Editing Ancient university (section)

==Acts of Parliament related to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge==
While both universities received grants of liberties and privileges by royal charter, the charters granted to Cambridge in 1231 and to Oxford in 1248 being the earliest recorded on the Privy Councils list of chartered bodies,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://privycouncil.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/2018-12-06-Record-of-Charters-Granted.xls.xlsx|title=List of chartered bodies|publisher=Privy Council|access-date=18 July 2020}}</ref> neither university was created or incorporated by royal charter. After existing for the first few centuries of their existence as common law corporations, they were formally incorporated by the [[Oxford and Cambridge Act 1571]], under [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]]. The [[Universities of Oxford and Cambridge Act 1859]] repealed the parts of the 1571 act that required the mayor, aldermen, citizens or municipal officer of the City of Oxford to take any oath for the conservation of the liberties and privileges of the University of Oxford.

Parliament passed the Chantries Act in 1545, which transferred ownership of all [[Chantry|chantries]] and their properties to [[Henry VIII|King Henry VIII]]. Members of the University of Cambridge sent letters to the king's wife, [[Catherine Parr]], about the potential threat this posed to the university. It is evident that the king already had special plans for the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and that they were given special treatment compared to the other schools of England.{{clarification needed|there were no other universities in England, so what does this mean?|date=December 2023}} At Cambridge, for example, King Henry VIII founded [[Trinity College, Cambridge|Trinity College]], which would later become an important part of the University.{{clarification needed|why is this relevant to the Chantries Act?|date=December 2023}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rex |first=Richard |date=Oct 2022 |title=The University of Cambridge and the Chantries Act of 1545 |journal=The Journal of Ecclesiastical History |volume=73 |issue=4 |pages=779–780|doi=10.1017/S0022046921001494 |s2cid=253081569 }}</ref>

In the 19th century a series of acts and commissions reduced the powers of the universities to make their own statutes. A Royal Commission in 1850 looked into both universities and proposed major reforms to their constitutions. These were enacted by the [[Oxford University Act 1854]] and the [[Cambridge University Act 1856]]. The [[Universities Tests Act 1871]] removed almost all religious tests from both universities (and from [[Durham University]]). The Oxford and Cambridge Universities Act 1877 set up commissioners to look into further reform of the statutes of both universities and of their constituent colleges. Further Royal Commissions into both universities were established in 1919, resulting in the Oxford and Cambridge Universities Act 1923, setting up a commission to again make statutes and regulations for the universities and their colleges. This has resulted in there being two kind of statutes at these universities – those made by the universities themselves, which may be changed by them, and the "Queen-in-Council" statutes made under the 1923 act or the [[Education Reform Act 1988]] that can only be changed with permission from the Privy Council.<ref name=OxfordStatutes>{{cite web|title=Preface: Constitution and Statute-making Powers of the University|work=Statutes|publisher=University of Oxford|url=https://governance.admin.ox.ac.uk/legislation/preface-constitution-and-statute-making-powers-of-the-university|access-date=18 July 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/125/1875-1900/milestones_03.html|title=Royal Commission of 1850|work=125 Years of Engineering Excellence|publisher=University of Cambridge|access-date=18 July 2020}}</ref>