ceremonies have taken place, the facts should be immediately entered in the register. The pecuniary statistics may be easily obtained from the treasurer or other officers of the church or parish.

When records are made, every clergyman should consider it his sacred duty to preserve and transmit them uninjured to his successor. It is painful to see how some records of this kind have been treated. Some have been injured or lost through the carelessness of those who have had them in custody. Others have been destroyed owing to divisions and contentions in churches, to shield some persons interested, from censure, or to throw embarrassment in the way of others. Not long since the author found an important volume of records of this kind which had been in the possession of the paper makers. Whoever neglects to make records, or by his carelessness or criminal intention mutilates or destroys them, commits a gross and irreparable fraud on the church immediately concerned, and on posterity.

For a clergyman to make and leave behind him a correct system of records would be a strong inducement to fidelity; and whenever they are fully and accurately kept, it will add greatly to the respect with which he will be regarded, and to the influence of his own example, and will induce his successor to prize and emulate his character. In nothing can a clergyman more clearly leave the impress of his own character to his church, than in the recorded acts of his life.

This is an inquiring age. There is an increasing desire for accurate investigation. Though bold assertion, vague statements, and unfounded assumption of facts, are made by many on which to build their uncertain theories, yet the spirit of the age seems to require more minuteness and accuracy of detail of actual fact, than has hitherto prevailed. This is the only true foundation for any correct theory in domestic economy, politics, morals, or religion. All men are interested in these great subjects, but especially the last, and none more particularly so than clergymen. No persons in society are so well situated as they are to commence and carry forward an improved system of collecting and preserv ing the elements of all investigation by making minute and accurate original records.

No one who has observed the progress of society within the last few years can fail to perceive the important character and tendencies of the age. All classes of society feel the force of some great influence. New modes of thought and action have taken place. The influence of fact upon fact which has already been brought to light, and which by the scrutiny and universal education of this age is constantly becoming known, is vast and powerful beyond ordinary conceptions. The mighty effect of the immense amount of individual mind, and collective physical energy and intellectual power, now in operation in the world, in analyzing and combining known facts, and producing new ones and new developments therefrom, is revolutionising our whole social system. These influences are destined to do for mankind in the coming ages what will place thein in every thing above, far above any age that has preceded. In all these great events the church in this country largely partakes, and whoever lives and records its history and progress, during the next fifty years, will exhibit it in a most interesting light. Let every minister then record the acts of his own church, and transmit them unimpaired to posterity.

TABLE 1.-Exhibiting the annual statements of the number of Communicants on the first day of January; the number of Admissions to the Communion; the number of Removals; and the number of Baptisms during the year ending with the date: also the number of Scholars belonging to the Bible Classes and Sunday Schools connected with the Society.

TABLE 1-Exhibiting the annual statements of the estimated population of the Parish or Society on the first day of January; the number of Marriages and Deaths; the Income and Expenditures, Collections and Donations for charitable and religious purposes.

The intentions of marriage between the parties above described were duly entered by me

the

day of

of

A. D. 18 in the Register of Marriages for the town
and have been published according to law.
Attest,

Clerk.

Remarks.

Recorded in the Register of Marriages for the

Vol.

No. Registrar.

SCHEDULE XI.

DEAR SIR, I desire admission to the church under your care.

DEAR SIR,-I desire your attendance at the funeral of the following described person :

THE exact date of the origin of this celebrated University is not known. Mr. Hallam states that the earliest authentic mention of Cambridge as a place of learning is in Matthew Paris, who informs us that in 1209, John, King of England, having caused three clerks of Oxford to be hanged on suspicion of murder, the whole body of scholars left that city, and emigrated, some to Cambridge, some to Reading, in order to carry on their studies. But it may be conjectured with some probability, that they were led to a town so distant as Cambridge by the previous establishment of academical instruction in that place. An ancient author, P. Blaesensis, or Peter of Blois, in his additions to the History of Ingulfus, has the following, which, says Mr. Malden, is not destitute of probability. “Joffred, abbot of Croyland, sent over, in about 1109, to his manor of Cottenham, near Cambria, Gislebert, his fellow monk, and professor of divinity, with three other monks, who, following him into England, being thoroughly furnished with philosophical theorems, and other primitive sciences, repaired daily to Cambridge, and having hired a certain public barn, made open profession of their sciences, and in a short space of time, drew together a great number of scholars. But in the second year after their coming, the number of their scholars became so great, as well from out of the whole country, as the town, that the biggest barn or house that was, or any church whatsoever, sufficed not to contain them. Whereupon, sorting themselves apart in several places, and taking the University of Orleans for their pattern, early in the morning, monk Odo, a singular grammarian and satirical poet, read grammar unto boys, and those of the younger sort assigned unto him, according to the doctrine of Priscian and Remigius upon him. At one of the clock, Terricus, a most subtle and witty sophister, taught the elder sort of young men, Aristotle's Logic, after the Introductions of Porphyry and the comments of Averroes. At three of the clock, monk William read a Lecture in Tully's Rhetoric and Quinctilian's Flores. But the great master, Gislibert, upon every Sunday and holyday, preached God's word unto the people, and thus out of this little fountain, which grew up to be a great river, we see how the city of God is now become enriched, and all England made fruitful by means of very many masters and doctors proceeding out of Cambridge, in manner of the holy Paradise.t

