A History of the University of Oxford
9781465685575
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
The University of Oxford has long ceased to claim the fabulous antiquity for which its mediæval champions had contended, as for an article of faith, and which found credit with so conscientious an historian as Anthony Wood. It is now admitted that nothing is certainly known of its origin, and that its alleged foundation by Alfred the Great rests upon a tradition which cannot be traced back to a period beyond the fourteenth century. There is no evidence whatever to show that any germ of a University, much less that any college, existed at Oxford in the reign of Alfred, who was born in the neighbouring town of Wantage. The very contrary may reasonably be inferred from the negative fact that Asser, in his contemporary biography of Alfred, makes no allusion to his supposed institution of ‘schools’ at Oxford, though he amply attests his paternal zeal for English education. The early chroniclers are, without exception, equally silent on the subject, which is noticed by no extant writer before the age of Edward III. In the next reign, the primary myth—for so we must regard it—was developed into a secondary myth, attributing to Alfred the foundation of University College, and this imaginary pretension was actually advanced by that college in the course of a lawsuit. Meanwhile, the simpler tradition of Alfred’s connection with the University Schools was repeated by author after author in days when the very nature of historical proof was unknown, and was reinforced in the sixteenth century by the insertion of a spurious passage into the work of Asser. It has been reserved for the present century to recognise the plain truth that we are entirely ignorant of the first stage in the growth of the University, and that its name is never mentioned in history before the Norman Conquest. The silence of Domesday Book respecting the University of Oxford must be taken as presumptive, though by no means conclusive, proof that it had no corporate existence at that date. Much learning has been spent in speculations on its origin and primitive constitution, but these speculations have little support in any facts historically known to us before the Norman Conquest. It is more than probable, however, that Oxford was already a resort of students and a place of education. Having been a residence of Edmund Ironside, Canute, and Harold I., as well as the seat of several National Councils, it was now recognised as a provincial capital by the erection of its castle, embracing within it the Collegiate Church of St. George; while the number of its monastic establishments would naturally attract poor scholars from all parts of England. The earliest schools, not in England only but throughout Europe, were attached to monasteries or cathedrals; and, in the absence of any contrary evidence, analogy almost compels us to regard the Church as the foster-mother of the University. In the ‘claustral’ schools of St. Frideswide, and the houses in Oxford belonging to abbeys, such as those of Abingdon and Eynsham, we may discern the original seminaries of academical teaching—the first rudiments of the Studium Generale, afterwards developed into the Universitas Literaria. On the other hand, it is certain that, side by side with these claustral schools, secular or lay schools were gradually opened—some boarding-schools, mainly designed for the reception of boys from the country, others mere classrooms frequented by the students who lodged either in private dwellings or in public hostels.
