The answer of the chancellor, masters and scholars of the Vniversity of Oxford, to the petition, articles of grievance, and reasons of the city of Oxon presented to the honorable committee for regulating the University of Oxford the 24. of July, 1649.

To the first Article of the Citties pretended Grievances.

1. WE answer and say. That the Vniversi∣ty hath, time out of minde, (and are warranted so to doe by divers Charters confirmed by Act of Parliament) exercised Power and Iurisdi∣ction in all Causes m••ntioned in this Article•• where∣of or wherein a Priviledg••d person is one party.

2. We doe claime Allowa••ce of our Priviledge for such Persons justly p••ivile••ged, as th•• Chancel∣lour shall under the Common seale certifie to any Court to be so privil••dged; & we have had it with∣out

the formalitie or charge of long pleading, pay∣ing only a fee for the allowance of the Certificat.

3. We have ever proceeded according to the course of the Civill Lawes, and after witnesses have been openly produced in Court and sworne, their examinations are taken in writing by the Judge and Register, & then published that all parties may have Copies of them, according to the course of the Ci∣vill Law, the High Court of Chancery, and the Ad∣miralty.

4. We doe not proceed in an Ecclesiastical way, but in Causes Ecclesiasticall.

5. Sometimes heretofore we have used the censure of Excommunication against our own Mem∣bers at the instance and for the benefit of the Citti∣zens; but not so these fifteen or sixteen yeares, and that course being now in effect abolished by Act of Parliament, it cannot be matter of present or future Grievance to the Petitioners.

6. We do•• use Summons or Citations at first, be∣fore we grant out an Arrest against persons of qua∣lity, and such as are likely to abide and continue within the jurisdiction: But against Strangers that have no abiding there, and against such as are like to ••ly we doe grant Arrests without any previous Ci∣tation.

7. That our Sentences are (as the Petitioners untruly suggest) meerly arbitra••y and grounded upon no Law, but at the will of the I••dge, we deny•• For in his Sentences the Judge followes the Justice and Equi∣ty of the Civill Law, and Common Law, and the Statutes of the Land, against which he cannot nor does not judge.

8. If the Judge be thought to have judged er∣roniously or unjustly, Writs of Error are not brought to our Court, b••cause the manner of proceedings there are not as at the Common Law, but the party grieved may either appeale, or complaine of a nullity, and have redresse. And if it be appealed in the Vni∣versity there are there appointed yearely fower or ••ive Doctors, and some Masters from the Congre∣gation and Convocation to heare the complaint, & from their judgements there lies an Appeale to the Supream Power in Chancery, where the Juges of the Land & other learned Lawyers both Common and Civill have usually been nominated Judges De∣legates, as in the Admiralty and Prerogative Court.