Page:A Catalogue of Graduates who have Proceeded to Degrees in the University of Dublin, vol. 1.djvu/40

INTRODUCTION. The University Statutes of Sir William Temple are princi- pally devoted to what not even Dr. Miller can deny was the chartered duty of the Provost and Senior Fellows, viz. to fix the proper time to be spent in study, the tempus idoneum for the se- veral Degrees; and also to prescribe the acts and exercises. Thus, cap. vi., it is enacted that the student shall be of four years' standingfrom his matriculation, and not less than that stand- lege" would seem to designate him sufficiently without any election. He is presumed to be well known to all present; and it is evident that no election is intended, only an assent on the part of the Senate, or at least the absence of any objection. 5. Again it seems that the title page of the various editions of the University Statutes has been altered, from which Dr. Miller infers "a proof of the un- certainty of opinion in regard to their natui-e and authority."— The MS, copy, which we have called Taylor's, gives them simply the title of Statuta Universitatis ; and the first printed edition, " Nunc ■primum edita^ Dub- lin. 1738, and some later reprints, have Statuta seu RegulcB Universi- tatis pro solenniori graduum colla- tione ; in other editions the title is Consuetudines seu Regulce Universi- tatis ; but there is no doubt ex- pressed in any of the changes of title, as to the authority of these Statutes, rules, or customs of the University: these words all virtually mean the same, and the objection is without force. I suspect the whole matter is no more than this ; the Charter of Charles I. commanded that the power of making Statutes should thenceforth be reserved to the Crown, and that the College should in future be go- verned by the new Statutes, and no other. " Mandantes prsedictis Praepo- sito, &c. hisce Statutis nostris, et non aliis, per omne sevum obedire, &c." Hence it was deemed necessary to erase the word from the title of the University Statutes, lest it should seem that the College continued to claim the power of making Statutes notwithstanding the repeal of that power by Charles I. This caution, however, was unnecessary, because the power of which they were de- prived was the power of mak- ing Statutes for the College, not the power of making Statutes for the University. It is curious that the title of the Old Statutes of the University of Paris is "RegulaB seu Consuetudines, aut Statuta observata ab anti quo tempore ;" D'Acherii Spi- ci;7.,iii. 735.6. The words were then (137 1) evidently synonymous. Dr. Miller seems to think that the addition of the words ,pro solenniori graduum collatione made in some editions, "plainly implies that these statutes were not considered as possessed of the operative character of Statutes but merely as composing an academic pageant, fitted to maintain the pomp of an University." But if we open