The change within the University, consisted in the Chancellor's ceasing to be an episcopal officer, and being elected by the academicians from among themselves. This arose out of causes which must

be here concisely touched.

In consequence of the share which the Universities took in the civil wars of Henry III., they became objects of far greater attention to the Kings of England. They were called upon to assist in the Councils, concerning doctrinal questions of importance to Church and State. Efforts were made to win-over their judgment, and to use them as an organ of public opinion, not only for England, but for the whole of Western Christendom. We have an instance of this in the reign of Edward II., and Matthew of Paris mentions a similar one in 1253. The increasing importance of the Universities made their dependence on their Ordinary appear to be preposterous; nor could a distant Bishop bring any help to the local difficulties of the Chancellor. His position was obviously untenable; being neither in nor of the University; but above it, below it, without it. He urgently needed the moral and physical support of the University itself, given at the instant it was asked; but to reckon on these, he must be elected by and out of the University, as its organic Head. The Ordinary for a while struggled to retain at least the right of confirming the election, when his assent was become a mere formality; but that too

vanished in the course of the fourteenth century. For a while it was questioned whether the Chancellor, now loosed from the Bishop, could retain the prerogatives which had flowed to him from the episcopal power; but at last, from a feeling that they were needful to his office, it was decided in the affirmative.

The Chancellor thus elected, had a far better defined and firmer position than before; even if only a majority were favorable to him personally. But to the Town, his office became more obnoxious than ever; inasmuch as he now made the University judge in its own cause; nor can we doubt that many a Chancellor owed his seat to the notorious fact or understood promise, that he would prove a zealous champion of the academic rights in pending controversies; in other words, he was elected on condition of being a zealous enemy of the Town. The mutual exasperation became thus more intense than ever. Languid co-operation or active overreaching on the part of the Town, demanded a more and more stringent exercise of the Chancellor's authority: the Pope and King were called upon yet oftener: more and ampler privileges were granted to the University. For when it came to be a question which of the two Corporations must be sacrificed, the increasing importance of the academic body ensured a decision in its favor; although, according to the ideas of the times, it involved the overthrow of civic freedom.

§ 70. The increase of wealth, importance and spirit, in the Town Corporation, leads to bursts of violence.

of

But meanwhile, the towns also were becoming greater national importance. A Mayor, a Bailiff or an Alderman, on his return from a Parliament in London or in York; a citizen or a town officer, just come back from a campaign in Scotland or in France, rich in the spoils of victory; would be less willing than his father had been, to submit to what appeared scholastic usurpation. Such men had the opportunity also of comparing the freedom of other towns with the vassalage of their own; and, we need not doubt, found a stimulus in every social meeting to a more vehement struggle for their natural liberties. Honorable patriotism and petty jealousy alike dictated the same course; and the insults they were liable to receive from youthful levity, must often have left wounds more deep than are inflicted by open hostility. Many a coarse practical joke would be played by scholars on the shopkeeper or artisan, who was importunate as a dun; nor perhaps would the good man's wife or daughter be spared. But when the heedless youths had long left the University, and had forgotten their own conduct; it remained rankling in the citizen's bosom, and was handed down as an inheritance of hatred from father to son. Thus, in a Royal Mandate of 1352, the "grievous dissentions and * Ayliffe.

quarrels" of the parties are ascribed to old rancor and insolence, stimulated by the wantonness of youth. The sulky obstinacy or bitter spite produced in those who are liable to the haughty contempt of a higher caste, is the same all the world over. But it may also be believed, that between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the towns felt such contempt with peculiar keenness: for it is probable that many an ambitious and turbulent citizen, when he looked on the vigorous self-elevation of the towns of the Netherlands, Lombardy and the Hanse, dreamed that a republican age was dawning on Europe.

The unmeasurable rage of the explosions which took place, frustrated all hope of permanent advantage from them to the Town. The University, bleeding, as it were, with rough usage, attracted sympathy from public opinion and from the highest authorities. The daily galling provocation she had given, was unknown and forgotten; the cruel retaliation exhibited her as an injured sufferer. Moreover the Townsmen often called in as natural allies, the savage heroes of the country round;— men anxious for fight, for drink and for plunder; an aid dangerous to the more quiet citizens, and yet impossible to be rejected when it came. Hence too arose factions among the townspeople. There were demagogues of the Town-Hall, whose whole life was given to the single object of resisting the University and about them would cluster every

element of discontent and turbulence.

Such men were offensive to sober and discreet citizens, who lamented the disturbance of traffic, which necessarily resulted, and the far worse results to be feared from the law and from the lawless. Every power finds adherents, more or less sincere in their praise, even among those on whom it presses; and such must the University have found among the citizens. Nor can we doubt that the intrigues were made more complicated by the relations of the parties as buyers and sellers.

71. Contest against Robert de Wells.

The events of 1296* deserve especial mention.† In vain efforts to pacify the warring parties, the King, his Councillors, and the Peers of the Realm had been called in. The great opponent of the University was a baker named Robert de Wells, who was a personification of the deeply rooted hatred of the citizens to the University. We have no means of learning whether it was farther inflamed by personal motives in his case; but anyhow he possessed much boldness, activity and cunning, and in another place might have left a reputation in history, like Arteveldt of Ghent. He did not shrink from appearing before King and Parliament, as champion of his native town, of

* [Qu. 1297? See below.] † See Note (30) at the end.