Page:A Catalogue of Graduates who have Proceeded to Degrees in the University of Dublin, vol. 2.djvu/12

 vi INTRODUCTION. two bodies that are the nourishers of learning and the liberal sciences, Cambridge and Oxford." Another learned civilian (Dr. Ayliffe), a very high authority, in a treatise on the state of Oxford, published in 1714, states and proves that Oxford had the title of ' University ' before the reign of Henry III. He adds that, " by legal grants, all Professors and Stu- dents incorporated into a body politic, in the Latin tongue called Universitas, do bear this name, and become hereby a republic of learning." He comments on and rejects other ex- planations of the word University.* I have therefore been led to conclude that, inasmuch as the College is described in the first part of this Charter as ' mater Universitatis,' and express reference is made therein to the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, and in the latter part a like reference is plainly to bo implied, the University to be brought forth was intended to be constituted on the model of these, so far, at least, as related to what belonged to a 'Universitas,' in its then accepted meaning. The Colleges in these Universities were adjuncts or acci- dents thereof. They were the later, the Universities the earlier institutions ; but here, both the College and the University had to be created under the Queen's Charter, and, from the nature of the case, the College had to take precedence. It could not, indeed, be considered as having been intended to be an acci- dental adjunct to the University, but it might well have been designed to be subsidiary, by providing a tutorial system, in subordination to a professorial, and thus affording what, accord- ing to Sir W. Hamilton {jwat, p. xxiv.), is "the condition of an absolutely perfect University." The designation of " mater Universitatis " was appropriate, as well because the stucUosi, who were to be admitted to take Degrees, were to be supplied by the College, as because the prescribing of the preliminaries and conditions of graduation, the appointment of University officers (except the first Chan-
 * Xote A, p. xxvii.