appointed by an external power. The reason for this anomaly is partly
the remote position of the episcopal see; Lincoln, the bishop's seat,
was more than 100 miles from the University town, which lay on the very
borders of his great diocese. The combination too was surely made
easy by the influence of the great scholar-saint, Bishop Grosseteste,
who had himself filled the position of Chancellor (though he may not
have borne the title) before he passed to the see of Lincoln, which he
held for eighteen years (1235-1253) during the critical period of the
growth of the academic constitution.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

During the first two centuries of the University's existence, the
Chancellor was a resident official; but in the fifteenth century it
became customary to elect some great ecclesiastic, who was able by his
influence and wealth to promote the interests of Oxford and Oxford
scholars; such an one was George Neville, the brother of the King-Maker
Earl of Warwick, who became Chancellor in 1453 at the age of twenty. He
no doubt owed his early elevation to the magnificence with which he had
entertained the whole of Oxford when he had proceeded to his M.A. from
Balliol College in the preceding year.

[Sidenote: The Vice-Chancellor.]

From the fifteenth century onwards the Vice-Chancellor takes the place
of the Chancellor as the centre of University life; as the Chancellor's
representative, he is nominated every year by letters from him, though
the appointment is in theory approved by the vote of Convocation.

The nomination of a Vice-Chancellor is for a year, but renomination is
allowed; as a matter of fact, the Chancellor's choice is limited by
custom in two ways; no Vice-Chancellor is reappointed more than three
times, i.e. the tenure of the office is limited to four years, and the
nomination is always offered to the senior head of a house who has not
held the position already; if any head has declined the office when
offered to him on a previous occasion, he is treated as if he had
actually held it.

The Vice-Chancellor has all the powers and duties of the Chancellor in
the latter's absence; but in the rare cases when the Chancellor visits
Oxford, his deputy sinks for the time into the position of an ordinary
head of a college.

[Sidenote: The Control of Examinations.]

The only duties of the Vice-Chancellor that need be here mentioned are
his authority and control over examinations and over degrees