the consent of the President and Seniors, to be omitted on such days, the above-mentioned Statute and the oath notwithstanding. The above three persons are to be Fellows of our College, or at least Scholars in their two years' probation, each of whom, besides their own commons and portion of apparel, and besides their pension, and the several other emoluments which they would otherwise receive from our College, shall have a certain pension and stipend for their lectures, and the other duties which are charges on their office, out of the common goods of our College, by the hands of the Bursars each year, at the four terms of the year, by equal portions of that stipend; that is to say, the Lecturer in Humanity five pounds every year: the Greek Lecturer five pounds, or at most ten marks; but the Lecturer in Divinity, six pounds thirteen shillings and eight pence, or at most ten pounds. And our pleasure is, that the Lecturers and each of them shall be elected and assumed in the manner, order, and form above described, and ordained in the clause, 'But if after the devolution from the whole body of Fellows to the Seniors,' respecting the course of choosing the Scholars of two years' probation to the office of lecturing, so often as any one of them shall be wanting, within fifteen days after the vacancy has occurred, by the President and the seven Seniors of our College, sworn before him in the same manner as on the election of the Vice-President; and in the absence of the President, sworn in the same manner, but before the Vice-President, by the Vice-President and the other six Senior Fellows, the VicePresident himself also being then sworn before the person next senior to himself. But every Fellow and Scholar of our College shall be bound to undertake the office of any Lecturer, on his election to it, within three days after having had lawful notice of his election; and within three days after he has in fact taken the office upon himself, as aforesaid, he shall be bound to read publicly, and to perform and continue the reading, and the other duties to the office belonging, as in this chapter is contained, under the penalty of expulsion for ever from our College, which he shall, by virtue of the act itself, incur, unless before that time he of his own accord departs from it for ever."

Bishop Fox was probably in advance of general opinion, among the Roman Catholic clergy of Oxford, when he gave these statutes, and he thought it advisable to appeal to the commands of the Church Canons, in the establishment of his Greek Lecturership in that University. The Canon to which he alluded, had been promulgated in 1311, on the authority of the Council of Vienne in Dauphiny, and had enjoined that Professorships of Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic, should be instituted in the Universities of Paris, Oxford, Bologna, Salamanca, and the Court of Rome.

Early in the sixteenth century, the study of Greek was looked upon with great suspicion among the ancient English teachers of scholastic learning; in fact their craft was in danger, for the successful pursuit of classical studies at Oxford and Cambridge put the old scholastic system comparatively out of fashion, and the classical movement party might have been also identified, in some measure, with the growing desire for religious independence, which soon after assisted in the Reformation.

But the enormous power of the Crown was fortunately exercised at that time for the improvement of learning, and classical studies became generally adopted throughout the University of Oxford, principally through the exertions of the Commissioners of King Henry VIII.

An interesting account of their labours is preserved in the letter already mentioned,† of Dr. Layton to the Chief Secretary of State, Cromwell; and it appears from the details there given, that professed monastic students still frequented the University, at the time of the visitation, (1535,) and that the works of Duns Scotus were especially singled out, to be removed from the course of University reading. Dr. Layton wrote in the name of the Commissioners, and he thus described the state of Academic Lectures in different Colleges, and the improvements and innovations of the Commissioners in the lectures.

* Ackermann. Hist. Oxford, vol. ii. p. 37.

+ P. 618. This letter is printed in a volume of the publications of the Camden Society, on the sup

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SS

pression of Monasteries, and has been there copied in old English, from the Cotton MS. Faustina c. vii. fol. 205.

"Please it your goodness to be advertised, that in Magdalen College, we found established one Lecture of Divinity, two of Philosophy, (the one of Moral and the other of Natural Philosophy,) and one of the Latin tongue, all well kept, and diligently frequented. To these, we added a lecture in the Greek, that is, grammar in Greek, perpetually to be read there, and all the youth thereunto to have confluence for their principles. In New College, we have established two public lectures, one of Greek, the other in Latin, and we have made for them for evermore an honest salary and stipend. In All Souls College, we have in like manner established two lectures, one of Greek, another in Latin, with a good stipend and salary thereunto assigned for ever.

"In Corpus Christi College, we found two lectures established by the Founder, one in Greek, another in Latin, public for all men thereunto to have concourse. We have further established a public lecture in the Latin tongue, in Marten [or perhaps Merton] College; and another in Queen's College; and we have assigned and made a sufficient stipend for each of these for everBecause we found all the other Colleges unable, in lands and revenues, to have within them public lectures, as the beforementioned Colleges have, we have enjoined the said poor Colleges, that they each and every one of them shall frequent and have daily concourse unto the said lectures.

more.

"We have imposed a punishment on every scholar, within the University, not hearing, at least, one of these lectures. He is to be punished by the loss of his commons, for that day, on which he shall be absent from one of the said lectures, and the said penalty is to be enforced, for every day, as often as he shall have been absent, unless when there is some lawful cause which is to be approved of, by the head of the house or hall."

Such determined, and as we might now consider them, arbitrary proceedings were probably required, in the sixteenth century, for the proper establishment of classical studies throughout the University, and, it can hardly be questioned but that an occasional interference with the foundation statutes and educational plans of Colleges, by an enlightened body of Commissioners,

having the power to act, is beneficial to such ancient bodies as the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.-In the latter University, the power of Henry VIII. was afterwards exerted in the formation of a magnificent new College, entitled Trinity College, which he endowed with the property of three old-established foundations, King's Hall, Michael House, and Physwick's Hostel, besides the grant of some minor Hostels, all of which had been surrendered to him; the king did not live to grant statutes to his College, but a code of laws was given to the institution by his successor Edward VI., and other codes of laws were subsequently granted by Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. Whenever any consolidation of small Colleges into large and more vigorous societies, can be effected, with due respect and regard to existing interests, it would appear from the successful working and wide spread influence of this great foundation at the present day, that the educational interests of the British nation may be materially promoted. Indeed, greater facilities are afforded in a large College for ensuring regular and more searching examinations of the candidates for Fellowships; and the actual honor of the Fellowships themselves and their estimation in the world are increased by the strictness and impartiality of the examiners, as well as by the extension of the subjects of examination.

3. Indirect influences of the Reformation.* From Dr. Vaughan's Age of Great Cities.

"IF Christianity has done much to foster the spirit which declares that every man should be a freeman, and that woman should be his companion, and not his slave; it has done much more, since the era of the Reformation, to strengthen all previous impulses of that nature, by calling upon men, without respect of persons, to become, in the main, their own teachers with regard to all matters of religious opinion and religious duty. This was the great blow against social selfishness, as taking the form of exclusion and monopoly. No other movement could have given such solemn prominence to the broad ground occupied by men in common, aз distinguished from the narrow grounds on which they differ from each other. It brought home the doctrine of human responsibility to every man's conscience and bosom, and with a force altogether

new.

"It taught a people, who seemed to have nothing to do in religion, except to be observant of its forms, to feel as though they had every thing to do in it, if their observance of forms was to be found of the slightest value. Men who had been taught to lean entirely on the priesthood of others, were admonished, that as they hoped to be saved, it would behove them to become their own priests. In this manner, it set forth a new doctrine in respect to human right and human duty, based on new views in regard to human capability. It raised man from a condition of mere passiveness in the hands of the accredited ministers of religion, and required him to act with the intelligence and seriousness proper to a being conscious of his personal accountableness to God.

"No lingering attachment to the old forms of authority on the part of the Reformers themselves, could prevent the impulse which they had brought upon society from taking this direction, or from proceeding to this extent. Their mission was, in effect, a