It was not even formally recognized till it received
the licence of Pope John XXII. in 1318.... Oxford schools were renowned
as a 'staple product' at a time when Cambridge was famous only for
eels."
[8] The Common Serjeant was for long to the City what the King's
Serjeant was to the Crown. The appointment lay with the Court of Common
Council, and till 1824 the custom was to elect the senior of the Common
Pleaders in the Mayor's Court. He was originally rather an advocate than
a judge. The office goes back at least as far as the commencement of the
fourteenth century, being mentioned in the civic records of that date.
[9] This and the other prayers cited are translated from the "Formulae
Liturgicae," published by Gengler and Roziere, and included in
Henderson's "Select Documents" (Bell).
[10] The "Dialogus de Scaccario" contains the following legendary
account of the origin of this custom, which, like so many others, was an
Anglo-Saxon usage continued under the Normans:
"Now in the primitive state of the kingdom after the Conquest those who
were left of the Anglo-Saxon subjects secretly laid ambushes for the
suspected and hated race of the Normans, and here and there, when
opportunity offered, killed them secretly in the woods and in remote
places: as vengeance for whom--when the Kings and their ministers had
for some years with exquisite kinds of tortures, raged against the
Anglo-Saxons; and they, nevertheless, had not, in consequence of these
measures altogether desisted--the following plan was hit upon: that the
so-called "hundred," in which a Norman was found killed in this
way--when he who had caused his death was not to be found, and it did
not appear from his flight who he was--should be condemned to a large
sum of tested silver for the fisc; some indeed to _l.
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