his goods and chattels, the said Chancellor banished him
out of the town, and had it proclaimed everywhere, as though he were an
outlaw, and sequestered all his goods and chattels, threatening if he
entered the town to imprison him again for six days. No one ever had
such franchise or power thus to outlaw, destroy, and banish the King's
burgesses in the said town. Prays a remedy for charity."[5]

Owing perhaps to their peculiar position as the King's chattels, neither
the chartered rights of the citizens nor the Privilege of the University
could be directly asserted against the Jews, of whom a considerable body
appears to have been settled at Oxford, but the unbelievers were not
allowed to do as they pleased. A critical instance occurred at
Ascensiontide, 1268, in connexion with a solemn procession to St.
Frideswyde's, when certain horrible Jews, _demoniaco spiritu arrepti_,
seized a cross from the bearer, broke it, and trampled it under foot.
Complaint was made to the King, who happened to be at Woodstock, and he
issued an order for the making of two crosses at the expense of the
Jews, one of which was to be of silver gilt and portable, and the other
of marble and stationary. These were to be preserved for the perpetual
remembrance of the outrage; and the silver cross was presented to the
Chancellor, masters, and scholars, to be borne before them in their
solemn procession. An ordinance states that "since the relics of the
Blessed Frideswyde repose in the borough of Oxford, and more especially
ought to be deservedly honoured as well by the University as by others,
particularly by all who dwell in the aforesaid town, that the said
University may obtain, through the intervenient merits and prayers of
the same, more abundant tranquillity and peace for the future, a solemn
procession be made in the middle, to wit, Lent term, to the church of
the same virgin, for the peace and tranquillity of the University, and
that solemn mass be held there in respect of the above-said virgin."

ACADEMIC

CHAPTER IX

THE "STUDIUM GENERALE"

We have expounded with some particularity the conditions of University
life; we have now to deal with University life in its more intimate
relations. And first we must say something of the title, the Latinity of
which is not above suspicion, though its convenience and expressiveness
are beyond question. The term _studium generale_ was applied, in
mediaeval times, to an academy in which in