and
they were covered with layers of dust. The legend that they had been
concealed there by the loyal Bedels must be given up; no doubt they were
put away when the present staves were procured in 1723. The third staff
was in the keeping of the Esquire Bedel, and was brought to the
University Chest, when that office ceased to exist.

The present staves are six in number, three silver and three
silver-gilt. The three former are carried by the Bedel of Arts and the
two sub-bedels, the three latter are carried by the Bedels of the three
higher faculties, Divinity, Law, and Medicine. All of them date (as is
proved by the hall-marks) from 1723, except one of the silver staves,
which seems to have been renewed in 1803. The three silver staves bear
the following inscriptions:--

No. I. On the top 'Ego sum Via'; on the base 'Veritas et Vita'.

No. II. On the top 'Aequum et Bonum'; on the base 'Iustitiae Columna'.

No. III. On the top 'Scientiae et Mores'; on the base 'Columna
Philosophiae'.

The inscriptions are the same on the silver-gilt staves, except that the
staff of the Bedel of Divinity has all the mottoes on it--'Ego sum Via',
'Veritas et Vita' on the top, and the others on the base.

The letters on the bases of all the staves are put on the reverse way to
those on the tops; this is because the staves are carried in different
ways; before the King and the Chancellor they are carried upright,
before the Vice-Chancellor always in a reversed position, with the base
uppermost.

It should be noted that they are staves and not maces, as the University
of Oxford derives its authority from no external power, but is
independent.

The arms on the tops of three of the staves present a very curious
puzzle; one roundel bears those of Neville and Montagu quarterly, and
seems to be a reproduction of the arms of the Chancellor of 1455, George
Neville, the Archbishop of York; another bears the old Plantagenet
'England and France quarterly' as borne by the sovereigns from Henry IV
to Elizabeth; a third the Stuart arms as borne from James I to Queen
Anne; yet the work of all three roundels seems to be seventeenth century
in character, and does not match that of the rest of the fabric of the
staves.

INDEX

'Act,' meaning of, 27;
term, 28;
confused with Encaenia, 31-2.

Aristotle, portions read of, 18, 37.

Arnould, J., 85.

Bachelor (of Arts), etymology of, 24;
in France, 47;
dress of, 69, 78;
hoo