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Title: Cambridge
Author: Tuker, Mildred Anna Rosalie
Language: English
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CAMBRIDGE
AGENTS
AMERICA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
64 & 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
AUSTRALASIA THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
205 FLINDERS LANE, MELBOURNE
CANADA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD.
ST. MARTIN’S HOUSE, 70 BOND STREET, TORONTO
INDIA MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD.
MACMILLAN BUILDING, BOMBAY
309 BOW BAZAAR STREET, CALCUTTA
[Illustration]
[Illustration: THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS, ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE
This Bridge joins the Third Court with the Fourth or New Court. The
building on the right, seen through the bridge, is the Library, and
dates back to 1624.]
CAMBRIDGE
BY
M. A. R. TUKER
AUTHOR OF PARTS II. AND III. AND JOINT-AUTHOR OF PARTS I. AND IV. OF THE
HANDBOOK TO CHRISTIAN AND ECCLESIASTICAL ROME, AND
JOINT-AUTHOR OF ‘ROME’ IN THIS SERIES
PAINTED BY
WILLIAM MATTHISON
[Illustration]
LONDON
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
1907
_Published May 1907_
Preface
“Of making many books there is no end.” When I set about writing this
book I was ready to believe that the University had not its fair share
of the literary output. Cambridge indeed does not appear to suggest,
does not lend itself to, the numberless little brochures or hymns of
praise which accompany the honoured years of the sister university; in
weighty tomes and valuable _collectanea_ of MSS., however, it possesses
works (such as Cooper’s Annals, the Cole and Baker MSS., and Willis and
Clark’s Architectural History) not possessed by Oxford and unrivalled,
perhaps, by any English town.
In the middle of last century the invaluable Fuller was the most readily
accessible authority, but the last thirty years have seen the
publication of the monumental work of Messieurs Willis and Clark, and of
the History of the University by Mr. J. Bass Mullinger, while at the
same time the slighter literature of the subject has not been
neglected.
Nevertheless there is room, I hope, for a short book on the present
lines.
It is, I believe, the first time that a chapter on the women’s colleges
has anywhere appeared, and certainly the first time that such a chapter
forms part of an account of the University. I have taken pains to
authenticate the description here given, for events which occurred
thirty--even twenty--years back are now fading out of remembrance and
some of those who took part in them are no longer with us.
A first and last chapter on the origin of universities and on the sister
universities have been omitted for the purposes of this volume.
The pleasantest part of my task still remains to be performed--to thank
all those, both in and out of Cambridge, who have kindly afforded me
facilities, have obtained information on innumerable points, or
lightened my labours by lending books. In addition to this welcome
assistance my thanks are specially due to Mr. J. Willis Clark, late
fellow of Trinity, and Registrary of the University, for sparing time to
read the proof sheets of Chapters I. and II.--for sparing time and not
sparing trouble; to the Master of Peterhouse and to Dr. A. W. Verrall
(fellow and late tutor of Trinity) for reading the proof sheets of
portions of Chapter II. and portions of Chapter III.; to Mr. C. W. Moule
fellow and librarian of Corpus Christi, Mr. Ellis H. Minns
assistant-librarian, and late fellow, of Pembroke, to Miss M. G.
Kennedy, and to the Mistress of Girton; to the Assistant Keeper of MSS.
at the British Museum, and the Librarian at Lambeth; to Lord Francis
Hervey and Sir Ernest Clarke who kindly supplied some annotated
references to the school at Bury from the Curteys Register, and last but
not least to the Rev. H. F. Stewart (chaplain of Trinity) and Mrs.
Stewart, the former of whom has been good enough to read portions of the
proof sheets of Chapter IV.
For any opinions expressed I am, of course, alone responsible.
M. A. R. T.
_February 1907._
Contents
CHAPTER I
THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
The northern schools--legends--the town--the river--the fen
monasteries--the school of glomery--the religious orders--the
jurisdiction of Ely--the clerk and the religious.
School and university--Stourbridge fair--the university in the xiii
century--foundation of endowed scholars--hostels.....1-51
CHAPTER II
THE COLLEGES
The university and the colleges--the collegiate system--eras
of college building--Peterhouse--Michaelhouse--_collegium_
and _aula_--Clare--college statutes--architectural scheme of
a college--Pembroke--founders of colleges--Gonville--Trinity
Hall--Corpus Christi--Cambridge in 1353--Chaucer at Cambridge--the
schools, library, the university printers and the Pitt Press,
the senate house--King’s--King’s College chapel--Cambridge
college chapels--Queens’--English sovereigns at Cambridge--S.
Catherine’s--Jesus--Christ’s--Lady Margaret and Bishop Fisher--S.
John’s--Magdalene--King’s Hall and Trinity College--college
libraries--gateways--Caius--monks in Cambridge--Emmanuel--Sidney
Sussex--Downing--public hostels--nationality of founders and general
scope of their foundations--university and college revenues.....52-156
CHAPTER III
THE UNIVERSITY AS A DEGREE-GIVING BODY
Meaning of a degree--the kinds of degrees--the bachelor--the
ancient exercises of the schools called acts, opponencies, and
responsions--the sophister--questionist--determiner--master--regent
master--the degree of _M.A._--introduction of written
examinations--the tripos.
The subjects of study and examination: the _trivium_ and
_quadrivium_--grammar--Aristotle’s logic--rhetoric--the three
learned faculties--the doctorate--development in university
studies--the development of the mathematical tripos--the senior
wrangler--the classical tripos--Greek at Cambridge--the moral sciences
tripos--philosophy at Cambridge--the natural sciences tripos--science
at Cambridge--the language triposes--lists of the triposes--changing
value of the examination tests--the double tripos--present conditions
for the _B.A._ degree--modern changes in the examinations--standard of
the ordinary and honour degree, examples.
Method of tuition at Cambridge--the lecture--the class--the weekly
paper--the professorial chairs--readerships--lectureships--Lambeth
degrees--degrees by royal mandate--honorary degrees--the “modern
subjects”--and the idea of a university.....157-201
CHAPTER IV
COLLEGIATE AND SOCIAL LIFE AT THE UNIVERSITY
University and college officers:--chancellor and
vice-chancellor--the senate--graces--proctors--bedells--the
master of a college--the vice-master or president--the
fellows--unmarried and married fellows--the combination room--dons’
clubs--‘Hobson’s choice’--the dons of last century--classes
of students:--scholar--pensioner--fellow-commoner--sizar--age
of scholars--privileges of peers--position of the
sizar--college quarters and expenses--‘non-colls’--early
discipline--jurisdiction of the university in the town--present
discipline:--the proctors--fines--‘halls’--‘chapels’--town
lodgings--expulsion--rustication--‘gates’--the tutor--academical
dress--cap and gown--the undergraduates’ day--the
gyp--the college kitchen--‘hall’--‘wines’--teas--the
May term--idleness--rioting--modern studies and tripos
entries--athletics--the Union Society--Sunday at Cambridge--scarlet
days--academic terms and the long vacation--multiplication of
scholarships--class from which the academic population has been
drawn and careers of university men:--the Church--the rise of an
opulent middle class--the aristocratic era--English conception of
the benefits of a university--examples of the classes from which the
men have come--recruiting grounds of the university--popularity of
colleges--numbers in the colleges--religion at Cambridge--Cambridge
politics--university settlement at Camberwell--married dons and future
changes.....202-249
CHAPTER V
UNIVERSITY MEN AND NATIONAL MOVEMENTS
Men who owe nothing to a university--40 great Englishmen--Cambridge
men: the scientists, the poets, the dramatists, other literary
men, the philosophers, the churchmen, lawyers, and physicians, the
statesmen.
National movements: King John and the barons--the peasants’
revolt--York and Lancaster--the new world--Charles and the
Parliament--James II. and the University--the Declaration of
Indulgence--the Nonjurors--William and Mary and Cambridge
whiggery--Jacobitism and Toryism at Cambridge in the reign of
Anne--George I. and Cambridge--modern political movements.
Religious movements: Lollards, the early reformers, the question
of the divorce, Lutheranism at Cambridge, later reformers and the
Reformation, the English bible, and service books, the Cambridge
martyrs, the Puritans, the Presbyterians, the Independents, the
Latitudinarians, the Deists, the evangelical movement, the Tractarian
movement, anti-calvinism.
Intellectual movements: the New Learning and the age of Elizabeth--the
Royal Society--the Cambridge Platonists--modern science.
Connexion of Cambridge founders and eminent men with the
university--early Cambridge names--a group of great names in the
xiii and xiv centuries--Cambridge men in the historical plays of
Shakespeare--genealogical tables of founders--Cantabrigians from
the xv century to the present day--Cambridge men who have taken no
degree.....250-309
CHAPTER VI
GIRTON AND NEWNHAM
Etheldreda of Ely and Hild of Whitby connect the school of York
with the monastery of Ely--English women and education--the four
“noble and devoute countesses” and two queens at Cambridge--the
rise of the movement for university education--two separate
movements--Girton--Newnham--rise of the university lecture
movement--Anne Clough--the Newnham Halls and Newnham College--the
first triposes--the “Graces” of 1881--social life at the
women’s colleges--character and choice of work among women--the
degree--status of women’s colleges at Cambridge and Oxford--and status
elsewhere.....310-360
List of Illustrations
1. The Bridge of Sighs, S. John’s College _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
2. Norman Church of the Holy Sepulchre 4
3. Market Square 10
4. The Old Gateway of King’s College 16
5. S. John’s College Gateway and Tower from Trinity
Street 24
6. Oriel Window of the Hall, Trinity Great Court 34
7. The Old Castle Inn 50
8. Peterhouse from the Street 56
9. Peterhouse--The First Court 58
10. Peterhouse from the Fellows’ Garden 62
11. Clare College and Bridge from the Cam--Autumn
Evening 64
12. Clare College and Bridge from the Avenue 66
13. The Hall of Clare College 68
14. The Old Court, Pembroke College 72
15. A Court and Cloisters in Pembroke College 74
16. Trinity Hall 78
17. S. Botolph’s Church and Corpus College from the
Steps of the Pitt Press, Trumpington Street 80
18. The Old Court, Corpus Christi College 82
19. S. Benedict’s Church from Free School Lane 84
20. King’s College Gateway and Chapel--Twilight Effect 90
21. Gateway of King’s College, King’s Parade 98
22. King’s College Chapel and the Entrance Court, from
the Fellows’ Buildings 100
23. King’s College Chapel and the Fellows’ Buildings 102
24. King’s College Chapel Interior from the Choir 104
25. The Hall of King’s College 106
26. Entrance Gateway, Queens’ College 108
27. An Old Court in Queens’ College 110
28. Queens’ College from the River Front 112
29. Gateway of S. Catherine’s College 114
30. Gateway of Jesus College 116
31. The Gateway of Christ’s College from S. Andrew’s
Street 118
32. The Fellows’ Building in Christ’s College 120
33. Milton’s Mulberry Tree in the Fellows’ Garden, Christ’s
College 122
34. The Gateway and Tower of S. John’s College 124
35. Entrance to S. John’s College Chapel from the First
Court 126
36. The Second Court of S. John’s College 128
37. The Combination Room, S. John’s College 130
38. The Library Window, S. John’s College, from the
Bridge of Sighs 132
39. Old Gateway and Bridge 134
40. Pepys’ Library, Magdalene College 136
41. The Gateway of Trinity College 138
42. The Great Court, Trinity College 140
43. The Hall of Trinity College from Nevile’s Court 142
44. Nevile’s Gate, Trinity College 144
45. Trinity College Bridge and Avenue, with Gate leading
into the New Court 146
46. Caius College and the Senate House from S. Mary’s
Passage 148
47. The Gate of Virtue, Gonville and Caius College 150
48. The Gate of Honour, Caius College 152
49. The First Court of Emmanuel College 154
50. The Old Court in Emmanuel College 156
51. The Lake and New Buildings, Emmanuel College 158
52. The Cloister Court, Sidney Sussex College 160
53. Downing College from the Entrance in Regent Street 162
54. Trumpington Street from Peterhouse 172
55. Peashill 180
56. Old Houses near S. Edward’s Church and S. Edward’s
Passage 184
57. Market Street and Holy Trinity Church 192
58. Great S. Mary’s, from Trinity Street 196
59. The Lake in Botanic Gardens 210
60. Parker’s Piece 216
61. Trinity Bridge, King’s College Chapel in the Distance 224
62. The Tower of S. John’s College Chapel from the
River 238
63. University Boat-houses on the Cam--Sunset 244
64. Ditton Corner, on the Cam 248
65. The Fitzwilliam Museum--Evening 256
66. University Church of Great S. Mary 270
67. Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Trumpington Street 290
68. The Great Bridge--Bridge Street 312
69. View of Cambridge from the Castle Hill 316
70. Girton College--Evening 320
71. The Boathouse on Robinson Crusoe’s Island 324
72. Queens’ Lane--the Site of the old Mill Street 326
73. Merton Hall 328
74. Newnham College, Gateway 338
75. The Granary on the Cam 342
76. Grantchester Mill 346
77. Madingley Windmill 352
_Map at end of Volume._
A Bibliography
ACKERMANN.---- History of the University of Cambridge. 2 vols.
1815.
ANSTEY, H.---- Munimenta Academica. Rolls Series.
London 1868.
ATKINSON, THOMAS DINHAM.---- Cambridge Described & Illustrated, with an
introduction by John Willis Clark, _M.A._
1897.
BAKER MSS.
42 vols. collected & compiled by Thomas Baker fellow of S. John’s
College, 19 of which are preserved at the University, the others at
the Brit. Mus.
BAKER--MAYOR.---- History of the College of S. John the Evangelist.
Cambridge 1869.
The Baker MSS. (Harl. MS. 1039) relating to S. John’s edited by J.
E. B. Mayor.
BALL, W. W. ROUSE.---- Trinity College, Cambridge.
London 1906.
In the College Monograph series.
BARNWELL CHARTULARY.---- Brit. Mus. Harl. MSS. No. 3601.
BENTHAM, JAMES.---- History & Antiquities of Ely.
Norwich 1812.
BENTHAM, JAMES.---- STEVENSON.---- A supplement to the 2nd ed. of Mr.
Bentham’s History & Antiquities of Ely.
Norwich 1817.
CAIUS, JOHN.---- De Antiquitate Cantebrigiensis Academiae.
Londini, in aedibus Johannis Day 1574.
CAMBRIDGE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY’S PUBLICATIONS.
CAMBRIDGE PORTFOLIO.---- Edited by Rev. J. J. Smith, fellow & tutor of
Gonville & Caius.
1840.
CARTER, EDMUND.---- History of the University of Cambridge to 1753. 2
vols.
London 1753.
With MS. notes by Cole, in the Bodleian Library. (Containing the
list of the chancellors.)
CLARK, JOHN WILLIS.---- Cambridge. Brief historical & descriptive Notes.
Illustrated.
1890.
CLARK, JOHN WILLIS.---- The Observances in use at the Augustinian Priory
of S. Giles & S. Andrew at Barnwell, Cambridgeshire. Edited with a
translation & glossary.
Cambridge 1897.
COLE MSS.---- (Harleian MSS.)
60 vols., bequeathed by William Cole of King’s College to the
British Museum.
COOPER, CHARLES HENRY.---- Annals of Cambridge. 4 vols.
Cambridge 1843.
An additional pamphlet gives the Statutes of Victoria.
COOPER, CHARLES HENRY.---- Memorials of Cambridge. 3 vols.
Cambridge 1860-66.
The edition of 1880 is enlarged from the work of Le Keux.
COOPER, CHARLES HENRY.---- Memoir of Margaret Countess of Richmond &
Derby.
Cambridge 1874.
COOPER, CHARLES HENRY. & THOMPSON COOPER.---- Athenae Cantabrigienses.
Cambridge 1858-1861.
Vol. i. 1500-1585. Vol. ii. 1586-1609.
DYER, GEORGE.---- The Privileges of the University of Cambridge. 2 vols.
London 1824.
The Statutes of Elizabeth are printed in vol. i. 1559.
DYER, GEORGE.---- History of the University & Colleges of Cambridge. 2
vols.
1814.
EVERETT, WILLIAM.---- On the Cam.
London, S. O. Beeton, 1866.
FULLER, THOMAS, _D.D._---- The History of the University of Cambridge
(to the year 1634). Edited by Marmaduke Prickett, chaplain of Trinity, &
Thomas Wright, of Trinity.
Cambridge 1840.
HARE, ROBERT, of Gonville & Caius.---- Register of Charters, Liberties,
& Privileges of the University & the Town.
The nucleus of Dyer’s _Privileges_. The original is in the public
chest of the University, & there is a copy, made by Hare, in the
Registry.
HOBHOUSE, EDMUND, Bishop of Nelson, N.Z.---- Sketch of the Life of
Walter de Merton.
Oxford 1859.
HUMPHRY, G. M., _M.D._, _F.R.S._ (late Professor of Anatomy).---- Guide
to Cambridge, the Town, University, & Colleges.
Cambridge 1883.
HUNDRED ROLLS (for Cambridge).---- _Rotuli Hundredorum, temp. Hen. III.
et Edw. I. in Turr. Lond. &c. asservati._
Record Commission. 1812-1818.
LOGGAN, DAVID, _S.P.D._---- Cantabrigia Illustrata.
1690.
Containing the University costumes of the xvii century.
MASTERS--LAMB.---- History of the College of Corpus Christi in the
University of Cambridge. (With additional matter & a continuation to the
present time, by John Lamb.)
Cambridge 1831.
“MIND,” a quarterly review of Psychology & Philosophy. Vol. i.
Williams & Norgate 1876.
MULLINGER, J. BASS.---- History of the University of Cambridge from the
earliest times to the Royal Injunctions of 1535.
University Press 1874.
MULLINGER, J. BASS.---- History of the University of Cambridge from the
Royal Injunctions of 1535 to the Accession of Charles I.
University Press 1884.
PARKER, MATTHEW.---- Academiae Historia Cantabrigiensis.
PARKER, RICHARD, _B.D._, fellow of Caius (1622).---- History &
Antiquities of the University of Cambridge.
London, printed at the Hat & Star, 1721.
PEACOCK, GEORGE, _D.D._, Dean of Ely, _V.P.R.S._---- Observations on the
Statutes of the University of Cambridge.
London & Cambridge 1841.
PEACOCK, GEORGE, _D.D._, Dean of Ely, _V.P.R.S._---- Appendix to
Observations on the University Statutes.
1841.
SEARLE, W. G.---- Ingulf & the Historia Croylandensis--an investigation
attempted. Camb. Ant. Soc. Pub. xxvii.
Cambridge 1894.
STOKYS, MATTHEW, & JOHN BUCK.---- The Bedells’ Books.
In Cole MSS. & in Peacock.
TAYLOR, RICHARD.---- Index Monasticus. The Abbeys & other Monasteries
formerly established in the diocese of Norwich & kingdom of East Anglia.
London 1821.
THOMPSON, ALEXANDER HAMILTON.---- Cambridge & its Colleges. Illustrated
by E. H. New. (Little Library.)
1898.
TULLOCH, PRINCIPAL.---- Rational Theology in England in the xvii
Century. 2 vols.
1872.
VENN, JOHN, _Sc.D._, _F.R.S._---- Biographical History of Gonville &
Caius College (1349-1897). 3 vols.
Cambridge 1897-1902.
WILLIS, ROBERT, and CLARK, J. W.---- The Architectural History of the
University of Cambridge & of the Colleges of Cambridge & Eton. 4 vols.
University Press 1886.
WORDSWORTH, CHRISTOPHER, fellow of Peterhouse.---- Scholae Academicae.
University Press 1877.
WORDSWORTH, CHRISTOPHER---- Social Life at the English Universities in
the xviii Century.
Cambridge 1874.
To the above must be added the College Histories, published by F.
E. Robinson London.
Peterhouse (Walker) 1906.
Clare (Wardale) 1899.
Gonville and Caius (Venn) 1901.
Trinity Hall (Malden) 1902.
Corpus Christi (Stokes) 1898.
King’s (Austen Leigh) 1899.
Queens’ (J. H. Gray) 1899.
S. Catherine’s (Bp. of Bristol) 1902.
Jesus (A. Gray) 1902.
Christ’s (Peile) 1900.
S. John’s (Mullinger) 1901.
Magdalene (Preston) 1904.
Emmanuel (Shuckburgh) 1904.
Sidney (Edwards) 1899.
Downing (Pettit Stevens) 1899.
No complete bibliography of the subject--of the MSS. or printed
matter--has been attempted. The above is a list of some Cambridge
documents and books most of which have been consulted personally by
the writer of the present volume.
CAMBRIDGE
CHAPTER I
THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
I. _pp._ 1-30.
The northern schools--legends--the town--the river--the fen
monasteries--the school of glomery--the religious orders--the
jurisdiction of Ely--the clerk and the religious.
In Saxon times our schools of learning were grouped round York the Roman
centre of Britain, which represented not only the Roman tradition but
the vigorous Christianity of the north. It is this auspicious
combination which nourished for over a hundred years the university
spirit before universities, carried through Alcuin this spirit to the
Continent, and eventually brought learning hand in hand with
Christianity to Germany. Whatever may be true as to the distribution of
talent in England later in its history, in the vii and viii centuries
our great school was to be found at York, and England’s learned men
hailed from the kingdom of Northumbria.
[Sidenote: The School of York.
York and Rome.]
[Sidenote: A.D. 657.]
The School of York originated in the school established by Hild for the
Celtic clan community over which she presided; and Caedmon the first
English poet, John of Beverley, Wilfrid of York, Bede the father of
English learning, and the scholar Alcuin who has been called “minister
of Public Instruction to Charlemagne” were the noble fruit it put forth.
[Sidenote: A.D. 664.]
