We have expounded with some particularity the conditions of University life; we have now to deal with University life in its more intimate relations. And first we must say something of the title, the Latinity of which is not above suspicion, though its convenience and expressiveness are beyond question. The term studium generale was applied, in medi?val times, to an academy in which instruction was imparted on all subjects, and which was thus differentiated from grammar schools and schools of divinity, in the former of which the curriculum was restricted to Latin, and in the latter to theology. The phrase connoted also a place of common resort, as distinct from mere local foundations, the advantages of which were confined to the immediate neighbourhood. According to Mr. Froude, no fewer than thirty thousand students "gathered out of Europe to Paris to listen to Abelard"; and the traditions of Oxford and Cambridge were equally hospitable.
The "Nations"

Before discussing the system of degrees, it is desirable to speak of the "men"—the candidates for graduation; and, in this connexion, stress must be laid on the cosmopolitan character of our older universities, which welcomed with open arms students of various races and of all ranks of society. The Oxford statutes contain a provision for the proclamations being made in Latin, that language being, as it is stated, intelligible to the different nations represented by the scholars. In addition to the native youth, Welshmen, Irishmen, and Scots were accustomed to repair to the banks of the Isis and the Cam, and the two former of these classes—at any rate at their first coming—might have been totally ignorant of English.

The reader will hardly fail to have been struck with the occurrence of Welsh names in the foregoing pages; and the records of judicial proceedings mention the case of a Cambrian scholar, who stole a horse from the stable of an Oxford inn and decamped with it, in the company of several compatriots, to the Welsh mountains, in consequence of which the unhappy innkeeper had to defend a suit brought against him by the horse's owner! Notices of the Irish and the Scots are no less characteristic of their imputed traits. Of the presence of the former there is interesting testimony in petitions to the Crown on the part of scandalized townsmen, in one of which they set forth that "there have been murders, felonies, robberies, and riots, &c., lately committed in the counties of Oxford, Berks, Wilts, and Bucks, by persons coming to the town under the jurisdiction of the University, some of whom are the King's lieges born in Ireland and the others his enemies called 'Wylde Irisshmen'; and that these misdeeds continue daily to the scandal of the University and the ruin of the country round about; the malefactors threaten the King's officers and the bailiffs of the town, so that these last, for fear of death, dare not do their duty and collect the fee-farm, &c. Pray therefore that all Irish be turned out of the realm between Christmas and Candlemas next, except graduates in the schools, beneficed clergy in England, those who have English father or mother, or English husband or wife, and many other exceptions, persons of good repute. And that graduates and beneficed men find surety for their good behaviour."

The Scots were cordially hated. Tryvytlam's poem "De Laude Oxoni?" has the following stanzas, which, in the opinion of some, may be still apposite to the circumstances of University and national life:

Iam loco tercio procedit acrius
Armata bestia duobus cornibus.
Hanc Owtrede reputo, qui totis viribus
Verbis et opere insultat fratribus.
Hic Scottus genere perturbat Anglicos,
Auferre nititur viros intraneos.
Sic, sic, Oxonia, sic contra filios
Armas et promoves hostes et exteros.

By "Owtrede" is intended Uthred de Bolton, a celebrated English Benedictine, whose cognomen was probably derived from the manor of Bolton in Northumberland. It was a risky thing to hail from the border, as another instance is recorded in which a North-countryman found it necessary to purge himself of the imputation of being a Scot—one of the King's enemies.

The amazing part of the matter is that national distinctions and prejudices did not, as far as the British Isles were concerned, end here. In point of fact, when the word "nations" occurs in this connexion, the allusion is generally not so much to genuine differences of descent, government, customs, and language, as to an artificial separation of the inhabitants of England into North and South countrymen. The authorities deplored this division into Boreals and Australs—"diverse nations, which, in truth, be not diverse"—but they could not ignore it, and thus it became the established rule that of the two proctors—officials supremely responsible for the peace—one should be of the North and the other of the South. As we have seen, a similar practice obtained with regard to the University chests. Just as, at the present time, Welshmen and Scotsmen gravitate towards particular colleges, so in the early days "nations" seem to have favoured certain halls, and as few of the latter were provided with chapels, they appear also to have fixed upon certain churches for the purpose of devotion of partisan display. Accordingly, about the year 1250, the following edict was fulminated with a view to checking the exuberance of the "national" spirit in sacred buildings:

"By the authority of the Lord the Chancellor and the Masters Regent, with the unanimous consent of the Non-Regent, it is decreed and resolved that no festival of any nation soever be celebrated henceforth in any church soever with the accustomed solemnity and calling together of Masters and Scholars or other acquaintances, save in so far as any may desire to celebrate the festival of any saint of his own diocese with devotion in his own parish, where he lives, but not calling the Masters and Scholars of a second parish or his own, as also is not done at the festivals of St. Katherine, St. Nicholas, and the like. This also, decreed by the authority of the same Chancellor, we enjoin to be observed, on pain of the greater excommunication, that none lead dances with masks or any noise in churches or streets, or go anywhere wreathed or crowned with a crown composed of the leaves of trees, or flowers, or what not: on pain of excommunication, which we inflict from now, and of long imprisonment do we forbid it."

