The Sheldonian Theatre, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, is associated with less tranquil occupations. It is here that honorary degrees are conferred and the Encænia held; here the Terræ Filius, a licensed jester, used to hurl his witticisms at whomsoever he pleased; and here, in later times, the occupants of the Undergraduates' Gallery have endeavoured to keep up his tradition. Here, too, Convocation sometimes meets, when a burning question is to be discussed and Masters of Arts assemble in their hundreds. On such occasions the Sheldonian has been known to be as full of clamour as at the Encænia. It is perhaps pleasanter to view Wren's stately building when it is void alike of undergraduate merriment and of graduate contention.
ST. MARY'S CHURCH
[Original]
ALTHOUGH St. Mary's, being a parish Church, cannot be numbered among the buildings which are University property, it has been almost as closely connected as any of them with the life and history of the University. Cobham's Chapel, as has been already said, was the first House of Congregation; and in the room above it the University kept its manuscripts, until Duke Humphrey's Library was built. The chancel and nave, moreover, were used by the gownsmen for both religious and secular purposes; and it is strange to reflect that consecrated walls heard not only sermons and disputations, but the jests of the Terræ Filius and the uproar which they excited. It was only when the Sheldonian was built (1669) that St. Mary's ceased to be the scene of the "Act"—the modern Encænia—and was restored to its original intention.
