iron chains for the common use of the Fellows[268].

It is evident that this statute was regarded as a full and satisfactory
expression of what was required, for it is repeated, with additions or
omissions to suit the taste of the respective founders, in the statutes of
New College (1400), All Souls' (1443), Magdalen (1479), Corpus Christi
(1517), Brasenose (1521), Cardinal College (1527) and S. John's College
(1555), at Oxford; and in those of King's College, Cambridge.

Among these changes a few are sufficiently important to require special
notice. At New College William of Wykeham allows students in civil law and
canon law to keep two text-books "for their own special use during the
whole time they devote themselves to those faculties in our College,
provided they do not possess such books of their own"; the "remaining
text-books, should any be left over, and also the glosses or commentaries
of the Doctors of civil and canon law, may be lent to the persons
belonging to those faculties by the method of annual selection, as in the
other faculties"; the "books which remain unassigned after the Fellows
have made their selection are to be fastened with iron chains, and remain
in the Common Library for the use of the Fellows[269]"; the wishes of
donors, whether expressed by will or during their lifetime, are to be
respected; and, lastly, the safety of the Library is to be secured by
three locks, two large, and one small, of the kind called "a clickett."
The keys of the two former are to be kept by the Senior Dean and the
Bursar respectively; of the clickett each Fellow is to have a separate
key. At night the door is to be carefully locked with all three keys[270].

At All Souls' College, the founder, Henry Chichele (Archbishop of
Canterbury 1414-43), makes the books to be chained the subjects of
definite choice. The principle of an annual selection is maintained,
except for "those books which, in obedience to the will of the donors, or
the injunction of the Warden, the Vice-Warden, and the Deans, are to be
chained for the common use of the Fellows and Scholars." Further, the
preparation of a catalogue is specially enjoined. Every book is to be
entered in a register by the first word of the second leaf, and every book
given to the Library is to bear the name of the donor on the second leaf,
or in some other convenient position. The books are to be inspected once
in every year, after which the distribution, as provided