his room and stead.

THE MINISTRY OF TRADE

The powers of the Chancellor were very considerable. They did not extend
to questions of life or death, but he could fine, he could imprison, he
could banish, and, being an ecclesiastic, he could excommunicate; and
these methods of reproof and coercion were constantly employed by him as
ex-officio justice of the peace and censor of public morals. The
privilege of the University was of a dual nature. It protected the
scholars in any court of first instance but a University court; on the
other hand, the University obtained full control over its scholars, who
were forbidden to enter a secular court. Litigants were allowed to
appeal, and very frequently did appeal, from the Chancellor's decision
to Congregation, and, if they were still not satisfied and the matter
was sufficiently grave, to the Pope--that is, in spiritual causes. In
temporal causes an appeal lay to the higher tribunals of the realm and
the King. The Chancellor, also, might appeal to the King, invoking the
secular arm in cases where the voice of the Church proved ineffectual in
dealing with rebellious subjects, and the letter addressed to the
sovereign for this purpose was called, in technical language, a
_significavit_.

Sometimes the King, moved perhaps by a petition from his lieges in one
or other of the University towns, admonished the Chancellor to be more
alert in the performance of his duty. In June, 1444, the head of the
University of Oxford was in receipt of the following missive from Henry
VI.:

"Trusty and welbeloved, we grete you wel, and late you wyte that we have
understanden by credible report of the greet riotts and misgovernance
that have at diverse tymys ensued and contynelly ensue by two circuits
used in oure Universite of Oxon in the vigile of St. John Baptist and
the Holy Apposteles Peter and Paule to the gret hurt and disturbance of
the sad and wol vituled personnes of the same Universite, wherefore We,
wolling such vices and misgovernaunce to be suppressyd and refused in
the said Universite and desiring the ease and tranquillite of the said
peuple in the same, wol and charge you straitly that ye see and ordeyne
by youre discretione that al such vices and misgovernaunce be left and
all such as may be founde defective in that behalve be sharply punished
in example of all other; and more over We charge you oure Chancellor, to
whom the governance and keeping of our paix within oure said Un