Its history was determined at the Synod of Whitby where Hild appears as
the link between the Celtic Aidan and the Roman Wilfrid, a
representative figure of the genius of English religion. She had been
baptized by Paulinus but her sympathies were with the Scottish Church.
The victory of Wilfrid did not destroy that dual character of English
Christianity which accompanied its mind and its liturgy to the last days
of the religious domination of Rome in the realm; but through this
victory York again entered the hegemony of Latin civilisation, was bound
afresh to the overshadowing tradition of Rome, and thenceforth sealed
with an European character its schools of learning.
[Sidenote: York and Canterbury.]
And through York Rome again takes possession of England. In the vii
century Christianity in Kent had ceased to be the Christianity of
Augustine; with the fall of Edwin Northumbria forgot the Christianity of
Paulinus; but the immediate result of the Roman victory at York was the
mission of Theodore to Canterbury, where the episcopal school he
inaugurated shared the honours though it never rivalled the learning of
the School of York.
[Sidenote: York and Cambridge.]
The legends which relate that Bede came to study at Cambridge in 682,
that Alcuin was one of its first doctors in theology, and that Alfred of
Beverley, “the Treasurer,” studied there, legends already known in the
time of Chaucer, symbolise the spiritual relationship between the School
of York and Cambridge. Those large elements which had operated at
York--that combination of the shaping power of Rome with the insular
force of Angle, Celt, and Saxon--had in them the promise of the English
genius and the English character; and one seems to trace the same wide
tradition, the operation of similarly large elements, in the future seat
of learning at Cambridge. The university of Chaucer, Spenser, and
Milton, of Fox, Fisher, and Langton, of Ascham, Bacon, Newton, Whewell,
and Lightfoot, may well be regarded as the spiritual descendant of the
School which first held the torch of English learning never again to be
entirely extinguished in this country.[1]
[Sidenote: Early legends of the origin of Cambridge.]
Further down, in the east of England, there in fact existed a still
earlier school than the schools at York, established in 635 by Siegebert
king of East Anglia. The site of this school was very probably Seaham or
Dunwich; but legend connects it with Cambridge, and the memory of King
Siegebert is kept green in the annual commemorations of the
university.[2] A legend referring to the same period connects Cambridge
with Canterbury. According to this, Ethelbert of Kent by the command of
Gregory the Great assigned a residence at Cambridge for some learned men
from “the village of Canterbury” (598-604).
Legend also relates that Edward the Elder founded the Cambridge schools
[Sidenote: A.D. 910.]
when he was repairing the ravages of the Danes in East Anglia, and gave
to them a charter of incorporation.
The fact not only that the neighbourhood of Cambridge, like Canterbury
and York, was the site of an early Anglo-Saxon school, but that
Cambridge was itself a Roman station, gave rise in its turn to another
legend of the origin of the university. According to this it was founded
by Cantaber the son-in-law of King Gurgentius and brother of Partholin
the Spanish king of Ireland, who gave his name to it, a name, no doubt,
formed from the _Cantabri_, the Spanish auxiliaries mentioned by Caesar.
Lydgate’s panegyric of the university shows us that a tradition of its
antiquity made up of both Roman and School of York elements received
credence in the xiv century; nay, remembering that Cambridge had been a
Roman town, men found no difficulty in supposing that Caesar had carried
off a supply of Cambridge dons to the capital of the world.
[Illustration: NORMAN CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE
Believed to be the oldest of the four round Churches in England, built
about 1120-40.]
[Sidenote: The town of Cambridge.]
The Roman fortress lay on the left bank of the river, at the hamlet of
Grantchester (_Granta_, _castrum_); the town of Cambridge proper, on the
same bank, being called _Grantabrigge_. Here it was that William the
Conqueror’s castle was built on the site of a British earthwork still
known as Castle Mound, and here British as well as Roman coins and other
Roman remains have been discovered. The British town of Cair-Graunth has
been identified with both sites; while the Roman station marked in Saxon
maps as _Camboritum_ or _Camboricum_ has hitherto been confounded with
the site of the Norman fortress. We do not know where Camboricum was,
but we no longer identify it with Cambridge.[3]
In the time of Bede, and earlier, Grantchester was a desolate ruin,[4]
but Grantabridge was a place of some importance at the time of the
Domesday survey, and we find that nearly thirty of its four hundred
houses were destroyed to make room for William’s castle.[5] The town
which is still called Grantabridge in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in
Domesday, and in Henry I.’s charter, becomes Cantebruge before the
middle of the xii century, and Cantebrigge in Chaucer.[6]
[Sidenote: Roman roads.]
Two great Roman roads met near the Castle Mound, the one being the only
way across the pathless fens, running from the coast of Norfolk through
Ely to Cambridge and thence on to Cirencester and Bath; the other--_via
Devana_--was the great highway (along the site of the present Huntingdon
road) which led from Cambridge out of the fen country, stretching from
Chester[7] on the north-west to Colchester on the south-east. This road
crossed the only high ground in the flat country round Cambridge--the
low range of hills called the Gogmagogs and Castle Mound itself.
[Sidenote: The river.]
The river Granta gave its name to the British and Roman towns
(Cair-Graunth, Grantchester), to the university city, and to the whole
shire. The Granta or Cam, for it is now called by both names, is made by
the confluence of two small streams which meet beyond Grantchester; the
eastern branch, the Granta, rising in Cambridgeshire, the western, the
Rhee, in Hertfordshire. What other river in England can boast that it
has been celebrated by our poets in every age? For Milton it is _Camus_,
for Byron _Granta_, both names serve the muse of Gray; it is
Wordsworth’s _Cam_, but Spenser calls it _Guant_, and also _Ouse_, the
name it takes before reaching Ely, although the waters of the “plenteous
Ouse” join the Granta much lower down.[8]
[Sidenote: The ford.]
The important thing about the river, which determined the history of the
town on its banks, was that between Grantabridge and Grantchester it was
fordable, and here only could it be traversed by those going to and from
the east of England and the Midlands. Near Trumpington, indeed, a part
of the Via Devana had been carried by the Romans right through the
water.[9]
In the ix century the province of Cambridge--the _Flavia Caesariensis_
of the Romans--formed part of the Danelagh.[10] Throughout the middle
ages, writes Mr. J. W. Clark, the town “was a frontier fortress on the
edge of the great wild ... which stretched as far as the Wash”: and no
place suffered more from invasion and fire. The Danes completely
destroyed it in 870, after the capture of York; and the fortunes of the
two cities were again linked two hundred years later when William, fresh
from the reduction of the northern capital, turned
[Sidenote: A.D. 1068-1070.]
his steps to Cambridge and made it the centre of his operations against
the outstanding isle of Ely. A second destruction at the hands of the
Danes occurred in 1010, and in 1088 Cambridge was again devastated with
the rest of Cambridgeshire by Robert Curthose. This, however, led to a
vigorous re-instatement of the city by Henry I. who showed it many marks
of favour.
[Sidenote: A.D. 1102.]
In the second year of his reign he ordered the townsmen to pay their
dues to the bedells, and about this time the ferry which had hitherto
been “a vagrant ... even anywhere where passengers could get waftage
over,”[11] was established at Cambridge, bringing traffic in its train.
In 1106 the first signs of returning prosperity were seen in the
settlement of the Jews. The Cambridge Jewry was near the market-place,
and the Cambridge Jews were noted for their “civil carriage,” none of
the customary outrageous charges
[Sidenote: A.D. 1118.]
being brought against them there.[12] Twelve years later, the king gave
a charter to the burgesses.
Cambridge was at no period of its history a great or even a prosperous
commercial centre. East Anglia has always been a corner of England to
itself, not on the direct line to anywhere, and offering very few points
of vantage to the statesman or the merchant. The course of a river
determines the history of a town, as it first determines its site. This
is well exemplified in the histories of the Granta and the “Isis.” The
“Isis” is a reach of the Thames,[13] and this fact with its moral
political and commercial implications has coloured the whole history of
the town on its banks--everything came to Oxford by the river from
London, and dignified alderman or humble bargeman shared with the lesser
centre the life of the greater. The Granta and Ouse have a history in
every sense the opposite of this. Through the centuries, long before
Oxford was a town at all,[14] the sounds we hear are the thud of the
Ely barge as it strikes the bank of deserted Grantchester, and
Sexberga’s messengers borrow from the neighbourhood of the future
university the sepulture for the founder of Ely--the gift of a
civilisation still older than hers.[15] Or, three hundred and fifty
years later, the chant of the Ely monks is wafted out upon the water as
Canute bids his men rest a moment on their oars to listen
Merrily sang the monks of Ely when Canute the king rowed by.
The convent messenger, the Danish king, the Norman conqueror, may come
up the water, but they make the stir they find, and the river leaves no
trace behind them.
So the university town owes nothing to adventitious causes; makes no bid
for public favour, and has no tentacles to put forth to obtain it. But
the river has, nevertheless, determined its activities as well as its
reticences. It will give rise to a fair, and Stourbridge fair will
become one of the greatest fairs in the kingdom. The fish market was
another source of traffic. Ely and Cambridge fish were celebrated--Bede,
indeed, derives “Ely” from the abundance of its eels, although _helyg_
(the willow) seems the more
[Illustration: MARKET SQUARE
This picture represents what is called Half Market, which takes place on
Wednesday. Market day, properly speaking, is on Saturday, when the
square is filled with stalls. The church is Great St. Mary’s, and King’s
College Chapel is seen in the distance on the left.]
probable original.[16] The kings of England patronised this market,
Henry III. sending for his fish to Cambridge even when he was staying at
Oxford; and Chaucer is careful to note that the Cambridge miller was an
angler, skilled in mending his nets.[17] The isle of Ely, so-called
because cut off by river and mere from the rest of Cambridgeshire, was
proverbial for the turbulence of its population, and the men of Ely drew
the men of Cambridge into their quarrels, or harried them on their own
account. Cambridge Castle was built as an outpost against the English
earls who with Hereward resisted the Conqueror at Ely; it was at Ely
that another determined stand was made by Simon de Montfort’s followers
after Cambridge had been regained for John; and Henry III. had to bring
relief to the university town when its neighbours burnt and plundered it
during the years 1266-1270. The two centres were inseparable for weal or
woe, and the intellectual as well as the political life of Cambridge was
coloured for centuries by the activities of its neighbour.
[Sidenote: The fen monasteries.]
The proximity of the great fen monasteries must be reckoned as the chief
factor in the earlier scholastic--the pre-university--history of
Cambridge. Ely, Crowland, Bury-St.-Edmund’s and Peterborough were among
the most important and the most ancient religious houses in the country.
Crowland and Bury both had abbey schools influenced, as we shall see, in
the early xii century by the famous school at Orléans; Ely had besides
an episcopal school, and as monastery, school, and cathedral, was in
constant domestic relations with her neighbour of Cambridge.[18]
[Sidenote: Crowland.]
Among these famous houses, surrounded by undrained marshes, like
islands, forbidding and yet inviting access, none was more isolated than
Crowland which, reared as Venice upon piles and stakes driven into the
marshy ground, shone like a beacon out of the mysterious silence and
solitude.
[Sidenote: A.D. 1109.]
The story that abbot Joffred of Crowland sent four Orléans monks full of
new learning to his Cambridge manor of Cottenham[19] early in the xii
century, who held disputations in a large barn, has been shown to be
entirely legendary. Yet the moment chosen by the self-styled continuator
of Ingulph is singularly felicitous.[20] We know nothing of any sources
of information which may have been open to a xiv century forger; but it
is certain that some such scholastic movements were fermenting in
Cambridge in the xii century. Joffred had been prior at Orléans which
was a flourishing school, and we have evidence that this school actually
influenced the university of Cambridge. The abbey house of Crowland was
burnt in 1091 and the rebuilding was not undertaken till 1113. It was
likely enough that the abbot should look out for something for his
learned monks to do, and should make use of an outlying manor near to
such a centre as Cambridge as a promising field for activities
restricted through the disaster to his house. Moreover the energies of
the lecturers, we are told, were directed against Jewish doctrines, and
the Jews, as we have seen, had come to Cambridge three years before. The
town was rising in prosperity, and the charter of 1118 points to the
conclusion that people and trade had been attracted to it since Henry’s
first rescript sixteen years earlier.[21]
Whether among those attracted to Cambridge we are to count the large
influx of scholars who are said to have listened to the Crowland monks,
or not, it is certain that Cambridge became once more in 1174 the
[Sidenote: A.D. 1174.]
theatre of great disaster, and a destructive fire was only stayed when
it could find no more fuel to feed it.[22]
[Sidenote: The school of glomery.]
_Soi-disant_ Peter of Blois declares that the monks when they set about
teaching “took the university of Orléans for their pattern.”[23] The
earliest school we come across at Cambridge is a “school of glomery”
under the patronage of the bishops of Ely. The archdeacon of Ely
nominated the “master of the glomerels” and one of the chief acts of
Hugh de Balsham was to limit the authority which the archdeaconry had
thus come indirectly to exercise in university matters. From
thenceforward the master of glomery is to have the same authority to
compose disputes between glomerels as other regent masters had towards
their scholars; but in disputes with scholars or with townsmen as to
lodgings or in grave matters affecting the jurisdiction of the
university, the glomerels were to plead before the chancellor. There
were thus two classes of students in the early days at Cambridge,
‘glomerels’ and ‘scholars.’ The former were subject to the _magister
glomeriae_ who in his turn was subject to the archdeacon of Ely; the
latter had grown up under the aegis of the regent masters and
chancellor.
Now the school of glomery was nothing else than the time-honoured
Cambridge school of grammar.[24] The word has been for centuries a
local term known only here, and it is therefore the more interesting to
find that the students of Orléans were called ‘glomerel clerks’ (_clers
glomeriaus_) and that they resisted the invasion of their grammar
schools by Aristotle’s logic in the xiii century.
Paris et Orliens ce sont ij:
C’est granz domages et granz deuls
Que li uns à l’autre n’acorde.
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.[25]
There were also ‘glomerels’ at Bury-St.-Edmund’s and Abbot Sampson’s
doings as regards the grammar school there in the xii century bear a
strong resemblance to Balsham’s doings at Cambridge in the xiiith.[26]
The persistence of the glomery school at Cambridge and the equally
remarkable persistence of this school at Orléans goes far to justify the
conjecture that it was Orléans which influenced Cambridge, not Paris:
for Crowland had certainly been influenced by the same school, and
Cambridge and Bury were both familiar with ‘glomerels’; the former under
the jurisdiction of the diocesan the latter under that of the abbot.[27]
[Sidenote: The religious orders. The canons.]
Cambridge presents us with an excellent example of the relations which
secular and religious learning bore to one another in the foundation of
universities. Ecclesiastically it was of no importance whatever; it was
not the seat of a bishop nor the fief of abbot or prior--the one
monastic house was the nunnery of S. Rhadegund, founded before the
middle of the xii century--and at no time in
[Illustration: THE OLD GATEWAY OF KING’S COLLEGE
This gateway now forms the entrance to the Library from Trinity Lane.
The North door of King’s Chapel is seen in the distance.]
its history was the fate of the university determined by the learning of
the cloister or its fortune raised by a doctrine of the schools. Ely,
the outside influence which played the largest rôle, introduced no
monastic elements, and within Cambridge itself the communities which had
most part in its development were the canons, and canons always
represented a half-way house between clerk and monk. If their
contribution to European learning be altogether inferior to that of the
Benedictine, they at no time showed any desire to impose a tradition or
to stamp with their own hall mark the scholars who willingly attached
themselves to canonical houses. The earliest community of canons in
Cambridge was founded by a Norman, Hugolina wife to Picot Sheriff of the
county, in 1092, in gratitude for her recovery from sickness.
[Sidenote: A.D. 1092]
It was a foundation for six secular canons serving her church of S.
Giles by the Castle, and the little community was transformed, twenty
years later, by
[Sidenote: A.D. 1112.]
another Norman, Pain Peverel standard-bearer to the Duke of Normandy,
into the Canons Regular of Barnwell under the rule of S. Augustine.[28]
The six canons became thirty, and Barnwell Priory, on the other side of
the river, became a house of considerable importance, and gave
hospitality to Richard II. during the Cambridge parliament of 1388. It
continued to exist till the Suppression. About 1135 a second canons’
house was established on the present site of S. John’s College. This was
a hospital, or travellers’ hospice, designed by a Cambridge burgess,
Henry Frost, who gave the plot of land and endowed “a master and poor
brethren of the rule of S. Austin” to dispense the charity of the
house.[29] If the Barnwell canons of S. Giles were among the earliest
friends of the scholars, the canons of the hospice of S. John were to
play the most important part in their history.[30] S. John’s and the
other xii century foundation of S. Rhadegund were dissolved under
similar circumstances within thirteen years of one another, the latter
in 1497 the former in 1510.[31]
[Sidenote: The Gilbertine canons of Sempringham.]
There was a third community of Canons Regular at Cambridge. The
Lincolnshire community founded by S. Gilbert of Sempringham in the xii
century settled near Peterhouse in 1291. Their hostel “S. Edmund’s” took
its name from the old chapel dedicated to the martyr-king enshrined at
Bury-St.-Edmund’s, and a licence of Edward III.’s permitting the canons
to acquire houses and lands in the town styles them “the Prior and
Canons of the chapel of S. Edmund.” We hear of these possessions early
in the xiv century when (in 1417) the Prior of S. Edmund’s leases land;
and again in 1474 when the community sell land to William Bassett. Of
the 26 houses of this Order--the only Order of English origin--there
were two in the isle of Ely,[32] while a fourth was established near
Hitchin. The Barnwell Memoranda announcing their arrival in Cambridge
[Sidenote: A.D. 1291.]
say: “The canons of Sempringham first came to dwell at the chapel of S.
Edmund, and earnestly set about hearing lectures and attending
disputations.”
[Sidenote: Friars. Carmelites.]
The four orders of friars were all represented in Cambridge, and all
settled there in the course of the xiii century. The Carmelites or
Whitefriars were the first to arrive, settling in 1200 at
[Sidenote: A.D. 1249.]
Chesterton near the town, then at Newnham, and finally in Mill Street
(1291). For nearly a hundred years the Carmelites took no part in the
academic life of Cambridge. They refused to graduate, and showed no
desire to display the insignia of a secular doctorate over the
peculiarly sacred habit of their Order. It was, indeed, at Cambridge
that S. Simon Stock had had, in 1251, his vision of the Blessed Virgin,
and had received from her hands the celebrated “scapular of Our Lady of
Mount Carmel”; and it was not till forty years after this that the
Carmelite Humphrey Necton, at the urgent instance of the then chancellor
of the university, consented to take the degree of Doctor in
Theology.[33] In the reign of Richard II. this was the richest religious
house in Cambridge, and Edmund Langley Earl of Cambridge and Courtney
Archbishop of Canterbury lodged there during the parliament of 1388. The
Cambridge Carmelites put forth several eminent men: Bale, the historian,
had been a Carmelite at Norwich before proceeding to the university;
Walter Diss, a zealous opponent of the Lollards, was confessor to that
friend of Cambridge John of Gaunt; Nicholas Cantilupe (1441) wrote the
_Historiola Cantabrigiae_,[34] and friar Nicholas Kenton was chancellor
of the university as late as the middle of the xv century.
[Sidenote: Franciscans.]
The Franciscans, or Greyfriars, came to Cambridge soon after their
arrival in England, and during the lifetime of S. Francis. Among the
nine friars who landed in 1224 there were three Englishmen, Richard
Ingworth (the only friar in priest’s orders), who was accompanied
probably by another East Anglian, and by Richard of Devon. This East
Anglian element among the first Franciscans is noteworthy, for the first
Franciscan readers in divinity at both universities hailed from our
Eastern counties. The Cambridge burgesses established the friars at the
Jewish synagogue next to the prison.[35] These uncomfortable quarters
were exchanged later for a site in the present Sidney Street, where
Edward I. built them a friary. Here they took part and share in the life
of the university: the novices and younger brethren studied and
graduated, the elder taught; while the church of the Franciscans, which
was one of the finest buildings in the town, served the purposes of a
university church before the rebuilding of Great S. Mary’s.
[Sidenote: Dominicans.]
The Dominicans, or Blackfriars, did not reach Cambridge till about the
last quarter of the xiii century,[36] fifty years after the Franciscans.
A strange destiny decreed that a house which had once been under the
patronage of the seraphic Francis should nurture Oliver Cromwell and
become the first Protestant college; and that the house of “the Lord’s
Watchdogs” (_Dominicanes_) should become the front and centre of
Puritanism in the university.[37]
[Sidenote: Austinfriars.]
The last to arrive were the Austinfriars, who entered Cambridge in 1290,
at the same time as the Sempringham canons, just as the first Carmelite
took his university degree, and as the Jews were expelled from the town.
The priory was behind the present college of Corpus Christi, occupying
part of the site of the Botanical Gardens, where the new museums now
stand. Here was nurtured Miles Coverdale whose reforming principles were
imbibed from its prior Barnes afterwards burned as a heretic.[38] Like
the other Cambridge friars, the Austinfriars were dissolved at the
Reformation.[39]
[Sidenote: Other friars at Cambridge.]
There were other friars in Cambridge. The friars of the Sack[40] or _De
poenitentia Jesu_, were established in S. Mary’s parish in 1291, then
in the parish of S. Peter. This was one of the spurious orders of
Franciscans suppressed, as a result of the Council of Lyons, in 1307.
The Barnwell Chartulary, however, has recorded for us that “these
brethren of the Sack gathered together many scholars and good, and
multiplied exceedingly until the time of the Council of Lyons.”
[Sidenote: Other religious houses at Cambridge.]
