Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/180

 132 REMARKS OX THE CHURCH OF These letters, on which I fear that I have ah-eady dwelt too loug, are of great interest and importance, not only because they exhibit the methods employed by our ancestors in the fifteenth century for the purpose of raising money for a pubhc work of piety, but because the}^ clearly illustrate the connection between the University and the Church of St. Mary, and confirm the proofs already advanced in order to show the great antiquity of that connection. Xot only do they recognise the church as the place where Academical Acts were wont to be performed, but assume throughout that such acts had been there solemnised from remote antiquity, and that, in desiring to undertake the reconstruction of the ruined fabric, the University were only treading in the steps of their predecessors in all previous time. Let it be hoped that the University may ever be animated by the same spii'it of attachment to the noble monument of piety and zeal which their forefathers have bequeathed to them. The scholastic acts of the University are indeed no lono;er carried on within its walls : but let us trust that the University of the nineteenth century, which the providence of God has blessed with more ample means than were in the possession of the University of the fifteenth century, will be no less ready to acknowledge the obligation of bestowing as much of them as may be required (so long, at least, as we are permitted to enjoy the use of our own) in maintaining the integrity, if we cannot increase the splendour, of an edifice commended to our admiration by its rare beauty, and to our aflfections by a long train of deeply interesting associations. Of the five chapels formerly existing in this Church, respectively dedicated in honour of St. Mary, St. Catherine, St. Anne, St. Thomas, and St. Nicholas, all, except the first, which stands on the north side of the Church, and is com- monly known by the name of Adam de Brome's Chapel, were swept away at the rebuilding of the Church. It is, therefore, scarcely worth while to detain you with any par- ticular account of them, and I will proceed at once to mention the ancient structure to the north of the present chancel, called the Old Congregation House. This building appears to have been consigned to the Universit}'', though not in its present state, at a very early period. The chirograph, or bond between the University