men; (fn. 500) the
administration of endowments in scholarships, exhibitions, and fellowships; the relations between the University and the colleges in educational and financial
aspects; and financial administration in general. In
order to improve the teaching element he also advocated a reform of the faculties and suggested a revision
of the relation of University to college tuition in order
that the University might secure a larger measure of
control over teaching and teachers. He also put
forward two subjects of great controversial moment—the abolition of compulsory Greek in Responsions and
the admission of women to degrees. (fn. 501) In the following
year the University proceeded to give effect to these
recommendations. A Delegacy for Women Students
was formed, and the four women's societies, together
with the Society of Oxford Home Students, were
admitted to the privileges of recognized societies. (fn. 502) In
1912 a Board of Finance was constituted consisting of
members of Convocation who should review annually
the published accounts of the University and the
colleges, and advise the Hebdomadal Council on
matters of financial administration. (fn. 503) The faculties were
reconstituted under a general Board. Eight were
established: (1) Theology, (2) Law, (3) Medicine,
(4) Literae Humaniores, (5) Modern History,
(6) Mediaeval and Modern Languages and Literature,
including English, (fn. 504) (7) Oriental languages, (8) Natural
Science, (fn. 505) including Mathematics, each faculty consisting of the recognized teachers in the subjects of
that faculty. (fn. 506)
By a statute dated 4 Mar. 1913 and approved by
the King in Council 12 Aug. 1913, Congregation was
reconstituted to become a genuine organ of the teaching
and administrative elements of the University and the
colleges. The number of the members of those elements
was therefore increased, and mere residence ceased to
be a qualification for admission. (fn. 507) Finally, in 1914 a
change was effected in the constitution of the Hebdomadal Council which, besides five ex-officio members,
was to consist of three heads of houses, six professors,
and nine members of Convocation, all to be elected, as
before, by Congregation. (fn. 508)
The professorships founded from 1900 to 1914 were
those of English Literature (1904: established 1894);
Colonial History, established and later endowed by
Alfred Beit (1905); German Language and Literature
(1907); Engineering Science (1907); Pathology (1907);
Romance Languages (1909); Military History (All
Souls, 1909); and Political Theory and Institutions
(1912) as a national memorial to the Rt. Hon. W. E.
Gladstone. The last-named was converted from a
readership established in 1910. (fn. 509) Readerships were
also established in Ophthalmology, endowed by
Margaret Ogilvie (1902); English, endowed by the
Company of Goldsmiths (1908); Assyriology, endowed
by Mary Wallace Shillito (1911); and Egyptology,
endowed by Walter Morrison (1912). (fn. 510)
The outbreak of war in 1914 had an immediate
effect on the University. In Oct. 1914 the number of
students in residence below the degree of M.A. was
1,400, about 2,000 less than in Oct. 1913: at the end
of 1917 there were only 315, mostly oriental students
and those unfit for military service. The Examination
Schools were appropriated as a military hospital, and
later Somerville College was also requisitioned. In
1915 a School of Instruction for young officers was
formed as well as a School of Military Aeronautics.
The School of Instruction was afterwards superseded
by Officer Cadet Battalions. Teaching was very largely
suspended, but valuable work was done in the scientific
laboratories in connexion with research immediately
concerned with military matters. (fn. 511) A Chemical
Laboratory was built by the generosity of Mr. Dyson
Perrins in 1916, (fn. 512) a degree of D.Phil. for research work
of a high standard was created in 1917, (fn. 513) and in the
next year a School of Agriculture and Forestry was
established. (fn. 514)
The professorships founded in the war period were
those of Byzantine and Modern Greek, endowed by
Ingram Bywater and his wife Charlotte Sotheby (1915);
Forestry (1919); French Literature, endowed by Sir
Basil Zaharoff and called the Marshal Foch Professorship (1918); and Italian Studies, endowed by Arthur
Serena (1918). (fn. 515) The year following the War saw the
formation of a department for the training of teachers, (fn. 516)
the establishment of a Rhodes Professorship of RomanDutch Law, (fn. 517) and the removal of denominational
restriction from theological degrees. (fn. 518)
After the War the question of degrees for women was
again brought forward. As an opinion was expressed
that by the uniform practice of the University from the
earliest times women could not be admitted to degrees,
the University was advised to obtain express Parliamentary sanction in the form of an Act, (fn. 519) but this procedure
was rendered unnecessary by the Sex Disqualification
(Removal) Act (1919). (fn. 520) In May 1920 a statute was
promulgated admitting women to matriculation, to all
University degrees except those in Theology, (fn. 521) and to
full membership of the University. (fn. 522) Degrees for
women, but without the right to take part in the
administration of the University, had been advocated
by Lord Curzon. Another of his recommendations,
that compulsory Greek in Responsions should be
abolished, was approved by the University in the same
year. (fn. 523) This reform was followed by the creation
of a new honour school of Philosophy, Politics, and
Economics, generally known as Modern Greats. (fn. 524) A
constitutional matter of some importance was effected
by the Representation of the People Act (1918) which
entitled all graduates (including B.A.s) to be registered
as University voters.
