rdinary fee of thirty shillings
and a pair of buckskin gloves for each bedel, or, in lieu of gloves,
five shillings to be divided among the bedels. Two licentiates protested
against such payment, stating that it was contrary to the statutes,
whereupon an inquiry was held, by which it was established that these
fees had been paid to the bedels from time immemorial and were therefore
due.

The appointment of the bedels rested with the Regent Masters, and was
one of their most jealously guarded prerogatives. Mention has been made
of John Came, who for many years held the office of bedel. When he was
elected, in 1433, by four Regent Masters and the two Proctors in
congregation, an attempt was made by the Chancellor and the Doctors of
the four faculties to substitute a nominee of their own, one Benedict
Stokes, on the ground that they were the senior members of the
University, and represented a majority of their faculties. Realizing
that the supremacy of the Faculty of Arts was menaced, the Proctors
resisted this claim and demanded the admission of Came, with the result
that the Chancellor reluctantly gave way. An appeal was entered by
Richard Cauntone, a doctor of laws, and the candidate, Benedict Stokes,
but three days later was renounced by both of them as frivolous, and
their cautions were forfeited. Even then the matter did not end. Two
days afterwards, information came to the Proctors that one of the
doctors had given his scholars to understand that the election would
have been invalid but for a vote recorded by a doctor. Thereupon the
Proctors, in order to settle the question once for all, summoned a
congregation, by which it was determined that the phrase "major part"
imported a numerical majority.

The election of bedels was conducted in the same way as that of the
Chancellor. Every such election was preceded by three proclamations made
within eight "legible" days after the office had become vacant.

The relations between the University and the Town will be dealt with
presently. Here it may be noticed that the bedels exercised some control
over the proceedings of the townsmen which concerned the interests of
students. As an illustration, when the goods and chattels of Harry Keys,
a scholar, which had been left in the house of Thomas Manciple, were
"presyd" betwixt Thomas Smyth and Davy Dyker, the valuers were sworn
before John Wykam, Bedel.

If the bedels, as public officials, were necessarily and conspicuously