new blood and new ideas into the more backward collegiate bodies; the spontaneous development of numerous clubs and associations-athletic, literary, or political-has created many new ties among undergraduates, and weakened the old exclusive spirit of college partisanship. The 'Combined Lecture System,' under which the inmates of one college may receive instruction in another, has also favoured a division of labour among tutors which is directly conducive to specialism in teaching. The great extension of the professoriate, including the new order of University Readers, and still more the liberal encouragement of new studies, has infinitely expanded the intellectual interests both of teachers and of students; the admission of Nonconformists and the progress of free thought have powerfully modified theological bigotry; the multiplication of feminine influences has undermined the ideal of semimonastic seclusion, and greatly increased the innocent æsthetic distractions which are the most formidable rivals of the austerer Muses. The gulf between Oxford society and the great world outside, never very impassable, has been effectually bridged over in every direction. A very large proportion of professors and college tutors have travelled widely; many are well known in London as contributors to scientific and literary periodicals or otherwise; while Oxford itself is constantly thronged with visitors from the metropolis. In ceasing to be clerical and aristocratic, the University has become far more cosmopolitan; all religions are there mingled harmoniously, nor is it uncommon to meet in the streets young men of Oriental race and complexion wearing academical costume. Present character versity In the meantime, a marked and widespread reformation has been wrought in the morals of the University, and notwithstanding the influx of a large pleof the Uni- beian element, the manners of undergraduates have become gentler as their tastes have become more refined. The ostentation of wealth has been visibly diminished, and, notwithstanding the increase of amusements, there is probably more of plain living and high thinking in modern Oxford than in the Oxford of Charles II. or Elizabeth. The University, it is true, has yet to harmonise many conflicting elements, which mar the symmetry of its constitution; but it is becoming more and more identified with the highest intellectual aspirations of the nation as a whole. In ceasing to be the intellectual stronghold of the medieval Church, or the instrument of Tudor statecraft, or the chosen training-school for the Anglican clergy, it may have lost something of its ancient supremacy, but it has asserted its national character; and it has perhaps never exercised a more widespread control over the national mind than it possesses in these latter years of the nineteenth century. INDEX. ABBEYS ABBEYS in the neighbourhood Abendon, Henry de, warden of Abingdon abbey, 3; outrage on Act of Uniformity passed in Addison, Joseph, 179 Aldrich, H., dean of Christchurch, Alfred the Great, alleged founda- All Souls college, see under Ox- Allied Sovereigns, reception of in Anne, queen, visits Oxford 26 Anselm, 4 Aristotelian philosophy, teachers BALLIOL Aristotle, his Natural Philo Arran, Earl of, becomes Chan Articles, Thirty-nine, subscrip- Ashmolean Museum opened in Asser, his contemporary bio- Atterbury, F., dean of Christ Augustines, see Monks and Austins', or disputations, 49 Avignon, 34 BACON, Roger, 8; liberal spirit Basle, 57, 58 BASLE Beaumont palace at Oxford, 5, Benedictines, 7, 49 Bentham, Jeremy, 179; his ob- Bible, authorized version of, 'Black Congregation,' 66 Bodleian Library, 59-61; see also Bodley, sir Thomas, refounded the University Library in 1602; Bologna, 7, 16; school of law in Brent, sir Nathaniel, warden of CAMBRIDGE, early secession of students to, 38; the Univer- CLARENDON Carleton, George, bp. of Chiches- Castle, Oxford, 2 Catholic emancipation, petition Charles I. visits Oxford in August ford (1665), 156; his second Charlett, Dr., Master of Univer- Chillingworth, William, 116 Cimabue, 28 Civil War, first events of, as af- Clarendon, earl of, his evidence CLASSICAL on the results of the Parlia Coffee-houses, 150, 156 College disputations, 25; gar- Colleges, rise of, 15; early Ox- ford Colleges not confined to 194, 195 of inquiry, 1872; C. H. DEGREES for the University (1641), 125, Convocation House, 116 Corpus Christi college, 72, 73 Cranmer, archbp., 80; tried at Cromwell, Oliver, visits Oxford Cromwell, Richard, elected Chan- DANTE, 28 Degrees, 65–67, et passim |