erpiece', i.e. done a piece of work such as a Master might be
expected to do. There was till quite recently one last trace of them in
our degree arrangements; a new M.A. was not admitted to the privileges
of his office till the end of the term in which he had been 'licensed to
incept'; although the University, having given up the 'Act', allowed no
opportunity of 'incepting', an interval was left in which the ceremony
might have taken place. Now, however, for purposes of practical
convenience, even this form is dropped, and a new M.A. enters on his
privileges, e.g. voting in Convocation, &c., as soon as he has been
licensed by the Vice-Chancellor. Strictly speaking an Oxford man never
takes his M.A., for there is no ceremony of institution; he is
'licensed' to take part in a ceremony which has ceased to exist.

[Sidenote: The Encaenia.]

And yet in another form the 'Act' survives in our familiar
Commemoration; the relation of this to the 'Act' seems to be somewhat as
follows. The Sheldonian Theatre was opened, as will be described later
(p. 81), with a great literary and musical performance, a 'sort of
dedication of the Theatre'; this was called 'Encaenia'.[12] So pleased
was the University with the performance that the Chancellor next year
(1670) ordered that it should be repeated annually, on the Friday before
the 'Act'. From the very first there was a tendency to confuse the two
ceremonies; even the accurate antiquarian, Antony Wood, speaks of music
as part of 'the Act', which was really performed at the preliminary
gathering, the Encaenia. The new function gradually grew in importance,
and additions were made to it; the munificent Lord Crewe, prince-bishop
of Durham, who enjoys an unenviable immortality in the pages of
Macaulay, and a more fragrant if less lasting memory in Besant's
charming romance _Dorothy Forster_, left some of his great wealth for
the Creweian Oration, in which annual honour is done to the University
Benefactors at the Commemoration.

Hence, while the customs of the 'Act' became more and more meaningless
and neglected, the Encaenia became more and more popular, until finally
the older ceremony was merged in the newer one. In our Commemoration
degree-giving still takes place, along with recitation of prize poems
and the paying of honour to benefactors. The degrees are all honorary,
but they are submitted to the House in the same way as ordinary degrees;
the Vice-Chancellor puts the question to t