The Bethlemite friars came over here in 1257, and appear to have had
only one house in England, that in Trumpington Street.[41]
Our-Lady-friars (_Fratres de Domina_) are first heard of about thirty
years later (1288). They were settled near the castle (and are hence
called in the Barnwell Chartulary: _Fratres beatae Mariae ad Castrum_)
and are only heard of at Cambridge and at Norwich where they arrived
before 1290 and were there established at the time of the plague.[42]
The Cambridge burgesses had an ancient leper hospital at Stourbridge,
under the dedication of “S. Mary Magdalene for lepers.” In the closing
years of the xiv century Henry Tangmer, alderman of the Guild of Corpus
Christi, founded the Hermitage of S. Anne and Hospital of Lazars. About
the same time (1395) the Benedictine nuns of S. Leonard of
Stratford-le-Bowe granted a curtilage in Scholars’ Lane to the
university.[43] The Priories of Anglesey S. John of Jerusalem and Tyltey
and the abbeys of Crowland (p. 12) and Denney all held land in
Cambridge.
The prior and convent of Anglesey, a Cambridgeshire house of Regular
Canons, owned land here as early as 1278-9, and were of some importance
in the town in the xiv century.[44] The land held by the knights of S.
John was not part of the confiscated Templar property, all of which
escheated to the Order, but was purchased by them early in the reign of
Edward I.[45] It lay in the university centre between Mill Street and
School Street (“Milnestrete alias Seynt Johnstrete”) and was a parcel of
open land on which was their patronal church of S. John Baptist, and
Crouched or S. Crosse’s Hostel.[46] In 1432 William Hulle, preceptor of
Swenefeld, Templecombe, and Quenyngton, and prior of the English Langue,
sold this ground to the university for the schools quadrangle, and the
New Schools of Canon Law were built upon it.[47] The
[Illustration: ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE GATEWAY AND TOWER FROM TRINITY STREET
Trinity Chapel is seen on the left behind the trees.]
knights’ property was on the west of the schools quadrangle, the
property of the nuns of Stratford-le-Bowe on the east. Denney and Tyltey
both owned land on the site of Christ’s Pieces and elsewhere in the xv
century. The former was a Franciscan nunnery founded by Marie de
Chatillon Countess of Pembroke (p. 69) on land which was claimed from
her by the knights of S. John as part of the sequestrated Templar
property. It lay on the borders of the fen between Cambridge and Ely.
The latter was a Cistercian house in Essex.[48]
The rôle reserved for these houses and congregations in the earlier
history of the university was subordinate. By the time that every
Benedictine house was required by the Constitution of Honorius III.
(1216-1227) to send some of its students to the universities, learning
had already passed from the monastery to the university, and the monks’
hostel at Cambridge[49] signalised the change. The part taken by the
friars is not less instructive. The refusal of the Carmelites
(throughout the xiii century) to pursue the academic course is valuable
evidence of the conflict between secular and religious studies at the
rise of the university. The Franciscans were the most important of the
mendicants in England, and as such took a paramount place at both
Cambridge and Oxford; but at the former their action was inconspicuous,
and there is nothing to indicate that they were at any time or in any
sense “nursing fathers” to Cambridge university whatever they may have
been elsewhere.
The moment when they made their appearance was at least as propitious
historically as it had been at Oxford, and the independent growth of
Cambridge, its escape from the intellectual thraldom of that
scholasticism of which the Franciscans were the chief exponents, are
hence doubly significant. The quarrels which arose in the early xiv
century between the officials of the university and the friars prove
that the religious societies which shared its academic life did by no
means act in permanent harmony with it. Thus in 1303 the chancellor
quarrelled with the Franciscans and Dominicans and excommunicated two of
the friars, and later in the century the university had to prohibit
novices in the Cambridge friaries from proceeding to their degrees under
eighteen years of age. Then, as now, the Franciscans were accustomed to
recruit very little lads for the noviciate, all of whom probably
received their education at the public Cambridge schools of grammar and
theology, and might be seen strutting about as full-fledged “masters of
arts before they were masters of themselves.”[50]
Before the xiii century closed--from the date of Hugh de Balsham’s
death--the university ceased to receive any help from monastic learning,
for the monks avoided Cambridge, and even Norwich priory sent its
students to Oxford.[51] Less than a hundred years elapsed, and we find
Gaunt, Pembroke, and Scrope--the court party--opposing the pretensions
and the temporalities of the clergy in the company of Cambridge men.
Pembroke--the representative of the house of Valence[52]--is their
spokesman, and it is Scrope
[Sidenote: A.D. 1371.]
and Sir Robert Thorpe, Master of a Cambridge college, who take the Purse
and the Seals from the hands of their episcopal holders Brantingham and
William of Wykeham. This movement, as Stubbs points out, was independent
of Wyclif’s; and it is remarkable that while William of Wykeham was
influencing Oxford the theories for which he stood were being repulsed
at Cambridge.
[Sidenote: Cambridge and the jurisdiction of Ely.]
There remains the relation of the university to the see of Ely. The
episcopal jurisdiction of Ely in the university did not long survive the
building of colleges. The scholars refused to plead in the archdeacon’s
court, and Balsham upheld them--their statutes already provided as
much.[53] Bishop Montacute also set limits to diocesan authority.[54] In
1317 John XXII. withdrew the university from the spiritual jurisdiction
not only of the diocesan but of the provincial archbishop; but it was
the friction arising from the failure of some of the bishops of Ely to
recognise the spiritual independence of the chancellor which resulted in
the celebrated court held at Barnwell priory at the instance of Martin
V., in 1430, under the presidency of its prior. Two forged bulls of
Honorius and Sergius[55] were cited as vii century evidence of the
spiritual liberties of Cambridge, and the Pope in a third bull set the
question for ever at rest in favour of the university. The solemn
visitation of the colleges which had taken place under the auspices of
Archbishop Arundel in 1401 was probably the result of the temporary
victory obtained by the Primate when the chancellor refused to take an
oath of obedience to him.
The early college statutes were as eager to repel the religious as the
rule of Benedict, the father of western monasticism, was to repel the
clergyman.[56] The statutes of Michaelhouse (1334), the earliest which
have reached us intact, provide that neither monk nor friar should
obtain admittance to the college. The statutes of Peterhouse enact that
no one deciding to enter a religious order can remain on the foundation.
It must at the same time be clearly realised that some of the earliest
colleges were little more than clerical seminaries.[57] What is peculiar
to Cambridge is that there a monk made the earliest attempt to endow
learning for the secular clergy--a monk who was also a bishop, the
ever-memorable Hugh Balsham. The non-monastic direction taken was by no
means as yet an anti-monastic one; but at the rise of both universities,
as soon as scholars were endowed and endowed houses began to be built
for them, the monastic and the academic careers were regarded as
incompatible vocations. It was the separation of the _clerk_ from the
_religious_, the recognition by Balsham of the secular scholar and of an
endowed foundation for such scholars which was neither a religious house
nor an _episcopia_, that transformed a more or less fortuitous concourse
of students and teachers--a mere amplification, as at Oxford, of the
school system of other great centres--into a chartered corporation of
scholars--a university.[58]
II
School and university--Stourbridge fair--the university in the xiii
century--Foundation of endowed scholars--hostels.
Both our universities doubtless count a school life of eight centuries
at least: but a school life, the activity of teachers and scholars, is
not the same thing as a university life. We have already said that
Oxford owed its history to the constant communication between it and
London, to its accessibility from the capital which made it the frequent
resort not only of our kings but, what is more to our purpose, of
scholars European and English.[59] The ferment created by their lectures
no doubt kept alive the desire for knowledge and the spirit of enquiry
among the motley population of the town; a moral atmosphere which in
its turn attracted students. At Cambridge everything was the opposite of
this. S. Frideswide’s at Oxford was a poor religious house, but it was
in the heart of the town; the monastery at Ely was a great religious
house, but its school was many miles from the university. Cambridge, as
we have seen, was accessible to no great centre, there was nothing to
attract the traveller who if he visited it almost certainly went out of
his way to do so. Nevertheless some influences were at work in the xii
century which determined the transformation of Cambridge into a _studium
generale_, a university. The river near the town, as I have already
said, gave rise to one of the greatest fairs in England, and Mr. J. W.
Clark is disposed to see in the concourse of people brought together by
Stourbridge fair the determining factor in our university history. The
fair was called after the Stour a stream lower down the river, and was
held in a large cornfield near Barnwell. It began on the feast of S.
Bartholomew, August 24, and lasted till the fourteenth day after the
feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (September 14). These five weeks of
revelry proved more disturbing to Cambridge studies than the May term of
to-day; xiii century scholars spent their money at Stourbridge fair as
Isaac Newton spent his in the xviith; there he acquired his prism in
August 1661 and a book on “Judicial Astrology” the geometry and
trigonometry of which were then as ‘Greek’ to him. Sea-borne goods which
had probably always been brought inland up the river to this point,
formed the nucleus of the fair at Stourbridge. It is generally agreed
that three other English fairs exceeded the Cambridge fair in
importance, those at Bristol, Bartholomew’s in London, and Lynton. Defoe
however describes it as the largest in Europe, greater than that at
Nuremberg or than the Frankfort mart. It
[Sidenote: A.D. 1211.]
was already highly prosperous when King John made over its dues to the
leper hospice of S. Mary Magdalene; and it has been suggested that this
was the ancient fair to which Irish merchants brought their cloth in the
time of Athelstan.
Why so uncommercial a district became the site of one of the greatest
fairs in Europe, and why a _studium generale_ became established there,
are problems both of which we cannot resolve. There always remains at
the bottom some virtue in the apparently unpropitious city on the banks
of the Granta which as an Italian would say _fece da sè_. But Mr. J. W.
Clark’s suggestion has at least placed the two problems in
juxtaposition: the growing importance of the schools and the growing
importance of the fair both meet us in the opening lustres of the xiii
century; the fair, that is, has its roots in the preceding century when
the fate of the embryo seat of learning lay in the balance. How should a
fair, how should an extraordinary concourse of people, help to
consolidate a university? Simply because this was the age of peripatetic
teaching, because it was the custom all through the middle ages for
wandering scholars to find themselves where men gathered together, and
to claim for a theorem of Roscellinus or a doctrine from Araby brought
by the crusaders the ear of a crowd which had just been entertained by
the Norman jongleur.
[Sidenote: Earliest references to Cambridge university.]
Our first glimpse of the Cambridge schools shows us an immigration of
the scholars of one university to the other. In 1209,
[Sidenote: A.D. 1209 10th of John.]
in consequence of an unjust retaliation upon the students, Oxford was
depleted and its scholars found their way to Cambridge.[60] Nine years
later we have a rescript of Henry III.’s (1218) ordering all those
clerks
[Sidenote: A.D. 1218 2nd of Henry III.]
who had adhered to Louis to depart the realm. In the eleven years which
elapsed between this and 1229 the Franciscans had established themselves
at Cambridge, and in that year as a result of Henry’s invitation to
[Sidenote: A.D. 1229 13th of Henry III.]
Paris students to settle in England there was a considerable influx or
foreigners to the university, the echo of which may be traced in two
interesting rescripts of the year 1231. In one of these the king charges
the mayor
[Sidenote: A.D. 1231 15th of Henry III.]
and bailiffs of the town to deal fairly with members of the university
in the matter or lodgings, and enjoins them to establish according to
“university custom” two masters and two liegemen of the town to act as
“taxors.”[61] Dating the rescript from Oxford on the third day of May
the king writes: “It is already sufficiently known to you that a
multitude of scholars has gathered to our town of Cambridge, for the
sake of study, both from the regions near home and from beyond the seas;
the which is most grateful and acceptable to us, because it gives an
example of no small convenience to our whole realm, and our honour is
thereby increased; and you especially, among whom these students are
loyally dwelling should feel it matter of no little gratulation and
rejoicing.”[62] In the second rescript, dated from Oxford on the same
day, the king enjoins that no clerk shall live in the town (_quod nullus
clericus moretur in villa_) who is not under a _magister scholarum_.[63]
[Sidenote: Charters and Bulls. Charter of Hen. III. A.D. 1231. Bull of
John XXII. A.D. 1317.]
These letters patent addressed to the mayor and burgesses of the town by
Henry III. in 1231 are the earliest existing document which can be
regarded in the light of a university charter.[64] At the same time it
appears by no means certain that royal letters had not been addressed
earlier to Cambridge in which the
[Illustration: ORIEL WINDOW OF THE HALL, TRINITY GREAT COURT
In the nearer part of the picture is the Master’s Lodge, and in the far
distance two turrets of King’s Chapel stand up against the evening
sky.]
academic society there was treated as a moral entity. In the following
reign the jury of Cambridge made oath to the effect that “the Chancellor
and Masters of the university had appropriated to themselves more ample
liberties than were warranted in the charters granted them by the king’s
predecessors”;[65] and in the same way when, at the request of Edward
II., John XXII. erects Cambridge into a _studium generale_ in the second
year of his pontificate, he reaffirms and confirms the privileges with
which his predecessors in the apostolic chair and the English kings had
adorned the university: _omnia privilegia et indulta praedicto studio
... a pontificibus et regibus praedictis concessa_.[66] In this
instrument he refers to Cambridge university as _studium ab olim ibi
ordinatum_, “the university from old time there established.” Cambridge
and Oxford, however, like the earliest centres of learning in Italy and
France--Bologna and Paris--_grew into universities_; papal
authorisations follow instead of preceding their institution. In other
cases universities were definite creations which make their first
appearance with a bull of institution and inauguration attached to
them.[67]
Henry III.’s writs in behalf of Cambridge begin in the second and cover
the fifty years of his reign. In the 45th and again in the 50th year he
repeats and confirms his previous rescripts. The scholastic prosperity
of Cambridge dates from this reign as its civil prosperity dates from
that of Henry I.; and the traditions that Cambridge was Beauclerk’s
_alma mater_ and that Henry V. was a student at Oxford probably both
derive from the signal favours shown to the two by these monarchs
respectively.[68] Cambridge however was greatly reduced in the reign of
John, especially about the year 1214 in spite of the recent immigration
from Oxford.
[Sidenote: The Henrys and the Edwards.]
But from the accession of Henry III. onwards the university city became
the special care of the Henrys and the Edwards. Edward I., while still
Prince of Wales, visited the town in 1254 and undertook the
pacification of the quarrels in which scholars and townsmen were
engaged.[69] A document sealed with his own seal and those of the
university and the borough ordained that henceforth 13 scholars and 10
burgesses should be chosen to represent the interests of both parties.
Five of the former were to be Englishmen, 3 Scotchmen, 3 Irishmen, and 2
from Wales. The proportions are interesting.[70] It was soon after
Edward’s accession that the refusal of Cambridge
[Sidenote: 4th Edw. I. A.D. 1276.]
students to obey summonses to the archidiaconal courts led to Balsham’s
judicious settlement of the point.[71]
Edward II. continued the interest shown in Cambridge by his father and
grandfather; not only obtaining for it the status of a _studium
generale_ but maintaining a group of scholars there at his own
[Sidenote: A.D. 1317.]
charges--“king’s scholars” who were to rank with Ely and Merton scholars
in historical importance. The favour shown to the university by the
magnificent king his son was perhaps the one instance in which he took
pains to fulfil the intentions of his murdered father.[72]
[Sidenote: Foundation of endowed scholars. Hugh de Balsham]
In the long reign of Henry III., in the year 1257, Hugh de Balsham,[73]
subprior of Ely, was made tenth bishop of the diocese; and it was then
that he placed and endowed at S. John’s hospital a group of secular
students known as “Ely scholars,” who were the object of his anxious
care until his death in 1286. His scheme and its results are described
in the next chapter.[74] At this time there were no endowed houses at
Cambridge, no school buildings, no endowed scholars.[75] It was some
thirty years after the arrival of the Franciscans, the Carmelites had as
yet taken no part in the academic life, and many years were to elapse
before the Dominicans made their appearance. It was fifty years since
the Oxford immigration, and thirty since the king had invited over the
students from Paris. The distinction that was now made between the
clerk-canon, or the clerk-friar, and the scholar in arts or theology who
would remain a secular, converted, as we have said, the university
corporation into something more--a _studium generale_, and led, as we
shall see, to the building of the first endowed colleges.
[Sidenote: Walter de Merton.]
Contemporaneously with Balsham there lived and toiled another college
legislator, Walter de Merton, Chancellor of England and afterwards
Bishop of Rochester. His prime importance in developing the collegiate
conception will be seen in the next chapter; here we are concerned with
him as a founder of endowed scholars. Merton had eight nephews to
educate, and he set about designing an academic scheme the far-reaching
effects of which endure to this day, although the steps of the scheme
are involved in an obscurity which responds to his own hesitations. He
first assigned his manor of Malden,
[Sidenote: A.D. 1264.]
adjoining Merton in Surrey, as a chef-lieu and endowment for “poor
scholars in the schools” who are living under a code of rules prescribed
by himself. During the next five years he acquired lands both in
Cambridge and Oxford; his chief acquisition at the former being in 1269,
when he purchased an estate lying under the shadow of the Conqueror’s
castle which included the Norman manor house known as the School of
Pythagoras. This property had been in the possession of the Dunnings
since the Conquest, and was afterwards known as the Merton estate. In
the same year William de Manfield, who held a mortgage on this property,
states that he had given his lands in Cambridge to the house, scholars,
and brethren of Merton--_domui et scholaribus et fratribus de
Merton_.[76] Meanwhile Walter de Merton had been buying land at
Oxford,[77] and in 1274 he definitely moved the hall at Malden and
refounded it as Merton College in the sister university; the formula
hitherto maintained in his charters and statutes (see ii. p. 68) being
now changed, and “poor scholars who are studying at Oxford or elsewhere
where a _studium generale_ exists” (_Oxoniae, aut alibi, ubi studium
viget generale_) becomes “who are studying at Oxford where there is a
university” (_Oxoniae ubi universitas viget studentium_).
The scheme thus crowned in 1274 had had its birth twelve years before
when in 1262 Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester allowed the manor of
Malden to be assigned to the Austin priory of Merton or to some other
religious house for the sustenance of _clerici in scholis degentes_
(poor clerks in the schools) who were living according to Merton’s
prescriptions.[78] This vesting of endowments in a religious house was
already familiar at both universities. The Bishop of Ely (Kilkenny) had
vested his exhibitions for divinity students in the prior of Barnwell in
1256, and it appears that this was Merton’s first intention. Two years
later, however, we find him assigning Malden and other manors to his
nephews, the beneficiaries being still described as “poor scholars in
the schools.”
Any scholars maintained at either university by these endowments were
“Merton scholars.” This is again made perfectly clear when the charter
(and statutes) of 1270 were issued, in which Walter de Merton settles
the Cambridge estates as part of the Malden endowments for “scholars
studying in Oxford or elsewhere.” It was part of his plan to acquire
local endowments at both universities, and also that vast clerical
patronage in the different shires which was obviously destined to ensure
the future of his scholars. This was the scheme eventually concentrated
in the foundation of Merton, Oxford: and when Bishop Hobhouse is
inclined to anticipate the date at which Merton scholars were
established there, we may entirely agree with him, only adding that if
there were certainly Merton scholars at Oxford before 1274, there were
no less certainly Merton scholars at Cambridge also before that date.
Merton’s scholars had their chef-lieu at Malden, but were studying at
these two universities, and possessed endowments at both during the
decade 1264-1274.
The Hundred Rolls furnish us with ample references to the Cambridge
scholars. In the Rolls for the borough and town of Cambridge, the 2nd
year of Edward I., they are accused of poaching on the
[Sidenote: A.D. 1274.]
fishing rights of the townsmen. “A servant of the House of the Merton
scholars[79] had appropriated to his masters’ use a certain foss common
to the whole town.” In the later inquisitions of the 7th of Edward I.
[Sidenote: A.D. 1278-9.]
we find them figuring among the most considerable Cambridge landlords,
one entry showing them to us as purchasers of land from Manfield: _Item
scolares de Merton tenent unum mesuagium cum quadraginta et quinque
acris terre ... quas emerunt de Willelmo de Manefeld_.[80]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1278-9.]
Three of these entries point to tenure of no very recent date. Thus
Eustace Dunning sold to Walter Howe a messuage with a croft which
Eustace had inherited from his father Hervey Dunning, and for which the
Howes, in accordance with an assignment made by Eustace Dunning, gave
twelve pence a year to the clerks of Merton (_per assignationem
praedicti Eustachi clericis de Merton xii^{d}_).[81] The declaration is
made by John son and heir of Walter Howe, so that Eustace Dunning’s
appointment in favour of the
[Sidenote: A.D. 1278-9.]
Merton clerks refers to some time back. Again, Agnes daughter of the
tailor Philip inherited a messuage in the parish of S. Peter which her
father “had held of the Merton scholars.” In the last place the
Cambridge jurymen affirm that two annual attendances should have been
made at the court of Chesterton for a holding of Eustace Dunning’s, but
that the scholars of Merton had failed to put in an appearance _for the
past six years_.[82]
These transactions cannot be held to relate to an estate managed for
the Oxford college founded in 1274, and to a period covering not more
than four or five years. From 1274, which is also the date of the
earliest Hundred Rolls, the Merton scholars were definitely and finally
established at Oxford; and when John Howe and Agnes Taylor gave their
evidence it is probable that there were no longer Merton scholars in
Cambridge: what their depositions seem to indicate is a concurrent
antiquity for Merton scholars at both universities. If these scholars
had not been settled among them when these land transactions occurred
the references would certainly have been to scholares de Merton
_Oxoniae_,[83] and it is well worthy of notice that the only two
instances in the Cambridge Hundred Rolls where “the Merton scholars at
Oxford” are referred to are two instances where Walter de Merton is said
to have “alienated” land in Cambridge for the use of the scholars in
Oxford.[84]
No doubt it had always been part of Merton’s design to found a
residential college for his scholars at one of the universities; and he
had perhaps strong reasons for establishing this at Cambridge. His great
patron was Chief-Justice Bassett, and the Bassetts were Cambridge
landowners. His patron in the original assignment of Malden manor was
Gilbert de Clare whose family gave its name in the next century to the
eponymous college at the same university. Was the _domus de Merton_ of
“the scholars and brethren” (p. 39) in fact at one time such a
residence? where poor scholars, some of them perchance from Merton
priory school itself, lived under the auspices of the Merton brethren?
