The Sheldonian Theatre, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, is associated with less tranquil occupations. It is here that honorary degrees are conferred and the Encænia held; here the _Terrce Filius_, a licensed jester, used to hurl his witticisms at whomsoever he pleased; and here, in later times, the occupants of the Undergraduates' Gallery have endeavoured to keep up his tradition. Here, too, Convocation sometimes meets, when a burning question is to be discussed and Masters of Arts assemble in their hundreds. On such occasions the Sheldonian has been known to be as full of clamour as at the Encaenia. It is perhaps pleasanter to view Wren's stately building when it is void alike of undergraduate merriment and of graduate contention. ST. MARY'S CHURCH [Illustration: 0046] |ALTHOUGH St. Mary's, being a parish Church, cannot be numbered among the buildings which are University property, it has been almost as closely connected as any of them with the life and history of the University. Cobham's Chapel, as has been already said, was the first House of Congregation; and in the room above it the University kept its manuscripts, until Duke Humphrey's Library was built. The chancel and nave, moreover, were used by the gownsmen for both religious and secular purposes; and it is strange to reflect that consecrated walls heard not only sermons and disputations, but the jests of the _Terrce Filius_ and the uproar which they excited. It was only when the Sheldonian was built (1669) that St. Mary's ceased to be the scene of the "Act"--the modern Encænia--and was restored to its original intention. [Illustration: 0047] The porch, with its spiral columns and statue of the Virgin and Child, is much later than the rest of the building, being the work of Dr. Owen, Archbishop Laud's chaplain. Architecturally it is not in keeping with the nave and spire, but in itself, especially when the creeper which en-wreathes it takes on its autumnal colour, it is very beautiful. It was found necessary, in 1895, to restore the spire, which with the pinnacles at its base is the special glory of St. Mary's. The Church is intimately connected with the religious history of the nation. Here Keble preached the famous Assize Sermon, which is regarded as the beginning of the Oxford Movement; here, too, Newman, before he withdrew to his retirement at Littlemore, preached those many sermons to whose spiritual force men of all schools of thought have borne witness. A later vicar was Dean Burgon, to whose memory the west window was put up in 1891.