OXFORD UNIVERSITY. One of the two principal universities of England. The legendary stories of its foundation by King Alfred may be neglected; but as early as 1117 there are notices of Continental scholars lecturing at Oxford, pos sibly attracted by the neighborhood of the palace of the scholar King. Henry 1. The expulsion of foreigners from the University of Paris, as one of the results of the quarrel between henry II. and Becket, seems to have caused a definite immi gration to Oxford; and the account of a visit paid to it by Giraldus Cambrensis about 1185 shows that it was already a centre of learning. and pos sessed organized faculties with regular degrees. From this time on the university is a place of importance. In the reign of Richard 1. scholars were maintained there by the royal bounty; and in 1209 the academic community suffered. as it had earlier grown, by migration. This grew out of one of the frequent conflicts between students and townspeople, and had as a result the transfer of a considerable number of students to Cambridge and the rise of the schools there to the dignity of a Stadium Generale. In 1214 the liberties of the university were confirmed by decision of a Papal legate, which names for the first time a chancellor as a representative of the university, and requires the townsmen to surrender to him or to sonic other representative of the Bishop any `clerks' whom they had seized. The distance from the see city of the diocese, Lincoln, which mini mized direct episcopal control, and the prolonged struggles between town and gown. in which the university was generally successful, helped to differentiate it from the Continental universities. Yet in many ways the organization of Oxford was like that of Paris, a self-governing guild of mas ters, presided over by a chancellor of their elec tion. As elsewhere. the earliest organization was for the purpose of limitation. not extension. of teaching; it was a trade guild. intended to super vise the qualifications of those who claimed ad mission to the teaching body. Like Paris and its imitators, Oxford had its 'nations,' though here there were but two—the North, including the Scotch, and the South, including the Welsh and Irish. From the beginning. the faculty of art, was of chief importance. those of law. medicine.
and theology never rising to the dignity of sepa rate deans. In the management of university affairs, the congregation or assembly of 'regents,' masters actually engaged in instruction, passed upon measures before they were submitted to the greater congregation or whole body of masters. It was a democratic society, and \vas found on the side of independence against Henry Ill., who threatened such radical measures as the hanging of the whole body of students. The reform move
ment of Wielif, himself a fellow and perhaps a master of a college, also found here a considerable body of sympathizers. The mention of colleges brings us to an important step in the develop ment of the university. At first, as elsewhere. the students had lived at their own expense in the town. By degrees voluntary asso ciations of students sprang up, which elected their head, rented a house, obtained a license from the university. and acquired something like a cor porate existence. By the middle of the thirteenth century, too, the mendicant Orders had begun to plant themselves in Oxford. as they were doing in other universities. The Dominicans came in 1221, the Franciscans in 1224. the Carmelites in 1256, and the Augustinian: in 126S. They ac quired property, built houses, and gained an in fluence among the students which soon brought them into conflict with the university authorities.
But about the same time another movement was set on foot which was destined to have more lasting consequences. This was the establishment of colleges by private benefaction for the support of students, combining the freedom of the halls with the means of support offered by the religious houses. The movement seems to have begun in Oxford and Paris almost simultaneously. In 1249 William of Durham left three hundred and ten marks for the support of ten masters in lodgings, which were purchased by the university in 1253; this endowment grew in 1280 by the granting of definite statutes unto the oldest of the colleges. University College. Sir John de Baliol. between 1261 and 1266. laid the foundation of Banjo] Col lege by a similar gift ; but the real type, which was afterwards to prevail, was struck out by Walter de Merton, who founded and gave his name to the first real college in the modern sense at Oxford. It was not, like the colleges at Paris, an association of masters of arts electing their own head. but without control of the funds by which were supported; it was governed by a warden and a number of senior fellows. who per petuated their own body by co-optation. admin istered their own property, and oversaw the v members of the college. Thus a fourth class of students came into being, besides the 'chamberdekyns.' who lived in independent lodg ings in the town, those who were inmates of re ligious houses, and those who lived in hostels or halls. With the foundation of colleges. often by the absorption of these older halls. came a eorre spending diminution in the number of the latter. and they are now almost extinct. The tendency was toward the inclusion of all students in col leges, where diseipline as well as instruction would he easier.