Certain it is that a prior of Merton intrudes himself and his affairs
into the Cambridge Hundred Rolls.[85] It is also certain that the House
of Scholars of Merton is first heard of not at Oxford but at Cambridge.
Mr. J. W. Clark has pointed out in another connexion that the words
_domus_ and _aula_ were employed when a building was “appropriated by
endowment as a fixed residence for a body of scholars.” Our _domus
scholarium de Merton_ on which Cambridge lands were bestowed--to which
Cambridge lands were confirmed--in 1269, could not have been either in
Surrey or at Oxford.
Whether there was a house of Merton scholars at Cambridge before there
was a house of Merton scholars at Oxford, or not, it would appear that a
like antiquity must be claimed for the scholars themselves at both
universities.[86]
[Sidenote: Universities in other towns. The licence to found a
university at Northampton.]
One of the odd things about Merton’s movements is that though he began
buying land in Oxford the year after the Malden foundation (1265), he
made his chief acquisition in Cambridge as late as 1269, and that a year
later when he issued a revised set of statutes (1270) he still makes no
allusion to any change of locality. It is possible that in 1265 when he
wrote “at Oxford or at any other university” he had in mind the
tentatives then being made to found an English university in some other
town. It was in fact in 1262, the 45th year of the reign of Henry III.,
that Cambridge students had migrated to Northampton with the king’s
licence to found a university. The traditional bickerings between
southerners and northerners three years previously had been the cause of
the exodus, and the Cambridge scholars found many Oxonians already
there who had migrated from Oxford after their quarrel with the papal
legate in 1238 but had obtained no licence to institute a university.
The licence accorded to the masters and scholars of Cambridge university
was withdrawn four years later on a representation being made to Henry
III. that a university at Northampton must prove prejudicial to
Oxford.[87] Migrations of students to other towns took place throughout
the xiii century. They begin in 1209 when there was a general exodus
from Oxford not only to Cambridge but to the town of Reading. Thirty
years later the Oxonians migrated to Northampton and Salisbury, being
followed to the former in 1262 as we have just seen by many Cambridge
“masters and scholars.” These migrations certainly indicate that Oxford
and Cambridge were not yet regarded as such permanent homes of English
scholarship that other sites could not be substituted. The event which
most impressed the popular imagination occurred when both universities
had attained to European fame--the exodus in the reign of Edward III.
from Oxford to Stamford which caused the king in 1333 to issue his royal
letters forbidding any one to teach there. It had been prophesied that
the studies pursued at Oxford would be transferred to Stamford, and the
Cambridge floods gave rise to another prophecy, recorded by Spenser,
which showed that the Stamford incident still occupied men’s minds. The
flat Lincolnshire country would, it was said, become completely flooded,
and Stamford then would
---- shine in learning more than ever did
Cambridge or Oxford England’s goodly beames.
No migration took place from Cambridge after the foundation of its first
college. But before we enter upon this period of its history, and find
ourselves in the brilliant epoch which was so soon to overtake the
university in the xiv century, let us see what arrangements were made
for the accommodation of the scholar population previous to the
existence of colleges.
At first--in the xii and the early part of the xiii centuries--scholars
lived each at his own charges; perhaps groups of three and four would
club together, but every scholar was then, as Fuller expressively has
it, “his own founder and his own benefactor.”[88] The rescript of the
early years of Henry III., already cited,
[Sidenote: A.D. 1231 15th of Henry III.]
introduces us to the town hostels--_hospitia locanda_; and establishes
the taxing of lodging house charges by the _taxatores_, a usage probably
rendered the more necessary owing to the great influx of students two
years before, when the demand for lodgings must have been very much in
excess of the supply.[89] These town hostels, the result of town
enterprise, were subject to the four “taxors” only, and were under no
other academic supervision.[90] It seems highly probable, however, that
the king’s rescript gave rise to the university hostels, some thirty of
which were in existence fifty years later. In any case the rescript
leads us to conclude that the town hostels were in existence in the
previous century, and supplies us with a date before which we cannot
suppose that any university hostel existed.
[Sidenote: The university hostel.]
The university hostelries or inns for the accommodation of scholars who
lived there at their own charges were intermediate between the town
lodging house and the college, which they both anticipate and
supplement. A number of scholars joined together, elected their own
principal, and paid him at a fixed rate for board and lodging. At first,
therefore, the university like the town hostel was a private enterprise,
scholars undertook the charge of them in their private capacity. The
head of the hostel was called the Principal. Later on these institutions
changed their democratic character. The government passed entirely into
the hands of the principal, certain oaths were exacted of him, and he
kept a list of the scholars in his house.[91] The principal collected a
rent from the inmates, though in some hostels the accommodation appears
to have been free. All these changes, we may imagine, belong to the time
when some of the hostels were affiliated to colleges, becoming
thenceforward subject in all respects to the customs and discipline of
the endowed foundation. Thus S. Mary’s hostel, where Matthew Parker
studied, was affiliated to Corpus, Borden’s belonged to S. John’s
hospital, then to Ely, and in 1448 was affiliated to Clare; S. Bernard’s
belonged first to Queens’ then to Corpus; S. Austin’s to King’s. The
hostels took their name sometimes from the neighbouring church or
chapel, or other saintly patron, and sometimes from their proprietor.
“Newmarket” and “Harleston” hostels must have served for students from
these neighbouring towns. The monks who first came to study in Cambridge
lived in lodgings; but these were soon exchanged for the monastic
hostel, hence “Ely hostel” and “Monks’ hostel.”[92] Those zealous
learners the friars of the Sack had Jesu hostel, dismantled in 1307, the
Sempringham canons had S. Edmund’s hostel, the Barnwell canons had a
hostel in the town called S. Augustine’s, and the hospitaller knights of
S. John owned Crouched and S. John’s hostels in School Lane and Mill
Street.[93] Rud’s offers a good example of a xiii century Cambridge
hostel, and Physwick of one of the xivth. The former is mentioned in
1283 and was part of the compensation allowed in that year to S. John’s
for the alienated hostels at Peterhouse,[94] it still exists, almost
unaltered, and forms part of the Castle inn in S. Andrew’s Street.
Physwick was the private residence of an esquire bedell of that name who
bequeathed it for the purposes of a hostel in 1393. It was affiliated to
Gonville and was in use until absorbed in the buildings of Trinity
College in the xvi century.
Cambridge hostels were highly important foundations. The 8 jurists’
hostels housed eighty and a hundred students apiece, and the large
hostels of S. Bernard, S. Thomas, S. Mary, and S. Augustine sometimes
housed twenty and thirty regents without counting the non-regents and
students.[95] A large proportion of men whose names are not to be found
on the books of any college received their education in these houses.
The Inns, of which there were three at Cambridge--Oving’s, S. Zachary’s,
and S. Paul’s--were smaller and less important hostels and appear to
have been frequented by the richer students. Hostel and hall or college
existed side by side through the xiii, xiv, and xv centuries. Indeed
until the college system was well established the hostels greatly
exceeded the endowed halls in number, and they continued to supplement
the latter until the completion of the large colleges at the renascence.
Some twenty were erected as late as the xv and the opening years of the
xvi centuries. During the xiv and xv centuries many hostels were
destroyed to make room for the colleges; and in the xvith those which
remained were abandoned, Trinity
[Illustration: THE OLD CASTLE INN
Now styled “Ye Olde Castel Hotel.” The Baptist Church and the Police
Courts are seen just beyond, and the Roman Catholic Church in the
distance. The near trees are in the grounds of Emmanuel College.]
hostel, as Fuller testifies, being the only one remaining in use till
1540.[96]
CHAPTER II
THE COLLEGES
The university and the colleges--the collegiate system--eras of
college building--Peterhouse--Michaelhouse--_collegium_ and
_aula_--Clare--college statutes--architectural scheme of a
college--Pembroke--founders of colleges--Gonville--Trinity
Hall--Corpus Christi--Cambridge in 1353--Chaucer at Cambridge--the
schools, library, the university printers and the Pitt Press, the
senate house--King’s--King’s College chapel--Cambridge college
chapels--Queens’--English sovereigns at Cambridge--S.
Catherine’s--Jesus--Christ’s--Lady Margaret and Bishop Fisher--S.
John’s--Magdalene--King’s Hall and Trinity College--college
libraries--gateways--Caius--monks in Cambridge--Emmanuel--Sidney
Sussex--Downing--public hostels--nationality of founders and
general scope of their foundations--university and college
revenues.
The college is an endowed foundation providing for the residence and
maintenance of teachers--masters or graduates, and for the free
education of a certain number of poor scholars, to whose company are
added, according to the capacity of the building, other students who are
able to live at their own charges.
[Sidenote: Relation of the college to the university.]
Much has been said about the relation of the college to the university.
By some it is supposed that the latter is nothing but the aggregate of
the former; that somewhere in the time of the Georges “the university”
arrogated to itself a separate existence, and that since that time
university offices have taken precedence of collegiate offices.[97] The
_universitas_, the corporation of scholars, must and did precede any
college foundation: at the same time we cannot distinguish the
development of either of our universities from the rise of these
foundations, whose history has, ever since, been the history of the
academic society. Each college is independent and autonomous, and though
the aggregate of colleges does not constitute the university, each
collegiate foundation forms part and parcel of it in virtue of its union
with the incorporated society of Chancellor Masters and Scholars which
formed at first and still forms “the university.”
[Sidenote: The college the distinguishing characteristic of Cambridge
and Oxford].
It is the collegiate system which distinguishes the English universities
from all others. Everywhere else in Europe students live in their own
private lodgings and have complete control of their lives, subject to no
supervision whatever; the university has no rights over them and no
means of ensuring their good behaviour during the period in which they
choose to attend its lectures. In many parts of Europe the student
passes from a school curriculum in which he has been treated as a
complete dependent, on whose sense of common fairplay and honour, even,
no reliance can be placed, to a curriculum in which he at once becomes
his own absolute master. English instinct is against this--against
abandoning a young man at a critical moment of his life to his own
devices, his own unsupported endeavours, as it is against ruling him by
a system of espionage in his school days. It is in favour in both cases
of the moral support to be found in an external guarantee for order,
orderliness--and of a tacit assistance to good instincts, a tacit
resistance to bad; and the result is the university college.
[Sidenote: The origin of the college system.]
The result, as we say, is an English result, and is the development of a
scheme to which shape was first given by Walter de Merton, Chancellor of
England and afterwards Bishop of Rochester, and Hugh de Balsham Bishop
and formerly subprior of Ely, in the reign of Henry III.[98] An endowed
house and college statutes formed part of this fine academic scheme,
which, in all its amplitude and completeness, sprang Athena-like from
the brain of Walter de Merton, and was destined from the first to be
realised in a university. It must, nevertheless, be clearly borne in
mind that the original college dwellings--and the college statutes--were
designed for adult scholars, they were, in fact, the earliest training
colleges for teachers, and it is only later that their advantages were
extended in equal measure to the taught.[99]
[Sidenote: The era of college building.]
College building began in the xiii century and ended with the xvith. The
first great period of building, however, belongs to the second quarter
of the xiv century, and no less than seven colleges and halls were
founded between the years 1324 and 1352. Ninety years elapsed before
the second period, which began with the foundation of King’s College in
1441 and ended with the foundation of S. John’s in 1509. The third and
last period opened a hundred years after the foundation of King’s and
closed with the foundation of the first Protestant colleges fifty years
later (1595):
First period. Second period. Third period.
Peterhouse 1284
(28 years) (68 years) (50 years)
Michaelhouse 1324 King’s College 1441 Magdalene 1542
Clare 1326-38 Queens’ 1448 Trinity 1546
King’s Hall 1337 S. Catherine’s 1473 (Caius 1557)
Pembroke 1347 Jesus 1495 Emmanuel 1584
Gonville Hall 1348 Christ’s 1505 Sidney Sussex 1595
Trinity Hall 1350 S. John’s 1509
Corpus Christi 1352
There were therefore 8 colleges in Cambridge by the middle of the xiv
century; when the xvi century opened there were 14, and at its close 12
of the previous buildings remained and 4 new had been added. Downing
College (built 1805) must be added to these, making at the present day a
total of 17 colleges.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Peterhouse.]
Peterhouse was founded by Hugh de Balsham[100] for his Ely scholars whom
he had in vain attempted to unite, with a separate endowment of their
own, under the same roof as the canons of S. John’s Hospital.[101] In
1284 he removed the Ely clerks to two hostels by S. Peter’s church at
the other end of the town, and at his death two years later left three
hundred marks for the erection of a hall. This was built in 1290 on the
south-west and formed with the scholars’ chambers the only collegiate
building at Peterhouse till the close of the xiv century. Here then were
the primitive elements of a college; the hostel or scholars’ lodging
house to which was added a common meeting and dining room, or hall. The
little parish church of S. Peter served for prayers and gave its name to
the college. College chapels were not built till considerably later: the
example first given by Pembroke College in the next century not being
followed for another hundred years. The quadrangle was not begun till
1424. A combination room[102] opening out from the hall, and a library,
were added along the south side. Over the former was the master’s room,
over the latter the students’ quarters; and all looked upon the ancient
lawn, the meadow with its elms beyond and, stretching to the right, with
its water gate, Coe fen.
Ye brown, o’er-arching groves,
That contemplation loves,
Where willowy Camus lingers with delight!
Oft at the blush of dawn
I trod your level lawn
* * * * *
With Freedom by my side, and soft-eyed Melancholy.[103]
[Illustration: PETERHOUSE FROM THE STREET
The Tower of the Congregational Church in the distance.]
Hostels and church, facing the Trumpington road, were just without
Trumpington gate. In 1309 the college area was extended southwards, over
the ground occupied by Jesu hostel.[104] The property of the Gilbertine
canons was added in the xvi century. The college area covers the space
between Trumpington Street and Coe fen, and Little S. Mary’s church and
Scroope Terrace; two-thirds of the site of the Fitzwilliam Museum being
ground purchased from Peterhouse. The new Gisborne building (1825) is
built on the west beyond the hall. The frontage of Peterhouse on
Trumpington Street is unpromising; nothing suggests the charm of the
buildings on the south side or the open country beyond, stored with
historical memories. From the hall, a site unrivalled in the university,
opens the panelled combination room,[105] the “Good Women” of Chaucer
limned in one of its bays, recalling
The chambres and parlers of a sorte
With bay windowes
described by the poet’s contemporary.
Above the xvi century library (of which Balsham’s own books were the
nucleus, enriched by Whittlesey, Bottlesham, Arundel, Warkworth, Gray,
Perne, and Cosin)[106] a charming corner room in the students’ quarters
has been set apart by the present Master for evening study, a veritable
_solarium_ where the readers are surrounded by the portraits of the
great sons of Peterhouse.
[Sidenote: The chapel A.D. 1628.]
Old S. Peter’s church was perhaps burnt down in 1338-1340 by a fire
which is supposed to have also destroyed the chapel of S. Edmund. On its
site rose the present church of Little S. Mary.[107] But in the early
xvii century a movement was set afoot at Peterhouse which resulted in
the erection of a college chapel. It now stands in the midst of the
college buildings, and one of the two ancient hostels, “the little
ostle,” was demolished to provide a site. Matthew Wren, uncle of Sir
Christopher and then Master of the college, afterwards Bishop of Ely,
was the builder. The desire of the fellows of Peterhouse for a chapel of
their own coincided with the movement in the English Church for an
elaborate ritual. As it stands it is a perfect specimen of a xvii
century chapel, with its dark oak stalls, and its east window spared
from Commonwealth marauders by the expedient of removing the glass piece
by piece and hiding it till the
[Illustration: PETERHOUSE--THE FIRST COURT
The entrance to the chapel faces the spectator. On the right is seen the
Combination Room (1460) and the Hall. Through the Cloisters we get a
view into the street. This is the oldest college in Cambridge.]
iconoclastic fever had spent itself. But still we have only the shell of
the original chapel, the roof of which was adorned with figures of a
hundred and fifty angels the statue of S. Peter presiding from the west.
Nine years later all this was pulled down by the Commonwealth men and
the ritualist movement it embodied came to an end.[108]
[Sidenote: Hall portraits.]
Peterhouse hall, in common with the halls of all other colleges,
contains the portraits of its great men: here, however, they look down
upon us not only from the wall above the high table but from the stained
glass of the windows. Holbroke Master of the college, chancellor of the
university during the Barnwell process, and an early student of science;
Cardinal Beaufort scholar of the house who represented Henry V. at the
Council of Constance, and was himself, perhaps, _papabile_; Warkworth
writing his Lancastrian Chronicle--are in their doctor’s scarlet: here
also are Whitgift, Cosin, and Crashaw, who is depicted as a canon of
Loreto; the poet Gray, the third duke of Grafton chancellor of the
university and Prime Minister, and Henry Cavendish the physicist. The
panel portraits were removed here from the Stone parlour. The painting
of Bishop Law by Romney (?) reminds us that many of the Laws were at
Peterhouse, including the first Lord Ellenborough. Over the high table
is Lord Kelvin the latest famous son of the house. Among these must also
be noted Thomas Heywood “a prose Shakspeare,” Hutchinson “the regicide”
one of the first Puritan gentlemen and one of the best, Peter Baro,
Markland the classical critic, and Sherlock who measured himself against
Bossuet.
Peterhouse owes nothing to royal endowments but it has not lived outside
the stir of national movements either political or religious. There were
fervent Lancastrians within its walls in the xv century, fervent
partisans of the Stuarts in the xviith. It was, second to none in
England, the anti-Puritan college, numbering among its masters Wren and
Cosin, and that Doctor Andrew Perne who was among its most munificent
benefactors.[109] Perne was a Petrean first and a theologian afterwards,
and, as vice-chancellor, was to be found burning the remains of Martin
Bucer and Paul Fagius[110] in order to ingratiate the university with
Mary, and signing the Thirty-nine Articles on the accession of
Elizabeth. The letters AP AP on the weather cock of his college are said
to mean: Andrew Perne, “a Papist” or “a Protestant,” as you will; and in
Cantabrigian language a coat that has been turned is a coat that has
been _perned_, and _pernare_ signifies to change your opinions with
frequency.
Since the xvii century Peterhouse has been connected with no great
movements. In the xv century and again in the early xixth it produced
eminent physical and mathematical students; and in the xviii century
Sir William Browne, President of the College of Physicians, learnt here
his science. Scotchmen have a predilection for the college; and a
nucleus of history men is being formed under the present Master’s
guidance.
[Sidenote: Little S. Mary’s.]
The patronage of the historical church which was for three or four
centuries the chapel of Peterhouse remains in the hands of the college.
It is indeed an integral part of Peterhouse for every Petrean. But its
interest does not end here; it reaches across the Atlantic and binds the
new continent to the home-hearth of learning in England. A monument in
the chapel to Godfrey Washington who died in 1729 bears the arms _argent
two bars gules, in chief three estoiles_--the origin of the Stars and
Stripes. The Washington crest is an eagle issuant from a
crown--affirming sovereignty or escaping from a monarchy?[111]
[Sidenote: Cherry Hinton.]
The Rectory of Cherry Hinton two and a half miles south-east of
Cambridge, on the way to the village of Balsham, is no less important in
the history of the Ely scholars. In the xiv century the endowment of the
college was not sufficient for their maintenance all the year round: the
college nevertheless had made rapid progress since its separate
existence at Peterhouse began, and Fordham Bishop of Ely (1388-1426)
decided to confirm to them the greater tithes of Cherry Hinton of which
the college is to this day rector; but which had indeed been first
assigned them by Bishop Simon Langham as early as 1362.[112]
A visit to this interesting church completes our picture of the college
which “his affection for learning and the state of the poor scholars who
were much put to it for conveniency of lodging” persuaded Balsham to
endow.
[Sidenote: Peterhouse lodge.]
The lodge of Peterhouse is on the opposite side of Trumpington Street,
and is the only example of a lodge outside the college precincts in the
university. The house belonged to Charles Beaumont, nephew of the
metaphysical poet Joseph Beaumont who was Master of Peterhouse, and was
bequeathed by him for the college lodge in 1727.
Peterhouse has always been one of the small colleges. Balsham founded it
for a master, 14 fellows, and a few Bible clerks.[113] In the time of
Charles I. (1634) it maintained 19 fellows, 29 Bible clerks, and 8
scholars, making with the college officers and other students a total of
106. Sixty years earlier, when Caius wrote, there were 96 inmates, and
in the middle of the xviii century, 90. To-day there are 11 fellowships,
and 23 scholarships varying from £20 to £80 a year in value.
[Illustration: PETERHOUSE FROM THE FELLOWS’ GARDEN
On the right is the Combination Room (1460), while farther back in the
picture is the Hall, a continuation of this range of most ancient and
picturesque buildings.]
The bishops of Ely have never ceased to be the visitors of the college.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Michaelhouse.]
Nearly forty years elapsed before a second college was projected. On
September 27 1324 Hervey de Stanton, who like other founders in both
universities--like Merton, Alcock, Wykeham, and Wolsey--was a notable
pluralist,[114] opened Michaelhouse on the present site of Trinity. His
purchases for the site had been made in 1323-4, and as was the case with
the foundations preceding and succeeding it, Michaelhouse was an
adaptation of edifices already existing. It remained one of the
principal collegiate buildings until the xvi century and was
successively enlarged by absorbing both Crouched and Gregory’s as
students’ hostels.
