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Cutting the Cloth
Adam went to Gloucester College Oxford, a college that had been founded by the Benedictine order expressly for the education of the monks. Although lay scholars were educated at other colleges of Oxford, at this early stage in the evolution of the University the monks had an important role to play and they went out of there way to distinguish themselves from the other students. This early example from the statutes of Oxford makes it very plain that the tailors of the city were particularly careful to ensure that when they cut cloth for the robes of the clergy they were of a quality to distinguish them from those of the lay scholars! Not only that, a tailor who refused to comply could be imprisoned for the compromises he had made in either quality or amount of cloth used.
Die Dominica, in vigilia inventionis Sct. Fridesydae anno Domini Millesimo Trecentesimo Quiquagesimo Octavo, Magistro Johanne Reygham Cancellario, Magistris Ricardo Sutton, Waltero Wandefforde eodem tempore Procuratoribus, in congregationeRegentium, omnibus praesentibus, ordinatum fuit concorditer per omnes et singulos tunc Regentes, quod quilibet scissor dividens vel disponens sectam in Universitate distribuendam, sic sufficienter disponat vel dividat ut Magistri et Bedelli non strictis nec curtis vestibus, sed largis et talaribus possint uti, sicut tempribus praeteritis indui consueverunt; honestum est enim et consonum rationi, quibus Deus ultra laicos ornamentis intrinsecus tribuit praerogativam, etiam extrinsecus laicis in habitu sint difformes; si quis autem isti ordinationi contravenerit de scissoribus, poena carceis punietur, et quosque satisfecerit parti laesae, cui insufficeinter et contra honorem Universitatis sectam divisit vel disposuit, carcere non exhibit.
From Munimenta Academica - Original documents illustrative of academical and clerical life and studies at Oxford (Henry Anstey 1868)