Complete independence was reached when a charter of John substituted a mayor of the town's own choosing for the reeve or bailiff of the crown.

But dry details such as these tell little of the quick pulse of popular life that beat in the thirteenth century through such a community as that of Oxford.

The church of St.Martin in the very heart of it, at the "Quatrevoix" or Carfax where its four streets met, was the centre of the city life.

The town-mote was held in its churchyard.
Justice was administered ere yet a townhall housed the infant magistracy by mayor or bailiff sitting beneath a low pent-house, the "penniless bench" of later days, outside its eastern wall.

Its bell summoned the burghers to council or arms.