Common Chest. This error arises, as in many other instances, from the injurious habit of regarding any single documentary or other unconnected account as decisive.

NOTE (67) REFERRED TO IN PAGE 134.

Concerning the Commissaries.

As to these Commissaries, I depend upon the statement of Wood, (ii. 387,) which is confirmed in the Fasti" and in other incidental accounts. The Hebdomadarius or Assessor appears to have been a more permanent office. The former title is used in the Compact of 1267 between the Southernmen and Northernmen. "If umpires* are not to be had, let the matter be judged by the Chancellor or by the Hebdomadarius, or by judges appointed for the purpose." What is meant by these judges is not very clear -they were probably umpires.† The same need must have been felt in Cambridge also. For instance in the year 1406, we find mention of a Chancellor, who was sent to Rome as King's orator. (Wilkins's Concil. iii. 190.) No doubt, on such and similar occasions, recourse must have been had to the same measures as at Oxford.

to me:

NOTE (68) REFERRED TO IN PAGE 135.

On the Functions and Duties of the Proctors, &c., and on the Veto.

"It was

A long list of the functions and duties of the Proctors, at about the beginning of the fifteenth century (as it appears) is given by Wood, (ii. 387.) It will be as well to quote it here. formerly the business of the Proctors to give judicial and penal sentence against all those who did not come to the schools, those who passed their Lent in the schools (trahentes in scholis quadragesima) those who determined" when of insufficient standing, or without the logical disputation, those who did not become + [Austräge.]

* [ Arbitris.]

candidates for a degree, (non accedentes ad licentiationes,) those who did not obey the admonitions of the Chancellor, those who transgressed the Privileges or Statutes, those who did not come forward as opponents to the inceptors, who did not pay the Masters, did not read (lectures) in their established order, (modo suo consueto,) were too late or too early with their stated duties, (ordinaria,) did not choose to discharge the business of the University, did not come in proper time into the schools, did not wear their dress and tonsure decently, did not keep the names of scholars, did not read aloud the muster roll,* did not obey the regulations of the Proctors, begged a suspension of the peace for three years, (impetrantes pacis suspendium per triennium,)* all who were suspected in any manner, who joined the mob, refused to go to prison, payed managers (mancipes) or tailors (scissores) higher than the Statutes allowed, trustees (of the public chests) or bailiffs who did not give in their accounts, jurymen (judices) who did not obey the confulsiones, Advocates and Proctors who went beyond [the confulsiones ?] Wood moreover expressly states, that this list by no means contains all the attributes and duties of the Proctorial authority. "Inasmuch," he says, "as even at the present day it extends to preserving the peace of the town, and punishing laymen who are unruly or refractory, or who at improper times frequent the taverns," &c. See also the Oxford and Cambridge Statutes. As far as regards the Veto of the Proctors, it is preserved in the Oxford Statutes of 1636; in Cambridge this was probably transferred, like the Veto of the Chancellor, to the Caput. It was perhaps originally directed against the Chancellor, when the Proctors were Representatives of the Nations; or else against the Masters, as, in the Nations, the undergraduate democracy certainly prevailed. Afterwards the Vetot of the Proctors, like that of the Chancellor, was extended to all transactions except the elections. The whole affair however is not clear, and appears to me remarkable.

[The Author annexes notes of interrogation to these two items, as if to indicate that he felt a difficulty.]

[The Veto was lately exercised by the Oxford Proctors in the affair of Dr. Hampden.]

4

NOTE (69) REFERRED TO IN PAGE 139.

Cambridge Decree of 1522 appointing a Public Orator.

I refer to the expressions used in the Cambridge Decree of 1522. (v. Dyer's Priv. i. 213.) "Whereas our commonwealth," it says, "has been much endangered by the want of letters to ask the aid of great men against our adversaries; since individuals refuse the task, partly from the scanty remuneration offered, partly for fear of the authority and might of those against whom they may have to write : we have thought fit, &c., &c., and we decree that a Public Orator be elected," &c. According to Wood, (ii. 47,) an Orator was elected for life at Oxford first in 1564. The University had previously managed as best it could. The Chancellor commissioned his Registrar or Secretary, or any one else whom he might consider fit for the purpose, to perform these functions. The Secretary probably performed also the office of Keeper of the Records, for which an especial post was created in 1633. Such at least is Wood's opinion.

Note (70) referred to in PAGE 140.

On the Beadles of the Universities.

They were called “ Bidelli, præcones, viatores." According to Wood, (i. 239,) there were formerly six in Oxford, and besides, a rodbearer and a crossbearer. No mention is made of these afterwards. The Cambridge Statutes speak: Of the nomination of [Barnaby?] lecturers, of beadles, of stationers* [or sentinels?] of guagers, winemerchants, and other servants and officers of the University," under which are included also the artisans, vintners, &c., licenced by the University. In modern times a distinction was made between Esquire Beadles and Yeoman Beadles ; offices which correspond to the Upper and Under Beadles in the German Universities. In Oxford we find also a Bailiff, whose

[Lat. Stationariorum.]