Others stretch back centuries, their origins obscured by time.
Some traditions are so ancient and mysterious that even the University itself has no record of their beginnings.
TheBodleian Librarys Archives and Manuscripts blogdiscusses about one such mystery: the curious case of Henry Symeonis.
This peculiar clause came to light in 1827, when University officials were reviewing its extensive rules and regulations.
However, Twyne provided no evidence or source for this claim.
Symeonis was the son of Henry Symeonis the Elder, a wealthy townsman of Oxford.
Pooles research revealed that in 1242, Henry and several other townsmen were convicted of murdering a University student.
As punishment, King Henry III fined them 80a substantial sum at the timeand ordered them to leave Oxford.
Later that same year, after the Kings return to England, Henry was back in Oxford.
Many departed, with a large number relocating to Northampton, where a thriving university was emerging.
Additionally, the King forbade the University from leaving Oxford in protest of his return.
Their anger escalated into a serious riot between students and townspeople.
The decision-makers likely acted that way because they didnt knew what exactly they were abolishing.
In seeking to mark him as a villain, it had unwittingly granted him a peculiar form of immortality.
