(b) As regards temporalities. On the 6th of May a “Rector chori” was to be appointed for All Saints and a “Rector chori” for St. Michael’s; their duties were to occupy the Rector’s stall in the chancel, and to collect all alms, fees, etc., for the bursar of the College. These duties at Twyford belonged to the Rector of the College, and at Combe were supervised by him.
(4) As regards the ordinary academical curriculum, the founder’s requirements were by no means exacting.
(a) The College disputations were to be weekly during Term, in Logic and Philosophy on Wednesdays, for those members who had taken B.A. and not yet proceeded to M.A. (there being no undergraduates, according to the founder’s scheme); and in Theology on Fridays, for all members of M.A. standing. Both sets of disputations were to cease during Lent, when the Fellows were engaged in their ministerial duties.
(b) Fellows, elected as B.A., were to proceed to M.A. as soon as possible; Fellows were to take B.D. (or B. Can. L. in case of the Canonist Fellow) within nine years from M.A.; and, unless the College approved of an excuse, to proceed to D.D. (or D. Can. L.) within six years later. The last of these provisions, however, was practically a dead letter, for the College never forced any Fellow to the expensive dignity of the Doctorate.
(5) Study, however, as distinct from formal academical exercises, was inculcated as a virtue both by persuasions and punishments. The Subrector was charged to rebuke Fellows not merely for offences against morality and decorum, but for being neglectful of books; and unless the Fellows so admonished submitted and mended their ways, they were to be expelled.
The founder and later benefactors, as has been from time to time noted, made gifts of “books” (i. e. MSS.) for the use of the Fellows; and John Forest built a library for their reception. According to Rotheram’s statutes, two classes of books were to be recognized—
(a) Those which were to be chained in the library, and which the reader had therefore to consult there. According to the Catalogue of 1474, this library then contained 135 MSS., arranged on seven desks.
(b) Those which were to be considered as “in the common choice” of the Rector and Fellows. On each 6th November a list of these was to be made out; the Rector was to choose one, and after him the Fellows one each, according to their seniority,[174] and so on till the books were all taken out; thereafter, the Fellows were to take the books to their own rooms, depositing a bond for their safe custody and return. In 1476 there were 35 books in this “lending library,” different from the 135 above-mentioned. A record is also found of the books (18 in number) thus borrowed by the Fellows in 1595 and (17 in number) in 1596; among them are two copies of Augustine De civitate Dei, and one of Servius In Virgilium.
(6) The Fellows had to take their share in the ordinary routine of College business, especially in the two chief meetings on 6th May and 6th November, called “chapters” (capitula), and to serve when called upon in the College offices. These were three in number, all held for one year only.
(a) The Subrector was charged with the general management of the College during the Rector’s absence, the supervision of the conduct of the Fellows and commoners, the presiding over disputations, and the writing of all letters on College business. The emblem of his office was a whip, which, with his alternative title (Subrector sive Corrector[175]), is eloquent as to his original duty of correcting faults of conduct by corporal punishment. This scourge of four tails, made of plaited cord after the old fashion, is still extant and perfect, is solemnly laid down by the Subrector at the conclusion of his term of office, and restored to him next day on his re-election. It has been coveted for the Pitt-Rivers anthropological museum, as a genuine example of the “flagellum” of mediæval discipline.