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diff --git a/43764-8.txt b/43764-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index c23fa61..0000000 --- a/43764-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8494 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Cambridge and its Story, by Charles William Stubbs - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Cambridge and its Story - -Author: Charles William Stubbs - -Illustrator: Herbert Railton - Fanny Railton - -Release Date: September 18, 2013 [EBook #43764] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAMBRIDGE AND ITS STORY *** - - - - -Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images available at The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - Every attempt has been made to replicate the original as printed. - Variation in the spellings of names has not been corrected - (i.e. Queens'/Queen's) -Some typographical errors have been corrected; a list follows the text. - The footnotes follow the text. - ^{e} signified a superscript letter e -Some illustrations have been moved from mid-paragraph for ease of reading. - (etext transcriber's note) - - - - CAMBRIDGE - - AND ITS STORY - - _All rights reserved_ - - [Illustration: Oriel Windows Queen's College] - - - - - CAMBRIDGE - AND ITS STORY - - BY - CHARLES WILLIAM STUBBS, D.D. - DEAN OF ELY - - [Illustration] - - WITH TWENTY-FOUR LITHOGRAPHS - AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS BY - HERBERT RAILTON - - THE LITHOGRAPHS BEING - TINTED BY - FANNY RAILTON - - 1903 - LONDON - J. M. DENT & CO. - ALDINE HOUSE, W.C. - - Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. - - At the Ballantyne Press - - - - -PREFACE - - -I should wish to write one word by way of explanation of the character -of the descriptive historical sketch which forms the text of the present -book. - -Some time ago I undertook to prepare, for "the Mediæval Towns Series" of -my Publisher, a work on the Story of the Town and University of -Cambridge. Arrangements were made with Mr. Herbert Railton for its -pictorial illustration. It had been intended in the first instance, that -the artist's pen and ink sketches should have been reproduced by the -ordinary processes used in modern book illustration. But the poetic -glamour of such a place as Cambridge and its _genius loci_ did not allow -the enthusiasm of the artist to remain satisfied with such drawings only -as might be readily reproduced by the ordinary processes. In addition to -many sketches in black and white, suitable for reproduction in the body -of the text in illustration of interesting bits of architectural detail, -or of quaint grouping, Mr. Railton has also drawn a series of -large-sized pencil-pictures of the principal College buildings. These -drawings are so beautiful, so full of delicacy and tenderness and yet so -firm and effective in their treatment of light and shade, and show so -much sympathy for the old buildings and all their picturesque charm, -that the Publisher at once felt that they must not be treated as -ordinary book illustrations. The artist had produced pictures worthy to -be classed with the best work of Samuel Prout. It became the duty of the -Publisher to treat them with corresponding respect. The method of -auto-lithography has accordingly been adopted, by which the plates are -an absolute reproduction in size and tint of the pencil drawings, and -the artist's work goes straight to the reader without any mechanical -intervention. A new feature has been added by which the colour stones -have been made by Mrs. Railton acting in collaboration with her husband. -This process of reproduction necessarily involved a change in the -proposed format of the book. It was determined, therefore, to issue in -the first instance an _edition de luxe_ of "The Story of Cambridge," on -specially prepared paper and in large quarto size. I have readily -consented to such a course, for although I may seem, by the more -imposing form of a large Library Edition, to be guilty of some -presumption in placing my Historical Sketch in competition with such -histories as those of Mr. Mullinger in the "Epochs of History Series," -or of my friend, Mr. T. D. Atkinson, in "Cambridge Described"--the -larger books of Mr. J. W. Clark on the architectural history of -Cambridge, and of Mr. Mullinger on the general history of the University -are already classics to which humbler writers on Cambridge can only look -as to final authorities--I can only hope that my readers will recognise -that my presumption is only apparent, and meanwhile I rest confident -that even the historical critic will have little care for the inadequacy -of my prose rendering of "The Story of Cambridge," absorbed as he must -be by his delight in the beauty of Mr. Railton's drawings. In any case, -I shall be entirely satisfied if only my descriptive sketch is found -adequate for the help of the general reader in appreciating the story of -which the artist has been able to give so poetic an interpretation. - -C. W. S. - -THE DEANERY, ELY, -_Michaelmas_, 1903. - - - - -CONTENTS - -PAGE - -PREFACE v - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii - - -CHAPTER I - -LEGENDARY ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSITY 1 - -Geographical and commercial importance of the city site--Map of the -county a palimpsest--Glamour of the Fenland--Cambridge the gateway of -East Anglia--The Roman roads--The Roman station--The Castle -Hill--Stourbridge Fair--Cambridge a chief centre of English commerce. - - -CHAPTER II - -CAMBRIDGE IN THE NORMAN TIME 22 - -William I. at Cambridge Castle--Cambridge at the Domesday Survey--Roger -Picot the Sheriff--Pythagoras School--Castle and Borough--S. Benet's -Church and its Parish--The King's Ditch--The Great and the Small -Bridges--The King's and the Bishop's Mills--The River Hythes--S. Peter -by the Castle and S. Giles Church--The early Streets of the City--The -Augustinian Priory of Barnwell--The Round Church of the Holy -Sepulchre--The Cambridge Jewry--Debt of early Scholars to the -Philosophers of the Synagogue--Benjamin's House--Municipal Freedom of -the Borough. - - -CHAPTER III - -THE BEGINNINGS OF UNIVERSITY LIFE 49 - -Monastic Origins--Continuity of Learning in Early England--The School of -York--The Venerable Bede--Alcuin and the Schools of Charles the -Great--The Danish Invasions--The Benedictine Revival--The Monkish -Chroniclers--The Coming of the Friars--The Franciscan and Dominican -Houses at Cambridge--The Franciscan Scholars--Roger Bacon--Bishop -Grosseteste--The New Aristotle and the Scientific Spirit--The Scholastic -Philosophy--Aquinas--Migration of Scholars from Paris to Cambridge--The -term "University"--The Colleges and the Hostels--The Course of -Study--Trivium and Quadrivium--The Four Faculties--England a Paradise of -Clerks--Parable of the Monk's Pen. - - -CHAPTER IV - -THE EARLIEST COLLEGE FOUNDATION: PETERHOUSE 71 - -The Early Monastic Houses in Cambridge--Student Proselytising by the -Friars--The Oxford College of Merton a Protest against this -Tendency--The Rule of Merton taken as a Model by Hugh de Balsham, -Founder of Peterhouse--The Hospital of S. John--The Scholars of -Ely--Domestic Economy of the College--The Dress of the Mediæval -Student--Peterhouse Buildings--Little S. Mary's Church--The Perne -Library--The College Chapel. - - -CHAPTER V - -THE COLLEGES OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 93 - -The Fourteenth Century an Age of Great Men and Great Events but not of -Great Scholars--Petrarch and Richard of Bury--Michael House--The King's -Scholars--King's Hall--Clare Hall--Pembroke College--Gonville Hall--Dr. -John Caius--His Three Gates of Humility, Virtue, and Honour. - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE COLLEGE OF THE CAMBRIDGE GUILDS 120 - -Unique Foundation of Corpus Christi College--The Cambridge Guilds--The -influence of "the Good Duke"--The Peasant Revolt--Destruction of -Charters--"Perish the skill of the Clerks!"--The Black Death--Lollardism -at the Universities--The Poore Priestes of Wycliffe. - - -CHAPTER VII - -TWO ROYAL FOUNDATIONS 137 - -Henry VI--The most pitiful Character in all English History--His -devotion to Learning and his Saintly Spirit--His foundation of Eton and -King's College--The Building of King's College Chapel--Its architect, -Reginald of Ely, the Cathedral Master-Mason--Its relation to the Ely -Lady Chapel--Its stained glass Windows--Its close Foundation--Queens' -College--Margaret of Anjou and Elizabeth Wydville--The buildings of -Queens'--Similarity to Haddon Hall--Its most famous Resident, -Erasmus--His _Novum Instrumentum_ edited within its Walls. - - -CHAPTER VIII - -TWO OF THE SMALLER HALLS 173 - -The Foundation of Trinity Hall by Bishop Bateman of Norwich--On the Site -of the Hostel of Student-Monks of Ely--Prior Crauden--Evidence of the -Ely Obedientary Rolls--The College Buildings--The Old Hall--S. Edward's -Church used as College Chapel--Hugh Latimer's Sermon on a Pack of -Cards--Harvey Goodwin--Frederick Maurice--The Hall Library--Its ancient -Bookcases--The Foundation of S. Catherine's Hall. - - -CHAPTER IX - -BISHOP ALCOCK AND THE NUNS OF S. RHADEGUND 183 - -The New Learning in Italy and Germany--The English "Pilgrim Scholars": -Grey, Tiptoft, Linacre, Grocyn--The practical Genius of England--Bishops -Rotherham, Alcock, and Fisher--Alcock, diplomatist, financier, -architect--The Founder of Jesus College--He takes as his model Jesus -College, Rotherham--His Object the Training of a Preaching Clergy--The -Story of the Nunnery of S. Rhadegund--Its Dissolution--Conversion of the -Conventual Church into a College Chapel--The Monastic Buildings, -Gateway, Cloister, Chapter House--The Founder a Better Architect than an -Educational Reformer--The Jesus Roll of eminent Men from Cranmer to -Coleridge. - - -CHAPTER X - -COLLEGES OF THE NEW LEARNING 210 - -The Lady Margaret Foundations--Bishop Fisher of Rochester--The -Foundation of Christ's--God's House--The buildings of the new -College--College Worthies--John Milton--Henry More--Charles Darwin--The -Hospital of the Brethren of S. John--Death of the Lady -Margaret--Foundation of S. John's College--Its buildings--The Great -Gateway--The new Library--The Bridge of Sighs--The -Wilderness--Wordsworth's "Prelude"--The aims of Bishop Fisher--His -death. - - -CHAPTER XI - -A SMALL AND A GREAT COLLEGE 246 - -Dissolution of the Monasteries--Schemes for Collegiate Spoliation -checked by Henry VIII.--Monks' or Buckingham College--Refounded by Sir -Thomas Audley as Magdalene College--Conversion of the old buildings--The -Pepysian Library--Foundation of Trinity College--Michaelhouse and the -King's Hall--King Edward's Gate--The Queen's Gate--The Great Gate--Dr. -Thomas Neville--The Great Court--The Hall--Neville's Court--New -Court--Dr. Bentley--"A House of all Kinds of Good Letters." - - -CHAPTER XII - -ANCIENT AND PROTESTANT FOUNDATIONS 265 - -Queen Elizabeth and the Founder of Emmanuel--The Puritan Age--Sir Walter -Mildmay--The Building of Emmanuel--The Tenure of Fellowships--Puritan -Worthies--The Founder of Harvard--Lady Frances Sidney--The Sidney -College Charter--The Buildings--The Chapel and the old Franciscan -Refectory--Royalists and Puritans--Oliver Cromwell--Thomas Fuller---A -Child's Prayer for his Mother. - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - -_TINTED LITHOGRAPHS_ - -ORIEL WINDOWS, QUEENS' COLLEGE _Frontispiece_ - -THE SCHOOL OF PYTHAGORAS _facing page_ 28 - -PETERHOUSE " 82 - -CLARE COLLEGE AND BRIDGE " 96 - -PEMBROKE COLLEGE " 106 - -GATE OF HONOUR AND GATE OF VIRTUE, CAIUS COLLEGE " 112 - -THE CHURCHES OF S. EDWARD AND S. MARY THE GREAT -FROM PEAS HILL " 123 - -CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE AND S. BENEDICT'S CHURCH " 128 - -THE PITT PRESS, S. BOTOLPH'S CHURCH, AND CORPUS -CHRISTI COLLEGE " 132 - -THE WEST DOORWAY, KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL " 144 - -GATEWAY TO OLD COURT OF KING'S COLLEGE " 153 - -THE CHAPEL, TRINITY HALL " 174 - -ORIEL WINDOW, JESUS COLLEGE " 178 - -GATEWAY IN GREAT COURT, S. CATHERINE'S COLLEGE " 180 - -THE CHAPEL, CHRIST'S COLLEGE " 214 - -GATEWAY, S. JOHN'S COLLEGE " 230 - -ORIEL IN LIBRARY, S. JOHN'S COLLEGE " 236 - -TOWER AND TURRETS OF TRINITY FROM S. JOHN'S COLLEGE " 243 - -THE LIBRARY, CHAPEL, AND HALL, MAGDALENE COLLEGE " 248 - -GATEWAY AND DIAL, TRINITY COLLEGE " 254 - -NEVILLE'S COURT, TRINITY COLLEGE " 260 - -HALL AND CHAPEL, EMMANUEL COLLEGE " 266 - -DOWNING COLLEGE " 274 - -THE GARDEN FRONT, SIDNEY SUSSEX COLLEGE " 278 - - -_BLACK AND WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS_ - - PAGE - -COURTYARD OF THE FALCON INN 25 - -SAXON TOWER, S. BENEDICT'S CHURCH 29 - -THE ABBEY HOUSE 35 - -CHAPEL, BARNWELL PRIORY 39 - -THE ROUND CHURCH 41 - -ORIEL WINDOWS FROM HOUSE IN PETTY-CURY _facing page_ 46 - -CLARE COLLEGE AND BRIDGE 101 - -PEMBROKE COLLEGE 107 - -PEMBROKE COLLEGE, ORIELS AND ENTRANCE 109 - -CAIUS COLLEGE, THE GATE OF HONOUR 117 - -KING'S PARADE 139 - -KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL 145 - -KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL _facing page_ 150 - -KING'S COLLEGE QUADRANGLE 155 - -CLOISTER COURT, QUEENS' COLLEGE 163 - -ORIEL WINDOW, QUEENS' COLLEGE 166 - -THE BRIDGE AND GABLES, QUEENS' COLLEGE 169 - -A BIT FROM SIDNEY STREET 172 - -DIVINITY SCHOOLS AND S. JOHN'S 193 - -NORMAN WORK IN CHURCH OF JESUS COLLEGE 197 - -NORMAN WORK IN N. TRANSEPT, JESUS COLLEGE CHAPEL 201 - -ENTRANCE TO CHAPTER-HOUSE, PRIORY OF S. RHADEGUND 203 - -JACK IN WOLSEY'S KITCHEN, CHRIST'S COLLEGE 219 - -THE COURTYARD OF THE WRESTLERS' INN _facing page_ 220 - -ENTRANCE TO S. JOHN'S COLLEGE 229 - -S. JOHN'S COLLEGE FROM THE BACKS 233 - -BRIDGE OF SIGHS, S. JOHN'S COLLEGE 239 - -TOWER AND GATEWAY, TRINITY COLLEGE _facing page_ 252 - -THE FOUNTAIN, TRINITY COLLEGE " 258 - - - - -[Illustration: CAMBRIDGE AND ITS STORY] - - - - -CHAPTER I - -LEGENDARY ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSITY - -"Next then the plenteous Ouse came far from land, -By many a city and by many a town, -And many rivers taking under-hand -Into his waters as he passeth down, -The Cle, the Were, the Grant, the Sture, the Bowne, -Thence doth by Huntingdon and Cambridge flit, -My Mother Cambridge, whom as with a crowne -He doth adorne, and is adorn'd by it -With many a gentle Muse and many a learned wit." - --SPENSER'S _Faerie Queene_, iv. xi. 34. - - Geographical and commercial importance of the city site--Map of the - county a palimpsest--Glamour of the Fenland--Cambridge the gateway - of East Anglia--The Roman roads--The Roman station--The Castle - Hill--Stourbridge Fair--Cambridge a chief centre of English - commerce. - - -One could wish perhaps that the story of Cambridge should begin, as so -many good stories of men and cities have begun, in the antique realm of -poetry and romance. That it did so begin our forefathers indeed had -little doubt. John Lydgate, the poet, a Benedictine monk of Bury, "the -disciple"--as he is proud to call himself--"of Geoffrey Chaucer," but -best remembered perhaps by later times as the writer of "London -Lackpenny" and "Troy Book," has left certain verses on the foundation of -the Town and University of Cambridge, which are still preserved to -us.[1] Some stanzas of that fourteenth-century poem will serve to show -in what a cloudland of empty legend it was at one time thought that the -story of the beginnings of Cambridge might be found:-- - -"By trew recorde of the Doctor Bede - That some tyme wrotte so mikle with his hande, - And specially remembringe as I reede - In his chronicles made of England - Amounge other thynges as ye shall understand, - Whom for myne aucthour I dare alleage, - Seith the translacion and buylding of Cambridge. - - * * * * * - - "Touching the date, as I rehearse can - Fro thilke tyme that the world began - Four thowsand complete by accomptès clere - And three hundred by computacion - Joyned thereto eight and fortie yeare, - When Cantebro gave the foundacion - Of thys citie and this famous towne - And of this noble universitie - Sette on this river which is called Cante. - - * * * * * - - "This Cantebro, as it well knoweth - At Athenes scholed in his yougt, - All his wyttes greatlye did applie - To have acquaintance by great affection - With folke-experte in philosophie. - From Athens he brought with hym downe - Philosophers most sovereigne of renowne - Unto Cambridge, playnlye this is the case, - Anaxamander and Anaxagoras - With many other myne Aucthors dothe fare, - To Cambridge fast can hym spede - With philosophers and let for no cost spare - In the Schooles to studdie and to reede; - Of whose teachinges great profit that gan spreade - And great increase rose of his doctrine; - Thus of Cambridge the name gan first shyne - As chief schoole and universitie - Unto this tyme fro the daye it began - By cleare reporte in manye a far countre - Unto the reign of Cassibellan. - - * * * * * - - "And as it is put eke in memorie, - Howe Julius Cesar entring this region - On Cassybellan after his victorye - Tooke with hym clarkes of famous renowne - Fro Cambridg and ledd theim to Rome towne, - Thus by processe remembred here to forne - Cambridg was founded long or Chryst was borne." - -But it is not only in verse that this fabric of fable is to be found. -Down even to the middle of the last century the ears of Cambridge -graduates were still beguiled by strange stories of the early renown of -their University--how it was founded by a Spanish Prince, Cantaber (the -"Cantebro" of Lydgate's verses), "in the 4321st year of the creation of -the world," and in the sixth year of Gurgant, King of Britain; how -Athenian astronomers and philosophers, "because of the pleasantness of -the place," came to Cambridge as its earliest professors, "the king -having appointed them stipends"; how King Arthur, "on the 7th of April, -in the year of the Incarnacion of our Lord, 531," granted a charter of -academic privileges "to Kenet, the first Rector of the schools"; and how -the University subsequently found another royal patron in the East -Anglian King Sigebert, and had among its earliest Doctors of Divinity -the great Saxon scholars Bede and Alcuin. - -I have before me as I write a small octavo volume, a guide-book to -Cambridge and its Colleges, much worn and thumbed, probably by its -eighteenth-century owner, possibly by his nineteenth-century successor, -in which all these fables and legends are set out in order. The book has -lost its title-page, but it is easily identifiable as an English -translation of Richard Parker's _Skeletos Cantabrigiensis_, written -about 1622, but not apparently published until a century later, when the -antiquary, Thomas Hearne, printed it in his edition of Leland's -_Collectanea_. My English edition of the _Skeletos_ is presumably either -that which was "printed for Thomas Warner at the Black Boy, Pater Noster -Row," and without a date, or that published by "J. Bateman at the Hat -and Star in S. Paul's Churchyard," and dated 1721. As an illustration of -the kind of record which passed for history even in the last -century,--for the early editions of Hallam's "History of the Middle -Ages" bear evidence that that careful historian still gave some credence -to these Cambridge fables,--it may be interesting to quote one or two -passages from the legendary history of Nicholas Cantelupe, which is -prefixed to this English version of Parker's book:-- - - "Anaximander, one of the disciples of Thales, came to this city on - account of his Philosophy and great Skill in Astrology, where he - left much Improvement in Learning to Posterity. After his Example, - Anaxagoras, quitting his Possessions, after a long Peregrination, - came to Cambridge, where he writ Books, and instructed the - unlearned, for which reason that City was by the People of the - Country call'd the City of SCHOLARS. - - "King Cassibelan, when he had taken upon him the Government of the - Kingdom, bestowed such Preheminence on this City, that any Fugitive - or Criminal, desirous to acquire Learning, flying to it, was - defended in the sight of His Enemy, with Pardon, and without - Molestation, Upbraiding or Affront offer'd him. For which Reason, - as also on account of the Richness of the Soil, the Serenity of the - Air, the great Source of Learning, and the King's Favour, young and - old, from many Parts of the Earth, resorted thither, some of whom - JULIUS CÆSAR, having vanquished Cassibelan, carry'd away to Rome, - where they afterwards flourish'd." - -There then follows a letter, given without any doubt of authenticity, -from Alcuin of York, purporting to be written to the scholars of -Cambridge from the Court of Charles the Great:-- - - "To the discreet Heirs of CHRIST, the Scholars of the unspotted - Mother Cambridge, _Ælqninus_, by Life a Sinner, Greeting and Glory - in the Virtues of Learning. Forasmuch as Ignorance is the Mother of - Error, I earnestly intreat that Youths among you be us'd to be - present at the Praises of the Supreme King, not to unearth Foxes, - not to hunt Hares, let them now learn the Holy Scriptures, having - obtain'd Knowledge of the Science of Truth, to the end that in - their perfect Age they may teach others. Call to mind, I beseech - you dearly beloved the most noble Master of our Time, _Bede_ the - Priest, Doctor of your University, under whom by permission of the - Divine Grace, I took the Doctor's Degree in the Year from the - Incarnation of our Lord 692, what an Inclination he had to study in - His Youth, what Praise he has now among Men, and much more what - Glory of Reward with God. Farewell always in _Christ Jesu_, by - whose Grace you are assisted in Learning. Amen." - -We may omit the mythical charter of King Arthur and come to the passage -concerning King Alfred, obviously intended to turn the flank of the -Oxford patriots, who too circumstantially relate how their University -was founded by that great scholar king. - - "In process of time, when Alfred, or Alred, supported by divine - Comfort, after many Tribulations, had obtained the Monarchy of all - England, he translated to Oxford the scholars, which Penda, King of - the Mercians, had with the leave of King Ceadwald carried from - Cambridge to Kirneflad (rather Cricklade, as above), to which - scholars he was wont to distribute Alms in three several Places. He - much honour'd the Cantabrigians and Oxonians, and granted them many - Privileges. - - "Afterwards he erected and establish'd Grammar Schools throughout - the whole Island, and caus'd the Youth to be instructed in their - Mother Tongue. Then perceiving that the Scholars, whom he had - conveyed to Oxford, continually applied themselves to the Study of - the Laws and expounded the Holy Scriptures: he appointed Grimwald - their Rector, who had been Rector and Chancellor of the City of - Cambridge." - -The severer canons of modern historical criticism have naturally made -short work of all these absurd fables; nor do they even allow us to -accept as authentic the otherwise not unpleasing story quoted from the -Chronicle, or rather historical novel, of Ingulph, in the quaint pages -of Thomas Fuller, written a generation later than Richard Parker's book, -which tells how, early in the twelfth century, certain monks were sent -to Cambridge by Joffrey, Abbot of Crowland, to expound in a certain -public barn (by later writers fondly thought to be that which is now -known by the name of Pythagoras' School) the pages of Priscian, -Quintillian, and Aristotle. - -There is little doubt, I fear, that we may find the inciting motive of -all this exuberant fancy and invention in the desire to glorify the one -University at the expense of the other, which is palpably present in -that last quotation from Parker's book, and which is perhaps not -altogether absent from the writings and the conversation of some -academic patriots of our own day. We may, however, more wisely dismiss -all these foolish legends and myths as to origins in the kindlier spirit -of quaint old Fuller in the Introduction to his "History of the -University of Cambridge":-- - - "Sure I am," he says, "there needeth no such pains to be took, or - provision to be made, about the pre-eminence of our English - Universities, to regulate their places, they having better learned - humility from the precept of the Apostle, In honour preferring one - another. Wherefore I presume my aunt Oxford will not be justly - offended if in this book I give my own mother the upper hand, and - first begin with her history. Thus desiring God to pour his - blessing upon both, that neither may want milk for their children, - or children for their milk, we proceed to the business." - -Descending then from the misty cloudland of Fable to the hard ground of -historic Fact, we are shortly met by a question which, I hope, Fuller -would have recognised as businesslike. How did it come about that our -forefathers founded a University on the site which we now call -Cambridge--"that distant marsh town," as a modern Oxford historian -somewhat contemptuously calls it? The question is a natural one, and has -not seldom been asked. We shall find, I think, the most reasonable -answer to it by asking a prior question. How did the town of Cambridge -itself come to be a place of any importance in the early days? The -answer is, in the first place, geographical; in the second, commercial. -We may fitly occupy the remaining space of this chapter in seeking to -formulate that answer. - -And first, as to the physical features of the district which has -Cambridge for its most important centre. "The map of England," it has -been strikingly said by Professor Maitland, "is the most wonderful of -all palimpsests." Certainly that portion of the map of England which -depicts the country surrounding the Fenlands of East Anglia is not the -least interesting part of that palimpsest. Let us take such a map and -try roughly to decipher it.[2] - -If we begin with the seaboard line we shall perhaps at first sight be -inclined to think that it cannot have changed much in the course of the -centuries. And most probably the coast-line of Lincolnshire, from a -point northwards near Great Grimsby or Cleethorpes at the mouth of the -Humber to a point southwards near Waynefleet at the mouth of the -Steeping River, twenty miles or less north of Boston, and again the -coast-line of Norfolk and Suffolk from Hunstanton Point at the -north-east corner of the Wash round past Brancaster and Wells and Cromer -to Yarmouth and then southwards past Southwold and Aldborough to Harwich -at the mouth of the Orwell and Stour estuary, has not altered much in -ten or even twenty centuries. But that can hardly be said with regard to -the coast-line of the Wash itself. For on its western side our -palimpsest warns us that there is a considerable district called -_Holland_; that on its south side, a dozen miles or more from the -present coast-line, is a town called _Wisbech_ (or Ouse-beach); that -still farther inland, within a mile or two of Cambridge itself, are to -be found the villages of Waterbeach and Landbeach; and that scattered -throughout the whole district of the low-lying lands are villages and -towns whose place-names have the termination "ey" or "ea," meaning -"island"--such, as Thorney, Spinny, Sawtrey, Ramsey, Whittlesea, -Horningsea; and that one considerable tract of slightly higher ground, -though now undoubtedly surrounded by dry land, is still called the Isle -of Ely. These place-names are significant, and tell their own story. And -that story, as we try to interpret it, will gradually lead us to the -conclusion that the ancient seaboard line of the Wash, instead of being -marked on the map of England as we have it now, by a line roughly -joining Boston and King's Lynn, would on the earliest text of the -palimpsest require an extended sea boundary on which Lincoln, and -Stamford and Peterborough, and Huntingdon and Cambridge, and Brandon and -Downham Market would become almost seaboard towns, and Ely an island -fifteen miles or so off the coast at Cambridge. - -Such a conclusion, of course, would be somewhat of an exaggeration, for -the wide waste of waters which thus formed an extension of the Wash -southwards was not all or always sea water. So utterly transformed, -however, has the whole Fen country become in modern times--the vast -plain of the Bedford level contains some 2000 square miles of the -richest corn-land in England--that it is very difficult to restore in -the imagination the original scenery of the days before the drainage, -when the rivers which take the rainfall of the central counties of -England--the Nene, the Welland, the Witham, the Glen, and the -Bedfordshire Ouse--spread out into one vast delta or wilderness of -shallow waters. - -The poetic glamour of the land, now on the side of its fertility and -strange beauty, now on the side of its monotony and weird loneliness, -has always had a strange fascination for the chroniclers and writers of -every age. In the first Book of the _Liber Eliensis_ (ii. 105), written -by Thomas, a monk of Ely, in the twelfth century, there is a description -of the fenlands, given by a soldier to William the Conqueror, which -reads like the report of the land of plenty and promise brought by the -spies to Joshua. In the _Historia Major_ of Matthew Paris, however, it -is described as a place "neither accessible for man or beast, affording -only deep mud, with sedge and reeds, and possest of birds, yea, much -more by devils, as appeareth in the Life of S. Guthlac, who, finding it -a place of horror and great solitude, began to inhabit there." At a -later time Drayton in his _Polyolbion_ gives a picture of the Fenland -life as one of manifold industry:-- - -"The toiling fisher here is towing of his net; - The fowler is employed his limèd twigs to set; - One underneath his horse to get a shoot doth stalk; - Another over dykes upon his stilts doth walk; - There other with their spades the peats are squaring out, - And others from their cars are busily about - To draw out sedge and reed to thatch and stover fit: - That whosoever would a landskip rightly hit, - Beholding but my Fens shall with more shapes be stored - Than Germany or France or Thuscan can afford." - -This eulogy of the Fenland, however, Drayton is careful to put into the -mouth of a Fenland nymph, who is not allowed to pass without criticism -by her sister who rules the uplands:-- - - "O how I hate - Thus of her foggy fens to hear rude Holland prate - That with her fish and fowl here keepeth such a coil, - As her unwholesome air, and more unwholesome soil, - For these of which she boasts the more might suffered be." - -But probably the most picturesque and truthful imaginative sketch of the -old fenlands is that which was given in our own time by the graphic pen -of Charles Kingsley in his fine novel of "Hereward the Wake," somewhat -amplified afterwards in the chapters of "The Hermits," which he devoted -to the history of St. Guthlac:-- - - "The fens in the seventh century," he says, "were probably very - like the forests at the mouth of the Mississippi or the swampy - shores of the Carolinas. Their vast plain is now in summer one sea - of golden corn; in winter, a black dreary fallow, cut into squares - by stagnant dykes, and broken only by unsightly pumping mills and - doleful lines of poplar trees. Of old it was a labyrinth of black - wandering streams, broad lagoons, morasses submerged every - spring-tide, vast beds of reed and sedge and fern, vast copses of - willow and alder and grey poplar, rooted in the floating peat, - which was swallowing up slowly, all devouring, yet preserving the - forests of fir and oak, ash and poplar, hazel and yew, which had - once grown on that low, rank soil, sinking slowly (so geologists - assure us) beneath the sea from age to age. Trees torn down by - flood and storm floated and lodged in rafts, damming the waters - back on the land. Streams bewildered in the flats, changed their - channels, mingling silt and sand with the peat moss. Nature left to - herself ran into wild riot and chaos more and more, till the whole - fen became one 'dismal swamp,' in which at the time of the Norman - Conquest, 'the last of the English,' like Dred in Mrs. Stowe's - tale, took refuge from their tyrants and lived like him a free and - joyous life awhile." - -Such was one aspect, then, in the early days of English history, of the -great plain that stretches from Cambridge to the sea. But our -map-palimpsest has further physical facts to reveal which had an -important influence on the civic and economic development of Cambridge. -To the south-east of this great plain of low-lying fenlands rises the -upland country of boulder clay, stretching in a line almost directly -west and east from the downs at Royston, thirteen miles below Cambridge, -to Sudbury-on-the-Stour. The whole of this ridge of high ground, which -roughly corresponds with the present boundaries between Cambridgeshire -and Suffolk and Essex, was in the early days covered with dense forest. -Thus the Forest and the Fen between them formed a material barrier -separating the kingdom of East Anglia from the rest of Britain. At one -point only could an entrance be gained. Between the forest and the fen -there runs a long belt of land, at its narrowest point not more than -five miles wide, consisting partly of open pasture, partly of chalk -down. In the neck, so to say, of this natural pass into East Anglia lies -the town of Cambridge. A careful scrutiny of our map will show, on the -under-text of our palimpsest, a remarkable series of British earthworks, -all crossing in parallel lines this narrow belt of open land between the -fen and the forest, marked on the map as Black Ditches, Devil's Dyke, -the Fleam or Balsham Dyke, the Brent or Pampisford Ditch, and the Brand -or Heydon Way. Of these the longest and most important is the well-known -Devil's Dyke, near Newmarket. It is some eight miles long in all, and -consists of a lofty bank twelve feet wide at the top, eighteen feet -above the level of the country, and thirty feet above the bottom of the -Ditch, which is itself some twenty feet wide. The ditch is on the -western side of the bank, thus showing that it was used as a defence by -the people on the east against those on the west. It was near this ditch -that the defeat of the ancient British tribe of the Iceni by the Romans, -as described by Tacitus ("Annals," xii. 31), took place in A.D. 50.[3] - -At Cambridge itself the ancient earthwork known as Castle Hill may -belong to this British period, and have formed a valuable auxiliary to -the line of dykes in defending the ford of the river and the pass -behind; but upon this point authorities are divided.[4] Indeed, there is -good ground for the opinion that the Castle Hill is a construction of -the later Saxon period, and may, in fact, be referred to the time of -the Danish incursions in the ninth century, during which time Cambridge -is known to have been sacked more than once. - -However that may be, there is ample proof that the site of the Castle at -any rate was occupied by the Romans, for the remains of a fosse and -vallum, forming part of an oblong enclosure within which the Castle -Hill, whether early British or later Saxon, is included, seem to -indicate the position of a Roman station here. Moreover, to this place -converge the two great Roman roads, of which the remains may still be -traced: _Akeman Street_, leading from Cirencester (Corinium) in the -south through Hertfordshire to Cambridge, and thence across the fen (by -the Aldreth Causeway, the scene of William the Conqueror's two years' -campaign with Hereward) to Ely, and so onwards to Brancaster in Norfolk; -and the _Via Devana_, which, starting from Colchester (Colonia or -Camelodunum), skirted the forest lands of Essex through Cambridge and -Huntingdon (Durolifons) northwards to Chester (Deva). Whether the Roman -station, however, at the junction of these two roads can be identified -as the ancient Camboritum is still a little doubtful. Certainly the -common identification of Cambridge with Camboritum, because of the -resemblance between the two names, cannot be justified. That resemblance -is a mere coincidence. The name Cambridge, in fact, is comparatively -modern, being corrupted, by regular gradations, from the original -Anglo-Saxon form which had the sense of Granta-bridge. The name of the -town is thus not, as is generally supposed, derived from the name of the -river (Cam being modern and artificial), but, conversely, the name of -the river has, in the course of centuries, been evolved out of the name -of the town.[5] - -To return, however, to the Castle Hill. It may be doubtful, as we have -said, whether the Roman station there was Camboritum or not, but there -can be no doubt that the station, whatever it may have been called by -the Romans, must have been a fairly important one, not only as -commanding the open pass-way between the forest and the fen leading into -East Anglia, but also as standing at the head of a waterway leading to -the sea. It is difficult, of course, to estimate the extent of the -commerce in these early days, or even perhaps to name the staple article -of export that must have found its way by means of the fenland rivers to -the Continent, but that it must have been at times considerable we may -at least conjecture from the fact that in the records of the sacking of -the Fenland abbeys--Ely, Peterborough, Ramsey, and Crowland--by the -Danes in the seventh century there is evidence of a great store of -wealth, costly embroideries, rich jewels, gold and silver, which can -hardly have been the product of native industry alone, but seem to -indicate a fair import trade from the Continent. - -The geographical position, in fact, of Cambridge at the head of a -waterway directly communicating with the sea is a factor in the history -of the town the importance of which cannot be exaggerated. In direct -communication with the Continent by means of the river, and on the only, -or almost the only, line of traffic between East Anglia and the rest of -England, it naturally became the chief distributing centre of the -commerce and trade of eastern England, and the seat of a Fair which in a -later age boasted itself the largest in Europe. - -In his "History of the University," Thomas Fuller gives an account of -the origin of this Fair, which is perhaps more picturesque than -accurate:-- - - "About this time," he says--that is, about A.D. 1103, in the reign - of the first Henry--"Barnwell,[6] that is, Children's Well, a - village within the precincts of Cambridge, got both the name - thereof and a Fair therein on this occasion. Many little children - on Midsummer (or St. John Baptist's) Eve met there in mirth to play - and sport together; their company caused the confluence of more and - bigger boys to the place: then bigger than they: even their parents - themselves came thither to be delighted with the activity of their - children. Meat and drink must be had for their refection, which - brought some victualling booths to be set up. Pedlers with toys and - trifles cannot be supposed long absent, whose packs in short time - swelled into tradesmen's stalls of all commodities. Now it is - become a great fair, and (as I may term it) one of the townsmen's - commencements, wherein they take their degrees of wealth, fraught - with all store of wares and nothing (except buyers) wanting - therein." - -This description of Fuller is obviously a rough translation of a passage -from the _Liber Memorandorum Ecclesia de Bernewelle_, commonly called -the "Barnewell Cartulary," given at page xii. of Mr. J. W. Clark's -"Customs of Augustinian Canons," and dated about 1296. - -It is possible, of course, that the celebrated Stourbridge Fair, which -in later centuries was held every autumn in the river Meadow, a mile or -so below the town, adjoining Barnwell Priory, did date back to these -early times, but its two earliest charters undoubtedly belong to the -thirteenth century, one belonging to the reign of King John, granting -the tolls of the Fair to the Friars of the Leper Chapel of St. Mary -Magdalene, the other to Henry III.'s time fixing the date of the Fair -for the four days commencing October 17, being the Festival of St. -Etheldreda, Virgin, Queen and Abbess of Ely. From this time onward at -any rate the annual occurrence of this Fair furnishes incidents, not -always commendable, in the annals of both town and University. It is -said with probability that John Bunyan, who in his Bedfordshire youth -may well have been drawn to its attractions, made the Fair at -Stourbridge Common the prototype of his "Vanity Fair." And certainly any -one who will take the trouble to compare the description of the Fair -given by the Cambridgeshire historian Carter with the well-known passage -in the "Pilgrim's Progress," cannot but feel that the details of -Bunyan's picture are touches painted from life:-- - - "Then I saw in my dream, that when they were got out of the - Wilderness, they presently saw a Town before them, and the name of - that Town is _Vanity_; and at the Town there is a Fair kept, called - _Vanity Fair_ ... therefore at this Fair are all such Merchandise - sold, as Houses, Lands, Trades, Places, Honours, Preferments, - Titles, Countries, Kingdoms, Lusts, Pleasures, and Delights of all - sorts, as Whores, Bawds, Wives, Husbands, Children, Masters, - Servants, Lives, Blood, Bodies, Souls, Silver, Gold, Pearls, - Precious Stones and what not. - - "And moreover at this Fair there is at all times to be seen - Jugglings, Cheats, Games, Plays, Fools, Apes, Knaves, and Rogues, - and that of all sorts. - - "And as in other Fairs of less moment, there are the several Rows - and Streets under their proper names, where such and such wares - are vended; so here likewise you have the proper places, Rows, - Streets ... where the wares of this Fair are soonest to be found. - Here is the Britain Row, the French Row, the Italian Row, the - German Row, where several sorts of vanities are to be sold." - -The historian, it is true, speaks of "the Sturbridge Fair as like to a -well-governed city, with less disorder and confusion than in any other -place where there is so great a concourse of people," yet when one reads -in Bunyan's "Progress" of the Peremptory Court of Trial, "under the -Great One of the Fair," ever ready to take immediate cognisance of any -"hubbub," one cannot but remember that the judicial rights of the -University in the regulation of the ale-tents and show-booths on -Midsummer Common were at least a fertile theme for satire with the -licensed wits of both Universities, whether of "Mr. Tripos" at -Cambridge, or of the "Terræ Filius" at Oxford, and wonder what amount of -truth there may have been in the rude statement of the latter that "the -Cambridge proctors at Fair time were so strict in forbidding -undergraduates to enter public-houses in the town because it would spoil -their own trade in the Fair." - -But as Fuller would say, "Enough hereof. It tends to slanting and -suppositive traducing of the records." Let us proceed with our history. -And that we may do so let us end this introductory chapter of Fable and -Fact by enforcing the point, of which the incident of Stourbridge Fair -was but an illustration, that Cambridge became the seat of an English -University, because it had already become a chief centre of English -trade and commerce, and had so become because in the early centuries it -had stood as guardian of the only pass-way which crossed the frontier -line of the kingdoms of Mercia and the West Saxons and the kingdom of -the East Anglians, and at a later time had been the busy porter of the -river gate, by which the merchandise of northern Europe, borne to the -Norfolk Wash and the Port of Lynn by the ships of Flanders and the Hanse -towns of the Baltic, found its way, by the sluggish waters of the Cam -and the Ouse, to a place which was thus well fitted to become the great -distributing centre of trade for southern England and the Midlands. -Stourbridge Fair is a thing of the past. Cambridge as a distributing -centre for the trade of northern Europe has ceased to be. The long line -of river barges no longer float down the stream. The waters of the Wash -are silting up. The fame of the town has been eclipsed by the fame of -the University. But town and University alike may still gaze with -emotion at the old timbered wharfs and clay hithes of the river, the -green earthwork of the Castle Hill, the far-stretching roads once known -as Akeman Street and the Icknield Way, the grass-grown slopes of the -Devil's Dyke, as the symbols of mighty forces which in their day brought -men from all parts of Europe to this place, and have been potent to make -it through many centuries a centre of light and learning to England and -the world. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -CAMBRIDGE IN THE NORMAN TIME - - "At this time the fountain of learning in Cambridge was but little, - and that very troubled.... Mars then frighted away the Muses, when - the Mount of Parnassus was turned into a fort, and Helicon derived - into a trench. And at this present, King William the Conqueror, - going to subdue the monks of Ely that resisted him, made - Cambridgeshire the seat of war."--FULLER. - - William I. at Cambridge Castle--Cambridge at the Domesday - Survey--Roger Picot the Sheriff--Pythagoras School--Castle and - Borough--S. Benet's Church and its Parish--The King's Ditch--The - Great and the Small Bridges--The King's and the Bishop's Mills--The - River Hithes--S. Peter by the Castle and S. Giles Church--The early - Streets of the City--The Augustinian Priory of Barnwell--The Round - Church of the Holy Sepulchre--The Cambridge Jewry--Debt of early - Scholars to the Philosophers of the Synagogue--Benjamin's - House--Municipal Freedom of the Borough. - - -On the site of the ancient Roman station of which we have spoken in the -preceding chapter, as guarding the river ford and the pass between -forest and fen into East Anglia, William the Conqueror, returning from -the conquest of York in the year 1068, founded Cambridge Castle, that -"it might be"--to quote Fuller's words--"a check-bit to curb this -country, which otherwise was so hard-mouthed to be ruled." Here, in the -following year, he took up his abode, making the castle the centre of -his operations against the rebel English who had rallied to the -leadership of Hereward the Wake, in his camp of refuge at Ely. But the -castle at Cambridge never became a military centre of importance. No -important deed of arms is recorded in connection with it. It was a mere -outpost, useful only as a base of operations. It was so used by William -the Conqueror. It was so used by Henry III. in his futile contest with -the English baronage. It was so used by the Duke of Northumberland in -his unsuccessful attempt to crush the loyalist rising of East Anglia -against his plot to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne. It was so used -by Oliver Cromwell when he was organising the Eastern Counties -Association, and forming "his lovely company" of Ironsides. But beyond -these episodes Cambridge Castle has no history. In the early part of the -fourteenth century it was used as a prison for common criminals. Edward -III. built his College of King's Hall with some of its materials, and -from that time onwards it appears to have been used as a quarry by the -royal founders of more than one college. Its last remaining outwork, the -Gate House, was demolished in 1842. Now there is nothing left but the -grass-grown mound, still known as Castle Hill, the resort of occasional -American tourists who are wise enough to know how fine a view of the -town may be obtained from that position, and, so it is said, a less -frequent place of pilgrimage also to certain university freshmen who are -foolish enough to accept the assurance of their fellows that "at the -witching hour of night" they may best observe from Castle Hill those -solemn portents which, on the doubtful authority of the University -Calendar, are said to happen when "the Cambridge term divides at -midnight." - -But if the Castle at Cambridge, as a "place of arms," had practically no -history, much less had the town over which nominally it stood guard. The -old streets of Cambridge show no sign of ever having been packed closely -within walls in the usual mediæval fashion. In the early days the town -seems to have been limited to a little knot of houses round the castle -and along the street leading down to the river ford at the foot of the -Castle Hill. From the Domesday Survey we learn that in the time of -Edward the Confessor the town had consisted of 400 dwelling-houses, and -was divided into ten wards, each governed by its own lawman ("lageman") -or magistrate, a name which appears to suggest that the original -organisation of the town was of Danish origin. By the year 1086 two of -these wards had been thrown into one, owing to the destruction of -twenty-seven houses--"pro castro"--on account of the building of the -Castle, and in the remaining wards no fewer than fifty-three other -dwellings are entered as "waste." Altogether, in Norman times the -population of Cambridge can hardly have exceeded at the most a couple of -thousand. The customs of the town were assessed at £7, the land tax at -£7. 2s. 2d. Both of these seem to have been new impositions, payable to -the royal treasury. How this came about one cannot say, but from this -time onward, all through the middle ages, the farm of Cambridge appears -frequently to have been given as a dower to the Queen. - -[Illustration: Courtyard of the Falcon Inn] - -The earldom of Cambridge and Huntingdon has been almost invariably held -by a member of the Royal Family. The first steps, indeed, towards -municipal independence on the part of the borough were taken when the -burgesses demanded the privilege of making their customary payments -direct to the King, and ridding themselves of this part, at any rate, of -the authority of the sheriff. Certainly, there was much complaint made -to the Domesday Commissioners concerning the first Norman sheriff of -Cambridgeshire, one Roger Picot, because of his hard treatment of the -burgesses. Among other things, it was said that he had "required the -loan of their ploughs nine times in the year, whereas in the reign of -the Confessor they lent their ploughs only thrice in the year and found -neither cattle nor carts," and also that he had built himself three -mills upon the river to the destruction of many dwelling-houses and the -confiscation of much common pasture. Reading of these things one is -almost tempted to wonder, whether the old stone Norman house still -standing, styled, by a tradition now lost, "the School of Pythagoras," -in close proximity as it is to the river, the ford, and the castle, may -not have been the residence of this sheriff or of one of his immediate -successors. The house cannot, certainly, be of a later date than the -latter part of the twelfth century. Originally, it appears to have -consisted of a single range of building of two storeys, the lower one -formerly vaulted, the upper one serving as a hall. How it came by its -present name of "Pythagoras School" we do not know, and certainly there -is no reason to suppose that it was at any time a school. The Norman -occupier, however, of this stone house, with his servants and retainers, -could hardly have been other than a leading personage in the community, -and must have contributed in no slight degree to its importance. -Possibly it may have been owing to the destruction of houses caused by -the clearing of the sites for both this mansion and for the Castle, that -the dispossessed population sought habitation for themselves on the low -lying ground across the ford, on the east bank of the river. Whether -this was the cause or not, certainly the town on the west bank--"the -borough," as the castle end of Cambridge was still called in the memory -of persons still living[7]--overflowed at an early period to the other -side of the river, and gradually extending itself along the line of the -Via Devana, eventually coalesced with what had before been a distinct -village clustering round the ancient pre-Norman church of S. Benedict. -This church, or rather its tower, is the oldest building in Cambridge -and one of the most interesting. It is thus described by Mr. -Atkinson.