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
(_a_) The College disputations were to be weekly during Term, in Logic
and Philosophy on Wednesdays, for those members who had taken B.A. and
not yet proceeded to M.A. (there being no undergraduates, according to
the founder’s scheme); and in Theology on Fridays, for all members of
M.A. standing. Both sets of disputations were to cease during Lent,
when the Fellows were engaged in their ministerial duties.
(_b_) Fellows, elected as B.A., were to proceed to M.A. as soon as
possible; Fellows were to take B.D. (or B. Can. L. in case of the
Canonist Fellow) within nine years from M.A.; and, unless the College
approved of an excuse, to proceed to D.D. (or D. Can. L.) within six
years later. The last of these provisions, however, was practically a
dead letter, for the College never forced any Fellow to the expensive
dignity of the Doctorate.
(5) Study, however, as distinct from formal academical exercises,
was inculcated as a virtue both by persuasions and punishments. The
Subrector was charged to rebuke Fellows not merely for offences against
morality and decorum, but for being neglectful of books; and unless the
Fellows so admonished submitted and mended their ways, they were to be
expelled.
The founder and later benefactors, as has been from time to time noted,
made gifts of “books” (_i. e._ MSS.) for the use of the Fellows;
and John Forest built a library for their reception. According to
Rotheram’s statutes, two classes of books were to be recognized--
(_a_) Those which were to be chained in the library, and which the
reader had therefore to consult there. According to the Catalogue of
1474, this library then contained 135 MSS., arranged on seven desks.
(_b_) Those which were to be considered as “in the common choice” of
the Rector and Fellows. On each 6th November a list of these was to be
made out; the Rector was to choose one, and after him the Fellows one
each, according to their seniority,[174] and so on till the books were
all taken out; thereafter, the Fellows were to take the books to their
own rooms, depositing a bond for their safe custody and return. In 1476
there were 35 books in this “lending library,” different from the 135
above-mentioned. A record is also found of the books (18 in number)
thus borrowed by the Fellows in 1595 and (17 in number) in 1596; among
them are two copies of Augustine _De civitate Dei_, and one of Servius
_In Virgilium_.
(6) The Fellows had to take their share in the ordinary routine of
College business, especially in the two chief meetings on 6th May and
6th November, called “chapters” (_capitula_), and to serve when called
upon in the College offices. These were three in number, all held for
one year only.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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