d the Irish. The fights
between these factions were a continual trouble to the mediaeval
University, and it was necessary for the M.A.s of each division to have
their own Proctor; hence originally the Senior Proctor was the elect of
the Southerners and the Junior Proctor of the Northerners.

Proctorial elections were a source of constantly recurring trouble, till
Archbishop Laud at last transferred the election to the colleges, each
of which took its turn in a cycle carefully calculated according to the
numbers of each college. In our own generation this system has been
carried a step further, and all colleges, large or small alike, have
their turn for the Proctorship, which comes to each once in eleven
years. The electors for it are the members of the governing body along
with all members of Congregation belonging to the college.

The Proctors represent the Masters of Arts as opposed to the higher
faculties (i.e. the Doctors), and it is in virtue of the time-honoured
right of the Faculty of Arts to decide all matters concerning the
granting of 'graces', that the Proctors take their prominent part in the
degree ceremony. Although the Vice-Chancellor is presiding, it is the
Proctor who submits the degrees to the House, and declares them
'granted'. Before doing this the two Proctors, as has been said (p. 9),
walk half-way down the House and return, thus in form fulfilling the
injunction of the statutes that 'they should take the votes in the usual
way'.[21]

[Sidenote: The Registrar.]

One other University official must be mentioned, the Registrar, i.e. the
Secretary of the University. The existence of a Register of Convocation
implies that there must have been an officer of this kind in mediaeval
Oxford, but the actual title does not occur till the sixteenth century;
its first holder seems to have been John London of New College, so
scandalously notorious in the first days of the Reformation. But the
character of University officials was not high in the sixteenth century.
One of the earliest Registrars, Thomas Key of All Souls, was expelled
from his post in 1552 for having during two years neglected to take any
note of the University proceedings; he actually struck in the face
another Master of Arts who was trying to detain him at the order of the
Vice-Chancellor. For this he was sent to prison, and fined 26_s._ 8_d._;
but he was released the very next day, and his fine cut down to 4_d._ He
lived to be elected Master