he Convocation, just as the
Proctor submits the 'grace' to Congregation, and in theory a vote is
taken on the creation of the new D.C.L.s, just as in theory the Proctors
take the votes as to the admission of new M.A.s.

Commemoration may be, as John Richard Green said, 'Oxford in
masquerade'; there may be 'grand incongruities, Abyssinian heroes robed
in literary scarlet, degrees conferred by the suffrages of virgins in
pink bonnets and blue, a great academical ceremony drowned in an
atmosphere of Aristophanean (_sic_) chaff'. But the chaff is the
legitimate successor of the burlesque performance of the Terrae Filius
at the old 'Act', and the degrees are submitted to the House with the
old formula; even the presence of ladies would have been no surprise to
our predecessors of 200 years ago, however much they would have
astonished our mediaeval founders and benefactors; in the Sheldonian
from the first the gallery under the organ was always set apart for
'ladies and gentlewomen'. 'Oxford', to quote J.R. Green once again, 'is
simply young', but when he goes on to say 'she is neither historic nor
theological nor academical', he exaggerates; the charm of Oxford lies in
the fact that her youth is at home among survivals historic,
theological, and academical; and the old survives while the new
flourishes.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 7: The form is found in the two 'Proctors' books', of which
the oldest, that of the Junior Proctor, was drawn up (in 1407) by
Richard Fleming, afterwards Bishop of Lincoln and founder of Lincoln
College; but it was then already an established form, and probably goes
back to the thirteenth century, i.e. to the reign of Henry III.]

[Footnote 8: It is perhaps still necessary to emphasize the fact that
the name 'University' had nothing to do with the range of subjects
taught, or with the fact that instruction was offered to all students;
the latter point is expressed in the earlier name 'studium generale'
borne by universities, which is not completely superseded by
'universitas' till the fifteenth century.]

[Footnote 9: The coincidence is not accidental. Magna Carta was wrested
from a king humiliated by his submission to the Pope, and the University
Charter was given to redress an act of violence on the part of the
Oxford citizens, who had been stimulated in their attack on the 'clerks'
of Oxford by John's quarrel with the Pope.]

[Footnote 10: Oxford never received this Papal ratification; but as