For the maintenance of each scholar a sum of ten marks annually was to be set aside. Of this, at least 1s. 6d., and not more than 2s., was to be appropriated to his weekly commons. Anything saved under this head out of 2s. in the week was to be devoted to alms and no other purpose. The remainder of the ten marks was to go to the scholars to provide them with clothes and other necessaries. The Provost was to look to the character of the clothes. If they went far in country or town, they were not to wear simple or double “hoods,” but long “collobia” (frocks, sleeveless or with short sleeves), or other suitable garments; and they were not to go alone.
An absent Fellow was to forfeit his commons in the long vacation, and the rest of his allowance also at other times, unless he were absent on the business of the Hall. Additional reasons for the enjoyment of commons in absence were subsequently approved. Pestilence in Oxford was a common excuse. In 1400-1, 1s. 6d. is allowed for the commons of William Warton and Peter de la Mare in time of pestilence. Similarly in 1625-6, £7 4s. is allowed to the Fellows dispersed in time of pestilence. Equally urgent reasons commended themselves during the reign of Charles I. In 1642 payments are made to Fellows, Chaplains, boys and servants in place of commons, when the College was for seven weeks dissolved owing to the advance of the enemy; and this in the same “computus,” with seven payments for bonfires on the occasion of seven Royalist victories. A Fellow received for each week 5s., a Chaplain and a boy 2s. 6d., a servant 2s. Three Fellows away in the North got smaller payments during eleven months.
In order that there might be plenty to give away, the Scholars and Chaplains were to have two courses at meals on ordinary days, and on the five great feasts—Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide, the Assumption, and All Saints Day—an extra course with a suitable quantity of wine. Court manners were to be observed at meals and other times.
How soon the custom of bringing in a boar’s head at Christmas began does not appear, nor is the date of the carol sung on the occasion ascertained. Wynkin de Worde’s version, which differs in some particulars from that used in the College, was printed as early as 1521. On the 24th December, 1660, £1 10s. is paid “pictori Hawkins caput apri in festo nativitatis adornanti.” This suggests that the head was then, as now, “adorned” with banners bearing coats of arms: Richard Hawkins was a heraldic painter resident in Oxford, an intimate of Anthony Wood.
The expenses of any Fellows sent out of Oxford on College business were to be defrayed by the Community. They were to bring an account of their expenses at the end of the journey, which was to be audited by the Provost, Treasurer, and Camerarius, who were to disallow them if in their judgment excessive; and if the three auditors could not agree on this point, the judgment of the Provost was to decide. Thus, in 1386-7, Mr. Richard Brown the Camerarius and Senior Fellow is repaid 12s. 4d., his expenses for a journey to Devonshire to get the books bequeathed to the College by Mr. Henry Whitfield, as well as 20d. for the carriage of the said books. Ten years later two and a half marks are paid for Mr. Thomas Burton’s expenses in going to the Archbishop of York. In 1411-12 the same Fellow pays a visit on College business to the Roman court.
If the revenues of the College allowed, thrice in the year, at the end of each term, a portion beyond the commons was to be divided among the Fellows fairly, according to the amount of their residence. On the day of this division the statutes of the College were to be read among themselves by the Provost and scholars, and a solemn mass of the Holy Trinity to be said in the College Chapel, or Parochial Church, “if they got one,” for the King, Queen Philippa, the other benefactors of the Hall, and other persons specified in the statutes, and for all the faithful living and dead. After the solemn mass the Provost was to inquire separately of each of the Fellows as to the behaviour of the rest in the matters of obedience to the statutes, honesty of deportment, and progress in study. Special regulations were laid down for the conduct of this inquiry. These regularly recurring inquiries might be supplemented by special inquiries whenever the Provost thought it necessary; and at the peril of his soul he was to see that the boys, the chaplains, and the other “ministri” conducted themselves properly. All accused persons were to be allowed to purge themselves privately, peacefully, and honestly, but not scandalously or contentiously. No scholar or poor boy was to be expelled except with consent of a majority of the College. The Provost inflicted other punishments after taking counsel with one or two of the scholars.
The Provost was allowed to keep a servant or clerk, to whose maintenance he was to contribute. The other Masters or scholars were prohibited from burdening the community by the introduction of strangers or relatives, and especially of poor clerks of their own or private servants. This was not to prevent hospitality being shown at the expense of the entertainer, in the hall or in his own chamber, to friends, of any rank, from the city or outside, who might come to see one of the community. A visitor on business of the community was to be properly entertained in the hall or Provost’s lodging at the common expense.
Nor did this in later times prevent such services as were rendered by a “fag” at a public school some fifty years ago from being rendered in College for a salary by the poorer students to the richer. So George Fothergill, in 1723, writes home—“My Tutor has given me a gentleman commoner last night, wch I call’d up this morning. So that for calling up I have about 5 pounds per year, viz. 5s. a quarter of each of the 3 com̄oners wch I had before, wch comes to 3 pounds a year, & 10s. a quarter for this Gent: Com: wch makes up 5 pounds.”
Harriers, hounds, hawks, and other such animals were not to be kept in the Hall or its precincts by any of the scholars. It was not thought fitting that poor men living mainly on alms should give the bread of the sons of men for the dogs to eat, and woe to those who play among the birds of the air. The “extructio pullophylacii” in 1590 would probably not be regarded as a violation of the statute, nor “le henhouse,” probably the same building which is referred to a few years later. A caged eagle also seems from time to time to have been kept in the College, in connection with the founder’s name and the arms of the College. In 1661, 5s. 3d. is paid, “operculum fabricanti ad concludendam aquilam domini praepositi.”
The use of musical instruments was prohibited within the College except during the hours of general refreshment, as likely to produce levity and insolence, and to afford occasion of distraction from study. This of course did not apply to the musical instruments employed in the chapel service. There was an organ in chapel from very early times. In 1436-7 4d. is paid among the expenses of the chapel “pro emendatione organorum”; and in 1490-1 “organa reparantur.” In 1676-7 £1 12s. is paid “famulis domini episcopi Londinensis organum musicum afferentibus.” This was Bishop Compton, who crowned William III., and who had been a gentleman commoner of the College. The present organ, perhaps the largest in Oxford, is mainly due to the skill and liberality of Leighton George Hayne, D.Mus., and sometime Coryphæus of the University, who, with the support of the late Archbishop of York, revived the musical service which had for many years been interrupted.