, duties
which are of course connected. Any departure from the ordinary course of
proceeding needs his approval: e.g. (to take a constantly recurring
case) he alone can give permission to examine an undergraduate out of
his turn, when any one has failed to present himself at the right time
for viva voce.

Now that all Oxford arrangements for examinations have developed into a
cast-iron system, the appeal, except in matters of detail, to the
Vice-Chancellor is rare; but it was not always so; his control was at
one time a very real and important matter. In the case of the famous Dr.
Fell, Dean of Christ Church, Antony Wood notes 'that he did frequent
examinations for degrees, hold the examiners up to it, and if they would
or could not do their duty, he would do it himself, to the pulling down
of many'. It is no wonder that men said of him:--

I do not like thee, Dr. Fell,
The reason why I cannot tell.

He was equally careful of the decencies and proprieties of the degree
ceremony; 'his first care (as Vice-Chancellor) was to make all degrees
go in caps, and in public assemblies to appear in hoods. He also reduced
the caps and gowns worn by all degrees to their former size and make,
and ordered all cap-makers and tailors to make them so.'

It was necessary for him to be strict; some of the Puritans, although
they were not on the whole neglectful of the dignity and the studies of
the University, had carried their dislike of all ceremonies and forms so
far as to attempt to abolish academical dress. 'The new-comers from
Cambridge and other parts (in 1648) observed nothing according to
statutes.' It was only the stubborn opposition of the Proctor, Walter
Pope (in 1658), which had prevented the formal abolition of caps and
gowns; and one of Fell's predecessors as Vice-Chancellor, the famous
Puritan divine, John Owen, also Dean of Christ Church, had caused great
scandal to the 'old stock remaining' by wearing his hat (instead of a
college cap) in Congregation and Convocation; 'he had as much powder in
his hair as would discharge eight cannons' (but this was a Cambridge
scandal, and may be looked on with suspicion), and wore for the most
part 'velvet jacket, his breeches set round at knee with ribbons
pointed, Spanish leather boots with Cambric tops'. But in spite of this
somewhat pronounced opposition to a 'prelatical cut', Owen had been in
his way a disciplinarian. He had arrested with his own hands, pulling
him down