The Colleges of Oxford: Their History and Traditions: XXI Chapters Contributed by Members of the Colleges
History
The Colleges of Oxford: Their History and Traditions: XXI Chapters Contributed by Members of the Colleges
University of Oxford -- History
For the rest it was ordained that the Fellows should speak Latin often,
and at every Act have one Disputation in Philosophy or Theology,
and have one Disputation at least in the principal Question of both
Faculties in the Vespers, and another in the Inception in their private
College. In these disputations it is clear that rival disputants
sometimes lost their tempers from the following ordinance--
“No Fellow shall under-value another Fellow, but shall correct his
Fault privately, under the Penalty of Twelve-pence to be paid to the
common-Purse; nor before one that is no Fellow, under the Penalty of
two shillings; nor publickly in the Highway, or Church, or Fields,
under the penalty of half a mark; and in all these cases, he that
begins first shall double what the other is to pay, and this in
Disputations especially.”
In those days a lesson was read during dinner. In these degenerate days
all the above salutary rules are inverted, and it is customary for the
senior scholar to sconce in a pot of beer any junior member who quotes
Latin during the Hall-dinner.
In the year 1311 fresh statutes were ordained by convocation for the
College, which, however, add little to the former ones. Of candidates
for a Fellowship, otherwise duly qualified, he was to be preferred who
comes from near Durham. After seven years a Fellow was to oppose in the
Divinity Schools, which was equivalent to nowadays taking the degree
of Doctor of Divinity. Each Fellow or past-Fellow was to put up a mass
once a year for the Repose of the soul of William of Durham; and all
alike were to cause themselves to be called, so far as lay in their
power, the scholars of William of Durham. Lastly, the Senior Fellow was
to be in Holy Orders. This, however, must not be taken to mean that
the other Fellows were not to be so likewise. They were till recently
expected to be ordained within four years of their degree, and the
Statutes of 1311 A.D. were reaffirmed in that sense by the visitors
under the chancellorship of Dr. Fell, 1666 A.D., when it was sought to
remove Mr. Berty, a Bennet Fellow, because he had not taken orders.
In or about the year 1343 the scholars of William of Durham removed to
the present site of the College, where a house called Spicer’s Hall,
occupying the ground now included in the large quadrangle, had been
bought for them. At the same time White Hall and Rose Hall, two houses
facing Kybald Street--which joined the present Logic Lane and Grove
Street half-way down each--were bought, and made part of the College.
Ludlow Hall, on the site of the present east quadrangle, was bought at
the same time, and a tenement, called in 1379 Little University Hall,
and occupying the site of the Lodgings of the Master (which in 1880,
on the completion of the Master’s new house, were turned into men’s
rooms), was bought in 1404. But Ludlow Hall and Little University Hall
were not at once added to the College premises.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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