[8] - -[Illustration: The School of Pythagoras.] - - "The tower presents those features which are usually taken to - indicate a Saxon origin. It is divided into three well-marked - stages, each one of which is rather narrower than the one below it. - The quoins are of the well-known long-and-short work (a sign of - late date), and the lowest quoin is let into a sinking prepared for - it in the plinth. The belfry windows are of two sorts; the central - window on each face is of two heights, divided by a mid-wall - balister shaft, supporting a through-stone of the usual character. - On each side of this window there is a plain lancet at a somewhat - higher level, and with rubble jambs. Above these latter there are - small round holes--they can hardly be called windows. Over each of - the central windows there is a small pilaster, stopped by a corbel - which rests on the window head; these pilasters are cut off - abruptly at the top of the tower, which has probably been altered - since it was first built; most likely it was originally terminated - by a low spire or by gables. The rough edges of the quoins are - worked with a rebate to receive the plaster which originally - covered the tower. The arch between the tower and the nave springs - from bold imposts, above which are rude pieces of sculpture, - forming stops to the hood mould. The quoins remaining at each angle - of the present nave show that it is of the same length and width as - the nave of the original church, and they seem to show also that - the original church had neither aisles nor transepts. The chancel - is also the same size as that of the early church, for though the - east and north walls have been rebuilt, they are in the positions - of the Saxon walls. The south wall of the chancel has been altered - at many different periods, but has probably never been rebuilt. The - bases of the chancel arch remain below the floor. The early church - was probably lighted by small lancets about three inches wide, - placed high in the wall, and without glass." - -The present nave is of the thirteenth century. The chancel was built as -late as 1872. The building which still abuts against the south chancel -wall belongs, however, to the fifteenth century, and was a connecting -hall or gallery with "the old court" of Corpus Christi College, which -not only took its early name of S. Benet from the ancient church, but -for some century and more possessed no other College chapel. The bells -of S. Benet, we read in the old College records, were long used to call -the students "to ye schooles, att such times as neede did require--as to -acts, clearums, congregations, lecturs, disses, and such like." But this -belongs to its story in a later age. The Pre-Conquest Church of S. -Benet, as we have said, probably served a township separate and distinct -from the Castle-end "borough" on the west bank of the river. After the -two villages became united, the Norman Grantebrigge, and indeed the -mediæval Cambridge of later days, seemed to have formed a straggling and -incompact town, stretching for the most part along the Roman road which -crossed the river by the bridge at the foot of Castle hill, and so -eastward past S. Benet's, and onward to the open country, eventually -reached Colchester across the forest uplands. This Roman Way, following -the line of the modern Bridge Street, Sidney Street, S. Andrew Street, -Regent Street, ran close to the eastern limit of the town, marked -roughly at a later time by the King's Ditch. This was an artificial -stream constructed as a defence of the town by King John in the year -1215. It was strengthened later by King Henry III., who had also -intended to protect the town on this side by a wall. The wall, however, -was never built, and the Ditch itself could never have been much of a -defence, except, perhaps, against casual marauders, though for centuries -it was a cause of insanitary trouble to the town. Branching out of the -river at the King's and Bishop's Mills, just above Queen's College, it -joined the river again, after encircling the town, just below the Great -Bridge and above the Common now called Jesus Green. The Ditch was -crossed by bridges on the lines of the principal roads. One of these, -built of stone, still remains under the road now called Jesus Lane. -There appears to have been a drawbridge also at the end of Sussex -Street. The river itself, which formed the western boundary of the town, -was spanned by two bridges, the Great Bridge at Castle End and the Small -Bridge or Bridges at Newnham by the Mill pond. Between the two bridges -were the principal wharfs or river hithes--corn hithe, flax hithe, -garlic hithe, salt hithe, Dame Nichol's hithe. These have all now given -place to the sloping lawns and gardens of the colleges, the far-famed -"Cambridge Backs." The common hithe, however, below the Great Bridge -still continues in use. It is with certain rights in regard to these -hithes that the earliest Royal charter of which we have record deals. It -is an undated writ of Henry I. (1100-1135) addressed to Henry, Bishop of -Ely (1109-1131), and attested by an unnamed Chancellor and by Miles of -Gloucester and by Richard Basset. The main object of the King's writ -seems to be to make "his borough of Cambridge" the one "port" and -emporium of the shire. "I forbid"--so runs the writ--"that any boat -shall ply at any hithe in Cambridgeshire save at the hithe of my borough -at Cambridge, nor shall barges be laden save in the borough of -Cambridge, nor shall any take toll elsewhere, but only there." - -Numerous narrow lanes, all now vanished, with the exception of John's -Lane, Gareth Hostel Lane, and Silver Street, led down from High Street -to the quays. The town was intersected by three main streets. From the -Great Bridge ran the streets already mentioned as following the line of -the old Roman Way (the Via Devana). From this old roadway, at a point -opposite the Round Church, there branched off the High Street--now -Trinity Street and King's Parade--leading to Trumpington Gate. Parallel -to the High Street, and between it and the river, ran Milne Street, -leading from the King's Mill at the south end of the town, and -continuing northwards to a point about the site of the existing sun-dial -in Trinity Great Court, where it joined a cross-street leading into the -High Street. Parts of Milne Street still exist in the lanes which run -past the fronts of Queen's College and Trinity Hall. In mediæval times -the entrance gateways of six colleges opened into it--King's Hall, -Michael House, Trinity Hall, King's College, S. Catharine's Hall, and -Queen's College. Of the most ancient church of the town, that of S. -Benedict, we have already spoken. Of the possibly contemporary church of -S. Peter by the Castle, the only architectural remains of any importance -now existing are a rich late Norman doorway and the bowl of an ancient -font. The tower and spire belong to the fourteenth century. The rest of -the building is entirely modern. Bricks, however, said to be Roman, -appear to have been used in the new walls. Similarly of the other two -ancient Castle-end churches, All Saints by the Castle, and S. Giles. Of -the former nothing now remains and its actual site is doubtful, for the -parish attached to it has been united with S. Giles ever since the time -when in the fourteenth century the Black Death left it almost without -inhabitants. Of the Church of S. Giles there remains the ancient -chancel arch of late Saxon or early Norman character (the familiar -long-and-short work seems to date it about the middle of the eleventh -century), and the doorway of the nave, which have been rebuilt in the -large new church opened in 1875. - -[Illustration: The Abbey House] - -It was, however, from this old church of S. Giles by the Castle that the -first religious house in Cambridge of which we have any record, and -quite possibly the most important factor in the early development of the -University, the wealthy Augustinian Priory of Barnwell, took its origin. -The story of that foundation is this.[9] - -Roger Picot, Baron of Bourne and Norman Sheriff of Cambridgeshire, of -whose hard treatment the Cambridge burgesses complained to the -commissioners of the Domesday Survey, had married a noble and pious -woman named Hugoline. Hugoline being taken very ill at Cambridge, and on -the point, as she thought, of death, vowed a vow, that if she recovered -she would build a church in honour of God and S. Giles. "Whereupon," -says the legend, "she recovered in three days." And in gratitude to God -she built close to the Castle the Church of S. Giles in the year 1092, -together with appropriate buildings, and placed therein six canons -regular of the order of S. Augustine, under the charge of Canon Geoffrey -of Huntingdon, a man of great piety, and prevailed upon her husband to -endow the Church and house with half the tithes of his manorial -demesnes. Some vestiges of this small house (_veteris coenobioli -vestigia_) were still extant in Leland's time. Before, however, this -Augustinian house had been thoroughly established, Earl Pigot and his -wife Hugoline died, committing the foundation to the care of their son -Robert. Robert unfortunately became implicated in a conspiracy against -Henry I., was charged with treason, and obliged to fly the country. The -estates were confiscated, and the canons reduced to great want and -misery. In this extremity a certain Pain Peverel, a valiant young -Crusader, who had been standard-bearer to Robert Curthose in the Holy -Land, and who had received the confiscated estates of Picot's son, -Robert, came to the rescue, declaring that as he had become Picot's -heir, so he would succeed him in the care of this foundation, and -increase the number of canons to the number of the years of his own age, -namely thirty. He determined also to move the house to a more -convenient situation, and accordingly, in the year 1112, he transferred -it to an excellent site in Barnwell, a mile and a half or so down the -river, just off the high-road leading from Cambridge to Newmarket. This -transaction is related as follows:-- - - "Perceiving that the site on which their house stood was not - sufficiently large for all the buildings needful for his canons, - and was devoid of any spring of fresh water, Pain Peverel besought - King Henry to give him a certain site beyond the borough of - Cambridge, extending from the highway to the river, and - sufficiently agreeable from the pleasantness of its position. - Besides, from the midst of that site there bubbled forth springs of - clear fresh water, called at that time in English _Barnewelle_, the - children's springs, because once a year, on St. John Baptist's Eve, - boys and lads met there and amused themselves in the English - fashion with wrestling matches and other games, and applauded each - other in singing songs and playing on musical instruments. Hence by - reason of the crowd of boys and girls who met and played there, a - habit grew up that on the same day a crowd of buyers and sellers - should meet in the same place to do business. There, too, a man of - great sanctity, called Godesone, used to lead a solitary life in a - small wooden oratory that he had built in honour of St. Andrew. He - had died a short time before, leaving the place without any - habitation upon it, and his oratory without a keeper."[10] - -In this pleasant place accordingly the house was rebuilt on a very large -scale, and by the liberality of Peverel and his son William richly -endowed. In the year 1112, we read in the Cartulary that Peverel at once -set about building "a church of wonderful beauty and massive work in -honour of S. Giles." To this church he gave "vestment, ornaments, and -relics of undoubted authenticity which he had brought back from -Palestine"; but before he could carry out his intention of completing -it, he died in London of a fever "barely ten years after the translation -of the canons. His body was brought to Barnwell and buried in a becoming -manner on the north side of the high altar." By the munificence, -however, of a later benefactor, the church was finished and consecrated -in 1191, and before the end of the next century the conventual -buildings, cloister, chapter house, frater, farmery, guest hall, gate -house, were complete, and the Priory of Augustinian canons at Barnwell -took its place in the monastic history of Cambridgeshire, a place only -second probably to that of the great Benedictine House at Ely.[11] All -that now remains of the Priory is a small church or chapel standing near -the road, and the fragment of some other building. The whole site, -however, was excavated for gravel in the beginning of the last century, -so that it is impossible to speak with any certainty of the disposition -of the buildings, although Mr. Willis Clark, in his "Customs of -Augustinian Canons," has from documentary sources made an ingenious -attempt to reconstruct the whole plan of the Priory. The small chapel of -S. Andrew the Less, although it has long been known as the Abbey Church, -has, of course, strictly no right to that name. Obviously it cannot be -the church of "wondrous dimensions" built by Pain Peverel. The chapel, -although in all likelihood it did stand within the Priory precincts, was -most probably built for the use of the inhabitants of the parish by the -canons, in order that they themselves might be left undisturbed in the -exclusive use of the Conventual Church. It is a building of the early -English style, with long, narrow lancet windows, evidently belonging to -the early part of the thirteenth century. - -[Illustration: Chapel Barnwell Priory] - -The material remains of the Priory are therefore very meagre, but a most -interesting insight into the domestic economy of a monastic house is -afforded by the "_Consuetudinarium_; or, Book of Observances of the -Austin Canons," which forms the Eighth Book of the Barnwell Cartulary, -to which we have already alluded. A comparison of the domestic customs -of a monastic house in the thirteenth century, as shown in this book, -and of the functions of its various officers, with many of the -corresponding customs and functions in the government of a Cambridge -college, not only in mediæval but in modern times, throws much light on -the origin of some of the most characteristic features of college life -to-day.[12] - -Let us retrace our steps, however, along the Barnwell Road from the -suburban monastery to the ancient town. There are still some features, -belonging to the Norman structure of Cambridge, which demand our notice -before we pass on. - -At a point where the High Street, now Trinity Street, branches off from -Bridge Street stands the church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of the four -round churches of England.[13] - -[Illustration: The Round Church] - -Presumably it must have been built by some confraternity connected with -the newly established Military Order of the Templars, and, to judge by -the style of its architecture--the only real evidence we have as to its -date, for the conjecture that it owes its foundation to the young -crusader, Pain Peverel, is purely fanciful, and of "the Ralph with a -Beard," of which we read in the Ramsey cartularies as receiving "a grant -of land to build a Minster in honour of God and the Holy Sepulchre," we -know nothing--probably between 1120 and 1140. In its original shape, the -church must have consisted of its present circular nave with the -ambulatory aisle, and in all probability a semi-circular eastern apse. -The ambulatory was vaulted, as in all probability was also the central -area, while the apse would doubtless be covered with a semi-dome. The -chancel and its north aisle, which had apparently been remodelled in -early English times, was again reconstructed in the fifteenth century. -At about the same time an important alteration was made in the circular -nave by carrying up the walls to form a belfry. The additional stage was -polygonal and terminated in a battlemented parapet. The Norman corbel -table, under the original eaves of what was probably a dwarf spire, was -not destroyed, and thus serves to mark the top of the Norman wall. -Windows of three lights were not only inserted in the additional stage, -but were also substituted for the circular-headed Norman windows of both -ambulatory and clerestory. - - "Such," says Mr. Atkinson, "was the condition of the Church when, - in 1841, the Cambridge Camden Society undertook its 'restoration.' - The polygonal upper story of the circular nave, containing four - bells, was destroyed; sham Norman windows, copied from one - remaining old one, replaced those which had been inserted in the - 15th century; and new stone vaults and high pitched roofs were - constructed over the nave and ambulatory. The chancel, with the - exception of one arch and the wall above it, were entirely rebuilt; - the north aisle, with the exception of the entrance arch from the - west, was rebuilt and extended eastwards to the same length as the - chancel; a new south aisle of equal dimensions with the enlarged - north aisle was added; and a small turret for two bells was built - at the north-west corner of the north aisle; the lower stage of - this turret was considered a sufficient substitute for the - destroyed vestry. A new chancel arch of less width than the old one - was built, and a pierced stone screen was formed above it. In - addition to all this, those old parts which were not destroyed were - 'repaired and beautified,' or 'dressed and pointed,' or 'thoroughly - restored.' What these processes involved is clear from an - inspection of the parts to which they were applied; in the west - doorway, for instance, there is not one old stone left."[14] - -Across the road from the Round Church, in the angle of land caused by -the branching apart of the High Street and the Bridge Street, was -planted one of the earliest Jewries established in England. The coming -of the Jews to England was one of the incidental effects of the Norman -Conquest. They had followed in the wake of the invading army as in -modern times they followed the German hosts into France, assisting the -Normans to dispose of their spoil, finding at usurious interest -ready-money for the impoverished English landowner, to meet his -conqueror's requisitions, and generally meeting the money-broking needs -of both King and subject. In a curious diatribe by Richard of Devizes -(1190), Canterbury, Rochester, Chichester, Oxford, Exeter, Worcester, -Chester, Hereford, York, Ely, Durham, Norwich, Lincoln, Bristol, -Winchester, and of course London are all mentioned as harbouring Jewish -settlements. The position of the Jew, however, in England was all along -anomalous. As the member of an alien race, and still more of an alien -religion, he could gain no kind of constitutional status in the kingdom. -The common law ignored him. His Jewry, like the royal forest, was -outside its domain. He came, indeed, as the King's special man--nay, -more, as the King's special chattel. And in this character he lived for -the most part secure. The romantic picture of the despised, trembling -Jew--the Isaac of York, depicted for us in Scott's "Ivanhoe"--cringing -before every Christian that he meets, is, in any age of English history, -simply a romantic picture. The attitude of the Jew almost to the last is -one of proud and even insolent defiance. In the days of the Red King at -any rate, he stood erect before the prince, and seemed to have enjoyed -no small share of his favour and personal familiarity. The presence of -the unbelieving Hebrew at his court supplied, it is said, William Rufus -with many opportunities of mocking at the Christian Church and its -bishops. In a well-known story of Eadmer, the Red King actually forbids -the conversion of a Jew to the Christian faith. "It was a poor -exchange," he said, "which would rob me of a valuable property and give -me only a subject." The extortion of the Jew was therefore sheltered -from the common law by the protection of the King. The bonds of the Jew -were kept, in fact, under the royal seal in the royal archives, a fact -of which the memory long remained in the name of "The Star" chamber; a -name derived from the Hebrew word (_ishtar_) for a "bond." - -[Illustration: Oriel Windows from House in Petty-Cury now demolished _To -face p. 46_] - -The late Mr. J. R. Green, in a delightful sketch on the early history of -Oxford in his "Stray Studies," afterwards incorporated into the pages of -his "History of the English People," seems inclined to give some support -to the theory which would connect the origin of the University with the -establishment of the Oxford Jewry. This theory, however, can hardly be -accepted.[15] It is very probable indeed that the medical school, which -we find established at Oxford and in high repute during the twelfth -century, is traceable to Jewish origin; and the story is no doubt true -also, which tells how Roger Bacon penetrated to the older world of -material research by means of the Hebrew instruction and the Hebrew -books which he found among the Jewish rabbis of the Oxford Synagogue. It -is reasonable also to suppose that the history of Christian -Aristotelianism, and of the Scholastic Theology that was based upon it, -may have been largely influenced by the philosophers of the Synagogue. -It seems, indeed, to be a well-established conclusion, that the -philosophy of Aristotle was first made known to the West through the -Arabic versions brought from Spain by Jewish scholars and rabbis. But -it is undoubtedly "in a more purely material way" that, as Mr. Green -truly says, the Jewry most directly influenced academic history. At -Oxford, as elsewhere, "the Jew brought with him something more than the -art or science which he had gathered at Cordova or Bagdad; he brought -with him the new power of wealth. The erection of stately castles, of -yet statelier abbeys, which followed the Conquest, the rebuilding of -almost every cathedral or conventual church, marks the advent of the -Jewish capitalist. No one can study the earlier history of our great -monastic houses without finding the secret of that sudden outburst of -industrial activity to which we own the noblest of our Minsters in the -loans of the Jew." - -Certainly at Cambridge, though perhaps hardly to the same extent as at -Oxford, the material influence on the town of the Jewry is traceable. At -Oxford, it is said that nearly all the larger dwelling-houses, which -were subsequently converted into hostels, bore traces of their Jewish -origin in their names, such as Moysey's Hall, Lombard's Hall, Jacob's -Hall, and each of the successive Town Halls of the borough had -previously been Jewish houses. We have some evidence of a similar -conversion at Cambridge. In the first half of the thirteenth century, -before we hear either of Tolbooth or of Guildhall, the enlarged judicial -responsibilities of the town authorities made it necessary that they -should be in possession of some strong building suitable for a prison. -Accordingly, in 1224, we find King Henry III. granting to the burgesses -the House of Benjamin, the Jew, for the purposes of a gaol. It is said -that either the next house or a part of Benjamin's House had been the -Synagogue of the Jewry, and was granted in the first instance to the -Franciscan Friars on their arrival in the city. Benjamin's House, -although it had been altered from time to time, appears never to have -been entirely rebuilt, and some fragments of this, the earliest of -Cambridge municipal buildings, are perhaps still to be found embedded in -the walls of the old Town Arms public-house--a room in which, as late as -the seventeenth century, was still known as "The Star Chamber"--at the -western side of Butter Row, in the block of old buildings at the corner -of Market Square, adjoining the new frontage of the Guildhall. - -With this relic of the ancient Jewry we reach the last remaining -building in Cambridge that had any existence in Norman times. And with -the close of this age--the age of the Crusades--we already find the -Cambridge burgess safely in possession, not only of that personal -freedom which had descended to him by traditional usage from the -communal customs of his early Teutonic forefathers, but also of many -privileges which he had bought in hard cash from his Norman conqueror. -Before the time of the first charter of King John (1201) Cambridge had -passed through most of the earlier steps of emancipation which -eventually led to complete self-government. The town-bell ringing out -from the old tower of S. Benet's already summoned the Cambridge freemen -to a borough mote in which the principles of civic justice, of loyal -association, of mutual counsel, of mutual aid, were acknowledged by -every member of a free, self-ruling assembly. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -THE BEGINNINGS OF UNIVERSITY LIFE - - "Si tollis libertatem, tollis dignitatem."--S. COLUMBAN. - -"Record we too with just and faithful pen, - That many hooded cænobites there are - Who in their private cells have yet a care - Of public quiet; unambitious men, - Counsellors for the world, of piercing ken; - Whose fervent exhortations from afar - Move princes to their duty, peace or war; - And oft times in the most forbidding den - Of solitude, with love of science strong, - How patiently the yoke of thought they bear ... - By such examples moved to unbought pains - The people work like congregated bees; - Eager to build the quiet fortresses - Where piety, as they believe, obtains - From heaven a general blessing; timely rains - And sunshine; prosperous enterprise and peace and equity." - --WORDSWORTH. - - Monastic Origins--Continuity of Learning in Early England--The - School of York--The Venerable Bede--Alcuin and the Schools of - Charles the Great--The Danish Invasions--The Benedictine - Revival--The Monkish Chroniclers--The Coming of the Friars--The - Franciscan and Dominican Houses at Cambridge--The Franciscan - Scholars--Roger Bacon--Bishop Grosseteste--The New Aristotle and - the Scientific Spirit--The Scholastic - Philosophy--Aquinas--Migration of Scholars from Paris to - Cambridge--The term "University"--The Colleges and the Hostels--The - Course of Study--Trivium and Quadrivium--The Four - Faculties--England a Paradise of Clerks--Parable of the Monk's Pen. - - -In the centuries which preceded the rise of the Universities, the monks -had been the great educators of England, and it is to monastic origins -that we must first turn to find the beginnings of university and -collegiate life at Cambridge. - -In the library of Trinity College there is preserved a catalogue of the -books which Augustine and his monks brought with them into England. -"These are the foundation or the beginning of the library of the whole -English Church, A.D. 601," are the words with which this brief catalogue -closes. A Bible in two volumes, a Psalter and a book of the Gospels, a -Martyrology, the Apocryphal Lives of the Apostles, and the exposition of -certain Epistles represented at the commencement of the seventh century -the sum-total of literature which England then possessed. In little more -than fifty years, however, the Latin culture of Augustine and his monks -had spread throughout the land, and before the eighth century closed -England had become the literary centre of Western Europe. Probably never -in the history of any nation had there been so rapid a development of -learning. Certainly few things are more remarkable in the history of the -intellectual development of Europe than that, in little more than a -hundred years after knowledge had first dawned upon this country, an -Anglo-Saxon scholar should be producing books upon literature and -philosophy second to nothing that had been written by any Greek or Roman -author after the third century. But the great writer whom after-ages -called "the Venerable Bede," and who was known to his own contemporaries -as "the wise Saxon," was not the only scholar that the seventh and the -eighth centuries had produced in England. Under the twenty-one years of -the Archiepiscopate of Theodore (669-690), schools and monasteries -rapidly spread throughout the country. In the school established under -the walls of Canterbury, in connection with the Monastery of S. Peter, -better known in after-times as S. Augustine's, and over which his friend -the Abbot Adrian ruled, were trained not a few of the great scholars of -those days--Albinus, the future adviser and assistant of Bede, Tobias of -Rochester, Aldhelm of Sherborne, and John of Beverley. The influence of -these and other scholars sent out from the school at Canterbury soon -made itself felt. In Northumbria, too, the torch of learning had been -kept alight by the Irish monks of Lindisfarne, and of Melrose and of -Iona, "that nest from which," as an old writer playing on its founder S. -Columba's name had said, "the sacred doves had taken their flight to -every quarter." - -While Archbishop Theodore and the Abbot Adrian were organising -Anglo-Latin education in the monasteries of the south, Wilfrith, the -Archbishop of York, and his friend Benedict Biscop were performing a no -less extensive work in the north. The schools of Northumbria gathered in -the harvest of Irish learning, and of the Franco-Gallican schools, which -still preserved a remnant of classical literature, and of Rome itself, -now barbarised. Of Bede, in the book-room of the monastery at Jarrow, we -are told by his disciple and biographer, Cuthbert, that in the intervals -of the regular monastic discipline the great scholar found time to -undertake the direction of the monastic school. "He had many scholars, -all of whom he inspired with an extraordinary love of learning." "It was -always sweet to me," he writes himself, "to learn to teach." At the -conclusion of his "Ecclesiastical History" he has himself given a list -of some thirty-eight books which he had written up to that time. Of -these not a few are of an educational character. Besides a large body of -Scripture commentary, we have from his pen treatises on orthography, -grammar, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. His book on "The Nature of -Things" was the science primer of the Anglo-Saxons for many generations. -He wrote, in fact, to teach. At the school of York, however, was centred -nearly all the wisdom of the West, and its greatest pupil was Alcwyne. -He became essentially the representative schoolmaster of his age. For -fourteen years, attracted by the fame of his scholarship, students not -only from all parts of England and Ireland, but also from France and -Germany, flocked to the monastery school at York. In 782 Alcwyne left -England to join the Court of Charles the Great and to take charge of the -Palatine schools, carrying with him to the Continent the learning which -was about to perish for a time in England, as the result of the internal -dissensions of its kings and the early ravages of the Norsemen. -"Learning," to use the phrase of William of Malmesbury, "was buried in -the grave of Bede for four centuries." The Danish invader, carrying his -ravages now up the Thames and now up the Humber, devastated the east of -England with fire and sword. "Deliver us, O Lord, from the frenzy of the -Northmen!" had been a suffrage of a litany of the time, but it was one -to which the scholars and the bookmen, no less than the monks and nuns -of that age, found no answer. The noble libraries which Theodore and -the Abbots Adrian and Benedict had founded were given to the flames. The -monasteries of the Benedictines, the chief guardians of learning, were -completely broken up. "It is not at all improbable," says Mr. Kemble, -"that in the middle of the tenth century there was not a genuine -Benedictine left in England." - -A revival of monastic life--some attempt at a return to the old -Benedictine ideal--came, however, with that century. Under the auspices -of S. Dunstan, the Benedictine Order--renovated at its sources by the -Cluniac reform--was again established, and surviving a second wave of -Danish devastation was, under the patronage of King Cnut and Edward the -Confessor, further strengthened and extended. The strength of this -revival is perhaps best seen in the wonderful galaxy of monastic -chroniclers which sheds its light over that century. Florence of -Worcester, Henry of Huntingdon, William of Malmesbury, Ingulf, Geoffrey -Gaimar, William de Monte, John and Richard of Hexham, Jordan Fantosme, -Simeon of Durham, Thomas and Richard of Ely, Gervase, Giraldus -Cambrensis, William of Newburgh, Richard of Devizes all follow one -another in close succession, while Robert of Gloucester, Roger of -Wendover, and Matthew Paris carry on the line into the next age. But -apart from the Chroniclers, though the monasteries once more flourished -in England, the early Benedictine ideal of learning did not at once -revive. Indeed, the tendency of the monastic reformers of the twelfth -century was distinctly hostile to the more intellectual side of the -monastic ideal. By the end of the century the majority of the -Benedictine convents had sunk into rich corporations of landed -proprietors, whose chief ambition was the aggrandisement of the house to -which they belonged. The new impulse of reform, which in its indirect -results was to give the thirteenth century in England so dominant a -place in the history of her civilisation, came from a quite different -direction. Almost simultaneously, without concert, in different -countries, two great minds, S. Francis and S. Dominic, conceived a -wholly new ideal of monastic perfection. Unlike the older monastic -leaders, deliberately turning their backs upon the haunts of men in town -and village, and seeking in the wilderness seclusion from the world -which they professed to forsake, these new idealists, the followers of -S. Dominic and S. Francis, the mendicant Orders, the Friars' Preachers -and the Friars' Minors, turned to the living world of men. Their object -was no longer the salvation of the individual monk, but the salvation of -others through him. Monastic Christianity was no longer to flee the -world; it must conquer it or win it by gentle violence. The work of the -new Orders, therefore, was from the first among their fellowmen, in -village, in town, in city, in university. - - "Like the great modern Order (of the Jesuists) which, when their - methods had in their turn become antiquated, succeeded to their - influence by a still further departure from the old monastic - routine, the mendicant Orders early perceived the necessity of - getting a hold upon the centres of education. With the Dominicans - indeed this was a primary object: the immediate purpose of their - foundation was resistance to this Albigensian heresy; they aimed at - obtaining influence upon the more educated and more powerful - classes. Hence it was natural that Dominic should have looked to - the universities as the most suitable recruiting ground for his - Order: to secure for his Preachers the highest theological training - that the age afforded was an essential element of the new monastic - ideal.... The Franciscan ideal was a less intellectual one ... but - though the Franciscans laboured largely among the neglected poor of - crowded and pestilential cities, they too found it practically - necessary to go to the universities for recruits and to secure some - theological education for their members."[16] - -The Black Friars of S. Dominic arrived in England in 1221. The Grey -Friars of S. Francis in 1224. The Dominicans met with the least success -at first, but this was fully compensated by the rapid progress of the -Franciscans. Very soon after the coming of the Grey Friars they had -formed a settlement at Oxford, under the auspices of the greatest -scholar-bishop of the age, Grosseteste of Lincoln, and had built their -first rude chapel at Cambridge. In the early days, however, the -followers of S. Francis made a hard fight against the taste for -sumptuous buildings and for the greater personal comfort which -characterised the time. "I did not enter into religion to build walls," -protested an English Provincial of the Order when the brethren begged -for a larger convent. But at Cambridge the first humble house of the -Grey Friars, which had been founded in 1224 in "the old Synagogue," was -shortly removed to a site at the corner of Bridge Street and Jesus -Lane--now occupied by Sidney Sussex College--and that noble church -commenced, which, three centuries later, at the time of the Dissolution, -the University vainly endeavoured to save for itself, having for some -time used it for the ceremony of Commencement.[17] But of this we shall -have to speak later in our account of the Foundation of Sidney College. - -But if the Franciscans, in their desire to obey the wishes of their -Founder, found a difficulty in combating the passion of the time for -sumptuous buildings, they had even less success in struggling against -the passion of the time for learning. Their vow of poverty ought to have -denied them the possession even of books. "I am your breviary! I am your -breviary!" S. Francis had cried passionately to the novice who desired a -Psalter. And yet it is a matter of common knowledge that Grosseteste, -the great patron of the Franciscans, brought Greek books to England, and -in conjunction with two other Franciscans, whose names are -known--Nicholas the Greek and John of Basingstoke--gave to the world -Latin versions of certain Greek documents. Foremost among these is the -famous early apocryphal book, _The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs_, -the Greek manuscript of which is still in the Cambridge University -Library. There is no better statement, perhaps, of those gaps in the -knowledge of Western Christendom, which the scholars of the Franciscan -Order did so much to fill, than a passage in the writings of the -greatest of all English Franciscans, Roger Bacon, which runs to this -effect:-- - - "Numberless portions of the wisdom of God are wanting to us. Many - books of the Sacred Text remain untranslated, as two books of the - Maccabees which I know to exist in Greek: and many other books of - divers Prophets, whereto reference is made in the books of Kings - and Chronicles. Josephus too, in the books of his _Antiquities_, is - altogether falsely rendered as far as concerns the Chronological - side, and without him nothing can be known of the history of the - Sacred Text. Unless he be corrected in a new translation, he is of - no avail, and the Biblical history is lost. Numberless books again - of Hebrew and Greek expositors are wanting to the Latins: as those - of Origen, Basil, Gregory, Nazianzen, Damascene, Dionysius, - Chrysostom, and other most noble Doctors, alike in Hebrew and in - Greek. The Church therefore is slumbering. She does nothing in this - matter, nor hath done these seventy years: save that my Lord - Robert, Bishop of Lincoln, of holy memory did give to the Latins - some part of the writings of S. Dionysius and of Damascene, and - some other holy Doctors. It is an amazing thing this negligence of - the Church; for, from the time of Pope Damasus, there hath not been - any Pope, nor any of less rank, who hath busied himself for the - advantaging of the Church by translations, except the aforesaid - glorious Bishop."[18] - -The truth to which Roger Bacon in this passage gave expression, the -scholars of the Franciscan Order set themselves to realise and act upon. -For a considerable time the Franciscan houses at both Oxford and -Cambridge kept alive the interest of this "new learning" to which Robert -Grosseteste and Roger Bacon opened the way. The work of the Order at -Oxford is fairly well known. And in the Cambridge House of the Order -there was at least one teacher of divinity, Henry of Costessey, who, in -his _Commentary on the Psalms_, set the example of a type of -scholarship, which, in its close insistence on the exact meaning of the -text, in its constant reference to the original Hebrew, and in its -absolute independence of judgment, has, one is proud to think, ever -remained a characteristic of the Cambridge school of textual criticism -down even to our own day. - - * * * * * - -But if the Franciscans, impelled by their desire to illustrate the -Sacred Text, had thus become intellectual in spite of the ideal of their -Founder, the Dominicans were intellectual from their starting-point. -They had, indeed, been called into being by the necessity of combating -the intellectual doubts and controversies of the south of France. That -they should become a prominent factor in the development of the -universities was but the fulfilment of their original design. With their -activity also is associated one of the greatest intellectual movements -of the thirteenth century--the introduction of the new Philosophy. The -numerous houses of the Order planted by them in the East brought about -an increased intercourse between those regions and Western Europe, and -helped on that knowledge of the new Aristotle, which, as we have said in -a previous chapter, England probably owes largely to the philosophers of -the Synagogue. It is round the University of Paris, however, that the -earlier history, both of the Dominican scholars and of the new -Aristotle, mainly revolves. Here the great system of Scholastic -Philosophy was elaborated, by which the two great Dominican teachers, -Albertus Magnus--"the ape of Aristotle," as he was irreverently and -unjustly called by his Franciscan contemporaries--and his greater pupil, -Thomas Aquinas, "the seraphic Doctor," vindicated the Christian Creed in -terms of Aristotelian logic, and laid at least a solid foundation for -the Christian Theology of the future, in the contention that Religion is -rational, and that Reason is divine, that all knowledge and all truth, -from whatever source they are derived, are capable of being reduced to -harmony and unity, because the name of Christianity is both Wisdom and -Truth. - -In the year 1229 there broke out at Paris a feud of more than ordinary -gravity between the students and the citizens, undignified enough in its -cause of origin, but in the event probably marking a distinct step in -the development of Cambridge University. A drunken body of students did -some act of great violence to the citizens. Complaint was made to the -Bishop of Paris and to the Queen Blanche. The members of the University -who had not been guilty of the outrage were violently attacked and -ill-treated by the police of the city. The University teachers suspended -their classes and demanded satisfaction. The demand was refused, and -masters and scholars dispersed. Large numbers, availing themselves of -the invitation of King Henry III. to settle where they pleased in this -country, migrated to the shores of England; and Cambridge, probably from -its proximity to the eastern coast, and as the centre where Prince -Louis, in alliance with the English baronage, but a few years before had -raised the Royal standard, seems to have attracted a large majority of -the students. A Royal writ, issued in the year 1231, for the better -regulation of the University, probably makes reference to this migration -when it speaks of the large number of students, both within the realm -and "from beyond the seas," who had lately settled in Cambridge, and -gives power to the Bishop of Ely "to signify rebellious clerks who would -not be chastised by the Chancellor and Masters," and if necessary to -invoke the aid of the Sheriff in their due punishment. Another Royal -writ of the same reign expressly provides that no student shall remain -in the University unless under the tuition of some Master of Arts--the -earliest trace perhaps of that disciplinary organisation which the -motley and turbulent crowd representing the student community of that -age demanded.[19] - -It will be observed that in these Royal writs the term "university" -occurs. But it must not be supposed that the word is used in its more -modern signification, of a community or corporation devoted to learning -and education formally recognised by legal authority. That is a use -which appears for the first time towards the end of the fourteenth -century. In the age of which we are speaking, and in the writs of Henry -III., _universitas magistrorum et discipulorum_ or _scholarium_ simply -means a "community of teachers and scholars." The common designation in -mediæval times of such a body as we now mean by "university" was -_studium generale_, or sometimes _studium_ alone. It is necessary, -moreover, to remember that universities in the earliest times had not -infrequently a very vigorous life as places of learning, long before -they received Royal or legal recognition; and it is equally necessary -not to forget that colleges for the lodging and maintenance and -education of students are by no means an essential feature of the -mediæval conception of a university. - - "The University of the Middle Ages was a corporation of learned - men, associated for the purposes of teaching, and possessing the - privilege that no one should be allowed to teach within their - dominions unless he had received their sanction, which could only - be granted after trial of his ability. The test applied consisted - of examinations and public disputations; the sanction assumed the - form of a public ceremony and the name of a degree; and the - teachers or doctors so elected or created carried out their office - of instruction by lecturing in the public schools to the students, - who, desirous of hearing them, took up their residence in the place - wherein the University was located. The degree was, in fact, merely - a license to teach. The teacher so licensed became a member of the - ruling body. The University, as a body, does not concern itself - with the food and lodging of the students, beyond the exercise of a - superintending power over the rents and regulations of the houses - in which they are lodged, in order to protect them from exaction; - and it also assumes the care of public morals. The only buildings - required by such a corporation in the first instance were a place - to hold meetings and ceremonies, a library, and schools for - teaching, or, as we should call them, lecture rooms. A college, on - the other hand, in its primitive form, is a foundation erected and - endowed by private munificence solely for the lodging and - maintenance of deserving students, whose lack of means rendered - them unable to pursue the university course without some extraneous - assistance."[20] - -It must be remembered, moreover, that when a mediæval benefactor founded -a college his intentions were very different from those which would -actuate a similar person at the present day. His object was to provide -board and lodging and a small stipend, _not for students, but for -teachers_. As for the taught, they lodged where they could, like -students at a Scottish or a Continental university to-day; and it was -not until the sixteenth century was well advanced that they were -admitted within the precincts of the colleges on the payment of a small -annual rent or "pension"--whence the modern name of "pensioner" for the -undergraduate or pupil members of the college. Indeed, the term -"college" (_collegium_), as applied to a building, is a modern use of -the word. In the old days the term "college" was strictly and accurately -applied to the persons who formed the community of scholars, not to the -building which housed them. For that building the correct term always -used in mediæval times was "domus" (house), or "aula" (hall). Sometimes, -indeed, the two names were combined. Thus, in an old document we find -the earliest of the colleges--Peterhouse--entitled, _Domus Sancti Petri, -sive Aula Scholarium Episcopi Eliensis_--The House of S. Peter, or the -Hall of the Scholars of the Bishop of Ely. - -In all probability the University in early days took no cognisance -whatever of the way in which students obtained lodgings. It was the -inconvenience and discomfort of this system, no doubt, which led to the -establishment of what were afterwards termed "Hostels," apparently by -voluntary action on the part of the students themselves. In the first -half of the sixteenth century there seem to have been about twenty of -these hostels,[21] but at the end of the century there appears to have -been only about nine left. There is an interesting passage in a sermon -by Lever at Paul's Cross, preached in 1550, which throws light upon this -desertion of the hostels, where he speaks of those scholars who, "havyng -rych frendes or beyng benefyced men dyd lyve of themselves in Ostles and -Inns, be eyther gon awaye, or elles fayne to crepe into colleges, and -put poore men from bare lyvynges." - -The University then, or, more strictly speaking, the _Studium Generale_, -existed as an institution long before the organisation of the -residential college or hall; and as a consequence, for many a year it -had an organisation quite independent of its colleges. The University of -Cambridge, like the University of Oxford, was modelled mainly on the -University of Paris. Its course of study followed the old classical -tradition of the division of the seven liberal sciences--grammar, logic, -rhetoric, music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy--into two classes, -the _Trivium_ and _Quadrivium_, a system of teaching which had been -handed down by the monastic schools in a series of text-books, jejune -and meagre, which were mainly compilations and abridgments from the -older classical sources. One such treatise, perhaps the most popular in -the monastery schools, was a book by Martianus Capella, a teacher of -rhetoric at Carthage, in the fifth century. The treatise is cast in -allegorical form, and represents the espousals of Mercury and Philology, -in which Philology is represented as a goddess, and the seven liberal -arts as handmaidens presented by Mercury to his bride. The humour of -this allegory is not altogether spiritless, if at times somewhat coarse. -Here is a specimen. The plaudits that follow upon the discourse -delivered by Arithmetica are supposed to be interrupted by laughter, -occasioned by the loud snores of Silenus asleep under the influence of -his deep potations. The kiss wherewith Rhetorica salutes Philologia is -heard throughout the assembly--_nihil enim silens, ac si cuperet, -faciebat_. So popular did this mythological medley become, that in the -tenth century we find certain learned monks embroidering the subject of -the poem on their Church vestments. A _memoria technica_ in hexameter -lines has also come down to us, showing how the monastic scholar was -assisted to remember that grammar, dialectics, and rhetoric belonged to -the first division of the sciences called the _Trivium_, and that the -four other sciences belonged to the _Quadrivium_:-- - - "_Gram._: loquitur; _Dia._: vera docet; _Rhet._: verba colorat, - _Mus._: canit; _Ar._: numerat; _Geo._: ponderat; _Ast._: colit astra." - -In a further classification given by another scholar of the end of the -twelfth century, Alexander Neckham, we have enumerated the four -Faculties recognised by the mediæval University: Arts, Theology, Law, -Medicine. - -"Hic florent Artes, Coelestis Pagina regnat, - Stant Leges, lucet Jus: Medicina viget." - -Such, then, was the cycle of mediæval study. And the student whose -ambition it was to become a master of this cycle--a _magister_ or -_doctor_ (for in early days the two titles were synonymous) -_facultatis_--must attain to it through a seven years' course. In the -school attached to a monastery or a cathedral, or from the priest of his -native parish, we may suppose that the student has learnt some modicum -of Latin, "the scholar's vernacular," or failing that, that the first -stage of the _Trivium_--_Grammatica_--has been learnt on his arrival at -the University. For this purpose, if he is a Cambridge student at least, -he is placed under the charge of a special teacher, called by a -mysterious name, _Magister Glomeriæ_, and he himself becomes a -"glomerel," giving allegiance oddly enough during this state of -pupilage, not to the Chancellor, the head of his University, but to the -Archdeacon of Ely. Of the actual books read in the grammar course it is -difficult to give an account. They may have been few or many. Indeed, at -this period when the works of Aristotle were coming so much into vogue, -it would seem as if the old Grammar course gave way at an early period -to Philosophy. In a curious old French fabliau of the thirteenth -century, entitled "The Battle of the Seven Arts,"[22] there is evidence -of this innovation; incidentally also, a list of the books more properly -belonging to the Grammar course is also given. - -"Savez por qui est la descorde? - Qu'il ne sont pas d'une science: - Car Logique, qui toz jors tence, - Claime les auctors autoriaus - Et les clers d'Orliens _glomeriaus_. - Si vaut bien chascuns iiii Omers, - Quar il boivent à granz gomers, - Et sevent bien versefier - Que d'une fueille d'un figuier - Vous ferent-il le vers. - - * * * * * - - Aristote, qui fu à pié, - Si fist chéoir Gramaire enverse, - Lors i a point Mesire Perse - Dant Juvénal et dant Orasce, - Virgile, Lucain, et Elasce, - Et Sedule, Propre, Prudence, - Arator, Omer, et Térence: - Tuit chaplèrent sor Aristote, - Qui fu fers com chastel sor mote." - -"Do you know the reason of the discord? - 'Tis because they are not for the same science, - For Logic, who is always disputing, - Claims the ancient authors, - And the glomerel clerks of Orleans, - Each of them is quite equal to four Homers, - For they drink by great draughts - And know so well how to make verse, - That about a single fig leaf - They would make you fifty verses. - - * * * * * - - Aristotle who was on foot - Knocked Grammar down flat. - Then there rode up Master Persius, - Dan Juvenal and Dan Horace, - Virgil, Lucan, and Statius, - And Sedulius, Prosper, Prudentius, - Arator, Homer, and Terence: - They all fell upon Aristotle - Who was as bold as a castle upon a hill." - -And so for the Cambridge "glomerel," if Aristotle held his own against -the classics, Dan Homer, and the rest, in the second year of his -university course the student would find himself a "sophister," or -disputant in the Logic school. To Logic succeeded Rhetoric, which also -meant Aristotle, and so the "trivial" arts were at an end, and the -"incepting" or "commencing" bachelor of arts began his apprenticeship to -a "Master of Faculty." In the next four years he passed through the -successive stages of the _Quadrivium_, and at the end received the -certificate of his professor, was admitted to the degree of Master of -Arts, and thereby was admitted also to the brotherhood of teachers, and -himself became an authorised lecturer. A post-graduate course might -follow in Theology or Canon or Civil Law, involving another five or six -years of university life. In the course for the Canon Law the candidate -for a doctor's degree was required to have heard lectures on the civil -law for three years, and on the Decretals for another three years; he -must, too, have attended cursory lectures on the Bible for at least two -years, and must himself have lectured "cursorily" on one of four -treatises, and on some one book of the Decretals. - -Obviously, if this statutory course was strictly observed in those days, -the scarlet hood could never grace the shoulders of one who was nothing -more than a dexterous logician, or the honoured title of Doctor be -conferred on one who had never taught. _Disce docendo_ was indeed the -motto of the University of Cambridge in the thirteenth century. - -The great constitutional historian of our country, the late Bishop -Stubbs, in one of the wisest and wittiest of his statutable lectures at -Oxford,[23] speaks of England in this age as "the paradise of clerks." -He illustrates the truth of his characterisation by drawing an imaginary -picture of a foreign scholar making an _Iter Anglicum_ with the object -of collecting materials for a history of the learning and literature of -England. The Bishop is able readily to crowd his canvas with the figures -of eminent Englishmen drawn from centres of learning in every part of -the land, from Dover, from Canterbury, from London, from Rochester, from -Chichester, from Winchester, from Devizes, from Salisbury, from Exeter, -from S. Albans, from Ely, from Peterborough, from Lincoln, from Howden, -from York, from Durham, from Hexham, from Melrose; scholars, historians, -chroniclers, poets, philosophers, logicians, theologians, canonists, -lawyers, all going to prove by the glimpse they give us into circles of -scholastic activity, monastic for the most part, how comparatively wide -was the extent of English learning and English education in the -thirteenth century--an age which it has usually been the fashion to -regard as barbarous and obscure--and how germinant of institutions, -intellectual as well as political, which have since become vital -portions of our national existence. - -From the point of view of a later age there is doubtless something to be -said on the other side. _Disce docendo_ remained perhaps the academic -motto, but the learning and the teaching was still under the domination -of monasticism, and the monastic scholar, however patient and laborious -he might be and certainly was, was also for the most part absolutely -uncritical. He cultivated formal logic to perfection; he reasoned from -his premise with most admirable subtlety, but he had usually commenced -by assuming his premise with unfaltering, because unreasoning, faith. We -shall see, however, as we proceed with our history of the collegiate -life of the University, in the succeeding centuries, that the critical -spirit which gave force to the genius of the great Franciscan teachers, -Roger Bacon and Bishop Grosseteste, in resisting the tendencies of their -age, which found practical application also in the textual -interpretation of Holy Writ in such writings as those of Henry of -Costessey, or in the sagacious "Treatise on the Laws and Customs of -England"--the oldest of our legal classics--by Ranulf Glanville, or in -the "Historia Rerum Anglicanum," of the inquisitive and -independent-minded Yorkshire scholar, William of Newburgh, was a factor -not to be ignored in the heritage of learning bequeathed by the great -men of the thirteenth century to their more enlightened and liberal -successors, the theologians, the lawyers, and the historians of the -future. - -There is a mediæval legend of a certain monkish writer, whose tomb was -opened twenty years or so after his death, to reveal the fact, that -although the remainder of his body had crumbled to dust the hand that -had held the pen remained flexible and undecayed. The legend is a -parable. Some of the lessons of that parable we may expect to find -interpreted in the academic history of Cambridge in the fourteenth and -fifteenth centuries. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -THE EARLIEST COLLEGE FOUNDATION: PETERHOUSE - - "Re unius - Exemplo omnium quoquot extant - Collegiorum, fundatori."