that in his early days there were at Oxford some thirty thousand students.1 This state ment has been quoted by many writers, es pecially those of early date, and it has been urged in its support that evidence shows there were no less than three hundred inns and halls, each capable of accommodating a hundred students, and that the student .body included "barbers, copyists, writers, parch ment preparers, illuminators, book-binders, stationers, apothecaries, surgeons and laun dresses," - in short all persons in any way
thousand strong. So we hardly are justified in thinking that there were less than four thousand students* gathered at Oxford be tween 1 200 and 1300. But if we accept only this smaller number, the elements brought together by four thou sand young men in those riotous days must have been a severe tax on the endurance of even a mediaeval community. Some we are told "lived under no discipline, having no tutors, saving him who teacheth all mis chief;"5 while others "thieved and quar-
THE ORIGINAL SEAL OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD.
connected with the gown rather than with the town. Then in his account of the tem porary expulsion of the university from Ox ford by Henry III., in 1264, William of Rishanger tells us that at the time "the number of clerks whose names had been inscribed in the registers of Masters (in matricules rectorum) was upwards of fifteen thousand."3 And after the riot of 1298, we learn from the townspeople that the clerks mustered rather more than three 'Lyte, p. 94'Huber, I., pp. 67 and 403. "Walsingham, p. 514.
relied all day and only for fashion's sake thrust themselves into the schools at ordi nary lectures."" They dwelt where they pleased, living singly in the houses of the townsfolks, or in halls which a number of them rented together. They had no appre ciation of the rights of person or of prop erty; they pillaged each others' rooms, killed citizens and even sacked monasteries. They spent their time with "dibs, dice and cards,"' and we learn that they enjoyed "ball-play 'Roderick, p. 14: "No more than 2000, or at most 3000." 'Fuller, History of Cambridge, I., p. 34. "Hulton, p. 12.
