Roger Bacon (who died 1248)[[41a]] speaks of a young fellow who came to him, aged 15, not having wherewithal to live, or finding proper masters: “because he was obliged to serve those who gave him necessaries, during two years found no one to teach him a word in the things he learned.” --_Opus Tertium_, cap. xx. In 1214 the Commonalty of Oxford agreed to pay 52s. yearly for the use of poor scholars, and to give 100 of them a meal of bread, ale, and pottage, with one large dish of flesh or fish, every St Nicholas day.--_Wood’s An._ i. 185. _Wood’s Annals_ (ed. Gutch, v. i. p. 619-20) also notes that in 1461 A.D. divers Scholars were forced to get a license under the Chancellor’s hand and seal (according to the Stat. 12 Ric. II., A.D. 1388, _Ib._, p. 519) to beg: and Sir Thos. More says “then may wee yet, like poor Scholars of Oxford, go a begging with our baggs & wallets, & sing salve Regina at rich mens dores.” On this point we may also compare the Statutes of Walter de Merton for his College at Oxford, A.D. 1274, ed. Halliwell, 1843, p. 19: Cap. 13. De admissione scholarium. Hoc etiam in eadem domo specialiter observari volo et decerno, ut circa eos, qui ad hujusmodi eleemosinæ participationem admittendi fuerint, diligenti solicitudine caveatur, ne qui præter castos, honestos, pacificos, humiles, _indigentes_, ad studium habiles ac proficere volentes, admittantur. Ad quorum agnitionem singulis, cum in dicta societate fuerint admittendi sustentationis gratia in eadem, ad annum unum utpote probationis causa primitus concedatur, ut sic demum si in dictis conditionibus laudabiliter se habuerint, in dictam congregationem admittantur. See also cap. 31, against horses of scholars being kept. Lodgings were let according to the joint valuation of 2 Magistri (scholars) and two townsmen (probi et legales homines de Villa). _Wood_, i. 255. An. 15 Hen. III. A.D. 1230-1. In the beginning of the 15th century it had become the established rule that every scholar must be a member of some college or hall. The scholars who attended the public lectures of the university, without entering themselves at any college or hall, were called _chamber dekyns_, as in Paris they were called martinets; and frequent enactments were made against them.--_Malden_, p. 85, ref. to _Woods Annals_, 1408, -13, -22, and 1512, &c. The following are the dates of the foundations of the different Colleges at Oxford as given in the University Calendar:--