In which of old I wore the gown."
TENNYSON.


[Plate VI. Merton College : The Tower]

Merton is not only the oldest college in Oxford, it is also, as is
claimed on the monument of the founder, Walter de Merton, in his
Cathedral of Rochester, the model of "omnium quotquot extant
collegiorum." Peterhouse, the first college at Cambridge, which was
founded (1281) seven years later than Merton, had its statutes
avowedly copied from those of its Oxford predecessor.

So important a new departure in education calls for special notice.
It is interesting to see how the English college system grew out of
the long rivalry between the Regular and the Secular clergy which was
so prominent in the mediaeval church. The Secular clergy, who had in
their ranks all the "professional men" of the day, civil servants,
architects, physicians, as well as, those devoted to religious
matters in the strict sense, were always jealous of the monks and the
friars, who, living by a "rule" in their communities, were much less
in sympathy with English national feelings than the Seculars, who
lived among the laity. Hence the growing influence of the Regular
Orders, especially of the Franciscans and the Dominicans, in
thirteenth-century Oxford, excited the alarm of a far-seeing prelate
like Walter de Merton. There was a real danger that the most
prominent and best of the students might be drawn into the great new
communities, which were rapidly adding to their learning and their
piety the further attractions of great buildings and splendid
ceremonial.