It is true that, by the Statutes of Charles I., this power of
electing the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors has been taken from
town, who may constitute no part of the governing body of the corporation, is yet a member of the corporation.
"To be, then, a member of the Uni- versity Corporation, it was essential that a student should belong to some College in the University, but not that he should be a member of the College Corporation; and upon matriculation, though he did not become a member of the College Corporation, he did become a member of and free of the
University Corporation."Of course if there had happened to be but one College in the University, no student who had not been admit- ted into that College could be a mem- ber of the University, but on matri- culation he would have been a mem- ber of the University, though, by the constitution of the College, he might not be a member of it, qua Corpo-
ration."Now what the Charter of Eliza- beth does after constituting the Pro- vost, Fellows, and Scholars a corpora- tion, " matrem Universitatis," is to give to all the Studiosi in the College (including to be sure the members of the corporation, in their individual capacities, but comprehending also every student to be admitted to the College) the privilege of obtaining Degrees, and for that purpose, of per- forming all such acts and exercises as the Provost and major part of the Fellows of the College should think fit, and of electing, creating, and ap- pointing all proper officers for that purpose, with the exception of a Chancellor, whose first appointment is made by the Charter itself, and whose subsequent appointment is to belong to the Provost and major part
of the Fellows."Nothing appears to be more clear (nothwithstanding the singular mode of punctuation adopted in the printed form of the Statutes, which, I may observe, is not followed, and indeed could not well be in the recital of the same Charter by Charles I.) than that the only University privileges mentioned were given, not to the Cor- poration of the College, or to those particular students who alone are "members of the Corporation, but to each and every student admitted to
the College as well."The consequence of this, of course, would be, that, by the mere creation of any other College in the Univer- sity, each and every Studiosus admit- ted to it, whether belonging to that new College Corporation or not, would become entitled to the Uni-
versity privileges."This is what I apprehend is meant by Mater Universitatis; every alum- nus of the College, and not merely the proper members of that corpora- tion, became, by being such alumnus, entitled to University privileges, and a member of the University. The College was Mater Universitatis be- cause by the first foundation her
