Part 4 (1/2)
During the first two centuries of the University's existence, the Chancellor was a resident official; but in the fifteenth century it becareat ecclesiastic, as able by his influence and wealth to promote the interests of Oxford and Oxford scholars; such an one was George Neville, the brother of the King-Maker Earl of Warwick, who becae of twenty He no doubt owed his early elevation to the nificence hich he had entertained the whole of Oxford when he had proceeded to his MA fro year
[Sidenote: The Vice-Chancellor]
From the fifteenth century onwards the Vice-Chancellor takes the place of the Chancellor as the centre of University life; as the Chancellor's representative, he is noh the appointment is in theory approved by the vote of Convocation
The nomination of a Vice-Chancellor is for a year, but renomination is allowed; as a matter of fact, the Chancellor's choice is limited by custom in tays; no Vice-Chancellor is reappointed more than three times, ie the tenure of the office is limited to four years, and the nomination is always offered to the senior head of a house who has not held the position already; if any head has declined the office when offered to him on a previous occasion, he is treated as if he had actually held it
The Vice-Chancellor has all the powers and duties of the Chancellor in the latter's absence; but in the rare cases when the Chancellor visits Oxford, his deputy sinks for the tie
[Sidenote: The Control of Examinations]
The only duties of the Vice-Chancellor that need be here mentioned are his authority and control over exarees, duties which are of course connected Any departure fro (to take a constantly recurring case) he alone can give perraduate out of his turn, when any one has failed to present hiht tiements for examinations have developed into a cast-iron system, the appeal, except in matters of detail, to the Vice-Chancellor is rare; but it was not always so; his control was at one time a very real and important matter In the case of the famous Dr
Fell, Dean of Christ Church, Antony Wood notes 'that he did frequent exarees, hold the examiners up to it, and if they would or could not do their duty, he would do it hi down of many' It is no wonder that men said of him:--
I do not like thee, Dr Fell, The reason why I cannot tell
He was equally careful of the decencies and proprieties of the degree cererees go in caps, and in public asseoorn by all degrees to their former size and make, and ordered all cap-makers and tailors to make them so'
It was necessary for hih they were not on the whole neglectful of the dignity and the studies of the University, had carried their dislike of all ceremonies and forms so far as to attee and other parts (in 1648) observed nothing according to statutes' It was only the stubborn opposition of the Proctor, Walter Pope (in 1658), which had prevented the forowns; and one of Fell's predecessors as Vice-Chancellor, the famous Puritan divine, John Owen, also Dean of Christ Church, had caused great scandal to the 'old stock reregation and Convocation; 'he had as ht cannons' (but this was a Cae scandal, and may be looked on with suspicion), and wore for the most part 'velvet jacket, his breeches set round at knee with ribbons pointed, Spanish leather boots with Cambric tops' But in spite of this somewhat pronounced opposition to a 'prelatical cut', Owen had been in his way a disciplinarian He had arrested with his own hands, pulling hi hiraduate who had carried too far the wit of the 'Terrae Filius', the licensed jester of the solemn Act
[Sidenote: The Bedels]
Fortunately the Vice-Chancellor in these more orderly days has not to carry out discipline with his own hands in this summary fashi+on He has his attendants, the Bedels, for this purpose, who, as the statutes order, 'wearing the usual gowns and round caps, walk before hiold and one silver' The office of Bedel is one of the oldest in Oxford, and is cooes so far as to say that 'an allusion to a bidellus is in general (though not invariably) a sufficiently trustworthy indication that a School is really a University or Studiuher rank of 'Esquire Bedel' has been abolished, and the old office has sadly shrunk in dignity; it is hard now to conceive the state of things in the reign of Henry VII, when the University was distracted by the counter-claims of the candidates for the post of Divinity Bedel, when one of them had the support of the Prince of Wales, and another that of the King's aret, and when the electors were hard put to it to decide between candidates so royally backed; it was a contest between gratitude in the sense of a lively expectation of favours to coratitude for benefits already received (ie the Lady Margaret Professorshi+p of Divinity, the first endow in Oxford) Even the Puritans had attached the greatest iiven to the sad account of the Parlia years, by the distress of the Visitors at the disappearance of the old syone off with their official staves, and refused to surrender the intruders Resolution after resolution was passed to re that the stipends of suppressed lectureshi+ps should be applied to the purchase of staves, and were finally coes for contributions towards the replacing of these signs of authority The present staves date frohteenth century, while the old ones[19] rest in honourable retireh the office of Bedel has ceased to be in our own days a h University politics, it would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of the part played by the Bedel of the Faculty of Arts in the degree ceremony It is he who marshals the candidates for presentation, distributes the testaments on which they have to take their oath, and superintends the retirement of the Doctors and the MAs into the Apodyteriuuidance in their new robes, to make their bow to the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors[20] If the truth must be added, he is often relied on by these officers to tell them what they have to do and to say
