ABSTRACT
In 1432 the University of Oxford regulated the position of those teachers who instructed their pupils principally in the arts of writ ing and Latin composition, of speaking French, of drafting charters and similar documents, of keeping courts for laymen, and of pleading in the English manner.1 Since little seems to be known of either teachers or taught, and that little has, I fear, been misconceived,2 it may be use ful to say something of Thomas Sampson, who was actively engaged in teaching these subjects in the second half of the fourteenth century. Sampson was, I think, a successful teacher; he was certainly a prolific writer, though his works, which have not entirely escaped attention, have not been studied as a whole, nor has their significance been realized.3
