TOWN AND GOWN. 71 University surrendered its privileges into the hands of Wolsey, and for the next few years brawls between the town and the charterless gownsmen were frequent. One of the most notable of these conflicts was the fatal encounter on June 4, 1520, between the students of Broadgates Hall and the town patrol: 1520, June 5. Coroner's Inquisition upon the Death of Hugh Todde, in an affray between the Scholars of Broadyates and the Citizens. Inquisition indented taken in the town of Oxford in the county of Oxford, 5th day of June, 12th year of Henry VIII, before John Hedde, one of the Coroners of our lord the King, upon view of the body of Hugh Todde, there killed and found dead. [The jury] say upon their oathes that Thomas Bisley, late of Oxford, scholar; Thomas Houghton, of Oxford aforesaid, scholar; Maurice Canop, of the same town, scholar; and Thomas Wykiswey, of the same town and county, clerk, with many other malefactors and disturbers of the King's peace assembled with them armed in a warlike manner, by force and arms, viz. sticks, swords, bows and arrows, the 4th day of June, 12 Henry VIII, about the hour of II at night of the same day in which Hugh Todd, John Godestowe, etc., then being the Kinges wachemen, were insulted, beaten and badly wounded, so that they despaired of their lives, and the same Hugh Todd was then and there feloniusly killed and murdered against the peace of our lord the King; and upon this the said Thomas Bisley, etc., after the said felony and murder done and perpetrated the said fifth of June, took to flyght1. On August 1st the King's breve was issued to Thomas Englefield, Sheriff of Oxford, for an inquiry concerning the death of Todd and the arrest of the rioters. ... 'Inquiratur pro domino Rege si Thomas Bisley nuper de Oxon scholaris Thomas Houghton de Oxon predict' in Com' predict' scholaris Mauritius Cannope de eisdem villa et Com' scholaris et Thomas Wyckyswey nuper de eisdem villa et Com' clericus aggregatis sibi quam pluribus aliis malefactoribus et pacis domini Regis perturbatoribus . . . modo guerino araiať' et armat' vi et armis viz baculis gladiis arcubus et sagittis 4o die Junii anno regni regis Henr' 8i 12o circa horã xjam in nocte ejusdem diei in quosdam Hugonem Todde, Johannem Godstowe et alios ad tunc existen' ye kynges watchmen riotose insultum fecerunt et ipsos Hugonem Todde et Johannem Godstowe ac alios p'dict' ad tunc et ibidem verberaverunt vulneraverunt et male tractaverunt sic quod de vita sua desperabant ac eundem Hugonem Todde ad tunc et ibidem inventum riotose et felonice interfecerunt et murdraverunt contra pacem Domini Regis ".' It seems that the offenders had been banished by the University on June 16, together with John Wayat, a civilian. The relations of Town and Gown were easy at Oxford as compared with Paris, where, if a riotous student were slain, the Provost-Marshal 2 Ibid. v. 199. 1 Twyne, xxiii. 72 RIXAE LATEPORTENSES. or other Magistrate risked perpetual imprisonment, and, if he hanged one or two to make an example, was liable to be compelled some weeks later to take down the corpses from the gallows with his own hands and kiss their lips. But even at Oxford a citizen's life was cheap, as appears by the sequel : 15, Jan. 17. Inquest on Hugh Todde. 'Thomas Wynknyslay [alias Whem], scholar of canon law, who was banished when the scholars of Brodeyates fought against the townsmen because he did not appear before the Chancellor, petitioned that he might return to this University, which was granted upon these terms, that he pay to the University 6s. 8d., for the reparation of the staff of the inferior bedel of arts, xxd., and say three masses for the good estate of the said regents, and for the soul of the defunct in that fight'.' The question between the Dogberries and the 'bull-dogs' of that age was still unsettled in Laud's time. See Gutch's Wood's Annals, ii. 422, n. The clerks of this quarter seem always to have been quarrelsome, to judge by a murderous assault made in St. Aldate's churchyard, Jan. 27, 1306, on three unoffending citizens 2. The legists were especially prominent when brawls were afoot. On May 4, 1449, certain scholars of 'the hall commonly called Brodeyates in the parish of St. Aldate' entered with force and arms, during the night, the house of Richard Wyntryngham, a butcher, and assaulted him. Their names were Master Haywode, John Foxe, John Man, William Dicson, Thomas Blakeman, William Layberne, and Hewode3. Three years before this the scholars of 'Lata Porta' were at variance with those of Pauline Hall. John Scelott and John Snawdone on behalf of the principal and fellows of the former, and Richard Pede and Thomas Ashfeld on behalf of the principal and fellows of the latter, arbitrated and composed the quarrel. The principals were to entreat reconciliation either of other on behalf of their respective parties. Owyn Lloyde, principal of Pauline, was to say to the principal of Broadgates that if he had done him or his any wrong he humbly asks pardon. Further Sir John Olney, presbyter, and Owyn were to exchange the kiss of peace, and take a corporal oath, touching the Holy Gospels, that they will maintain brotherly love, and bind themselves thereto under their hand by a bond of 100 shillings, the bond to be lodged with the Chancellor. And all the fellows were to 1 1 Twyne, xxiv. 406. Oxford City Records. 