--_Epitaph of Walter de Merton._ - - The Early Monastic Houses in Cambridge--Student Proselytising by - the Friars--The Oxford College of Merton a Protest against this - Tendency--The Rule of Merton taken as a Model by Hugh de Balsham, - Founder of Peterhouse--The Hospital of S. John--The Scholars of - Ely--Domestic Economy of the College--The Dress of the Mediæval - Student--Peterhouse Buildings--Little S. Mary's Church--The Perne - Library--The College Chapel. - - -The first beginnings of the University of Cambridge are, as we have seen -in the preceding chapters, largely traceable to a monastic inspiration. -The first beginnings of the Cambridge Colleges, on the other hand, are -as certainly traceable to the protest which, as early as the middle of -the thirteenth century, it became necessary to make against the -proselytising tendencies of the monastic Orders. At a time when, as we -have seen, the University authorities took no cognisance whatever of the -way in which the student was lodged, and when even the unsatisfactory -hostel system--eventually organised, as it would appear, by voluntary -action on the part of the students themselves--did not exist, the houses -of the monastic Orders were already well established. We have described -the fully-equipped house of the Augustinian Canons at Barnwell. Within -the town the Franciscans had established themselves, as early as 1224, -in the old synagogue, and fifty years later had erected, on the present -site of Sydney College, a spacious house, which Ascham long afterwards -described as an ornament to the University, and the precincts of which -were still, in the time of Fuller, to be traced in the College grounds. -In 1274 the Dominicans had settled where Emmanuel now stands. About the -middle of the century the Carmelites, who had originally occupied an -extensive foundation at Newnham, but were driven from thence by the -winter floods, settled near the present site of Queens. Towards the -close of the century the Augustinian Friars took up their residence near -the site of the old Botanic Gardens. Opposite to the south part of the -present gardens of Peterhouse, on the east side of Trumpington Street, -were the Gilbertines, or the Canons of S. Gilbert of Sempringham, the -one purely English foundation. In 1257 the Friars of the Order of -Bethlehem settled also in Trumpington Street, and in 1258 the Friars of -the Sack, or of the Penitence of Jesus Christ, settled in the parish of -S. Mary the Great, removed soon afterwards to the parish of S. Peter -without the Trumpington Gate. - -It was natural, therefore, that these well-equipped houses should hold -out great attractions and opportunities to the needy and houseless -student, and that complaint should shortly be made that many young and -unsuspicious boys were induced to enrol themselves as members of -Franciscan, or Dominican, or other Friars' houses long before they were -capable of judging the full importance of their action. One cannot read -the biographies of even such strong personalities as those of Roger -Bacon or William of Occam without surmising that their adoption of the -Franciscan vow was the result rather of the exigency of the student and -the proselytising activity to which they were exposed, than of any -distinct vocation for the monastic life, or of their own deliberate -choice. "Minors and children," as Fuller says in his usual quaint vein, -"agree very well together." To such an extent at any rate had the evil -spread at Oxford that, in a preamble of a statute passed in 1358, it is -asserted, as a notorious fact, that "the nobility and commoners alike -were deterred from sending their sons to the University by this very -cause; and it was enacted that if any mendicant should induce, or cause -to be induced, any member of the University under eighteen years of age -to join the said Friars, or should in any way assist in his abduction, -no graduate belonging to the cloister or society of which such friar was -a member should be permitted to give or attend lectures in Oxford or -elsewhere for the year ensuing."[24] It is not perhaps, therefore, -surprising to find that the earliest English Collegiate foundation--that -of Walter de Merton at Oxford in 1264--should have expressly excluded -all members of the religious Orders. The dangers involved in the -ascendency of the monks and friars were already patent to many sagacious -minds, and Bishop Walter de Merton, who had filled the high office of -Chancellor of England, and was already by his position an adversary of -the Franciscan interest, was evidently desirous of establishing an -institution which should not only baffle that encroaching spirit of Rome -which had startled Grosseteste from his allegiance, but should also give -an impulse to a system of education which should not be subservient to -purely ecclesiastical ideas. This is obviously the principle which -underlies the provisions of the statutes of his foundation of Merton -College. Bishop Hobhouse in his _Life of Walter de Merton_ has thus -carefully interpreted this principle:-- - - "Our founder's object I conceive to have been to secure for his own - order in the Church, for the secular priesthood, the academical - benefit which the religious orders were so largely enjoying, and to - this end I think all his provisions are found to be consistently - framed. He borrowed from the monastic institutions the idea of an - aggregate body living by common rule, under a common head, provided - with all things needful for a corporate and perpetual life, fed by - its secured endowments, fenced from all external interference, - except that of its lawful patron; but after borrowing thus much, he - differenced his institution by giving his beneficiaries quite a - distinct employment, and keeping them free from all those perpetual - obligations which constituted the essence of the religious life.... - His beneficiaries are from the first designated as _Scholares in - scholis degentes_; their employment was study, not what was - technically called "the religious life" (_i.e._ the life of a - monk).... He forbade his scholars even to take vows, they were to - keep themselves free of every other institution, to render no one - else's _obsequium_. He looked forward to their going forth to - labour _in seculo_, and acquiring preferment and property.... Study - being the function of the inmates of his house, their time was not - to be taken up by ritual or ceremonial duties, for which special - chaplains were appointed; neither was it to be bestowed on any - handicrafts, as in some monastic orders. Voluntary poverty was not - enjoined, though poor circumstances were a qualification for a - fellowship. No austerity was required, though contentment with - simple fare was enforced as a duty, and the system of enlarging the - number of inmates according to the means of the house was framed to - keep the allowance to each at the very moderate rate which the - founder fixed. The proofs of his design to benefit the Church - through a better educated secular priesthood are to be found, not - in the letter of their statutes, but in the tenour of their - provisions, especially as to studies, in the direct averments of - some of the subsidiary documents, in the fact of his providing - Church patronage as part of his system, and in the readiness of - prelates and chapters to grant him impropriation of the rectorial - endowments of the Church." - -Such was the _Regula Mertonensis_, the Rule of Merton, as it came to be -called, which served as the model for so many subsequent statutes. - -This _Regula_ Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely (1257-1286), evidently had -before him, when some twenty years after his consecration to the -bishopric, he proceeded, by giving a new form to an earlier benefaction -of his own, to open a new chapter in the history of the University of -Cambridge. - -Hugh de Balsham, before his elevation to the bishopric, had been -sub-prior of the Ely monastery, and at first sight therefore it might -seem a little surprising that he should have thought of encouraging a -system of education which was not to be subject to the monastic rule. -But Hugh de Balsham was a Benedictine monk, and the Benedictines in -England at this time were the upholders of a less stringent and ascetic -discipline than that of the mendicant orders, and were, in fact, -endeavouring in every way to counteract their influence. It had been the -aim of Bishop Balsham, in the first instance, to endeavour to bring -about a kind of fusion between the old and the new elements in -university life, between the Regulars and the Seculars. But this first -effort was not fortunate. About the year 1280 he introduced a body of -secular scholars into the ancient Hospital of S. John. This Hospital of -the Brethren of S. John the Evangelist had been founded, in the year of -1135, by Henry Frost, a wealthy and charitable burgess of the city, and -placed under the management of a body of regular canons of the -Augustinian Order. At a somewhat later time, Bishop Eustace, the fifth -Bishop of Ely, added largely by his benefactions to the importance of -the house. It was he who appropriated to the hospital the Church of S. -Peter, without the Trumpington Gate. Hugh of Northwold, the eighth -bishop, is said, at least by one authority, to have placed some secular -scholars there, who devoted themselves to academical study rather than -to the services of the Church, and he certainly obtained for the -Hospital certain exemptions from taxation in connection with their two -hostels near S. Peter's Church. The endowment of the secular students -was still further cared for by Bishop Hugh de Balsham. In the preamble -to certain letters patent of Edward I. (1280) authorising the -settlement, the Bishop, after a wordy comparison, in mediæval phrase, of -King Edward's wisdom with that of King Solomon, is credited with the -intention of introducing "into the dwelling place of the secular -brethren of his Hospital of S. John studious scholars who shall in -everything live together as students in the University of Cambridge, -according to the rule of the scholars of Oxford who are called of -Merton."[25] This document fixes the date of the royal license, on which -there can be little doubt that action was immediately taken. The change -of system was most unpalatable to the original foundationers and led to -unappeasable dissension. The regulars, it may be conjectured, were -absorbed in their religious services and in the performance of the -special charitable offices of the Hospital; while the scholars were, -doubtless, eager to be instructed in the Latin authors, in the new -Theology, in the civil and the canon law, perhaps in the "new -Aristotle," which at this time was beginning to excite so much -enthusiasm among western scholars. Anyhow, the two elements were too -dissimilar to combine. Differences arose, feuds and jealousies sprang -up, and eventually the good bishop found himself under the necessity of -separating the Ely scholars from the Brethren of the Hospital. This he -did by transplanting the scholars to the two hostels (_hospicia_) -adjoining the Church of S. Peter, without the Trumpington Gate, -assigning to them the Church itself and certain revenues belonging to -it, inclusive of the tithes of the church mills. This was in the year -1284, and marks the foundation of Peterhouse as the earliest of -Cambridge colleges. The Hospital of S. John, thus freed from the -scholarly element, went quietly on its career, to become, as we shall -see later, the nucleus of the great foundation of S. John's College. It -may have been a disappointment to Bishop Hugh that he had not been able -to fuse together the two dissimilar elements--"the scholars too wise, -and the brethren possibly over-good"--in one corporation. But, as Baker, -the historian of S. John's College, has said: "Could he but have -foreseen that this broken and imperfect society was to give birth to two -great and lasting foundations, he would have had much joy in his -disappointment." - -In the year 1309 the new foundation of "the Scholars of the Bishops of -Ely" obtained certain adjoining property hitherto occupied by the Friars -of the Sack (_De Penetentia Jesu_), an Order doomed to extinction by the -Council of Lyons in 1274. Its slender resources were further added to on -the death of its founder by his bequest of 300 marks for the erection of -new buildings. With this sum a considerable area to the west and south -of the original hostels was acquired, and a handsome hall (_aulam -perpulchram_) was built. This hall is substantially the building still -in use. It was left, however, to his successor in the Bishopric of Ely, -Simon Montagu (1337-1345), to give to the new college its first code of -statutes. Bishop Simon, one is glad to think, did not forget the good -intentions of Bishop Hugh, for in his code of statutes, dated April -1344, he thus speaks of his predecessor:-- - - "Desirous for the weal of his soul while he dwelt in this vale of - tears, and to provide wholesomely, as far as in him lay, for poor - persons wishing to make themselves proficient in the knowledge of - letters, by securing to them a proper maintenance, he founded a - house or College for the public good in our University of - Cambridge, with the consent of King Edward and his beloved sons, - the prior and chapter of our Cathedral, all due requirements of law - being observed; which House he desired to be called the House of S. - Peter or the Hall (_aula_) of the scholars of the Bishops of Ely at - Cambridge; and he endowed it and made ordinances for it (_in - aliquibus ordinavit_) so far as he was then able; but not as he - intended and wished to do, as we hear, had not death frustrated his - intention. In this House he willed that there should be one master - and as many scholars as could be suitably maintained for the - possessions of the house itself in a lawful manner."[26] - -There can be little doubt that the statutes which Bishop Montagu gave to -the college represent the wishes of his predecessor, for the Peterhouse -statutes are actually modelled on the fourth of the codes of statutes -given by Merton to his college, and dated 1274. The formula "_ad instar -Aulæ de Merton_" is a constantly recurring phrase in Montagu's statutes. -The true principle of collegiate endowments could not be more plainly -stated, and certainly these statutes may be regarded as the embodiment -of the earliest conception of college life and discipline at Cambridge. -A master and fourteen perpetual fellows,[27] "studiously engaged in the -pursuit of literature," represent the body supported on the foundation; -the "pensioner" of later times being, of course, at this period provided -for already by the hostel. In case of a vacancy among the Fellows "the -most able bachelor in logic" is designated as the one on whom, _cæteris -paribus_, the election is to fall, the other requirement being that, "so -far as human frailty admit, he be honourable, chaste, peaceable, humble, -and modest." "The Scholars of Ely" were bound to devote themselves to -the "study of Arts, Aristotle, Canon Law, Theology," but, as at Merton, -the basis of a sound Liberal Education was to be laid before the study -of theology was to be entered upon; two were to be admitted to the study -of the civil and the canon law, and one to that of medicine. When any -Fellow was about to "incept" in any faculty, it devolved upon the master -with the rest of the Fellows to inquire in what manner he had conducted -himself and gone through his exercises in the schools, how long he had -heard lectures in the faculty in which he was about to incept, and -whether he had gone through the forms according to the statutes of the -university. The sizar of later times is recognised in the provision, -that if the funds of the Foundation permit, the master and the two -deacons shall select two or three youths, "indigent scholars well -grounded in Latin"--_juvenes indigentes scholares in grammatica -notabiliter fundatos_--to be maintained, "as long as may seem fit," by -the college alms, such poor scholars being bound to attend upon the -master and fellows in church, on feast days and other ceremonial -occasions, to serve the master and fellows at seasonable times at table -and in their rooms. All meals were to be partaken in common; but it -would seem that this regulation was intended rather to conduce towards -an economical management than enacted in any spirit of studied -conformity to monastic life, for, adds the statute, "the scholars shall -patiently support this manner of living until their means shall, under -God's favour, have received more plentiful increase."[28] - -An interesting feature in these statutes is the regulation with regard -to the distinctive dress of the student, showing how little regard was -paid at this period, even when the student was a priest, to the wearing -of a costume which might have been considered appropriate to the staid -character of his profession. - - "The Students," writes Mr. Cooper,[29] "disdaining the tonsure, the - distinctive mark of their order, wore their hair either hanging - down on their shoulders in an effeminate manner, or curled and - powdered: they had long beards, and their apparel more resembled - that of soldiers than of priests; they were attired in cloaks with - furred edges, long hanging sleeves not covering their elbows, shoes - chequered with red and green and tippets of an unusual length; - their fingers were decorated with rings, and at their waists they - wore large and costly girdles, enamelled with figures and gilt; to - the girdles hung knives like swords." - -In order to repress this laxity and want of discipline, Archbishop -Stratford, at a later period in the year 1342, issued an order that no -student of the university, unless he should reform his "person and -apparel" should receive any ecclesiastical degree or honour. It was -doubtless in reference to some such order as this that one of the -statutes of Peterhouse ran to this effect:-- - - "Inasmuch as the dress, demeanour, and carriage of scholars are - evidences of themselves, and by such means it is seen more clearly, - or may be presumed what they themselves are internally, we enact - and ordain, that the master and all and each of the scholars of our - house shall _adopt the clerical dress and tonsure_, as becomes the - condition of each, and wear it conformally in respect, as far as - they conveniently can, and not allow their beard or their hair to - grow contrary to canonical prohibition, nor wear rings upon their - fingers for their own vain glory and boasting, and to the - pernicious example and scandal of others."[30] - -[Illustration: Peterhouse College] - -"The Philosophy of Clothes," especially in its application to the -mediæval universities, is no doubt an interesting one, and may even--so, -at least, it is said by some authorities--throw much light upon the -relations of the universities to the Church. The whole subject is -discussed in some detail in the chapter on "Student Life in the Middle -Ages," in Mr. Rashdall's "History of the Universities of Europe," to -which, perhaps, it may be best to refer those of our readers who are -desirous of tracing the various steps in the gradual evolution of modern -academic dress from the antique forms. There it will be seen how the -present doctor's scarlet gown was developed from the magisterial "cappa" -or "cope," a sleeveless scarlet cloak, lined with miniver, with tippet -and hood attached of the same material--a dress which, in its original -shape, is now only to be seen in the Senate House at Cambridge, worn -by the Vice-Chancellor on Degree days; how the present gown and hood of -the Master of Arts and Bachelor is merely a development of the ordinary -clerical dress or "tabard" of the thirteenth century, which, however, -was not even exclusively clerical, and certainly not distinguished by -that sobriety of hue characteristic of modern clerical -tailordom--clerkly prejudice in the matter of the "tabard" running in -favour of green, blue, or blood red; and how the modern "mortar-board," -or square college cap,--now usurped by undergraduates, and even -choristers and schoolboys--was originally the distinctive badge of a -Master of Faculty, being either a square cap or "biretta," with a tuft -on the top, in lieu of the very modern tassel, or a round cap or -"pileum," more or less resembling the velvet caps still worn by the -Yeomen of the Guard, or on very state occasions by the Cambridge or -Oxford doctors in medicine or law. The picturesque dress of university -students of the thirteenth century, still surviving in the long blue -coat and yellow stockings, and red leather girdle and white bands of the -boys of Christ's Hospital, is sufficient to show how much we have lost -of the warmth and colour of mediæval life by the almost universal change -to sombre black in clerical or student costume, brought about by the -Puritan austerity of the sixteenth century. - -To return to the fabric of Bishop Hugh de Balsham's College. We have -seen how a handsome hall (_aulam perpulchram_) was built with the 300 -marks of the Bishop's legacy. This is substantially the building of five -bays, which still exists, forming the westernmost part of the south -side of the Great Court of the College. The three easternmost bays are -taken up by the dining-hall or refectory, the westernmost is devoted to -the buttery, the intervening bay is occupied by the screens and passage, -at either end of which there still remain the original north and south -doorways, interesting as being the earliest example of collegiate -architecture in Cambridge. The windows of this hall on the south side -date from the end of the fifteenth century. The north-east oriel window -and the buttresses on the north side of the hall were added by Sir -Gilbert Scott in 1870, who also built the new screen, panelling, and -roof. At about the same time the hall was decorated and the windows -filled with stained glass of very great beauty by William Morris. The -figures represented in the windows are as follows (beginning from the -west on the north side): John Whitgift, John Cosin, Rd. Tresham, Thos. -Gray, Duke of Grafton, Henry Cavendish; in the oriel--Homer, Aristotle, -Cicero, Hugh de Balsham, Roger Bacon, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton; on -the south side--Edward I., Queen Eleanor, Hugh de Balsham, S. George, S. -Peter, S. Etheldreda, John Holbroke, Henry Beaufort, John Warkworth. - -After the building of this hall the College evidently languished for -want of funds for more than a century. But in the fifteenth century the -College began to prosper, and a good deal of building was done. The -character of the work is not expressly stated in the Bursar's Rolls--of -which there are some thirty-one still existing of the fifteenth -century, and a fairly complete set of the subsequent centuries--but the -earliest buildings of this date are probably the range of chambers -forming the north and west side of the great court. The kitchen, which -is immediately to the west of the hall, dates from 1450. The Fellows' -parlour or combination room, completing the third side of the -quadrangle, and immediately east of the dining-hall, was built some ten -years later. - -Cole has given the following precise description of this room:-- - - "This curious old room joins immediately to the east end of the - dining-hall or refectory, and is a ground floor called The Stone - Parlour, on the south side of the Quadrangle, between the said hall - and the master's own lodge. It is a large room and wainscotted with - small oblong Panels. The two upper rows of which are filled with - paintings on board of several of the older Masters and Benefactors - to the College. Each picture has an Inscription in the corner, and - on a separate long Panel under each, much ornamented with painting, - is a Latin Distic." ...[31] - -Then follows a description of each portrait--there are thirty in -all--with its accompanying distich. As an example, we may give that -belonging to the portrait of Dr. Andrew Perne: - - Bibliothecæ Libri Redditus pulcherrima Dona Perne, pium Musiste, - Philomuse, probant. - - _Andreas Perne, Doctor Theol. Decanus Ecclesiæ Eliensis, Magister - Collegii, obiit 26 Aprilis, Anno Dom. 1573._ - -These panel portraits were removed from their framework in the -eighteenth century, and framed and hung in the master's lodge, but have -since been re-hung for the most part in the college hall, and their -Latin distichs restored according to Cole's record of them. The windows -of the Combination Room have been filled with stained glass by William -Morris, representing ten ideal women from Chaucer's "Legend of Good -Women." - -On the upper storey of the combination room was the master's lodge. The -situation of these rooms at the upper end of the hall is almost as -invariable in collegiate plans as that of the buttery and kitchen at the -other end. The same may be said of that most picturesque feature of the -turret staircase leading from the master's rooms to the hall, parlour, -and garden, which we shall find repeated in the plans of S. John's, -Christ's, Queen's, and Pembroke Colleges. About the same period (1450) -the range of chambers on the north side of the court was at its -easternmost end connected by a gallery with the Church of S. Mary, which -remained in use as the College chapel down to the seventeenth century. -This gallery, on the level of the upper floor of the College chambers, -was carried on arches so as not to obstruct the entrance to the -churchyard and south porch from the High Street, by a similar -arrangement to that which from the first existed between Corpus Christi -College and the ancient Church of S. Benedict. - -The Parish Church of S. Peter, without the Trumpington Gate, had from -the first been used as the College Chapel of Peterhouse. Indeed, the -earliest college in Cambridge was the latest to possess a private chapel -of its own, which was not built until 1628. All that remains, however, -of the old Church of S. Peter is a fragment of the tower, standing at -the north-west corner of the present building and the arch which led -from it into the church. This probably marks the west end of the old -church, which, no doubt, was much shorter than the present one. It is -said that this old church fell down in part about 1340, and a new church -was at once begun in its place. This was finished in 1352 and dedicated -to the honour of the blessed Virgin Mary. The church is a very beautiful -one, though of an unusual simplicity of design. It is without aisles or -any structural division between nave and chancel. It is lighted by lofty -windows and deep buttresses. On the south side and at the eastern gable -are rich flowing decorated windows, the tracery of which is designed in -the same style, and in many respects with the same patterns, as those of -Alan de Walsingham's Lady Chapel at Ely. Indeed, a comparison of the -Church of Little S. Mary with the Ely Lady Chapel, not only in its -general conception, but in many of its details, such as that of the -stone tabernacles on the outer face of the eastern gable curiously -connected with the tracery of the window, would lead a careful observer -to the conclusion that both churches had been planned by the same -architect. The change of the old name of the church from S. Peter to -that of S. Mary the Virgin is also, in this relation, suggestive. For -we must remember that it was built at a time--the age of Dante and -Chaucer--when Catholic purity, in the best natures, united to the -tenderness of chivalry was casting its glamour over poetic and artistic -minds, and had already led to the establishment in Italy of an -Order--the _Cavalieri Godenti_--pledged to defend the existence, or, -more accurately perhaps, the dignity of the Virgin Mary, by the -establishment everywhere throughout western Europe of Lady Chapels in -her honour. Whether Alan de Walsingham, the builder of the Ely Lady -Chapel, and the builder of the Church of Little S. Mary at Cambridge--if -he was not Alan--belonged to this Order of the Cavaliers of S. Mary, we -cannot say; but at least it seems probable that the Cambridge Church -sprang from the same impulse which inspired the magnificent stone poem -in praise of S. Mary, built by the sacrist of Ely. - -At this period Peterhouse consisted of two courts, separated by a wall -occupying the position of the present arcade at the west end of the -chapel. The westernmost or principal court is, save in some small -details, that which we see to-day. The small eastern court next to the -street has undergone great alteration by the removal of certain old -dwelling-houses--possibly relics of the original hostels--fronting the -street, which left an open space, occupied at a later period partly by -the chapel and by the extension eastward of the buildings on the south -side of the great court to form a new library, and subsequently by a -similar flanking extension on the north. - -The earliest of these buildings was the library, due to a bequest of Dr. -Andrew Perne, Dean of Ely, who was master of the College from 1553 to -1589, and who not only left to the society his own library, "supposed to -be the worthiest in all England," but sufficient property for the -erection of a building to contain it. Perne had gained in early life a -position of importance in the University--he had been a fellow of both -S. John's and of Queen's, bursar of the latter College and five times -vice-chancellor of the University--but his success in life was mainly -due to his pliancy in matters of religion. In Henry's reign he had -publicly maintained the Roman doctrine of the adoration of pictures of -Christ and the Saints; in Edward VI.'s he had argued in the University -pulpit against transubstantiation; in Queen Mary's, on his appointment -to the mastership of Peterhouse, he had formally subscribed to the fully -defined Roman articles then promulgated; in Queen Elizabeth's he had -preached a Latin sermon in denunciation of the Pope, and had been -complimented for his eloquence by the Queen herself. No wonder that -immediately after his death in 1589 he should be hotly denounced in the -Martin Marprelate tracts as the friend of Archbishop Whitgift, and as -the type of fickleness and lack of principle which the authors -considered characteristic of the Established Church. Other writers of -the same school referred to him as "Old Andrew Turncoat," "Old Father -Palinode," and "Judas." The undergraduates of Cambridge, it is said, -invented in his honour a new Latin verb, _pernare_, which they -translated "to turn, to rat, to change often." It became proverbial in -the University to speak of a cloak or a coat which had been turned as -"perned," and finally the letters on the weathercock of S. Peter's, -A.P.A.P., might, said the satirists, be interpreted as Andrew Perne, a -Protestant, or Papist, or Puritan. However, it is much to be able to say -that he was the tutor and friend of Whitgift, protecting him in early -days from the persecution of Cardinal Pole; it is something also to -remember that he was uniformly steadfast in his allegiance to his -College, bequeathing to it his books, with minute directions for their -chaining and safe custody, providing for their housing, and moreover, -endowing two college fellowships and six scholarships; and perhaps -charity might prompt us to add, that at a time when the public religion -of the country changed four times in ten years, Perne probably trimmed -in matters of outward form that he might be at hand to help in matters -which he truly thought were really essential. - -The Perne Library at Peterhouse has no special architectural features of -any value; its main interest in that respect is to be found in the -picturesque gable-end with oriel window overhanging the street, bearing -above it the date 1633, which belongs to the brickwork extension -westward at that date of the original stone building. The building of -the library, however, preluded a period of considerable architectural -activity in the college, due largely to the energy of Dr. Matthew Wren, -who was master from 1625 to 1634. It is recorded of him that "seeing the -public offices of religion less decently performed, and the services of -God depending upon the services of others, for want of a convenient -oratory within the walls of the college," he began in 1629 to build the -present chapel. It was consecrated in 1632. The name of the architect is -not recorded. The chapel was connected as at present with the buildings -on either side by galleries carried on open arcades. Dr. Cosin, who -succeeded Wren in the mastership, continued the work, facing the chapel -walls, which had been built roughly in brick, with stone. An elaborate -ritual was introduced into the chapel by Cosin, who, it will be -remembered, was a friend and follower of Archbishop Laud. A Puritan -opponent of Cosin has written bitterly that "in Peter House Chappell -there was a glorious new altar set up and mounted on steps, to which the -master, fellows, and schollers bowed, and were enjoyned to bow by Dr. -Cosens, the master, who set it up; that there were basons, candlesticks, -tapers standing on it, and a great crucifix hanging over it ... and on -the altar a pot, which they usually call the incense pot.... And the -common report both among the schollers of that House and others, was -that none might approach to the altar in Peter House but in -sandalls."[32] - -It is not surprising, therefore, to read at a little later date in the -diary of the Puritan iconoclast, William Dowsing:-- - - "We went to Peterhouse, 1643, Decemb. 21, with officers and - souldiers and ... we pulled down 2 mighty great Angells with wings - and divers others Angells and the 4 Evangelists and Peter, with his - keies, over the Chapell dore and about a hundred chirubims and - Angells and divers superstitious Letters...." - -These to-day are all things of the past. The interior of the Chapel is -fitted partly with the genuine old mediæval panelling, possibly brought -from the parochial chancel of Little S. Mary's, or from its disused -chantries, now placed at the back of the stalls and in front of the -organ gallery, partly with oakwork, stalls and substalls, in the -Jacobæan style. The present altar-piece is of handsome modern wainscot. -The entrance door is mediæval, probably removed from elsewhere to -replace the doorway defaced by Dowsing. The only feature in the chapel -which can to-day be called--and that only by a somewhat doubtful -taste--"very magnifical," is the gaudy Munich stained-glass work -inserted in the lateral windows, as a memorial to Professor Smythe, in -1855 and 1858. The subjects are, on the north side, "The Sacrifice of -Isaac," "The Preaching of S. John the Baptist," "The Nativity"; and on -the south side, "The Resurrection," "The Healing of a Cripple by SS. -Peter and John," "S. Paul before Agrippa and Festus." The east window, -containing "The History of Christ's Passion," is said by Blomefield to -have been "hid in the late troublesome times in the very boxes which now -stand round the altar instead of rails." - - - - -CHAPTER V - -THE COLLEGES OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY - -"High potentates and dames of royal birth - And mitred fathers in long order go."--GRAY. - - The Fourteenth Century an Age of Great Men and Great Events but not - of Great Scholars--Petrarch and Richard of Bury--Michael House--The - King's Scholars--King's Hall--Clare Hall--Pembroke - College--Gonville Hall--Dr. John Caius--His Three Gates of - Humility, Virtue, and Honour. - - -The dates of the foundation of the two Colleges, Clare and Pembroke, -which, after an interval of some fifty and seventy years respectively, -followed that of Peterhouse, and the names of Lady Elizabeth, Countess -of Clare, and of Marie de Valence, Countess of Pembroke, who are -associated with them, remind us that we have reached that troublous and -romantic time which marked the close of the long and varied reign of the -Great Edward, and was the seed-time of those influences which ripened -during the longer and still more varied reign of Edward III. Between the -year 1326, which was the date of the first foundation of Clare College, -the date also of the deposition and murder of Edward II., and the year -1348, which is the date of the foundation of Pembroke and the -twenty-first year of Edward III., the distracted country had passed -through many vicissitudes. It had seen the great conflict of parties -under the leadership of the great houses of Lancaster, Gloucester, and -Pembroke, culminating in the king's deposition and in the rise of the -power of the English Parliament, and in its division into the two Houses -of Lords and Commons. It had seen the growth of the new class of landed -gentry, whose close social connection with the baronage on the one hand, -and of equally close political connection with the burgesses on the -other, had welded the three orders together, and had given to the -Parliament that unity of action and feeling on which its powers have -ever since mainly depended. It had seen the Common Law rise into the -dignity of a science and rapidly become a not unworthy rival of Imperial -Jurisprudence. It had seen the close of the great interest of Scottish -warfare, and the northern frontier of England carried back to the old -line of the Northumbrian kings. It had seen the strife with France -brought to what at the moment seemed to be an end, for the battle of -Crecy, at which the power of the English chivalry was to teach the world -the lesson which they had learned from Robert Bruce thirty years before -at Bannockburn, was still in the future, as also was the Hundred Years' -War of which that battle was the prelude. It had seen the scandalous -schism of the Western Church, and the vision of a Pope at Rome, and -another Pope at Avignon, awakening in the mind of the nations an -entirely new set of thoughts and feelings with regard to the position of -both the Papacy and the Church. The early fourteenth century was indeed -an age of great events and of great men; but it was not an age, at least -as far as England was concerned, of great scholars. There was no -Grosseteste in the fourteenth century. Petrarch, the typical man of -letters, the true inspirer of the classical Renaissance, and in a sense -the founder of really modern literature, was a great scholar and -humanist, but he had no contemporary in England who could be called an -equal or a rival. His one English friend, Richard of Bury, Bishop of -Durham, book lover as he was--for his _Philobiblon_ we all owe him a -debt of gratitude--was after all only an ardent amateur and no scholar. -When Petrarch had applied to Richard for some information as to the -geography of the Thule of the ancients, the Bishop had put him off with -the statement that he had not his books with him, but would write fully -on his return home. Though more than once reminded of his promise, he -left the disappointed poet without an answer. The fact was, that Richard -was not so learned that he could afford to confess his ignorance. He -corresponds, in fact, to the earlier humanists of Italy--men who -collected manuscripts and saw the possibilities of learning, though they -were unable to attain to it themselves. There is much in his -_Philobiblon_ of the greatest interest, as, for example, his description -of the means by which he had collected his library at Durham College, -and his directions to students for its careful use, but despite his own -fervid love and somewhat rhetorical praise of learning, there is still a -certain personal pathos in the expression of his own impatience with the -ignorance and superficiality of the younger students of his day. -Writing in the _Philobiblon_ of the prevalent characteristics of Oxford -at this time, he writes:-- - - "Forasmuch as (the students) are not grounded in their first - rudiment at the proper time, they build a tottering edifice on an - insecure foundation, and then when grown up they are ashamed to - learn that which they should have acquired when of tender years, - and thus must needs even pay the penalty of having too hastily - vaulted into the possession of authority to which they had no - claim. For these and like reasons, our young students fail to gain - by their scanty lucubrations that sound learning to which the - ancients attained, however they may occupy honourable posts, be - called by titles, be invested with the garb of office, or be - solemnly inducted into the seats of their seniors. Snatched from - their cradle and hastily weaned, they get a smattering of the rules - of Priscian and Donatus; in their teens and beardless they chatter - childishly concerning the Categories and the Perihermenias in the - composition of which Aristotle spent his whole soul."[33] - -It is to be feared that the decline of learning, which at this period -was characteristic, as we thus see, of Oxford, was equally -characteristic of Cambridge. Certainly there was no scholar there of the -calibre of William of Ockham, or even of Richard of Bury, or of the -Merton Realist, Bradwardine, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. It is -not indeed until more than a century later when we have reached the age -of Wycliffe, the first of the reformers and the last of the schoolmen, -that the name of any Cambridge scholar emerges upon the page of history. - -[Illustration: Clare College and Bridge] - -But meanwhile the collegiate system of the University was slowly -being developed. Some forty years after the foundation of Peterhouse, in -the year 1324, Hervey de Stanton, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Canon -of Bath and Wells, obtained from Edward II. permission to found at -Cambridge the College of "the Scholars of St. Michael." The college -itself, Michaelhouse, has long been merged in the great foundation of -Trinity, but its original statutes still exist and show that they were -conceived in a somewhat less liberal spirit than that of the code of -Hugh de Balsham. The monk and the friar are excluded from the society, -but the Rule of Merton is not mentioned. Two years afterwards, in 1326, -we find thirty-two scholars known as the "King's Scholars" maintained at -the University by Edward II. It seems probable that it had been the -intention of the King in this way to encourage the study of the civil -and the canon law, for books on these subjects were presented by him, -presumably for the use of the scholars, to Simon de Bury their warden, -and were subsequently taken away at the command of Queen Isabella. The -King had also intended to provide a hall of residence for these -"children of our chapel," but the execution of this design of -establishing a "King's Hall" was left to his son Edward III. The poet -Gray, in his "Installation Ode," has represented Edward III.-- - -"Great Edward with the lilies on his brow, - From haughty Gallia torn," - -in virtue of his foundation of King's Hall, which was subsequently -absorbed in the greater society, as the founder of Trinity College. But -the honour evidently belongs with more justice to his father. It was, -however, by Edward III. that the Hall was built near the Hospital of S. -John, "to the honour of God, the Blessed Virgin, and all the Saints, and -for the soul of the Lord Edward his father, late King of England, of -famous memory, and the souls of Philippa, Queen of England, his most -dear consort, and of his children and progenitors."[34] - -The statutes of King's Hall give an interesting contemporary picture of -collegiate life. The preamble moralises upon "the unbridled weakness of -humanity, prone by nature and from youth to evil, ignorant how to -abstain from things unlawful, easily falling into crime." It is required -that each scholar on his admission be proved to be of "good and -reputable conversation." He is not to be admitted under fourteen years -of age. His knowledge of Latin must be such as to qualify him for the -study of logic, or of whatever other branch of learning the master shall -decide, upon examination of his capacity, he is best fitted to follow. -The scholars were provided with lodging, food, and clothing. The sum -allowed for the weekly maintenance of a King's scholar was fourteen -pence, an unusually liberal allowance for weekly commons, suggesting the -idea that the foundation was probably designed for students of the -wealthier class, an indication which is further borne out by the -prohibitions with respect to the frequenting of taverns, the -introduction of dogs within the College precincts, the wearing of short -swords and peaked shoes (_contra honestatem clericalem_), the use of -bows, flutes, catapults, and the oft-repeated exhortation to orderly -conduct. - -Following upon the establishment of Michaelhouse and King's Hall, in the -year 1326 the University in its corporate capacity obtained a royal -licence to settle a body of scholars in two houses in Milne Street. This -college was called University Hall, a title already adopted by a similar -foundation at Oxford. The Chancellor of the University at the time was a -certain Richard de Badew. The foundation, however, did not at first meet -with much success. In 1336 its revenues were found insufficient to -support more than ten scholars. In 1338, however, we find Elizabeth de -Burgh, Countess of Clare and granddaughter of Edward I., coming to the -help of the struggling society. By the death of her brother, the Earl of -Gloucester, at the battle of Bannockburn, leaving no issue, the whole of -a very princely estate came into the possession of the Lady Clare and -her two sisters. Having, by a deed dated 6th April 1338, received from -Richard de Badew, who therein calls himself "Founder, Patron, and -Advocate of the House called the Hall of the University of Cambridge," -all the rights and titles of University Hall, the Lady Clare refounded -it, and supplied the endowments which hitherto it had lacked. The name -of the Hall was changed to Clare House (_Domus de Clare_). As early, -however, as 1346 we find it styled Clare Hall, a name which it bore down -to our own times, when, by resolution of the master and fellows in -1856, it was changed to Clare College. The following preamble to the -statutes of the College, which were granted in 1359, are perhaps worthy -of quotation as exhibiting, in spite of its quaint confusion of the -"Pearl of Great Price" with "the Candle set upon a Candlestick," the -pious and withal businesslike and sensible spirit of the foundress:-- - - "To all the sons of our Holy Mother Church, who shall look into - these pages, Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady de Clare, wishes health and - remembrance of this transaction. Experience, which is the mistress - of all things, clearly teaches that in every rank of life, as well - temporal as ecclesiastical, a knowledge of literature is of no - small advantage; which though it is searched into by many persons - in many different ways, yet in a University, a place that is - distinguished for the flourishing of general study, it is more - completely acquired; and after it has been obtained, she sends - forth her scholars who have tasted its sweets, apt and suitable men - in the Church of God and in the State, men who will rise to various - ranks according to the measure of their deserts. Desiring - therefore, since this consideration has come over us, to extend as - far as God has allowed us, for the furtherance of Divine worship, - and for the advance and good of the State, this kind of knowledge - which in consequence of a great number of men having been taken - away by the fangs of pestilence, is now beginning lamentably to - fail; we have turned the attention of our mind to the University of - Cambridge, in the Diocese of Ely; where there is a body of - students, and to a Hall therein, hitherto commonly called - University Hall, which already exists of our foundation, and which - we would have to bear the name of the House of Clare and no other, - for ever, and have caused it to be enlarged in its resources out of - the wealth given us by God and in the number of students; in order - that the Pearl of Great Price, Knowledge, found and acquired by - them by means of study and learning in the said University, may - not lie hid beneath a bushel, but be published abroad; and by being - published give light to those who walk in the dark paths of - ignorance. And in order that the Scholars residing in our aforesaid - House of Clare, under the protection of a more steadfast peace and - with the advantage of concord, may choose to engage with more free - will in study, we have carefully made certain statutes and - ordinances to last for ever."[35] - -[Illustration: Clare College and Bridge.] - -The distinguishing characteristic of these statutes is the great -liberality they show in the requirements with respect to the professedly -clerical element. This, as the preamble, in fact, suggests, was the -result of a desire to fill up the terrible gap caused in the ranks of -the clergy by the outbreak of the Black Death, which first made its -appearance in England in the year 1348, and caused the destruction of -two and a half millions of the population in a single year.[36] - -The Scholars or Fellows are to be twenty in number, of whom six are to -be in priest's orders at the time of their admission. The remaining -fellows are to be selected from bachelors or sophisters in arts, or from -"skilful and well-conducted" civilians and canonists, but only two -fellows may be civilians, and only one a canonist. The clauses relating -to the scheme of studies are, moreover, apparently intended to -discourage both these branches of law. - -Of the further progress of the College in the fourteenth and fifteenth -centuries we have no record, for the archives perished in the fire which -almost totally destroyed the early buildings in the year 1521. In the -seventeenth century, shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War, it -was proposed to rebuild the whole College, but owing to the troubles of -that time it was not until the beginning of the eighteenth century, in -the year 1715, that the work was finished. "The buildings are," said the -late Professor Willis, "among the most beautiful, from their situation -and general outline, that he could point out in the University." - -There is extant an amusing account of the controversy between Clare Hall -and King's College, caused by the desire of the former to procure a -certain piece of land for purposes of recreation on the east side of the -Cam, called Butt Close, belonging to King's. Here are two of the letters -which passed between the rival litigants. - - "_The Answer of Clare-Hall to Certaine Reasons of King's College - touching Butt-Close._ - - "1. To the first we answer:--Iº. That y{e} annoyance of y{e} windes - gathering betweene y^{e} Chappell and our Colledge is farre greater - and more detriment to y^{t} Chappell, then any benefitt which they - can imagine to receiue by y{e} shelter of our Colledge from wind - and sunne. - - "2º. That y^{e} Colledge of Clare-hall being sett so neare as now - it is, they will not only be sheltered from wind and sunne, but - much deprived both of ayre and light. - - "3º. That y^{e} remove all of Clare Hall 70 feet westward will take - away little or no considerable privacy from their gardens and - walkes; for y{t} one of their gardens is farre remote, and y^{e} - nearer fenced with a very high wall, and a vine spread upon a long - frame, under which they doe and may privately walke." - - "_A Reply of King's Colledge to y^{e} Answer of Clare-Hall._ - - "1. The wind so gathering breeds no detriment to our Chappell, nor - did ever putt us to any reparacions there. The upper battlements at - the west end haue sometimes suffered from y^{e} wind, but y^{e} - wind could not there be straightned by Clare-hall, w^{ch} scarce - reacheth to y^{e} fourth part of y^{e} height. - - "2º. No whit at all, for our lower story hath fewer windowes y^{t} - way: the other are so high y^{t} Clare-Hall darkens them not, and - hath windows so large y^{t} both for light and ayre no chambers in - any Coll. exceed them. - - "3º. The farther garden is not farre remote, being scarce 25 yards - distant from their intended building; y^{e} nearer is on one side - fenced with a high wall indeed, but y^{t} wall is fraudulently - alleaged by them, and beside y^{e} purpose: for y^{t} wall y^{t} - stands between their view and y^{e} garden is not much aboue 6 feet - in height: and y^{t} we haue any vine or frame there to walke under - is manifestly untrue."[37] - -However, the controversy was settled in favour of Clare-Hall by a letter -from the King. - -A tradition has long prevailed that Clare-Hall was the College mentioned -by the poet Chaucer in his "Reeve's Tale," in the lines-- - -"And nameliche ther was a greet collegge, - Men clepen the Soler-Halle at Cantebregge." - -There appears, however, to be good reason for thinking that the Soler -Hall was in reality Garrett Hostel, a _soler_ or sun-chamber being the -equivalent of a garret. For the tradition also that Chaucer himself was -a Clare man there is no authority. The College may well be satisfied -with the list of authentic names of great men which give lustre to the -roll of its scholars--Hugh Latimer, the reformer and fellow-martyr of -Ridley; Nicholas Ferrar, the founder of the religious community of -Little Gidding; Wheelock, the great Saxon and oriental scholar; Ralph -Cudworth, leader of the Cambridge Platonists; Archbishop Tillotson and -his pupil the philosopher, Thomas Burnett; Whiston, the translator of -"Josephus"; Cole, the antiquary; Maseres, the lawyer and mathematician. - -The foundation of Pembroke College, like that of Clare Hall, was also -due to the private sorrow of a noble lady. The poet Gray, himself a -Pembroke man, in the lines of his "Installation Ode," where he -commemorates the founders of the University-- - -"All that on Granta's fruitful plain - Rich streams of royal bounty poured," - -speaks of this lady as - -"...sad Chatillon on her bridal morn, - That wept her bleeding love." - -[Illustration: Pembroke College.] - -This is in allusion to the somewhat doubtful story thus told by Fuller-- - - "Mary de Saint Paul, daughter to Guido Castillion, Earl of S. Paul - in France, third wife to Audomare de Valentia, Earl of Pembroke, - maid, wife, and widow all in a day (her husband being unhappily - slain at a tilting at her nuptials), sequestered herself on that - sad accident from all worldly delights, bequeathed her soul to God, - and her estate to pious uses, amongst which this is principal, that - she founded in Cambridge the College of Mary de Valentia, commonly - called Pembroke Hall." - -[Illustration: Pembroke College] - -All that authentic history records is that the Earl of Pembroke died -suddenly whilst on a mission to the Court of France in June 1324. His -widow expended a large part of her very considerable fortune both in -France and England on works of piety. In 1342 she founded the Abbey of -Denny in Cambridgeshire for nuns of the Order of S. Clare. The Charter -of Foundation of Pembroke College is dated 9th June 1348. It is to be -regretted that the earliest Rule given to the College, or to the _Aula -seu Domus de Valence Marie_, the Hall of Valence Marie, as it was at -first called, is not extant. A revised rule of the conjectural date of -1366, and another of perhaps not more than ten years later, furnished, -however, the data upon which Dr. Ainslie, Master of the College from -1828 to 1870, drew up an abstract of its constitution and early -history.[38] The most interesting feature of this constitution is the -provision made in the first instance for the management of the College -by the Franciscans, and its abolition on a later revision. According to -the first code--"the head of the College was to be elected by the -fellows, and to be distinguished by the title of the Keeper of the -House." There were to be annually elected two rectors, _the one a Friar -Minor_, the other a secular. This provision of the two rectors was -abolished in the later code, and with it apparently all official -connection between the College and the Franciscan Order, and it may be -perhaps conjectured all association also with the sister foundation at -Denny, concerning which the foundress, in her final _Vale_ of the -earlier code, had given to the fellows of the House of Valence Marie the -following quaint direction, that "on all occasions they should give -their best counsel and aid to the Abbess and Sisters of Denny, who had -from her a common origin with them." - -[Illustration: Pembroke College Oriels & Entrance] - -The exact date at which the building of the College was begun is not -known, but it was probably not long after the purchase of the site in -1346. Many of the original buildings which remained down to 1874 were -destroyed in the reconstruction of the College at that time. It is now -only possible to imagine many of the most picturesque features of that -building, of which Queen Elizabeth, on her visit to Cambridge in 1564, -enthusiastically exclaimed in passing, "_O domus antiqua et religiosa!