The financial upheaval consequent on the War had
such a serious effect on Oxford and Cambridge that
both universities made application for financial assistance to meet the increased costs resulting from the War.
A Royal Commission was therefore appointed in 1919
to inquire into the financial resources of the universities
and of the colleges and halls; the administration and
application of those resources; the government of the
universities; and the relations of the colleges and halls
to the universities. (fn. 525) A preliminary step of reform
had been taken by the University in June 1920 by
consolidating the financial boards with the object of
producing greater unity and efficiency. (fn. 526) Pending the
publication of the report, a provisional grant at the rate
of £30,000 a year was paid to the University from the
public funds. Under the Universities of Oxford and
Cambridge Act, 1923, (fn. 527) a Statutory Commission was
empowered to reduce the recommendations of the
Commission to legislative form. The constitution of
Congregation was amended by the exclusion of persons
formerly included on grounds of residence alone. As
regards statutes and decrees containing a preamble, and
accepted without a division or by the votes of twothirds or more, the decision of Congregation was to be
final; otherwise they were to be referred to Convocation. The composition of Convocation remained
unchanged. The functions which it retained were the
election of the Chancellor and other elections assigned
to it by statute; the elections of persons for presentation
to benefices; the conferment of degrees by diploma, and
honorary degrees; the approval of letters from the
University to the king, and to other universities and
learned bodies; and the acceptance or rejection of
statutes and decrees submitted to it. (fn. 528) Other statutes
made by the commissioners were concerned with the
composition of the Curatorial board of the Taylor
Institution; the admission of societies of women students; the allocation of professorships to colleges and
societies; the duties of professors; college contributions
for University purposes; and the reorganization of the
faculties. (fn. 529) In accordance with the recommendation
of the commission that extra-mural instruction should
be considered as an established and essential part of the
normal work of a university, a Delegacy was constituted
in 1923 for the non-vocational education of adult
persons beyond the limits of the University. (fn. 530) Another
recommendation was realized in 1924 by a superannuation scheme for the regular teaching and administrative
staffs of the University, (fn. 531) extended in the following
year to a pension scheme for University employees. (fn. 532)
The Commission finally recommended that each University should receive an annual grant of £110,000 in
order to enable them to fulfil their functions to the
nation in a satisfactory manner. In 1925 the annual
grant was increased from £60,000 to £85,000, the
expenditure of the University being chiefly upon objects
directly recommended by the Royal Commission, viz.
additions to stipends; creation of a pension scheme; the
improvement of the resources of the Bodleian Library
and Ashmolean Museum; extra-mural activities; encouragement of research; grants to women's colleges;
assistance to non-collegiate students; and the development of the English and Modern Languages Schools. (fn. 533)
The first step towards an important addition to
Oxford societies was the opening of St. Peter's Hall as a
hostel in Oct. 1928. In Jan. 1929 it was accepted by
Convocation as a permanent private hall and its licence
was granted in the following October. When the hall
was faced with a serious financial crisis in 1934 Lord
Nuffield came to its assistance and was named its benefactor. In 1936 the hall consisted of a master, three
resident tutors, and ninety undergraduates.
