Oxford

Oxford. The ecclesiastical history of the city appears to begin with St Frideswide (q.v.), whose father founded a convent there in the 8th cent. Throughout the Middle Ages Oxford was in the diocese of Lincoln, but in 1542 Henry VIII created the see of Oxford, with the suppressed Oseney Abbey as the cathedral church; in 1546 he transferred the seat of the bishopric to the college founded on the site of St Frideswide's priory (Christ Church).

The origins of the university go back to the 12th cent., when, in addition to schools attached to parish churches, there is fragmentary evidence of independent masters teaching Arts, Theology, and Civil and Canon Law in schools in the centre of the town. In 1214 the Papal legate drew up a constitution for the schools; from this date the university developed as a corporate institution. Between 1220 and 1230 the Friars came—Dominican, Franciscan, Carmelite, and Augustinian. The colleges grew out of the boarding houses for masters and students; Merton's statutes date from 1264. In 1571 the university was incorporated and from then until 1871 subscription to the Thirty-Nine Articles was required from all its members. Its statutes were remodelled by W. Laud; further changes began in the 19th cent. The University had close links with the Church from the beginning and only in modern times has theology ceased to hold a dominant position.