Inception feasts were apt to degenerate into occasions of riot, and in 1432 the following statute was passed with a view to regulating them:
"Whereas at the feasts held at graduations there occur such disorderly scenes and violence that more annoyance and disgrace than pleasure is caused to the host himself and all his guests, the University, for the prevention of such disorders for the future, hereby orders that no one shall stop the ingress and egress of any master or his servants to or from the hall or tent or other place where the feast is being held; and that no one, except the servants of the University, or of the host, shall enter the said hall, until after the masters, who have been invited, have entered with their servants; and after they have sat down, no one shall sit down, except by the appointment of the Chancellor and in proper order according to rank; and no one shall beat the doors, tables, or roof, or throw stones or other missiles so as to disturb the guests, on pain of imprisonment, excommunication, and a fine of twelve pence."
As these convivialities were so unpleasant, and even dangerous, it may seem that it would have been the obvious course to prohibit them altogether, as in the case of determining bachelors; but the University clung to its feasts, and in 1478 fresh rules were made, this time with the special aim of bleeding or mulcting the intrusive friars and the wealthy monks:
"Every mendicant friar shall, on the day of his inception, feast the Regent Masters according to ancient custom, or forfeit ten marks to the University; and every such incepting friar must be a regent for twenty-four months from his inception. And every religious possessing private property, and not being an abbot or prior or other governor of a conventual house, the rents of whose society amount to two hundred pounds yearly, must on the day of inception feast the Regents or pay twenty pounds to the University in lieu of a feast. And every secular, who can spend forty pounds a year at the University, must, in default of such feast, forfeit twenty marks; and, if he can afford to spend one hundred pounds, must forfeit twenty pounds."
Brief reference must here be made to the relations between the mendicant orders and the University in general, if only because the memory of the former was so perpetuated, long after the disappearance of the fraternities, in the famous term "Austins." Those relations were, for a considerable time, the reverse of friendly. The friars complained that degrees in theology were refused them; the University accused the friars, among other enormities, of "stealing children." To prevent such abduction, in 1358 the following statute was passed: