[59] It has been pointed out that our knowledge of Oxford’s intellectual activity during the xii c. is confined to the visits of three or four celebrated teachers who lectured to its changing population and in its schools, among which the priory school of S. Frideswide was the most important. We must not of course confuse the activities of monastic and episcopal schools with those of a university.
[60] Matthew Paris, in anno 1209: Ita quod nec unus ex omni universitate remansit.
[61] p. 47.
[62] Satis constat vobis quod apud villam nostrum Cantebr’ studendi causa e diversis partibus tam cismarinis quam transmarinis confluit multitudo, quod valde gratum habemus et acceptamus, cum exemplum toti regno nostro commodum non modicum, et honor nobis accrescat, et vos specialiter inter quos fideliter conversantur studentes non mediocriter gaudere debetis et laetari.
[63] Clerk and scholar were used interchangeably in the xiii c. as they are in these two rescripts, clericus being employed in the rescript of 1218 and in that addressed to the sheriff (vicecomes) of the county cited above: Quoniam ut audivimus plures nominantur clerici apud Cantabr. qui sub nullius magistri scholarum sunt disciplina et tuitione, sed potius mentiuntur se esse scholares cum non sint.... In a further rescript of the king’s the meaning is no less clear: Ita tamen quod ad suspensionem vel mutilationem clericorum non procedatis, sed eos alio modo per consilium universitatis Cantabr. castigetis. (Referring to “insults recently offered to certain northern scholars of the university of Cambridge,” 1261.) In the Hundred Rolls, at the same period, we have clerici de Merton and scholares de Merton; and clerici in scholis degentes is W. de Merton’s own description of his scholars.
[64] The charter of Oxford university belongs to the same reign.
[65] Rot. Hund. 7th Edw. I.
[66] The Pope no doubt refers to the forged bulls (p. 28) but his reference to previous royal rescripts is likely to be more correct, and to have been supplied by Edward himself.
[67] See studium generale pp. 30 n., 31.
[68] The importance of Cambridge was steadily growing in the reigns of Henry I. and Stephen. The isle of Ely supported Matilda; and the earldom of Cambridge was conferred both by her and by Stephen for the first time. The former by her letters, issued before the year 1146, bestowed it on her favourite Aubrey de Vere, “if the King of Scotland hath it not,” as prior in dignity to the counties of “Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, or Dorsetshire” one of which he was to take if Stephen’s gift of the earldom of Cambridge to Saint David of Scotland held good. De Vere had to accept the county of Oxford which has since remained in that family—the earldom of Cambridge passing to royal hands and becoming in time a royal dukedom. David of Scotland held Cambridge in his own and Huntingdon in right of his wife. Malcolm of Scotland held both earldoms together in exchange for the northern counties of Northumberland and Cumberland. The union of these earldoms is still represented by the union of Huntingdon and Cambridge under one vicecomes or sheriff. Edward III. created his wife’s brother (the Count of Hainault) and after him his son Edmund Langley, earls of Cambridge. Edmund’s son Richard held the earldom until his attainder, and his son Richard Duke of York was again created Earl of Cambridge by Henry V. (p. 295). This was Edward IV.’s father in whom the earldom became merged in the crown. The arms of Edmund Langley, Duke of York and Earl of Cambridge, are on the first of the 6 shields of arms of Edward’s sons over the entrance gate of Trinity; beneath is inscribed: Edmondus D. Ebor. C. Cantabrugie.