Oxford University (Medieval)

Oxford University

It is difficult to assign even an approximate date to the development of the schools which in Saxon times were grouped round the monastic foundation of St. Frideswide (on the site of what is now Christ Church) into the corporate institution later known as Oxford University. Well-known scholars were, we know, lecturing in Oxford on theology and canon law before the middle of the twelfth century, but these were probably private teachers attached to St. Frideswide's monastery. It is not until the end of Henry II's reign, that is about 1180, that we know, chiefly on the authority of Giraldus Cambrensis, that a large body of scholars was in residence at Oxford, though not probably yet living under any organized constitution.

Half a century later Oxford was famous throughout Europe as a home of science and learning; popes and kings were among its patrons and benefactors; the students are said to have been numbered by thousands; and the climax of its reputation was reached when, during the fifty years between 1220 and 1270, the newly-founded orders of friars -- Dominican, Franciscan, Carmelite, and Austin -- successively settled at Oxford, and threw all their enthusiasm into the work of teaching.

The older monastic orders, encouraged by a decree of the Lateran Council of 1215, also began to found conventual schools at Oxford for their own members. The colleges of Worcester, Trinity, Christ Church, and St. John's are all the immediate successors of these Benedictine or Cistercian houses of study. Up to this time the secular students had lived as best they might in scattered lodgings hired from the townsmen; of discipline there was absolutely none, and riots and disorders between "town and gown" were of continual occurrence. The stimulus of the presence of so many scholars living under conventual discipline incited Walter de Merton, in 1264, to found a residential college, properly organized and supervised, for secular students. Merton College (to the model of which two institutions of somewhat earlier date, University and Balliol soon conformed themselves) was thus the prototype of the self-contained and autonomous colleges which, grouped together, make up the University of Oxford as it exists today. The succeeding half-century saw the foundation of ten additional colleges: two more were founded during the Catholic revival under Queen Mary; and three in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. Between 1625 and 1911 -- that is, for nearly three centuries, there have been only three more added to the list, namely Worcester (1714), Keble (1870), and Hertford (1874), the first and last being, however, revivals rather than new foundations.

• Balliol college was founded by John I de Balliol in about 1263, under the guidance of the Bishop of Durham. After his death in 1268, his widow, Dervorguilla of Galloway, made arrangements to ensure the permanence of the college. She provided capital, and in 1282, formulated the college statutes, documents that survive to this day.
• Merton College was founded in the 1260's by Walter de Merton, chancellor to Henry III and later to Edward I, afterwards Bishop of Rochester. Walter drew up statutes for an independent academic community and established endowments to support it. By 1274 when Walter retired from royal service and made his final revisions to the college statutes, the community was consolidated at its present site in the south east corner of the city of Oxford, and a rapid programme of building commenced. The hall and the chapel and the rest of the front quad were complete before the end of the 13th century, but apart from the chapel they have all been much altered since.
• University College was founded by William of Durham in 1249, to support ten masters. Until the 16th century was only open to Fellows studying theology.
• Blackfriars was founded by Dominicans who arrived in Oxford on 15 August 1221, at the instruction of Saint Dominic himself, little more than a week after the friar's death. They establish themselves first in Jewish quarter, then move to area around Speedwell Street. The hall has some claim to be heir to the oldest tradition of teaching in Oxford. Like all the monastic houses in Oxford, Blackfriars came into rapid and repeated conflict with the University authorities, as the friars claimed all the rights and privileges of University membership but also claimed immunity from the University discipline or regulation.
• In 1225 Franciscan friars, the 'Greyfriars', found a house of studies in Oxford, in St Ebbes / Westgate. Former students of this foundation include:
  • Hamo of Faversham (d.1244)
  • Alexander of Hales, Doctor Irrefragabilis (c. 1170-1245)
  • Adam Marsh, MA (d. 1258)
  • Robert Grosseteste (c.1175-1253)
  • Roger Bacon, DD, Doctor Mirabilis (c. 1214-1292)
  • John of Peckham, DD, (c.1225-1292)
  • Thomas Docking (d.1270)
  • John Duns Scotus, BD, DD, Doctor Subtilis (c. 1264-1308)
  • William of Ockham, DD, Doctor Invincibilis (1288-1347)
• In 1281 Benedictine monks of Gloucester Cathedral founded a house of studies, Gloucester Hall (where Worcester College now stands). This is soon used by many Benedictine houses of the South and West.
• 1286 Durham College (where Trinity College now stands) founded, a house of studies for the Benedictines of Durham Cathedral and the North.

References

• Bott, A. (1993). Merton College: A Short History of the Buildings. Oxford: Merton College. ISBN 0-9522314-0-9.
• Andrew G. Little, The Grey Friars In Oxford
• Martin, G.H. & Highfield, J.R.L. (1997). A History of Merton College. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-920183-8.