[Sidenote: _Domus aula collegium._]
As Peterhouse was called “the House-of-Scholars of S. Peter,” so was
Michaelhouse called “the House-of-Scholars of S. Michael.” It will be
seen that _domus_ and _aula_ were the earliest appellations. As
_hospitia_ or _diversoria literarum_ signified the unendowed house, so
_domus_ or _aula scholarium_ signified the endowed house. Such compound
titles as “house of S. Peter or hall-of-scholars of the Bishop of Ely”
precede, as they explain, the later title _college_. A college denotes
not a dwelling but a community: precisely the same distinction is to be
drawn between _domus_ and _collegium_ as between _monasterium_ and
_conventus_. Every university _domus_ was intended for a college of
scholars, as every religious house was intended for a convent of
religious; the transition was easy, though not logical, from “college of
the hall of Valense-Marie” to Valence-Marie College, and to-day the word
is used indiscriminately to mean both the building and the
community.[115]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Clare Hall 1326-1338.]
Clare Hall was erected on the site of University Hall, a house for
scholars founded during the chancellorship of Richard de Badew who
obtained the king’s licence for it on February 20 1326, when he was
lodged at Barnwell.[116] In the next reign (1344, 18th of Edward III.)
it is referred to as “the hospice belonging to Cambridge university.”
This hall, like Peterhouse, originated in two hostels purchased for the
university in the street running parallel to the High Street, from the
present site of Queen’s to the back gate of Trinity.[117] Twelve years
later Elizabeth de Burgh[118] sister and co-heiress of
[Illustration: CLARE COLLEGE AND BRIDGE FROM THE CAM--AUTUMN EVENING]
Gilbert Earl of Clare founded her college and in 1340 she obtained
possession of University Hall,[119] and decreed in 1359 that it should
thenceforth be known as the “House of Clare.”[120]
The scheme of building of Clare Hall was quadrangular; but no college
was longer in the building. A hall, combination room, and Master’s room
were on the west, while the chapel at the north-east angle was not built
till 1535.[121] The scholars had till then kept their prayers in the
parish church of S. Zachary and in the south chancel aisle of S.
Edward’s. The present chapel was not begun till 1764. As we see it now
Clare is a homogeneous piece of work of the time of Charles I., and in
its classical beauty is one of the finest in Cambridge. This complete
rebuilding occupied twenty-six years--from 1635 to 1661. There is no
record of the architect, though an unsupported tradition points to Inigo
Jones.
When one pictures Clare Hall it is to recall “the Backs,” the
characteristic feature of Cambridge scenery which rivals the beauty of
“the gardens” in the sister university. The grounds of the succession of
collegiate buildings fronting the ancient High Street, with sloping
lawns, bowling green, and fellows’ garden, extend along the backs of the
colleges beyond the narrow river over which each college throws its
bridge, and beyond again runs the well known road and the college
playgrounds.
Clare is supposed to have been the “Soler hall” of Chaucer’s Tale.[122]
It has enjoyed the reputation of a fashionable college, and indeed of a
“sporting college.” It no doubt enjoyed the former reputation from the
first, as a foundation under the patronage of the great house of Clare,
and furnished some of the overdressed dandies who flocked to Cambridge
in Chaucer’s time, as well as his “pore” Yorkshire “scolers” or others
like them. Ralph Cudworth was Master of the college; Tillotson
Archbishop of Canterbury, the martyr bishop Latimer, and Whiston the
successor of Newton were its fellows; and Nicholas Heath primate of
York, Sir George Downing, Cole the antiquary, Townshend, Chancellor of
the Exchequer, the first Marquis Cornwallis, Brodrick Archbishop of
Cashel, and Whitehead the laureate were its _alumni_. It was founded for
20 fellows or scholars, 6 of whom were to be in priests’ orders. In 1634
there were 15 fellows and 32 scholars, in all 106 inmates. In the time
of Caius there had been 129, and in the middle of the xviii century
there were about 100. There are
[Illustration: CLARE COLLEGE AND BRIDGE FROM THE AVENUE
King’s College Chapel is seen through the trees.]
now 18 fellowships and 31 scholarships ranging in value from £20 to £60.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: College statutes.]
The statutes of Clare Hall were written by the founder in 1359, a year
before her death. The statutes of Peterhouse[123] and of Pembroke do not
exist in their original form--and those of Hervey de Stanton for
Michaelhouse and of Elizabeth de Burgh for Clare must be held to be the
two types of Cambridge college statutes. Of these the latter rank as the
most enlightened original code framed for a Cambridge college. Stanton’s
contain little more than directions for the conduct of a clerical
seminary, and this type was followed by the framers of the statutes of
Corpus Christi and in their general intention by Gonville in statutes
afterwards modified by Bateman. The statutes of King’s Hall framed for
Richard II. reverted to the Merton type; Henry VI.’s statutes for King’s
follow, as we shall see, the type already laid down by William of
Wykeham, while Lady Margaret Countess of Richmond, and John Fisher
Bishop of Rochester framed statutes which contain some original
elements.
Elizabeth de Burgh’s originality consists in her realisation of the
value of learning and of general knowledge for all kinds of men and for
its own sake. “In every degree, whether ecclesiastical or temporal,
skill in learning is of no mean advantage; which although sought for by
many persons in many ways is to be found most fully in the university
where a _studium generale_ is known to flourish.”[124] Thence it sends
forth its “disciples,” “who have tasted its sweetness,” skilled and
fitted, to fill their place in the world. She wishes to promote, with
the advancement of religious worship and the welfare of the state, “the
extension of these sciences”; her object being that “the pearl of
knowledge” “once discovered and acquired by study and learning” “should
not lie hid,” but be diffused more and more widely, and when so diffused
give light to them that walk in the darkness of the shadow of
ignorance.[125]
The statutes of Marie Valence were written twelve years earlier and even
in the form in which they have come down to us have a character of their
own and conform to none of the three types of Merton, Michaelhouse, or
Clare.[126]
Merton’s statutes were issued in 1264, 1270, and 1274, and the 1274
statutes exist in the university library in a register of the Bishops of
Lincoln. Mr. J. Bass Mullinger has printed Hervey de Stanton’s in
Appendix D. to his “History of the University of Cambridge”; they are
contained in the Michaelhouse book in the muniment room of Trinity.
* * * * *
For King’s Hall, founded in 1337, see page 131.
[Illustration: THE HALL OF CLARE COLLEGE
The notable features of this interior are the plaster ceiling and the
large oak figures over the fireplace, the latter designed by Sir M.
Digby Wyatt 1870-72.]
[Sidenote: Pembroke College A.D. 1347.]
Pembroke Hall was founded in 1347 by Marie daughter of Guy de Chatillon
comte de Saint-Paul and of Mary grand-daughter of Henry III. She was of
the blood of that Walter de Chatillon who in the retreat from Damietta
during the 7th crusade, held a village alone against successive assaults
of the Saracen; and having drawn forth their missiles from his body
after each sally, charged afresh to the cry of _Chatillon!
Chevaliers!_--and the widow of Aymer de Valence Earl of Pembroke the
inexorable enemy of Robert Bruce in Edward’s wars against the Scottish
king. Pembroke stands opposite Peterhouse and several hostels were
destroyed to make room for it. It was called by the founder the hall of
Valencemarie, and in Latin documents _aula Pembrochiana_.
[Sidenote: Architectural scheme of a college.]
With Pembroke the first college foundation stone was laid in Cambridge.
Here for the first time we have a homogeneous collegiate house and not a
mere adaptation of pre-existing buildings, and may therefore enquire
what was the architectural plan of a college. The principle of the
quadrangle, although it underwent considerable architectural
development, was recognised with the first attempt at college
architecture.[127] The special collegiate buildings at first occupied
one side of the court only. Here, facing the gateway, were to be found
the hall with its buttery and kitchen, above the hall the Master’s
lodging, with perhaps a garret bedroom above it--the _solarium_. The
combination room attiguous to the hall makes its appearance in the next
century, and at right angles or parallel to this main block stretch the
students’ chambers and studies. A muniment room or treasury is over the
gate; the library, occupying a third side,[128] and the chapel, come
later; and last of all the architectural gateway is added.[129] Meadows
and fields and the Master’s plot of ground are soon developed into the
Master’s garden, the fellows’ garden, the bowling green, and tennis
court. By the xv century the buildings round a courtyard easily assume
the plan of the new domestic dwelling of that epoch, of which the type
is Haddon Hall Derbyshire and, in Cambridge, Queens’ College: the
college _domus_ of the xiv century becomes the quadrangular manor-house
of the xvth and xvith. In such a scheme of public buildings only a few
scholars could be lodged in the main court, and smaller quadrangles for
their accommodation were therefore added. University Hostel formed one
side of such a second court in Pembroke; Clare and Queens’ had also
second courts, and their example was followed at Christ’s and S. John’s.
Here then we have a scheme of building which is neither monastic nor
feudal. It may with propriety be called scholastic but it is also
essentially domestic architecture. The college quadrangle as we see it
evolved in Cambridge is the earliest attempt at devising a dwelling
which should resemble neither the cloister nor the castle, should
suggest neither enclosure nor self-defence--a scholastic dwelling. The
college is the outcome of that moment in our history when feudalism had
played its part and monasticism was losing its power; it represents what
the rise of the universities themselves represents and its architectural
interest is unique. No monastic terms are retained; the hall is not a
refectory, the one constant monastic and canonical feature, the church,
has no part at all in the scheme--the scholars were men not separated
from their fellows and they used the parish church.
The first collegiate dwelling houses, like the English manor-house,
consciously or unconsciously followed one of the oldest house-plans
known to civilisation--the scheme of dwelling-rooms round a court was
that of the Roman house. The _aula seu domus scholarium_ had moreover as
its starting point--like the earliest _domus ecclesiae_--a hall in a
house; the hall is the nucleus of the college.[130]
[Sidenote: The site of Pembroke.]
Marie de Saint-Paul, like her predecessor Elizabeth de Burgh, purchased
university property for the site of her college. “University hostel”
which stood here formed one side of the narrow quadrangle the building
of which was at once begun, and a messuage of Hervey de Stanton’s formed
the other. Within five years the complete area had been acquired, and
it is probable that the south side was also partly built before the
founder’s death in 1377. On the west were the hall and kitchen, on the
east, abutting on the street, was the gate with students’ chambers on
either side of it. With the hostel the founder bought an acre of
meadowland which she converted into an orchard--“the orchard against
Pembroke Hall” it is called in her lifetime. She also obtained
permission from two of the Avignon popes--Innocent VI. and Urban V.--to
erect a chapel and bell tower, and these were built, after the middle of
the xiv century, at the north west corner of the closed quadrangle. This
interesting site was used later as a library and is still a reference
library and lecture room. Traces of fresco remain under the panelling,
and the chaplain’s room with its hagioscope for the altar is on the
east. The lower part of the bell tower also still exists.
In 1389 the college acquired Cosyn’s Place, and later Bolton’s, and in
1451 a perpetual lease of S. Thomas’s hostel. University hostel retained
its name till the last quarter of the xvi century, and it was only
pulled down in 1659 to make room for the Hitcham building which now
forms the south side of the second court. There is nothing left of the
xiv and xv century structures. The present lodge, hall, and library and
the other new buildings in stone and red brick have all been erected
since 1870. The chapel occupies part of the site of S. Thomas’s hostel,
and was built by Matthew Wren, Bishop of Ely and Master of
[Illustration: THE OLD COURT, PEMBROKE COLLEGE
The Dining Hall is seen on the right of the picture.]
Peterhouse, at his own charges; the architect being his nephew
Christopher Wren. The bishop had already built Peterhouse chapel and
this new work was undertaken in fulfilment of his intention to make some
pious offering if he were ever liberated from the Tower, where the
Parliament kept him between the years 1642 and 1658. The fine
combination room is panelled with the oak from the xvii century hall.
The portrait of Marie de Saint-Paul presides in the present hall with
that of Henry VI. flanked by busts of Pitt, Gray, and Stokes.
Two spiritual relationships were bequeathed by the founder to the
college. One with the Franciscan friars, the other with the Minoresses
of Denney. The former connexion ceased almost as soon as it was devised,
for the existing edition of the statutes (made after the founder’s
death) omits all mention of it.[131]
No college but Trinity outshines Pembroke for the fame of its scholars
and none for the antiquity of its fame. Henry VI. in a charter granting
lands speaks of it as “this eminent and most precious college, which is
and ever hath been resplendent among all places in the university.”[132]
The king so favoured it that it was called his “adopted daughter”; and
when Elizabeth rode past it on her way to her lodging at King’s she
saluted it with one of those happy phrases characteristic of the Tudors:
“_O domus antiqua et religiosa!_” words which sum its significance in
university history.
Pembroke is the _alma mater_ of Edmund Spenser,[133] of Gray,[134] of
the younger Pitt,[135] of Thixtil, fellow in 1519, whose extraordinary
erudition is praised by Caius, of Wharton the anatomist, Sydenham the
xvii century physician, Gabriel Harvey the “Hobbinoll” of the
_Shepherd’s Calendar_,[136] Sir George Stokes the mathematician, and Sir
Henry Maine.[137] *Grindal and *Whitgift[138] of Canterbury, *Rotherham
and *Booth of York, *Richard Fox Master of the college, Bishop of
Winchester, and founder of Corpus Christi Oxford, the two Langtons
Bishops of *S. David’s and Winchester, *Ridley the martyr Bishop of
London, *Lancelot Andrewes Bishop of Ely, then of Winchester, with
[Illustration: A COURT AND CLOISTERS IN PEMBROKE COLLEGE
This represents the First or Entrance Court of the College. Beyond the
Cloisters is the Chapel designed by Sir Christopher Wren and completed
in 1664.]
Felton and *Wren of Ely, are on its honour roll. The second Master was
Robert Thorpe of Thorpe-next-Norwich, knighted by Edward III. and
afterwards Lord Chancellor.[139] The old college garden, loved by
Ridley, is much despoiled, but “Ridley’s walk” remains. Pembroke gave
two other martyrs for their religious opinions, Rogers and
Bradford.[140] Two fellows of the college[141] in the reign of Edward
III. died in Rome where they had gone to obtain from Innocent VI.
possession of part of the original endowment of the college; a statute
prescribes that mass shall be said for them each July.
In the library are Gower’s _Confessio Amantis_ and the _Golden Legend_,
printed by Caxton. It is this last book which brought him the promise of
“a buck in summer and a doe in winter” from the Earl of Arundel, for its
great length had made him “half desperate to have accomplished it.”
There, too, is Gray’s MS. of the “Elegy.” The college also possesses
Bishop Andrewes’ library. Matthew Wren is buried in the chapel, and his
staff and mitre are preserved in the college, the latter being a
solitary specimen of a post-reformation mitre; it was worn over a
crimson silk cap.
The college was founded for 30 scholars, if the revenues permitted.[142]
In the time of Caius it housed 87 members; in Fuller’s time 100
(including 20 fellows and 33 scholars); in the middle of the xviii
century the number of students averaged 50 or 60. There are now 13
fellowships and 34 scholarships of the value of £20 to £80.
[Sidenote: Founders of Cambridge colleges.]
The Cambridge colleges are remarkable for the large proportion of them
founded and endowed by women. Of the 16 colleges built between the xiii
and xvi centuries, now in existence, 6 are due to the munificence of
women--Clare, Pembroke, Queens’, Christ’s, S. John’s, and Sidney Sussex.
Next as college builders come the chancellors of England, the bishops,
and the kings who have each endowed the university with three colleges.
Hervey de Stanton, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the reign of Edward
II., Thomas Lord Audley chancellor to Henry VIII., and Sir Walter
Mildmay Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth, all founded colleges,
two of which still remain--Magdalene and Emmanuel.[143] Hugh Balsham of
Ely, Bateman of Norwich, and Alcock of Ely founded three existing
colleges--Peterhouse, Trinity Hall, and Jesus.[143a] The kings of
England account for some of the finest work in the university, King’s
Hall, King’s College, and Trinity College.[144]
[Sidenote: The early series of colleges.]
In the series of Cambridge colleges the 3 foundations of the early xiv
century which followed Peterhouse were all merged in other colleges.
Pembroke which was the sixth foundation was the first piece of
collegiate building to be carried through in Cambridge, and Corpus
Christi must rank as the second.
The colleges from Peterhouse to Pembroke:--
Peterhouse 1284
Michaelhouse 1324 (Gonville 1348 )
{University Hall 1326 (Trinity Hall 1350)
{Clare 1338
King’s Hall 1337 Corpus 1352
Pembroke Hall 1347
Michaelhouse and King’s Hall went to swell the greatness of Trinity;
University Hall became the foundation stone of Clare: and all of them,
with Gonville and Trinity Hall, were incomplete adaptations of earlier
buildings at the time when Pembroke and Corpus were finished.
* * * * *
We now come to two colleges which formed an East Anglian corner in the
university.
[Sidenote: Gonville Hall 1348.]
Within a month of the licence granted to Marie de Saint-Paul, Edmund
Gonville obtained his for the erection of the hall which is called after
him. Gonville was an East Anglian parson, rector of two Norfolk parishes
and sometime vicar-general of the diocese of Ely. In one of these
parishes his elder brother Sir Nicholas Gonville of Rushworth had
already established a college of canons, and Edmund Gonville himself
was a great favourer of the Dominicans. Edward III.’s licence enabled
him to found a hall for 20 scholars in Lurteburgh (now Free school)
Lane, between S. Benet’s and great S. Mary’s, in 1348. In 1352 this site
was exchanged with Benet College for another on the other side of the
High Street,[145] the present site of Gonville and Caius. The Hall was
dedicated in honour of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and
enjoyed a great reputation among East Anglians and various proofs of
papal favour up to the eve of the Reformation.[146] Like Corpus its
object was the education of the clergy and theology was to be their
study. Alexander VI. (1492-1503) licensed annually two of its students
to preach in any part of England, apparently a unique permission.[147]
Humphrey de la Pole--who resided for many years--and his brother Edward,
sons of the second Duke of Suffolk, were students here; so was Sir
Thomas Gresham. Gonville was refounded as Gonville and Caius by Doctor
Keys (Caius) two hundred years later.[148]
[Sidenote: Trinity Hall A.D. 1350.]
Edmund Gonville left William Bateman Bishop of Norwich his executor in
the interests of his new foundation. Bateman, a notable
[Illustration: TRINITY HALL
The nearer building seen in the picture is the old Library, and beyond
it are the Latham Buildings.]
figure in the xiv century, set forth as Edward’s ambassador to the King
of France in the month that the Black Death made its appearance in East
Anglia (March 1350), and died at Avignon on an embassy from the king to
the Pope. In 1350 on his return from France,[149] he founded Trinity
Hall, near Gonville, on the site of the hostel of the monks of Ely[150]
which he obtained for that purpose.[151]
If Gonville’s foundation was intended for the country parson, Bateman’s
was intended for the _prete di carriera_. Both were designed to repair
the ravages in the ranks of the clergy left by the plague, but while
Gonville’s clerks were to devote their time to the study of theology
Bateman’s were to study exclusively civil and canon law. The college was
built round a quadrangle,[152] and the religious services were kept in
the church of S. John the Baptist (or Zachary) and afterwards in the
north aisle of S. Edward’s church; these two churches being shared with
the students of Clare. Indeed it was owing to Gardiner’s policy and
Ridley’s advice that Trinity Hall escaped incorporation with Clare
College in the reign of Edward VI. The library remains as it was in the
early years of Elizabeth’s reign, and was founded by Bateman with the
gift of his own collection. The Norfolk men were famous litigants.
Doctor Jessopp has shown that neither the Black Death nor any lesser
tragedy could hold them from an appeal to the law on every trivial
pretext. That the first college of jurists should have been founded by a
native of Norwich is certainly therefore a fitting circumstance.
Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England was
Master of Trinity Hall in the reign of Edward VI. and again in the first
year of Mary. He used to say “if all his palaces were blown down by
iniquity, he would creep honestly into that shell”--the mastership of
Trinity Hall. Other distinguished Masters were Haddon,[153] Master of
the Requests to Elizabeth, and Sir Henry Maine who had been fellow and
tutor. Bishop Sampson, a pupil of Erasmus, Thirlby, Glisson,[154]
Bilney, one of the early reformers, Lord Chesterfield, Bulwer Lytton,
and Leslie Stephen were all members of Trinity Hall, which is still the
college of the larger number of Cambridge law students. There are 13
fellowships, and about 12 scholarships varying in value from £80 to £21
a year, besides exhibitions of the same value.
* * * * *
In the middle of the xiv century there were two important guilds in
Cambridge, the one under the invocation of _Corpus Christi_ “keeping
their prayers in S. Benet’s church,” the other dedicated to the
[Illustration:
ST. BOTOLPH’S CHURCH AND CORPUS COLLEGE FROM THE STEPS OF THE PITT
PRESS, TRUMPINGTON STREET
King’s College is seen in the distance.]
Blessed Virgin “observing their offices in S. Mary’s church.” These
guilds or confraternities--which existed all through the middle ages as
they had existed in classical Rome with precisely similar features--were
to be found, as we know, especially among the artisan class, and took
the place of our modern trades unions and mutual insurance societies.
Like every enterprise of the ages of faith they had a semi-religious
character, were usually attached as its “sisters and brethren” to some
church, and owed their members not only material assistance but
spiritual, paying for masses to be offered for the repose of the souls
of all deceased brethren.
[Sidenote: Corpus Christi A.D. 1352.]
It was two such guilds which forgetting their differences and laying
aside all emulations, joined together in the middle of the xiv century
in order to found and endow a college in their town. The brethren of the
guilds had been planning this enterprise since 1342, and in the
following years those who possessed contiguous tenements in the parishes
of S. Benet and S. Botolph pulled them down “and with one accord set
about the task of establishing a college there.”[155] “By this means
_they cleared a site for their college square in form_.”[156] Here then,
as in the case of King’s Hall and Pembroke, the earliest collegiate
buildings designed as such, the plan was quadrangular. Sometimes, as in
the case of Trinity Hall, the adjacent buildings for completing the
court could not be at once obtained, in others, as at Corpus itself and
Clare, the courts are irregular, owing to the same difficulty of getting
the foursquare space. Corpus Christi college presents us, indeed, with
the unique and perfect example in Cambridge of the ancient college
court. By March 1352 a clear space, 220 feet long by 140 wide, had been
cleared, and the guilds worked with so much good will that they had
nearly finished the exterior wall of their college in the same year.
