Ebook: History of the Colleges, Halls, an Public Buildings, Attached to the University of Oxford. Vol II

The University of Oxford now consists of twenty Colleges and five Halls. Ofthe Colleges, each of which is a corporation of itself, Merton, University, and Balliol, were founded in the thirteenth century; Exeter, Oriel, Queen's, and New College, in the fourteenth; Lincoln, All Souls, and Magdalen, in the fifteenth; Brasen Nose, Corpus Christi, Christ Church, Trinity, St. John's, and Jesus, in the sixteenth; Wadham and Pembroke in the seventeenth ; and Worcester and Hertford in the eighteenth. Before these Colleges were erected, the scholars who were educated in the Halls or Inns subsisted there at their own expence, or that of opulent Prelates or Noblemen; but many of the youth of the kingdom, and perhaps the greater part, were educated in St. Frideswide's Priory, Oseney Abbey, and other religious houses in Oxford and its vicinity. As the Colleges, however, increased in the number and value of their endowments, the scholars and dependents on religious houses began to decrease. In Colleges, at first, none were educated but those who were admitted upon the foundation; but when learning, and the love of learning, began to be more extensively diffused, those establishments were resorted to by independent members, under the names of Commoners, and Gentlemen Commoners.