y--placed at
the disposal of the University a sum raising the total amount to not
less than two thousand marks; and the capital, not merely the interest,
was available for the relief of embarrassed scholars. The pledges were
valued by the sworn stationer of the University, and that they were
expected to exceed in value the amount of the loan is shown by the terms
of ordinances, in some of which the guardians are required to submit to
the auditors an account of the capital and increase. In spite of
precaution, however, cases of peculation were not unknown, for, on more
than one occasion, guardians were accused of embezzlement, and there are
statutes complaining of the "marvellous disappearance" of funds, the
property of the University, and safeguarding their future
administration.

The chests were divided into two categories--the "Summer" and the
"Winter." This distinction seems to have been due to the date of the
election of the guardians. In this matter, however, there was
considerable variation, and in later ages the stipulations of the
ordinances, in which the bequests were embodied, ceased to be observed.
Another circumstance which deserves notice is that in the reforms
instituted in the time of Archbishop Laud nearly all traces of this
benevolent system were obliterated, and the names of founders--John
Pontysera, Bishop of Winchester, Gilbert Routhbury, Philip Turville,
John Langton, W. de Seltone, Dame Joan Danvers, etc.--consigned to the
shades of academic oblivion. During the period when the funds were
employed in conformity with the testator's design, the authorities, in
their wisdom, ignored limitations of age, birth, and neighbourhood, and
thus any member of the University, sophist or questionist, bachelor or
master, was entitled to a share of the benefit. This wide charity cannot
have met with unanimous approval. Large as the fund was, it would hardly
have sufficed for the needs of every ill-clothed and ill-fed scholar;
and, in the distribution of the money, it would be only in accord with
common experience of human nature if an enterprising official, whose
eagerness had outstripped his resources, should be preferred to some
pinched, obscure stripling, and receive a wholly disproportionate share
of the eleemosynary grant.

As an illustration of what sometimes occurred, we may take the case of
Master Henry Sever, Warden of Merton Hall. He had carried out certain
repairs of the buildings, and, in order to di