“The building of the college as it appears at the present day,” writes
John Jocelyn, “with walls of enclosure, chambers arranged about a
quadrangle, hall, kitchen, and Master’s habitation, was fully finished
in the days of Thomas Eltisley, the first Master [1352-1376] and of his
successor” [1376-1377]. This original court is what we see also to-day:
the buildings are in two floors, the garrets were added later. The hall
range contains the Master’s lodging with a _solarium_ above it, a door
and passage leading thence to the hall. The three other sides were
devoted to scholars’ chambers. S. Benet’s served as the scholars’
church, and the gate was on this side of the court.
Before the reign of Henry VIII. there was but little glass or panelling
in either story of the building. But in Jocelyn’s time the Master’s and
fellows’ rooms were “skilfully decorated” with both. The fellows and
scholars together panelled, paved, decorated, plastered, and glazed the
public rooms of the college, in one case
[Illustration: THE OLD COURT, CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE
This is the oldest court in Cambridge. The Tower of the old Saxon Church
of St. Benedict is seen in the background.]
“the college paying for the material and the scholars for the labour.”
Thus was this college born of the democratic spirit and the sentiment of
union nurtured in the same spirit. The college was called “of Corpus
Christi and the Blessed Virgin” but was familiarly known from the close
of the xiv century to modern times as Benet College. It lay in the heart
of the Saxon town, between the Saxon church of S. Benet and the church
of the Saxon Botolph which also served the scholars for their prayers.
The former was used until the year 1500, when a small chapel
communicating with the south chancel of the church was built. In 1579
Sir Nicholas Bacon gave the college a chapel; and the modern chapel is
on its site. Sir Francis Drake was the largest contributor next to
Bacon. The queen gave timber, and the scholars of the college again
toiled side by side with the workmen.
On March 21, 1353 the guilds made over to their college Gonville’s house
in Lurteburgh Lane which they had exchanged with his executor Bateman.
More ground was purchased facing the street and in time two large
neighbouring hostels S. Mary’s and S. Bernard’s were acquired for
students. The second court has all been built since 1823, and contains
the modern hall, lodge, library and chapel, and muniment room, and the
Lewes collection. The ancient hall serves as the present kitchen.
In the Library is one of the most valuable collections of MSS. in the
country, the spoils of the dissolved monasteries gathered together by
Archbishop Parker. Here is the oldest or “Winchester” Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle (to A.D. 892), and Jerome’s version of the four gospels sent
by Gregory to Augustin--“the most interesting MS. in England.” Here is
the splendid Peterborough psalter and “bestiary”; a _penitentiale_ of
Archbishop Egbert’s (A-S. translation); a Pontifical, probably written
before 1407; a xv century MS. Homer rescued by Parker from the whilom
baker of S. Augustine’s Abbey; Matthew Paris’ own copy of his history;
the Sarum missal of 1506, and a copy of the great English bible of 1568.
Here also is the first draft (1562) of the Articles of Religion, 42 in
number, scored over by Matthew Parker’s red chalk; the 3 articles which
were finally omitted (dealing with the state of the departed, the last
containing the statement “That all shall not be saved”) are here struck
out by Parker. The clause concerning the transubstantiation of the
eucharist he has similarly overscored.
Corpus also houses some of the most interesting plate in the university.
[Sidenote: Candle rents.
Corpus Christi procession.
College arms.]
The college was the chief sufferer in the peasant revolt of 1381
principally on account of the wealth which accrued to it from “candle
rents,” a tax chargeable on the tenants of all houses which had been
guild property.[157] On the festival of Corpus Christi--the
[Illustration: ST. BENEDICT’S CHURCH FROM FREE SCHOOL LANE
Its Saxon tower is the oldest building left in Cambridge, and close by
is the oldest piece of College building, the wall of Corpus Christi.]
Thursday in the Octave of Trinity--a great procession which included the
officers of the united guild, the civic dignitaries, and the university
authorities, perambulated the town from Benet Church to the bridge, the
Master bearing the pyx under a rich canopy. Even after the dissolution
of the guild the Master of Corpus continued the procession until it was
abolished by Henry VIII. in the 27th year of his reign (1535/6). The
ancient arms of the college consisted of the shields of the two
guilds--the emblems of the Passion for Corpus Christi; the triangle
symbol of the Trinity for the guild of the Blessed Virgin, above, Christ
crowning the Madonna and below, the guilds dedicating their college.
Exception was taken to them in Parker’s time as too papistical, and he
got the heralds to change them. The new arms still however recorded the
two guilds: quarterly, gules and azure, in the first and fourth a
pelican, with her young, vulning herself; in the second and third three
lilies proper
_Signat avis Christum, qui sanguine pascit alumnos;_
_Lilia, virgo parens, intemerata refert._
Among its great names Corpus counts Sir Nicholas Bacon the father of
Francis Lord Bacon, Matthew Parker who was Master of the college and its
great benefactor in later times, Christopher Marlowe and Fletcher,
Archbishop Tenison, Sir William Paston and a group of xvii century
antiquaries, and Boyle ‘the great earl’ of Cork. Roger Manners was a
considerable benefactor. In the time of Henry VII. Elizabeth Duchess of
Norfolk founded a bible clerkship and a fellowship, and placed the
buttresses of the college.[158]
The college soon maintained 8 fellows, 6 scholars, and 3 bible clerks.
All the inmates were destined by the founders for priests’ orders, this
being one of the four foundations in Cambridge due in whole or in part
to the dearth of clerks consequent on the black death.[159] In the time
of Caius Corpus held 93 persons and in Fuller’s time 126. In the xviii
century about 60. There are to-day 12 fellowships, about 15 scholarships
varying from £80 to £30 in value, 3 sizarships worth £25 each, and 6
exhibitions for students from S. Paul’s school, Canterbury, and the
Norwich Grammar school varying from £18 to double this sum.[160]
* * * * *
The building of Corpus Christi marks an historical and closes an
architectural epoch at Cambridge. The university had indeed two golden
ages--the reign of Edward III. and the reign of the Tudors. It has not
been sufficiently realised that Cambridge had no European rival in
scholastic activity in either period. In Edward’s reign six colleges
were built there--King’s Hall, Clare, Pembroke, Gonville, Trinity Hall,
and Corpus; only one college--Queens’--was founded at Oxford during the
same time. Three of these six foundations signalise local enterprise,
but the three earlier are a record of the affection of Edward’s house
for the university; and it is their preference for Cambridge in the xiv
century and the preference of the Tudors for it in the xvth and xvith
which marks its two great epochs.
[Sidenote: Cambridge in 1353.]
Let us look at the university as it was in the middle of the xiv
century, and let it be the year 1353. It is 250 years since Henry I.
began to reign; 150 before Erasmus lived here, and 550 before our own
time. It is the eve of that great change in the mental and moral _venue_
of humanity which ushered in the modern world. The Oxford friar Occam,
and with him scholasticism, had died four years before, Petrarch was
mourning Laura, and Chaucer was walking the streets of Cambridge the man
who was to be our link with the early Italian renascence and to clasp
hands across the century with Erasmus. Lastly, it was at this moment in
our history that the final adjustment of Norman and Saxon elements went
hand in hand with the creation of an English language--a period of which
Chaucer is our national representative. The town and university were
just emerging from the havoc wrought by the “black death,” but the royal
and noble foundations which had sprung up on all sides before the
appearance of the scourge had already attracted the youth round Edward’s
court to Cambridge; necessitating in 1342 Archbishop Stratford’s
injunction against the curls and rings of the young coxcombs studying
there.
Cambridge had in fact the reputation of the fashionable university,
while its fame is extolled by Lydgate--a younger contemporary of Chaucer
who had himself studied at Oxford--in words which show that at this date
it was believed also to be the older university.[161] Let us suppose
that Chaucer is returning from his first walk to Grantchester, along the
Trumpington road, past the scene he describes in the _Reeve’s Tale_, and
let us follow him up the Saxon High street. He skirts Coe fen and
reaches Peterhouse, its greater and its “little ostle” on the street,
with Balsham’s hall behind; and as he proceeds he sees on either hand
conspicuous signs of the love of the Edwards for Cambridge--to the right
the narrow quadrangle of Pembroke, beyond it, off the high road, past S.
Botolph’s and two hostels, lay the limestone walls of Corpus which had
just passed under the protection of Henry of Lancaster;[162] its old
court, then the newest of new courts at Cambridge, nestling against the
Saxon church of S. Benet. Behind lay the Austinfriars, and across the
road the Whitefriars from which Austin’s Lane led to Austin’s hostel,
occupying with Mill street the site of the future King’s College and
King’s College chapel. To the north of S. Benet’s he sees the university
church of Great S. Mary’s, just rebuilt after the fire, and opposite are
the schools begun a few years previously, with University, Clare, and
Trinity Halls behind, and “le Stone house” of Gonville. Then still to
his left, where now we see the buildings of Trinity, he beholds the
“gret colledge” King’s Hall which Edward III. has just built,
Michaelhouse with Crouched hostel which passed into its possession in
the February of this year, and its satellite hostels Ovyng’s and
Garret’s.
Just beyond King’s Hall is the building which forms the nucleus of the
university in the Norman town--the hospital of S. John, bordering on
Bridge street. As soon as this road is reached, which leads to the Great
Bridge, we see the crusaders’ round church of S. Sepulchre, and
following the road to the right we come to the Greyfriars, to the site
of the future God’s House, and past Preachers’ street to the Friars
Preachers or Blackfriars. On our left, across in the Greencroft, we have
left the Benedictine nunnery of S. Rhadegund. Returning past S.
Sepulchre’s we cross the river and come to the heart of the Norman
town--the Conqueror’s castle with the Norman manor house bought by
Merton in its shadow, and the churches of S. Giles and S. Peter.
Many of the hostels had recently disappeared to make room for the
colleges, but they were still as regards these latter nearly in the
proportion of three to one--and these latter, with the sole exception of
Peterhouse, had all arisen in the previous thirty years.
The sights and sounds in the streets suggested a new epoch--something
already achieved and something about to be achieved. Something of stir
before an awakening. The English language which was to prove in the
hands of its masters one of the finest vehicles of literary expression
began everywhere to be heard in place of the French of Norfolk and
Stratford-atte-Bowe. The softer southern speech prevailed over
[Illustration: KING’S COLLEGE GATEWAY AND CHAPEL--TWILIGHT EFFECT
The Gateway and Screen on the left hand, and beyond it the Chapel. In
the distance the Senate House, Caius College, and the Tower of St.
John’s College Chapel.]
the northern, but the dialects of East Anglia and the Ridings of Yorks
were perhaps most frequently heard. The canons of S. John and S. Giles,
from the Norman side of the town, might be met in their black cloaks,
the Gilbertine canons, from the Saxon side, all in white with the homely
sheepskin cape. The Carmelites had already exchanged their striped brown
and white cloak--representing Elijah’s mantle singed with fire as it
fell from the fiery chariot--for the white cloak to which they owe their
name of Whitefriars. The Romites of S. Austin wore a hermit’s
dress.[163] Benedictine monks from Ely and Norwich could certainly be
seen in the streets of Cambridge,[164] and the Benedictine nuns of S.
Rhadegund rode and walked abroad in the black habit as it was the
universal custom in that great order for nuns to do. The Dominicans
looked like canons in their black _cappa_, the Franciscans like peasants
in their coarse grey tunic roughly tied with cord.
Besides the Carmelites and Austinfriars there were the Bethlemite friars
in Trumpington street and Our-Lady friars by the Castle; the former
could be distinguished at a distance by the red star of five rays on
their cloaks with a sky blue circle in its centre--the star of
Bethlehem; but both these communities wore the habit--black over
white--of the Dominicans. Scholars poor and rich jostled each other in
the schools and in the public ways, wearing the long and short gowns of
the day, the _cote_ which had just come into fashion, or the habit of
their order. There were doctors in the three faculties wearing scarlet
gowns and the doctor’s bonnet or _camaurum_, and there was a sprinkling
of doctors and of students from Orléans, Padua, Pavia, and Paris.
A large number of the inmates of the colleges round, and of the scholars
walking the streets, wear the clerical tonsure, many scores have the
coronal tonsure of the friar--yet the feeling in the air is secular.
Cambridge has always suggested a certain detachment; neither
zeal--perfervid or sour--nor the pressure of tradition upon living
thought has had its proper home there. It has not represented monastic
seclusion nor hieratic exclusion, and it did so at this moment of its
history less than ever. The dawn of the coming renascence shone upon the
walls at which we have been looking. The modern world has been born of
the birth-pangs which have since convulsed Europe, and the walls which
were then big with the future are now big with the past. But it is the
greatness of Cambridge that amidst the multiple suggestiveness of its
ancient halls of learning, tyranny of the past has no place. About it
the dawn of the renascence still lingers; and the early morning light
which presided at its birth still defines the shadows and seems to
temper the noon-day heat, as light and shade alternate in its history.
[Sidenote: Chaucer at Cambridge.]
We have taken it for granted that Chaucer was walking the streets of
Cambridge with us. We have no direct evidence as to where Chaucer
studied; but our indirect evidence is sufficient. In the “Canterbury
Tales” Chaucer introduces us to two Cambridge scholars and to a clerk of
Oxenforde; and if one considers what would nowadays be called the
internal evidence of the _Reeve’s Tale_ it is difficult to resist the
conclusion that Chaucer was at Cambridge. How else should he know
Trumpington so well? Its brook, its bridge, its mill, its fen? He knows
about the “gret colledge” which had risen a few years previously; he
knows that its Master is called “the warden,” that its scholars are also
its “fellaws.” He has learnt there the dialect of Yorkshiremen, and
reproduces not only their turns of speech but characteristic terms--as
_bete_, _kime_, _jossa_--in the East Anglian dialect. If we turn to the
_Miller’s Tale_ all this local colouring is to seek. A “clerke of
Oxenforde,” indeed, was no unfamiliar figure in the xiv century,
especially to a Londoner. Familiarity with the aspect of Cambridge and
its neighbourhood was a very different matter.
Chaucer was probably himself of East Anglian origin. His grandfather
Robert and John his father were both of Ipswich and London, and when he
was kidnapped by his mother’s family “Thomas Stace of Ipswich” is the
kidnapper. There are two events of his young life known to us, and both
suggest that he was at Cambridge. One of these we hear about from his
evidence in the famous Scrope and Grosvenor suit in 1386. An upstart
knight--Sir Robert Grosvenor--whose name Chaucer had never heard before,
had displayed the arms of the Scropes, and Chaucer testifies in the
Court of Chivalry action which ensues that he had often seen Henry le
Scrope use the proud armorials “azure, a bend or” in the French wars
where they had been companions in arms twenty-seven years before (1359).
Now this great Yorkshire family were connected with Cambridge from
Chaucer’s time: Richard le Scrope, the son of his old comrade, was
chancellor of the university in 1378.[165] Two members of the same
family were chancellors in the next century, and the intermarriage of
the Scropes with the Gonvilles is recorded there to this day in Scrope
or “Scroope Terrace.”[166] Is it not probable that Geoffrey Chaucer knew
Henry Scrope at Cambridge and formed there the friendship which moved
him to testify in his behalf thirty years later?
This conjecture does not become less probable when we turn to the other
incident in his early life, which came to light in 1866 with a fragment
of the household accounts of the wife of Lionel Duke of Clarence. Here
the name of Geoffrey Chaucer is mentioned (in 1357) as that of a junior
member of her household. His early connexion with the house of Edward is
therefore an historical fact like his later friendship with John of
Gaunt. Now in 1352 Lionel Plantagenet had married Elizabeth de Burgh the
grand-daughter and namesake of the founder of Clare Hall Cambridge. The
“gret colledge” about which Chaucer tells us in the _Reeves Tale_ is
called “Soler Hall” and “Soler Hall,” so Caius records, was the ancient
name for Clare. Remembering, however, the incomplete condition of Clare
and of other foundations at this date the present writer supposes the
“gret colledge” to have been King’s Hall, the first imposing
architectural undertaking in the university and the building which must
_par excellence_ have attracted attention in the middle of the xiv
century.[167] It may also have been Chaucer’s own college, and in this
connexion it is worthy of notice that with the exception of the
half-dozen “minor scholars” at Pembroke, King’s Hall was at this time
the only college which educated lads in their teens.
Assuming the year of the poet’s birth to have been 1340 he would have
been going to the university, according to the custom of those days,
about the year 1353, and his place in Elizabeth de Burgh’s household was
probably already assured him when he went to Cambridge.[168] He was back
in her service in his seventeenth year and therefore could not have had
time to study at both universities: and we may add to this that although
his general knowledge, which he had no time to acquire in later life,
suggests that he received a university education, there is not a tittle
of evidence to support the idea that Chaucer went to Oxford.
One more conjecture: had he got his information about prioress’s French
from the religious of the convent of S. Leonard of Stratford-atte-Bowe
whom we find owning land in Cambridge from the days of Edward I.?
[Sidenote: The Schools.
The High Street and School Street.]
It is to this period of the history of Cambridge that the first
university buildings as distinguished from collegiate buildings belong.
During the chancellorship of Robert Thorpe, Knight, Master of Pembroke
(1347-64) and Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, afterwards
Chancellor of England, the “schools quadrangle” was projected in that
street of colleges, unrivalled in Europe, which prolonging the
Trumpington Road as King’s Parade or Trinity Street or S. John’s Street
was anciently known as the “School street” of the university. It was
also the high street of the Saxon town of which S. Benet’s tower was the
nucleus, but whether the original Saxon town lay on this side of the
river, or whether, as frequently happened in the xi century, the Saxon
population retreated here leaving the Castle district to their Norman
conquerors, we have no means of determining.[169]
There were, then, no public buildings up to the xiv century. The
Greyfriars or the Austinfriars gave hospitality to the university on
public occasions, and the only brick and mortar evidence of a university
lay in the hostels and colleges. The “Schools” now erected were halls
for lecturing and scholastic disputations; the north, west, and east
sides were completed by the middle of the next century, the south side
being added in accordance with a decision taken in 1457 to build “a
_new_ school of philosophy and civil law, or a library.”[170] This was
erected on university ground (on the south) next to the school of canon
law (west). Over this last was the original library room (the “west
room” 1457) and “a chapel of exceeding great beauty.” The quadrangle
contained the Divinity school (north) with the Regent and non-regent
houses; opposite was the Sophisters’ school with the _libraria communis_
or _magna_; on the entrance side were the Chancellor’s (Rotherham’s)
Library, Consistory court and Court of the Proctors and Taxors; and
facing this the Bachelors’ school and the school of Medicine and Law;
the old “west room” having been converted into a school, by grace of the
Senate, in 1547.[171]
[Sidenote: The university library.]
The schools remained untouched till the opening years of the xviii
century when the Regent House was pulled down to build the present
university library. This is the oldest of the three great English
libraries, and stands on ground which has always been university
property. The early xv century library which was lodged in the Schools
quadrangle originated in gifts of single volumes by private donors until
52 had been collected; and books which were bequeathed in 1424 are still
preserved. Fifty years later (1473) the proctors Ralph Sanger and
Richard Tokerham made a catalogue of 330 books.[172] Rotherham
Archbishop of York next presented 200 tomes, and Tunstall Bishop of
Durham was another donor: many of these last gifts
[Illustration: GATEWAY OF KING’S COLLEGE, KING’S PARADE
This is one of the most picturesque views in Cambridge. On the right are
the Gateway and Screen and other portions of King’s College; on the left
are some ancient houses.]
were “embezzled” by “pilferers” before the middle of the xvi
century,[173] and the libraries of three successive Cambridge
archbishops of Canterbury, Parker, Grindal, and Bancroft, formed the
chief treasure of the university until 1715 when George I. purchased and
presented the library of Moore Bishop of Ely which is the nucleus of the
modern collection.[174]
There are 400,000 volumes on open shelves among which the student can
wander at will and get his own books without applying to the library
officials; a convenience which Lord Acton, the late Professor of Modern
History, used to say made this the only serviceable library in Europe.
Another privilege, which is possessed by all masters of arts, is that
books may be taken home. Undergraduates, if in academic dress, have also
free access. The university library is one of the three copyright
libraries in England.[175]
[Sidenote: The Pitt Press.]
A printing press was set up at Cambridge, early in the xvi century, by
Siberch who said of himself that he was the first in England to print
Greek--7 small volumes in the Greek character were printed by him at the
university. Carter, however, tells us that an Italian Franciscan,
William of Savona, printed a book at Cambridge in 1478, four years after
Caxton had printed the first book in England. Lord Coke pointed out
that this university enjoyed before Oxford the privilege of printing
_omnes et omnigenas libros_, “all and every kind of book” (1534). This
included the right to appoint 3 stationers or printers.
Siberch’s printing place was on the present site of Caius. In 1655 the
university obtained from Queens’ College a lease of the ground at the
corner of Silver street and Queens’ lane--the historic Mill street
district--now the site of the lodge and garden of S. Catherine’s. In
1804 the present site was obtained for the university press, with a
further “messuage fronting upon Trumpington street and Mill lane”; the
remaining properties in Trumpington street, between Silver street and
Mill street, being bought in 1831-3. The Pitt Press, a church-like
structure, stands opposite to Pembroke (Pitt’s) College, and owes its
name to the fact that the surplus funds of the Pitt monument in
Westminster abbey were a donation to the university towards defraying
the cost. The building also contains the offices of the university
Registrary.[176]
The Senate House was not founded till 1722, and lies on the north of the
library.[177]
[Sidenote: King’s College. A. D. 1441.]