Harper's edition of Hallam's Middle Ages, p. 525.

↑ Origin of Universities, London, 1836, p. 92.

Thomas Fuller's History of the University of Cambridge, since the Conquest, ed. 1655, p. 4.

An old building is pointed out at this day as the barn in which these missionaries of learning taught, or at least as retaining some portion of its walls.

Mr. Dyer states that he finds the term University applied to Cambridge in a public instrument of 1223. According to Mr. Hallam, the date of its first incorporation is the 15th of Henry III. or 1231. In Hare's Register of the charters and other monuments of the liberties and privileges of the University, which is the authority on which the University relies, there is no charter of incorporation of this year, nor indeed any of this monarch, but there are many public letters of Henry relating to the University. These fully recognise its existence, its masters and chancellor, and some customs and privileges of the University. One of the most important of these early monuments is a royal letter, addressed to the sheriff of the county, calling upon him, "to repress the insubordination of clerks and scholars, and to compel them to obedience to the injunctions of the bishop of Ely, either by imprisonment or banishment from the University, according to the discretion of the chancellor and masters." In the 15th of Henry III. is a royal letter, which provides that "lodgings or hostels (hospitia) shall be taxed, i. e. valued, according to the custom of the University, namely, by two masters and two respectable and lawful men of the town, and let to the scholars according to their valuation." These and other documents are prefaced in Hare's Collection, by letters of invitation, addressed to the scholars of the University of Paris two years before, viz. in 1229. It would appear, therefore, that this protection accorded by the King to the hitherto unnoticed school of Cambridge, arose out of the circumstances which caused the scholars of Paris to quit their university and seck instruction in England.

Many of the royal letters of this and the following reigns relate to disputes between the University and the corporation of the town about their respective privileges; and a frequent cause of complaint is the remissness of the magistrates of the town in executing the sentences of the chancellor. The jurisdiction of the University in all cases, whether civil or criminal, except those of felony or mayhemn, (act of maiming) in which one of the parties was a master or scholar, is repeatedly confirmed; nor was this privilege questioned in the King's courts.

The first formal charter which is extant was granted by Edward I. in the 20th year of his reign. Charters more and more ample were granted by Edward II., Edward III., Richard II. and Henry IV., in the beginning of their reigns. These charters were confirmed by Edward IV., Edward VI. and Elizabeth; and they were finally ratified by the act of parliament for the incorporation of the two Universities in the thirteenth of Elizabeth.

There are comparatively but few papal bulls and rescripts extant. There is a rescript of Gregory IX, (1227-1241) addressed to the prior of Barnwell and the chancellor of the University, the existence of which, under its proper head, must have been thus recognised. When Hugh Balshamn, bishop of Ely, founded St. Peter's College, he obtained a royal charter from Edward I., and a confirmation from the pope. Edward II., in the 10th year of his reign, granted a charter to the University, confirming the charter which he had granted before, and adding some new privileges. At the same time he sought a confirmation of the privileges of the University from the papal see; and a bull was issued accordingly by John XXII., at Avignon; in the second year of his pontificate, (1217-1218). It mentions privileges conferred by former popes as well as by former kings, and confirms them all. It ordains that there shall be thenceforth at Cambridge a studium generale, and that every faculty shall be maintained there; and that the college of masters and scholars of the said studium shall be accounted a University, and enjoy all rights which any university whatsoever, lawfully established, can and ought to enjoy. From the date of this bull, Cambridge was recognised among the universities of Christendom.

Soon after the middle of the 13th century, a number of scholars, on account of some disturbances at Cambridge, retired to Northampton. The wisdom of their choice is thus commended by Fuller. "Here they met with many Oxford men,

* Studium, says Malden, is a place of study. A Studium Generale is a place where all branches of learning are taught; the very meaning of which, by an erroneous etymology has been fastened on the word university. A university, as is shown by the learned German, Von Savigny, is a corporation of persons.