420 BEGINNING OF CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY July Oxford, there is a volume labelled Liber Niger, in which on fo. 38 is the transcript of a deed about a dispute between the prior and canons of Anglesey and the prior and monks of Longeville Giffard concerning some tithes in Bottisham, Cambridgeshire. The prior of Anglesey appealed to Pope Honorius, who on 23 October 1226 referred the case to the prior of Barnwell and the chancellor and dean (i.e. rural dean) of Cambridge, and on 10 June 1227 they gave their decision in the church of St. Mary at Cambridge. As it was the custom for the plaintiff to mention in his letter of appeal the judges who would be suitable to try the case, the chancellor must^have been mentioned in the letter of the prior of Anglesey ; so that the date may be pushed back to midsummer 1226. H. E. Salter. An ' Attracted ' Script The British Museum Additional MS. 23935 is a Dominican service book, and contains two versions (fos. 74v to 80v, and 572 to 579 v ) of the General Constitutions of the Order of Friars Preachers. 1 Such was the system of legislation in the order that it is possible to give, almost to a year, the date at which these were written. Nothing new could be added to the constitutions, nor could any alteration be made, unless it was approved by three successive general chapters. 2 Consequently when any ordinance is found in a version of the constitutions, which three successive general chapters have introduced (inchoare), approved (approbare), and confirmed (confirmare), the year of the confirmation may be confidently taken as the date before which that version could not have been written. On the other hand, if the manuscript does not contain an ordinance so confirmed it may be assumed that it is prior to the year of confirmation. The first version (A) is dated 1260 (fo. 74 v in the margin). This date is borne out by internal evidence. The general chapter of 1260 confirmed seven clauses (additions, alterations, or omissions). Without exception these changes are recognized and incorporated in this version. 3 On the other hand, the general chapters of 1261 and 1262 confirmed in all twenty clauses. The alterations in the text made necessary by this have in each case been made after this version of the constitutions was com- 1 I hope shortly to publish both these versions in full. 2 ' Die Constitutionen des Prediger-Ordens ', ed. Denifle in Arckiv fitr Litteratur- und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters, i. 194, v. 559 ; Acta Capitulorum Generalium, ed. Reichert (Rome, 1898), i. 22. See also Acta, passim, for examples of the working of the system. 8 Compare (a) Reichert, Acta, i. 101, 1. 26, with fo. 80, col. 1, 1. 9 ; (&) Reichert Acta, i. 102, 1. 1, with fo. 77 v , col. 2, 1. 62.
