to look upon this University as your vineyard and your handmaid and perpetual supplicant.  And may the Lord Himself most glorious, who chose your serenity for the bestowing of such benefactions, grant to you the fruits of the spirit and guide you to the University of the saints.  Written at Oxford in our congregation in the twenty-fifth day of the month of January.

     The most humble supplicant of your Serenity, the University of
     learning at Oxford.[83]

(2) TESTIMONIAL LETTER FOR MR. JOHN KING OF OXFORD

To all the children of Holy Church, our Mother, to whom this letter may come, the Chancellor of the University of Oxford and the whole assembly of masters ruling in the same send greeting in the arms of our Saviour.  We believe that we present an offering in the sight of the highest truth, as often as we furnish a testimony of high praise to one excellent in virtue and in knowledge.  Therefore we,—­wishing all whom it may concern to know of the commendable life and the fragrance of honest conversation of our beloved brother, Master John King, M.A. and student in Sacred Theology, a prudent Procurator of our University who has filled his office most efficiently; we therefore, as we have said, wishing all to know, as we are bound to do,—­and to prevent so bright a light from being hid beneath the bushel of silence,—­do bear witness by this letter that, through the commendable merits of our aforesaid brother and his study, he has attained such proficiency that the fragrant fame of his name—­which the praise of his excellent action has exalted to the pinnacle of glory with us—­could not be concealed:  but from the height of its exalted pedestal it has furnished a living example to all scholars for emulation, and a great light to all people for profitable instruction.  And so, while adorning our University with his presence and outshining all in the maturity and dignity of his character, he won the love of all by his spotless name.  We commend him therefore to your worshipful reverences, earnestly praying that you will show yourselves favorable and kind to him, both out of regard for our University and for his deserts.  In witness of which, and that all may know more fully about his laudable character, we have caused this letter to be sealed for said Master John with the seal of our University.

     Given at Oxford in the Congregation-house, February 9th,
     1434.[84]

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 77:  Chart.  Univ.  Paris., I, f. 47.]

[Footnote 78:  Chart.  Univ.  Paris., I, No. 22, p. 24.]

[Footnote 79:  Jaffe, Bibliotheca, V, pp. 285, ff.]

[Footnote 80:  Chart.  Univ.  Paris., I, No. 51, p. 50.]

[Footnote 81:  Bulletin de la Societe de l’Histoire de Paris, 1877, p. 37 f.]

[Footnote 82:  Archiv fuer oesterreichische Geschichte, Vol. 55, p. 385.]