the D'Amori family in 1357, with the royal sanction. Yet even now the old difference of jurisdiction makes. itself felt, and outside parishes, such as St. Giles's and St. Clement's, do not belong to the Oxford Poor-law Union. The city also spread east and west, for besides the colleges and monastic buildings, which took up much space, the rich men would not dispense with their courts and gardens, and the very poor were either crowded into narrow lanes and small houses, or had to lodge outside the walls. The freemen represented in the main the old owners of freehold houses; the ナ classes lay outside political life.

poorer

If any enthusiastic person could wish himself back in medieval Oxford, he would probably not find it very inviting. The artisan stepped out of his mud hovel into a muddy street, and this at a time when the Moor at one corner of Europe, and the Florentine at the other, were enjoying the advantages of a polished capital. The unpaved streets and lanes had a gutter running down the centre, into which much was thrown from the windows; and through the narrow lanes came strings of pack-horses, to make them still more dangerous. There was an absence of all due means of cleanliness and health. Here and there hung at night a few oil lights. Abroad we hear of Sixtus V., when a boy, reading by the light of the lanterns hung up at the crossing of the streets. In the houses the smoke from the charcoal fire escaped through an opening in the roof, since chimneys for private rooms did not come into use until the fourteenth century, and were not common till Elizabeth's reign. The coal-mines of Tynedale were not opened even until Queen Philippa's time,

and coal was long disliked as fuel. The University petitioned that the forests of Shotover and Stow might not be cut down, because it would injure the place by destroying the wood necessary for firing. Candles were dear, nearly twopence a pound-that is, two shillings of our money at least. Amyot, the French translator of Plutarch, had to read by the light of the charcoal in the brazier. Men could not afford to read in their rooms after dark. The wicks of the better candles were made of cotton, which at that time grew in Cyprus, Sicily, and Italy; but rushlights continued in use down to our own days. In rude ages men had few amusements or occupations but what daylight afforded them. They rose at five, the dinner hour was at ten late in the afternoon they supped, and went to bed early. Shakespeare's plays were acted in the open light in the afternoon. The statutes of Magdalen ordered all students to leave the hall (where they lingered because of the fire) at curfew time, except on saints' days, when they might stay on and amuse themselves with ballads, and read historical poems, chronicles, and the wonders of the world. The gates of the colleges were shut at nine in summer, at eight in winter: and the proctors took no excuse if they found anyone outside the college walls after those hours.

The dining halls were strewn with rushes, into which all sorts of nastiness were thrown, and after about a fortnight they became unendurable, and there was, or ought to have been, a general cleaning. The sweating sickness of Tudor times, like other plagues, was largely due to the filthy mode of living. Erasmus says:-‘The floors are in general laid with a white clay, and are

covered with rushes, occasionally removed, but so imperfectly that the bottom layer is left undisturbed, sometimes for twenty years, harbouring expectorations, vomitings, the leakage of dogs and men, ale-droppings, scraps of fish, and other abominations not fit to be mentioned. The island would be much more salubrious if the use of rushes were abandoned. More moderation in diet, and especially in the use of salt meats, might be of service, more particularly were public ediles appointed to see the streets cleaned from mud, and the suburbs kept in better order.' Our enthusiast too might come in for an awkward fray; even the revelling tailors were not to be despised, still less the feuds between the northern and southern students. The coroners' inquests in the time of Edward I. show how dangerous the streets were. A rough age and people however did not object to a rough life, and it is not easy to judge of the habits of a distant past.

Several occasions of noticing the relations between the City and the University have already come before us; we must now speak of them more at large. The city was still one of the leading municipalities in the country. There was little sign as yet that the body of poor students in its midst would some day take the control of the place out of the hands of the citizens.

CHAPTER III.

THE UNIVERSITY AND THE CITY.

Origin of the University-The Religious Orders-Hostels-First Group of Colleges-Student Life-Town and Gown-St, Scholastica's Day.

We do not know when or how public teaching began at Oxford, but it was probably due to the Norman rule. Such teaching usually originated at the Court or the bishop's palace, or the school of some monastery. There is no trace of any teaching at St. Frideswide's, though there may have been a school attached to the priory, and Guimond, the first Norman prior, was a man of much literature.' But learned men had gathered round Henry I. in his palace at Beaumont; and Robert Bloet, bishop of Lincoln (the seat of the diocese to which Oxford belonged had been transferred from Dorchester to Lincoln), was a great officer at Court, and died in Henry's presence, at Woodstock, in 1123. successor, Alexander, belonged to the family of Roger of Salisbury, who was at the head of Henry's administration. Anselm had revived theological study at the Abbey of Bec, in Normandy, and Bec had property in Oxford. The study of law too had begun at Bologna. At Paris a studium had been developed out of the cloister school of the cathedral; but then independent

His

teachers like Abelard gathered round them a circle of scholars. Friends and rivals followed, and a studium generale, or university, grew up gradually, though it was not incorporated (universitas means corporation) till kings and bishops thought good to recognise acknowledged facts. The incorporation of the scholars meant that Church and State recognised power in a certain body of Masters to confer licences to teach; but this recognition was given practically long before any formal documents can be shown for it. Paris has no documents earlier than 1200, and Oxford is even more deficient.

A place of 'general study' was open to students from all parts of Christendom, and any king, or noble, or city might found such a teaching centre. But when the masters wished to teach elsewhere, that is, to have their own facultas docendi expanded into a facultas ubique docendi, this privilege could only be granted them by the Emperor or the Pope, usually by the latter ; and hence the papacy became a natural centre for university interests. The seven years' training required for the Master's degree was copied from the apprenticeship in the guilds, and so was the name of Master. The intermediate name of Bachelor means 'youth,' and corresponds to the assistants' in the guilds, called 'garçons' in France. Similarly, in the Inns of Court at London the barrister answered to the journeyman, and the serjeant to the master or doctor.

It was only natural that men trained in France or Italy should give lectures when an opportunity occurred in England. Master Robert Pullein, who had been trained at Paris, began to lecture at Oxford on the