The history of the University from 1920 is chiefly
remarkable for the number of benefactions received.
In humane studies the Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth
Professorship of American History was founded by
Lord Rothermere in 1920; in the same year a Professorship of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion
was endowed by the Rev. C. F. Nolloth; a professorship of Spanish Studies was established in 1927 with
a sum of £25,000 collected by a committee for the
purpose of endowing a chair of Spanish and of commemorating the visit of the Prince of Wales to Spanishspeaking South America in 1925; W. W. Rouse Ball
founded a Professorship of Mathematics in 1928; the
Association of American Rhodes Scholars established
a George Eastman Visiting Professorship in 1929;
Mr. Montague Burton founded a chair of International
Relations in 1935; All Souls founded a Chichele Professorship of Economic History in 1931; the readership of Egyptology was converted into a professorship
in 1933; and Mr. and Mrs. H. N. Spalding established
a professorship of Eastern Religions and Ethics (1935)
and a lectureship in Chinese Philosophy and Religion
(1935) for limited periods. (fn. 534) The pressing needs
of the Bodleian Library were to some extent relieved in
1920 by the gift of £50,000 from Walter Morrison.
In 1927 the Radcliffe Trustees transferred to the University the freehold of the Radcliffe Camera with adjoining land; the books, furniture, and equipment of the
Radcliffe (Science) Library; the Trustees' collections
already on deposit in the Bodleian; and a sum of
£1,500 annually towards the upkeep of the Science
Library. An ambitious programme of Library provision was brought forward in 1928, which after much
controversy resolved itself into a scheme the chief
points of which were the continuance of the Bodleian
building mainly as a range of reading rooms; the
assignment of the Radcliffe Camera to the needs of
undergraduates; the erection in Broad Street of a building capable of holding about 5,000,000 volumes; the
preparation and printing of a new catalogue of printed
books; and the enlargement of the Taylorian and the
Radcliffe (Science) libraries. The cost of the complete
scheme was estimated at nearly £1,000,000. Towards
this sum the Rockefeller Trustees offered to contribute
three-fifths, provided that the University found the
remaining sum within a stated period. Following a
private appeal the sum was raised within a year. An
annexe to the Taylorian from plans by Mr. T. H.
Hughes was added in November 1932, and a new wing,
designed by Mr. J. H. Worthington, was added to the
Radcliffe (Science) Library and opened in November
1934. Large sums began to be received for Library
provision soon after the scheme was brought forward,
but the appeal for funds was not publicly made until
the beginning of 1937, when, apart from the needs of
the Bodleian, donations were invited for carrying
out schemes connected with the promotion of higher
studies, chiefly for the provision of new laboratories,
extension of existing laboratories, and their staffing and
maintenance. (fn. 535) Towards this sum Lord Nuffield and
the Rhodes Trustees each contributed £100,000. The
benefactions to science were of extraordinary munificence. In 1920 Mr. Edward Whitley endowed a
professorship of Biochemistry; (fn. 536) in 1922 the sum of
£100,000 was given by the Trustees of Sir William
Dunn for the establishment of the Sir William Dunn
School of Pathology; (fn. 537) and in 1924 the Rockefeller
Trustees gave £75,000 to found a laboratory in Biochemistry. (fn. 538) Sir William Morris, afterwards Lord
Nuffield, bought in 1930 the site and buildings of the
Radcliffe Observatory, and placed it in the hands of
Trustees in order that it might be used for the benefit
of the Radcliffe Infirmary and the Medical School of
the University. The Observatory Building was to be
devoted to medical teaching and research, and to be
known as 'The Oxford University Institute of Medical
Research'. (fn. 539) Other benefactions in the same field of
study were the founding of two readerships in medicine
by Miss A. M. May (fn. 540) and a bequest of £30,000 from
Mrs. Theodore Williams in 1934 for the promotion
of medical studies. (fn. 541) Another benefaction of a different
kind was the presentation in 1924 by Lewis Evans of a
valuable collection of scientific instruments, now appropriately housed in the Old Ashmolean Museum under a
Curator who is also Reader in the History of Science. (fn. 542)
A new experiment in University organization was
the founding in 1932 by Lord Grey of Fallodon, the
Chancellor of the University, of the Oxford Society, the
object of which was to embrace all Oxford men and
women, past and present, and 'to offer them an
opportunity of re-establishing contact with the University and of associating themselves with its activities and
fortunes'. In 1937 the membership was over 10,000. (fn. 543)
The years 1936 and 1937 will be for ever memorable
in the annals of the University and the history of
science for the princely benefactions of Lord Nuffield.