In 1252 a great disturbance arose between the Northern and Irish scholars, and it was resolved that twelve persons should be chosen on either side to draw up conditions of peace. These were that thirty or forty of each party should bind themselves not to disturb the peace of the University themselves nor comfort others in doing so, and they were to give secret information to the Chancellor if they should hear of any other person transgressing. If anyone was injured, he was to appear before the Chancellor; and if the Chancellor was suspected of partiality, there were to be associated with him two assessors from either side.

In 1313 a statute was issued that no one was to stir up any nation on account of some personal injury by conspiracies, leagues, or meetings in public or private with the name or title of nation; and that when the Chancellor or his Commissary inquired concerning a breach of the peace, none was to appear with other than the witnesses needful to him; nor was any Master or other to thrust himself in, coming with a party or sitting beside the Chancellor or his Commissary, save such as the Chancellor should hold it right to summon forth, if at any time it seemed to him fit. Seeing that the names of delinquents could be better learned through the Principals of Houses, who moved continually among their associates, it was determined that every Principal, resident or acting, as well of Halls as of Chambers, should, at the beginning of every year, within fifteen days or sooner, as should seem fit to the Chancellor and Proctors, come and make corporal oath, that if they knew of any of their society holding such assemblies, or consenting with those who held them, or commonly and often naming different nations with evil zeal, or disturbing the peace of the University, or practising the art of bucklery, or keeping a whore in his house, or bearing arms or in any way promoting discord between Northerns and Southerns, he should within three days inform the Chancellor or one of the Proctors, and all such disturbers of the peace were to be punished with imprisonment. This oath the servants were bound to take at the same time; and the Chancellor and Proctors, as touching their part, acknowledged themselves to be equally bound by virtue of the statute.

In order that such distinction of nations might henceforth be detestable and hateful to all, it was resolved that the following clause should be added to the oath of every incepting Master with respect to the observance of peace.

"Item, Master, especially shall you swear that you will not hinder, as between Australs and Boreals, peace, concord, and affection; and if there shall have arisen any dissension between them, as between diverse nations, which in truth be not diverse, you will not foment or kindle it to the utmost, nor must you be present at assemblies, nor tacitly or expressly consent to them, but rather hinder them in such ways as you shall be able."

By the same statute the University was bound to intimate to the diocesan the names of all persons, whether Masters or others, who should disturb the peace of the University, and particularly as between the Northern and Southern students.

In 1428 fresh legislation was found to be necessary, and took the following form:

"Whereas there is no better way of punishing the disturbers of the peace than by a pecuniary fine, which in these days is more dreaded than anything else, therefore the following graduated scale of fines is put forth by the University. For threats and personal violence, twelve pence; for carrying of weapons, two shillings; for pushing with the shoulder or striking with the fist, four shillings; for striking with a stone or club, six shillings and eightpence; for striking with a knife, dagger, sword, axe, or other weapon of war, ten shillings; for carrying of bows and arrows, twenty shillings; for gathering of armed men and conspiring to hinder the execution of justice, thirty shillings; for resisting the execution of justice, or going about by night, forty shillings. And no Master or scholar shall take part with any other because he is of the same country, nor against him because he is of a different country; and if he be convicted of doing so, he shall incur an additional penalty graduated according to his pecuniary circumstances."

That the scholars indulged freely in the pleasant custom of hunting may, after this, be almost taken for granted. In a petition of the year 1421 complaint was made against them that they hunted with dogs and harriers in divers warrens, coningries, parks, and forests in the counties of Oxford, Berks, and Bucks, night and day, taking deer, hares, and rabbits, and menacing the wardens and keepers. Sometimes they contrived to combine their love of hunting with their love of street-fighting, as on the memorable occasion in Queen Elizabeth's reign, when the Magdalen men went deer-stealing in Shotover Forest, and one of them was sent to prison by Lord Norris, the Lord Lieutenant of the county. In revenge, the next time my Lord came to Oxford they set upon him at the Bear Inn, and, in the skirmish, several of the scholars were hurt, and "Binks," his lordship's keeper, sustained a severe wound. The Vice-Chancellor, intervening at this juncture, ordered the scholars to be confined to the college, while Lord Norris was requested to quit the University. Thereupon the former "went up to the top of their tower, and waiting till he should pass by towards Ricot, sent down a shower of stones they had picked up upon him and his retinue, wounding some and endangering others of their lives. It is said that upon the foresight of this storm divers had got boards, others tables on their heads to keep them from it, and that if the Lord had not been in his coach or chariot, he would certainly have been killed." In the sequel, the culprits were banished, and the Lord Lieutenant placated, albeit "with much ado by the sages of the University."