_" -by consulting the print of the College published by Loggan about 1688. -Of the interesting old features still left, we have the chapel at the -corner of Trumpington Street and Pembroke Street, built in 1360 and -refaced in 1663, and the line of buildings extending down Pembroke -Street to the new master's lodge and the Scott building of modern date. -The old chapel has been used as a library since 1663, when the new -chapel, whose west end abuts on Trumpington Street, was built by Sir -Christopher Wren. The cloister, called Hitcham's Cloister, which joins -the Wren Chapel to the fine old entrance gateway, and the Hitcham -building[39] on the south side of the inner court, are dated 1666 and -1659 respectively. All the rest of the College is modern. - -The early foundation of Pembroke College had some connection, as we have -seen, with the Franciscan Order. The early foundation of Gonville Hall, -which followed that of Pembroke in 1348, had a somewhat similar -connection with the Dominicans. Edward Gonville, its founder, was -vicar-general of the diocese of Ely, and rector of Ferrington and -Rushworth in Norfolk. In that county he had been instrumental in causing -the foundation of a Dominican house at Thetford. Two years before his -death he settled a master and two fellows in some tenements he had -bought in Luteburgh Lane, now called Free School Lane, on a site almost -coinciding with the present master's garden of Corpus, and gave to his -college the name of "the Hall of the Annunciation of the Blessed -Virgin." But he died in 1351, and left the completion of his design to -his executor, Bishop Bateman of Norwich. Bateman removed Gonville Hall -to the north-west corner of its present site, adjoining the "Hall of the -Holy Trinity," which he was himself endowing at the same period. -However, he too died within a few years, leaving both foundations -immature. The statutes of both halls are extant, and exhibit an -interesting contrast of ideal--the one that of a country parson of the -fourteenth century, moved by the simple desire to do something for the -encouragement of learning, and especially of theology, in the men of his -own profession--the other that of a Bishop, a learned canonist and busy -man of state, long resident at the Papal court at Avignon, regarded by -the Pope as "the flower of civilians and canonists," desirous above all -things by his College foundation of recruiting the ranks of his clergy, -thinned by the Black Death, with men trained, as he himself had been, in -the canon and civil law. It was the Bishop's ideal that triumphed. -Gonville's statutes requiring an almost exclusively theological training -for his scholars were abolished, and the course of study in the two -halls assimilated, Bateman, as founder of the two societies, by a deed -dated 1353, ratifying an agreement of fraternal affection and mutual -help between the two societies, as "scions of the same stock"; -assigning, however, the precedence to the members of Trinity Hall, -"_tanquam fratres primo geniti_."[40] The fellows were by this agreement -bound to live together in amity like brothers, to take counsel together -in legal and other difficulties, to wear robes or cloaks of the same -pattern, and to consort together at academic ceremonies. Thus Gonville -Hall was fairly started on its way. It ranked from the first as a small -foundation, and though it gradually added to its buildings and acquired -various endowments, it did not materially increase its area for two -centuries. The ancient walls of its early buildings--its chapel, hall, -library, and master's lodge--are all doubtless still standing, though -coated over with the ashlar placed on them in 1754. The ancient beams of -the roof of the old hall are still to be seen in the attics of the -present tutor's house. The upper room over the passage which leads from -Gonville to Caius Court is the ancient chamber of the lodge where the -early masters used to sleep, very little changed. The old main entrance -to the College was in Trinity Lane, a thoroughfare so filthy in the -reign of Richard II. that the King himself was appealed to, in order to -check the "_horror abominabilis_" through which students had to plunge -on their way to the schools. From time to time new benefactors of the -College came, though for the most part of a minor sort; some of whom, -however, have left quaint traces behind them. Of such was a certain -Cluniac monk, John Household by name, a student in 1513, who in his -will dated 1543 thus bequeaths--"To the College in Cambrydge called -Gunvyle Hall, my longer table-clothe, my two awter (altar) pillows, with -their bears of black satten bordered with velvet pirled with goulde: -also a frontelet with the salutation of Our Lady curely wroughte with -goulde; and besides two suts of vestements having everythinge belonging -to the adorning of a preste to say masse: the one is a light greene -having white ends, and the other a duned Taphada," whatever that may be. -He also leaves his books, "protesting that whatsoever be founde in my -bookes I intend to dye a veray Catholical Christen man, and the King's -letheman and trewe subjecte." This might seem to speak well, perhaps, -for the catholicity of the College in the thirty-fourth year of Henry -VIII., and yet thirteen years earlier Bishop Nix of Norwich had written -to Archbishop Warham: "I hear no clerk that hath come out lately of -Gunwel Haule but saverith of the frying panne, though he speak never so -holely." Anyhow about this time the College became notorious as a hotbed -of reformed opinions. It was, however, at this time also that a young -student was trained within its walls, who, after a distinguished career -at Cambridge--it would be an anachronism to call him senior wrangler, -but his name stands first in that list which afterwards developed into -the Mathematical Tripos--passed to the university of Padua to study -medicine under the great anatomist, Vesalius, ultimately becoming a -professor there, and returning to England, and to medical practice in -London, and having presumably amassed a fortune in the process, formed -the design of enlarging what he pathetically describes as "that pore -house now called Gonville Hall." On September 4, 1557, John Caius -obtained the charter for his new foundation, and the ancient name of -Gonville Hall was changed to that of Gonville and Caius College. In the -following year the new benefactor was elected Master, and the remaining -years of his life were spent, on the one hand, in quarrelling with -Fellows about "College copes, vestments, albes, crosses, tapers ... and -all massynge abominations;" and, on the other, in designing and carrying -out those noble architectural additions to the College which give to the -buildings of Caius College their chief interest. - -[Illustration: Gate of Honour & Gate of Virtue Caius College] - - "In his architectural works," says Mr. Atkinson, "Caius shews - practical common sense combined with the love of symbolism. His - court is formed by two ranges of building on the east and west, and - on the north by the old chapel and lodge. To the south the court is - purposely left open, and the erection of buildings on this side is - expressly forbidden by one of his statutes, lest the air from being - confined within a narrow space should become foul. The same care is - shewn in another statute which imposes on any one who throws dirt - or offal into the court, or who airs beds or bedlinen there, a fine - of three shillings and fourpence. In his will also he requires that - 'there be mayntayned a lustie and healthie, honest, true, and - unmarried man of fortie years of age and upwardes to kepe cleane - and swete the pavementes.'"[41] - -The love of Dr. Caius for symbolism is shown most conspicuously in his -design of the famous three Gates of Humility, of Virtue, and of Honour, -which were intended to typify, by the increasing richness of their -design, the path of the student from the time of his entrance to the -College, to the day when he passed to the schools to take his Degree in -Arts. The Gate of Humility was a simple archway with an entablature -supported by pilasters, forming the new entrance to the College from -Trinity Street, or as it was then called, High Street, immediately -opposite St. Michael's Church. On the inside of this gate there was a -frieze on which was carved the word HUMILITATIS. From this gate there -led a broad walk, bordered by trees, much in the fashion of the present -avenue entrance to Jesus College, to the Gate of Virtue, a simple and -admirable gateway tower in the range of the new buildings, forming the -eastern side of the court, still known as Caius Court. - - "The word VIRTUTIS is inscribed on the frieze above the arch on the - eastern side, in the spandrils of which are two female figures - leaning forwards. That on the left holds a leaf in her left hand, - and a palm branch in her right; that on the right a purse in her - right hand, and a cornucopia in her left. The western side of this - gate has on its frieze, 'IO. CAIUS POSUIT SAPIENTIÆ, 1567,' an - inscription manifestly derived from that on the foundation stone - laid by Dr. Caius. Hence this gate is sometimes described as the - Gate of Wisdom, a name which has however no authority. In the - spandrils on this side are the arms of Dr. Caius."[42] - -In the centre of the south wall, forming the frontage to Schools Street, -stands the Gate of Honour. It is a singularly beautiful and picturesque -composition, "built of squared hard stone wrought according to the very -form and figure which Dr. Caius in his lifetime had himself traced out -for the architect."[43] It was not built until two years after Caius' -death, that is about the year 1575. It is considered probable that the -architect was Theodore Havens of Cleves, who was undoubtedly the -designer of "the great murall diall" over the archway leading into -Gonville Court, and of the column "wrought with wondrous skill -containing 60 sun-dialls ... and the coat armour of those who were of -gentle birth at that time in the College," standing in the centre of -Caius Court, and of the "Sacred Tower," on the south side of the Chapel, -all since destroyed. - -Beautiful as the Gate of Honour still remains, it must have had a very -different appearance when it left the architect's hand. Many of its most -interesting features have wholly vanished. Among the illustrations to -Willis and Clark's "History" there is an interesting attempt to restore -the gateway with all its original details. At each angle, immediately -above the lowest cornice, there was a tall pinnacle. Another group of -pinnacles surrounded the middle stage, one at each corner of the -hexagonal tower. On each face of the hexagon there was a sun-dial, and -"at its apex a weathercock in the form of a serpent and dove." In the -spandrils of the arch next the court are the arms of Dr. Caius, on an -oval shield, "two serpents erect, their tails nowed together," and -"between them a book." On the frieze is carved the word HONORIS. The -whole of the stonework was originally painted white, and some parts, -such as the sun-dials, the roses in the circular panels, and the -coats-of-arms, were brilliant with colour and gold. The last payment for -this "painting and gilding" bears date 1696 in the Bursar's book. Dr. -Caius died in 1573, and was buried in the Chapel. On his monument are -inscribed two short sentences--_Vivit post funera virtus_ and _Fui -Caius_. - -[Illustration: Caius College The Gate of Honour] - -And so we may leave him and his College, and also perhaps fitly end this -chapter with the kindly words with which Fuller commends to posterity -the memory of this great College benefactor:-- - - "Some since have sought to blast his memory by reporting him a - papist; no great crime to such who consider the time when he was - born, and foreign places wherein he was bred: however, this I dare - say in his just defence, he never mentioneth protestants but with - due respect, and sometimes occasionally doth condemn the - superstitious credulity of popish miracles. Besides, after he had - resigned his mastership to Dr. Legg, he lived fellow-commoner in - the College, and having built himself a little seat in the chapel, - was constantly present at protestant prayers. If any say all this - amounts but to a lukewarm religion, we leave the heat of his faith - to God's sole judgment, and the light of his good works to men's - imitation."[44] - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE COLLEGE OF THE CAMBRIDGE GUILDS - - "The noblest memorial of the Cambridge gilds consists of the - College which was endowed by the munificence of St. Mary's Gild and - the Corpus Christi Gild: it perpetuates their names in its own.... - In other towns the gilds devoted their energies to public works of - many kinds--to maintaining the sea-banks at Lynn, to sustaining the - aged at Coventry, and to educating the children at Ludlow. In - embarking on the enterprise of founding a College, the Cambridge - men seem, however, to stand alone; we can at least be sure that the - presence of the University here afforded the conditions which - rendered it possible for their liberality to take this - form."--CUNNINGHAM. - - Unique Foundation of Corpus Christi College--The Cambridge - Guilds--The influence of "the Good Duke"--The Peasant - Revolt--Destruction of Charters--"Perish the skill of the - Clerks!"--The Black Death--Lollardism at the Universities--The - Poore Priestes of Wycliffe. - - -"Here at this time were two eminent guilds or fraternities of towns-folk -in Cambridge, consisting of brothers and sisters, under a _chief_ -annually chosen, called an alderman. - - "The Guild of Corpus Christi, keeping their prayers in St. - Benedict's Church. - - "The Guild of the Blessed _Virgin_, observing their offices in St. - Mary's Church. - -"Betwixt these there was a zealous emulation, which of them should -amortize and settle best maintenance for such chaplains to pray for the -souls of those of their brotherhood. Now, though generally in those days -the stars outshined the sun; I mean more honour (and consequently more -wealth) was given to saints than to Christ himself; yet here the Guild -of Corpus Christi so outstript that of the Virgin Mary in endowments, -that the latter (leaving off any further thoughts of contesting) desired -an union, which, being embraced, they both were incorporated together. -2. Thus being happily married, they were not long issueless, but a small -college was erected by their united interest, which, bearing the name of -both parents, was called the College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed -Mary. However, it hath another working-day name, commonly called (from -the adjoined church) Benet College; yet so, that on festival solemnities -(when written in Latin, in public instruments) it is termed by the -foundation name thereof."[45] - -So picturesquely writes Thomas Fuller of the Foundation of Corpus -Christi College. - -The colleges of Cambridge owe their foundation to many and various -sources. We have already seen two of the most ancient tracing their -origin to the liberality and foresight of wise bishops, two others to -the widowed piety of noble ladies, one to the unselfish goodness of a -parish priest. Later we shall find the stately patronage of kings and -queens given to great foundations, and on the long roll of university -benefactors we shall have to commemorate the names of great statesmen -and great churchmen, philosophers, scholars, poets, doctors, soldiers, -"honoured in their generation and the glory of their days." One college, -however, there is which has a unique foundation, for it sprang, in the -first instance, from that purest fount of true democracy, the spirit of -fraternal association for the protection of common rights and of mutual -responsibility for the religious consecration of common duties, by which -the Cambridge aldermen and burgesses in the twelfth and thirteenth -centuries were striving by their guild life, to cherish those essential -qualities of the English character--personal independence and faith in -law-abidingness--which lie at the root of all that is best in our modern -civilisation, and were undoubtedly characteristic of the English people -in the earliest times of which history has anything to tell us. - -The history of the guild life of Cambridge is one of unusual interest. -The story breaks off far oftener than we could wish, but in the -continuity of its religious guild history Cambridge holds a very -important place, second only perhaps to that of Exeter. All the -Cambridge guilds of which we know anything seem to have been essentially -religious guilds, so prominent throughout their history remained their -religious object. It is only indeed in connection with one of the -earliest of which we have any record, the guild of Cambridge Thegns in -the eleventh century, associated in devotion to S. Etheldreda, the -foundress saint of Ely, that we find any secular element. That Guild -does indeed offer to its members a secular protection of which the later -guilds of the thirteenth century knew nothing, for they were religious -guilds pure and simple. It is true that in the first charter of King -John, dated 8th Jan. 1201, there appears to be a confirmation to the -burgesses of Cambridge of a _guild merchant_ granting to them certain -secular rights of toll. But there does not appear to be any historical -evidence to show that the Guild Merchant of Cambridge ever took definite -shape, or stood apart in any way from the general body of burgesses. -King John's charter simply secured to the town those liberties and -franchises which all the chief boroughs of England enjoyed at the -beginning of the thirteenth century.[46] - -[Illustration: The Churches of S. Edward & St. Mary--the Great from Peas -Hill] - -The first religious guild of which we have any record is the Guild of -the Holy Sepulchre, known to us only by an isolated reference in the -history of Ramsey Abbey, which tells us of a fraternity existing in -1114-36, whose purpose was the building of a Minster in honour of God -and the Holy Sepulchre, and which resulted in the erection of the -Cambridge Round Church. Of Cambridge guild life we hear nothing more -until the reign of Edward I., when we find record of certain conveyances -of land being made to the Guild of S. Mary. From the first this guild is -closely associated with Great S. Mary's Church, the University Church of -to-day, the Church of S. Mary at Market, as it was called in the early -days. The members of it were called the alderman, brethren and sisters -of S. Mary's Guild belonging to the Church of the Virgin. Its -benefactors direct that should the guild cease, the benefaction shall go -to the celebration of Our Lady Mass in her Church. The underlying -spirit, however, whatever may have been the superstitious ritual -connected with the organisation, was very much the same as that of the -English Friendly Society of to-day. "Let all share the same lot," ran -one of the statutes; "if any misdo, let all bear it." "For the -nourishing of brotherly love,"--so the members of another society took -the oath of loyalty--"they would be good and true loving brothers to the -fraternity, helping and counselling with all their power if any brother -that hath done his duties well and truly come or fall to poverty, as God -them help." - - "The purpose of S. Mary's Gild was primarily the provision of - prayers for the members. The 'congregation' of brethren, sometimes - brethren and sisters, met at irregular intervals, to pass - ordinances and to elect officers. In 1300 they agree to attend S. - Mary's Church on Jan. 2, to celebrate solemn mass for dead members. - The penalty for absence was half a pound of wax, consumed no doubt - in the provision of gild lights before the altar of Our Lady. - Richard Bateman and his wife, in their undated grant, made the - express condition that in return they should receive daily prayers - for the health of their souls.... In the year 1307 ... the gild - passed an ordinance directing the gild chaplains to celebrate two - trentals of masses (60 in all) for each dead brother. If the - deceased left anything in his will to the gild, then as the - alderman might appoint, the chaplains should do more or less - celebration according to the amount bequeathed to the gild. The - rule is naïve, but its spirit is unpleasing. Individualism has - thrust itself in where it seems very much out of place. The - enrolment of the souls of the dead further witnesses to the purely - religious character of the gild, and the purchase of a missal - should also be noticed."[47] - -The minutes and bede roll of the guild, which have lately been published -by the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, show that the association -continued to flourish down to the time of the Great Plague. On its bede -roll we find such names as those of Richard Hokyton, vicar of the Round -Church; of "Alan Parson of Seint Beneytis Chirche"; of Warinus -Bassingborn, High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire in 1341; of Walter Reynald, -Chancellor of the University and Archbishop of Canterbury, who died in -1327; and of Richard of Bury, Bishop of Durham, and author of the -_Philobiblon_, who died in 1345. In 1352, on "account of poverty," the -Guild, by Royal Charter, was allowed to coalesce with the Guild of -Corpus Christi, for the purpose of founding a college. - -Of this latter guild we have no earlier record than 1349, three years -only before the date of union with S. Mary's. Its minute-book, however, -which begins in 1350, shows it to have been at that time a flourishing -institution. It had probably been founded, like that which bore the same -dedication at York, for the purpose of conducting the procession on the -Feast of Corpus Christi on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, a festival -instituted about 1264. There are no existing bede rolls of the guild, -and therefore no means of knowing the names of any members who entered -before 1350. It appears to have been attached from the first to the -ancient Church of S. Benet. The reversion of the advowson of that Church -was in 1350 held by a group of men, several of whom were leading members -of the guild. In 1353 the then Rector entered the guild, and "by the -ordinance of his friends" resigned the Church to the Bishop "gratis," -that "_the brethren_ and those who had acquired the advowson" might -enter upon their possession. It is disappointing to find that there are -no guild records telling of the union of S. Mary's guild with that of -Corpus Christi, or of the circumstances which led to the creation of the -college bearing the joint names of the two guilds. Such foundation was, -as we have said, a remarkable event in the history of Cambridge -collegiate life. Not that these guilds were the first or the last to -take part in the endowment of education; for many of the ancient grammar -schools of the country owe their origin to, or were greatly assisted by, -the benefactions of religious guilds. For example, Mr. Leach in his -"English Schools at the Reformation" has noted, that out of thirty-three -guilds, of whose returns he treats, no less than twenty-eight were -supporting grammar schools. But the foundation of a college was a more -ambitious task. It has a peculiar interest also, as that of an effort -towards the healing of what was, even at this time, an outstanding feud -between town and gown, between city and university. - -The principal authority for the history of the site and buildings of the -college is the _Historiola_ of Josselin, a fellow of Queen's College, -and Latin secretary to Archbishop Parker. According to his narrative, -the guild of Corpus Christi had begun seriously to entertain the idea of -building a college as early as 1342, for about that date, he says:-- - - "Those brethren who lived in the parishes of S. Benedict and S. - Botolph, and happened to have tenements and dwelling-houses close - together in the street called Leithburne Lane, pulled them down, - and with one accord set about the task of establishing a college - there: having also acquired certain other tenements in the same - street from the University. By this means they cleared a site for - their college, square in form and as broad as the space between the - present gate of entrance (_i.e._ by S. Benet's Church) and the - Master's Garden."[48] - -The original mover in the scheme for a guild college may well have been -the future master, Thomas of Eltisley, chaplain to the Archbishop of -Canterbury and rector of Lambeth. Among the Cambridge burgesses William -Horwood, the mayor, was treasurer of the Guild in 1352, and used the -mayoral seal for guild purposes, because the seals of the alderman and -brethren of the Guild "are not sufficiently well known." Another mayor -of Cambridge about this time, Robert de Brigham, was a member of the -other associated Guild of S. Mary. How the support of Henry, Duke of -Lancaster--the "Good Duke," as he was called--was secured does not -appear, but he is mentioned as alderman of the Guild, in the letters -patent of Edward III. in 1352, establishing the College. His influence -perhaps may have been gained through Sir Walter Manny, the countryman -and friend of Queen Philippa, whose whole family was enrolled in the -Guild. - -At any rate, with the enrolment of the "Good Duke" as alderman of the -Guild, the success of the proposed college was secure. In 1355 the -Foundation received the formal consent of the chancellor and masters of -the University, of the Bishop of Ely, and of the Prior and Chapter of -Ely. The College Statutes, dated in the following year, 1356, show that -"the chaplain and scholars were bound to appear in S. Benet's or S. -Botulph's Church at certain times, and in all Masses the chaplains were -to celebrate for the health of the King and Queen Philippa and their -children, and the Duke of Lancaster, and the brethren and sisters, -founders and benefactors of the Guild and College," and although this -perhaps, rather than the love of learning, pure and simple, was the -chief aim which influenced the early founders of Corpus Christi College, -the Society has in after ages held a worthy place in the history of the -University, and "Benet men" have occupied positions in church and state -quite equal to those of more ample foundations. Three Archbishops of -Canterbury--Parker, Tennison, and Herring--have been Corpus men, one of -whom, Matthew Parker, enriched it with priceless treasures, and gave to -its library a unique value by the bequest of what Fuller has called "the -sun of English antiquity." Indeed, if they have done nothing else, the -men of the Cambridge guilds have laid all students of English history -under a supreme debt of gratitude in the provision of a place where so -many of the MSS. so laboriously collected by Archbishop Parker are -housed and preserved. From the walls of Benet College, also, there went -out many other distinguished men: statesmen, like Nicholas Bacon, the -Lord Keeper of the Seal; bishops, like Thomas Goodrich and Peter -Gunning, of Ely; translators of the Scriptures, like Taverner, and -Huett, and Pierson; commentators on the Old Testament, like the learned -and ingenious Dean Spencer of Ely, the Wellhausen of the seventeenth -century; soldiers, like the brave Earl of Lindsey, who fell at Edgehill, -or like General Braddock, who was killed in Ohio in the colonial war -against the French; learned antiquaries, like Richard Gough; sailors, -like Cavendish, the circumnavigator; poets, like Christopher Marlowe and -John Fletcher. - -[Illustration: Corpus Christi College and S. Benedict's Church] - -The College as originally built consisted of one court, which still -remains, and is known as "the Old Court." It still preserves much of its -ancient character, and is specially interesting as being probably _the -first originally planned quadrangle_. Josselin speaks of it as being -"entirely finished, chiefly in the days of Thomas Eltisle, the first -master, but partly in the days of Richard Treton, the second master." It -consisted simply of a hall range on the south and chambers on the three -other sides. The former contained at the south-east corner the master's -chambers, communicating with the common parlour below, and also with the -library and hall. As in most of the early colleges, both the gateway -tower and the chapel were absent. The entrance was by an archway of the -simplest character in the north range, opening into the southern part of -the churchyard of S. Benet, and thus communicating with Free School -Lane, running past the east end of the church, or northwards past the -old west tower, with Benet Street. At the end of the fifteenth century -two small chapels, one above the other, were built adjoining the south -side of S. Benet's chancel. They were connected with the College -buildings by a gallery carried on arches like that already described in -connection with Peterhouse. This picturesque building still exists. S. -Benet's Church was used as the College chapel down to the beginning of -the seventeenth century, when a new chapel was built, mainly due to the -liberality of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. This -chapel occupied nearly the same site as the western part of the present -building, which took its place in 1823, as part of the scheme of -buildings which gave to Corpus the large new court with frontage to -Trumpington Street. The principal feature of these buildings is the new -library occupying the whole of the upper floor of the range of building -on the south side of the quadrangle. It is here that the celebrated -collection of ancient MSS. collected by Archbishop Parker are housed. -They contain, among many other treasures, the Winchester text of the -"Old English Chronicle," that great national record, which at the -bidding of King Alfred, in part quite probably under his own eye, was -written in the scriptorium of Winchester Cathedral; ancient copies of -the "Penitentiale" of Archbishop Theodore; King Alfred's translation of -Pope Gregory's "Pastorale"; Matthew Paris' own copy of his "History"; a -copy of "John of Salisbury" which once belonged to Thomas à Becket; the -Peterborough "Psalter"; Chaucer's "Troilus," with a splendid -frontispiece of 1450; a magnificent folio of Homer's "Iliad" and -"Odyssey"--a note by Josselin tells how "a baker at Canterbury rescued -it from among some waste paper, remaining from S. Augustine's monastery -after the dissolution," and how the Archbishop welcomed it as "a -monstrous treasure"; and Jerome's Latin version of the "Four Gospels," -sent by Pope Gregory to Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, -"the most interesting manuscript in England." - -No wonder that in handing over such a priceless gift to the charge of -the College, Archbishop Parker should have striven to secure its future -safety by this stringent regulation set out in his Deed of Gift. - - " ...That nothing be wanting for their more careful preservation, - the Masters of Gonville and Caius College and of Trinity Hall, or - their substitutes, are appointed annual supervisors on the 6th of - August; on which occasion they are to be invited to dinner with two - scholars of his foundation in those colleges; when each of the - former is to have 3s. 4d. and the scholars 1s. a piece for their - trouble in overlooking them; at which time they may inflict a - penalty of 4d. for every leaf of MS. that may be found wanting; for - every sheet, 2s.; and for every printed book or MS. missing, and - not restored within six months after admonition, what sum they - think proper. But if 6 MSS. in folio, 8 in quarto, and 12 in lesser - size, should at any time be lost through supine negligence, and not - restored within 6 months, then with the consent of the - Vice-Chancellor and one senior doctor, not only all the books but - likewise all the plate he gave shall be forfeited and surrendered - up to Gonville and Caius College within a month following. And if - they should afterwards be guilty of the like neglect they are then - to be delivered over to Trinity Hall, and in case of their default - to revert back in the former order. Three catalogues of these books - were directed to be made, whereof one was to be delivered to each - College, which was to be sealed with their common seal and - exhibited at every visitation." - -[Illustration: The Pitt Press, S. Botolph's Church, and Corpus Christie -College] - -We have spoken of the early foundation of the Guild College as in some -sense an effort on the part of the Cambridge burgesses of the fourteenth -century to take some worthy share in the development of university life. -Unfortunately the good feeling between town and gown was not of long -duration. As the older burgesses who had been brethren of the gilds of -Corpus Christi and S. Mary died off, an estrangement sprang up between -the members of the college they had founded and the new generation of -townsmen. The initial cause of trouble arose from the character of some -of the early endowments of the College. It would seem that in addition -to the many houses and tenements in the town which had been bequeathed -to the College, a particularly objectional rate in the form of "candle -rent" was exacted by the College authorities. It is said that so -numerous were the Cambridge tenements subjected to this rate, that -one-half of the houses in the town had become tributary to the College. -The townsmen did not long confine themselves to mere murmuring or -"passive resistance." In 1381 the populace, taking advantage of the -excitement caused by the Wat Tyler rebellion, vented their animosity and -unreasoning hatred of learning by the destruction of all the College -books, charters, and writings, and everything that bespoke a lettered -community on the Saturday next after the feast of Corpus Christi, -prompted perhaps by their hatred of the pomp and display of wealth in -connection with the great annual procession of the Host through the -streets. The bailiffs and commonalty of Cambridge, so we read in the old -record, assembled in the town hall and elected James of Grantchester -their captain. "Then going to Corpus Christi College, breaking open the -house and doors, they traitorously carried away the charters, writings, -and muniments." On the following Sunday they caused the great bell of S. -Mary's Church to be rung, and there broke open the university chest. The -masters and scholars under intimidation surrendered all their charters, -muniments, ordinances, and a grand conflagration ensued in the -market-place. One old woman, Margaret Steere, gathered the ashes in her -hands and flung them into the air with the cry, "Thus perish the skill -of the clerks! away with it! away with it!" Having finished their work -of destruction in the market-place, the crowd of rioters marched out to -Barnwell, "doing," so Fuller tells the story, "many sacrilegious -outrages to the Priory there. Nor did their fury fall on men alone, even -trees were made to taste of their cruelty. In their return they cut down -a curious grove called Green's Croft by the river side (the ground now -belonging to Jesus College), as if they bare such a hatred to all wood -they would not leave any to make gallows thereof for thieves and -murderers. All these insolencies were acted just at that juncture of -time when Jack Straw and Wat Tyler played Rex in and about London. More -mischief had they done to the scholars had not Henry Spencer, the -warlike Bishop of Norwich, casually come to Cambridge with some forces -and seasonably suppressed their madness."[49] - -And so the story of the seven earliest of the Cambridge colleges closes -in a time of social misery and of national peril. The collapse of the -French war after Crecy, and the ruinous taxation of the country which -was consequent upon it, the terrible plague of the Black Death sweeping -away half the population of England, and the iniquitous labour laws, -which in face of that depopulation strove to keep down the rate of wages -in the interests of the landlords, had brought the country to the verge -of a wide, universal, social, political revolution. It was no time, -perhaps, in which to look for any great national advance in scholarship -or learning, much less for new theories of education or of academic -progress. It is not certainly in the subtle realist philosophy and the -dry syllogistic Latin of the _De Dominio Divino_ of John Wycliffe, the -greatest Oxford schoolman of his age, but in the virile, homely English -tracts, terse and vehement, which John Wycliffe, the Reformer, wrote for -the guidance of his "poore priestes" (and in which, incidentally, he -made once more the English tongue a weapon of literature), that we find -the new forces of thought and feeling which were destined to tell on -every age of our later history. It is not in the good-humoured, gracious -worldliness of the poet Chaucer--most true to the English life of his -own day as is the varied picture of his "Canterbury Tales"--but in the -rustic shrewdness and surly honesty of "Peterkin the Plowman" in William -Langland's great satire, that we find the true "note" of English -religion, that godliness, grim, earnest, and Puritan, which was from -henceforth to exercise so deep an influence on the national character. - -But while what was good in the Lollard spirit survived, the Lollards -themselves, with the death of Wycliffe and of John of Gaunt, his great -friend and protector, fell upon evil times. Their revolution by force -had almost succeeded. For a short time they were masters of the field. -But with the passing of the immediate terror of the Peasant Revolt, the -conservative forces of the state rallied to the protection of that -social order, whose very existence the Lollards had, by their ferocious -extravagance and frantic communism, seemed to threaten. The wiser -contemporaries of this movement agreed to abandon its provocations and -to consign it to oblivion or misconception. At Oxford, the Government -threatened to suppress the University itself unless the Lollards were -displaced. And Oxford, to outward appearance, submitted. Its Lollard -chancellor was dismissed. The "poore priestes" and preachers were -silenced, or departed to spread the new Gospel of the "Bible-men" across -the sea. Some recanted and became bishops, cardinals, persecutors. But -many remained obscure or silent and cautious. Thomas Arundel, Archbishop -of Canterbury, speaking of Oxford, said that there were wild vines in -the University, and therefore little grapes; that tares were constantly -sown among the pure wheat, and that the whole University was leavened -with heresy. "You cannot meet," said a monkish historian, "five people -talking together but three of them are Lollards." At Cambridge, on the -16th September 1401, holding a visitation in the Congregation House, the -Archbishop had privately put to the Chancellor and the Doctors ten -questions with regard to the discipline of the University. One question -was significant: "_Were there any_," the Archbishop asked, "_suspected -of Lollardism?_" The terrible and infamous statute, "De Heretico -Comburendo," had been passed in the previous year, and but a few months -before the first victim of that enactment had been burnt at the stake. - -It is an historic saying, that "Cambridge bred the Founders of the -English Reformation and that Oxford burnt them." The statement is not -without its grain of truth. The Puritan Reformation of the sixteenth -century found, no doubt, its strongest adherents in the eastern counties -of England; but it was not so much because the scholars of Cambridge -welcomed more heartily than their brothers in the western university the -teaching of the scholars of Geneva, but because the people of East -Anglia, two centuries before, had been saturated with the Bible teaching -of the "poore priestes" of Wycliffe's school, and throughout the whole -of the intervening period had secretly cherished it. For the present, -however, the curtain drops on the age of the schoolmen with the death of -Wycliffe. When it rises again, we shall find ourselves in the age of the -New Learning. What the transition was from one time to the other, how -deeply the Revival of Learning influenced the reformation of religion, -we shall hear in the succeeding chapters. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -TWO ROYAL FOUNDATIONS - -"Tax not the royal saint with vain expense, - With ill-matched aims the architect who planned, - Albeit labouring for a scanty band - Of white-robed scholars only--this immense - And glorious work of fine intelligence! - Give all thou can'st: high Heaven rejects the lore - Of nicely calculated less or more; - So deemed the man who fashioned for the sense - These lofty pillars, spread that branching roof, - Self-poised, and scooped into ten thousand cells, - Where light and shade repose, where music dwells - Lingering--and wandering on as loth to die; - Like thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof - That they were born for immortality." - --WORDSWORTH'S _Sonnet on King's College Chapel_. - - Henry VI.--The most pitiful Character in all English History--His - devotion to Learning and his Saintly Spirit--His foundation of Eton - and King's College--The Building of King's College Chapel--Its - architect, Reginald of Ely, the Cathedral Master-Mason--Its - relation to the Ely Lady Chapel--Its stained glass Windows--Its - close Foundation--Queens' College--Margaret of Anjou and Elizabeth - Wydville--The buildings of Queens'--Similarity to Haddon Hall--Its - most famous Resident, Erasmus--His _Novum Instrumentum_ edited - within its Walls. - - -On the 6th of December 1421, being S. Nicolas' Day, the unhappy Henry of -Windsor was born. On the 1st of September in the following year, as an -infant of less than a year old, he began his reign of forty miserable -years as Henry VI. There is no more pitiful character in all English -history than he. Henry V., his father, had been by far the greatest king -of Christendom, and England, under his rule, had rejoiced in a light -which was all the brighter for the gloom that preceded and followed it. -The dying energies of mediæval life sank into impotency with his death. -The long reign of his son is one unbroken record of divided counsels, -constitutional anarchy, civil war, national exhaustion; only too -faithfully fulfilling the prophecy which his father is said to have -uttered, when he was told in France of the birth of his son at Windsor: -"I, Henry of Monmouth, shall gain much in my short reign, but Henry of -Windsor will reign much longer and lose all; but God's will be done." - -"Henry VI."--I quote the pathetic words of my kinsman, the historian of -the Constitution-- - - "Henry was perhaps the most unfortunate king who ever reigned; he - outlived power and wealth and friends; he saw all who had loved him - perish for his sake, and, to crown all, the son, the last and - dearest of the great house from which he sprang, the centre of all - his hopes, the depositary of the great Lancastrian traditions of - English polity, set aside and slain. And he was without doubt most - innocent of all the evils that befell England because of him. - Pious, pure, generous, patient, simple, true and just, humble, - merciful, fastidiously conscientious, modest and temperate, he - might have seemed made to rule a quiet people in quiet times.... It - is needless to say that for the throne of England in the midst of - the death struggle of nations, parties, and liberties, Henry had - not one single qualification."[50] - -[Illustration: King's Parade] - -And yet he did leave an impression on the hearts of Englishmen which -will not readily be erased. For setting aside the fabled visions and the -false miracle with which he is credited, and upon which Henry VII. -relied when he pressed the claims of his predecessor for formal -canonisation on Pope Julius II., it was certainly no mere -anti-Lancastrian loyalty or party spirit which led the rough yeomen -farmers of Yorkshire to worship before his statue on the rood-screen of -their Minster and to sing hymns in his honour, or caused the Latin -prayers which he had composed to be reverently handed down to the time -of the Reformation through many editions of the "Sarum Hours." One -enduring monument there is of his devotion to learning and of his -saintly spirit, which must long keep his memory green, namely, the royal -and religious foundation of the two great colleges which he projected at -Eton and at Cambridge. - -Of Eton we need not speak. The fame of that college is written large on -the page of English history. And that fame and its founder's memory we -may safely leave to the "scholars of Henry" in its halls and playing -fields to-day. - -"Christ and His Mother, heavenly maid, - Mary, in whose fair name was laid - Eton's corner, bless our youth - With truth, and purity, mother of truth! - - O ye, 'neath breezy skies of June, - By silver Thames' lulling tune, - In shade of willow or oak, who try - The golden gates of poesy; - Or on the tabled sward all day - Match your strength in England's play, - Scholars of Henry giving grace - To toil and force in game or race; - - Exceed the prayer and keep the fame - Of him, the sorrowful king who came - Here in his realm, a realm to found - Where he might stand for ever crowned."[51] - -It was on the 12th of February 1441, when Henry of Windsor was only -nineteen years old, that the first charter for the foundation of King's -College, Cambridge, was signed. On the 2nd of April in the same year he -laid the first stone. It is difficult to say from whence the first -impulse to the patronage of learning came to the King. He had always -been a precocious scholar, too early forced to recognise his work as -successor to his father. Something of his uncle Duke Humfrey of -Gloucester's ardent love of letters he had imbibed at an early age. No -doubt, too, the Earl of Warwick, "the King's master" for eighteen years, -had faithfully discharged his duty to "teach him nurture, literature, -language, and other manner of cunning as his age shall suffer him to -comprehend such as it fitteth so great a prince to be learned of," and -had made his royal pupil a good scholar and accomplished gentleman: -though perhaps he had suffered the young king's mind to take somewhat -too ascetic and ecclesiastic a bent for the hard and perilous times -which he had to face: a feature of his character which Shakespeare -emphasises in the speech which he puts into the mouth of Margaret of -Anjou, his affianced bride, in the first act of the play in which he -draws the picture of the decay of England's power under the weak and -saintly Lancastrian king with so masterly a pencil:-- - -"I thought King Henry had resembled (Pole) - In courage, courtship, and proportion: - But all his mind is bent to holiness, - To number _Ave-Maries_ on his beads: - His champions are the Prophets and Apostles: - His weapons holy saws of sacred writ: - His study is his tilt-yard, and his loves - Are brazen images o' canonized saints. - I would the college or the cardinals - Would choose him Pope, and carry him to Rome, - And set the triple crown upon his head: - That were a state fit for his holiness."[52] - -However, the first fruits of the royal "holiness" was a noble -conception. A visit to Winchester in the July of 1440, where Henry -studied carefully from personal observation the working of William of -Wykeham's system of education, seems to have fired him with the desire -to rival that great pioneer of schoolcraft's magnificent foundations at -Winchester and Oxford. The suppression of the alien priories, decreed by -Parliament in the preceding reign and carried out in his own, provided a -convenient means of carrying out the project. Henry V. had already -appropriated their revenues for the purposes of war in France. Henry VI. -proceeded to confiscate them permanently as an endowment for his -college foundations. It would appear, however, that the first intention -of the King had been that his two foundations should have been -independent of one another, and that the connection of Eton with King's, -after the manner of Winchester and New College, came rather as an -afterthought and as part of a later scheme. The determination, however, -that the Eton scholars should participate in the Cambridge foundation -forms part of the King's scheme in the second charter of his college -granted on 10th July 1443, in which he says:-- - - "It is our fixed and unalterable purpose, being moved thereto, as - we trust, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that our poor - scholars of our Royal foundation of S. Mary of Eton, after they - have been sufficiently taught the first rudiments of grammar, shall - be transferred thence to our aforesaid College of Cambridge, which - we will shall be henceforth denominated our College Royal of S. - Mary and S. Nicholas, there to be more thoroughly instructed in a - liberal course of study, in other branches of knowledge, and other - professions." - -[Illustration: The West Doorway King's College Chapel] - -The first site chosen for the College was a very cramped and -inconvenient one. It had Milne Street, then one of the principal -thoroughfares of the town, on the west, the University Library and -schools on the east, and School Street on the north. On the south side -only had it any outlet at all. A court was formed by placing buildings -on the three unoccupied sides, the University buildings forming a -fourth. These buildings, however, were never completely finished, except -in a temporary manner, and indeed so remained until the end of the last -century, when they were more or less incorporated in the new buildings -of the University Library facing Trinity Hall Lane, erected by Sir -Gilbert Scott in 1868. The old gateway facing Clare College, which -had been begun in 1444, was at last completed from the designs of Mr. -Pearson in 1890, and remains one of the most beautiful architectural -gates in Cambridge. - -[Illustration: King's College Chapel] - -It very soon, however, became evident that the selected site was much -too small for the projected college. Little time was lost by the -earliest provost and scholars in petitioning the King to provide an -ampler habitation for their needs. - - "The task was beset with difficulties that would have daunted a - mind less firmly resolved on carrying out the end in view than the - king's; difficulties indeed that would have been insuperable except - by royal influence, backed by a royal purse. The ground on which - King's College now stands was then densely populated. It occupied - nearly the whole of the parish of S. John Baptist, whose church is - believed to have stood near the west end of the chapel. Milne - Street crossed the site from north to south, in a direction that - may be easily identified from the two ends of the street that still - remain, under the name of Trinity Hall Lane and Queen's Lane. The - space between Milne Street and Trumpington Street, then called High - Street, was occupied by the houses and gardens of different - proprietors, and was traversed by a narrow thoroughfare called - Piron Lane, leading from High Street to S. John's Church. At the - corner of Milne Street and this lane, occupying the ground on which - about half the ante-chapel now stands, was the small college called - _God's House_, founded in 1439 by William Byngham for the study of - grammar, which, as he observes in his petition to Henry VI. for - leave to found it, is "the rote and ground of all other sciences." - On the west side of Milne Street, between it and the river, were - the hostels of S. Austin, S. Nicholas, and S. Edmund, besides many - dwelling-houses. This district was traversed by several lanes, - affording to the townspeople ready access to the river, and to a - wharf on its bank called Salthithe. No detailed account has been - preserved of the negotiations necessary for the acquisition of this - ground, between six and seven acres in extent, and in the very - heart of Cambridge.... The greatest offence appears to have been - given by the closing of the lanes leading down to the river, which - was of primary importance to mediæval Cambridge as a highway. In - five years' time, however, the difficulties were all got over; the - town yielded up, though not with the best grace, the portion of - Milne Street required and all the other thoroughfares; the hostels - were suppressed, or transferred to other sites; the Church of S. - John was pulled down, and the parish united to that of S. Edward, - whose church bears evidence, by the spacious aisles attached to its - choir, of the extension rendered necessary at that time by the - addition of the members of Clare Hall and Trinity Hall to the - number of its parishioners."[53] - -On this splendid site of many acres, where now the silent green expanse -of sunlit lawn has taken the place of the busy lanes and crowded -tenements, which in Henry's time hummed with the life of a mediæval -river-side city, there rises the wondrous building, the crown of -fifteenth century architecture, beautiful, unique--a cathedral church in -size, a college chapel in plan--seeming in its lofty majesty so solitary -and so aloof, and yet so instantaneously impressive. - -Who was the architect of this masterpiece? The credit has commonly been -given to one of two men--Nicholas Close or John Langton. Close was a man -of Flemish family, and one of the original six Fellows of the College. -He had for a few years been the vicar of the demolished Church of S. -John Zachary. He afterwards became Bishop of Carlisle. Langton was -Master of Pembroke and Chancellor of the University, and was one of the -commissioners appointed by the King to superintend the scheme of the -works at their commencement. But both of these men were theologians and -divines. We have no evidence that they were architects. Mr. G. Gilbert -Scott, in his essay on "English Church Architecture," has, however, -given reasons, which seem to be almost conclusive, that the man who -should really have the credit of conceiving this great work was the -master-mason Reginald of Ely, who as early as 1443 was appointed by a -patent of Henry VI. "to press masons, carpenters, and other workmen" for -the new building. According to Mr. Scott's view, Nicholas Close and his -fellow surveyors merely did the work which in modern days would be done -by a building committee. It was the master-mason who planned the -building, and who continued to act as architect until the works came to -a standstill with the deposition of the King and the enthronement of his -successor Edward IV. in 1462. Moreover, the character of the general -design of King's Chapel and even its architectural details, such as the -setting out of its great windows, the plan of its vaulting shafts, and -the groining of the roofs of the small chapels between its buttresses, -lend force to Mr. Scott's contention. It is evident from the accuracy -and minuteness of the directions given in "the Will of King Henry VI." -(a document which was not in reality a testament, but an expression of -his deliberate purpose and design with regard to his proposed -foundation), that complete working plans had been prepared by an -architect. Whoever that architect may have been, he had evidently been -commissioned to design a chapel of magnificence worthy of a royal -foundation. And where more naturally could he look for his model for -such a building as the King desired than to that chapel, the largest -and the most splendid hitherto erected in England, that finest specimen -of decorated architecture in the kingdom, Alan de Walsingham's Lady -Chapel at Ely. The relationship between the two buildings is obvious to -even an uninstructed eye, but Mr. Scott has shown how closely the -original design of King's follows the Ely Lady Chapel lines. - - "Any one," he truly says, "who will carry up his eye from the bases - of the vaulting shafts to the springing of the great vault will - perceive at once that the section of the shaft does not correspond - with the plan of the vault springers. There is a sort of cripple - here. The shaft is, in fact, set out with seven members, while the - design of the vault plan requires but five. Thus two members of the - pier have nothing to do, and disappear somewhat clumsily in the - capital. The section of these shafts was imposed by the first - architect, and does not agree with the requirement of a fan-groin - (designed by the architect of a later date).... The original - sections, and the peculiar distribution of their bases, - unmistakably indicate a ribbed vault, with transverse, diagonal, - and intermediate ribs. Now, if we apply to the plan of these - shaftings at Cambridge the plan of the vaulting at Ely, we find the - two to tally precisely. Each member of the pier has its - corresponding rib, in the direction of the sweep of which each - member of the base is laid down. This might serve as proof - sufficient, but it is not all. There exist in the church two - lierne-groins of the work of the first period, those namely of the - two easternmost chapels of the north range, and these are identical - in principle with the great vault at Ely, and with the plan that is - indicated by the distribution of the ante-chapel bases. We know - then that the first designer of the church did employ lierne and - not fan-vaulting, even in the small areas of the chapels, and that - these liernes resemble not the later form--such as we may observe - in the nave of Winchester Cathedral--but the earlier manner which - is exhibited at Ely. There can, therefore, as I conceive, be no - doubt that this great chapel was designed to be "chare-roofed" with - such a lierne-vault--it is practically a Welsh-groin--as adorns the - next grandest chapel in England only sixteen miles distant."