In order to establish a Trust to promote the cause of
the science of Medicine, Lord Nuffield in Oct. 1939
offered the sum of £1,250,000, realizing as he did that
progress in medical science was reaching a stage where
it was 'desirable for those who work in the field of
research to undergo a period of post-graduate training
in modern methods of investigation, to keep in close
touch with developments in the sciences ancillary to
medicine, and to pursue their inquiries unhampered by
the cares of private practice and of routine teaching'. (fn. 544)
This benefaction was increased in Dec. 1936 by a
further gift of £750,000 (fn. 545) and in Oct. 1937 by another
sum of £200,000 to meet certain unanticipated expendi
ture on buildings. The object of the benefaction as
stated in the deed of trust is to enable the University to
widen the scope of its Medical School, including the
Nuffield Institute for Medical Research, and to provide
special facilities in it for those engaged in research.
Lord Nuffield expressed his conviction that the scheme
to be carried out under the Trust must inevitably increase and facilitate the clinical investigation and treatment of patients and lead to the provision of more ample
hospital accommodation in or near Oxford, and that
the University would be able to secure the ready
co-operation of the hospitals in the neighbourhood.
In accordance with the scheme, professorships of Clinical Medicine, of Surgery, of Obstetrics and Gynaecology,
and of Anaesthetics were to be established. (fn. 546) Finally,
in Oct. 1937, Lord Nuffield gave a further sum of
£300,000 in trust to the Radcliffe Infirmary and other
hospitals associated with the Joint Hospitals Board as
an endowment fund to provide forthe increased hospital
services as a result of the creation of the Nuffield Trust.
The culmination of Lord Nuffield's benefactions
came in Oct. 1937, when he gave the University the
sum of £1,000,000 to erect and endow a college worthy
of the highest traditions of Oxford architecture and to
erect and equip a laboratory of Physical Chemistry. The
object of the college is 'to bridge the separation between
the theoretical students of contemporary civilization
and the men responsible for carrying it on' and to
'produce a flow of recruits to industry for whom the
gulf … had been bridged'. The college and its
endowments are to be under the control of the Hebdomadal Council, and part of the endowment is to be
devoted to the establishment of University fellowships
tenable at the college. (fn. 547)
The Government of Oxford contains a pronouncement made by Oxford graduates in the following terms:
'There is no person or body in Oxford competent to
declare what the functions of the university are. …
Oxford has never felt the necessity of declaring its
purpose because it has always found that purpose in its
own traditions, moulded slowly by the pressure of
economic and social revolutions.' (fn. 548) Nevertheless, from
the earliest times a purpose has been sought and variously
expressed. To the student of the Middle Ages the
University of Oxford was the field of scholastic learning
wherein he sought the pearl of knowledge, to Wyclif it
was the vineyard of the Lord. The Elizabethans valued
it for the maintenance of good and godly literature and
the virtuous education of youth, and a later generation
looked upon the University as a body existing for the
preservation and transmission of all useful knowledge.
On the other hand, the University has been in bondage
both to Church and State, as well as to its own oligarchies; its activities have at times been diverted to causes
other than those of learning; it has known 'the dull
forgetfulness of aimless years', and for some centuries
its own identity was almost lost in the splendour of its
Colleges. During the last hundred years a recognizable
outline of the University has gradually emerged. Now,
in creating a School of Medicine richly endowed, and
associating Oxford with one of the greatest, most
honoured, and beneficial of the sciences and founding
a College which is to bear his name, Lord Nuffield
has perhaps shown the way in which the University of
Oxford may attain its full development and find in
the science of life and industry a new inspiration and
yet wider fame.