(b) The Bursar (thesaurarius) was charged with the duties of paying bills, collecting rents, and keeping accounts; of seeing that commons were duly and sufficiently supplied; and of governing the College servants (over whom he had the power, with the consent of the Rector, of appointment and dismissal).
(c) The Key-keeper (claviger) was to keep one of the three keys with which the Treasury was locked, and one of the three keys of the chest in the Treasury which contained the College money, the other keys of these sets being in the charge of the Rector and Subrector. This “chest of three keys” corresponds to the balance to the credit of the College at its bankers and its investments in the public stocks; in it were placed any surplus money or donations to meet sudden calls for payment or to wait investment; and the idea of appointing a key-keeper was that the chest might never be approached by any person at random or singly, but always by responsible officers, protected against themselves by the presence of others.
(7) The Fellows were strictly required to reside in Oxford and within College. During the Long Vacation they might be absent from College for six weeks; at other times not for more than two days, without special leave: the Rector and Subrector had, however, general directions given them in the statutes not to be niggardly in granting leave in cases where the presence of the applicant was required by no College duties.
On several occasions of the visitation of the city by the plague, this requirement of residence was relaxed; and the Fellows were permitted to have all their allowances if they lived in common at some place near Oxford. Thus, in the pestilence of 1535, commons were allowed to the Rector, Subrector, and five Fellows in residence at Launton, for a fortnight in some cases, for a month in others; and in that of 1538, commons were allowed to the Rector, Subrector, and twelve Fellows in residence at Gosford (near Kidlington), during a period of no less than fifteen weeks.
During Elizabeth’s reign, leaves of absence become frequent and continuous, and are practically equivalent to non-residence. The Fellows in this reign, and later, developed a bad habit of asking for leave when their turn for disputing, or other duties, came round; and several Visitors’ Injunctions are directed against granting leaves unless a substitute has been provided to perform all duties.
From this statement of the duties of the Fellows, we pass on to discuss their emoluments. These can best be understood if we group them together under separate heads.
(a.) Commons (communiæ), the weekly allowance for food at the common table in the hall of the College, and at the regular time of meals. Rotheram provided that in each week there should be allowed for each Fellow in residence (counting the Rector as a Fellow), the sum of sixteen-pence; fixing the allowance at that amount, and not more, because, as he says, “clerks” should avoid luxury.
Several festivals of the Church’s year were to be honoured by an addition to the ordinary table-allowance. In the weeks in which the following Holy-days occurred, the allowance for commons for each Fellow was to be increased by the sum named:—Epiphany (6th Jan.), 4d.; Purification of Mary (Feb. 2nd), 2d.; Carnis privium (Septuagesima Sunday), 2d.; Annunciation of Mary (25th Mar.), 2d.; Easter, 8d.; Ascension, 4d.; Whitsun day, 8d.; Corpus Christi, 4d.; St. Mildred (13th July), 2d.; Assumption of Mary (15th Aug.), 2d.; Nativity of Mary (8th Sept.), 2d.; Michaelmas (29th Sept.), 2d.; dedication of St. Michael’s Church (in Oct.), 2d.; All Saints’ Day (1st Nov.), 4d.; dedication of All Saints’ Church (in Nov.), 4d.; Conception of Mary (8th Dec.), 2d.; Christmas, 8d.
An incidental, and therefore very striking, indication of the plagues which then infected the country is the care the statutes take to provide for cases of leprosy or other noisome disease. The Fellow so afflicted is to live away from the College, and to receive yearly forty shillings in lieu of all allowances.
(b.) Salary (salarium), payments in money. Rotheram made no grants for these, except to the Rector and the College officers; but he gave liberty to other benefactors to make them. The first distinct mention of such grants is in 1537, when Edmund Darby directs that 3s. 4d. shall be paid annually to each Fellow, and 6s. 8d. to the Rector. The dividends of the College rents, after payment of all charges, known as “provision,” date no doubt from a very early period, but their history cannot now be traced.