Henry III. They also assisted the proctors in making the assize of bread and beer, and in other affairs relating to the regulation of the markets2. The slight sketch which we have given in the preceding pages, of the ancient constitution of the university, and of the powers and duties of its principal officers, has been deduced from an examination of a body of statutes, which are not arranged in the order of time, and whose dates are in some cases uncertain to the extent of nearly a century. It is not surprising therefore In the fifteenth year of his reign, date is attached, which is included (1231.) amongst the collection of ancient statutes reduced to order, is 1506, (Stat. Ant. 78,) and the earliest is 1359, (Ibid. 163.) There are about thirty statutes or graces, or royal orders, (out of one hundred and eighty-seven,) which are dated at intermediate years. 2 Stat. Ant. 66. The appointment of taxors was suspended and their duties thrown on the proctors in the year 1540, in consequence of the miserable poverty of the university at that period; they were restored, upon its somewhat amended fortunes, in 1546. Stat. Acad. p. 118 and 128. 3 These statutes have been printed from the oldest existing ancient proctors' books, which were themselves copied from more ancient books of a similar kind, which have totally disappeared. They are arranged gencrally, though not very strictly, in the order of subjects, and not in the order of time and it is obvious from the form in which they appear, that they had been reduced into some uniform system, embodying the substance of the graces of the senate, such canons of the church as formed part of the commonlaw of universities, and such papal rescripts and royal letters or charters, as affected the constitution and ordinary administration of the university. We possess no means of assigning the precise periods at which these reductions and re-arrangements of the statutes took place, but it is most probable that a new arrangement was made, whenever it was found necessary to re-write the proctors' books, and that they assumed the form in which we now possess them about the beginning of the sixteenth century. The latest grace to which a We have quoted (Note, p. 23) the words of a grace passed in 1276, which was subsequently incorporated into those ancient statutes, which are numbered 54 and 57 in our printed copy, affording a curious proof of the modifications of form which the statutes from time to time experienced. In the year 1303, the same contests arose in this university, which had so violently agitated that of Paris in the preceding century, in consequence of the Dominican and Franciscan friars pleading the privileges and exemptions of their orders in derogation of the privileges of the university. The chancellor, Stephen de Haslingfield, proceeded to excommunicate several of the rebellious friars, and expelled their two leaders, Nicholas de Dale and Adam de Haddon, from the university; the friars, as usual, appealed to the pope, and the consequence was, that a composition was made at Bordeaux, in which the rights of the different parties were respectively settled, but manifestly to the advantage of the former. In this composition the substance of the 1st, 167th, and 168th statutes are quoted, as at that period that they should present enactments which are sometimes contradictory to each other, when we are thus deprived of the means of distinguishing the law repealed, from that by which it was replaced. In the midst, however, of the confusion and obscurity which necessarily arises from this cause, we experience no difficulty in recognising the permanent and more striking features of the constitution of the university, and the principles of its administration; and though the great increase of the number of colleges, the changes of the government, and the reformation of religion, necessarily produced great changes in the condition, character, and views, of the great body of the students, and in the relation of the teachers to those who were taught, yet we can discover no attempt to disturb the distribution of the powers exercised by the chancellor and the houses of regents and nonregents, or even to change materially the customary methods of teaching, or the forms and periods of graduation. An examination of the statutes of the different colleges which were founded at different periods of our academical history, would enable us, if carefully made, to elicit many facts relating to the general condition and habits of our academical population in those days. There is one conclusion of a very general kind which we are thus enabled to deduce, and which is not without an important practical bearing upon the views which may be forming part of the statutes of the university. The two last statutes, as they now appear, embody the modifications which the terms of this composition prescribed; but the history of this