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 1921 REVIEWS OF BOOKS 113 parliament of May, 1322, that the Despensers were and remained reformers to the end. But in his new book he is inclined to stress the contrast between the Despensers' policy and that of the expert civil servants, such as Stapeldon and Baldock, whom they had taken into partnership. The Despensers were prepared, he thinks, to sacrifice the wardrobe and the privy seal to the new spirit of conservative reform, but only on con- dition that they were allowed to extend the authority of the chamber and of a new secret seal, the special seal of the chamber, which first made its appearance in 1313 (Chapters, ii. 325). He justifies this statement by an interesting survey (ibid. ii. 348-60) of the operations of the chamber under the younger Despenser. He shows that the Despenser policy had been to some extent checked by Stapeldon's insistence on the subjection of most of the forfeited estates to exchequer control. The average gross revenue of the chamber estates in the last years of Edward II was only about £2,000. But the chamber accounts suggest that Despenser and his subordinates made a considerable profit out of their connexion with the chamber system (ibid, ii, pp. 355, 357-8) ; and it is clear that the staff and the activities of the chamber increased considerably under the new regime. We seem to perceive two conflicting interests or factions in the royal party. Stapeldon and Baldock think that the power of the Crown should be asserted and maintained through the old organs of administration, the chancery and the exchequer. The Despenser faction are unwilling to let the fruits of victory go entirely to the professional administrators and endeavour to reserve for themselves at least one sphere of influence and one field for peculation. Mr. Tout promises two more volumes, in which he will continue the history of the wardrobe to 1399, and will deal specially with the great and privy wardrobes and with the small seals. We hope that he will be able ^;o fulfil his promise shortly, for the first and second volumes give indica- tions that some of his most interesting results have still to be disclosed. Pending the appearance of the index it is rather difficult to do full justice to the earlier volumes, which, owing to the nature of the subject, are intricate in plan, and contain a number of interesting digressions on side- issues. We have not attempted to go beyond the main thread of Professor Tout's investigations ; and it is only fair to warn the readers of this review that there is hardly any branch of our medieval constitutional history which is not, in one way or another, elucidated by these Chapters. H. W. C. Davis. Chartularium Studii Bononiensis. Documenti per la Storia dell' Uni- versita di Bologna dalle origini fino al secolo XV. Vols, ii and iv. (Bologna: Commissione per la Storia dell' Universita di Bologna, 1913, 1919.) This chartulary is being edited with extraordinary thoroughness. Masses of documents are being published, most of them in extenso, which are only very remotely connected with the history of the university. Thus in vol. ii we have a number of documents from the monastery of Sant' Agnese in Bologna, which throw no light upon the university beyond an VOL. XXXVI. — NO. CXLI. I