[54] - -There seems little doubt then that the architect of King's Chapel was -its first master-builder, Reginald of Ely, who, trained under the shadow -of the great Minster buildings in that city, probably in its mason's -yard, naturally took as his model for the King's new chapel at Cambridge -one of the most exquisite of the works of the great cathedral builder of -the previous century, Alan de Walsingham. - -Had the original design of Reginald been completed, several of the -defects of the building, as we see it to-day, would have been avoided. -The chapel vault would have been arched, and the great space which is -now left between the top of the windows and the spring of the vaulting -would have been avoided. Much of the heaviness of effect also, which is -felt by any one studying the exterior of the chapel, and which is due to -the low pitch of the window arches, rendered necessary by the alteration -in the design of the great vault, would have been avoided. - -[Illustration: KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL - - _To face p. 150_] - -Reginald of Ely's work, however, indeed all work on the new chapel, -ceased in 1461, when the battle of Towton gave the crown to the young -Duke of York, and the Lancastrian colleges of his rival fell upon barren -days. On the accession of Richard III. in 1483, the new king not only -showed his goodwill to the College by the gift of lands, but ordered the -building to go on with all despatch. In 1485, however, there commenced -another period of twenty years' stagnation. Then in 1506, Henry VII., -paying a visit with his mother to Cambridge, attended service in the -unfinished chapel, and determined to become its patron. In the summer of -1508 more than a hundred masons and carpenters were again at work, and -henceforth the building suffered no interruption. By July 1515 the -fabric of the church was finished, and had cost in all, according to the -present value of money, some £160,000. - -In November of the same year a payment of £100 is made to Barnard -Flower, the King's glazier, and a similar sum in February 1517. It would -seem that the same artist completed four windows, that over the north -door of the ante-chapel being the earliest. Upon his death agreements -were made in 1526 for the erection of the whole of the remaining -twenty-two windows. They were to represent "the story of the old lawe -and of the new lawe." Above and below the transome in each window are -two separate pictures, each pair being divided by a "messenger," who -bears a scroll with a legend giving the subject represented. In the -lower tier the windows from north-west to south-west represent the Life -of the Blessed Virgin, the Life of Christ, and the History of the Church -as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. The upper tier has scenes from -the Old Testament or from apocryphal sources which prefigure the events -recorded below. The whole of the east window is devoted to the Passion -and Crucifixion of our Lord. The west window, containing a -representation of the Last Judgment, is entirely modern. It was executed -by Messrs. Clayton and Bell, and was erected in 1879. - - "A bare enumeration of the subjects, however, can give but a poor - idea of these glorious paintings. What first arrests the attention - is the singularly happy blending of colours, produced by a most - ingenious juxta-position of pure tints. The half-tones so dear to - the present generation were fortunately unknown when they were set - up. Thus though there is a profusion of brilliant scarlet, and - light blue, and golden yellow, there is no gaudiness. Again, all - the glass admits light without let or hindrance, the shading being - laid on with sparing hand, so that the greatest amount of - brilliancy is insured. This is further enhanced by a very copious - use of white or slightly yellow glass. It must not, however, be - supposed that a grand effect of colour is all that has been aimed - at. The pictures bear a close study as works of art. The figures - are rather larger than life, and boldly drawn, so as to be well - seen from a great distance; but the faces are full of expression - and individuality, and each scene is beautiful as a composition. - They would well bear reduction within the narrow limits of an easel - picture.... There is no doubt that a German or Flemish influence is - discernible in some of the subjects; but that is no more than might - have been expected, when we consider the number of sets of pictures - illustrating the life and passion of Christ that had appeared in - Germany and Flanders during the half century preceding their - execution.... That these windows should (at the time of the Puritan - destruction of such things) have been saved is a marvel; and how it - came to pass is not exactly known. The story that they were taken - out and hidden, or, as one version of it says, buried, may be - dismissed as an idle fabrication. More likely the Puritan - sentiments of the then provost, Dr. Whichcote, were regarded with - such favour by the Earl of Manchester during his occupation of - Cambridge, that he interfered to save the chapel and the college - from molestation."[55] - -[Illustration: Gateway to Old Court of King's College] - -The magnificent screen and rood-loft are carved with the arms, badge, -and initials (H. A.) of Henry and Anne Boleyn, and with the rose, -fleur-de-lis, and portcullis. Doubtless, therefore, they were erected -between 1532 and 1535. The doors to the screen were renewed in 1636, and -bear the arms of Charles I. The stalls were set up by Henry VIII., but -they were without canopies, the wall above them being probably covered -with hangings, the hooks for which may still be seen under the -string-course below the windows. The stalls are in the Renaissance -manner, and are the first example of that style at Cambridge. They -appear to differ somewhat in character from Torregiano's works at -Westminster, and to be rather French than Italian in feeling, although -some portions of the figure-carving recalls in its vigour the style of -Michael Angelo. The stall canopies and the panelling to the east of the -stalls were the work of Cornelius Austin, and were put up about 1675. -The north and south entrance doors leading to the quire and the side -chapel are probably of the same date as the screen. The lectern dates -from the first quarter of the sixteenth century, having been given by -Robert Hacombleyn, provost, whose name it bears. - -As to the remaining buildings of King's College it is sufficient to say -that the great quadrangle projected by the founder was never built. The -old buildings at the back of the schools, hastily finished in a slight -and temporary manner, continued in use until the last century. In 1723 -a plan was furnished by James Gibbs for a new quadrangle, of which the -chapel was to form the north side. The western range--the Gibbs -building--was the only part actually built. The hall, library, provost's -lodge, and several sets of rooms at each end of the hall, as well as the -stone screen and the porter's lodge, were erected in 1824-28, at a cost -of rather more than £100,000, from the designs of William Wilkins. A -range of rooms facing Trumpington Street were added by Sir Gilbert Scott -in 1870. The new court, which when completed will form a court with -buildings on three sides and the river on the fourth, was commenced by -Mr. Bodley in 1891. At present this third side of the court is still -left open. - -[Illustration: King's College Quadrangle] - -To return, however, to the history of the foundation. It is an -illustration of the way in which at this time ultramontanist theories -were contending for supremacy in England, in the universities as -elsewhere, that the King should have applied to the pope for a bull -granting him power to make his new college not only independent of the -bishop of the diocese, but also of the University authorities. Such a -bull was granted, and in 1448 the University itself consented, by an -instrument given under its common seal, that the College, in the matter -of discipline as distinguished from instruction, should be entirely -independent of the University. By the limitation also of the benefits of -this foundation to scholars only of Eton, the founder, perhaps -unconsciously, certainly disastrously, created an exclusive class of -students endowed with exclusive privileges, an anomaly which for more -than four centuries marred the full efficiency of Henry's splendid -foundation. This _imperium in imperio_ was happily abolished by a new -code of statutes which became law in 1861. - -"A little flock they were in Henry's hall - - * * * * * - - Hardly the circle widened, till one day - The guarded gate swung open wide to all." - -It may certainly be hoped that there is truth in the present provost's -gentle prophecy, that "it is hardly possible that the College should -relapse into what was sometimes its old condition, that of a family -party, comfortable, indeed, but inclined to be sleepy and -self-indulgent, and not wholly free from family quarrels." - -And yet at the same time it should not be forgotten, as good master -Fuller reminds us, that "the honour of Athens lieth not in her walls, -but in the worth of her citizens," and that during the lengthened period -in which the society was a close foundation only open to scholars of -Eton, with a yearly entry therefore of new members seldom exceeding -half-a-dozen, it could still point to a long list of distinguished -scholars and of men otherwise eminent--mathematicians like Oughtred, -moralists like Whichcote, theologians like Pearson, antiquarians like -Cole, poets like Waller--who had been educated within its walls. In -Cooper's "Memorials of Cambridge," the list of eminent King's men down -to 1860 occupies twenty pages, a similar list of Trinity men, the -largest college in the university, only ten pages more. This hardly -seems to justify Dean Peacock's well-known epigram on the unreformed -King's as "a splendid _Cenotaph_ of learning." - -Let us now turn from King Henry's College to the other royal foundation -of his reign which claims his consort, the Lady Margaret of Anjou, as -its foundress. The poet Gray in his "Installation Ode," speaking of -Queen Margaret in relation to Queens' College, calls her "Anjou's -heroine." But those Shakespearean readers who have been accustomed to -think of his representation of the Queen, in _The Second Part of King -Henry VI._, as a dramatic portrait of considerable truth and historic -consistency, will hardly recognise the "heroic" qualities of Margaret's -character. Certainly she is not one of Shakespeare's "heroines." She has -none of the womanly grace or lovableness of his ideal women. A woman of -hard indomitable will, mistaking too often cruelty for firmness, using -the pliancy and simplicity of her husband for mere party ends, outraging -the national conscience by stirring up the Irish, the French, the Scots, -against the peace of England, finally pitting the north against the -south in a cruel and futile civil war, with nothing left of womanhood -but the almost tigress heart of a baffled mother, this is the Queen -Margaret as we know her in Shakespeare and in history. But "Our Lady the -Queen Margaret," who was a "nursing mother" to Queens' College, seems a -quite different figure. She has but just come to England, a wife and -queen when little more than a child, "good-looking and well-grown" -(_specie et forma præstans_), precocious, romantic, a "devout pilgrim to -the shrine of Boccaccio," delighting in the ballads of the troubadour, -a lover of the chase, inheriting all the literary tastes of her father, -King René of Anjou. The motives which led her to become the patroness of -a college are thus given by Thomas Fuller:-- - - "As Miltiades' trophy in Athens would not suffer Themistocles to - sleep, so this queen, beholding her husband's bounty in building - King's College, was restless in herself with holy emulation until - she had produced something of the like nature, a strife wherein - wives without breach of duty may contend with their husbands which - should exceed in pious performances."[56] - -Accordingly we read that in 1447 Queen Margaret, being then but fifteen -years old, sent to the King the following petition:-- - - "Margaret,--To the king my souverain lord. Besechith mekely - Margaret, quene of England, youre humble wif. Forasmuche as youre - moost noble grace hath newely ordeined and stablisshed a Collage of - Seint Bernard, in the Universite of Cambrigge, with multitude of - grete and faire privilages perpetuelly apparteynyng unto the same, - as in your lettres patentes therupon made more plainly hit - appereth. In the whiche Universite is no Collage founded by eny - quene of England hidertoward. Plese hit therfore unto your - highnesse to geve and graunte unto your seide humble wif the - fondacon and determinacon of the seid collage to be called and - named the Quene's Collage of Sainte Margarete and Saint Bernard, or - ellis of Sainte Margarete, vergine and martir, and Saint Bernard - Confessour, and thereupon for ful evidence therof to hav licence - and pouoir to ley the furst stone in her own persone or ellis by - other depute of her assignement, so that beside the mooste noble - and glorieus collage roial of our Lady and Saint Nicholas, founded - by your highnesse may be founded and stablisshed the seid so - called Quenes Collage to conservacon of oure feithe and augmentacon - of pure clergie, namly of the imparesse of alle sciences and - facultees theologie ... to the ende there accustumed of plain - lecture and exposicon botraced with docteurs sentence autentiq - performed daily twyse by two docteurs notable and well avised upon - the bible aforenone and maistre of the sentences afternone to the - publique audience of alle men frely, bothe seculiers and religieus - to the magnificence of denominacon of suche a Queen's Collage, and - to laud and honneure of sexe feminine, like as two noble and - devoute contesses of Pembroke and of Clare, founded two collages in - the same Universite called Pembroke hall and Clare hall, the wiche - are of grete reputacon for good and worshipful clerkis that by - grete multitude have be bredde and brought forth in theym. And of - your more ample grace to graunte that alle privileges immunitees, - profites and comoditees conteyned in the lettres patentes above - reherced may stonde in their strength and pouoir after forme and - effect of the conteine in theym. - - "And she shal ever preye God for you." - -The College of S. Bernard, mentioned in the first paragraph of the -Queen's petition, was a hostel, established by Andrew Dokett, the rector -of S. Botolph's Church, situated on the north side of the churchyard in -Trumpington Street, adjoining Benet College. For this hostel, Dokett had -obtained from the King in 1446 a charter of incorporation as a college, -but a year later procured another charter, refounding the College of S. -Bernard on a new site, between Milne Street and the river, adjoining the -house of the Carmelite Friars. The true founder, therefore, of Queens' -College was Andrew Dokett, but he was foresighted enough to seek the -Queen's patronage for his foundation, and no doubt welcomed the -absorption of S. Bernard's hostel in the royal foundation of Queens' -College. Anyhow, the foundation stone of the new building was laid on -the 15th April 1448. The outbreak of the Civil War stopped the works -when the first court of the College was almost finished. Andrew Dokett, -the first master, was still alive when Edward IV. came to the throne, -and about the year 1465, he was fortunate to secure for his College the -patronage of the new queen, Elizabeth Wydville. Elizabeth had been in -earlier days a lady-in-waiting to Margaret of Anjou, and had herself -strongly sympathised with the Lancastrian party. It is probable, -therefore, that in accepting the patronage of the College she did so, -not in her character as Yorkist queen, but rather as desirous of -completing the work of the old mistress whom she had faithfully served -before the strange chances of destiny had brought her as a rival to the -throne. At any rate, from this period onwards the position of the -apostrophe after and not before the "s" in "Queens'" adequately -corresponds to the fact that the College commemorates not one, but two -queens in its title. - -The earliest extant statutes appear to be those of the second foundress, -the Queen Consort of Edward IV., revised at a later time under the -authority of Henry VIII. It seems indeed likely that the absence of -canon law from the subjects required by statute from all fellows after -regency in arts, and the provision of Bible lectures in College, and -divers English sermons to be preached in chapel by the fellows, -indicates a somewhat remarkable reforming spirit for the end of the -fifteenth century, and rather points to the conclusion that these -provisions belong to the later revised code of Henry VIII. At the time -of the foundation of Queen's College the plan of a collegiate building -had been completely developed. It followed the lines not so much of a -monastery, though it had, of course, some features in common with the -monastic houses, but of the normal type of the large country houses or -mansions of the fifteenth century. The late Professor Willis, in his -archæological lectures on Cambridge, was accustomed, we are told, to -exhibit in support of this view a ground plan of Haddon Hall and Queens' -College side by side. And certainly it is surprising to notice how -striking is the similarity of the two plans. The east and west position -of the chapel at Haddon Hall happens to be the reverse of that of -Queens' College, but with that exception, and the position of the -entrance gateway to the first quadrangle, the arrangement of the -buildings in the two mansions is practically identical. The hall, -buttery, and kitchen occupy in both the range of buildings between the -two courts; the private dining-room beyond the hall at Haddon is -represented at Queens' College by the fellows' combination room; the -long gallery in the upper court of Haddon has more or less its -counterpart at Queens' in the masters' gallery in the cloister court; -the upper entrance at Haddon is similarly placed to the passage to the -old wooden bridge at Queens'. - -[Illustration: Cloister Court, Queen's College] - -The principal court of Queens' was almost completed before the Wars of -the Roses broke out. "It is," says Mr. J. W. Clark, "the earliest -remaining quadrangle in Cambridge that can claim attention for real -architectural beauty and fitness of design." It is built in red brick, -and has a noble gateway flanked by octagonal turrets, and there are -square towers at each external angle of the court. The employment of -these towers is a peculiarity which perhaps offers presumptive evidence -that the architect of the other two royal colleges of Eton and King's -may also have been employed at Queens'. This court probably retains more -of the aspect of ancient Cambridge than any other collegiate building in -the town. The turret at the south-west angle of the great court, -overlooking Silver Street and the town bridge and mill pond, adjoins the -rooms which, according to tradition, were occupied by Erasmus, and whose -top storey was used by him as a study. It is commonly known as The Tower -of Erasmus. "Queens' College," says Fuller, "accounteth it no small -credit thereunto that Erasmus (who no doubt might have pickt and chose -what house he pleased) preferred this for the place of his study for -some years in Cambridge. Either invited thither with the fame of the -learning and love of his friend Bishop Fisher, then master thereof, or -allured with the situation of this colledge so near the river (as -Rotterdam, his native place, to the sea) with pleasant walks -thereabouts." An interesting account of Erasmus' residence in Queens' is -quoted by Mr. Searle[57] from a letter written by a fellow of the -College, Andrew Paschal, Rector of Chedsey, in the year 1680, which -pleasantly describes at least the traditional belief. - - "The staires which rise up to his studie at Queens' College in - Cambr. doe bring into two of the fairest chambers in the ancient - building; in one of them which lookes into the hall and chief - court, the Vice-President kept in my time; in that adjoyning it was - my fortune to be, when fellow. The chambers over are good lodgeing - roomes; and to one of them is a square turret adjoyning, in the - upper part of which is the study of Erasmus and over it leads. To - that belongs the best prospect about the Colledge, viz. upon the - river, into the corne fields, and country adjoyning. So y^{t} it - might very well consist with the civility of the house to that - great man (who was no fellow, and I think stayed not long there) to - let him have that study. His sleeping roome might be either the - President's, or to be neer to him the next. The roome for his - servitor that above it, and through it he might goe to that studie, - which for the height and neatnesse and prospect might easily take - his phancy." - -[Illustration: Oriel Window, Queen's College] - -It was in this study no doubt that much of the work was done for his -edition of the New Testament in the original Greek, that epoch-making -book which he published at Basle in 1516; and from hence also he must -have written those amusing letters to his friends, Ammonius, Dean Colet, -Sir Thomas More, in which comments on the progress of his work alternate -with humorous grumblings about the Cambridge climate, the plague, the -wine, the food: "Here I live like a cockle shut up in his shell, stowing -myself away in college, and perfectly mum over my books.... I cannot go -out of doors because of the plague.... I am beset with thieves, and the -wine is no better than vinegar.... I do not like the ale of this place -at all ... if you could manage to send me a cask of Greek wine, the very -best that can be bought, you would be doing your friend a great -kindness, but mind that it is not too sweet.... I am sending you back -your cask, which I have kept by me longer than I otherwise should have -done, that I might enjoy the perfume at least of Greek wine.... My -expenses here are enormous; the profits not a brass farthing. Believe me -as though I were on my oath, I have been here not quite five months, and -yet have spent sixty nobles: while certain members of my (Greek) class -have presented me with just a single one, which they had much difficulty -in persuading me to accept. I have decided not to leave a stone unturned -this winter, and in fact to throw out my sheet anchor. If this succeeds -I will build my nest here; if otherwise, I shall wing my flight--whither -I know not." Perhaps there is some playful exaggeration in all this. -Anyhow Erasmus stayed at Cambridge seven years in all. He may have been -justly disappointed in his Greek class-room: "I shall have perhaps a -larger gathering when I begin the grammar of Theodorus," he writes -plaintively; but disappointed there, he took refuge in his college -study, and there, high up in the south-west tower of Queens', we may -picture him, "outwatching the Bear" over the pages of S. Jerome, as -Jerome himself in his time had outwatched it writing those same pages, -eleven hundred years before, in his cell at Bethlehem; or pouring over -the text of his Greek Testament and its translation, the boldest work of -criticism and interpretation that had been conceived by any scholar for -many a century, a _Novum Instrumentum_ indeed, by which the scholars of -the new learning were to restore to the centuries which followed, the -old true theology which had been so long obscured by the subtleties of -the schoolmen, the new and truer theology which while based on a -foundation of sound method and historical apparatus rests also in the -joyous and refreshing story of the Son of God, in that unique figure of -a Divine Personality, round whom centre the love, the hopes, the fears, -the joys of the coming ages. - -[Illustration: The Bridge & Gables. Queen's College] - -Queens' College has many claims upon the gratitude of English scholars -and English churchmen--it would have been sufficient that she had been -the "nursing mother" of John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester--"vere -Episcopus, vere Theologus"--under whose cautious supervision Cambridge -first tasted of the fruits of the Renascence, who "sat here governor of -the schools not only for his learning's sake, but for his divine -life"--but she can lay no claim to greater honour than this, that -within her walls three hundred years ago, these words were written--they -form part of the noble "Paraclesis" of the _Novum Testamentum_ of -Erasmus:-- - - "If the footprints of Christ are anywhere shown to us, we kneel - down and adore. Why do we not rather venerate the living and - breathing picture of him in these books? If the vesture of Christ - be exhibited, where will we not go to kiss it? Yet were his whole - wardrobe exhibited, nothing could exhibit Christ more vividly and - truly than these Evangelical writings. Statues of wood and stone we - decorate with gold and gems for the love of Christ. They only - profess to give us the form of his body; these books present us - with a living image of his most holy mind. Were we to have seen him - with our own eyes, we should not have so intimate a knowledge as - they give of Christ, speaking, healing, dying, rising again, as it - were, in our actual presence. - - * * * * * - - "The sun itself is not more common and open to all than the - teaching of Christ. For I utterly dissent from those who are - unwilling that the Sacred Scriptures should be read by the - unlearned translated into their vulgar tongue, as though Christ had - taught such subtleties that they can scarcely be understood even by - a few theologians, or as though the strength of the Christian - Religion consisted in men's ignorance of it. The mysteries of kings - it may be safer to conceal, but Christ wished his mysteries to be - published as openly as possible. I wish that even the weakest woman - should read the Gospel--should read the Epistles of Paul. And I - wish these were translated into all languages, so that they might - be read and understood, not only by Scots and Irishmen, but also by - Turks and Saracens. To make them understood is surely the first - step. It may be that they might be ridiculed by many, but some - would take them to heart. I long that the husbandman should sing - portions of them to himself as he follows the plough, that the - weaver should hum them to the tune of his shuttle, that the - traveller should beguile with their stories the tedium of his - journey."[58] - -[Illustration: A Bit from Sidney Street] - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -TWO OF THE SMALLER HALLS - -"To London hence, to Cambridge thence, - With thanks to thee, O Trinity! - That to thy hall, so passing all, - I got at last. - There joy I felt, there trim I dwelt, - Then heaven from hell I shifted well - With learned men, a number then, - The time I past. - - When gains were gone and years grew on, - And Death did cry, from London fly, - In Cambridge then I found again - A resting plot: - In College best of all the rest, - With thanks to thee, O Trinity! - Through thee and thine for me and mine, - Some stay I got!" - --THOMAS TUSSER. - - The Foundation of Trinity Hall by Bishop Bateman of Norwich--On the - Site of the Hostel of Student-Monks of Ely--Prior Crauden--Evidence - of the Ely Obedientary Rolls--The College Buildings--The Old - Hall--S. Edward's Church used as College Chapel--Hugh Latimer's - Sermon on a Pack of Cards--Harvey Goodwin--Frederick Maurice--The - Hall--The Library--Its ancient Bookcases--The Foundation of S. - Catherine's Hall. - - -Thus sang Thomas Tusser--the author of "Five Hundred Points of Good -Husbandry united to as many of Good Housewifery"--of Trinity Hall and -his residence there about the year 1542. And the words of the homely old -rhymer--the most fluent versifier, I suppose, among farmers since -Virgil, wise in his advice to others, most unlucky in the application of -his own maxims--have been echoed in spirit by many generations of "Hall" -men from his time onwards. And indeed there is hardly perhaps another -College in Cambridge which stirs the hearts of its members with a more -passionate enthusiasm of loyalty than this, which yet never speaks of -itself as a "College," but always proudly as "The Hall." It was founded -by William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich, in 1350, but it had an earlier -origin than this. On the southern part of the present site there stood -an old house, which had been provided some thirty years earlier for the -use of the student-monks of Ely attending the University by the then -Prior. This was John of Crauden, Prior of Ely from 1321 to 1341, a man -of noble personal character, a model administrator of the great -possessions of his abbey, a patron of art and learning, the friend on -the one hand of Queen Philippa, and on the other of the greatest -cathedral builder of the fourteenth century, Alan de Walsingham. The -portrait bust of him, which may still be seen carved at the end of one -of the hood moulds of the great octagon arches in the Minster, shows a -strong, handsome face, dignified, benignant, pleasant; a full, frank, -eloquent eye; a mouth intelligent and firm, and yet with a merry smile -lurking unmistakably in its corner; altogether such a man as we may well -feel might not only rightly be Queen Philippa's friend, as the -chronicler says, "propter amabilem et graciosam ipsius affabilitatem et -eloquentiam,"[59] but one also who one might expect to find anxious -to maintain among his convent brothers the Benedictine ideal of -knowledge and learning. It was no doubt to that end that somewhere about -the year 1325 he had purchased the house at Cambridge as a hostel for -the use of the Ely monks. In the Obedientary Rolls of the monastery, -still treasured in the muniment room of the cathedral, there is evidence -that from his time onwards three or four of the Ely monks were -constantly residing at Cambridge at the convent expense, taking their -degrees there, and then returning to Ely.[60] - -[Illustration: The Chapel, Trinity Hall] - -It is probable, however, that the residence of the Ely monks was, -shortly after Crauden's time, transferred from this hostel to the rooms -provided in Monk's College on the present site of Magdalene, for a -register among the Ely muniments shows that in the twenty-fourth year of -Edward III. John of Crauden's hostel was conveyed by the Prior and -Convent to the Bishop of Norwich for the purpose of his proposed -college. The old Monk's Hall was still standing in 1731, for it is -contained in a plan of the College of that date preserved in the College -library. A note in Warren's "History of Trinity Hall" informs us that a -part of it was destroyed in 1823. Warren himself speaks of it as "Y^{e} -Old Building for y^{e} Monks, where y^{e} Pigeon House is." Now all has -vanished unless perhaps some underground foundations in the garden of -the Master's Lodge. - -The buildings of the College, in their general arrangement, have -probably been little altered since their completion in the fourteenth -century. They had the peculiarity of an entrance court between the -principal court and the street, like the outer court of a monastery. The -original gateway, however, of this entrance--the Porter's Court, as it -was called at a later date--has been removed, and the College is now -entered directly from the street. - -It is probable that the Hall, forming one half of the western side of -the principal court, was built during the lifetime of the founder, as -also was the original eastern range, rebuilt in the last century. This -would give a date, 1355, for these two ranges. The buttery and the -northern block of buildings belong to 1374. In early days Trinity Hall -shared with Clare Hall the Church of S. John Zachary as a joint College -chapel. When in connection with the building of King's College the -Church of S. John was removed, two aisles were added to the chancel of -S. Edward's Church for the accommodation of "The Hall" students. The -present chapel appears to date from the end of the fourteenth, or -probably the early part of the fifteenth century. The only architectural -features, however, at present visible of mediæval character are the -piscina and the buttresses on the south side. - -The advowson of the Church of S. Edward, the north aisle of the chancel -of which was for a time used as the College chapel, was acquired by the -College in the middle of the fifteenth century, and has thus remained to -our own day. - - "The complete control," says Mr. Walden in his lately published - "History of Trinity Hall," "of the Church by a College whose - Fellows, in course of time, were more and more a lay body, while - other Colleges continued to be exclusively clerical, might be - expected to give opportunity for the ministrations of men whose - opinions might not be those preferred by the dominant clerical - party at the moment. In 1529, for instance, during the mastership - of Stephen Gardiner be it observed, Hugh Latimer, who is said to - have become a reformer from the persuasions of Bilney, Fellow of - Trinity Hall, preached in S. Edward's on the Sunday before - Christmas. He preached there often, but on this occasion he - surpassed himself in originality, taking apparently a pack of cards - as his text, and illustrating from the Christmas game of Triumph, - with hearts as 'triumph,' or _trumps_ as we say, the superiority of - heart-religion over the vain outward show of the superstitious - ornaments of the other court cards. Buckenham, Prior of the - Dominicans, answered him from the same pulpit, and preached on - dice. Latimer answered him again. The whole must have been more - entertaining than edifying." - -This tradition of independence, at any rate in pulpit teaching, though -in less eccentric ways, has been retained by S. Edward's down to our own -time. Here in 1832, Henry John Rose, the brother of Hugh James Rose, the -Cambridge Tractarian, represented the moderate wing of the new Anglican -party. Here, during the years preceding his promotion to the Deanery of -Ely in 1858, Harvey Goodwin preached that series of sermons, simple, -pithy, robust, which Sunday by Sunday crowded with undergraduates the -Church of S. Edward for nearly eight years, as a church in a university -city has seldom been crowded. Here, also, in 1871 Frederick Denison -Maurice--the most representative churchman probably of the nineteenth -century, for it was he rather than Pusey or Newman, who, by his -interpretation of the Doctrine of the Incarnation, has most profoundly -moulded, inspired, and transfigured the Church ideals of the -present--found an opportunity of preaching when too many of the -parochial pulpits of England were closed to him. - -The grave and the trivial mingle in college as in other human affairs. -And so it came about that the possession of the spiritualities of S. -Edward's parish compelled the Fellows of the Hall to keep an eye on its -temporalities, and from time to time to beat its bounds. Here is one -record of such "beating." It was May 23rd, viz., Ascension Day in 1734, -when the Fellows deputed for the purpose started from the Three Tuns and -went by the Mitre, the White Horse, and the Black Bull before reaching -S. Catherine's Hall. They penetrated King's, but regretted to find that -here the Brewhouse was shut up. They encircled Clare and Trinity Hall, -therefore, and came back to the Three Tuns whence they had started two -hours before. They had not, quite evidently--for the full circuit is not -great--been walking all the time. The account ends:-- - - "N.B.--One bottle of white wine given us at y^{e} Tuns, and one - bottle of white wine given us at the Mitre. Ale and bread and - cheese given by the Minister of St. Edward's at y^{e} Bench in our - College Backside. _Mem._--To be given by y^{e} Minister twelve - halfpenny loaves, sixpenny worth of Cheshire cheeses, seven - quarts and a half of ale in y^{e} great stone bottle for y^{e} - people in general, and a tankard of ale for each church - warden."[61] - -[Illustration: Oriel Window, Jesus College] - -It will be remembered that in the last chapter, in speaking of the books -left to Corpus Christi College by Archbishop Parker, we mentioned that -provision of his deed of gift by which under certain contingencies the -books were to be transferred from Corpus to Trinity Hall. It is quite -probable that this provision drew the attention of the authorities of -the latter college to the possible need of a library. It is unknown, -however, when exactly the present library was built. The style proclaims -Elizabeth's reign or thereabouts. Professor Willis conjectured about -1600. But whatever the date may be it is very fortunate that the hand of -the restorer which fell so heavily upon so many other of the College -buildings should have mercifully spared the library, which to this day -retains its early simplicity of character, leaving it one of the most -interesting of the old book rooms in the University. Mr. J. G. Clark in -his valuable essay on the Development of Libraries and their fittings, -published two years ago under the title "The Care of Books," has thus -spoken of the library of Trinity Hall:-- - - "The Library of Trinity Hall is thoroughly mediæval in plan, being - a long narrow room on the first floor of the north side of the - second court, 65 feet long by 20 feet wide, with eight equi-distant - windows in each side wall, and a window of four lights in the - western gable. It was built about 1600, but the fittings are even - later, having been added between 1626 and 1645 during the - mastership of Thomas Eden, LL.D. They are therefore a deliberate - return to ancient forms at a time when a different type had been - adopted elsewhere. - - "There are four desks and six seats on each side of the room, - placed as usual, at right angles to the side walls, in the - interspaces of the windows, respectively. - - "These lecterns are of oak, 6 feet 7 inches long, and 7 feet high, - measured to the top of the ornamental finial. There is a sloping - desk at the top, beneath which is a single shelf. The bar for the - chains passes under the desk, through the two vertical ends of the - case. At the end furthest from the wall, the hasp of the lock is - hinged to the bar and secured by two keys. Beneath the shelf there - is at either end a slip of wood which indicates that there was once - a movable desk which could be pulled out when required. The reader - could therefore consult his convenience, and work either sitting or - standing. For both these positions the heights are very suitable, - and at the bottom of the case was a plinth on which he could set - his feet. The seats between each pair of desks were of course put - up at the same time as the desks themselves. They show an advance - in comfort, being divided into two so as to allow of support to the - readers' backs."[62] - -The garden of the Hall was laid out early in the last century, with -formal walks and yew hedges and a raised terrace overlooking the river. -The well-known epigram quoted by Gunning in his "Reminiscences"[63] has -for its topic not this garden but the small triangular plot next to -Trinity Hall Lane, which was planted and surrounded by a paling in 1793, -by Dr. Joseph Jowett, the then tutor. - -[Illustration: Gateway in Great Court St Catharine's College] - -"A little garden little Jowett made - And fenced it with a little palisade, - But when this little garden made a little talk, - He changed it to a little gravel walk; - If you would know the mind of little Jowett - This little garden don't a little show it." - -It has usually been attributed to Archdeacon Wrangham. There are several -versions of it, and a translation into Latin, which runs as follows:-- - -"Exiguum hunc hortum, fecit Jowettulus iste - Exiguus, vallo et muniit exiguo: - Exiguo hoc horto forsan Jowettulus iste - Exiguus mentem prodidit exiguam." - -At the end of the fifteenth century, just twenty years after the fall of -Constantinople, Dr. Robert Woodlark, third Provost of King's College and -some time Chancellor of the University, founded the small "House of -Learning," which he called S. Catherine's Hall, possibly because Henry -VI., whose mother was a Catherine, was his patron, or possibly because -at this time S. Catherine of Alexandria, the patron saint of scholars, -was a popular saint. In the statutes he says, "I have founded and -established a college or hall to the praise, glory, and honour of our -Lord Jesus Christ, of the most glorious Virgin Mary, His mother, and of -the Holy Virgin Katerine, for the exaltation of the Christian faith, for -the defence and furtherance of the Holy Church, and growth of science -and faculties of philosophy and sacred theology." In the autumn of 1473 -a Master and three Fellows took up their residence in the small court -which had just been built on a site in Milne Street, close to the Bull -Inn. The chapel and library, however, do not appear to have been -completed until a few years later. In 1520 a second court was added, and -a century later, in 1634, some new buildings were commenced to the north -of the principal court, and adjacent to Queen's Street. These buildings, -which are the only old buildings that still remain, were completed two -years later. Between 1673-97 all the rest of the old buildings were -pulled down and the College rebuilt. In 1704 the new chapel was built on -the site of the stables of Thomas Hobson, whose just but despotic method -of dealing with his customers gave rise to the phrase "Hobson's Choice." -In 1757, the houses which hitherto had concealed the College from the -High Street were removed. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -BISHOP ALCOCK AND THE NUNS OF S. RHADEGUND - -"Yes, since his dayes a cocke was in the fen, - I knowe his voyce among a thousand men: - He taught, he preached, he mended every wrong: - But, Coridon, alas! no good thing abideth long. - He All was a Cocke, he wakened us from sleepe - And while we slumbered he did our foldes keep: - No cur, no foxes, nor butchers' dogges would - Coulde hurte our folds, his watching was so good; - The hungry wolves which did that time abounde, - What time he crowed abashed at the sounde. - This Cocke was no more abashed at the Foxe - Than is a Lion abashed at the Oxe." - --ALEXANDER BARCLAY, _Monk of Ely_, 1513 - - The New Learning in Italy and Germany--The English "Pilgrim - Scholars": Grey, Tiptoft, Linacre, Grocyn--The practical Genius of - England--Bishops Rotherham, Alcock, and Fisher--Alcock, - diplomatist, financier, architect--The Founder of Jesus College--He - takes as his model Jesus College, Rotherham--His Object the - Training of a Preaching Clergy--The Story of the Nunnery of S. - Rhadegund--Its Dissolution--Conversion of the Conventual Church - into a College Chapel--The Monastic Buildings, Gateway, Cloister, - Chapter House--The Founder a Better Architect than an Educational - Reformer--The Jesus Roll of eminent Men from Cranmer to Coleridge. - - -The historical importance of the New Learning depends ultimately on the -fact that its influence on the Western world broadened out into a new -capacity for culture in general, which took various forms according to -the different local or national conditions with which it came into -contact. In Italy, its land of origin, the Classical Revival was felt -mainly as an æsthetic ideal, an instrument for the self-culture of the -individual, expressing itself in delight for beauty of form and elegance -of literary style, bringing to the life of the cultured classes a social -charm and distinction of tone, which, however, it is difficult sometimes -to distinguish from a merely refined paganism. In France and Spain too, -where the basis of character was also Latin, the æsthetic spirit of -classical antiquity was readily assimilated. To a French or a Spanish -scholar sympathy with the pagan spirit was instinctive and innate. The -Teutonic genius, however, both on the side of Literature and of Art, -remained sturdily impervious to the more æsthetic side of the Italian -Renaissance. In Germany the æsthetic influence was evident enough--we -can trace it plainly in the writings of Erasmus and Melancthon, though -with them Italian humanism was always a secondary aim subservient to a -greater end--but it had a strongly marked character of its own, wholly -different from the Italian. The Renaissance in Germany indeed we rightly -know by the name of the Reformation, and the paramount task of the -German scholars of the New Learning we recognise to have been the -elucidation of the true meaning of the Bible. Similarly in England the -scholarly mind was at first little affected by the æsthetic -considerations which meant so much to a Frenchman or an Italian. A few -chosen Englishmen, it is true, "pilgrim scholars" they were -called--William Grey, Bishop of Ely, John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, -Thomas Linacre, William Grocyn stand out perhaps most -conspicuously--were drawn to Italy by the rumours of the marvellous -treasures rescued from monastic lumber rooms, or conveyed over seas by -fugitive Greeks, but they returned to England to find that there was -little they could do except to bequeath the books and manuscripts they -had collected to an Oxford or a Cambridge College, and hope for happier -times when scholars would be found to read them. It was not indeed until -the little group of Hellenists--Erasmus and Linacre and Grocyn and -Colet--had shown the value of Greek thought as an interpreter of the New -Testament, that any enthusiasm for the New Learning could be awakened in -England. An increase of a knowledge of the Bible was worth working for, -not the elegancies of an accurate Latin style. Englishmen in the -fifteenth century were busy in the task of developing trade and -commerce, and their intellectual tone took colour from their daily work. -It became eminently utilitarian and practical. An English scholar was -willing to accept the New Learning if you would prove to him that it was -useful or was true, that it was only beautiful did not at first much -affect him. It was only therefore with an eye to strictly practical -results that at the universities the New Learning was welcomed, and even -there tardily. - -Nowhere perhaps is this practical tendency of English scholarship at -this period more characteristically shown than in the Cambridge work of -Thomas Alcock and John Fisher, the founders respectively of Jesus -College and of the twin colleges of Christ's and John's. Alcock and -Fisher were both of them Yorkshiremen, born and educated at Beverley in -the Grammar School connected with the Minster there, and both proceeding -from thence to Cambridge: Alcock in all likelihood, though there is some -doubt about this, to Pembroke, where he took his LL.D. degree in or -before 1461; Fisher to Michaelhouse, of which he became a Fellow in -1491. - -Of Alcock, the historian Bale has said that "no one in England had a -greater reputation for sanctity." He was equally remarkable for his -practical qualities, as a diplomatist, as a financier, as an architect. -He had twice been a Royal Commissioner, under Richard III. and under -Henry VII., to arrange treaties with Scotland. By an arrangement, of -which no similar instance is known, he had conjointly held the office of -Lord Chancellor with Bishop Rotherham of Lincoln, he himself at that -time ruling the diocese of Rochester. As early as 1462 he had been made -Master of the Rolls. In 1476 he was translated to Worcester, and at the -same time became Lord President of Wales. On the accession of Henry -VII., he was made Comptroller of the Royal Works and Buildings, an -office for which he was especially fitted, it is said, by his skill as -an architect. In 1486 he was translated to the See of Ely and again made -Lord Chancellor. - -It was as Bishop of Ely that he undertook the foundation of Jesus -College. There can, I think, be little doubt that for the idea of his -projected college he was indebted to his old Cambridge friend and -co-chancellor, Thomas Rotherham, at this time Archbishop of York. At any -rate, it is noteworthy that each of the friends founded in his -Diocese--the Archbishop at his native place of Rotherham, the Bishop of -Ely at Cambridge--a college dedicated to the name of Jesus. Jesus -College, Rotherham, was founded in 1481; Jesus College, Cambridge, -followed fifteen years later. The main object of the two prelates was -probably the same. In the license for the foundation of Rotherham's -college its objects are stated to be twofold: "To preach the Word of God -in the Parish of Rotherham and in other places in the Diocese of York; -and to instruct gratuitously, in the rules of grammar and song, scholars -from all parts of England, and especially from the Diocese of York." -There is no reason to suppose that the needs of the Diocese of Ely, even -fifteen years later, were any different. For the fact that Jesus -College, Rotherham, should consist of _ten_ persons--a provost, six -choristers, and three masters--who can teach respectively grammar, -music, and writing, the Archbishop gave the fanciful reason, that as he, -its founder, had offended God in His ten commandments, so he desired the -benefit of the prayers of ten persons on his behalf. Alcock's motive for -fixing the number of his new Society of Jesus at Cambridge at thirteen -seems to have been no less characteristic. Thirteen, the number of the -original Christian Society of Our Lord and His Apostles, was the common -complement of the professed members of a monastic society, and may in -all likelihood have been the original number of the nuns of St. -Rhadegund, whose house the Bishop was about to suppress to found his new -college. - - "Rotherham's College, according to its measure, was intended to - meet two pressing needs of his time, and especially of northern - England--a preaching clergy, and boys trained for the service of - the church. At the end of the fifteenth century 'both theology and - the art of preaching seemed in danger of general neglect. At the - English universities, and consequently throughout the whole - country, the sermon was falling into almost complete disuse.' The - disfavour with which it was regarded by the heads of the Church was - largely due to fear of the activity of the Lollards, which had - brought all popular harangues and discourses under suspicion. When - the embers of heresy had been extinguished, here and there a - reforming churchman sought to restore among the parish clergy the - old preaching activity. In the wide unmanageable dioceses of the - north the lack of an educated, preaching priesthood was most - apparent. Bishop Stanley is probably only echoing the language of - Alcock when he begins and closes his statutes with an exhortation - to the society, whom he addresses as 'scholars of Jesus,' so to - conduct themselves 'that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be - honoured, the clergy multiplied, and the people called to the - praise of God.' He enacts that of the five Foundation Fellows (one - of Alcock's having been suppressed) four shall be devoted to the - study of theology, and he requires that they shall be chosen from - natives of five counties, which, owing to the imperfections of the - single existing copy of his statutes, are unspecified. If, as is - likely, this county restriction was re-introduced by Stanley from - the provisions made by Alcock, it is natural to surmise that the - founder's native county was one of those preferred. Certain it is - that his small society had a Yorkshireman, Chubbes of Whitby, for - its first master. He had been a Fellow of Pembroke, and probably - from the same society and county came one of the original Fellows - of Jesus, William Atkynson. - - "The same fear of Lollardism which had stifled preaching had caused - the teaching profession to be regarded with jealousy by the - authorities of the Church. In a limited part of north-eastern - England, William Byngham, about the year 1439, found seventy - schools void for 'grete scarstie of Maistres of Gramar' which fifty - years previously had been in active use. His foundation of God's - House at Cambridge was designed to supply trained masters to these - derelict schools. The boys' schools attached to Rotherham's and - Alcock's Foundations were intended to meet the same deficiency. - Presumably Alcock meant that one or other of his Fellows should - supply the teaching, for his foundation did not include a - schoolmaster. The linking of a grammar school with a house of - university students was of course no novelty; the connection of - Winchester with New College had been copied by Henry VI. in the - association of Eton and King's. But Alcock's plan of including boys - and 'dons' within the same walls, and making them mix in the common - life and discipline of hall and chapel, if not absolutely a new - thing, had no nearer prototype in an English university than Walter - de Merton's provisions in the statutes of his College for a - _Grammaticus_ and _Pueri_. Though the school was meant to supply a - practical need, the pattern of it seems to have been suggested by - Alcock's mediæval sentiment. There is indeed no evidence or - likelihood that S. Rhadegund's Nunnery maintained a school, but the - same monastic precedent which Alcock apparently followed in fixing - the number of his society prescribed the type of his school. It - stood in the quarter where monastic schools were always placed, - next the gate, in the old building which had served the nuns as - their almonry."