How on earth serious study could be pursued amidst these perpetual broils, to the engendering of which so many prejudices contributed, would be an insoluble mystery but for the probability, suggested by experience of University life in our own day, that the disturbances were confined, in the main, to the wilder spirits, though it may well be that occasionally peaceable persons were sucked into the vortex by the accident of their being abroad at the time, and on the scene of the affray, where their pacific character would receive scant consideration from the angry combatants. Esprit de corps also was a powerful incentive to action, and one from which even Masters were not exempt. To this must be added that the course of study itself seemed expressly devised to foster the belligerent temper. The air was laden with the breath of strife, as the Cambridge term "wrangler," which has survived to our day, plainly testifies.
The Highway of Learning

Let us follow the "poor boy," a technical expression at Oxford, through the stages of his academic career in that University. At the outset two courses were open to his parents or guardians: either he might be sent to a religious foundation like Durham College, where he would be under no obligation to take vows, but an oath would be required of him to honour the monks and assist the electing Church, to whatever station of life it might please God to call him. Or, as was infinitely more usual, he might be settled in a secular school of grammar in charge of a recognized master.

Before the rise of colleges, the vast majority of scholars resided in halls, some of which were kept by laymen. In 1421 the King, incensed at the constant breaches of the peace, commanded that all scholars and their servants should be under the governance of some sufficient principal approved by the Chancellor and Proctors, and should not be suffered to abide in laymen's houses. In 1432 a statute set forth that, whereas the principals of halls, fearing to lose their profits, did not punish the members of their societies, still less did they dismiss them, when it was their duty to do so; nay, even provoked disturbances—the consequence, it was believed, of illiterate persons and non-graduates keeping halls—it was ordained that henceforth all principals and their deputies must be graduates. In the preamble of another statute of the same date it was complained that grave crimes were committed by so-called scholars, who, nefando nomine "chamberdekenys," lived in no hall, but slept away their days, and passed their nights in riot and debauchery, crime and violence. This irregularity it was found difficult to suppress, for on May 13, 1447, two persons feigning to be scholars and guilty of violence, having been summoned according to law throughout the schools and not appearing, were banished. The form of banishment was as follows: "A, B, C, D, frequently convicted of a monstrous disturbance of the peace, and, according to the manners and forms accustomed to be observed in this University, duly cited, publicly cried, lawfully awaited, and in no wise appearing, but contumaciously refusing to obey the law, alike on account of their contumacies and offences we do ban from this University, and from neighbouring places, admonishing firstly, secondly, and thirdly, peremptorily, that none do receive, cherish, or protect the aforesaid A, B, C, D, on pain of imprisonment and the greater excommunication to be fulminated not unjustly against all who contravene."

Matriculation involved nothing more than an oath to keep the peace, which oath had to be taken also by the servant of the scholar, supposing him to have one. If the scholar chose a non-graduate teacher, he was compelled to enter his name in the books of some master of arts, and neglect to fulfil this requirement subjected the delinquent to the loss of the protection and privileges of the University tam morte quam in vita. At the commencement of every term as well as at the end, and at other times, when need was, the grammar masters held a convenite for the purpose of arranging the course of study. Each of them had to obtain a licence, and, as a test of his qualifications, he submitted to an examination in versification, dictation, and so forth, lest, as the statute quaintly expresses it, the language of Isaiah should be verified—Multiplicasti gentem, non auxisti l?titiam.

