Statement of Mr. Goldwin Smith on the Colleges and Halls of Oxford.*

The Halls (Aula) were houses in which Students lived, under a Master in Arts or Doctor in one of the Faculties, who was their Tutor. Their code of discipline and their system of study was that of the University. Anterior to the passing of the Laudian statutes, or the establishment of the custom which they ratified, any Master or Doctor was permitted to open a Hall. It is stated by Wood that as many as 300 of these Halls existed in Oxford in the reign of King Edward I. Some, but, it is believed, not a large proportion, were endowed.

Five Halls alone now remain, and all endowed; the estate, which in the case of New Inn Hall is believed to consist only of the Hall itself, being held in trust by the University. They may be considered as minor Colleges, without Fellowships. St. Mary Hall and Magdalen Hall have Scholarships or Exhibitions. The Headship of St. Mary Hall, Magdalen Hall, New Inn Hall, and Alban Hall, are in the gift of the Chancellor of the University. The Headship of St. Edmund Hall is in the gift of Queen's College, and is passed down the list of Fellows, like a living. The Halls are nominally governed by the Aularian Statutes, established, with the rest of the Laudian Statutes, in 1636, and revised in 1835. It is, however, stated by the Principal of Magdalen Hall in his evidence, that these Statutes, even as revised, have become a dead letter.

The Colleges of Oxford were founded at various periods, from the end of the thirteenth century to the beginning of the eighteenth.

Fourteen of the nineteen, including Christ Church, were

*

See Report, p. 129, and after Mr. Dampier's statement, p. 1.

COLLEGE FOUNDATIONS.

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founded by Roman Catholics, though in some cases additional Fellowships, and more frequently Scholarships and Exhibitions, have been given to Roman Catholic foundations by Protestant benefactors.

Too much stress has probably been laid on this connexion. In most instances there is nothing to show that the founders of Roman Catholic Colleges would not have changed with the main body of the Church of England at the Reformation. Merton College produced some of the early reformers; among others, Wycliffe. The Fellows of Colleges were all by statute seculars, and some antagonism appears to have subsisted between them and the regulars, who were the most strenuous supporters of the Papacy. On the other hand, Rotherham, the second founder of Lincoln College, has expressed in the most violent terms his antipathy to the Wycliffites, and has declared the College to be founded for the suppression of their heresies. Bishop Smith, one of the founders of Brasenose, was a persecutor of the Reformers; and his Statutes, contrary to those of other Roman Catholic founders, prescribe devotions of a peculiarly Roman Catholic character. Wolsey was an enemy of the Reformation, though a patron of the learning which contributed to its success. And it can hardly be doubted that Sir Thomas Pope and Sir Thomas White, who founded Trinity and St. John's Colleges, in the reign of Philip and Mary, and under charters from those sovereigns, would have disapproved the appropriation of their foundations to the purposes of the hostile sect. It is to be observed, also, that the transfer of the Colleges from the old to the new faith was not accomplished without the forcible ejection of many Heads and Fellows who adhered to the religion of their founders.

All the Colleges except Worcester (and Hertford College -now suppressed) were founded before the imposition of the Caroline Statutes, the effect of which was to confine the University to the Colleges and the few remaining Halls.

It was not till after the foundation of the last College that the old system of Arts and Faculties, with the long

period of residence which it required, ceased to be the recognised system of the Universities. In theory, indeed, its existence cannot be said to have ceased till the Examination Statute of 1801 was passed; and its forms remain at the present day.

The specific object of the Colleges, as gathered from their Statutes, appears to have been the maintenance of societies. of Students, under a regular government and with a regular rule of life and study. They may be viewed historically in connexion with the Halls,* with the Monasteries, and establishments for the education of Regulars which subsisted by their side in Oxford, and with those benefactions of great men and prelates to poor Scholars which are of frequent occurrence in the early history of the University, and from which University and Balliol Colleges arose.

The first regular College, and the type of all the rest, both at Oxford and Cambridge, was Merton. This is described in the Charter of Refoundation as being founded "for the constant support of Scholars residing in the schools "of Oxford or elsewhere where a University exists, and for "the support of three or four Ministers of the altar of Christ, who are to reside therein." The persons so described are the Fellows of Merton and their Chaplains.

