n the corner house on the
east side of Cat-strete, abjured the society of the same Joan, and swore
that he would not come into any place where she was, whether in the
public street, market, church, or chapel, on pain of paying forty
shillings to the University. On August 22, 1450, Thomas Blake,
_peliparius_, William Whyte, barber, John Karyn, _chirothecarius_,
"husbundemen" (householders), presented themselves before the
Chancellor, and, touching the Holy Gospels, abjured the game of tennis
within Oxford and its precinct.

At this point it will be convenient to refer to a custom not by any
means confined to the Universities, about which there appears to be some
degree of misconception. "Love-days," as they are called, have been
strangely confused with _law_-days, whereas the very essence of the
institution was the avoidance of litigation with all its expense and
ill-feeling. The practice of submitting disputes to friendly arbitration
was seemingly founded on the text: "Dare any of you having a matter
against another go to law before the unbelievers and not before the
saints?" In these circumstances it is not surprising that the clergy
bore a great part in such proceedings; and thus we find Chaucer
avouching of his Frere:

In love-dayes ther coude he mochel helpe,
For ther he was nat lyk a cloisterer,
With a thredbare cope, as is a poore scoler,
But he was lyk a maister or a pope.

The University, being a microcosm of the entire kingdom, an _imperium in
imperio_, by virtue of the "privilege roiall," cases occur in which
deplorable misunderstandings were referred to the decision of one or
more graduates of position--either in the first instance, or, it might
be, ultimately, to the Chancellor or Commissary--by persons subject to
academic tutelage. When the affair had been adjudicated, forms of
reconciliation were prescribed, the parties being required to shake
hands, go on their knees to one another, give each other the "kiss of
peace," and provide a feast at their mutual expense, the menu of which
was sometimes determined by the arbiter.

This interesting and admirable feature of old English life receives such
copious illustration from the annals of Oxford that it seems worth while
to specify examples. Thus, on November 8, 1445, a dispute between John
Godsond, stationer, and John Coneley, "lymner," having been referred to
two Masters of Arts and they having failed to compose it within the time
stipulated, th