which he was soon chosen Bailiff. In 1283, having been excommunicated by the Chancellor, he protested against it so powerfully before the Parliament, that the Chancellor was obliged to give way. In 1288, academic influence ejected him from his post upon which the University was indiscreet enough to enact in solemn Congregation, that should he ever be readmitted to office, all the studies should be suspended as long as he held authority in the Town. So oppressive an interference with the Town-elections, exceedingly strengthened him in the good will of the citizens, and held him up as a martyr for the liberties of the Town.

Excitement and bitterness increased. The University solemnly implored the King, to prevent the bakers and brewers from using fetid water, and the vintners from diluting their wine. For some years, a diversion was brought about by contests of the University with the Bishop of Lincoln and his Archdeacon, and by quarrels of the nations. But in February 1297 an affair took place, possibly arranged by Wells and his party; but in fact it is so variously told, that we know not where to lay the blame. A scuffle arose between the rabble-dependents of the two nations, in which both citizens and scholars joined: while the authorities on each side, instead of restoring peace, attacked one another. It grew into a battle, in which many thousands on both sides took part.

The armorers' magazines were plundered; and other shops of citizens. On the second day of the fight, a host of countrymen who had been called in overpowered the scholars; yet not till the third day, when the victorious party was itself worn out, was quiet restored by the King's special commissioners. Many of the combatants had been wounded, and not a few killed. Scholastic houses had been devastated, and churches desecrated by corpses and by blood. Nevertheless, the result was a practical triumph to the University, by help of Episcopal fulminations and Royal decrees. Robert de Wells and other of the most violent citizens were expelled from the town, or forbidden all intercourse with the University.

This account is remarkable, as a specimen how the whole struggle was carried on, and how the University wielded the weapons which lay within her grasp. I may be allowed to insert here the preamble of the above mentioned decree of the University (according to Wood); since it contains a reference to the personal character of Wells :"Inasmuch as it may come to pass that the said Robert may obtain by fair or foul means the favor of being restored to hold the said post of Bailiff or some other in the town or suburb; the University itself, having the very strongest presumptions against the aforesaid Robert, being aware of his craft and premeditated malice from his ancient intrigues; and fearing, therefore, more for the

future;-by common consent of the Masters, decrees &c., &c. ...

The final pacification was brought about by a formal treaty, which together with the privileges of 1248, for a long time formed 'the chief basis for fairer dealings between the two Corporations. But the townspeople were naturally more discontented than ever, and the repeated complaints of the University prove that malice or fraud still found many ways of gratifying themselves. The problem was not yet solved. The Town-police would not co-operate cordially, and the University had as yet no power to compel it. A new crisis was needed, which should transfer the control of the city-force entirely from the Town to the Gown.

§ 72. Tumults during the transition from the old University System.

About the middle of the fourteenth century the process was already begun, by which the University passed into its more modern state. Colleges were rising; and the scholars in them, kept under stricter restraint, lost in pugnacity what they gained in respectability. The total number of the academic body had greatly sunk; the spirit of the nations was nearly gone. Party feud between them was probably but feigned as a cover for evil deeds; while individual crimes were more rife than ever

among the free students, who were no longer even under that measure of restraint which the organization of the nations had imposed on them. Vagabonds of every kind flocked to the University as a fair field for their exertions. Under these circumstances, the Academic Authorities, however unwillingly, resorted to the Town-Authorities for help: who never failed to seize such opportunities of exercising their power at the expense of the gownsmen. Some of the worst excesses, as the burning of the rich Abbey of Abingdon in 1327, were committed by bands of scholars and town-marauders combined. It may be guessed, that the gownsmen were of the Northern clan; but however this might be, such tumults could not but bring odium on the whole University. About this time moreover, a yet more formidable enemy of its privileges than Robert de Wells, was found in an opulent and respectable citizen, named John Bereford; who had been often elected Bailiff, and who now headed the reaction which in the year 1355 led to a fearful crisis.

§ 73. Contest against John Bereford, with frightful Riot, in 1355.

The causes of this outbreak may be traced back to the year 1349, in which a dreadful plague ravaged all England. It carried off or dispersed

all the Oxford scholars, so that the studies were intermitted for three years; after which not one third of the former number reassembled. Meanwhile many buildings, before let-out to the academicians, were applied by the citizens to other purposes: the police was exercised by the Town Authorities, undisturbed by University claims; which, upon their renewal, must have appeared doubly oppressive. In fact, the Chancellor had no physical power to enforce them. If the townspeople closed the market gates upon him, he was unable to force his way in, to inspect the bread and beer. If a citizen chose to sell or let to others a Hall which the academicians had previously tenanted, it was in vain for them to plead treaties and privileges, when the door was shut in their face. Bereford and his party were also strengthened unintentionally by that excellent king, Edward III., the great patron of the Universities. In the widespread crime consequent on the plague, the Academic Authority was not vigorous enough: the King, perhaps for this reason, at Bereford's representation, issued ordinances for the arrest of criminals by the Mayor and Sheriff; a proceeding which, however needful, broke through the University privileges, and gave dangerous weapons into the hands of its enemies.

So intense was the bitterness of feeling generated between the parties, that an explosion soon followed, for which Bereford, it seems, was well prepared.