Produced by Graeme Mackreth and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) [Illustration] The Oxford Degree Ceremony By J. Wells Fellow of Wadham College Oxford At the Clarendon Press 1906 HENRY FROWDE, M.A. PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD LONDON, EDINBURGH NEW YORK AND TORONTO PREFACE The object of this little book is to attempt to set forth the meaning of our forms and ceremonies, and to show how much of University history is involved in them. It naturally makes no pretensions to independent research; I have simply tried to make popular the results arrived at in Dr. Rashdall's great book on the _Universities of the Middle Ages_, and in the Rev. Andrew Clark's invaluable _Register of the University of Oxford_ (published by the Oxford Historical Society). My obligations to these two books will be patent to all who know them; it has not, however, seemed necessary to give definite references either to these or to Anstey's _Munimenta Academica_ (Rolls Series), which also has been constantly used. I have tried as far as possible to introduce the language of the statutes, whether past or present; the forms actually used in the degree ceremony itself are given in Latin and translated; in other cases a rendering has usually been given, but sometimes the original has been retained, when the words were either technical or such as would be easily understood by all. The illustrations, with which the Clarendon Press has furnished the book, are its most valuable part. Every Oxford man, who cares for the history of his University, will be glad to have the reproduction of the portrait of the fourteenth-century Chancellor and of the University seal. I have to thank Dr. Rashdall and the Rev. Andrew Clark for most kindly reading through my chapters, and for several suggestions, and Professor Oman for special help in the Appendix on 'The University Staves'. J.W. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE THE DEGREE CEREMONY 1 CHAPTER II THE MEANING OF THE DEGREE CEREMONY 19 CHAPTER III THE PRELIMINARIES OF THE DEGREE CEREMONY 34 CHAPTER IV THE OFFICERS OF THE UNIVERSITY 50 CHAPTER V UNIVERSITY DRESS 64 CHAPTER VI THE PLACES OF THE DEGREE CEREMONY 79 APPENDIX I THE PUBLIC ASSEMBLIES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD 93 APPENDIX II THE UNIVERSITY STAVES 94 INDEX 97 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS THE ORIGINAL SHELDONIAN _Frontispiece_