Why was Oxford the home of the mandarin and why has the era of the mandarin come to an end? The era of the mandarin was inaugurated by T. H. Green, who sought, through the gospel of citizenship, to provide a philosophy for an age of religious doubt. Green's moralism served in Oxford as a substitute for the social sciences, which came to be developed elsewhere. The Oxford mandarins benefited from patronage, which Disraeli regarded as the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace, namely power. All of the mandarins celebrated here believed in the role of the state in education. With the professionalisation of philosophy and the social sciences, and with growing skepticism towards the state, the era of the mandarin has come to an end. The philosophy of market liberalism sees no need for benevolent guardians. (Contains 74 endnotes.)