Ninety years passed after the building of Corpus before Henry VI.
founded King’s College, and Margaret of Anjou, his consort, founded
[Illustration:
KING’S COLLEGE CHAPEL AND THE ENTRANCE COURT, FROM THE FELLOWS’
BUILDINGS
A portion of the Chapel is seen on the left of the picture with Great
St. Mary’s tower in the distance. The Screen and Gate are on the
right.]
Queens’. It was in 1443 that the charter of the double foundation of
Eton at Windsor and King’s College at Cambridge was signed--the one “our
royal college of S. Mary of Eton,” the other “our royal college of S.
Mary and S. Nicholas”; for Henry dedicated his college to his patron
saint Nicholas “of Bari” the patron of scholars. The king laid the
foundation stone himself (p. 112) in the presence of John Langton
chancellor of the university, the keeper of the Privy Seal, the
chancellor of the Exchequer, and the bishops of Lincoln and
Salisbury.[178] The king’s father had intended to build a college at
Oxford; Henry VI. carried out his intention in endowing a college but
decided that the university should be Cambridge. A small college called
God’s House which had just been founded,[179] together with Mill Street
(acquired in 1445) and Augustine’s hostel (in 1449) and the church of S.
John Zachary, were pulled down to clear a space: but the original plan
for the college was never carried out, and the buildings we now see were
erected in the first quarter of the xviiith and in the xixth
centuries.[180]
[Sidenote: The chapel.]
The only portion of the original plan executed was the chapel. The
importance of King’s College chapel is not only architectural; is due
not only to the fact that it was begun before the Italian classical
revival as a monument of English Gothic, and completed in the full blaze
of the renascence, but that it marks a chapter in the history of English
religion. The church built for the old worship was consecrated for the
new; the first stone was laid by Henry VI. in the presence of great
catholic prelates, the oaken screen--perhaps the finest woodwork in the
country--bears the monogram of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn[181] twined
with true lovers’ knots. In the third place “this immense and
[Illustration: KING’S COLLEGE CHAPEL AND THE FELLOWS’ BUILDINGS
The South door of the Chapel is seen to the right in the picture, and
the Fellows’ Buildings, constructed in 1723, are on the left. The
Fountain with a statue of the founder, Henry the Sixth, was designed by
H. A. Armstead, R. A.]
glorious work of fine intelligence,” as Wordsworth calls it, remains one
of the very finest monuments of Perpendicular architecture; and that
beautiful English feature the fan-vaulting, which is to be seen in the
Tudor chapel at the Guildhall, in Henry VII.’s chapel at Westminster,
and at S. David’s (now ruinous), is here carried out over a larger area
than anywhere else.[182]
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.
So writes Wordsworth; and the stained glass windows, the most ‘complete
and magnificent series’ in the country says Carter, probably inspired
Milton’s
--storied windows richly dight,
Casting a dim religious light.
There let the pealing organ blow,
To the full voic’d quire below,
In service high, and anthems clear,
As may with sweetness through mine ear,
Dissolve me into ecstasies,
And bring all Heav’n before mine eyes.
On the death of the Lancastrian monarch, Edward IV. sequestrated the
building funds, but returned a thousand pounds later, and Richard III.
contributed £700; but it is Henry VII. who brought the work to
completion.
King’s is the only college in the university which receives only those
students who intend to read for honours, and until 1857 its members
could claim the _B.A._ degree without presenting themselves for
examination.[183] The college was, almost immediately upon its
foundation, exempted not only from archiepiscopal and episcopal control
but also from the general jurisdiction
[Illustration: KING’S COLLEGE CHAPEL INTERIOR FROM THE CHOIR]
of the university. It was endowed for the accommodation of a Provost, 70
poor scholars, 10 secular priests, 16 choristers, and 6 clerks--a total
of 103. Eton was designed for 132 inmates.[184] 24 of the 48
scholarships of King’s are now open. Each of these scholarships is of
the annual value of £80. There are also 46 fellowships. The most
celebrated Etonians have not however been educated at King’s, among
whose eminent sons have been Croke, Cheke (of S. John’s) Provost,
Woodlark the founder of S. Catherine’s, third Provost of the college and
also its benefactor, Sir John Harrington, Robert and Horace Walpole, Sir
Francis Walsingham, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, Conisby, Haddon, Giles
Fletcher, Waller, Fleetwood, Oughtred an Etonian on the first
foundation, Whichcote (of Emmanuel) Provost, Upton, Cole, and Charles
Simeon who was a life fellow. Nicholas Close (1551) and Aldrich (1537)
both bishops of Carlisle, the former one of the original six fellows,
the latter the intimate of Erasmus, Rotherham of York (1467) a fellow
and a donor to the chapel fund, Fox of Hereford (1535), William and
George Day bishops of Winchester and Chichester, one provost of Eton the
other of King’s, Wickham of Lincoln and Winchester,[185] Nicholas West
(Bishop of Ely 1515) the friend of Fisher and More and Richard Cox
(1559) both scholars of the college, Oliver King of Exeter, then of Bath
and Wells (1492), Alley of Exeter, Guest of Rochester and Salisbury
(1559), Goodrich of Ely (1534), Pearson, and Sumner, are among its
prelates. Henry and Charles Brandon, heirs of their father the Duke of
Suffolk, and nephews of Henry VIII. and both proficient scholars, died
of the sweating sickness while in residence here in the reign of Edward
VI. Cardinal Beaufort was a princely benefactor to the college, and John
Somerset, physician to Henry VI., who came to Cambridge as an Oxford
sophister and here graduated, was one of the chief instruments in its
foundation, and drew up its statutes.[186]
The college has produced several great schoolmasters, and is now
gradually acquiring a reputation for historical studies, about one third
of the students being history men. The dedication to S. Nicholas is only
retained in formal descriptions: _King’s College_ has been by common
consent regarded as the fitting title for this truly royal foundation,
and it recalls that still older King’s Hall which is now merged in
Trinity.[187]
[Illustration: THE HALL OF KING’S COLLEGE
This was built by Wilkins 1824-28. On the walls are several portraits by
Sir Hubert Herkomer, R.A.]
[Sidenote: The Cambridge College chapels.]
The importance of King’s College chapel in university history since the
xv century leads us to consider the rôle played in Cambridge by
collegiate chapels. Every college chapel, and every church which has an
historical connexion with the university, has served--as all early
Christian edifices have served--other purposes than those of religious
worship. What we have to remark in Cambridge is that this ancient custom
continued there longer than elsewhere. The “Commencements” which took
place later in the Senate House used to be held, as we have seen, in the
famous church of the Greyfriars or in that of the Austinfriars. The
University church--Great S. Mary’s--was used by the university for its
assemblies in the xiii century and was the scene of all great civic
functions; disputations were held in it on Elizabeth’s visit in 1564.
The college chapels were everywhere used for the transaction of
important business; the Provost of King’s and other Masters are still
elected in the chapel, documents are still sealed in the chapel of
King’s and Trinity, and the Thurston speech is still pronounced in the
chapel of Caius. The choir of King’s was used for degree examinations as
late as 1851, and declamations are even now held in the chapel at
Trinity. Indeed the “exercises of learning” “used” in the chapels was
the reason given by the Corpus men to Lord Bacon’s father when asking
for a church to themselves; and Queen Elizabeth witnessed the
_Aulularia_ of Plautus in King’s chapel on Sunday August 6th 1564, as
the abbess and her nuns had assembled for Hrostwitha’s play in the abbey
church of Gandersheim six hundred years earlier. The building of
colleges adjoining a parish church is a feature peculiar to Cambridge.
Merton is the one exception at Oxford, and Pembroke is, as we have seen,
the only early exception to this rule at Cambridge.[188]
List of pre-reformation colleges built with chapels:--
1. Pembroke 1355-63 (the existing chapel is xvii c.)
2. King’s 1446-1536 (the existing chapel).
3. Queens’ 1448 (defaced at the reformation and restored. But a xix
c. chapel is now used).
4. Jesus 1495 (The then existing xii c. monastic chapel was rebuilt
by the founder.)
5. S. Catherine’s 1475 (the existing chapel is xvii c.)
6. Magdalene 1483 (completely restored in the middle of the xix c.)
Existing pre-reformation chapels:--
King’s xv c.
Queens’ xv c. (restored).
Jesus xv c.
Trinity Hall xv c.
Magdalene (restored) xv c.
Colleges built without chapels and with (generally) post-reformation
chapels:--
1. Peterhouse (xvii c.){188a}
2. Michaelhouse (none).
3. King’s Hall (chapel built temp. Edw. IV., and Ric. III. The site
of the present chapel of Trinity College).
4. Clare (1535. The existing chapel is 1764).{188b}
5. Gonville.{188c}
6. Trinity Hall 1474.
7. Corpus 1500, and 1579 (the existing chapel is on the site of the
latter, and was erected 1823).
Existing xvi c. chapels:--
Christ’s 1505 (the original chapel, but defaced); Trinity,
completed 1564-7.
At Caius, the present chapel is on the site of the xvi c. chapel;
and at S. John’s a xix c. structure replaces the xvi c. one, near
the same site.
[Illustration: ENTRANCE GATEWAY, QUEENS’ COLLEGE
This old gateway forms the principal entrance to the College from
Queens’ Lane.]
The oldest ecclesiastical site and building incorporated with a
Cambridge college is therefore the chapel of Jesus (but cf. S. John’s p.
126); the site of the earliest college chapel is at Pembroke--but it is
a site merely; the oldest existing college chapel is King’s.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Queens’ College. A.D. 1448.]
The charter for the foundation of Queens’ College is dated 15 April
1448, but by this date its north and east ranges were already built.
Queen Margaret of Anjou had been so impressed with the beauty and
majesty of the plans for King’s College that she could find no rest till
she had projected her own foundation--Queens’; to endow and perfect
which she set to work with holy emulation; dedicating it in her turn to
her patron saint, Margaret the legendary Virgin and Martyr whose body is
shown at Montefiascone, and to Bernard of Citeaux. Two years previously
the principal of S. Bernard’s hostel had founded a college of S.
Bernard, the site of which he changed in 1447 to the present site of
Queens’. This formed the moral nucleus of the queens’ college; but she
obtained the larger part of the ground, near King’s, from the
Carmelites. This is one of the three colleges in Cambridge built of red
brick, S. John’s and S. Catherine’s being the others. The Queens’
quadrangle is, as Messieurs Willis and Clark tell us, the earliest now
remaining which claims attention for its architectural beauty. It is 99
feet east and west by 84 north and south.[189] The plan is not only a
very perfect example of college architecture, but is a model of the xv
century English manor-house, of the type of Haddon Hall;[190] so that
Queens’ College is as homogeneous a structure as King’s is
heterogeneous. The hall is on the west, adjoining it is the combination
room, above, the President’s lodging with a bedchamber over it. The
north side is kept for the chapel and for the library which is on the
first floor. The chambers are on the east and south sides, the gateway
being in the former. As in other colleges the passage to the grounds
(or, as in this case, to the second court) is between the hall and the
butteries. The west side of the quadrangle which was gradually
cloistered forms the east side of the second court, and is washed by the
Cam. The beautiful gallery on the north has formed part of the lodge
since the xvi century,[191] and connects the old
[Illustration: AN OLD COURT IN QUEENS’ COLLEGE
This is the Cloister Court. In the quaint sixteenth century buildings on
the left is the Gallery, and facing the spectator is the doorway into
the First Court. The Hall is seen on the right of this doorway.]
president’s lodging with a set of rooms on the west side, among which is
the audit room now used as a dining room.
Queens’, like King’s, was originally built with a chapel, and in both
instances the foundation stone of the chapel was that of the college. A
new chapel and buildings now lie beyond the President’s garden on the
north. There is a small court on the south of the cloister court which
contains the rooms occupied by Erasmus, overhanging the college kitchen.
Besides Erasmus, who lived here for at least four years, Fisher was
there as President of the college until 1508, and Old Fuller was another
of its worthies. Henry Bullock, the opposer of Protestantism and friend
of Erasmus, was a fellow, so was Sir T. Smith; Bishop Pearson[192] and
Ockley _alumni_. Henry Hastings Earl of Huntingdon, whose portrait hangs
in the audit room, Manners Earl of Rutland, George Duke of Clarence,
Cecilia Duchess of York, and Maud Countess of Oxford, were among its
benefactors. But its chief benefactor was Andrew Doket, a friar (of what
order is not known) and its first President, who saved the fortunes of
the college after the fall of the House of Lancaster.[193] The picture
of principal interest is also to be found in the lodge--Holbein’s
portrait of Erasmus which was painted during a visit made at the
scholar’s request to England.
The college was originally endowed for a president and 4 fellows, and
their principal study was to be theology. There are now 11 fellowships,
and about 18 scholarships which vary in value from £30 to £60.
Queens’ College is a monument of peace. The Yorkist queen Elizabeth
Woodville continued Margaret of Anjou’s work, and the two queens are the
co-founders of the college. It is Elizabeth Woodville whose portrait
looks down upon us in the hall, and it was she who changed Queen
Margaret’s dedication and called their joint work Queens’ College.[194]
It is also a monument to the unambitious but well-defined revival of
learning that marked the reign of Edward IV., of which Woodville Earl
Rivers, the queen’s brother, Tiptoft Earl of Worcester, and Caxton
himself are the representatives.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Kingly visitors to the university.]
Both King’s and Queens’ Colleges have offered hospitality on several
occasions to English sovereigns. Henry VI. came to lay the foundation
stone of King’s in 1441 and was at King’s Hall in 1445-6 (when he laid
the foundation stone of his second college?), in 1448-9 and in
1452-3.[195] Edward IV. visited the university in 1463 and 1476.
[Illustration: QUEENS’ COLLEGE FROM THE RIVER FRONT
On the left is seen the garden front of the President’s Lodge. The
wooden bridge designed by Etheridge (1749) is known as the Mathematical
Bridge. In the distance are the two old mills--the King’s Mill and the
Bishop’s Mill.]
Henry VII. paid five visits to Cambridge and stayed at Queens’ in 1498
and again in 1506 when he occupied a chamber near the audit room. It was
on this occasion that he attended the service for the eve of S. George’s
day in King’s College chapel clad in the robes of the Garter. Henry
VIII. was by his father’s side during this visit, and came again in
1522. Mary came as far as Sir Robert Huddleston’s when Jane Grey was
proclaimed. Elizabeth was entertained in the Provost’s lodge of King’s,
and it was when repairing to her rooms there after the solemn service in
the chapel that she thanked God “that had sent her to this university
where she was so received as she thought she could not be better.” James
I. visited Cambridge twice in 1615 and was again at Trinity College in
1623 and 1624; Charles I. (who had been Nevile’s guest in 1613) was
entertained there in 1632 and 1642; and Charles II. in the long gallery
at S. John’s in 1681. Anne was there in 1705, George I. in 1717, and
George II. in 1728. Queen Victoria came in 1843 and again in 1847 when
the Prince Consort was installed as Chancellor; and Edward VII. visited
the university in February 1904.
John had been in Cambridge the month before his death, September 1216;
Henry III. was there in the second year of his reign (1218); Edward I.
was there as Prince of Wales in 1270, and lodged again in the castle in
1294. Edward II. was the guest of Barnwell priory in 1326. Edward III.
was there in September 1328. Richard II. was also lodged at Barnwell in
1388.
The Conqueror had been at Cambridge in 1070.
Matilda is the first queen-consort whom we can picture visiting the
university town; Eleanor of Castile was frequently at Walsingham with
Edward,[196] and she gave as we shall see a “chest” to the university.
Margaret of Anjou was never there, but Elizabeth Woodville came in 1468.
The mother of Henry VII. also came to see her college in 1505 and again
with the king in 1506. Elizabeth of York accompanied Henry VII. in 1498;
Catherine of Aragon slept at Queens’ in 1519; and Henrietta Maria was
with the king in 1631-2.
* * * * *
The erection of King’s and Queens’ Colleges opened a period of college
building which lasted sixty years, and closed with the foundation of S.
John’s (in 1509).
[Sidenote: S. Catherine’s College, 1473.]
In 1473 Robert Woodlark chancellor of the university and third provost
of King’s, and one of the original scholars of that foundation, built a
small college dedicated to the Glorious Virgin Martyr S. Catherine of
Alexandria, with the object of extending “the usefulness of Church
preaching, and the study of theology, philosophy, and other arts within
the Church of England.” The present red brick structure was erected two
hundred years later, this being the only college except Clare which has
been entirely rebuilt since its foundation. S. Catherine’s, or “Cat’s”
as the
[Illustration: GATEWAY OF ST. CATHERINE’S COLLEGE
This is a view of the old Renaissance Gateway (1679), being the entrance
to the College from Queens’ Lane.] undergraduate familiarly calls it,
is remarkable for the number of bishops it has educated, among whom were
Archbishop Sandys, May of Carlisle, Brownrigg of Exeter, all of whom
were Masters of the college, as was Overall of Norwich who migrated from
S. John’s: John Lightfoot, the orientalist, was its 16th Master, and
Strype (who came here from Jesus), James Shirley the last of the
dramatists,[197] Ray the naturalist, and Addenbrooke the founder of the
well known hospital of that name at Cambridge, were also educated here.
The hall[198] was founded for a master and 3 fellows, and now maintains
6 fellows and 26 scholars.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Jesus College 1495.]
The next college is a solitary instance of the adaptation of monastic
architecture to collegiate purposes in Cambridge. Alcock Bishop of Ely
and joint lord chancellor with Rotherham obtained from Alexander VI.
(1496/7) the dissolution of the ancient Benedictine nunnery of S.
Rhadegund, and founded there a college which he dedicated to the
_Blessed Virgin Mary, S. John Evangelist, and the glorious Virgin S.
Rhadegund_. Its name of Jesus College records the growing cult of the
name of Jesus, and the substitution was approved by the founder
himself.[199]
If at Queens’ we are in a xv century manor-house, at Jesus we are in a
monastery; and might well imagine ourselves for a moment back in one of
the busiest centres of old Cambridge if we pace the cloisters just
before hall time when the stir is suggestive of the life of a great
monastery. Even the legend “Song Room” over a doorway falls in with the
illusion. James I. said that if he lived in the university he would pray
at King’s, eat at Trinity, and study and sleep at Jesus.
The chapel is the original conventual church[200] as rebuilt by Alcock.
It contains xii century work, and represents the transition from Norman
to Early English. The character of the college has been consistently
evangelical in spite of the fact that Bancroft the Laudian archbishop
before Laud, was here, and that he migrated here from Christ’s on
account of the latter’s reputation for Puritanism. Cranmer was scholar,
and fellow until his marriage, and was readmitted fellow when his wife
died a year later. Archbishops Bancroft and Sterne, Laurence Sterne,
Bale Bishop of Ossory, Strype, Fulke Greville, Fenton, Fawkes (the
poet), Hartley, and S. T. Coleridge were members. The college which was
founded for 6 fellows and 6 scholars, now maintains 16 fellows and some
20 scholars. The statutes
[Illustration: GATEWAY OF JESUS COLLEGE]
were indited by James Stanley Bishop of Ely, stepson of Lady Margaret,
and modified by his successor Nicholas West. Jesus College scholars were
commended by the founder to the perpetual tutelage of the bishops of
Ely, who when they lie there are said to lie in their own house.[201]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Christ’s College A.D. 1505.]
Ten years later a most interesting foundation was made. A college called
God’s House had, as we have seen, been founded in the reign of Henry VI.
and was appropriated by that monarch as part of the site of King’s
College. The foundation was a far-off echo of the plague in the previous
century, and when the king took possession of the site he appears to
have intended to endow a considerable college in its place in the parish
of S. Andrew where he erected another God’s House.[202] It was this
design, left unfulfilled (for the house only supported four of the
sixty scholars whom Henry VI. had himself proposed to maintain there)
that John Fisher, chancellor of the university and Bishop of Rochester,
brought to the notice of Lady Margaret Beaufort, daughter of the first
Duke of Somerset, Countess of Richmond and Derby, the wife of Edmund
Tudor and mother of Henry VII.; and on the site of God’s House she
erected her own Christ’s College, and made John Sickling its Proctor
first Master. The quadrangle was encased in stone in the xviii century,
but the gateway with its statue and armorials of the founder, and the
oriel over the entrance to the Master’s lodge recall the founder’s time.
Facing the gateway are the hall, the old combination room, and the
lodge, and above were a set of rooms reserved for the founder’s own use;
a turret staircase led therefrom to both hall and garden, as was the
custom in a master’s lodge. On the east of this “Tree court” is a
building in the renascence style, thought to be one of the finest
examples in England, and to have been the work of Inigo Jones (1642).
The gold plate of the college was a bequest of Lady Margaret’s and there
is none finer in the university. Christ’s is also noted for its gardens.
No college has been richer in great men. Milton was here for seven
years, Henry More the Platonist, Latimer the scholar-bishop and martyr,
Leland the antiquary, Nicholas Saunderson, Paley of the “Evidences,”
Archbishops Grindal and Bancroft, Bishop Porteous,
[Illustration: THE GATEWAY OF CHRIST’S COLLEGE FROM ST. ANDREW’S STREET
The Gateway is coeval with the founding of the College, and dates from
the first decade of the sixteenth century.]
Sir Walter Mildmay,[203] Charles Darwin, and Sir John Seeley. Lightfoot
the great Hebraist of his century, and Cudworth, were both Masters in
the xvii century; and in the previous century Exmew the Carthusian
martyr (1535) and Richard Hall (afterwards Canon of Cambray), Fisher’s
biographer, were inmates. Here Milton wrote his hymn on the Nativity,
and here he formed his friendship with Edward King--fellow of the
college--in whose memory _Lycidas_ was written.
