Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-05-15

An OXFORD FELLow.-An Oxford fellow.
whose appearance and habits were very far from
suggesting any resemblance to the mendicant
orders, has been known to describe himself 10
an inquisitYe foreigner as ga kind of very seem
lar monk" No wonder that both foreigners
and natives should be puzzled, for it would be
difficult TO fud more anomalous monster than
a modern college fellow, a member of society
maintaining curious and antique ecclesiastical
forms and traditions vet possibly the most Law
of laymen; a celibate, yet bound by no monastic
VOWS; member of the body which supplies
almost all the teaching power of the university
yet not necessarily teacher, not necessarily
resident at the university, and even if a resi-
dent teacher, holding no status in the universe
ty as such receiving his emoIuments, some
times as part of his pay as teacher sometimes as
a mere slnecure prize; patron of numerous liv-
lngS and an absentee landlord of estates which
ne mas probably never seen, and of the exist
ence Of which he has very possibly never heard
The truth of course is, that college fellow is
an English institution, and, like so many En-
gllSh institutions, is capable of historical ex-
PLANTATION, but incapable of definition. Look at
him as he was in the fourteenth or fifteenth
century, and the attributes which are so-anoma-
lous now, and the necessity or utility of which
IS defended by such far-tetched and powerful
arguments, become natural and Ineligible
enough. In the first place, he was originally a
student, bound by the rules of his college to 90
through long and elaborate course of study,
but not bound to give any teaching. 1t was
only by kind OF accident that as the UNIVERSE
~ system of teaching broke down, and it be-
came more and more customary for young stu
dents to flock to college for the benefit of Shar-
ing in the college discipline and course of stud
les, the older member of the society became a
teacher, and 1t is important to remember that
even now the fellow is not a teacher as such
In the next place, when not merely learning
but the rudimentary arts of reading and writing
were almost monopoly of the clergy, and when
accordingly persons took orders not because they
wished to perform or because they were pecu-
liarly qualified TO perform spiritual functIous
but simply because they wished to lead a stud-
Gus life, II is almost needless to say that col
lege fellow would, whether compelled to be SO or
not by the rules of his society, almost necessa-
rly be clerk in holy orders. The notion that
either the university or the colleges were intend
ed in any special sense to be nursing mothers of
the church in general, or of the Angeical estab-
lishment in particular, is Pigment of a much
later age For the same reason, and also be-
cause his narrow lodgings, common meals and
scanty stipend were inconsistent with married
life, he would be a celibate. Many reasons
would contribute TO make him live at the uni
versity.
The Oxford reforms of 1854, by making sue
cess in an examination the only means of OBJ
tanning fellowship, stimulated competition,
and struck blow at favoritism and nepotism,
but they left the fellowships themselves un.
changed. What the Oxford fellow was in the
fourteenth, that he still is, in theory, in the nine
teenth century. Though the church is no longer
the exclusive home of science and learning,
though the establishment has become only one
among several denominations, yet a large pro-
portion of the fellowships is reserved exclusively
TO cergymen of the established church. Though
the scanty pittance of the fellow has grown into
comfortable competence, yet the duties at
tached TO this stipend have not increased; in
deed, they have diminished. He is no longer
bound to 90 through a long course of study; he
is not yet bound to reside at the university or
TO teach Though study and monastc life are
no longer synonymous, the college fellow,
whether an Oxford tutor or london barrister,
is, or was till lately, of necessity celibate. 1t
is the very success of the legislation of 1854,
partial and tentative as that legislation was,
which has brought into strong relief the anon
allies which it lett untouched. - NacmalaWS
Magazine.