[64] - -The story of the nunnery of S. Rhadegund, which, under the auspices of -Bishop Alcock, became Jesus College, is an interesting one. Luckily, the -material for that history is fairly complete. The nuns bequeathed a -large mass of miscellaneous documents--charters, wills, account -rolls--to the College, and the scrupulous care with which they were -originally housed, and not less, perhaps, the wholesome neglect which -has since respected their repose in the College muniment room, have -fortunately preserved them intact to the present time, and have enabled -the present tutor of the College, Mr. Arthur Gray, to reconstruct a -fairly complete picture of this isolated woman's community in an alien -world of men in pre-Academic Cambridge, and of the depravation and decay -which came of that isolation, and which ended in the first suppression -in England of an independent House of Religion. I am indebted for the -following particulars to Mr. Gray's monograph on the priory of S. -Rhadegund, published a year or two ago by the Cambridge Antiquarian -Society, and to the first chapter of his lately published College -History. - -Who the nuns were that first settled on the Green-Croft by the river -bank below Cambridge, and whence they came thither, and by what title -they became possessed of their original site, the documents they have -handed down to us across the centuries apparently do not record. It is -true that in the letters patent of Henry VII. for the dissolution of the -nunnery and the erection of a college in its room it is -asserted--evidently on the representation of Bishop Alcock--that S. -Rhadegund's Priory was "of the foundation and patronage of the Bishop, -as in right of his Cathedral Church of Ely." The nun's "original cell" -was no doubt of the Benedictine Order, and the great Priory of Ely, -fifteen miles away down the river, was also Benedictine, and the good -Bishop may have been right in his assertion of the connection between -the two, but it is a little doubtful whether he could have given chapter -and verse for his assertion. What is certain is this, that Nigel, the -second Bishop of Ely, in the opening years of Stephen's reign, gave to -the nuns their earliest charter. It is addressed with Norman -magnificence "to all barons and men of S. Etheldrytha, cleric or lay, -French or English," and it grants for a rent of twelve pence, "to the -nuns of the cell lately established without the vill of Cantebruge," -certain land lying near to other land belonging to the same cell. To the -friendly interest of the same Bishop it seems probable that the nuns -owed their first considerable benefaction. This was a parcel of ground, -consisting of two virgates and six acres of meadow and four cottars with -their tenure in the neighbouring village of Shelford, granted to them by -a certain William the Monk. The fact that after seven centuries and a -half the successors of the nuns of S. Rhadegund, the Master and Fellow -of Jesus College, still hold possession of the same property is not only -a remarkable instance of continuity of title, but also, let us hope, is -sufficient proof that the original donor had come by his title -honestly--a fact about which there might otherwise have been some -suspicion, when we read such a record as this of this same William the -Monk in the _Historia Eliensis_ of Thomas of Ely: "With axes and -hammers, and every implement of masonry, he profanely assailed the -shrine (of S. Etheldreda, the Foundress Saint in the Church of Ely), and -with his own hand robbed it of its metal." However, it is something that -further on in the same record we may read: "He lived to repent it -bitterly. He, who had once been extraordinarily rich and had lacked for -nothing, was reduced to such extreme poverty as not even to have the -necessaries of life. At last when he had lost all and knew not whither -to turn himself, by urgent entreaty he prevailed on the Ely brethren to -receive him into their order, and there with unceasing lamentation, -tears, vigils, and prayers deploring his guilt, he ended his days in -sincere penitence." - - * * * * * - -Other benefactions followed that of William the Monk, lands, customs, -tithes, fishing rights, advowsons of churches. At some time in the reign -of Henry II. the nuns acquired the advowson of All Saints Church--All -Saints in the Jewry--a living which still belongs to the Masters and -Fellows of Jesus, although the old church standing in the open space -opposite the gate of John's was removed in the middle of the last -century, and is now represented by the memorial cross placed on the -vacant spot and by the fine new church of All Saints facing Jesus -College. The advowson of S. Clements followed in the year 1215, given to -the nuns by an Alderman of the Cambridge Guild Merchants. Altogether the -nunnery, though never a large house, seems to have acquired a -comfortable patrimony. - -[Illustration: ST. JOHN'S AND DIVINITY SCHOOLS] - - "The Account Rolls which the departing sisters left behind them in - 1496 reveal pretty fully the routine of their lives. Books--save - for the casual mention of the binding of the lives of the - saints--were none of their business, and works of charity, - excepting the customary dole to the poor on Maundy Thursday, and - occasional relief to 'poor soldiers disabled in the wars of Our - Lord the King,' scarcely concerned them more. The duties of - hospitality in the Guest House make the Cellaress a busy woman. - They cost a good deal, but are not unprofitable; the nuns take in - 'paying guests,' daughters of tradesmen and others. Being ladies, - the sisters neither toil nor spin; but the Prioress and the - Grangeress have an army of servants, whose daily duties have to be - assigned to them; carters and ploughmen have to be sent out to the - scattered plots owned by the Nunnery in the open fields about - Cambridge; the neatherd has to drive the cattle to distant - Willingham fen; the brewer has instructions for malting and brewing - the 'peny-ale' which serves the nuns for 'bevers'; and the women - servants are dispatched to work in the dairy, to weed the garden, - or to weave and to make candles in the hospice. Once in a while a - party of the nuns, accompanied by their maid-servants, takes boat - as far as to Lynn, there to buy stock-fish and Norway timber, and - to fetch a letter for the Prioress."[65] - -There is not much sign, alas! in all the record of any great devotion to -religion, such as we might have expected to find in regard to such a -House. Indeed, it would seem that there was seldom a time in the history -of the Nunnery when a visit from the Bishop of the Diocese or from one -of his commissioners on a round of inspection was other than a much -resented occurrence. Discipline, indeed, appears to have been generally -lax in the Nunnery, and the sisters or some of them easily got -permission to gad outside the cloister. Scandal is a key which generally -unlocks the cloister gate and permits a glance into the interior -shadows. _Bene vixit quæ bene latuit._ - - "Not such was Margaret Cailly, whose sad story was the gossip of - the nuns' parlour in 1389. She came of an old and reputable family - which had furnished mayors and bailiffs to Cambridge and had - endowed the nuns with land at Trumpington. For reasons sufficiently - moving her, which we may only surmise, she escaped from the - cloister, discarded her religious garb, and sought hiding in the - alien diocese of Lincoln. But it so happened that Archbishop - Courtenay that year was making metropolitical visitation of that - diocese, and it was the ill-fortune of Margaret, 'a sheep wandering - from the fold among thorns,' to come under his notice. The - Archbishop, solicitous that 'her blood be not required at our - hands,' handed her over to the keeping of our brother of Ely. The - Bishop in turn passed her on to the custody of her own Prioress, - with injunctions that she should be kept in close confinement, - under exercise of salutary penance, until she showed signs of - contrition for her 'excesses'; and further that when the said - Margaret first entered the chapter-house she should humbly implore - pardon of the Prioress and her sisters for her offences. The story - ends for us at Margaret's prison-door."[66] - -[Illustration: Norman Work in Church of Jesus College] - -Such a story, more or less typical, I fear, of much and long continued -lax discipline, prepares us for the end. When Bishop Alcock visited the -House in 1497, we are not surprised perhaps at the evidence which is set -forth in the Letters Patent authorising the foundation of his College in -the place of the Nunnery. The buildings and properties of the house are -said to be dilapidated and wasted "owing to the improvidence, -extravagance, and incontinence of the nuns resulting from their -proximity to the University." Two nuns only remain; one of them is -professed elsewhere, the other is _infamis_. They are in abject want, -utterly unable to maintain Divine service or the works of mercy and -piety required of them, and are ready to depart, leaving the home -desolate. - - * * * * * - -From the nuns of S. Rhadegund then Jesus College received no heritage of -noble ideal. Two things only they have left behind them for which they -merit gratitude. Firstly, a bundle of deeds and manuscripts, -inconsiderable to them, very valuable to the scholars and historians of -the future; and secondly, their fine old church and monastic buildings. - -In writing in a previous chapter of the buildings of Queens' we drew -attention to the fact that the general plan of the College followed in -the main the lines of a large country house such as Haddon Hall. And in -degree this is true of the other college buildings in Cambridge. A mere -glance at a ground-plan of Jesus will show at once that the arrangement -of the buildings is entirely different from that of any other college at -Cambridge, and it is clearly derived from that of a monastery. This -accords with what we know of its history. However dilapidated the old -nunnery may have become through the poverty and neglect of the nuns, the -outward walls of solid clunch, which under a facing of later brick, -still testify to the durability of the Nunnery builders, were still -practically intact, and Bishop Alcock had too much practical skill as an -architect to destroy buildings which he could so easily adapt to the -needs of his college, and harmonise to fifteenth century fashions in -architecture. - -In his conversion of the Nunnery buildings to the purposes of his -college, Bishop Alcock grouped the buildings he required round the -original cloister of the nuns, increasing the size of that cloister by -the breadth of the north aisle of the Conventual Church which he pulled -down. The hall was placed on the north side, the library on the west. -The kitchens and offices were in the angle of the cloister between the -hall and library. The master's lodge at the south-west corner was partly -constructed out of the altered nave of the church, and partly out of new -buildings connecting this south-western corner of the cloister with the -gate of entrance. This gateway, approached by a long gravelled path -between high walls, known popularly as "the chimney," is one of the most -picturesque features of the College. It is usually ascribed to Bishop -Alcock, but on architectural evidence only. It is thus described by -Professor Willis:-- - - "The picturesque red-brick gateway tower of Jesus College (1497), - although destitute of angle-turrets, is yet distinguished from the - ground upwards by a slight relief, by stone quoins, and by having - its string courses designedly placed at different levels from those - of the chambers on each side of it. The general disposition of the - ornamentation of its arch and of the wall above it furnished the - model for the more elaborate gate-houses at Christ's College and - St. John's College. The ogee hood-mould rises upwards, and the stem - of its finial terminates under the base of a handsome tabernacle - which occupies the centre of the upper stage, with a window on each - side of it. Each of the spandrel spaces contains a shield, and a - larger shield is to be found in the triangular field between the - hood-mould and the arch." - -Professor Willis thus describes also the Conventual Church and the -changes which were made by the Bishop in his conversion of it into a -college chapel. - -[Illustration: Norman Work in N. Transept Jesus College Chapel] - - "The church ... presented an arrangement totally different from - that of the chapel of Jesus College at the present day. It was - planned in the form of a cross, with a tower in the centre, and had - in addition to a north and south transept, aisles on the north and - south sides of the eastern limb, flanking it along half the extent - of its walls, and forming chapels which opened to the chancel by - two pier arches in each wall. The structure was completed by a nave - of seven piers with two side aisles.... (The church) was an - admirable specimen of the architecture of its period, and two of - the best preserved remaining portions, the series of lancet windows - on the north and south aisles of the eastern limb, and the arcade - that ornaments the inner surface of the tower walls, will always - attract attention and admiration for the beauty of their - composition. - - "Under the direction of Bishop Alcock the side aisles, both of the - chancel and of the nave, were entirely removed, the pier arches by - which they had communicated with the remaining centre portion of - the building were walled up, and the place of each arch was - occupied by a perpendicular window of the plainest description. The - walls were raised, a flat roof was substituted for the high-pitched - roof of the original structure, large perpendicular windows were - inserted in the gables of the chancel and south transept, and - lastly, two-thirds of the nave were cut off from the church by a - wall, and fitted up partly as a lodge for the master, partly as - chambers for students. - - "As for the portion set apart for the chapel of the college, the - changes were so skilfully effected and so completely concealed by - plaster within and without, that all trace and even knowledge of - the old aisles was lost; but in the course of preparations for - repairs in 1846 the removal of some of the plaster made known the - fact that the present two south windows of the chancel were - inserted in walls which were themselves merely the filling-up of a - pair of pier-arches, and that these arches, together with the piers - upon which they rested, and the responds whence they sprang, still - existed in the walls. When this key to the secret of the church had - been supplied, it was resolved to push the enquiry to the - uttermost; all the plaster was stripped off the inner face of the - walls; piers and arches were brought to light again in all - directions; old foundations were sought for on the outside of - the building, and a complete and systematic examination of the plan - and structure of the original Church was set on foot, which led to - very satisfactory results."[67] - -[Illustration: Entrance to Chapter-House Priory of S. Radegund now Jesus -College - -Herbert Railton] - -To-day the completely restored church, the work at varying intervals -from 1849 to 1869 of Salvin and Pugin and Bodley, forms one of the most -beautiful and interesting college chapels in Cambridge. An important -series of stained glass windows were executed by Mr. William Morris from -the designs of Burne-Jones between 1873-77. In 1893 the Rev. Osmund -Fisher, a former Dean of the College, at this time elected an Honorary -Fellow, remembering to have seen in his undergraduate days of fifty -years before indications of old Gothic work in the wall of the cloister, -during some repair of the plaster work, obtained leave of the Master to -investigate the wall. This led to the discovery of the beautiful triple -group of early English arches and doorway which formed the original -entrance to the chapter house of the Nunnery, one of the most charming -bits of thirteenth century architectural grouping in all Cambridge. - -Bishop Alcock was probably a better architect than he was an educational -reformer. He was successful enough in converting the fabric of the -dissolved Nunnery into college buildings. It may be doubted whether he -was equally successful in translating his friend Archbishop Rotherham's -ideal of a grammar school college into a working institution. In the -constitution which he gave to his college there were to be places found -for both Fellows and boys--_Scholares and Pueri_--but the _Scholares_ -were obviously to be men, and the _Pueri_ simply schoolboys, for they -were to be under fourteen years of age on admission; and _Juvenes_, -undergraduate scholars, did not enter into his plan. The amended -statutes of his successors, Bishops Stanley and West, gave some -definition to the founder's scheme, but they did not materially modify -it. Within fifty years, in fact, from its foundation, Jesus College, as -Alcock had conceived it, had become an anachronism, and the claustral -community of student priests with their schoolboy acolytes, not -seriously concerned with true education, and unvivified by contact with -the real student scholar, came near to perishing, as a thing born out of -due season. The dawn of what might seem to be a better state of things -only began with the endowment of scholarships--scholarships, that is to -say, in the modern sense--in the reign of Edward VI. It was only, -however, with the university reforms of the nineteenth century that the -proportion of college revenue allotted to such endowment fund was -reasonably assessed. - -And yet with this somewhat meagre scholarship equipment the roll of -eminent men belonging to Jesus College is a worthy one. On the very -first page of that roll we are confronted with the name of Cranmer. We -do not know the name of any student whose admission to the College -preceded his. Wary and sagacious then, as in later life, he had resisted -the tempting offer of a Fellowship at Wolsey's new college of Christ -Church at Oxford to come to Cambridge, there, it is true at first, "to -be nursed in the grossest kind of sophistry, logic, philosophy, moral -and natural (not in the text of the old philosophers, but chiefly in -the dark riddles of Duns and other subtle questionists), to his age of -22 years," but shortly, having taken his B.A. degree in 1511, to receive -from Erasmus, who in that year began to lecture at Cambridge as Lady -Margaret Reader, his first bent towards those studies which led -eventually to the publication of his "Short Instruction into Christian -Religion," which it had been better had he himself more closely -followed, and possibly towards that opportunist policy, which in the -event ended so sadly for himself, and meant so much, both of evil and of -good, to the future of both Church and State in England. Closely -associated with Cranmer were other Jesus men, noted theologians of the -reforming party;--John Bale, afterwards Bishop of Ossory, called -"bilious Bale" by Fuller because of the rancour of his attacks on his -papal opponents, Geoffry Downs, Thomas Goodrich, afterwards Bishop of -Ely, John Edmunds, Robert Okyng, and others. In the list of succeeding -archbishops claimed by the College as Jesus men occur the names of -Herring, Hutton, Sterne. The Sterne family indeed contribute not a few -members through several generations to the College, not the least -eminent being the author of "Tristram Shandy" and "The Sentimental -Journey." The portraits of both Laurence Sterne and his great -grandfather the Archbishop hang on the walls of the dining-hall, the -severe eyes of the Caroline divine looking across as if with much -disfavour at the trim and smiling figure of his descendant, the young -cleric so unlike his idea of what a priest and scholar should be. Other -than "Shandean" influence in the College is, however, suggested by the -name of Henry Venn among the admissions of 1742, when he migrated to -Jesus after three months' residence at S. John's, and exercised an -influence prophetic of the great movement of Cambridge evangelicalism, -prolonged far into the next century by Venn's pupil and friend, Charles -Simeon. It is probable, however, that there is no more brilliant page in -the history of Jesus College than that which tells the story of the last -decade of the seventeenth century, and which contains the names of -William Otter, E. D. Clarke, Robert Malthus, and Samuel Taylor -Coleridge. Coleridge was elected a Rustat Scholar in 1791 and a -Foundation Scholar in 1793, but he gained no academic distinction. There -was no classical tripos in those days, and to obtain a Chancellor's -medal it was necessary that a candidate should have obtained honours in -mathematics for which Coleridge had all a poet's abhorrence. Among the -poems of his college days may be remembered, "A Wish written in Jesus -Wood, Feb. 10, 1792," and the well-known "Monologue to a Young Jackass -in Jesus Piece." Another poem more worthy of record perhaps, though he -scribbled it in one of the College chapel prayer-books, is one of -regretful pathos on the neglected "hours of youth," which finds a later -echo in his "Lines on an Autumnal Evening," where he alludes to his -undergraduate days at Jesus:-- - -"When from the Muses' calm abode - I came, with learning's meed not unbestowed; - Whereas she twined a laurel round my brow, - And met my kiss, and half returned my vow." - -And with that quotation from the Jesus poet we may perhaps close this -chapter, only adding one word of hearty agreement with that encomium -which was passed upon the College by King James, who, because of the -picturesqueness of its old buildings and the beauty and charm of its -surroundings, spoke of Jesus College as _Musarum Cantabrigiensium -Museum_, and also with that decision which on a second visit to -Cambridge His Majesty wisely gave, that "Were he to choose, he would -pray at King's, dine at Trinity, and study and sleep at Jesus." - - - - -CHAPTER X - -COLLEGES OF THE NEW LEARNING - -"No more as once in sunny Avignon, - The poet-scholar spreads the Homeric page, - And gazes sadly, like the deaf at song: - For now the old epic voices ring again - And vibrate with the beat and melody - Stirred by the warmth of old Ionian days." - --MRS. BROWNING. - - The Lady Margaret Foundations--Bishop Fisher of Rochester--The - Foundation of Christ's--God's House--The Buildings of the new - College--College Worthies--John Milton--Henry More--Charles - Darwin--The Hospital of the Brethren of S. John--Death of the Lady - Margaret--Foundation of S. John's College--Its Buildings--The Great - Gateway--The New Library--The Bridge of Sighs--The - Wilderness--Wordsworth's "Prelude"--The Aims of Bishop Fisher--His - Death. - - -We may well in this chapter take together the twin foundations of -Christ's College and S. John's which both had the Lady Margaret, -Countess of Richmond and Derby, and mother of Henry VII. for their -foundress. The father of this lady was John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, -and her mother was Margaret, daughter and heiress of Sir John Beauchamp, -of Bletso. "So that," says Fuller, punning on her parents' names, -"_fairfort_ and _fairfield_ met in this lady, who was fair body and fair -soul, being the exactest pattern of the best devotion those days -afforded, taxed for no personal faults but the errors of the age she -lived in. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, preached her funeral sermon, -wherein he resembled her to Martha in four respects: firstly, nobility -of person; secondly, discipline of her body; thirdly, in ordering her -soul to God; fourthly, in hospitality and charity." - -In that assemblage of noble lives, who from the earliest days of -Cambridge history have laboured for the benefit of the University, and -left it so rich a store of intellectual good, there are no more honoured -names than these two:--the Lady Margaret, Countess of Richmond, and her -friend and confessor, Bishop Fisher, under whose wise and cautious -supervision Cambridge first tasted of the fruits of the Renaissance, and -welcomed Erasmus, I fear with but a very tempered enthusiasm, to the -newly-founded Lady Margaret chair, and yet, nevertheless, in that -encouragement of the New Learning laid the foundation of that sound -method and apparatus of criticism which has enabled the University in an -after age to take all knowledge for its province, and to represent its -conquest by the foundation of twenty-five professorial chairs. - -John Fisher, who came, as we have seen in the last chapter, from the -Abbey School at Beverley, where, some twenty years or so before, he had -been preceded by Bishop Alcock, was Proctor of the University in 1494, -and three years later, in 1497, was made Master of his College, -Michaelhouse. The duties of the proctorial office necessitated at that -time occasional attendance at Court, and it was on the occasion of his -appearance in this capacity at Greenwich that Fisher first attracted the -notice of the Lady Margaret, who in 1497 appointed him her confessor. -It was an auspicious conjunction for the University. Under his -inspiration the generosity of his powerful patron was readily extended -to enrich academic resources. It was the laudable design of Fisher to -raise Cambridge to the academic level which Oxford had already reached. -Already students of the sister university had been to Italy, and had -returned full of the New Learning. The fame of Colet, Grocyn, and -Linacre made Oxford renowned, and drew to its lecture-rooms eager -scholars from all the learned world. It hardly needed that such a man as -Erasmus should sing the praises of the Oxford teachers. "When I listen -to my friend Colet," he wrote, "I seem to be listening to Plato himself. -Who does not admire in Grocyn the perfection of training? What can be -more acute, more profound, or more refined than the judgment of Linacre? -What has nature ever fashioned gentler, sweeter, or pleasanter than the -disposition of Thomas More?"[68] - -It was natural therefore that Fisher should be ambitious in the same -direction for his own university. He began wisely on a small scale, with -an object of immediate practical usefulness, the foundation of a -Divinity professorship, which should aim at teaching pulpit eloquence. -On this point he rightly thought that the adherents of the Old and the -New Learning might agree. And there was desperate need for the -adventure. For with the close of the fifteenth century both theology and -the art of preaching had sunk into general neglect. Times, for example, -had greatly changed since the day when Bishop Grosseteste had declared -that if a priest could not preach, there was one remedy, let him resign -his benefice. But now the sermon itself had ceased to be considered -necessary. - - "Latimer tells us that in his own recollection, sermons might be - omitted for twenty Sundays in succession without fear of complaint. - Even the devout More, in that ingenious romance which he designed - as a covert satire on many of the abuses of his age, while giving - an admirably conceived description of a religious service, has left - the sermon altogether unrecognised. In the universities, for one - master of arts or doctor of divinity who could make a text of - Scripture the basis of an earnest, simple, and effective homily, - there were fifty who could discuss its moral, analogical, and - figurative meaning, who could twist it into all kinds of unimagined - significance, and give it a distorted, unnatural application. Rare - as was the sermon, the theologian in the form of a modest, reverent - expounder of Scripture was yet rarer. Bewildered audiences were - called upon to admire the performances of intellectual acrobats. - Skelton, who well knew the Cambridge of these days, not inaptly - described its young scholars as men who when they had "once - superciliously caught - - A lytell ragge of rhetoricke, - A lesse lumpe of logicke, - A pece or patch of philosophy, - Then forthwith by and by - They tumble so in theology, - Drowned in dregges of divinite - That they juge themselfe alle to be - Doctours of the chayre in the Vintre, - At the Three Cranes - To magnifye their names."[69] - - -It was to remedy this state of things that, in the first instance, -Fisher set himself to work. The Divinity professorship was soon -supplemented by the Lady Margaret preachership, the holder of which was -to go from place to place and give a cogent example in pulpit oratory: -one sermon in the course of every two years at each of the following -twelve places:-- - - "On some Sunday at S. Paul's Cross, if able to obtain permission, - otherwise at S. Margaret's, Westminster, or if unable to preach - there, then in one of the more notable churches of the City of - London; and once on some feast day in each of the churches of Ware - and Cheshunt in Hertfordshire; Bassingbourne, Orwell and Babraham - in Cambridgeshire; Maney, St. James Deeping, Bourn, Boston, and - Swineshead in Lincolnshire."[70] - -We have already spoken in the chapter on Queens' College of the work of -Erasmus at Cambridge. He was summoned to Cambridge in 1511 to teach -Greek and to lecture on the foundation of Lady Margaret. He himself -tells us that within a space of thirty years the studies of the -University had progressed from the old grammar, logic, and scholastic -questions to some knowledge of the New Learning, of the renewed study at -any rate of Aristotle, and the study of Greek. - -The literary revival had no doubt been quicker and more brilliant at -Oxford, but Cambridge, owing to Fisher's cautious and careful -supervision, and his foundation of the Lady Margaret Colleges of -Christ's and S. John's, was the first to give to the New Learning a -permanent home. - -[Illustration: The Chapel, Christ's College] - -The religious bias of the Countess of Richmond had inclined her to -devote the bulk of her fortune to an extension of the great monastery of -Westminster. But Bishop Fisher knew that active learning rather than -lazy seclusion was essential to preserve the Church against the -dangerous Italian type of the Renaissance, and he persuaded her to -direct her gift to educational purposes. He pointed out that the Abbey -Church was already the wealthiest in England, "that the schools of -learning were meanly endowed, the provisions of scholars very few and -small, and colleges yet wanting to their maintenance--that by such -foundations she might have two ends and designs at once, might double -her charity and double her reward, by affording as well supports to -learning as encouragement to virtue." - -The foundation of Christ's College in 1505 is an enduring memorial of -the wisdom of the Bishop and the charity of the Lady Margaret. - -There is a tradition that Fisher, who undoubtedly had joined -Michaelhouse before taking his B.A. degree in 1487, had, upon his first -entering Cambridge, been a student of God's House. However that may be, -it was to this small foundation he turned as the basis of his projected -new college. - -God's House, an adjunct of Clare-Hall, founded by William Byngham, -Rector of S. John Zachary, in London, in 1441, stood originally on a -plot of land at the west end of King's Chapel, adjoining the Church of -S. John Zachary. In the changes which were necessary to secure a site -for King's College, the Church of S. John and God's House were removed. -In return for his surrender, Byngham had received license from Henry -VI. to build elsewhere a college. Land was accordingly secured on what -is now the site of the first and second courts of Christ's College, and -in the charter of the new God's House, dated 16th April 1448, it is -stated that Byngham had deferred the foundation owing to his ardent -desire that "the King's glory and his reward in heaven might be -increased" by his personal foundation of God's House. Henry could not -resist such an argument, and thus God's House became, and Christ's -College, as its successor, claims to be, of Royal Foundation. The little -foundation, however, was always cramped by lack of means. Within fifty -years of its first foundation the time had evidently come for a -reconstitution of God's House. - - "In the year 1505 appeared the royal charter for the foundation of - Christ's College, wherein after a recital of the facts already - mentioned, together with other details, it was notified that King - Henry VII., at the representation of his mother and other noble and - trustworthy persons--_percarissimæ matris nostræ necnon aliorum - nobilium et fide dignorum_--and having regard to her great desire - to exalt and increase the Christian faith, her anxiety for her own - spiritual welfare, and the sincere love which she had ever borne - 'our uncle' (Henry VI.) while he lived--had conceded to her - permission to carry into full effect the designs of her illustrious - relative; that is to say, to enlarge and endow the aforesaid God's - House sufficiently for the reception and support of any number of - scholars not exceeding sixty, who should be instructed in grammar - or in the other liberal sciences and faculties or in sacred - theology."[71] - -The arrival of the charter was soon followed by the news of the Lady -Margaret's noble benefactions--consisting of many manors in the four -counties of Cambridge, Norfolk, Leicester, and Essex--which thus exalted -the humble and struggling Society of God's House, under its new -designation of Christ's College, into the fourth place in respect of -revenue, among all the Cambridge colleges. - -The building of the College seems to have gone on uninterruptedly -between 1505 and 1511. The amount spent by the Foundress during her -lifetime is not ascertainable; but the cost, as given in the household -books of the Lady Margaret after her death, was more than £1000. - - "Though the College," says the present Master, Dr. Peile, "had no - very striking architectural features, the general effect, as seen - in Loggan's view, is good. We see the old mullioned windows - supplanted by sash windows in the last century: and the battlements - inside the court as well as without, which were displaced by Essex - to make way for the solid parapet, which still remains, and indeed - suits the new windows better. The original windows have recently - been restored with very good effect. We see a path, called the - Regent's Walk, running from the great gate directly across the - court to a door which gave entrance to the great parlour in the - Lodge, then the reception-room of the College, and now the Masters' - dining-room. That room has been reduced in size by a passage made - between it and the Hall. The passage leads to the winding stone - staircase which gave the only access to this suite of three rooms - on the first floor, corresponding exactly with those below, and - reserved by the Foundress for her own use during life, while the - Master contented himself with the three rooms on the ground floor. - The Foundress's suite consisted of a large ante-room (commonly but - wrongly called the Foundress's Bed-Chamber) with a little lobby in - one corner at the entrance from the old staircase. The second room - (now the drawing-room) was the Foundress's own living room; it has - an oriel window looking into the court, not much injured by the - removal of the mullions." - -We may interrupt the Master's record here to tell the characteristic -story of the Lady Margaret which most probably has this oriel window for -its scene: "Once the Lady Margaret came to Christ's College to behold it -when partly built; and looking out of a window, saw the Dean call a -faulty scholar to correction, to whom she said, '_Lente! Lente!_' -(Gently! gently!) as accounting it better to mitigate his punishment -than to procure his pardon: mercy and justice making the best medley to -offenders."[72] - - "The Foundress's sitting-room has a very interesting stone - chimney-piece adorned with fourteen badges (originally sixteen), - including a rose (repeated twice), a portcullis--the Beaufort badge - (repeated once), three ostrich feathers (a badge assumed by Edward - III. in right of his wife), a crown, a fleur-de-lis (repeated - once), the letters H.R., doubtless Henricus Rex (repeated once), - and lastly (twice repeated though the form differs) the special - badge of the Lady Margaret--groups of Marguerites, in one case - represented as growing in a basket. This very beautiful work was - brought to light in 1887; it had been covered up by the insertion - of a modern fireplace, whereby two of the badges were destroyed. - The whole had been coloured: there were traces of a deep blue - pigment on the stone between the badges, and on the jambs was - scroll-work in black and yellow. The remaining space between the - drawing-room and the chapel contained at its eastern end a private - oratory with its window opening into the chapel, closed up in 1702, - but reopened in 1899; it was connected with the drawing-room by a - door, which was revealed when the walls of the oratory were - stripped. At the western end was a small room looking into the - court, probably the bedroom of the Foundress, connected by a door, - now visible, with the oratory; this room was swept away when the - present staircase was introduced, probably in the seventeenth - century; further access had become necessary, because at that time - several of the masters let the best rooms of the Lodge, and lived - themselves in what was called the Little Lodge, a building of - considerable size to the north of the Chapel, intended originally - for offices to the Lodge."[73] - -[Illustration: Jack in Wolsey's Kitchen - -Christ's College] - -The hall, between the Lodge and the buttery, has no exceptional -features. Early in the eighteenth century it was entirely Italianised, -as also were many of the other buildings. It was entirely rebuilt by Sir -Gilbert Scott in 1876, the old roof, with its ancient chestnut -principals, being reconstructed and replaced. The walls were raised six -feet and an oriel window was built on the east side in addition to the -original one on the west. In 1882 and following years portraits of the -Founders, of benefactors, and of worthies of the College were placed in -the twenty-one lights of the west oriel. The persons chosen as -"glass-worthy" were William Bingham, Henry VI., John Fisher, Lady -Margaret, Edward VI., Sir John Finch, Sir Thomas Baines, John Leland, -Edmund Grindall, Sir Walter Mildmay, John Still, William Perkins, -William Lee, Sir John Harrington (this because of a mistaken claim on -the part of Christ's, for Harrington was a King's man, and possibly also -of Trinity at a later date), Francis Quarles, John Milton, John -Cleveland, Henry More, Ralph Cudworth, William Paley, Charles Darwin. -The glass-work was executed by Burlison & Grylls. - -At an early period "a very considerable part of y^{e} schollars of -Christ College lodged in y^{e} Brazen George; and y^{e} gates there were -shut and opened Morning and Evening constantly as y^{e} College gates -were." The Brazen George Inn stood on the other side of S. Andrew's -Street, opposite to the south-east corner of the College. Alexandra -Street no doubt represents the Inn yard. In 1613 the accommodation in -the College was further increased by the erection of a range of -buildings in the Second Court. This was a timber building of two stories -with attics. In 1665 it is described as "the little old building called -Rat's Hall." It was pulled down in 1730; the large range of buildings -known as the Fellows' buildings, parallel to Rat's Hall and further -east, having been erected, according to tradition, by Inigo Jones about -1640. A large range of building, similar in style to the Fellows' -building, was erected in 1889, and in 1895-97 Messrs. Bodley & Garner -enlarged the old library, and altered and refaced the street front, -extending the building to Christ's Lane, and thus added much to the -dignity of the College buildings, as seen from S. Andrew's Street. The -"re-beautifying the chappell," as the then Master, Dr. Covel, called -it, took place in 1702-3, when it was panelled by John Austin, who did -similar work about the same time in King's College chapel. The chapel -has no remarkable or beautiful features. It is unnecessary to contradict -the verdict of the present Master: "It must have been much more -beautiful during the first fifty years of the College than at any later -time." - -[Illustration: The Courtyard of the Wrestlers Inn. - -_To face p._ 220] - -In the list of twenty-one names which we give above as being -"glass-worthy," we have also, no doubt, the list of the most eminent -members of Christ's College. Of these the two greatest are undoubtedly -John Milton and Charles Darwin. - -Milton was admitted a pensioner of Christ's College on 12th February -1624-25, and was matriculated on 9th April following. He resided at -Cambridge in all some seven years, from February 1625 to July 1632. His -rooms were on the left side of the great court as it is entered from the -street, the first floor rooms on the first staircase on that side. They -consist at present of a small study with two windows looking into the -court, and a very small bedroom adjoining, and they have not probably -been altered since his time. In the gardens behind the Fellows' -buildings, perhaps the most delightful of all the college gardens in -Cambridge, is the celebrated mulberry tree, which an unvarying tradition -asserts to have been planted by Milton. "Unvarying," I have ventured to -write, for I dare not repeat the heresy of which Mr. J. W. Clark was -guilty when he suggested that Milton's mulberry tree was in reality one -of three hundred which the College bought to please James I., and which -was "set" by Troilus Atkinson, the College factotum, in the very year -that Milton was born. Concerning such heresy I can only repeat the -rebuke of the present Master: "The suggestion that the object of wider -interest than anything else in Christ's--'Milton's mulberry tree'--is -probably the last of that purchase, is the one crime among a thousand -virtues of the present Registrary of the University." Milton took his -B.A. degree 26th March 1629, the year in which he wrote that noble "Ode -on the Nativity," in which the characteristic majesty of his style is -already well marked. Three years earlier at least he had already written -poems--the epitaph "On the Death of an Infant":-- - -"O fairest flow'r no sooner blown than blasted, - Soft, silken primrose fading timelessly, - Summer's chief honour" ... - -hardly less beautiful than the slightly later dirge "On the Marchioness -of Winchester":-- - -"Here besides the sorrowing - That thy noble house doth bring, - Here be tears of perfect moan - Wept for thee in Helicon," - -which in their exquisite grace and tenderness of wording scarcely fall -below the mastery of the mightier measure and deeper thought of -"Lycidas," written in 1637. Of his Latin poems, written also during his -undergraduate years, Dr. Peile has said--and on such a point there could -be no higher authority:--"Even then he thought in Latin: his exercises -are original poems, not mere clever imitations. There is remarkable -power in them--power which could only be gained by one who had filled -himself with the spirit of classical literature." After this testimony -we can assuredly afford to smile at those rumours of some disgrace in -his university career spread about in later years by his detractors. -That he had met perhaps, according to Aubrey's account, with "some -unkindnesse" from his tutor Chapell, even though that phrase by an -amended reading is interpreted "whipt him," need not distress us. It is -a doubtful piece of gossip, and even if it were true--for flogging of -students was by no means obsolete--it was a story to the tutor's -disgrace, not to Milton's; and certainly the poet himself bore no grudge -against the College authorities, as these magnanimous words plainly -testify:-- - - "I acknowledge publicly with all grateful mind, that more than - ordinary respect which I found, above any of my equals, at the - hands of those courteous and learned men, the Fellows of that - College, wherein I spent some years; who, at my parting, after I - had taken two degrees, as the manner is, signified many ways how - much better it would content them that I would stay; as by many - letters full of kindness and loving respect, both before that time - and long after, I was assured of their singular good affection - towards me."[74] - -Between the matriculation of John Milton at Christ's and that of Charles -Darwin at the same college is a period exactly of two centuries. The -Christ's Roll of Honour for that period contains many worthy names, but -none certainly which shed a brighter lustre on the College history than -that of Henry More, a leader in that remarkable school of thinkers in -the seventeenth century--Benjamin Whichcote, Ralph Cudworth, John -Smith, John Worthington, Samuel Cradock--known as "the Cambridge -Platonists," for whom Burnet claims the high credit of "having saved the -Church from losing the esteem of the kingdom," and whose distinctive -teaching is perhaps best brought out in More's writings. Henry More had -been admitted to Christ's College about the time when John Milton was -leaving it. He was elected a Fellow of the College in 1639, and -thenceforth lived almost entirely within its walls. Like many others, he -began as a poet and ended as a prose writer. He had, in fact, the -Platonic temperament in far greater measure probably than any other of -the Cambridge school. How the soul should escape from its animal -prison--when it should get the wings that of right should belong to -it--into what regions those wings could carry it--were the questions -which occupied him from youth upwards. "I would sing," he had said in -one of his Platonical poems, - - "The pre-existency - Of human souls, and live once more again, - By recollection and quick memory, - All what is past since first we all began." - -But the neo-platonic extravagances which lay hidden in his writings from -the first grew at last into a new species of fanaticism, which makes his -later books quite unreadable. And yet he remains perhaps the most -typical, certainly the most interesting, of all the Cambridge -Platonists, and at least he held true to the two great springs of the -movement--an unshrinking appeal to Reason, coupled with profound faith -in the essential harmony of natural and spiritual Truth--doctrines -which are of the very pith of the seventeenth century Cambridge evangel, -and which one is glad to think remain of the very essence of the -Cambridge theology of to-day. That Henry More and the Cambridge -Platonists failed in much that they attempted cannot be denied. They -failed partly because of their own weakness, but partly also because the -time was not yet ripe for an adequate spiritual philosophy. Such a -philosophy of religion can indeed only rise gradually on a comprehensive -basis of historic criticism, and of a criticism which has realised not -only that religious thought can no more transcend history than science -can transcend nature, but has also learnt the lesson--which no man has -more clearly taught to the students of history and of science alike, in -the century which has just closed, than that latest and greatest of the -sons of Christ's College, Charles Darwin--that knowledge is to be found -not only in sudden illumination, but in the slow processes of evolution, -and progress not in pet theories of this or that ancient or modern -thinker, but only in patient study and faithful generalisation. - -Let us turn now to the second and perhaps greater Lady Margaret -Foundation of S. John's College. - -Three years after Henry VI.'s incompleted foundation of God's House had -been enriched by a fair portion of the Lady Margaret's lands and opened -as Christ's College, the Oxford friends of the Countess petitioned her -for help in the endowment of a college in that University. For a time it -seemed as if Christ's Church was to have the Lady Margaret and not -Cardinal Wolsey as its founder. But Bishop Fisher again successfully -pleaded the cause of his own University, and the royal licence to -refound the corrupt monastic Hospital of S. John as a great and wealthy -college was obtained in 1508. - -Of the Hospital of the Brethren of S. John the Evangelist, which was -founded in the year 1135, we have already spoken in the chapter on -Peterhouse. It owed its origin to an opulent Cambridge burgess, Henry -Frost, and was placed under the direction of a small community of -Augustinian Canons, an Order whose rule very closely resembled that of a -monastery, their duties consisting mainly in the performance of -religious services, and in caring for the poor and infirm. The patronage -which the little community received would seem to show that, during its -earlier history at least, the Brethren of S. John had faithfully -discharged their duties. Several of the early Bishops of Ely took the -Hospital under their direct patronage. Bishop Eustace, a prelate who -played a foremost part in Stephen's reign, appropriated to it the -livings of Homingsea and of S. Peter's Church in Cambridge, now known as -Little S. Mary's. Bishop Hugh de Balsham, as we have seen in our account -of his foundation of Peterhouse, endeavoured to utilise the Hospital for -the accommodation of the many students who in his time were flocking to -the University in quest of knowledge, and to that end endowed the -Hospital with additional revenues. After the failure of that scheme and -the successful foundation of Peterhouse, Bishop Simon Montagu came to -the help of the little house, and decreed, that in compensation for the -loss of S. Peter's Church, the Master and Fellows of Peterhouse should -pay to the Brethren of S. John a sum of twenty shillings annually, a -payment which has regularly been made down to the present day. The -Hospital continued to grow in wealth and importance down to the time of -its "decay and fall" in Henry VII.'s reign. The last twelve years of the -fifteenth century, under the misrule of its then Master, William Tomlyn, -saw its estates mortgaged or let on long leases, its discipline lax and -scandalous, its furniture, and even sacred vessels, sold. At the -beginning of the sixteenth century it had fallen into poverty and decay, -and the number of its brethren had dwindled to two. Its condition is -described in words identical with those applied to the Priory of S. -Rhadegund.[75] The words, as given in the charter of S. John's College, -are these:-- - - "The House or Priory of the Brethren of S. John the Evangelist, its - lands, tenements, rents, possessions, buildings, as well as its - effects, furniture, jewels and other ornaments in the Church, - conferred upon the said house or priory in former times, have now - been so grievously dilapidated, destroyed, wasted, alienated, - diminished and made away with, by the carelessness, prodigality, - improvidence and dissolute conduct of the Prior, Master and - brethren of the aforesaid House or Priory; and the brethren - themselves have been reduced to such want and poverty that they are - unable to perform Divine Service, or their accustomed duties - whether of religion, mercy or hospitality, according to the - original ordinance of their founders, or even to maintain - themselves by reason of their poverty and want of means of - support; inasmuch as for a long while two brethren only have been - maintained in the aforesaid House, and these are in the habit of - straying abroad in all directions beyond the precincts of the said - religious House, to the grave displeasure of Almighty God, the - discredit of their order, and the scandal of their Church." - -The legal formalities necessary for the suppression of the Hospital were -so tedious, that it was not "utterly extinguished," as Baker, the -historian of S. John's, called its dissolution, until January 1510, when -it fell, "a lasting monument to all future ages and to all charitable -and religious foundations not to neglect the rules or abuse the -institutions of their founders, lest they fall under the same fate." -Meanwhile, before these difficulties could be entirely overcome, King -Henry VII. died, and within little more than two months after, the Lady -Margaret herself was laid to rest by the side of her royal son in -Westminster Abbey. Erasmus composed her epitaph. Skelton sang her elegy. -Torregiano, the Florentine sculptor, immortalised her features in that -monumental effigy which Dean Stanley has characterised as "the most -beautiful and venerable figure that the abbey contains." Bishop Fisher, -who two months before had preached the funeral sermon for her son Henry -VII., preached again, and with a far deeper earnestness, on the loss -which, to him at least, could never be replaced. - -[Illustration: Entrance - -S. John's College] - - "Every one that knew her," he said, "loved her, and everything that - she said or did became her ... of marvellous gentleness she was - unto all folks, but especially unto her own, whom she trusted and - loved right tenderly.... All England for her death hath cause of - weeping. The poor creatures who were wont to receive her alms, to - whom she was always piteous and merciful; the students of both the - universities, to whom she was as a mother; all the learned men of - England, to whom she was a very patroness; all the virtuous and - devout persons, to whom she was as a loving sister; all the good - religious men and women whom she so often was wont to visit and - comfort; all good priests and clerks, to whom she was a true - defendress; all the noblemen and women, to whom she was a mirror - and example of honour; all the common people of this realm, to whom - she was in their causes a woman mediatrix and took right great - displeasure for them; and generally the whole realm, hath cause to - complain and to mourn her death." - -The executors of the Lady Margaret were Richard Fox, Bishop of -Winchester; John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester; Charles Somerset; Lord -Herbert, afterwards Earl of Worcester; Sir Thomas Lovell, Knight; Sir -Henry Marney, Knight, afterwards Lord Marney; Sir John St. John, Knight; -Henry Hornby, clerk; and Hugh Ashton, clerk. Unforeseen difficulties, -however, soon arose. The young king looked coldly on a project which -involved a substantial diminution of the inheritance which he had -anticipated from his grandmother, while the young Bishop of Ely--"the -Dunce Bishop of Ely"--James Stanley,[76] although stepson to the -Countess, and solely indebted to her for promotion to his see, a dignity -which he little merited, did his best after her death to avert the -dissolution of the Hospital. As a result of this opposition of the Court -party, to which no less a person than Cardinal Wolsey, out of jealousy -it would seem for his own university, lent his powerful support, Lady -Margaret's executors found themselves compelled to forego their claims, -and the munificent bequest intended by the foundress was lost to the -College for ever. As some compensation for the loss sustained the -untiring exertions of Bishop Fisher succeeded in obtaining for the -College the revenues of another God's House, a decayed society at -Ospringe, in Kent, and certain other small estates, producing altogether -an income of £80. "This," says Baker, "with the lands of the old house, -together with the foundress's estate at Fordham, which was charged with -debts by her will, and came so charged to the College, with some other -little things purchased with her moneys at Steukley, Bradley, Isleham, -and Foxton (the two last alienated or lost), was the original foundation -upon which the College was first opened; and whoever dreams of vast -revenues or larger endowments will be mightily mistaken." - -[Illustration: Gateway S. John's College] - -Such were the conditions under which the new society of the College of -S. John the Evangelist was at last formed in 1511, and Robert Shorten -appointed Master with thirty-one Fellows. During Shorton's brief tenure -of the Mastership (1511-16) it devolved upon him to watch the progress -of the new building, which now rose on the site of the Hospital, and -included a certain portion of the ancient structure. - - "Some three centuries and a half later, in 1869, when the old - chapel gave place to the present splendid erection, the process of - demolition laid bare to view some interesting features in the - ancient pre-collegiate buildings. Members of the College, prior to - the year 1863, can still remember 'The Labyrinth'--the name given - to a series of students' rooms approached by a tortuous passage - which wound its way from the first court, north of the gateway - opening upon Saint John's Street. These rooms were now ascertained - to have been formed out of the ancient infirmary--a fine single - room, some 78 feet in length and 22 in breadth, which during the - mastership of William Whitaker (1586-95) had been converted into - three floors of students' chambers. Removal of the plaster which - covered the south wall of the original building further brought to - light a series of Early English lancet windows, erected probably - with the rest of the structure, sometime between the years 1180 and - 1200. Between the first and second of these windows stood a very - beautiful double piscina which Sir Gilbert Scott repaired and - transferred to the New Chapel. The chapel of the Hospital had been - altered to suit the needs of the College, and in Babington's - opinion was very much 'changed for the worse.' The Early English - windows gave place to smaller perpendicular windows, inserted in - the original openings, while the pitch of the roof was considerably - lowered. The contract is still extant made between Shorton and the - glazier, covenanting for the insertion of 'good and noble Normandy - glasse,' in certain specified portions of which were to appear - 'roses and portcullis,' the arms of 'the excellent pryncesse - Margaret, late Countesse of Rychemond and Derby,' while the - colouring and designs were to be the same 'as be in the glasse - wyndowes within the collegge called Christes Collegge in Cambrigge - or better in euery poynte.'"