viii PREFACE. the number of its members, not on the foundation, remained exceedingly small. But in most of the other bodies, the change was cordially welcomed : University, Exeter, Brasenose, Trinity, can all show a long list of distinguished noblemen, commensales, and commoners. The most famous roll of all belongs to the great House of Christ Church. No better example of this type can be seen than that which is exhibited by Oriel. Although belonging to the earliest group of medieval foundations, and governed by statutes which made no provision for the reception of under- graduate scholars, it was one of the first to adapt itself to the changed conditions of the age of Elizabeth. Scanty as our information is for the sixteenth and the early part of the seventeenth century, there is evidence to show that Oriel had begun to receive students at least as early as the time of Sir Walter Raleigh. And it was no doubt one of the results of this enlargement of its numbers that the old buildings were pulled down, and an entirely new fabric erected in the years 1618 to 1641. Without the assistance obtained from the liberality of its old members, this work could hardly have been undertaken by the College. In the earlier volume of this Registrum, some account has been given of the several classes, Commensales, Commoners, and Batellers, of which the undergraduate body was com- posed : and these distinctions continued to be maintained at Oriel down to a comparatively late date. First in position stood the order of Commensales. These, as has been shown elsewhere, were marked off from the lower class of Commoners by their higher rank or wealth: and during the academic stagnation of the eighteenth century it was in their favour that the strict rules of discipline were most easily relaxed. In many Colleges, the extravagance and disorder, which the Gentlemen Commoners represented, led to their discontinuance: although they were to be found in large numbers in the Halls. Only in one or two Colleges of good position was the order maintained in any high repute. Oriel was one of these : and the place which it took in the early Honour lists was won for it in a large degree by the