[Sidenote: The Proctors]
If the Vice-Chancellor is responsible for order in the Congregation, and actually adree, the Proctors, as representatives of the Faculty of Arts, play an equally important part in the cereraduate without doubt the ures in the University; they fory; it may be said (it is to be hoped the comparison is not irreverent) that they play much the same part in Oxford stories as the Evil One does in ends, for like his, powerful for mischief, yet often not without a sense of humour, who are by turns the oppressors and the butts of the wily undergraduate To most Oxford men it coree at the earliest, that the Proctors haveafter thes of the University and is first mentioned in 1248, when the Proctors are associated with the Chancellor in the charter of Henry III, which gave the University a right to interfere in the assize of bread and beer
Their number recalls one of the most important points in the early history of Oxford The division of the students according to 'Nations', which prevailed at mediaeval Paris, and which still survives in some of the Scotch universities, never was established in the English ones; in this as in other respects the strong hand of the Anglo-Norh there was no rooly-marked line of separation between the Northerners and the Southerners, ie between those from the north of the Trent, ho ere reckoned the Welsh and the Irish The fights between these factions were a continual trouble to the mediaeval University, and it was necessary for the MAs of each division to have their own Proctor; hence originally the Senior Proctor was the elect of the Southerners and the Junior Proctor of the Northerners
Proctorial elections were a source of constantly recurring trouble, till Archbishop Laud at last transferred the election to the colleges, each of which took its turn in a cycle carefully calculated according to the nueneration this systee or small alike, have their turn for the Proctorshi+p, which comes to each once in eleven years The electors for it are the regation belonging to the college
The Proctors represent the Masters of Arts as opposed to the higher faculties (ie the Doctors), and it is in virtue of the tiht of the Faculty of Arts to decide all races', that the Proctors take their proh the Vice-Chancellor is presiding, it is the Proctor who subranted' Before doing this the two Proctors, as has been said (p 9), walk half-way down the House and return, thus in for the injunction of the statutes that 'they should take the votes in the usual way'[21]
[Sidenote: The Registrar]
One other University official istrar, ie the Secretary of the University The existence of a Register of Convocation implies that there must have been an officer of this kind in mediaeval Oxford, but the actual title does not occur till the sixteenth century; its first holder seee, so scandalously notorious in the first days of the Reforh in the sixteenth century
One of the earliest Registrars, Thomas Key of All Souls, was expelled frolected to take any note of the University proceedings; he actually struck in the face another Master of Arts as trying to detain him at the order of the Vice-Chancellor For this he was sent to prison, and fined 26_s_ 8_d_; but he was released the very next day, and his fine cut down to 4_d_ He lived to be elected Master of University College nine years later, and to be the ainst the Cae advocate This was his namesake Dr Caius, equally mendacious but e college
The Registrar's duty in the degree ceremony, as has been said (p 5), is to certify that the candidates have fulfilled all the requireraces' froes as to proper residence, and that all exaistrar derives this latter information from the University books in which records are now kept of each stage of an undergraduate's career It is only recently, however, that this systeo each candidate for a degree had to produce his 'testamur', the precious scrap of blue paper issued after every examination to each successful candidate, pass-man and class- claims of sentiet the 'testamur' for self or for friend, and the triuht hoht with advantage introduce the custoree, a formal certificate of the examinations he has passed, of his residence and of the rank to which he has attained Such a certificate, whether called 'diploma' or by any other name, would be of practical value; in these days study is international, and the nu, who need to produce evidence of their University career and its results for the authorities of foreign or American universities These bodies often issue diplonified appearance; it is a pity that Oxford, which in some ways is so rich in survivals of picturesque custom, should fail in this ree can be obtained, if a istrar for it and pays an extra fee; this additional pay to take the degree if, as they say, 'they had so definite to show for it'
[Sidenote: The Presenters for the degrees]