[77] - -The buildings of S. John's College consist of four quadrangles disposed -in succession from east to west, and extending to a length of some -nearly 300 yards. The westernmost court is across the river, approached -by the well-known "Bridge of Sighs," built in 1831. The easternmost -court, facing on the High Street, is the primitive quadrangle, and for -nearly a century after the foundation comprised the whole college. -The plan closely follows what we have now come to regard as the normal -arrangement, and is almost identical with that of Queens'. - -[Illustration: S. John's College from the Backs] - -The Great Gateway, which is in the centre of the eastern range of -buildings, is by far the most striking and beautiful gate in all -Cambridge. It is of red brick with stone quoins. The sculpture in the -space over the arch commemorates the founders, the Lady Margaret and her -son King Henry VII. In the centre is a shield bearing the arms of -England and France quarterly, supported by the Beaufort antelopes. Above -it is a crown beneath a rose. To the right and left are the portcullis -and rose of the Tudors, both crowned. The whole ground is sprinkled with -daisies, the peculiar emblem of the foundress. They appear in the crown -above the portcullis. They cluster beneath the string course. Mixed with -other flowers they form a groundwork to the heraldic devices. Above all, -in a niche, is the statue of S. John. The present figure was set up in -1662. The original figure was removed during the Civil War. There is -evidence that at one time the arms were emblazoned in gold and colours, -and that the horns of the antelopes were gilt. - -Over the gateway is the treasury. The first floor of the range of -buildings to the south of the treasury contained at first the library. -The position of this old library is the only feature in the arrangement -of the buildings in which S. John's differs from Queens'. - -[Illustration: Oriel in Library, S. John's College] - -The second court, a spacious quadrangle, considerably larger than the -first, was commenced in 1598, and finished in 1602, the greater part -of the cost being defrayed by the Countess of Salisbury. In the west -range there is a large gateway tower. The first floor of the north range -contains the master's long gallery--a beautiful room with panelled walls -and a rich plaster ceiling. In this fine chamber for successive -centuries the head of the College was accustomed to entertain his -guests, among whom royalty was on several occasions included. According -to the historian Carter, down even to the middle of the last century it -still remained the longest room in the University, and when the door of -the library was thrown open, the entire vista presented what he -describes as a "most charming view." It was originally 148 feet long, -but owing to various rearrangements its dimensions have been reduced to -93 feet. It is now used as a Combination Room by the Fellows. - -The new library building, which forms the north side of the third court, -was built in 1624. It is reached by a staircase built in the north-west -corner of the second court. The windows of the library are pointed and -filled with fairly good geometrical tracery, while the level of the -floor and the top of the wall are marked by classical entablatures. The -wall is finished by a good parapet, which originally had on each -battlement three little pinnacles like those still remaining on the -parapet of the oriel window in the west gable. This gable stands above -the river, and forms with the adjoining buildings a most picturesque -group. The name of Bishop Williams of Lincoln, Lord Keeper of the Great -Seal, who had contributed as "an unknown person" two-thirds of the -entire cost of £3000, is commemorated by the letters I.L.C.S. (_i.e._ -_Johannes Lincolniensis Custos Sigilli_), together with the date 1624, -which appear conspicuously over the central gable. His arms, richly -emblazoned, were suspended over the library door, and his portrait, -painted by Gilbert Jackson, adorns the wall. The original library -bookcases remain, though their forms have been considerably altered. - -The west range of the second court and the new library formed two sides -of the third court. The remaining river range and the buildings on the -south adjoining the back lane were added about fifty years later. They -were probably designed by Nicholas Hawkes, then a pupil of Sir -Christopher Wren. The central composition of the western range was -designed as an approach to a footbridge leading to the College walks -across the river. This footbridge gave way to the covered new bridge, -commonly spoken of as the Bridge of Sighs from its superficial -resemblance to the so-called structure at Venice, leading to the fourth -court, which was completed in 1831 from the plans of Rickman and -Hutchinson. The old bridge, leading from the back lane, was built in -1696. Beyond the new court are the extensive gardens, on the western -side of which is "the wilderness," commemorated by Wordsworth, who was -an undergraduate of John's from 1787 to 1791, in the well-known lines of -his Prelude:-- - -"All winter long whenever free to choose, - Did I by night Frequent the College grove - And tributary walks; the last and oft - The only one who had been lingering there - Through hours of silence, till the porter's bell, - A punctual follower on the stroke of nine, - Rang with its blunt unceremonious voice - Inexorable summons. Lofty elms, - Inviting shades of opportune recess, - Bestowed composure on a neighbourhood - Unpeaceful in itself. A single tree - With sinuous trunk, boughs exquisitely wreathed, - Grew there; an ash, which Winter for himself - Decked out with pride, and with outlandish grace; - Up from the ground and almost to the top - The trunk and every mother-branch were green - With clustering ivy, and the lightsome twigs - The outer spray profusely tipped with seeds - That hung in yellow tassels, while the air - Stirred them, not voiceless. Often have I stood - Foot-bound, uplooking at this lovely tree - Beneath a frosty moon. The hemisphere - Of magic fiction verse of mine perchance - May never tread; but scarcely Spenser's self - Could have more tranquil visions in his youth, - Or could more bright appearances create - Of human forms with superhuman powers - Than I beheld, loitering on calm clear nights - Alone, beneath the fairy-work of Earth." - -[Illustration: Bridge of Sighs - -S. John's College] - -The new chapel of S. John's, designed by Sir Gilbert Scott in a style of -pointed architecture, repeating, with some added degree of richness, the -same architect's design of Exeter College chapel at Oxford, was begun in -1863 and finished in 1869. The scheme involved the destruction of the -old chapel and the still earlier building to the north of it. The hall -was enlarged by adding to it the space formerly occupied by the Master's -lodge, a new lodge being built to the north of the third court, and the -Master's gallery being converted into the Fellows' combination room. -The stalls from the old chapel were refixed in the new building, and -some new stalls were added. The beautiful Early English piscina, three -arches and some monuments were also removed from the old chapel. - - * * * * * - -Considerations of space compel me to bring this chapter to a conclusion. -I have spoken of the two Lady Margaret foundations as colleges of the -New Learning. How far they have succeeded in fulfilling the aims of -their founder only a careful study of their subsequent history can tell, -and for that we have not space. But this, at least, we may say, that a -college in which, generation after generation, there were enrolled men -of such varying parts and powers as Sir Thomas Wyatt and William -Grindall; as Sir John Cheke and Roger Ascham, the former the tutor of -Edward VI., the latter of Queen Elizabeth, and both famous as among the -most sagacious and original thinkers on the subject of education; as -Robert Greene and Thomas Nash, the dramatists; as Robert Cecil, Earl of -Salisbury, and Thomas Cartwright, "the most learned of that sect of -dissenters called Puritans"; of John Dee, mathematician and astrologer, -the editor of Euclid's "Elements," and William Lee, the inventor of the -stocking-frame; of Roger Dodsworth, the antiquary, and Thomas Sutton, -the founder of Charterhouse; as Thomas Baker, the historian of the -College, and Richard Bentley, the great scholar and critic; as Henry -Constable, and Robert Herrick and Mark Akenside and Robert Otway and -Henry Kirke White and William Wordsworth--a galaxy of names which seems -to prove that not Cambridge only, but S. John's College, is "the mother -of poets"--as William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, can hardly be -said not to have contributed much to the history of English culture and -English learning, to the extension of the older Classical studies, and -to the advance of the newer Science, to that wider and freer outlook -upon the world and upon life to which so much that is best in our modern -civilisation may be traced, and all of which took its origin from that -movement of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries which we know by the -name of the Renaissance. Of the genuine attachment of Bishop Fisher, the -true founder of S. John's, to the New Learning there can be no doubt. He -showed it clearly enough by the sympathy which he evinced with the new -spirit of Biblical Criticism, and by the friendship with Erasmus, which -induced that great scholar to accept the Lady Margaret professorship at -Cambridge. That the study of Greek was allowed to go on in the -University without that active antagonism which it encountered at Oxford -was mainly owing--it is the testimony of Erasmus himself--to the -powerful protection which it received from Bishop Fisher. On the other -hand, it cannot be denied that his attachment to the papal cause, and -his hostility to Luther, whom he rightly enough regarded as a Reformer -of a very different type to that of his friends Erasmus, Colet, and -More, remained unshaken. - -[Illustration: Tower & Turrets of Trinity from S. John's College] - -On the occasion of the burning of Luther's writings in S. Paul's -Churchyard in 1521, he had preached against the great reformer at Paul's -Cross before Wolsey and Warham, a sermon which was subsequently handled -with severity by William Tyndall. It is, in fact, not difficult to -recognise in the various codes of statutes, which from time to time he -gave to his college foundations, evidence of both the strength and -weakness of his character. In 1516 he had given to S. John's statutes -which were identical with those of Christ's College. But in 1524 he -substituted for these another code, and in 1530 a third. In this final -code, accordingly, among many provisions, characterised by much prudent -forethought, and amid statutes which really point to something like a -revolution in academic study, we see plainly enough signs of timorous -distrust, not to say a pusillanimous anxiety against all innovations -whatever in the future. But in one cause, at any rate, he bore a noble -part, and for it he died a noble death. His opposition to the divorce of -King Henry and Queen Catharine was not less honourable than it was -consistent, and he stood alone among the Bishops of the realm in his -refusal to recognise the validity of the measure. It was, in fact, his -unflinching firmness in regard to the Act of Supremacy which finally -sealed his fate. The story of his trial and death are matters that -belong to English history. The pathos of it we can all feel as we read -the pages in which Froude has told the story in his "History," and its -moral, we may perhaps also feel, has not been unfitly pointed by Mr. -Mullinger in his "History of the University." Here are Froude's words:-- - - "Mercy was not to be hoped for. It does not seem to have been - sought. He was past eighty. The earth on the edge of the grave was - already crumbling under his feet; and death had little to make it - fearful. When the last morning dawned, he dressed himself - carefully--as he said, for his marriage day. The distance to Tower - Hill was short. He was able to walk; and he tottered out of the - prison gates, holding in his hand a closed volume of the New - Testament. The crowd flocked about him, and he was heard to pray - that, as this book had been his best comfort and companion, so in - that hour it might give him some special strength, and speak to him - as from his Lord. Then opening it at a venture, he read: 'This is - life eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, - whom Thou hast sent.' It was the answer to his prayer; and he - continued to repeat the words as he was led forward. On the - scaffold he chanted the _Te Deum_, and then, after a few prayers, - knelt down, and meekly laid his head upon a pillow where neither - care nor fear nor sickness would ever vex it more. Many a spectacle - of sorrow had been witnessed on that tragic spot, but never one - more sad than this; never one more painful to think or speak of. - When a nation is in the throes of revolution, wild spirits are - abroad in the storm: and poor human nature presses blindly forward - with the burden which is laid upon it, tossing aside the obstacles - in its path with a recklessness which, in calmer hours, it would - fear to contemplate."[78] - -And here are Mr. Mullinger's:-- - - "When it was known at Cambridge that the Chancellor (Fisher) was - under arrest, it seemed as though a dark cloud had gathered over - the University; and at those colleges which had been his peculiar - care the sorrow was deeper than could find vent in language. The - men, who ever since their academic life began, had been conscious - of his watchful oversight and protection, who as they had grown up - to manhood had been honoured by his friendship, aided by his - bounty, stimulated by his example to all that was commendable and - of good report, could not see his approaching fate without bitter - and deep emotion; and rarely in the correspondence of colleges is - there to be found such an expression of pathetic grief as the - letter in which the Society of S. John's addressed their beloved - patron in his hour of trial. In the hall of that ancient foundation - his portrait still looks down upon those who, generation after - generation, enter to reap where he sowed. Delineated with all the - severe fidelity of the art of that period, we may discern the - asceticism of the ecclesiastic blending with the natural kindliness - of the man, the wide sympathies with the stern convictions. Within - those walls have since been wont to assemble not a few who have - risen to eminence and renown. But the College of St. John the - Evangelist can point to none in the long array to whom her debt of - gratitude is greater, who have laboured more untiredly or more - disinterestedly in the cause of learning, or who by a holy life and - heroic death are more worthy to survive in the memories of her - sons."[79] - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -A SMALL AND A GREAT COLLEGE - -"Quæ ponti vicina vides, Audelius olim - Coepit et adversi posuit fundamina muri: - Et coeptum perfecit opus Staffordius heros - Quem genuit maribus regio celeberrima damis. - - * * * * * - - Quattuor inde novis quæ turribus alta minantur - Et nivea immenso diffundunt atria circo, - Ordine postremus, sed non virtutibus, auxit - Henricus tecta, et triplices cum jungeret sedes, - Imposuit nomen facto." - --GILES FLETCHER, 1633. - - Dissolution of the Monasteries--Schemes for Collegiate Spoliation - checked by Henry VIII.--Monks' or Buckingham College--Refounded by - Sir Thomas Audley as Magdalene College--Conversion of the Old - Buildings--The Pepysian Library--Foundation of Trinity - College--Michaelhouse and the King's Hall--King Edward's Gate--The - Queen's Gate--The Great Gate--Dr. Thomas Neville--The Great - Court--The Hall--Neville's Court--New Court--Dr. Bentley--"A House - of all Kinds of Good Letters." - - -The dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. and the confiscation -of their great estates naturally created a sense of foreboding in the -universities that it would not be long before the College estates shared -the same fate. There were not wanting, we may be sure, greedy courtiers -prepared with schemes of collegiate spoliation. If we may trust, -however, the testimony of Harrison in his "Description of England,"[80] -the hopes of the despoiler were effectually checked by the King -himself. "Ah, sirha," he is reported to have said to some who had -ventured to make proposals for such despoilment, "I perceive the abbey -lands have fleshed you, and set your teeth on edge to ask also those -colleges. And whereas we had a regard only to pull down sin by defacing -the monasteries, you have a desire also to overthrow all goodness by a -dispersion of colleges. I tell you, sirs, that I judge no land in -England better bestowed than that which is given to our universities; -for by their maintenance our realm shall be well governed when we be -dead and rotten." These are brave words, and we may hope that they were -sincere. They may seem, perhaps, to receive some confirmation of -sincerity from the fact that that munificent donor of other people's -property did himself erect upon the ruins of more than one earlier -foundation that great college, whose predominance in the University has -from that time onwards been so marked a feature of Cambridge life. It is -the opinion of Huber,[81] that the uncertainty and depression caused in -the universities by these fears of confiscation did not subside until -well on in the reign of Elizabeth. - - * * * * * - -In the year 1542, however, four years before the foundation of Trinity -College by Henry VIII., the spoliation of the monasteries was turned to -the advantage of the University in a somewhat remarkable manner. On the -further side of the river Cam, "cut off," as Fuller describes it, "from -the continent of Cambridge," there stood an ancient religious house -known at this time as Buckingham College. - - "Formerly it was a place where many monks lived, on the charge of - their respective convent, being very fit for solitary persons by - the situation thereof. For it stood on the transcantine side, an - anchoret in itself, severed by the river from the rest of the - University. Here the monks some seven years since had once and - again lodged and feasted Edward Stafford, the last Duke of - Buckingham of that family. Great men best may, good men always - will, be grateful guests to such as entertain them. Both - qualifications met in this Duke and then no wonder if he largely - requited his welcome. He changed the name of the house into - Buckingham College, began to build, and purposed to endow the same, - no doubt in some proportion to his own high and rich estate."[82] - -The foundation of this Monks' College had dated as far back as the year -1428, when the Benedictines of Croyland erected a building for the -accommodation of those monks belonging to their house who wished to -repair to Cambridge, "to study the Canon Law and the Holy Scriptures," -and yet to reside under their own monastic rule. From time to time other -Benedictines of the neighbourhood--Ely, Ramsey, Walden--added additional -chambers to the hostel--Croyland Abbey, however, remaining the superior -house. - -[Illustration: The Library, Chapel and Hall, Magdalene College] - -A hall was built in connection with the College in 1519 by Edward, Duke -of Buckingham, son of the former benefactor, and it is probably to this -date that we may refer the secular or semi-secular foundation of the -College. Certainly at this period the secular element of the College -must have been considerable, for we find Cranmer, on his resignation of -his Fellowship at Jesus on account of his marriage, supporting himself -by giving lectures at Buckingham College. Sir Robert Rede, the founder -of the Rede Lectureship in the University, and Thomas Audley, the future -Lord Chancellor, are also said to have received their education in this -College. At any rate there can be little doubt that it was this -semi-secular character of the College at this period which saved it from -the operations of the successive acts for the dissolution of the -monastic bodies. In the year 1542 Buckingham College was converted by -Sir Thomas Audley into Magdalene College. "Thomas, Lord Audley of -Walden," says Fuller, "Chancellor of England, by licence obtained from -King Henry VIII., changed Buckingham into Magdalene (vulgarly Maudlin) -College, because, as some[83] will have it, his surname is therein -contained betwixt the initial and final letters thereof--_M'audley'n_. -This may well be indulged to his fancy, whilst more solid considerations -moved him to the work itself." What those "more solid considerations" -may have been it is difficult, in relation to such a founder, to divine. -He was a man who had gradually amassed considerable wealth by a singular -combination of talent, audacity, and craft, one who, in the language of -Lloyd in his "State Worthies," was "well seen in the flexures and -windings of affairs at the depths whereof other heads not so steady -turned giddy." He was Speaker of the House of Commons in that -Parliament by whose aid Henry VIII. had finally separated himself and -his kingdom from all allegiance to the See of Rome, and of whose further -measures for ecclesiastical reform at home Bishop Fisher had exclaimed -in the House of Lords: "My lords, you see daily what bills come hither -from the Common House, and all is to the destruction of the Church. For -God's sake, see what a realm the kingdom of Bohemia was, and when the -Church went down, then fell the glory of the kingdom. Now with the -Commons is nothing but 'Down with the Church!' and all this meseemeth is -for lack of faith only." Sir Thomas Audley had been one of the first to -profit by the plunder of the monasteries. "He had had," as Fuller terms -it, "the first cut in the feast of abbey lands." He was also one of -those who shared in its final distribution. As a reward for his services -as Lord Chancellor--and what those services must have been as "the -keeper of the conscience" of such a king as Henry VIII. we need not -trouble to inquire--a few more of the suppressed monasteries were -granted to him at the general dissolution, among which, at his own -earnest suit, was the Abbey of Walden in Essex. Walden was one of the -Benedictine houses that had been associated in the early days with -Monks', now Buckingham College. Whether the newly-created Lord of Walden -regarded himself as inheriting also the Monks' rights and -responsibilities in connection with the Cambridge college or not, or -whether, being an old man now and infirm and with no male heir, he -thought to find some solace for his conscience in the thought of himself -as the benefactor and founder of a permanent college, I cannot say. -Certain, however, it is that the original statutes of Magdalene College, -unlike those of Christ's and John's, exhibit no regard for the New -Learning, and are indeed mainly noteworthy for the large powers and -discretion which they assign to the Master, and the almost entire -freedom of that official from any responsibility to the governing body -of Fellows. It was evidently the founder's design to place the College -practically under the control of the successive owners of Audley End. - -In 1564 the young Duke of Norfolk, who had married Lord Audley's -daughter and sole heir, and who was, moreover, descended from the early -benefactor of the College, the Duke of Buckingham, contributed liberally -towards both the revenues of Magdalene and its buildings. On the -occasion of Queen Elizabeth's visit to Cambridge, it is recorded that -"the Duke of Norfolk accompanied Her Majesty out of the town, and, then -returning, entered Magdalene College, and gave much money to the same; -promising £40 by year till they had builded the quadrant of the -College."[84] From this statement it is plain that the quadrangle of -Magdalene was not complete so late as 1654. The chapel and old library -which form the west side of this court, and also the frontage to the -street, had been built in 1475. The roof of the present chapel, -uncovered in 1847, shows that Buckingham College had a chapel on the -same site. The doorway in the north-west corner of the court retained a -carving of the three keys, the arms of the prior and convent of Ely, so -late as 1777, and thus probably indicated the chambers which were added -to Monks' College for the accommodation of the Ely Convent scholars. The -similar rooms assigned to the scholar-monks of Walden and Ramsey appear -to have been in the range of buildings forming the south side of the -College, parallel with the river, originally built in 1465, but -reconstructed in 1585. The new gateway in the street-front belongs also -to this late date. The chapel was thoroughly "Italianised" in 1733, and -again restored and enlarged in 1851. - -The extremely beautiful building now known as the Pepysian Library, -beyond the old quadrangle to the east, which belongs to Restoration -times, although its exact date and the name of its architect are not -known, is the chief glory of Magdalene. It was probably approaching -completion in 1703, when Samuel Pepys, the diarist, who had been a sizar -of the College in 1650, and had lately contributed towards the cost of -the building, bequeathed his library to the College, and directed that -it should be housed in the new building. There, accordingly, it is now -deposited, and the inscription, "BIBLIOTHECA PEPYSIANA, 1724," with his -arms and motto, "_Mens cujusque is est quisque_," is carved in the -pediment of the central window. The collection of books is a specially -interesting one, invaluable to the historian or antiquary. Most of the -books are in the bindings of the time, and are still in the -mahogany-glazed bookcases in which they were placed by Pepys himself in -1666, and of which he speaks in his Diary under date August 24 of -that year:-- - -[Illustration: Tower & Gateway to Trinity College. - -_To face p. 252_] - - "Up and dispatched several businesses at home in the morning, and - then comes Simpson to set up my other new presses for my books; and - so he and I fell to the furnishing of my new closett, and taking - out the things out of my old; and I kept him with me all day, and - he dined with me, and so all the afternoone, till it was quite - darke hanging things--that is my maps and pictures and - draughts--and setting up my books, and as much as we could do, to - my most extraordinary satisfaction; so that I think it will be as - noble a closett as any man hath, and light enough--though, indeed, - it would be better to have had a little more light." - -Of the many Magdalene men of eminence, from the days of Sir Robert Rede -and Archbishop Cranmer down to those of Charles Parnell and Charles -Kingsley, there is no need to speak in any other words than those of -Fuller: "Every year this house produced some eminent scholars, as living -cheaper and privater, freer from town temptations by their remote -situation." - - * * * * * - -No Cambridge foundation, probably no academic institution in Europe, -furnishes so striking an example as does Trinity College of the change -from the mediæval to the modern conception of education and of learning. -If, indeed, we may take the words of the Preamble to his Charter of -Foundation, dated the thirty-eighth year of his reign (1546) as a -statement of his own personal aims, King Henry had conceived a very -noble ideal of liberal education. After referring to his special reasons -for thankfulness to Almighty God for peace at home and successful wars -abroad--peace had just been declared with France after the brief -campaign conducted by Henry himself, which had been signalised by the -capture of Boulogne--and above all for the introduction of the pure -truth of Christianity into his kingdom, he sets forth his intention of -founding a college "to the glory and honour of Almighty God, and the -Holy and undivided Trinity, for the amplification and establishment of -the Christian and true religion, the extirpation of heresy and false -opinion, the increase and continuance of divine learning and all kinds -of good letters, the knowledge of the tongues, the education of the -youth in piety, virtue, learning, and science, the relief of the poor -and destitute, the prosperity of the Church of Christ, and the common -good and happiness of his kingdom and subjects."[85] - -[Illustration: Gateway & Dial, Trinity College] - -The site upon which King Henry VIII. had decided to place his college is -also mentioned in this preamble to the Charter of Foundation. It was to -be "on the soil, ground, sites, and precincts of the late hall and -college, commonly called the King's Hall, and of a certain late college -of S. Michael, commonly called Michaelhouse, and also of a certain house -and hostel called Fyswicke or Fysecke hostel and of another house and -hostel, commonly called Hovinge Inn." In addition to the hostels here -named there were, however, several others which occupied, or had -occupied, the site previous to 1548--for one or two previous to this -time had been absorbed by their neighbours--whose names have been -preserved, and whose position has been put beyond doubt by recent -researches. These other hostels were S. Catharine's, S. Margaret's, -Crouched Hostel, Tyler or Tyler's, S. Gregory's, Garet or Saint Gerard's -Hostel, and Oving's Inn. - - * * * * * - -We may indicate roughly, perhaps, the position of these various halls -and hostels in relation to the present college buildings, if we imagine -ourselves to have entered the great gate of Trinity from the High -Street, from Trinity Street, and to be standing on the steps leading -into the Great Court, and facing across towards the Master's lodge. -Immediately in front of us, on what is now the vacant green sward -between the gateway steps and the sun-dial, there stood in the fifteenth -century King's Hall, or that block of it which a century earlier had -been built to take the place of the thatched and timbered house which -Edward III. had bought from Robert de Croyland, and had made into his -"King's Hall of Scholars." The entrance to this house, however, was not -on the side which would have been immediately facing the point where we -stand on the steps. It was entered by a doorway on its south side, -opening into a lane--King's Childers' Lane it was called--which, -starting from the High Street, from a point slightly to the south of the -Great Gate, crossed the Great Court directly east and west, and then -bending slightly to the north, reached the river at Dame Nichol's Hythe, -at a point just beyond the bend in the river by the end of the present -library. Returning to our point of view we should find on our right, -occupying the easternmost part of the existing chapel, the old chapel of -King's Hall, built in 1465, and beyond it, westwards, other -buildings,--the buttery, the kitchen, the hall,--forming four sides of a -little cloistered court, partly occupying the site of the present -ante-chapel, and partly on its northern side facing across the Cornhithe -Lane to the gardens of the old Hospital of S. John. - -Turning to our left to the southern half of the great court, to that -part which in the old days was south of King's Childers' Lane, south, -that is, of the present fountain, we should find the site intersected by -a lane running directly north and south, from a point at the south-west -corner of the King's Hall about where the sun-dial now stands, to a -point in Trinity Lane, or S. Michael's Lane as it was then called, where -now stands the Queen's Gate. This was Le Foule Lane, and was practically -a continuation of that Milne Street of which we have spoken in an -earlier chapter as running parallel with the river past the front of -Trinity Hall, Clare, and Queens' to the King's Mills. To the east of -Foule Lane, occupying the site of the present range of buildings on the -east and south-east of the great court, stood the Hostel of S. -Catharine, with Fyswicke Hostel on its western side. Michaelhouse -occupied practically the whole of the south-western quarter of the great -court, with its gardens stretching down to the river. S. Catharine's, -Fyswicke Hostel, and Michaelhouse all had entrances into S. Michael's or -Flaxhithe, now Trinity Lane. Beyond and across Flaxhithe Lane was -Oving's Inn, on the site of the present Bishop's Hostel, with Garett -Hostel still further south, on land adjoining Trinity Hall. S. Gregory's -and the Crouched Hostel stood north of Michaelhouse, side by side, on a -space now occupied for the most part by the great dining-hall. The Tyled -or Tyler's Hostel was on the High Street adjoining the north-east corner -of S. Catharine's. S. Margaret's Hall, which had adjoined the house of -William Fyswicke, had been at an early date absorbed in the Fyswicke -Hostel. - -It is plain that these various halls and hostels would sufficiently -supply all the early needs of King Henry's new college. There was the -chapel of King's Hall, the halls of King's Hall, Michaelhouse and -Fyswicke's Hostel, and the chambers in each of these and the smaller -hostels. During the first three years or so, from 1546 to 1549, the -existing buildings seem to have been occupied without alteration. In -1550 and 1551 parts of Michaelhouse and Fyswicke's Hostel were pulled -down, and their gates walled up. The Foule Lane, which separated them, -was closed, and the new Queen's gate built at the point where that lane -had joined Michael's Lane. The south ranges of both Fyswicke's Hostel -and Michaelhouse on each side of this gate were retained. The hall, -butteries, and kitchen of Michael House on the west were also retained, -and continued northwards to form a lodge for the Master, and this range -was returned easterwards at right angles to join the King Edward's -gateway at the south-west corner of King's Hall. A little later the -hall, butteries, and chapel of King's Hall were removed to make way for -the new chapel, which was begun in 1555 and completed about ten years -later. - -An early map of Cambridge, made by order of Archbishop Parker in 1574, -and preserved in one of the early copies of Caius' "History of the -University" in the British Museum, shows the College in the state which -we have thus described, the outline of the Great Court, that is to say, -practically defined as it is to-day, but broken at two points, one by -the projection from its western side joining the Master's lodge with the -old gateway of King Edward, still standing in its ancient position, more -or less on the site of the present sun-dial; the other by a set of -chambers, built in 1490, projecting from the eastern range of buildings, -and ending at a point somewhat east of the site of the present fountain. - -The transformation of the Great Court into the shape in which we now -know it is due entirely to the energy and skill of Dr. Thomas Neville, -at that time Dean of Peterborough, who was appointed Master of Trinity -in 1573. "Dr. Thomas Neville," says Fuller, "the eighth master of this -College, answering his anagram '_most heavenly_,' and practising his own -allusive motto, '_ne vile velis_,' being by the rules of the philosopher -himself to be accounted [Greek: megaloprepês], as of great performances, -for the general good, expended £3000 of his own in altering and -enlarging the old and adding a new court thereunto, being at this day -the stateliest and most uniform college in Christendom, out of which may -be carved three Dutch universities."[86] - -[Illustration: The Fountain Trinity College.] - -Neville's first work was the completion of the ranges of chambers on the -east and south sides of the great court, including the Queen's gateway -tower. On the completion of these in 1599 the projecting range of -buildings on the east side were pulled down. In 1601 he pulled down the -corresponding projection on the western side, removing the venerable -pile known as King Edward the Third's Gate. This was rebuilt at the west -end of the chapel as we now see it. The Master's lodge was prolonged -northwards, and a library with chambers below it was built eastwards to -meet the old gate. The great quadrangle was thus complete, the largest -in either university,[87] having an area of over 90,000 square feet. To -Dr. Neville also in the Great Court is owing the additional storey to -the Great Gate, with the statue of Henry VIII. in a niche on its eastern -front, and the statue of King James, his Queen, and Prince Charles on -its western side, the beautiful fountain erected in 1602, and the hall -in 1604. The building of this hall, which with certain variations is -copied from the hall of the Middle Temple, is thus described in the -"Memoriale" of the College. - - "When he had completed the great quadrangle and brought it to a - tasteful and decorous aspect, for fear that the deformity of the - Hall, which through extreme old age had become almost ruinous, - should cast, as it were, a shadow over its splendour, he advanced - £3000 for seven years out of his own purse, in order that a great - hall might be erected answerable to the beauty of the new - buildings. Lastly, as in the erection of these buildings he had - been promoter rather than author, and had brought these results to - pass more by labour and assiduity than by expenditure of his own - money, he erected at a vast cost, the whole of which was defrayed - by himself, a building in the second court adorned with beautiful - columns, and elaborated with the most exquisite workmanship, so - that he might connect his own name for ever with the extension of - the College." - -Unfortunately, much of the original beauty of Neville's Court was spoilt -by the alterations of Mr. Essex in 1755, "a local architect whose life," -as Mr. J. G. Clark has truly said, "was spent in destroying that which -ought to have been preserved." - -The building of the library which forms the western side of Neville's -Court was due mainly to the energy of Dr. Isaac Barrow, who was master -from 1673 to 1677. The architect was Sir Christopher Wren, who himself -thus describes his scheme:-- - - "I haue given the appearance of arches as the order required, fair - and lofty; but I haue layd the floor of the Library upon the - impostes, which answer to the pillars in the cloister and levells - of the old floores, and haue filled the arches with relieus stone, - of which I haue seen the effect abroad in good building, and I - assure you where porches are low with flat ceelings is infinitely - more gracefull than lowe arches would be, and is much more open and - pleasant, nor need the mason feare the performance because the arch - discharges the weight, and I shall direct him in a firme manner of - executing the designe. By this contrivance the windowes of the - Library rise high and give place for the deskes against the - walls.... The disposition of the shelves both along the walls and - breaking out from the walls must needes proue very convenient and - gracefull, and the best way for the students will be to haue a - little square table in each celle with 2 chaires." - -[Illustration: Neville's Court Trinity College] - -The table and the chairs, as well as the book-shelves, were designed by -Wren, who was also at pains to give full-sized sections of all the -mouldings, because "we are scrupulous in small matters, and you must -pardon us. Architects are as great pedants as criticks or heralds." - -In 1669 Bishop's Hostel--so called after Bishop Hacket of Lichfield, who -gave £1200 towards the cost--took the place of the two minor halls, -Oving's Inn and Garett Hostel. No further addition to the College -buildings was made until the nineteenth century, when the new court was -built from the designs of Wilkins in the mastership of Dr. Christopher -Wordsworth, and at a later time the two courts opposite the Great Gate -across Trinity Street, by the benefaction of a sum approaching £100,000, -by Dr. Whewell. To Dr. Whewell also belongs the merit of the restoration -of the front of the Master's lodge, by the removal of the classical -façade which had been so foolishly and tastelessly imposed upon the old -work built by Dr. Bentley during his memorable tenure of the mastership -from 1700 to 1742. - -The mention of the name of that most masterful of Yorkshiremen and most -brilliant of Cambridge scholars and critics inevitably suggests the -picture of that long feud between the Fellows of Trinity and their -Master which lasted for nearly half a century, for a year at any rate -longer than the Peloponnesian war, and was almost as full of exciting -incidents. Those who care to read the miserable and yet amusing story -can do so for themselves in the pages of Bishop Monk's "Life of Richard -Bentley." It is more to the purpose here, I think, to recall the kindly -and judicious verdict of the great scholar's life at Trinity by the -greatest Cambridge scholar of to-day. - -"It must never be forgotten," writes Sir Richard Jebb, "that Bentley's -mastership of Trinity is memorable for other things than its troubles. -He was the first Master who established a proper competition for the -great prizes of that illustrious college. The scholarships and -fellowships had previously been given by a purely oral examination. -Bentley introduced written papers; he also made the award of -scholarships to be annual instead of biennial, and admitted students of -the first year to compete for them. He made Trinity College the earliest -home for a Newtonian school, by providing in it an observatory, under -the direction of Newton's disciple and friend--destined to an early -death--Roger Cotes. He fitted up a chemical laboratory in Trinity for -Vigani of Verona, the professor of chemistry. He brought to Trinity the -eminent orientalist, Sike of Bremen, afterwards professor of Hebrew. -True to the spirit of the royal founder, Bentley wished Trinity College -to be indeed a house 'of all kinds of good letters,' and at a time when -England's academic ideals were far from high he did much to render it -not only a great college, but also a miniature university."[88] - -And "a house of all kinds of good letters" Trinity has remained, and -will surely always remain. As we walk lingeringly through its halls and -courts what thronging historic memories crowd upon us! We may not forget -the failures as well as the successes; the defeats as well as the -triumphs; "the lost causes and impossible loyalties" as well as the -persistent faith and the grand achievement; but what an inspiration we -feel must such a place be to the young souls who, year by year, enter -its gates. How can the flame of ideal sympathy with the great -personalities of their country's history fail to be kindled or kept -alive in such a place? Here by the Great Gate, on the first floor to the -north, are the rooms where Isaac Newton lived. It was to these rooms -that in 1666 he brought back the glass prism which he had bought in the -Stourbridge Fair, and commenced the studies which eventually made it -possible for Pope to write the epitaph:-- - -"Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night, - God said 'Let Newton be!' and all was light." - -It was in these rooms that he had entertained his friends, John Locke, -Richard Bentley, Isaac Barrow, Edmund Halley, Gilbert Burnett, who -afterwards wrote of him, "the whitest soul I ever knew." It was here -that he wrote his "Principia." It is in the ante-chapel close by that -there stands that beautiful statue of him by Roubiliac, which Chantrey -called "the noblest of our English statues," and of which Wordsworth has -recorded how he used to lie awake at night to think of that "silent -face" shining in the moonlight:-- - -"The marble index of a mind for ever - Voyaging through strange seas of thought alone." - -And in the chapel beyond, with its double range of "windows richly -dight" with the figures of saints and worthies and benefactors of the -College--Sir Francis Bacon, Sir Edward Coke, Sir Harry Spelman, Lord -Craven, Roger Cotes, Archbishop Whitgift, Bishop Pearson, Bishop Barrow, -Bishop Hacket, the poets Donne, George Herbert, Andrew Marvell, Cowley -and Dryden--is it possible for the youthful worshipper not sometimes to -be aroused and uplifted above the thoughts of sordid vulgarity, of moral -isolation, of mean ambition, to "see visions and dream dreams," visions -of coming greatness for city, or country, or empire, visions of great -principles struggling in mean days of competitive scrambling, dreams of -opportunity of some future service for the common good, which shall not -be unworthy of his present heritage in these saints and heroes of the -past, who may-- - - "Live again - In minds made better by their presence; live - In pulses stirred to generosity, - In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn - For miserable aims that end with self, - In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars, - And with their mild persistence urge man's search - To vaster issues." - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -ANCIENT AND PROTESTANT FOUNDATIONS - - "Nec modo seminarium augustum et conclusum nimis, verum in se - amplissimum campum collegium esse cupimus: ubi juvenes, apum more, - de omnigenis flosculis pro libita libent, modo mel legant, quo et - eorum procudantur linguæ et pectora, tanquam crura, thymo - compleantur: ita ut tandem ex collegio quasi ex alveari evolantes, - novas in quibus se exonerent ecclesiæ sedes appetant."--_Statutes - of Sidney College._ - - Queen Elizabeth and the Founder of Emmanuel--The Puritan Age--Sir - Walter Mildmay--The Building of Emmanuel--The Tenure of - Fellowships--Puritan Worthies--The Founder of Harvard--Lady Frances - Sidney--The Sidney College Charter--The Buildings--The Chapel the - old Franciscan Refectory--Royalists and Puritans--Oliver - Cromwell--Thomas Fuller--A Child's Prayer for his Mother. - - -"I hear, Sir Walter," said Queen Elizabeth to the founder of Emmanuel -College, "you have been erecting a Puritan foundation." "No, madam," he -replied, "far be it from me to countenance anything contrary to your -established laws; but I have set an acorn, which, when it becomes an -oak, God alone knows what will be the fruit therefrom." And Sir Walter -Mildmay expressed no doubt truthfully what was his own intention as a -founder, for although it is customary to speak of both Emmanuel and -Sidney Colleges as Puritan foundations, and although it admits of no -question that the prevailing tone of Emmanuel College was from the first -intensely Puritan in tone, yet it cannot certainly be said that either -Emmanuel College or the college established by the Lady Frances Sidney -two years later, were specially designed by their founders to strengthen -the Puritan movement in the University. They synchronised with it no -doubt, and many of their earliest members gave ample proof of their -sympathy with it. But as foundations they sprang rather from the impulse -traceable on the one hand to the literary spirit of the Renaissance, and -on the other to the desire of promoting that union of rational religion -with sound knowledge, which the friends of the New Learning, the -disciples of Colet, Erasmus, and More had at heart. The two colleges -were born, in fact, at the meeting-point of two great epochs of history. -The age of the Renaissance was passing into the age of Puritanism. Rifts -which were still little were widening every hour, and threatening ruin -to the fabric of Church and State which the Tudors had built up. A new -political world was rising into being; a world healthier, more really -national, but less picturesque, less wrapt in the mystery and splendour -that poets love. Great as were the faults of Puritanism, it may fairly -claim to be the first political system which recognised the grandeur of -the people as a whole. - -[Illustration: Hall & Chapel, Emmanuel College.] - -As great a change was passing over the spiritual sympathies of man; a -sterner Protestantism was invigorating and ennobling life by its -morality, by its seriousness, and by its intense conviction of God. But -it was at the same time hardening and narrowing it. The Bible was -superseding Plutarch. The obstinate questionings which haunted the -finer souls of the Renaissance were being stereotyped in the theological -formulas of the Puritan. The sense of divine omnipotence was -annihilating man. The daring which turned England into a people of -adventurers, the sense of inexhaustible resources, the buoyant freshness -of youth, the intoxicating sense of beauty and joy, which inspired -Sidney and Marlowe and Drake, was passing away before the consciousness -of evil and the craving to order man's life aright before God. - -Emmanuel and Sidney Colleges were the children of this transition -period. Sir Walter Mildmay, the founder of Emmanuel, was Chancellor of -the Exchequer in the reign of Elizabeth, known and trusted by the Queen -from her girlhood--she exchanged regularly New Year's gifts with him--a -tried friend and discreet diplomatist, who had especially been -distinguished in the negotiations in connection with the imprisonment of -Mary, Queen of Scots. He had been educated at Christ's College, though -apparently he had taken no degree. He was a man, however, of some -learning, and retained throughout life a love for classical literature. -Sir John Harrington, in his "Orlando Furioso," quotes a Latin stanza, -which he says he derived from the Latin poems of Sir Walter Mildmay. -These poems, however, are not otherwise known. He is also spoken of as -the writer of a book entitled "A Note to Know a Good Man." His interest -in his old university and sympathy with letters is attested by the fact -that he contributed a gift of stone to complete the tower of Great S. -Mary's, and established a Greek lectureship and six scholarships at -Christ's College. He had acquired considerable wealth in his service of -the State, having also inherited a large fortune from his father, who -had been one of Henry VIII.'s commissioners for receiving the surrender -of the dissolved monasteries. It was fitting, perhaps, he felt, that -some portion of this wealth should be devoted to the service of religion -and sound learning. Anyhow, in the month of January 1584, we find the -Queen granting to her old friend, "his heirs, executors, and assigns," a -charter empowering them "to erect, found, and establish for all time to -endure a certain college of sacred theology, the sciences, philosophy -and good arts, of one master and thirty fellows and scholars, graduate -or non-graduate, or more or fewer according to the ordinances and -statutes of the same college." On the 23rd of the previous November, Sir -Walter had purchased for £550 the land and buildings of the Dominican or -Black Friars, which had been established at Cambridge in 1279 and -dissolved in 1538. During the fifty years that had elapsed since the -dissolution the property had passed through various hands. Upon passing -into the hands of Sir Walter it is thus described:-- - - "All that the scite, circuit, ambulance and precinct of the late - Priory of Fryers prechers, commonly called the black fryers within - the Towne of Cambrigge ... and all mesuages, houses, buildinges, - barnes, stables, dovehouses, orchards, gardens, pondes, stewes, - waters, land and soyle within the said scite.... And all the walles - of stone, brick or other thinge compassinge and enclosinge the said - scite." - -The present buildings stand upon nearly the same sites as those occupied -by the original buildings, which were adapted to the requirements of the -new college by Ralph Symons, the architect, who had already been -employed at Trinity and S. John's. The hall, parlour, and butteries were -constructed out of the Church of the Friars. It is recorded that "in -repairing the Combination Room about the year 1762, traces of the high -altar were very apparent near the present fireplace." The Master's lodge -was formed at the east end of the same range, either by the conversion -of the east part of the church, or by the erection of a new building. A -new chapel, running north and south--the non-orientation, it is said, -being due to Puritan feeling--was built to the north of the Master's -lodge. The other new buildings consisted of a kitchen on the north side -of the hall and a long range of chambers enclosing the court on the -south. Towards the east there were no buildings, the court on that side -being enclosed by a low wall. The entrance to the College was in -Emmanuel Lane, through a small outer court, having the old chapel as its -southern range and the kitchen as the northern. From this the principal -court was reached by passages at either end of the hall. The range known -as the Brick Building was added in 1632, extending southwards from the -east end of the Founder's Chambers. In 1668 the present chapel was built -facing east and west, in the centre of the southern side of the -principal court. By this time, it is said, the old chapel had become -ruinous. Moreover, it had never been consecrated, and the Puritanical -observances alleged to have been practised in it were giving some -offence to the Restoration authorities. The following statement, drawn -up in 1603,[89] is interesting, not only as giving a graphic picture of -the disorders complained of at Emmanuel, but also incidentally of the -customs of other colleges:-- - - "1. First for a prognostication of disorder, whereas all the - chappells in y^{e} University are built with the chancell eastward, - according to y^{e} uniform order of all Christendome. The chancell - in y^{e} colledge standeth north, and their kitchen eastward. - - "2. All other colledges in Cambridge do strictly observe, according - to y^{e} laws and ordinances of y^{e} Church of Englande, the form - of publick prayer, prescribed in y^{e} Communion Booke. In Emmanuel - Colledge they do follow a private course of publick prayer, after - y^{r} own fashion, both Sondaies, Holydaies and workie daies. - - "3. In all other colledges, the M^{rs} and Scholers of all sorts do - wear surplisses and hoods, if they be graduates, upon y^{e} - Sondaies and Holydaies in y^{e} time of Divine Service. But they of - Emmanuel Colledge have not worn that attier, either at y^{e} - ordinary Divine Service, or celebration of y^{e} Lord's Supper, - since it was first erected. - - "4. All other colledges do wear, according to y^{e} order of y^{e} - University, and many directions given from the late Queen, gowns of - a sett fashion, and square capps. But they of Eman. Colledge are - therein altogether irregular, and hold themselves not to be tied to - any such orders. - - "5. Every other Colledge according to the laws in that behalf - provided, and to the custome of the King's Householde, do refrayne - their suppers upone Frydaies and other Fasting and Ember daies. But - they of Eman. Coll. have suppers every such nights throughout y^{e} - year, publickly in the gr. Hall, yea upon good Fridaye itself. - - "6. All other Colledges do use one manner of forme in celebratinge - the Holy Communion, according to the order of the Communion Booke, - as particularlye the Communicants do receive kneelinge, with the - particular application of these words, viz., _The Body of our Lord - Jesus Christ, etc.; The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, etc._; as - the s^{d} Booke prescribeth. But in Eman. Coll. they receive that - Holy Sacrament, sittinge upon forms about the Communion Table, and - doe pulle the loafe one from the other, after the minister hath - begon. And soe y^{e} cuppe one drinking as it were to another, like - good Fellows without any particular application of y^{e} s^{d} - wordes, more than once for all. - - "7. In other Colledges and Churches, generally none are admitted to - attend att the Communion Table, in the celebration of the Holy - Mystery, but Ministers and Deacons. But in Eman. Coll. the wine is - filled and the table is attended by the Fellows' subsizers." - -There is one interesting feature in connection with the foundation of -Emmanuel College which calls for special notice, as showing that the -Puritan founder was fully conscious of the dangers attaching to a -perpetual tenure of Fellowships, as affording undue facilities for -evading those practical duties of learning and teaching, the efficient -discharge of which he rightly considered it should be the main object of -the University to demand, and the interest of the nation to secure. "We -have founded the College," says Sir Walter, "with the design that it -should be, by the grace of God, a seminary of learned men for the supply -of the Church, and for the sending forth of as large a number as -possible of those who shall instruct the people in the Christian faith. -_We would not have any Fellow suppose that we have given him, in this -College, a perpetual abode_, a warning which we deem the more -necessary, in that we have ofttimes been present when many experienced -and wise men have taken occasion to lament, and have supported their -complaints by past and present utterances, that in other colleges a too -protracted stay of Fellows has been no slight bane to the common weal -and to the interests of the Church."