transaction enables us to conclude, not only that the statutes of the university in the thirteenth century were, in many cases, the same in substance with those which we now possess, but that they were subject to revisions from time to time, when the modifications which they had received, whether from the acts of the university or from external authority, were incorporated with the ancient law. The Processus Barnwellensis in 1434, which more especially respects the ex ercise of ecclesiastical authority and jurisdiction (independently of the bishop of Ely) by the chancellor, more particularly in excommunications, suspensions from degrees, probates of wills, letters of administration, &c., recites several statutes, which chiefly relate to the privileges above-mentioned, (such as the 37th, 41st, 43rd, 44th, 49th and 172nd,) as ancient statutes of the university, though it does not assign their dates. It is indeed most probable that there are few of the ancient statutes, as we now possess them, with which no dates are given, which are not revised, and in many cases modified copies of others of greater antiquity. entertained of the reform of the statutes of many of our colleges. Out of our seventeen existing colleges, six were founded between the years 1257 and 1351', and seven others between the years 1441 and 1519'. The statutes of the earlier colleges were generally of a liberal and comprehensive character, imposing no restrictions on the admission of scholars or fellows, either with respect to particular counties, or with respect to the northern and southern divisions of the kingdom. But in the long interval of nearly a century, which elapsed between the first and second series of our collegiate establishments, the contests between the northern and southern students had begun to rage with extreme violence, requiring frequently the interference of the civil power, and sometimes even ending in bloodshed. The animosities which were thus generated extended to the members of colleges, in which a majority of one party would generally attempt to exclude the other from all participation in its benefits. Nor were these evils restricted to the natives of the two great divisions of the kingdom. The natives of a particular county, district, or diocese, whenever they were sufficiently numerous in a college to effect their object, were accustomed to elect exclusively their 1 St. Peter's 1257, Clare Hall 1326, Caius 1343, Trinity Hall 1350, and Corpus Christi 1351. 2 King's 1441, Queen's 1446, Catheine Hall 1475, Jesus' 1496, Christ's 1505, and St. John's 1511. 3 Frequent reference is made to these contests in the old statutes and elsewhere, which so seriously disturbed the peace and tranquillity of the university. By an ancient statute (44), it appears that they elected captains, and gave their leaders the names of the principal officers of the university, and summoned their partisans by horns, trumpets and ringing of bells; these assemblies took place most frequently at the general processions and public solemnities of the university, and more particularly in school street, on the occasion of the ceremonies of Ash Wednesday. In another statute (172), (Ne concursus nationum fiat in festis infra scriptis) such assemblies are forbidden under pain of excommunication on the great feasts of St. Hugo, St. Edward, St. Cuthbert, and St. William of York (the two first being more particularly the patron saints of the southern, and the other two of the northern, students,) but every student was strictly ordered to celebrate those festivals in the church of his own parish. In the university of Oxford these contests assumed a still more formidable character, and it was with a view to appease the jealousies which thence arose, that one of the proctors was always chosen from natives of the southern and the other from those of the northern division of the kingdom. local associates and connexions, and thus by converting colleges into clans, to pervert the intentions of their founders. For in those days of ignorance and violence, an expression of public opinion was rarely heard, and still more rarely attended to; and few occasions were afforded either for the formation or exercise of those high principles of conduct which distinguish an age in which the refinements of civilization and knowledge have been combined with the highest sanctions of religion. It was with a view to meet these evils, and to secure the more equitable distribution of the benefits of the new collegiate foundations to students from all parts of the kingdom, that a statute was almost universally introduced to prevent the election of more than two fellows from the same county, and in some cases also to secure the election from the Cistrentani and Transtrentani alternately'; and so strong was the feeling of the necessity of this regulation, (which should be considered more properly in the light of a