The masters were charged with the training of their scholars in religion and morals—an onerous duty in too many cases imperfectly performed. This is shown not only by the lawlessness prevalent in the University, but by the low views and low practices that characterized methods of instruction in secular subjects. The term "lecture," as commonly understood in the Middle Ages, implied or included a catechetical system of teaching, in which the master asked and the scholar answered a series of questions. This laborious but effective mode of ascertaining and accelerating progress in knowledge was left irksome by both parties, and "ordinary" lectures—or, as we should term them, lessons—were threatened with supersession by a seductive invention known as "cursory" lectures. These appear to have been neither more nor less than lectures in the modern sense. The master delivered his discourse, and the scholar was left to gather from it what degree of enlightenment he could or would. The statute referring to the subject taxes teachers with favouring scholars in this way, for the "hope of gain," which points to corrupt dealing between them. In both its moral and intellectual aspects the practice met with scant countenance from the authorities, and, save in special cases, any master indulging in it was liable to be punished with deprivation and imprisonment for so long a period as the Chancellor, in his discretion, deemed fit. One learns from an undated statute, which, however, is probably of the thirteenth century, that grammar scholars were expected to construe in both English and French, the object being that the latter language might not be utterly forgotten. When we recall that our ancient pleadings were in Norman-French, and that a sensible proportion of the students embraced that most conservative of professions, the law, the wisdom of this course is at once evident.

The grammar schools may be regarded as the nursery of the University, but not a few of the scholars, educated in monastic and other local schools, arrived with a knowledge of Latin sufficient to dispense them from preliminary instruction in that language, for that is what is meant by "grammar." It is not perhaps quite clear whether a schoolmaster's house ranked as a hall, but, as soon as a scholar was equipped with an adequate stock of Latin to enter upon his Artist's career, he would naturally move to one of the halls tenanted by his equals in learning, thus making room for another and younger person more strictly in statu pupillari. The age at which students began their academic course in earnest averaged from twelve to fifteen—needless to say, much earlier than at present. They were required to devote four years to qualifying for the degree of bachelor; and during the former part of this period they went by the curious name of "general sophist." This, the initial, stage of University existence was terminated by an examination, then and still called Responsions, which might not be taken in less than a year, after which the student became known as a "questionist." The occasion of responding was a high day with scholars, and celebrated with such extravagant feasts that we find the Chancellor intervening to limit the expense attending them to sixteen pence. The meaning of the term "Responsions" is explained by the formula of the testamur: Qu?stionibus magistrorum scholarum in Parviso respondit. The parvise, or porch, may have been symbolical of the initial stage—the early provisions of our universities are full of symbolism. By way of preparation for his examination the sophist was required to be diligent in attending disputations in the parvise, and when he presented himself for his own ordeal he had to make oath that these exercises had been duly performed.

The third stage was reached when the "questionist," as he was now, stood for his bachelor's degree. This was known as Determination, because the candidate had to determine questions in which his recent acquisitions in logic should have enabled him to appear to advantage. According to the rule, this function took place either on Ash Wednesday or on some day between Ash Wednesday and the following Tuesday. However important Responsions may have been in the eyes of the youthful student, they paled before the elaborate ceremonies of Determination. In all the two-and-thirty schools of School-street sat the Masters Regent in full academical attire, their desks before them, it having been enacted that the exercises should be carried out in the schools, not in private dwellings or in churches. The statutes forbade unfairness in proposing questions or in the manner of examining, but the candidate was, to some extent, forearmed in this matter, since he might, apparently, select his own judge. As a good audience was considered a primary necessity by the masters, in order that their talents might obtain the widest possible recognition, well-wishers seem to have gone so far as to drag into the schools reluctant passers-by—a nuisance of such frequent occurrence that it was forbidden by statute. An attempt was made also to prevent fees or robes being given to the masters, but the statute doubtless proved inoperative, and was afterwards repealed. Another custom, which the authorities vainly prohibited, and was plainly incongruous at the season of Lent, was the holding of feasts by bachelors on admission.

Before a scholar was permitted to determine, six masters at least had to testify on oath in congregation regarding his fitness in knowledge, morals, age, stature, and personal appearance. They were bound to secrecy as to the nature of their testimony, the sufficiency of which was decided by four Regent Masters of Arts, two of the North and two of the South, eight days before Ash Wednesday. On the following Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday masters and scholars appeared before the four members of the Committee; and if the testimony had been satisfactory the scholars made oath that they had completed the necessary studies, and were "admitted" to determine. Determination itself was largely a show, and had nothing to do with the attainment of the degree, of which it was rather the outward and visible sign. If the student failed to acquit himself with distinction, the only penalty to which he exposed himself was the censure or ridicule of friends and foes. Discomfiture was extremely probable, as the affair was intellectual game, in which either the master laid himself out to pose the scholar, or a brace of scholars argued (or, as the phrase then ran, "disputed") by turns, under the supervision and correction of the master.

In conformity with modern usage, we have spoken of the status of Bachelor as a degree, but originally it is doubtful if the description would have been deemed accurate. Like the Master, the Bachelor might be a............