[90] - -In the sequel, however, the wise forethought of Sir Walter Mildmay was -to a great extent frustrated. The clause of the College statutes which -embodied his design was set aside in the re-action towards conservative -university tradition, which followed upon the re-establishment of the -Stuart dynasty. A similar clause in the statutes of Sidney College, -which had been simply transcribed from the original Emmanuel statutes, -was about the same time rescinded, on the ground that it was a deviation -from the customary practice of other societies, both at Oxford and -Cambridge. It was not, in fact, until the close of the nineteenth -century that university reformers were able to secure such a revision of -the terms of Fellowship tenure as should obviate, on the one hand, the -dangers which the wisdom of the Puritan founder foresaw, and, on the -other, make adequate provision, under stringent and safe conditions, for -the endowment of research. The old traditionary system is thus -summarised by Mr. Mullinger:-- - - "The assumption of priests' orders was indeed made, in most - instances, an indispensable condition for a permanent tenure of a - Fellowship, but it too often only served as a pretext under which - all obligation to studious research was ignored, while the - Fellowship itself again too often enabled the holder to evade with - equal success the responsibilities of parish work. Down to a - comparatively recent date, it has accordingly been the accepted - theory with respect to nearly all College Fellowships that they are - designed to assist clergymen to prepare for active pastoral work, - and not to aid the cause of learned or scientific research. - Occasionally, it is true, the bestowal of a lay fellowship has - fallen upon fruitful ground. The Plumian Professorship fostered the - bright promise of a Cotes: the Lucasian sustained the splendid - achievements of Newton. But for the most part those labours to - which Cambridge can point with greatest pride and in whose fame she - can rightly claim to share--the untiring scientific investigations - which have established on a new and truer basis the classification - of organic existence or the succession of extinct forms--or the - long patience and profound calculations which have wrested from the - abysmal depths of space the secrets of stupendous agencies and - undreamed of laws--or the scholarship which has restored, with a - skill and a success that have moved the envy of united Germany, - some of the most elaborate creations of the Latin muse--have been - the achievements of men who have yielded indeed to the traditional - theory a formal assent but have treated it with a virtual - disregard."[91] - -How essentially Puritan was the prevailing tone of Emmanuel during the -early days we may surmise from the fact, that in the time of the -Commonwealth no less than eleven masters of other colleges in the -University came from this Foundation--Seaman of Peterhouse, Dillingham -of Clare Hall, Whichcote of King's, Horton of Queens', Spurston of S. -Catharine's, Worthington of Jesus, Tuckney of John's, Cudworth of -Christ's, Sadler of Magdalene, Hill of Trinity. Among some of the -earliest students to receive their education within its walls were many -of the Puritan leaders of America. Cotton Mather, in his "Ecclesiastical -History of New England," gives a conspicuous place in its pages to the -names of Emmanuel men--Thomas Hooker, John Cotton, Thomas Shephard. "If -New England," he says, "hath been in some respect Immanuel's Land, it is -well; but this I am sure of, Immanuel College contributed more than a -little to make it so." Few patriotic Americans of the present day, -visiting England, omit to make pilgrimage to Emmanuel, for was not the -founder of their University, Harvard College, an Emmanuel man, -graduating from that college in 1631, and proceeding to his M.A. degree -in 1635? John Harvard, "the ever memorable benefactor of learning and -religion in America," as Edward Everett justly styles him--"a godly -gentleman and lover of learning," as he is called by his contemporaries, -"a scholar, and pious in life, and enlarged towards the country and the -good of it in life and death," seems indeed to have been a worthy son of -both Emmanuel and of Cambridge, a Puritan indeed, but of that fuller and -manlier type which was characteristic of the Elizabethan age rather than -of the narrower, more contentious, more pedantic order which set in with -and was hardened and intensified by the arbitrary provocations of the -Stuart regime. - -[Illustration: Downing College] - -The last in date of foundation of the Cambridge Colleges with which we -have to deal--for Downing College, unique as it is in many ways, and -attractive (its precincts, "a park in the heart of a city"), is not -yet a century old, and its history although in some respects of national -importance, lies beyond our limit of time--was the "Ancient and -Protestant Foundation of Sidney Sussex College." - -The foundress of Sydney Sussex College was the Lady Frances Sidney, one -of the learned ladies of the court of Elizabeth. She was the aunt both -of Sir Philip Sidney and of the Earl of Leicester; the wife of -Radcliffe, Earl of Sussex, known at least to all readers of "Kenilworth" -as the rival of Leicester. To-day the noble families of Pembroke, -Carnarvon, and Sidney all claim her as a common ancestress. A few years -ago, in conjunction with the authorities of the college, they restored -her tomb, which occupies the place of the altar in the chapel of S. Paul -in Westminster Abbey. It was the Dean of Westminster, her friend Dr. -Goodman, who gave to the college that portrait of the foundress which -hangs above the high table in the college hall. - -It is a characteristic of the period which may be worth noting here--of -the middle, that is, of the sixteenth century--when the destinies of -Europe were woven by the hands of three extraordinary queens, who ruled -the fortunes of England, France, and Scotland--that, as the fruits of -the Renaissance and of the outgrowth of the New Learning, and perhaps -also of the independent spirit of the coming Puritanism, learned women -should in some degree be leading the van of English civilisation. - -How long the Lady Frances had had the intention of founding a college, -and what was the prompting motive, we do not know. In her will, however, -which is dated December 6, 1588, the intention is clearly stated. After -giving instructions as to her burial and making certain bequests, she -proceeds to state "that since the decease of her late lord"--he had died -five years previously--"she had yearly gathered out of her revenues so -much as she conveniently could, purposing to erect some goodly and godly -monument for the maintenance of good learning." In performance of the -same, her charitable pretence, she directs her executors to employ the -sum of £5000 (made up from her ready-money yearly reserved, a certain -portion of plate, and other things which she had purposely left) -together with all her unbequeathed goods, for the erection of a new -college in the University of Cambridge, to be called the "Lady Frances -Sidney Sussex College, and for the purchasing some competent lands for -the maintaining of a Master, ten Fellows, and twenty Scholars, if the -said £5000 and unbequeathed goods would thereunto extend." - -On her death in the following year her executors, the Earl of Kent and -Sir John Harrington, at once attempted to carry out her wishes. Of them -and their endeavour, Fuller, himself a Sidney man, has thus, as always, -quaintly written:-- - - "These two noble executors in the pursuance of the will of this - testatrix, according to her desire and direction therein, presented - Queen Elizabeth with a jewel, being like a star, of rubies and - diamonds, with a ruby in the midst thereof, worth an hundred and - forty pounds, having on the back side a hand delivering up a heart - into a crown. At the delivery hereof they humbly requested of her - Highness a mortmain to found a College, which she graciously - granted unto them"--though the royal license did not actually come - until five years later. "We usually observe infants born in the - seventh month, though poor and pitiful creatures, are vital; and - with great care and good attendance, in time prove proper persons. - To such a _partus septimestris_ may Sidney College well be - resembled, so low, lean, and little at the birth thereof. Alas! - what is five thousand pounds to buy the site, build and endow a - College therewith?... Yet such was the worthy care of her - honourable executors, that this Benjamin College--the least and - last in time, and born _after_ (as he _at_) the death of his - mother--thrived in a short time to a competent strength and - stature."[92] - -Some delay ensued, for it was not until 1593 that, at the motion of the -executors, an Act of Parliament was passed enabling Trinity College to -sell or let at fee farm rent the site of the Grey Friars. The College -charter is dated February 14, 1596. The building was commenced in the -following May, and completed, with the exception of the chapel, in 1598. -In the same year the original statutes were framed by the executors. -They are largely copied from those of Emmanuel, and are equally verbose, -cumbrous, and ill-arranged. One clause in them which speaks of the -Master as one who "_Papismum, Hæreses, superstitiones, et errores omnes -ex animo abhorret et detestatur_," testifies to the intentionally -Protestant character of the College, a fact, however, which did not -prevent James II., on a vacancy in the mastership, intruding on the -society a Papist Master, Joshua Basset, of Caius, of whom the Fellows -complained that he was "let loose upon them to do what he liked." They -had, however, their revenge, for, although later he was spoken of as -"such a mongrel Papist, who had so many nostrums in his religion that no -part of the Roman Church could own him," in 1688 he was deposed. - -The architect of the College buildings was Ralph Simons, who had built -Emmanuel and "thoroughly reformed a great part of Trinity College." It -is interesting to note that more than half of the sum received from Lady -Sidney's estate to found and endow the College was expended in the -erection of the hall, the Master's lodge, and the hall court. These -buildings formed the whole of the College when it was opened in 1598. -How picturesque it must have been in those days, before the red brick of -which it is built was covered with plaster, one can see by Loggan's -print of the College, made about 1688. The buildings are simple enough, -but quite well designed. The "rose-red" of the brick, at least, seems to -have struck the poet, Giles Fletcher, when he wrote of Sidney in 1633 in -his Latin poem on the Cambridge colleges:-- - -"Haec inter media aspicies mox surgere tecta - Culminibus niveis roseisque nitentia muris; - Nobilis haec doctis sacrabit femina musis, - Conjugio felix, magno felicior ortu, - Insita Sussexo proles Sidneia trunco." - -[Illustration: The Garden Front Sidney Sussex College] - -The arrangement of the hall, kitchen, buttery, and Master's lodge was -much the same as at present. The hall had an open timber roof, with a -fine oriel window at the dais end, but no music gallery. Fuller says -that the College "continued without a chapel some years after the first -founding thereof, until at last some good men's charity supplied this -defect." In 1602, however, the old hall of the friars--Fuller calls it -the dormitory, but there is little doubt that it was in reality the -refectory--was fitted up as a chapel, and a second storey added to form -a library. A few years later, about 1628, a range of buildings forming -the south side of the chapel court was built. In 1747, the buildings -having become ruinous, extensive repairs were carried out, and the hall -was fitted up in the Italian manner. The picturesque gateway which had -stood in the centre of the street wall of the hall court was removed, -and a new one of more severe character was built in its place. This also -at a later time was removed and re-erected as a garden entrance from -Jesus Lane. - -Between 1777 and 1780 the old chapel was destroyed, and replaced by a -new building designed by Essex, in a style in which, to say the least, -there is certainly nothing to remind the modern student of the old hall -of the Grey Friars' Monastery, where for three centuries of stirring -national life the Franciscan monks had kept alive, let us hope, -something of the mystic tenderness, the brotherly compassion, the -fervour of missionary zeal, which they had learnt from their great -founder, Saint Francis of Assisi. - -Of the old Fellows' garden, which in 1890 was partly sacrificed to -provide a site for the new range of buildings and cloister--perhaps the -most beautiful of modern collegiate buildings at either -university--designed by Pearson, Dyer writes with enthusiasm:-- - - "Here is a good garden, an admirable bowling green, a beautiful - summer house, at the back of which is a walk agreeably winding, - with variety of trees and shrubs intertwining, and forming the - whole length, a fine canopy overhead; with nothing but singing and - fragrance and seclusion; a delightful summer retreat; the sweetest - lovers' or poets' walk, perhaps in the University." - -To the extremely eclectic character of the College in its early days the -Master's admission register testifies. Among its members were some of -the stoutest Royalists and also some of the stoutest Republicans in the -country. Among the former we find such names as those of Edward Montagu -(afterwards first Baron Montagu of Boughton), brother of the first -Master, a great benefactor of the College; of Sir Roger Lestrange, of -Hunstanton Hall, in Norfolk, celebrated as the editor of the first -English newspaper, "a man of good wit, and a fancy very luxuriant and of -an enterprising nature," in early youth--his attempt to recover the port -of Lynn for the King in 1644 is one of the funniest episodes in English -history--a very Don Quixote of the Royalist party; and of Seth Ward, a -Fellow of the college, who was ejected in Commonwealth times, but had -not to live long, before he was able to write back to his old College -that he had been elected to the See of Exeter, and that "the old bishops -were exceeding disgruntled at it, to see a brisk young bishop, but forty -years old, not come in at the right door, but leap over the pale." Among -the Republican members of the College it is enough, perhaps, to name -the name of Oliver Cromwell. And of him, at least, whatever our final -verdict on his career may be, whatever dreams of personal ambition we -may think mingled with his aim, we cannot surely deny, if at least we -have ever read his letters, that his aim was, in the main, a high and -unselfish one, and that in the career, which to our modern minds may -seem so strange and complex, he had seen the leading of a divine hand -that drew him from the sheepfolds to mould England into a people of God. -And to some, surely, he seems the most human-hearted sovereign and most -imperial man in all English annals since the days of Alfred. And no one, -I trust, would in these days endorse the verdict of the words -interpolated in the College books between the entry of his name and the -next on the list:-- - - "_Hic fuit grandis ille impostor, carnifex perditissimus, qui, - pientissimo rege Carolo primo nefaria cæde sublato, ipsum usurpavit - thronum, et tria regna per quinque ferme annorum spatium sub - protectoris nomine indomita tyrannide vexavit_," - -which may be Englished thus-- - - "This was that arch hypocrite, that most abandoned murderer, who - having by shameful slaughter put out of the way the most pious - King, Charles the First, grasped the very throne, and for the space - of nearly five years under the title of Protector harassed three - kingdoms with inflexible tyranny." - -Rather, as we stand in the College Hall and gaze up at the stern -features, as depicted by Cooper,[93] in that best of all the Cromwell -portraits, shall we not commemorate this greatest of Sidney men, in -Lowell's words, as-- - -"One of the few who have a right to rank - With the true makers: for his spirit wrought - Order from chaos; proved that Right divine - Dwelt only in the excellence of Truth: - And far within old darkness' hostile lines - Advanced and pitched the shining tents of Light. - Nor shall the grateful Muse forget to tell - That--not the least among his many claims - To deathless honour--he was Milton's friend." - -Thomas Fuller, too, who was neither Republican nor Royalist, but loyal -to the good men of both parties in the State, is a name of which Sidney -College may well be proud. No one can read any of his books, full as -they are of imagination, pathos, and an exuberant, often extravagant, -but never ineffective wit, without heartily endorsing Coleridge's -saying: "God bless thee, dear old man!" and recognising the truth of his -panegyric, "Next to Shakespeare, I am not certain whether Thomas Fuller, -beyond all other writers, does not excite in me the sense and emulation -of the marvellous.... He was incomparably the most sensible, the least -prejudiced great man in an age that boasted of a galaxy of great men." - -And with Fuller's name, indeed with Fuller's own words, in that -benediction which, after eight years of residence, he gave to Sidney -College, and which he himself calls his "Child's Prayer to His Mother," -I may appropriately end this chapter. - - "Now though it be only the place of the parent, and proper to him - (as the greater) to bless his child, yet it is of the duty of the - child to pray for his parent, in which relation my best desires are - due to this foundation, my mother (for the last eight years) in - this University. May her lamp never lack light for oil, or oil for - the light thereof. Zoar, is it not a little one? Yet who shall - despise the day of small things? May the foot of sacrilege, if once - offering to enter the gates thereof, stumble and rise no more. The - Lord bless the labours of all the students therein, that they may - tend and end at his glory, their own salvation, the profit and - honour of the Church and Commonwealth." - -And not less appropriately, perhaps, may I end, not only this chapter, -but this whole sketch of the story of Cambridge and its colleges--for to -the memory of what more kindly, more sound-hearted, more pious soul -could any Sidney man more fitly dedicate his book than to his--with the -prayer in which, in closing his own History, he gracefully connects the -name of Cambridge with that of the sister university, and commends them -both to the charitable devotion of all good men. - - "O God! who in the creating of the lower world didst first make - light (confusedly diffused, as yet, through the imperfect universe) - and afterwards didst collect the same into two great lights, to - illuminate all creatures therein; O Lord, who art a God of - knowledge and dost lighten every man that cometh into the world; O - Lord, who in our nation hast moved the hearts of Founders and - Benefactors to erect and endow two famous luminaries of learning - and religion, bless them with the assistance of Thy Holy Spirit. - Let neither of them contest (as once Thy disciples on earth) which - should be the greatest, but both contend which shall approve - themselves the best in Thy presence.... And as Thou didst appoint - those two great lights in the firmament to last till Thy servants - shall have no need of the sun, nor of the moon to shine therein, - for Thy glory doth lighten them; so grant these old lights may - continue until all acquired and infused knowledge be swallowed up - with the vision and the fruition of Thy blessed-making - Majesty.--Amen." - - - - -INDEX - - -_Akeman Street_, old Roman road known as, 15 - -Alan de Walsingham, cathedral builder, 174 - -Alcock, Thomas, Bishop of Ely, founder of Jesus College, 185, 186; - his plan of incorporating grammar-school with college, 187, 189 - -Alcwyne, departure of, from England, 52 - -Audley, Sir Thomas, conversion of Buckingham College into Magdalene by, 249; - Fuller's account of, 249, 250; - grant of suppressed monasteries made to, 251 - -Augustinian Friars, settlement of, on site of old Botanic Gardens, 72 - - -Barnard Flower, King's glazier, 151 - -Barnwell, origin of name, 37; - Augustinian priory of, 35, 36; - foundation and further history of, 36, 37; - rebuilding of, 38; - present remains of, 38 - -_Barnwell Cartulary_, 18, 40 - -Barnwell Fair, 17, 18 - -Barrow, Dr. Isaac, Master of Trinity, his work in connection with, 260 - -Bateman, William, Bishop of Norwich, founder of Trinity Hall, 174 - -Bede, monastic school of, 51, 52; - book on "The Nature of Things" by, 52 - -Benedictine Order, re-establishment of, under St. Dunstan, 53; - discipline of, 75 - -Bentley, Dr. Richard, Master of Trinity, feud between Fellows and, 261-2; - work of, in connection with college, 262 - -_Bibliotheca Pepysiana_, 252 - -Black Death, the, 103, 111, 134 - -Black Friars, arrival of, in England, 55; - land and buildings belonging to, purchased for - site of Emmanuel College, 268 - -Books, complaint by Roger Bacon of lack of, 57 - -_Brazen George Inn_, the scholars of Christ's lodged in, 220 - -British earthworks, 14 - -Buckingham College, description of, by Fuller, 248; - foundation of, by Benedictine, 248; - hall built in connection with, 248; - lectures by Cranmer at, 249; - semi-secular character of, 249; - conversion of, into Magdalene College, 249 - -Burne-Jones, designs by, for Jesus Chapel, 203 - - -Caius, John, founder of College, 114; - design for famous three gates by, 114-19; - death of, 119 - -_Camboritum_, 16, 17 - -Cambridge, verses on, by Lydgate, 2; - legendary history of, 3-8; - position of, 14; - origin of name of, 15, 16; - geographical position of, 17; - early population of, 24; - farm of, given as dower to the queen, 24; - beginnings of municipal independence of, 27; - "the borough," overflow of, incorporated with township of S. Benet, 28, 32; - first charter of, 48 - -Cambridge Guilds, 120, 121, 122-26 - -Cambridge University, migration of masters and - scholars from Paris to, 59, 60; - royal writs concerning, 60; - description of, in Middle Ages, 61, 62, 63; - course of study pursued at, 63, ff.; - learning at, in thirteenth century, 68-70; - library, erected by Sir Gilbert Scott, 144 - -_Candle rent_, insurrection of towns-people on account of, 132, 133 - -Cantelupe, Nicholas, legendary history by, 4-7 - -Carmelites, settlement of, on present site of Queens', 72 - -Castle, old site of, 15; - foundation of, by William the Conqueror, 22; - use of, as prison, as a quarry, 23; - gate-house of, demolished, 23 - -Castle Hill, ancient earthwork known as, 14, 15 - -Chaucer, tradition concerning, 106 - -Churches-- - _Abbey_, the, 39 - _All Saints by the Castle_, 34 - _Holy Sepulchre_, one of the four round churches of England, 40, 43, 44 - _S. Benedict_, 28, 29, 31, 125, 130-31 - _S. Edward_, 176; - independence of, with regard to pulpit teaching, 177, 178 - _S. Giles_, 34, 35 - _S. John Zachary_, 176 - _S. Mary at Market_, afterwards _Great S. Mary_, 123 - _S. Peter_, without the Trumpington Gate, afterwards - called _Little S. Mary_, 86, 87 - _S. Peter by the Castle_, 34 - -Close, Nicholas, architect of King's Chapel, 147, 148 - -Coleridge, S. T., scholar of Jesus, 208; - poems written by, at College, 208 - -College, meaning of the term in olden times, 62 - -Colleges-- - _Caius._ See _Gonville Hall_ - _Christ's_, foundation of, 210, 215; - _God's House_, taken as basis of, 215; - Royal Charter of, 216; - description of buildings of, 217, 218; - hall of, rebuilt by Sir Gilbert Scott, 219; - windows of, 219, 220; - scholars of, lodged in the _Brazen George_, 220; - _Rat's Hall_, erection of, 220; - further buildings of, erected by Inigo Jones, 220; - "re-beautifying the Chappell" of, 220, 221; - John Milton and Charles Darwin members of, 221, 223; - other distinguished members of, 223, 224 - _Clare._ See _University Hall_ - _Corpus Christi_, foundation of, 121, 127; - building of, 126, 127; - royal benefactors of, 128; - distinguished men belonging to, 128, 129; - library given by Matthew Parker to, 128; - description of old buildings of, 129; - new library of, 130; - attack on, by townspeople, 132, 133 - _Emmanuel_, foundation of, 265; - design of Sir W. Mildmay in founding, 265; - charter of, granted by Queen Elizabeth, 268; - land and buildings of the Black Friars purchased for site of, 268; - buildings of, erected, 269; - offence given by the Puritanical observances of, 269; - statement drawn up concerning the same, 270-71; - tenure of fellowships at, 271-272; - revision of terms concerning, 272; - masters of other colleges elected from, 273; - John Harvard, a graduate of, 274 - _Gonville Hall_, first foundation of, 110; - removal of, 111; - statutes of, 111, 112; - old buildings of, 112; - bequest by John Household to, 112; - strong support of reformed opinions at, 113; - second foundation by John Caius, 114; - architectural additions made by, 114; - famous three gates designed by, 114-19 - _Jesus_, foundation of, 180; - number of society of at first, 187; - grammar-school incorporated with, 187, 189; - nunnery of S. Rhadegund converted into buildings of, 189, 190, 199, 200; - "the chimney" at, 200; - the chapel of, 201-203; - constitution of, 203, 204; - failure of plan for incorporating school with, 204; - Cranmer and other famous men at, 204, 207, 208; - King James's saying regarding, 209 - _King's_, foundation of by Henry VI., 142; - confiscation of alien priories for endowment of, 143; - provision concerning the transference of Eton scholars to, 144; - first site of, 144; - description of old buildings of, 144; - incorporation of, in new buildings of university library, 114; - old gateway of, 145; - ampler site obtained for, 146, 147; - chapel of, 147-50; - work in connection with stopped, 150; - renewed, 151; - windows of, 151, 152; - screen and rood-loft, 153; - further buildings of, 153, 154; - Pope's bull granting independence of, 154; - distinguished men belonging to, 157, 158; - King James's saying regarding, 209 - _King's Hall_, first establishment of, 97, 98; - absorption of by Trinity, 97, 257; - picture of collegiate life given in statutes of, 98, 99 - _Magdalene_, Buckingham College converted into, 248; - dissimilarity of original statutes of, with those of - Christ's and S. John's, 251; - Duke of Norfolk contributes to revenues of, 251; - date of quadrangle of, 251; - of chapel and library of, 251; - chambers added to Monk's College for accommodation of scholars of, 252; - new gateway of, 252; - chapel of, "Italianised" and restored, 252; - Pepysian Library of, 252; - reference to same in Pepys' "Diary," 252; - famous Magdalene men, 253 - _Michaelhouse_, foundation of and early statutes, 97; - absorption of, by Trinity, 97, 257 - _Pembroke_, foundation of, 93; - Countess of Pembroke, foundress of, 106, 107; - charter of, 107; - constitution of, 108; - building of, 108, 109; - remains of old buildings of, 110 - _Peterhouse_, foundation of, 77; - first code of statutes of, 79-81; - hall of, 82-84; - Fellows' parlour at, 85; - Perne library at, 89, 90; - building of present chapel of, 81; - description of same, 92 - _Queens'_, foundation of by Margaret of Anjou, 158-61; - earliest extant statutes of, 161; - change of name of from Queen's to Queens', 161; - similarity of building of with that of Haddon Hall, 162; - description of principal court of, 162, 165; - Tower of Erasmus at, 165, 166; - residence of Erasmus at, 165-71 - _S. Catherine's Hall_, foundation of, 181; - statutes of, 181; - old buildings of, 181, 182; - rebuilding of, 182; - new chapel of, built on site of Hobson's stables, 182 - _S. John's_, royal license to refound the Monastic Hospital of, 226; - bequest of Lady Margaret lost to, through opposition of Court Party, 230; - other revenues obtained for, by Bishop Fisher, 231; - first Master of, 231; - early and present buildings of, 231, 232; - "Bridge of Sighs" at, 232; - great gateway of, 235; - old and new library of, 235, 236, 237; - the Masters' gallery at, 236; - lines on by Wordsworth, 237, 238; - new chapel of, erected by Sir Gilbert Scott, 238, 241; - famous men at, 241, 242 - _Sidney_, foundation of, 265; - desire of Lady Frances Sidney in the founding of, 266; - Fuller's account of petition to Queen Elizabeth concerning, 275-76; - granting of charter to, 276-77; - original statutes of, 277; - Papist master of, deposed, 278; - buildings of, 278-79; - poem by Giles Fletcher on, 278; - old chapel of, destroyed, 279; - old Fellows' garden at, 279; - Royalist and Republican members of, 280; - Oliver Cromwell and Thomas Fuller members of, 281; - Fuller's "Child's Prayer to his Mother," and prayer - at close of his history, 283 - _Trinity Hall_, origin of, 174; - buildings of, 175, 176; - hall of, 176; - chapel of, 176; - beating the bounds by Fellows of, 178; - old library of, 179; - Garden and "Jowett's Plot" at, 180; - King James's saying concerning, 209; - example of change from mediæval to modern conception - of learning furnished by, 253; - King Henry's charter of foundation, 253; - site of, 254 - _Trinity College_, relation of old halls and hostels - with present buildings of, 254-55; - Dr. Thomas Neville's work in connection with, 258; - building of new library at, 260; - later additions to, 261; - two minor halls at, replaced by Bishop's hostel, 261; - feud between Master and Fellows of, 261; - Dr. Bentley's work in connection with, 262; - Isaac Newton at, 263; - other famous men connected with, 263 - _University Hall_, first foundation of, 93, 99; - refoundation of, as Clare House, 99; - statutes of, 100, 103, 104; - dispute of with King's College, 104, 105; - supposed identity of with Chaucer's "Soler-Halle," 105, 106; - great men associated with, 106 - -Cornelius, Austin, wood-carver, 153 - -Cosin, Dr., Master of Peterhouse, building of College Chapel by, 91 - -Cranmer, entry of, into Jesus College, 204; - fellowship at resigned by, 249; - lectures given by, at Magdalene, 249 - -Crauden, John of, Prior of Ely, Hostel of, 174, 175; - portrait bust of, 174 - -Cromwell, Oliver, member of Sidney College, 281-82; - portrait of, by Cooper, 282; - Lowell's verses on, 282 - - -Danes, ravages of, 52, 53 - -Darwin, Charles, member of Christ's College, 221, 222, 225 - -_De Heretico Comburendo_, 136 - -Devil's Dyke, British earthwork known as, 14 - -Dokell, Andrew, founder of S. Bernard's Hostel, 160 - -Dominicans, introduction of the new philosophy by, 58, 59; - settlement of, on site of Emmanuel, 72 - -Drayton, Michael, picture of Fenland by, 11-12 - - -Elizabeth, Queen, visit of, to Cambridge, 251 - -Elizabeth de Burgh, Countess of Clare, University Hall refounded by, 99 - -Elizabeth Wydville, Queen to Edward IV., second foundress - of Queen's College, 161 - -Ely, Lady Chapel, comparison of with King's, 149, 150 - -Ely, student monks of, Hostel for, provided by John Crauden, 174; - transference of, to Monk's College, 175 - -Erasmus, residence of, at Queens', 165-68; - "Paraclesis" of _Novum Testamentum_ written while there, 171; - appointment of, to Lady Margaret chair, 211; - his praise of Oxford teachers, 212; - summoned to Cambridge to teach Greek, 214 - -Eton College, 141; - connection of, with King's, 144 - - -Fenland, changes in physical features of, 9-11; - description of, in _Liber Eliensis_ and other works, 11-13 - -Fisher, John, Bishop of Rochester, founder of Christ's - and S. John's, 185, 242; - notice of Lady Margaret attracted by, 211; - divinity professorship founded by, 212; - literary revival at Cambridge promoted by, 214, 242; - speech by, in Parliament, 250; - funeral sermon on Lady Margaret by, 228, 229; - sympathy of, with new spirit of Bible criticism, 242; - friendship of, with Erasmus, 242; - attachment of, to Papal cause, 242; - character of, evidenced by his codes of statutes, 243; - opposition of, to divorce of Henry VIII. and Catherine of Arragon, 243; - description of trial and death of, by Froude and Mullinger, 244, 245 - -Fletcher, Giles, poem by, on Sidney College, 278 - -Franciscans, first habitation of, 55, 56; - erection of house by, on site of Sidney College, 72 - -Friars, proselytising of students by, 72, 73 - -Friars of the Order of Bethlehem, 72; - of the Sack, 72, 78 - -Frost, Henry, Burgess, founder of Hospital of S. John, 226 - -Fuller, Thomas, quotation from, concerning the Universities, 8; - account of origin of Fair by, 17, 18; - account of petition to Queen Elizabeth concerning Sidney College, 276-77; - "Child's Prayer to his Mother," and prayer, at - close of his History, by, 283 - - -Gilbertines, settlement of, in Trumpington Street, 72 - -_God's House_, small foundation of latter as basis of - Christ's, 215, 216, 217, 226 - -Grantebrigge, Norman village of, 32 - -_Great Bridge and Small Bridge_, 33 - -Grey Friars, arrival of, in England, 55 - -Guilds. _See_ under Cambridge - -Guild of Corpus Christi, 120, 125, 126; - incorporation of, with Guild of S. Mary, 121, 126; - the "good Duke," alderman of, 127; - Queen Philippa and family enrolled as members of, 127; - of Thegns, 122, 123; - of S. Mary, 120, 121, 123, 125; - of the Holy Sepulchre, first religious guild, 123 - - -Harvard, John, graduate of Emmanuel, 274 - -Havens, Theodore, of Cleves, architect, 116 - -Henry VI., birth of, 137; - description of, by Stubbs, 138; - his love of letters, 142; - and holiness, 143 - -Henry VII., visit of, to Cambridge, 151 - -Henry of Costessey, _Commentary on the Psalms_ by, 58 - -Hervey de Stanton, Bishop of Bath and Wells, founder of Michaelhouse, 97 - -High Street, old, 34 - -Hobson, Thomas, chapel built on site of stables belonging to, 182 - -Hostels, establishment of, 63; - various, absorbed by Trinity, 254-55 - -_House of Benjamin_, 47, 48 - -Household, John, bequest by D. Gonville, 113 - -Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely, founder of Peterhouse, 75, 76, 78, 79 - - -Ingulph, story quoted from, 7 - - -Jews, early establishment of, in Cambridge, 44; - influence of, on academic history and material condition of town, 46, 47 - -Josselin, fellow of Queen's, account of the building of Corpus - Christi College by, 126, 127 - - -King's Ditch, the, old artificial stream known as, 32, 33 - -_King's Scholars_, 97; - regulations concerning, 98, 99 - -Kingsley, Charles, description of Fenland by, 12, 13 - - -Lancaster, Henry, Duke of, alderman of Corpus Christi Guild, 127, 128 - -Lanes, old, still surviving, 33 - -Langton, John, architect of King's Chapel, 147 - -Latimer, Hugh, sermon preached by, at S. Edward, 177 - -Learning, decline of, in fourteenth century, 95, 96 - -Lollardism in the university towns, 135, 136 - -Lydgate, John, verses on Cambridge by, 2, 3 - - -Margaret, Countess of Richmond and Derby, foundress of Christ's College and -S. John's, description of, by Fuller, 210; - funeral sermon on, by Bishop Fisher, 210, 228, 229, 230; - influence of Bishop Fisher upon, 212, 215; - noble benefactions of, 216, 217; - rooms at Christ Church of, 218, 219; - characteristic story of, 218; - death of, 228; - monument to, 228 - -Margaret of Anjou, description of, by Shakespeare, 158; - foundress of Queen's College, 158, 159, 160 - -Matthew Paris, description of Fenland by, 11 - -Mediæval students, dress of, 81-83 - -Merton, Walter de, exclusion of religious orders from his foundation by, 73; - his _Regula Mertonensis_, 74, 75, 79 - -Mildmay, Sir Walter, founder of Emmanuel, 265; - answer of, to Queen Elizabeth concerning same, 265 - -Milne Street, old, 34 - -Milton, John, member of Christ's, 221; - description of rooms at, 221; - mulberry tree planted by, 221; - poems written by, as an undergraduate, 222; - treatment of at college, 223 - -Monasteries, depression caused by suppression of, 246; - advantages to universities arising from, 247, 248; - King Henry's words with regard to, 247, 248 - -Monastic houses, early settlements of, 72 - -_Monk's College_, monks of Ely transferred to, 175 - -Monk's Hall, 175 - -More, Henry, member of Christ's, 224; - as one of the Cambridge Platonists, 224, 225 - - -Neville, Dr. Thomas, Master of Trinity, his work of - building in connection with, 258-59 - -New Learning, the, 56, 57, 58, 183-85; - encouragement of, at Cambridge, 211; - renown of Oxford in connection with, 212; - promoted at Cambridge by Bishop Fisher, 214; - colleges of, 241; - no regard shown to, in statutes of Magdalene, 251 - -Newton, Sir Isaac, at Trinity, 263; - his _Principia_ written there, 263; - statue of, by Roubiliac, 263 - - -Parker, Matthew, Archbishop, library of MSS. belonging to, 128, 130, 131 - -Parker, Richard, translation of _Skeletos Cantabrigiensis_ by, 4 - -Pearson, Mr., old gateway of King's restored by, 145 - -Perne, Dr. Andrew, portrait of, 85; - bequest of library to Peterhouse by, 89; - account of, 89, 90; - Latin verb invented in honour of, 89 - -Philippa, Queen, member of Corpus Christi Guild, 127, 128 - -"Poore Priestes," the, of Wycliffe, 135, 136 - -Preaching, art of, neglected, 212, 213; - Lady Margaret's readership founded as a remedy for, 213, 214 - -Puritanism in England, 265-66 - - -Reginald of Ely, architect of King's Chapel, 148 - -_Regula Mertonensis_ taken as model for rule of Peterhouse, 75, 79 - -Richard de Baden, Chancellor of the University, 99 - -Richard III., gift of land by, to King's College, 151 - -Richard of Bury, Bishop of Durham, application from Petrarch to, 95; - description of Oxford by, 96 - -Rotherham, Thomas, Archbishop of York, college founded by, 187; - purposes and provisions of same, 187, 188 - - -S. Augustine, list of books brought to England by, 50 - -S. Bernard Hostel, 160; - absorption of, in foundation of Queen's, 161 - -S. John, Hospital of, 76, 226; - nucleus of S. John's College, 78; - history and downfall of, 226, 228 - -S. Rhadegund, history of nuns of, 189-99; - conversion of nunnery of, into college buildings, 199, 200 - -Scholars, secular endowment of, 76; - dispute of, with regulars, 77; - removal of, 77 - -Scholars of Ely, 78 - -_School of Pythagoras_, old Norman house known as, 27 - -Schools, monastic, of Northumbria and the South, 50, 51 - -Scott, Sir Gilbert, University library erected by, 144; - hall of Christ's rebuilt by, 219; - chapel of S. John's erected by, 238, 241 - -Sidney, Lady Frances, foundress of Sidney College, 266, 275-76; - portrait of, 275 - -Simon, Montagu, Bishop of Ely, first code of statutes for Peterhouse by, 78 - -Spencer, Henry, Bishop of Norwich, revolt of towns-people quelled by, 133 - -_Star Chamber_, origin of name of, 46 - -Sterne, Laurence, portrait of, at Jesus, 207 - -Stourbridge Fair, earliest charter of, 18; - comparison of, with Bunyan's "Vanity Fair," 19, 20 - -Symons, Ralph, architect of Emmanuel College, 269, 278 - - -_Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs_, the Greek MS. of, 56 - -Tower of Erasmus, 165 - -Town and gown, ill feeling between, 132; - riot arising from, 132, 133 - -Tusser, Thomas, residence of, at Trinity Hall, and verses by, 173 - - -University, use of the term of, 60, 61 - - -Venn, Henry, influence of, at Jesus, 208 - -_Via Devana_, or _Roman Way_, 15, 28, 32, 34 - - -Walden, Abbey of, grant of, to Sir T. Audley, 252; - association of, with Buckingham College, 252 - -Wharfs or river hithes, rights in regard to, 33 - -Wordsworth, William, lines by, on S. John's, 237, 238 - -Wren, Dr. Matthew, Master of Peterhouse, 90; - chapel of, built by, 91 - -Wren, Sir Christopher, architect of library at Trinity Hall, 260; - tables, chairs, and shelves designed by, 261 - - THE END - - Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. - Edinburgh & London - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] _Cf._ Baker MS. in the University Library. - -[2] See the very excellent map given in "Fenland Past and Present," by -S. H. Miller and Sidney Skertchley (published, Longmans, 1878), a book -full of information on the natural features of the Fen country, its -geology, its antiquarian relics, its flora and fauna. - -[3] _Cf._ Paper by Professor Ridgway, _Proc. Cam. Antiq. Soc._, vii. -200. - -[4] _Cf._ Professor M'Kenny Hughes, _Proc. Cam. Antiq. Soc._, vol. -viii. (1893), 173. _Cf._ also Freeman, "Norman Conquest," vol. i. 323, -&c.; and also English Chronicle, under year MX. - -[5] The easiest way for those who are not much acquainted with -phonetic laws to understand this rather difficult point is to observe -the chronology of this place-name. It is thus condensed by Mr. T. -D. Atkinson ("Cambridge Described and Illustrated," p. 4) from -Professor Skeat's "Place-Names of Cambridgeshire," 29-30:--"The name -of the town was _Grantebrycge_ in A.D. 875, and in Doomsday Book it -is _Grentebrige_. About 1142 we first meet with the violent change -_Cantebrieggescir_ (for the county), the change from _Gr_ to _C_ being -due to the Normans. This form lasted, with slight changes, down to -the fifteenth century. _Grauntbrigge_ (also spelt _Cauntbrigge_ in -the name of the same person) survived as a surname till 1401. After -1142 the form _Cantebrigge_ is common; it occurs in Chaucer as a -word of four syllables, and was Latinised as _Cantabrigia_ in the -thirteenth century. Then the former _e_ dropped out; and we come to -such forms as _Cantbrigge_ and _Cauntbrigge_ (fourteenth century); -then _C[=a]nbrigge_ (1436) and _Cawnbrege_ (1461) with _n_. Then the -_b_ turned the _n_ into _m_, giving _Cambrigge_ (after 1400) and -_Caumbrege_ (1458). The long _a_, formerly _aa_ in _baa_, but now _ei_ -in _vein_, was never shortened. The old name of the river, _Granta_, -still survives. _Cant_ occurs in 1372, and _le Ee_ and _le Ree_ in the -fifteenth century. In the sixteenth century the river is spoken of as -the _Canta_, now called the _Rhee_; and later we find both _Granta_ and -the Latinised form of _Camus_. _Cam_, which appears in Speed's map of -1610, was suggested by the written form _Cam-bridge_, and is a product -of the sixteenth century, having no connection with the Welsh _Cam_, or -the British _Cambos_, "crooked." - -[6] "The old spelling is Bernewell, in the time of Henry III. and -later. Somewhat earlier is Beornewelle, in a late copy of a charter -dated 1060 (Thorpe, _Diplom._, p. 383). So also in the Ramsey -Cartulary. The prefix has nothing to do with the Anglo-Saxon _bearn_, -'a child,' as has often, I believe, been suggested; but represents -_Beornan_, gen. of _Beorna_, a pet name for a name beginning with -Beorn-.... The difference between the words, which are quite distinct, -is admirably illustrated in the New Eng. Dict. under the words _berne_ -and _bairn_."--SKEAT'S _Place-Names of Cambridgeshire_, p. 35. - -[7] "The Borough Boys" is a nickname still remembered as being applied -to the men of the castle end by the dwellers in the east side of the -river. A public-house, with the sign of "The Borough Boy," still stands -in Northampton Street. - -[8] "Cambridge, Described and Illustrated," by T. D. Atkinson, p. 133. - -[9] _Cf._ "Customs of Augustinian Canons," by J. Willis Clark, p. xi. - -[10] _Lib. Mem._, Book i. chap. 9.--The principal authority for the -history of Barnwell Priory is a manuscript volume in the British Museum -(MSS. Harl. 3601) usually referred to as the "Barnwell Cartulary" -or the "Barnwell Register." The author's own title, however, "Liber -Memorandorum Ecclesiæ de Bernewelle," is far more appropriate, for the -contents are by no means confined to documents relating to the property -of the house, but consist of many chapters of miscellanea dealing -with the history of the foundation from its commencement down to the -forty-fourth year of Edward III. (1370-71). - -[11] At the time of the Dissolution, Dugdale states the gross yearly -value of the estates to have been £351, 15s. 4d., that of Ely to have -been £1084, 6s. 9d. - -[12] Such a small matter, for example, in the domestic economy of a -modern college as the separate rendering of a "buttery bill" and a -"kitchen bill," containing items of expenditure which the puzzled -undergraduate might naturally have expected to find rendered in the -same weekly account, finds its explanation when we learn that in the -economy of the monastery also the roll of "the celererarius" and the -roll of the "camerarius" were always kept rigidly distinct. So also -more serious and important customs may probably be traced to monastic -origin. - -[13] The others are: S. Sepulchre at Northampton, c. 1100-1127; Little -Maplestead in Essex, c. 1300; The Temple Church in London, finished -1185. To these may be added the chapel in Ludlow Castle, c. 1120. - -[14] "Cambridge Described," by T. D. Atkinson, p. 164. - -[15] _Cf._ Neubauer's _Collectanea_, ii. p. 277 _sq._ - -[16] _Cf._ Rashdall's "Universities of Europe," vol. i. p. 347. - -[17] The earliest notice of this practice occurs in the University -Accounts for 1507-8, when carpenters are employed to carry the -materials used for the stages from the schools to the Church of the -Franciscans, to set them up there, and to carry them back again to the -schools. Similar notices are to be found in subsequent years. - -[18] _Cf._ "The Cambridge Modern History," vol. i. p. 584, &c. - -[19] Cooper's "Annals," i. 42. - -[20] Willis and Clark, "Architectural History of the University of -Cambridge," Introduction, vol. i. p. xiv. - -[21] _Cf._ List of names given in "Willis and Clark," vol. i. pp. -xxv.-xxvii. - -[22] Jubinal's "Rutebeuf," quoted by Wright in his _Biographia -Britannica Litteraria_, p. 40. - -[23] Stubbs, "Lectures on Mediæval and Modern History," p. 166. - -[24] Anstey, _Munimenta Academica_, i. pp. 204-5. - -[25] "Commiss. Docts.," ii. 1. - -[26] "Documents," ii. 78. - -[27] The actual expression is, of course, _scholares_, but it is -best to translate the word by the later title of _fellows_ to avoid -the erroneous impression which would otherwise be given. That the -_scholares_ were occasionally called _fellows_ even in Chaucer's day -may be inferred from his lines-- - - "Oure corne is stole, men woll us fooles call, - Both the warden and our fellowes all." - - -[28] Document II. 1-42, quoted from Mullinger's "University of -Cambridge," i. 232. - -[29] "Annals of the University," i. 95. - -[30] "Documents," ii. 72. - -[31] British Museum, Cole, MSS. xxxv. 112. - -[32] Prynne, "Canterbury's Doom," quoted from Willis a. d. Clark, i. 46. - -[33] _Philobiblon_, c. 9. - -[34] Cooper's "Memorials," ii. p. 196. - -[35] Cooper's "Memorials," vol. i. p. 30. - -[36] _Cf._ Rogers' "Six Centuries of Work and Wages," p. 224. "The -disease made havoc among the secular and regular clergy, and we are -told that a notable decline of learning and morals was thenceforward -observed among the clergy, many persons of mean acquirements and low -character stepping into the vacant benefices. Even now the cloister -of Westminster Abbey is said to contain a monument in the great flat -stone, which we are told was laid over the remains of the many monks -who perished in the great death.... Some years ago, being at Cambridge -while the foundations of the new Divinity Schools were being laid, -I saw that the ground was full of skeletons, thrown in without any -attempt at order, and I divined that this must have been a Cambridge -plague pit." - -[37] _Cf._ Clarke, "Cambridge," pp. 85, 86. - -[38] _Cf._ Mullinger, "Cambridge," vol. i., footnote, p. 237. - -[39] The poet Gray, it is said, occupied the rooms on the ground -floor at the west end of the Hitcham building. Above them are those -subsequently occupied by William Pitt. - -[40] Cooper's "Memorials," i. p. 99. - -[41] "Cambridge Described," by T. D. Atkinson, p. 326. - -[42] Willis and Clark, i. 177. - -[43] Cooper's "Annals," 140. - -[44] Fuller's "History of the University," p. 255. - -[45] Fuller's "History of the University," p. 98. - -[46] _Cf._ Introduction by Professor Maitland to the "Cambridge Borough -Charters," p. xvii. - -[47] Miss Mary Bateson, "Introduction to Cambridge Gild Records," -published by Cambridge Antiquarian Society, 1903. - -[48] Josselin, _Historiola_, § 2. - -[49] Fuller's "History of Cambridge," p. 116. - -[50] Stubbs, "Constitutional History," vol. iii. p. 130. - -[51] Robert Bridges. - -[52] _Second Part of King Henry VI._, Act i. sc. 3. - -[53] J. W. Clark, "Cambridge," p. 145. - -[54] G. Gilbert Scott, "History of English Architecture," p. 181. - -[55] J. W. Clarke, "Cambridge," p. 171. - -[56] Fuller, "University of Cambridge," p. 161. - -[57] "History of Queens'," p. 154. - -[58] Erasmus, _Novum Instrumentum_, leaf aaa. 3 to bbb. - -[59] _Anglia Sacra_, i. 650. - -[60] In the Ely "Obedientary Rolls" I find, for example, the following -entries for the expenses of these Cambridge Scholars of the Monastery -in the account of the chamberlain: "20, Ed. III. scholaribus pro obolo -de libra, 6-1/2d. 31, 32, Ed. III. fratri S. de Banneham scholari -pro pensione sua 1/1-1/2. 40, Ed. III. Solut' 3 scholar' studentibus -apud Cantabrig' 3/4-1/2. Simoni de Banham incipienti in theologia 2 -3, viz. 1d. de libra. 9, Hen. IV. dat' ffratri Galfrido Welyngton ad -incepcionem suam in canone apud cantabrig' 6/8. 4, Hen. V. ffratribus -Edmundo Walsingham et Henry Madingley ad incepcionem 3/4." - -[61] Warren, Appendix cxvi. - -[62] "Care of Books," pp. 168-69. - -[63] Vol. ii. 30. - -[64] "Jesus College," by A. Gray, p. 32. - -[65] "History of Jesus," A. Gray, p. 16. - -[66] "History of Jesus," A. Gray, p. 18. - -[67] Willis and Clark's "Architectural History of Cambridge," vol. ii. -p. 123. - -[68] Erasmus, _Roberto Piscatori_, Epist. xiv. - -[69] Mullinger, "History of the University of Cambridge," vol. i. p. -439. - -[70] Cooper's "Annals," vol. i. p. 273. - -[71] Mullinger, "History of the University," vol. i. p. 44. - -[72] Fuller's "History of Cambridge," p. 182. - -[73] Dr. Peile's "History of Christ's College," p. 29. - -[74] Cf. Milton's "Apology for Smectymnus," 1642. - -[75] It might almost be supposed that the officials who drew royal -charters kept a "model form" to meet the case of a suppressed religious -house, altering the name and place to fit the occasion. - -[76] Caxton, as he worked at his printing press in the Almonry, which -she had founded, and who was under her special protection, said "the -worst thing she ever did" was trying to draw Erasmus from his Greek -studies at Cambridge to train her untoward stepson, James Stanley, to -be Bishop of Ely. - -[77] Mullinger's "History of S. John's College," p. 17. - -[78] Froude's "History of England," vol. ii. p. 266. - -[79] Mullinger's "History of the University," vol. i. p. 628. - -[80] Edition of Furnivall, p. 88. - -[81] "English Universities," vol. i. p. 307. - -[82] Fuller, "History of Cambridge," p. 196. - -[83] This absurdity is traceable to that _Skeletos Cantabrigiensis_ by -Richard Parker, to which I drew attention in my first chapter. - -[84] Nichol's "Progress of Queen Elizabeth," v. i. p. 182. - -[85] Cooper's "Memorials," v. ii. p. 135. - -[86] Fuller's "History of Cambridge," p. 236. - -[87] "Tom Quad," the great court of Christ Church, Oxford, has an area -of 74,520 square feet. - -[88] "National Dictionary of Biography," vol. iv. p. 312. - -[89] MSS. Barker, vi. 85; MSS. Harl. Mus. Brit., 7033; quoted, Willis -and Clark, ii. 700. - -[90] "Documents," iii. 524, quoted by Mullinger, i. 314. - -[91] Mullinger, vol. i. p. 318. - -[92] Fuller's "History of Cambridge," p. 291. - -[93] This portrait in crayons by Samuel Cooper (1609-72) was presented -to the College in January 1766 by Thomas Hollis. In Hollis's papers -underneath his memorandum of his present to the College are three lines -of Andrew Marvell-- - - "I freely declare it, I am for old Noll; - Though his government did a tyrant resemble, - He made England great, and her enemies tremble." - -Mr. Hollis also gave to Christ's College four copies of the "Paradise -Lost," two of them first editions. In 1761 he sent to Trinity his -portrait of Newton. He also presented books to the libraries of -Harvard, Berne and Zurich: chiefly Republican literature of the -seventeenth century. - - * * * * * - -Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber: - -thus serve to mark=> thus serves to mark {pg 43} - -his death in 1509=> his death in 1589 {pg 89} - -four widows=> four windows {pg 151} - -Rennaisance=> Renaissance {pg 267} - -great exent frustrated=> great extent frustrated {pg 272} - - - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Cambridge and its Story, by Charles William Stubbs - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAMBRIDGE AND ITS STORY *** - -***** This file should be named 43764-8.txt or 43764-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/7/6/43764/ - -Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images available at The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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