During the period of necessary regency, which followed inception, a secular had the right to attend all meetings of Congregation, and was bound to deliver ‘ordinary’ lectures publicly in the schools for the remainder of the year in which he incepted and the whole of the following year[346]. A statute of 1478 states the custom as enforced in the case of the Mendicants[347]:—
‘Every one of them so incepting shall be bound to necessary regency for twenty-four months to be reckoned continuously from the day of his inception, including vacations, or he shall be regent and pay to the University according to the ancient customs; and although it happen that some other of the same Order incept within the term of the said months, he shall yet be bound to observe the foresaid form of regency, so that however only one of them come to the house of Congregation, according to the custom hitherto in use; proviso, that none of them shall omit to lecture (expendet) more than thirty days in a year by virtue of any grace whether general or special.’
Perhaps the exclusion of the friars, except one of each Order, from the house of Congregation and consequently from the government of the University, dates from the middle of the fourteenth century[348]. In 1454 Friar John David, S.T.P., supplicated for leave
‘to resume his ordinary lectures and exercise the acts of regent excepting the entry to the house of Congregation[349].’
Dispensations from necessary regency were often obtained. In 1452 Friar Anthony de Vallibus, D.D., asked leave to absent himself from all scholastic acts for a fortnight in order to visit his friends who were sick[350]. Friar William Walle was dispensed from fifteen days of his regency in 1518[351]; Friar John Brown from his regency during Lent in 1514[352]. Gilbert Sander and Walter Goodfeld were released from the whole of their necessary regency[353]. John Smyth obtained a similar grace as being ‘warden of a convent and consequently very busy[354].’ Dispensations from the sermon which was to be preached in St. Mary’s within a year of inception were also very frequent[355].
These and other graces were usually granted subject to certain conditions. The recipient was often to say masses ‘for the pestilence’ or ‘for the welfare of the Regents’[356]: or he had to lecture gratuitously on some specified book[357] or preach a sermon[358]; or again the payment of a sum of money was imposed as a condition[359]. Thus in 1515 Friar John Flavyngur was allowed to give extraordinary lectures on a book of the Decretals,
‘on condition that he would pay 6s. 8d. to the University on the day of his admission and would read two books of the Decretals[360].’
Friar Thomas Frances received permission in 1521 to incept
‘on condition that he would pay 40d. within a month for the repair of the staff of the junior bedell of arts and would preach a sermon at St. Paul’s within two years and an examinatory sermon before his degree[361].’
Franciscan students were maintained at the Universities by a system of exhibitions. These were provided sometimes by private benefactors[362], usually by the native convent of the student out of the ‘common alms,’ with the occasional assistance of other convents[363]. From the few traces which remain of the custom we may infer that the exhibition was generally reckoned at £5 a year, and that this sum covered the ordinary expenses of living[364]. Masters, lecturers and bachelors, as already stated, were supported by the convent in which they lectured[365]: but their allowance was probably not much larger than that of the ordinary student friars. Nicholas Hereford, preaching at Oxford in 1382[366], asserted that those of the Mendicants who had graduated as masters or bachelors, in addition to the ample allowance which they got from their community, begged for themselves, saying, ‘I am a bachelor (or master) and require more than others, because I ought to be able to live up to my position.’ (Quia oportet me habere ad expendendum secundum statum meum.)