university than a college statute,) that it was added, upon the petition of the fellows to the statutes of Peter House and Clare Hall, as furnishing the most effectual safeguard against the undue influence of local attachments, or of personal and family partialities2. As the scholars of King's College | 1515, the additional restriction was were chosen from Eton, no such regu- introduced, directing that there should lation was necessary in its statutes, but not be, at any one time, more than two they more than once refer to the dis- fellows chosen from the same county. putes of the australes and the boreales, The rubric of the statute of Queen's and they most earnestly enjoin the College, which introduces this restricscholars not to participate in them. tion, is De vitandâ partialitate in elecThe double restriction was introduced tionibus sociorum. into the statutes of Jesus and St. Peter's College, but has since been removed. 2 The new statute was enacted in St. Peter's College towards the close of the fifteenth century, in the mastership of Thomas Warkworth, with the unanimous consent of the fellows, and with the approbation of the bishop of Ely, pro inordinatâ patriæ affectione removenda, directing that the fellows should be chosen in equal numbers from two specified divisions of the kingdom: in There are in fact very few cases in which we can discover the express personal wish of the founder in the imposition of these restrictions. It must be considered, to a great degree, in the light of a university statute, framed to meet a difficulty which was consequent upon the particular condition of those times, and which might be repealed in most cases (since they are now not only unnecessary, but singularly injurious to those colleges which are subject to their operation) without derogating, in The first considerable change which the system of instruction in the university underwent, was consequent upon the great multiplication of books which the invention of printing introduced. Before this important epoch in the history of the progress of knowledge, the great majority of students had no other means of becoming acquainted with the subjects of their study, but by hearing the manuscripts read, (with or without the glosses or comments which generally accompanied them,) in the public schools, a duty which furnished a daily and principal employment to the bachelors of arts and regent masters of the university. The method of reading was usually sufficiently slow and deliberate to enable the students to copy the actual words or, at all events, the import of what was read', which formed the only manuscripts to which they commonly any degree, from the respect and obedience which is always due to the distinct and indisputable expression of the personal will of the founder. " Regentes ad hoc specialiter convocati per venerabilem virum M. Albertum "de Bohemia tunc Rectorem Universi"tatis apud S. Julianum pauperem staThis method of teaching, some- "tuimus in hunc modum, quod omnes times called Nominatio ad pennam, was "Lectores tam Magistri quam Scholares in some respect contrary to the ancient" ejusdem Facultates quandocunque et customs of universities. In the year "ubilibet eos aliquem librum legere 1355, the four nations of the faculty" contigerit ordinariè vel cursoriè in of arts of Paris, framed a statute" eadem Facultate vel disputare Quæsagainst this practice, which was pre- ❝tionem circa ipsum, seu aliquid aliud faced in the following manner. per modum expositionis, priorem mo"Statutum Facultatis super destruc-" dum legendi observent secundum ❝tione modi legendi ad pennam et "vires suas, sic scilicet proferendo, ac si " modo legendi honesto et antiquo. "nullus scriberet coram eis. Secundum te "In Dei nomine, Amen. Tentatis" quem modum fiunt sermones in Uni❝ duobis modis legendi libros Artium li- “versitate et recommendationes: et "beralium, primis quidem Philosophiæ quem Lectores in cæteris Facul"magistris in cathedra raptim proferen-" tatibus insequuntur. Transgressores "tibus verba sua, ut ea mens auditoris autem istius Statuti, si Lectores fue❝valeret capere, manus vero non suffi- "rint Magistri seu Scholares, ex tunc "ceret exarare. Posterioribus autem "pro tunc privamus a lectura, hono"tractim nominantibus, donec auditores "ribus, officiis, et cæteris adminiculis 66 cum penna possint scribere coram eis. "nostræ Facultatis usque ad unum 66 Diligenti examine his invicem colla- annum. Quod si quis recidivet, pro "tis, prior modus melior reperitur," primo Recidivo pœnam duplicamus; 66 66 66 propter quod communis animi con 'pro secundo quadruplicamus: et sic ceptio nos admonet ut ipsum in nos"ultra. Auditores vero hujusce nostri "tris lectionibus imitemur. Nos igitur" statuti executioni obviantes clamore, 66 omnes et singuli Magistri Facultatis sibilo, strepitu, jactu lapidum per se "Artium tam Regentes quam non "aut per suos famulos, vel complices, |