authority. It had originally sprung from the cathedral school of Notre-Dame; the ecclesiastical chancellor of Paris claimed a paramount jurisdiction over it, which, however, was constantly resisted by the University, not without support from the Court of Rome; and the validity of its highest degrees was derived from the sanction of the Pope himself. Considering the links which bound England to France, through Normandy and her other French provinces, as well as the intellectual ascendency of Paris over Western Europe, it is natural that Oxford should have borrowed many features of her internal regulations from this source, though it cannot be affirmed with certainty that she did so. The presumption is strongly confirmed by the undoubted fact that the English nation' was one of the four 'nations' into which the students of Paris were divided, the Normans forming another distinct nation by themselves. Leland tells us that young Englishmen who then aspired to a high education got their schooling, as we should call it, at Oxford, but their college training at Paris, and Anthony Wood gives a list of eminent Oxonians who had studied at Paris, including the names of Giraldus Cambrensis, Robert Pulleyne, Robert Grosteste, Roger Bacon, and Stephen Langton. If this be so, it was inevitable that, on their return, they should bring home with them ideas based on their experience of Paris, which might thus gradually become a model of academical organisation for Oxford. In the year 1229, a fresh link of connection with the great French University was created by a large immigration of Parisian students. The immediate cause of this immigration was an outbreak of hostility between the

scholars and citizens of Paris, like those which so constantly recurred between the same parties at Oxford. Henry III. had the foresight to seize this opportunity of reinforcing his own University, and among the many students who came from Paris to Oxford on his invitation were several of his own subjects who had gone abroad for their education.

of the

the Papal

the riot of

1209

At all events, at the beginning of the thirteenth century, we find at Oxford an academical body singularly like that long established at Paris, and exhibiting almost equal vitality. In one respect, indeed, Recognition its position was still more independent; for, scholars by whereas at Paris the University was overLegate after shadowed by a Royal Court with all the great dignitaries of the French Church and State, at Oxford the University authorities had no competitors but the corporation of the city. Moreover, while at Paris there was a resident chancellor of Notre-Dame, ever ready to assert his authority, there was no episcopal see of Oxford; the diocesan lived at a safe distance, and the archdeacon was the highest resident functionary of the Church. About the beginning of the thirteenth century, Edmund Rich, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, and Robert Grosteste, afterwards bishop of Lincoln, became pioneers of Aristotelian study in Oxford, and were among the earliest graduates in divinity, a faculty then in its infancy. In the year 1214 we come upon more solid ground in a documentary record preserved in the archives of the University. This record, in the shape of a letter from the Papal Legate, refers to an important incident which had occurred five years before, in 1209, when three students had been

seized and hanged by a mob of townspeople, with the mayor and burgesses at their head, in revenge for the death of a woman accidentally killed by another student. In consequence of this outrage, said to have been countenanced by King John, the city was laid under an interdict by the Pope, who issued a prohibition against lecturing in Oxford, and the great body of students migrated to Cambridge, Reading, or elsewhere. The letter of the Papal Legate, reciting the submission of the burgesses to his authority, and his disposition to deal mercifully with them, proceeds to impose upon them certain penalties. One of these is the remission of half the fixed rent payable for halls tenanted by scholars, for a period of ten years. Another is the payment of fifty-two shillings yearly for the support of poor scholars, and the obligation to feast one hundred poor scholars every year on St. Nicholas's Day. They are also to swear that, in future, they will furnish the scholars with provisions at a just and reasonable price; and that if they shall arrest a clerk they shall deliver him up, upon due requisition from the bishop of Lincoln or the archdeacon of Oxford, or his official, or the chancellor, or 'him whom the bishop of Lincoln shall have deputed to this office.' This oath is to be repeated yearly. All masters who continued to lecture after the retirement of scholars under Papal mandate are to be suspended from lecturing for three years. All townsmen convicted of participation in the original crime are to come, without shoes, hats, or cloaks, to the graves of the murdered 'clerks,' and are to give their bodies proper burial in a place to be solemnly chosen. Upon any default in the fulfilment of these conditions, the

former sentence of excommunication is again to be enforced by the bishop of Lincoln.

It is to be observed that in this memorable document there is no mention of an 'University.' The members of the academical fraternity are called

Office of chancellor

simply clerks' or 'scholars studying at Oxford.' It may further be inferred from the expressions respecting the chancellor, that no chancellor of the University existed distinct from the chancellor of the diocese, or, at least, that, if he existed, he was a nominee of the bishop of Lincoln. On the other hand, the scholars are recognised throughout as under the special protection of the Papal See, as well as under special jurisdiction of the bishop of Lincoln, afterwards to become ex officio Visitor of the University. It seems to follow that, while the University, as a corporation, was not yet fully constituted, such a corporation already existed in an inchoate state, and the schools of Oxford enjoyed a privileged status at the supreme court of Western Christendom. When they first became, in the legal sense, an University' under a chancellor of their own, is still a disputed question, though a seal has been engraved, supposed to be of about the year 1200, which bears the inscription, 'Sigillum Cancellarii et Universitatis Oxoniensis.' Much learning has been expended on the origin of the chancellorship, and it will probably never be determined with certainty whether the earliest chancellors derived their authority exclusively from the bishop of Lincoln as diocesan, or were in the nature of elective rectors of the schools (Rectores Scholarum), whose election was confirmed by the bishop of Lincoln. What is certain

is that the acting head of the University was always entitled Cancellarius rather than Rector Scholarum, that from the beginning of Henry III.'s reign he is frequently mentioned under this official title, especially in the important charters of 1244 and 1255, and that by the middle of the thirteenth century he was treated as an independent representative of the University, while the official deputy of the bishop at the University was not the chancellor but the archdeacon of Oxford. At this period, then, we may regard the University as fully constituted, and the official list of chancellors begins in the year 1220, when three persons are mentioned as having filled the office, the last of whom is Robert Grosteste, afterwards the celebrated reforming bishop of Lincoln. From this epoch we may safely date the election of the chancellor by Convocation, though it long continued to be subject to confirmation by the diocesan. A century later (1322) the election was made biennial.

University chests, and sources of revenue in the thirteenth century. Rise of Halls

In the year 1219 the abbot and Convent of Eynsham took upon themselves the obligations laid upon the burgesses in 1214, so far as regarded the double provision for poor scholars. This agreement was carried out, yet the burgesses are still treated as liable in an ordinance issued, in 1240, by Robert Grosteste, then bishop of Lincoln, which provides for the regular application of the fund to its original purpose. This ordinance marks an important epoch in the growth of the University. The Frideswyde Chest,' and other chests formed on a like principle by successive benefactions for the relief of poor scholars, appear to have been the earliest form of