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The founder of New College, which also marks an important epoch in the history of the Colleges, describes his foundation as "a College of poor and indigent Scholar "Clerks in the school (studium) of the University of Oxford, "who are bound to study and make progress in divers Sci"ences and Faculties."

Jesus College, subsequent to the Reformation, is in the opening of the Statutes ordered to consist of a Principal, sixteen Fellows, and sixteen Scholars, "who are all bound "to apply themselves to the study of philosophy and theology "according to the ordinances of the Statutes."

The increase of Divine worship, by the celebration of

* Some of the earlier Colleges, as University, Oriel, Balliol, Queen's, were called Aulæ.

solemn services and processions, appears to have been an important collateral object with some of the Roman Catholic founders; and New College, Magdalen, Christ Church, and St. John's were furnished with choirs for that purpose. In other Colleges, however, especially the earliest, attendance at Divine service appears to have been only enjoined as a part of the rule of life. Some Colleges, as Balliol and Exeter, were originally without domestic chapels, their members resorting for mass to a neighbouring parish church. The Scholars of Merton used the adjoining church of St. John the Baptist, and those of Oriel the church of St. Mary.

The celebration of prayers and masses for the souls of founders and benefactors was, no doubt, an important though subordinate object with the Roman Catholic founders; and a multiplicity of such prayers and masses is sometimes prescribed by the Statutes; but it nowhere appears that this was the chief object of the foundation. At Merton it is entirely omitted.

A passage in the preamble of the Statutes of All Souls declares that College to have been founded as a chantry rather than for literary objects. Its Statutes generally are, however, nearly the same as those of New College, Magdalen, Corpus, and other foundations of the same class; and it must have been spared as a literary institution at the Reformation, when chantries were suppressed.

Christ Church, as refounded by Henry VIII., united the objects and constitution of a Cathedral with those of a College.

All persons on the foundations of Colleges previous to the Reformation were Clerici. The same title appears to have been applied to all Students at the University, and even to the boys at public schools. But, besides this, the founders of New College and All Souls have expressed a specific intention to increase and improve the clerical order, the decay of which they both lament. The injunctions to take Priests' orders, from which the clerical character of the Colleges at the present day arises, will be mentioned below.

In all the foundations there were a Head, under the various names of Warden, Master, Provost, Rector, President, or Principal, and a certain number of Students, generally called Socii, but, in the Statutes of the earlier Colleges, Scholares, and at Christ Church Studentes.

At Merton there were certain children of the Founder's kindred to be maintained and educated by the College. At Balliol a poor youth was attached, in a menial capacity, to each of the Fellows. At Queen's a number of poor boys, in proportion to the number of the Fellows, were appointed by the Statutes to be maintained: they waited on the Fellows, and at the same time received their own education, for which a master was provided. From the foundation of Magdalen downwards it became the custom of Founders to add to the Fellowships, which were generally tenable only by Graduates, and subordinate foundations open to Undergraduates. These junior Members were called at Magdalen Semicommunarii or Demyes; at other Colleges, Scholares, the generic name of all Students. The Demyships of Magdalen were wholly unconnected with the Fellowships; but the Scholarships in Colleges later than Magdalen were connected with the Fellowships, and apparently intended as nurseries of Fellows The Postmasters (Portionista) of Merton were a later foundation, and were at first lodged in a separate Hall, under one of the Fellows of the College, who was called Principal of the Postmasters; but they were ultimately received into the College, and placed on the footing of Scholars. The whole of these Undergraduate Members of foundations, including the poor Scholars of Balliol, the poor boys, now called Taberdars, of Queen's, the Postmasters of Merton, and the Demyes of Magdalen, together with the Scholarships which have been founded either by benefactors, or by the Colleges themselves, as at Oriel, Exeter, Lincoln, and University, have now been placed nearly on the same footing, and are known by the general name of Scholars. The Scholars were Members of the foundation, but they were excluded from the adminis