2 Oxford City Documents, ed. Rogers, O. H. S., p. 177. RECONCILED BEFORE GOD'S ALTAR. 73 keep the peace. One, David Philipe, who was alleged to have struck John Olney, was to kneel, and ask and receive pardon. This laudum sive arbitrium' was declared, July 7, 1446, in St. Frideswyde's church, by the altar of the saint, in the presence of the parties, who confirmed the same 1. In 1503 a more than usually deadly pest emptied the hostels and inns, so that of fifty-five halls only thirty-three were inhabited, and that slenderly. Munimenta, PP. 552-4. In 1451 Owyn-y-floide was Principal of Edmund Hall (p. 621). CHAPTER VIII. SIXTEENTH CENTURY LAWYERS AND CANONISTS. WHILE Broadgates Hall (now comprising at least New College and Abingdon Chambers, Broadgates itself, Cambey's and Mine) was extending its borders to right and left, the long-gathering storm of ecclesiastical reformation broke over the land, shaking especially the Universities. The unendowed Halls were affected by the course of events even more than the Colleges, since the confiscation of the monastic revenues deprived the poorer clerks of their exhibitions and means of support, and the University was 'almost destitute of scholars.' At the beginning of Elizabeth's reign only nine Halls, the number of the Muses, were left, viz. Alban, Broadgates, Hart, Gloucester, White, New Inn, Edmund, St. Mary, and Magdalen. Three of these are mentioned by Nicholas Robinson1 as still devoted to legal studies Candida, Lata, Nova, studiis civilibus apta, The times were not favourable to the Civil Law. Not only were men's minds engrossed with theological speculation, but the tide was flowing strongly away from Roman, and towards a national jurisprudence. The spirit of the Reformation was Germanic and northern. Moreover the lawyers were being drawn more and more to London, where their practice lay, and the establishment of Inns of Court was inevitable, constituting (Huber remarks) a third University, Oxford and Cambridge retaining little more than the power of conferring degrees in law, for which a mechanical exercise sufficed. So scarce were civilians becoming even before the Reformation that the Kings 1 Queen Elizabeth in Oxford, 1566. Wood however, under date 1551, says that 'the present Halls' (those i. e. that were halls in his day), especially those of Edmund and New Inn, were void of Students' (Gutch, ii. 110). English Universities, i. § 81. THE REFORMATION AND CIVIL LAW. 75 sought permission from the Pope for ecclesiastics to study the Civil Law, that they might have counsellors. There was, it is true, a strongly Cæsarean feeling in Henry VIII and his son. The jurists having been encouraged to exclude the artists' from the Convocation which met on April 8, 1530, to consider the Divorce, the King next forbade the granting by Oxford of degrees in Canon Law, but endowed a Civil Law Professorship, with a salary of £40, together with chairs of Theology, Greek, Hebrew, and Medicine. Edward VI's Letters Patents of 1549 recite that it hath been shewn us that the study of the Civil Law is almost extinct. We therefore impose care and solicitude on you ut quibus poteritis viis et modis illud excitetis et amplificetis.' The king prescribed that the Law Reader should lecture on the Pandects, the Code, or the Ecclesiastical Laws of the Realm. He seems to have purposed to gather all the civilians into one College', the physicians into another. During Elizabeth's reign the Universities, so violently handled, were gathering anew their scattered force. Whereas in 1551, of 1015 names on the Oxford buttery books, 'the greater part were absent and had taken their last farewell,' the students now began to return. The Schools of Arts were no longer used by laundresses to dry their clothes in. The Puritan idea that the old exercises were ridiculous and degrees anti-Christian was weakened, and the 'barbarous insolencies upon treasures of good letters' stopped. But the graduates in jurisprudence were still few. Nevertheless Broadgates Hall was presided over by a succession of able lawyers, some of whom were men of eminence in an eminent age. It did more perhaps than any English institution to keep the Law of Nations alive. When in 1603 the dissolution of the faculty was feared, the Chancellor declared that 'this Academy possesses four heads or ornaments, upon which as its firmest foundations the whole structure of the University has been placed, that is the faculties of Theology, Jurisprudence, Medicine, and Artes Humaniores; of which if one were taken away the fall of the whole edifice would ensue.' And James I gave the University the right to elect two burgesses who should be grave and learned men professing the Civil Law. The first Principal of note was Wolsey's friend, BRIAN HIGDEN (1505-1508), B.C.L. 1500, LL.D. 1506, May 282. 1 Doctors' Commons, incorporated in 1768 as the College of Doctors of Law exercent in the Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Courts,' was founded by Dr. Hervie, Dean of Arches, in 1568. It was demolished in 1894. Trinity Hall was founded chiefly for civilians. There is said to have been a college for professors of civil and canon law in London as early as the eighth century! * See Registrum Univ. vol. i. ed. Boase, O. H. S., p. 290. |