The authorities deplored this division into Boreals and
Australs--"diverse nations, which, in truth, be not diverse"--but they
could not ignore it, and thus it became the established rule that of the
two proctors--officials supremely responsible for the peace--one should
be of the North and the other of the South. As we have seen, a similar
practice obtained with regard to the University chests. Just as, at the
present time, Welshmen and Scotsmen gravitate towards particular
colleges, so in the early days "nations" seem to have favoured certain
halls, and as few of the latter were provided with chapels, they appear
also to have fixed upon certain churches for the purpose of devotion of
partisan display. Accordingly, about the year 1250, the following edict
was fulminated with a view to checking the exuberance of the "national"
spirit in sacred buildings:
"By the authority of the Lord the Chancellor and the Masters Regent,
with the unanimous consent of the Non-Regent, it is decreed and resolved
that no festival of any nation soever be celebrated henceforth in any
church soever with the accustomed solemnity and calling together of
Masters and Scholars or other acquaintances, save in so far as any may
desire to celebrate the festival of any saint of his own diocese with
devotion in his own parish, where he lives, but not calling the Masters
and Scholars of a second parish or his own, as also is not done at the
festivals of St.
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