Part 5 (1/2)

The Laudian Statutes here as elsewhere forements of Pre-Reformation Oxford to those of our own day They enforce (on all alike) dress of a proper colour, short hair, and abstinence fro abroad in fancy boots (_ocreae_); only while the graduate is fined 6_s_ 8_d_ for offending, the undergraduate ('if his age be suitable') suffers '_poena corporalis_' at the discretion of the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors

Perhaps the following general points may be made as to University dress in the olden times

[Sidenote: (1) University Dress clerical]

As all members of the University were _ipso facto_ clerks, their dress had to correspond; the marks of clerical dress were that it was to be of a certain length (later it was specified that it should reach the heels, _talaris_), and that it should be closed in front, but there was great licence as to colour; the 'black' or 'subfusc' prescribed by the Laudian Statutes is the result of the asceticism of the Reformation, and was unknown in Oxford before the sixteenth century We have in the wills of students and in the inventories of their properties, abundant evidence that our lande', eg of green, blue or blood-colour Soe left directions what 'livery' all his students should wear; eg Robert Eglesfield prescribed for the fellows of Queen's College that they were to dine in Hall in purple cloaks, the Doctors wearing these trimmed with fur, while the MAs wore theirs 'plain'; the colour was 'to suit the dignity of their position and to be like the blood of The Lord' Caes still in soowns of a special colour or cut

One curious survival of the 'clerkshi+p' of all students is the requirement of the white tie in all University exaree ceremony The 'bands', which (to quote Dr Rashdall) 'are merely a clerical collar', have disappeared froree of Doctor, except the Vice-Chancellor and the Proctors; the dress of the latter is the full-dress of an ordinary MA in the seventeenth century, and preserves picturesque old features which have been lost elsewhere

[Sidenote: (2) The Cope and the Gown]

The proper dress of the raduate could also wear it, was the _cappa_ or cope; this at Oxford was usually black in colour, but Doctors had quite early (ie in the time of the Edwards) adopted as the colour for it so the custom which still survives The scarlet 'habit', worn at Convocations by Oxford Doctors over their ordinary gowns, retains the old name '_cappa_', but the shape has been completely altered The sister University, however, still preserves the old shape; the Caree ceremonies in a sleeveless scarlet cloak, lined with miniver, which exactly corresponds to the fourteenth-century picture of our Chancellor receiving the charter fro on' of which is now the distinguishi+ngof the BA or MA, is siara_) or cassock, which orn under the _cappa_ The dress of the 'Blues' at Christ's Hospital preserves the gown in an earlier stage of developown of the BA

sleeves, while that of an MA has therown out of a sie as to the mediaeval _cappa_

[Sidenote: (3) The Hood]

The ree was the hood, as to which the University was always strict, assigning the proper material and the proper colour[26] to that of each faculty The hood was not a inally it seems to have been attached to the _cappa_, and, as its na (the head) when required Its practical purpose is quaintly implied in the books of the Chancellor and the Proctors (sub anno 1426), where it is provided that 'whereas reason bids that the varieties of costu of the seasons, and whereas the Festival of Easter in its due course is akin from its nearness to summer,' it is henceforth allowed that froraduates may wear silken hoods,' instead of fur ones, 'old custo' The MA hood, even in its present mutilated form, still presents survivals of the ti, survivals which should prevent those ear it fro it on upside down, as many often do The BA hood was already in the fifteenth century lined with lamb's wool or rabbit's fur, and the use of miniver by other than MAs and persons of birth or wealth[27]

was strictly forbidden by a statute of 1432

[Sidenote: (4) The Cap]

The last and not the least important part of mediaeval academic dress still re of this with the ring and the kiss of peace has been alreadythe marks of the admission of new Masters and Doctors As under the Ro allowed to put on a cap, so the '_pileus_' of the MA was the sign of his independence; hence he was bound to wear it at all University ceremonies The cap was sometine (writing in 1456) tells us that in his day the round cap orn by Doctors of Divinity and Canon Law, and that it had always been so since the days of King Alfred; not content with this antiquity, he also affiriven by God Himself to the doctors of the Mosaic Law He adds the more commonplace but more trustworthy infor behind, to prevent its falling off

The modern stiff corners of the cap are an addition, which is not an iracefully from its tuft in the centre, as can still be seen in the portraits of seventeenth-century divines, eg in Vandyck's 'Archbishop Laud', so fae has specialized the round cap of velvet as belonging to the Doctors of Law and Medicine, and a ear it is; it is preserved, in a less elaborate forree ceremony in the round caps of the Bedels

After the Reforraduates, but originally without the tuft; the eighteenth century, careless of the old traditions, replaced the tuft by the modern commonplace tassel, and extended this to all caps except those of servitors With the disappearance of social distinctions in dress, the tassel has been extended to all, except to choir-boys, and so the coveted badge of the mediaeval Master is now the property of all University ranks, and is undervalued and neglected in the saless

Before leaving the subject of head-gear, itthe son of a nobleold tassel for his cap has left a perht of wearing this distinctive badge still exists for peers and for their eldest sons[28], but they are at liberty not to avail themselves of it, and it is practically never used Academic dress has sadly lost its picturesqueness, especially for the undergraduate; his gown no longer reaches to his heels, as the statute still requires it to do, and the injunction against 'novi et insoliti habitus' is surely a dead letter in these days when Norfolk jackets and knickerbocker suits penetrate even to University and college lecture-rooms But what can the University expect when MAs, in evasion of the statutes, coowns, and borrow them from each other in order to vote, and when the University itself knows nothing of the 'exemplaria'

(models) which are supposed to be 'in archivis reposita'? Whether there ever were thesea doll in DD

habit, &c, is uncertain; what is certain is that there are none now At the present tie are at the h it must be said for their representatives in Oxford that they do their best to maintain old traditions, yet there is no doubt that innovations are slowly but steadily introduced, eg the MA hood is losing in length, and is altering in colour

The recent atteowns and habits for the 'Research' Doctors is, it s; whatever ht of the aesthetic success in this case, the subject was treated with seriousness and expert evidence was taken Perhaps in the near future Oxfordmore is lost of its one is probably hopeless Such pious conservatise; for even the modern Radical, unlike his predecessor of half a century back, cares, or at any rate professes to care, for the external traces of the past

[Sidenote: Oxford Hoods and Gowns]

The following list uish between the full dress and the undress of Doctors; it is only intended as a help in identifying the various functionaries who take part in the degree ceremony

_Doctors_

Divinity (DD[29])--Scarlet hood and habit; the gown has black velvet sleeves