The college was endowed for 12 fellows at least, half of whom were to
hail from those northern counties in which both Lady Margaret and Fisher
were interested; the total endowment was for 60 persons. There are now
15 fellowships, 30 scholarships (£30 to £70) and some 4 sizarships of
the value of £50 a year.[204]
Grammar, the original study of God’s House,[205] and arts were to be
studied in addition to theology, but excluding law and medicine; and for
the first time in college statutes lectures on the classical orators and
poets are provided for, an attention to polite letters for their own
sake which is supposed to have been due to the influence of Erasmus.
[Sidenote: The Lady Margaret.]
The Lady Margaret, for with this title alone her memory is preserved at
both universities, has, perhaps, no rival in Cambridge as both an
interesting and an important figure in its history. She appears to have
been one of the first in that age to understand that the university was
to replace the monastery as the channel of English learning, and to
endow colleges rather than religious houses. The two splendid
foundations which owe their existence to her bear upon them a stronger
personal impress than others. Alone of non-resident founders she
retained for her own use a lodge in the college she founded. An anecdote
when she was staying at Christ’s, preserved for us by Fuller, comes
across the centuries vivid with her personality. There is no episode in
any university to compare with the scholastic partnership of Lady
Margaret and Bishop Fisher, her chaplain, perpetual chancellor of the
university, and Master of Michaelhouse. Both were in their measure
“reformers before the reformation,” both joined to the spirit of piety
an abounding appreciation of the spirit of knowledge. At Cambridge and
Oxford she founded those readerships in theology known as the Lady
Margaret Professorships, and at Cambridge she instituted the Lady
Margaret preachership. She died on 29 June 1509, and Erasmus wrote her
epitaph in Westminster Abbey.[206]
[Sidenote: Cardinal Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and perpetual
chancellor of the university.]
Fisher lived many years after her, and completed the foundation of S.
John’s. He pronounced that discourse at her obsequies which is our chief
source of information about her.[207] Fisher was imprisoned, like Thomas
More, for refusing to admit the
[Illustration: THE FELLOWS’ BUILDING IN CHRIST’S COLLEGE
This building is in the Second Court. The design is attributed to Inigo
Jones. Through it we pass into the Fellows’ Garden, where we shall find
the famous mulberry tree sacred to Milton.]
royal supremacy in things ecclesiastical; covered with rags, and worn
with neglect and ill-treatment, but consoled by a filial and courageous
letter from his sons at S. John’s, he was led out to die on June 22,
1534, the New Testament in his hand open at the words: “This is eternal
life, to know Thee the only true God.” He stands alone among the bishops
of England to give his life for the principle for which the layman
Thomas More laid down his. Pole in a letter to Charles V. narrates that
Henry VIII. had said he supposed “that I” (Pole) “had never in all my
travels met one who in letters and virtue could be compared to the
Bishop of Rochester.”
* * * * *
[Sidenote: S. John’s College, A.D. 1509.]
We next come to the most splendid foundation hitherto realised at
Cambridge. The site chosen for a college which held its place through
the xvi century as the first and most brilliant society in the
university, could not have been more appropriate. It was that of S.
John’s Hospital, the first home of Cambridge students, the nucleus of
the university, erected soon after the Conquest in the heart of the
Norman town, and whence the first endowed scholars in christendom set
forth to found a college.[208]
The whole history of the university is epitomised in the street which
has S. John’s at one end of it and Peterhouse at the other: the bishops
of Ely have firm hold of either end, and lying against S. John’s is that
Pythagoras House which Merton bought from the Dunnings when he was
planning his famous foundation in the xiii century. We have seen that it
was at S. John’s Hospital that Balsham introduced secular scholars in
the same century, who should become _unum corpus et unum collegium_ with
the canons. The experiment did not succeed, and the canons saw the
scholars depart with great relief to the other end of what was to prove
the great street of colleges, whose limits were determined by this early
conflict between seculars and religious.
In what year the Ely scholars were settled at S. John’s remains
uncertain, although there is no more important date in Cambridge
history. Simon Montacute, Bishop of Ely, “who knew very well” as the
historian of S. John’s observes, says that the scholars had continued
there _per longa tempora_, and Baker
[Illustration: MILTON’S MULBERRY TREE IN THE FELLOWS’ GARDEN, CHRIST’S
COLLEGE
King James I. is said to have introduced the culture of the mulberry
tree, and it is probable that the one in this garden is the last
survivor of a number bought in 1609. Milton was admitted to this College
in 1625.]
considers that in no construction of words can this be understood
otherwise than as referring to the beginning of Hugh Balsham’s prelacy
at Ely.[209] The licence permitting the seculars to be engrafted on the
old stock with their own endowment, is dated the ninth year of Edward I.
(1280)[210] and the transference to Peterhouse took place three years
after; but the date of the royal licence is no proof that the work to
which it refers was initiated rather than completed and crowned in that
year; Margaret of Anjou, for example, obtained her licence when three
sides of the quadrangle at Queens’ were nearing completion.[211] In any
case the few months intervening between December 23, 1280 and the
decision to remove to Peterhouse could not be described as a “long
time,” and as Balsham had become bishop of the diocese in 1257 it is
most probable that he at once set about what it must certainly be
supposed he had at heart while still subprior of Ely.
With S. John’s we have the first of the large colleges. Henceforth
Trinity and John’s are “the big colleges” the others are “the 14 small
colleges.” It now consists of four large courts, three of which are of
brickwork. The first court was erected between 1509-1616 on the pattern
of the quadrangle at Christ’s. The founder’s grandson Henry VIII., whose
coronation she lived to witness, not only sequestrated a large part of
the funds she had destined for the building, but fifteen years later
beheaded Fisher her executor. The latter himself subscribed to the fund
and was able before he died to erect a college for a Master and 21
fellows--the original design being for 50 fellows. But what thus fell
short of the spirit of the earlier design has since been amply repaired,
and a series of benefactors have made the college one of the most useful
in England, with that large influence on the nation and large power of
helping poorer students which its founders had so greatly at heart.
The Second Court was built chiefly at the expense of Mary Countess of
Shrewsbury in 1595-1620. The Third Court was begun in 1623, with funds
provided by Williams then Bishop of Lincoln, and finished by benefactors
some of whom remained anonymous. The last Court was built in 1826 and is
joined to the college by the “Bridge of Sighs.” Beyond this is the
beautiful “wilderness” commemorated by Wordsworth.
---- Scarcely Spenser’s self
Could have more tranquil visions in his youth
he tells us, than he had had loitering in Cambridge nights under a
“fairy work of earth,” a certain lovely ash, wreathed in ivy. This is
the site of the infirmary of the canons, the only portion of whose
Hospital to be preserved was adapted as a college infirmary and was at
the north side of the First Court: it was destroyed in 1863 when the
present large chapel was built, which is the work of Gilbert Scott, and
is 193 feet long. The large hall
[Illustration: THE GATEWAY AND TOWER OF ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE
The Kirke White memorial is seen in the foreground, and behind it are
the Divinity Schools; to the left is the Gateway of St. John’s, with the
Tower behind it. The enclosed space in the foreground was formerly the
site of All Saints’ Church, pulled down in 1865.]
measures 108 feet, and the portrait of Lady Margaret presides over the
high table. The new combination room, which is now entered from the
second court, was built in 1864, and is 93 feet long. The west side of
the Third Court is cloistered, and from here leads the covered bridge,
called from its resemblance to the bridge at Venice “the Bridge of
Sighs.” The stone bridge near it supplanted the old timber bridge in
1696. As at Queens’, there is a long gallery on the first floor of the
Second Court. Nowhere has the original modest “master’s lodging”
undergone more change than here. The lodging--two rooms over the old
combination room, with an oriel, on the first court--was gradually
extended, again as at Queens’, along the gallery, and ran along part of
the next court. Finally Scott built the present lodge, outside the
courts altogether.
Christ’s and S. John’s are both profusely ornamented with the Tudor and
Beaufort badges of the founder, and with her name-device the
_marguerite_.[212] The ancient gateway has a canopied statue of the
Evangelist. To the north and south of the new chapel porch are statues
of Lady Margaret and of Fisher, and 16 statues of the benefactors and
great members of the college: Mary Cavendish Countess of Shrewsbury,
Sarah Alston Duchess of Somerset, Williams Archbishop of York, and
Linacre who founded the Physics lecture here and at Merton Oxford,
appear among the former. Among the latter are Roger Ascham (fellow)
(those asterisked are effigied); Sir John Cheke (fellow); *Bentley;
*Cecil Lord Burleigh; *Lucius Lord Falkland[213]; Fairfax, the
parliamentary general; *Wentworth Lord Strafford; *Stillingfleet,
*Overall,[214] *Gunning, and Selwyn, prelates; *William Gilbert; *Brook
Taylor the naturalist; *Clarkson the opponent of the slave trade; Cave
the ecclesiastical historian; Metcalfe the most brilliant of its
masters[215]; Matthew Prior, Grindal the classic, Cecil Lord Salisbury,
Ben Jonson, Wordsworth, Kirke White, Rowland Hill, Henry Martyn the
missionary, Horne Tooke, Castlereagh, Palmerston, Wilberforce, Erasmus
Darwin, Colenso, Herschell, Liveing, Adams the discoverer of Neptune,
Benjamin Hall Kennedy, and *Baker the historian of the college. Fisher
arranged a small chapel leading from the college chapel for his own
resting place.[216] The site of S. John’s chapel is as old an
ecclesiastical site as Jesus chapel: the xvi century edifice was
constructed close to the xii century canons’ church, and the fine modern
chapel is on the same site.
The licence for the college dates from 1511; the building was opened in
1516; and the statutes were drawn up by Fisher.
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE CHAPEL FROM THE FIRST
COURT
In the corner on the right is seen the Doorway of the Chapel, with the
tower rising above it. On the left is part of the Hall with a fine oriel
window.]
There are now 56 fellowships, 60 foundation scholars each receiving £50
annually, and 9 sizars £35 annually.
* * * * *
The next college which claims our attention must rank among the more
interesting foundations on account of its origin rather than of its
subsequent history.
[Sidenote: Magdalene College, A.D. 1542.]
Near S. John’s Hospital there was a site traditionally connected with
the lectures of Abbot Joffred’s monks in 1109, and which in fact was
afterwards Crowland Abbey property. When a monastic order possessed no
convent in a university town, the monks were obliged to reside in
lodgings, and this led, as we have already seen (i. p. 49) to the
foundation of monastic hostels for their reception. There were two such
hostels at Cambridge--Ely hostel and Monks’ hostel. Ely hostel was the
direct outcome of Benedict XII.’s Constitution in 1337[217] which
reconfirmed an earlier injunction of Honorius III. 1216-27 requiring the
Benedictines and Augustinians to send students in rotation from the
monastery to the university, and provided that monks should live at the
universities under a prior of Benedictines. It was purchased in 1340 (or
earlier) by John de Crawden prior of Ely for the Ely monks and was made
over to Bateman Bishop of Norwich seven years later for his foundation
of Trinity Hall.
Ely then had been the pioneer in providing this accommodation, which
served for Ely monks alone, and which, as we see, was speedily
abolished. Those few Houses which still elected to send their monks to
Cambridge[218] maintained them there thenceforth under the care of “the
prior of students”; and it was owing to the energy of one of these
Cambridge priors that Monks’ hostel was projected in 1428, at a time
when, as is then stated, no house existed for Crowland or other
Benedictine monks, and the religious either shared the hostels with
seculars or lived in lodgings in the town. The site for Monks’ hostel
consisted of two messuages granted in that year to the abbot of Crowland
by the Cambridge burgesses. Crowland, Ely, Ramsey, and Walden each built
portions for their own students.[219] Nearly a hundred years later, on
the eve of the Reformation, Edward Stafford Duke of Buckingham refounded
this hostel as Buckingham College. It was not
[Illustration: THE SECOND COURT OF ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE
The doorway on the right leads into the First Court. The Dining Hall is
in the building on the right and the Combination Room on the left of the
picture. In the background is the Chapel Tower with the sunset light
upon it]
completed at the time of his attainder two years afterwards (1521) and
the property escheated in due course as a cell of Crowland Abbey to the
crown.[220]
How soon Monks’ hostel became “the monks’ hostel of Buckingham” is by no
means clear. That the Dukes of Buckingham were early patrons must be
admitted on the evidence; for even if the house was not known as
Buckingham College in 1465, it was known as “the hostel called Bokyngham
college” in 1483 while it was still Crowland property, and both hall and
chapel were probably the gift of “deep revolving, witty Buckingham” the
second Duke Henry.
“I have in this world sustained great damage and injury in serving the
king’s highness, which this grant shall recompense.” So wrote Lord
Chancellor Audley in a letter begging for a share of the plunder when
Henry had determined on the suppression of the monasteries. The share he
wanted and got was Walden Abbey in Essex on the borders of
Cambridgeshire, and here he established himself on the site which his
son was to transform into the mansion of Audley-End. He did more; he
proposed to himself, apparently, some sort of expiation to balance the
“recompense,” and in 1542 changed Buckingham into Magdalene College
which he re-endowed. We have seen that Walden Abbey was itself one of
the builders of Monks’ hostel.
The mastership of the college is in the gift of the owner of Audley-End
(now Lord Braybrooke). Nothing of the xv century building remains. A
window of Pugin’s adorns the chapel[221] replacing the old altar-piece
which is now in the library. The combination room leads from the
musicians’ gallery of the pleasant hall, the only instance of this
arrangement in Cambridge.[222] In the time of Fuller, Magdalene was a
college of reading men: “The scholars of this college, though farthest
from the schools, were in my time the first to be observed there, and to
as good purpose as any.”[223] Twenty years ago it was the fashionable
college, and its members lived in private lodgings, attending neither
hall nor chapel. Magdalene is in the parish of S. Giles, and it has been
conjectured that it occupies the site of the house of the canons of S.
Giles before they removed to Barnwell. There is however no evidence for
this, and there are no documents at Magdalene earlier than Stafford’s
time.[224]
Archbishop Grindal,[225] Robert Rede chief justice in 1509, Cumberland
Bishop of Peterborough, and Kingsley were educated here. So was Pepys,
the diarist, who bequeathed to the college his extraordinary
collection
[Illustration: THE COMBINATION ROOM, ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE
This Gallery is used by the Fellows and is 93 feet long. It contains
portraits of many College worthies. The approach to it is by a Turret
Staircase in the Second Court. Its panelled walls and rich plaster-work
ceiling make it one of the finest specimens of its kind left in
England.]
of books, engravings, maps, and plans. The Pepysian library is now
preserved in a separate hall, in the donor’s own bookshelves constructed
after a plan of his own. It is by far the most interesting thing in the
college, and would be unique anywhere. It is to be hoped we may soon
have an official catalogue of its contents.
Magdalene is a small college, it has about 40 inmates, of whom 5 are
fellows. In Fuller’s time it held 140 persons, 11 being fellows and 22
scholars, the rest being as usual the college officers, domestics, and
students.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Trinity College A.D. 1546.]
With Trinity College are joined together in indissoluble matrimony the
two great periods of college building, and the culminating point of the
renascence is reached: so that Trinity, alone, represents Cambridge
architecturally and morally in its historical character of a university
of the rebirth from its dawn to its meridian.
[Sidenote: King’s Hall A.D. 1337.]
When Henry VIII., whose effigy adorns the great gate, proposed to make a
vast college on this site, he was proposing to expand the “great
college” built by Edward III. whose effigy graces the older gateway
within the court. Edward II. had maintained thirteen students at
Cambridge as early as 1317 and the number was increased later to
thirty-two: it was however left to his son to carry out the design of a
“House-of-Scholars of the King.”[226] We have already had frequently to
refer to this building, in which new interest has been awakened since
the restoration (in 1904-6) of part of the old Hall lying behind King
Edward’s gateway towards the bowling green, and presenting architectural
features fully justifying its xiv century fame as the most considerable
collegiate enterprise thitherto undertaken. The Hall lay to the north
west of the present quadrangle, covering the space now occupied by the
ante-chapel,[227] Edward’s gate, and the Master’s lodge. The acquisition
of the site affords a most interesting glimpse into contemporary
Cambridge history: for no site represented such various interests and
recalled so many of the great local names. The first plot of ground
obtained was a messuage of Robert de Croyland’s in 1336. Eight years
later Edmund Walsyngham’s house was purchased; the house of Sir John de
Cambridge who was knight of the shire and alderman of the guild of S.
Mary was sold to the college in 1350 by his son Thomas; and the next
year saw the purchase from Thomas son of Sir Constantine de Mortimer, of
a waste parcel of land next the river and S. John’s Hospital, called the
Cornhythe, which abutted on the last named property. Croyland’s and
Walsyngham’s houses were first adapted, and formed a small irregular
quadrangle. Later in the xiv century a new (irregular) court was
constructed on the north of the present chapel. The original entrance
was situated where the sundial now is; here stood the Great Gate, the
present
[Illustration: THE LIBRARY WINDOW, ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE, FROM THE BRIDGE
OF SIGHS
From this spot beautiful views are obtained up and down the river.]
Entrance Gate being built as late as 1535 to give King’s Hall a frontage
on the High Street. The Hall rebuilt in the later xiv century and added
to in the xvth was however only the nucleus of Henry VIII.’s college. To
the south west stood Michaelhouse; this too was absorbed in the new
building, and its second dedication to the holy and undivided Trinity
was retained in Henry’s college. Seven other buildings--all university
hostels--were also absorbed--Gregory’s, Crouched, Physwick, S.
Margaret’s, Tyled, Gerard’s, and Oving’s. The present kitchen occupies
part of the site of Michaelhouse; Physwick stood between the Queen’s
Gate and Trinity Street; and the other hostels were grouped round these
in S. Michael’s and King’s Hall Lanes.[228]
The work which had been begun by Lady Margaret at Christ’s and S.
John’s--the final substitution of the college for the monastery
school--was now completed by her grandson, the great despoiler of the
monasteries, who appears to have designed Trinity College as a splendid
atonement for the destruction of so many homes of learning. It was
largely endowed with abbey lands, and Henry’s undeniable interest in
erudition seems to have found its ultimate satisfaction in a foundation
into which there entered every element of that “new learning” which was
humanistic before it was Protestant. That provision was here to be made
for a wider field of knowledge than any hitherto contemplated in or out
of a university, seems amply proved by the words of the founder; who,
after declaring that the college is intended for the “development and
perpetuation of religion” (a well-chosen form of words?), continues
thus: “_for the cultivation of wholesome study in all departments of
learning, knowledge of languages_, the education of youth in piety,
virtue, self-restraint, and knowledge; charity towards the poor, and the
relief of the afflicted and distressed.” The programme was so liberal
that Mary herself endowed the college with monastic property, and
Elizabeth completed the chapel which her sister had begun.
No building, indeed, in either university suggests in the same way and
in the same degree that delightful mental combination of form and space
which is the mark of the “Cambridge mind” in science if it is not so in
literature. As we pass into the great court the buildings we see neither
shut out the light nor hem in the thoughts. The enclosure they suggest
is that formal enclosure of point and line which enables us to make
propositions about infinity. Of all scholastic buildings in the world
the great court of Trinity is that which best suggests the majesty and
spaciousness of learning. Here one receives an impression of adequacy,
balance, clearness, spaciousness, elevation, serenity, a certain high
power of the imagination--the mathematical qualities, the qualities of
the seeker after truth: an impression of the simple force of what is
simply clear, the simple grandeur of that which can dispense with the
mysterious; of the dignity which accompanies those who have looked upon
things as
[Illustration: OLD GATEWAY AND BRIDGE
These buildings form part of St. John’s College, and look on to the
river. The Tower of the College Chapel is seen in the background.]
they are in themselves, and have nothing adventitious to offer, yet what
they offer holds a curious power of satisfying.
Does a man see all this as he walks into Trinity and learn from it the
lesson which Cambridge spreads before him, or does he take it with him
under the gateway and let Trinity Great Court represent for him what he
already knows of Cambridge? What does it matter whether it suggests so
much or is allowed to represent so much?
Trinity Great Court covers more than 90,000 square feet--an area of over
2 acres--and is the largest in any college. The building, carried out
under Edward VI., received considerable modification during the
mastership of Nevile (1593-1615) dean of Canterbury, who arranged the
court on its present plan, erected the “Queen’s gateway” and the fine
renascence fountain, enlarged the original lodge, and built the hall and
kitchen. On the west side, facing us as we enter, is the hall (1604)
which was modelled on that of the Middle Temple. Next it are two
combination rooms--the centre for generations of Cambridge fellows who
first had their assembling room in King’s Hall hard by[229]--but the
façade here was spoiled in the xviii century when the oriel and frontage
of the old hall of Michaelhouse were removed. A Jacobean porch leads us
into the lodge, which occupies the site of King’s Hall lodge. The great
scholar Bentley, Master from 1700 to 1742, built the staircase and
otherwise left his mark here. His excursions into the classical were,
however, curtailed during the mastership of Whewell (1840) when
Alexander Beresford Hope subscribed to restore the Gothic character of
the front and built the picturesque oriel.[230] The inscription stating
that he had restored its ancient aspect to the house during the
mastership of Whewell gave rise to the following amusing paraphrase:--
This is the House that Hope built.
This is the Master, rude and rough,
Who lives in the House that Hope built.
These are the seniors, greedy and gruff,
Who toady the Master, rude and rough,
Who lives in the House that Hope built.[231]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1555-1564.]
The chapel, on the north, was built by Mary, and
[Illustration: PEPYS’ LIBRARY, MAGDALENE COLLEGE
This range of old buildings houses the Pepysian Library. The style is
seventeenth century.]
is one of the few churches erected in her reign, as Trinity College is
itself one of the few places where her name is held in affection. Though
it has none of the greatness of King’s chapel, it yields to none in
interest. The site is that of the chapel of King’s Hall built for the
scholars by Edward IV., the materials of which, with stone from the
Greyfriars’ house, the fen abbey of Ramsey, and Peterhouse, and lead
from the Greyfriars and Mildenhall, were used in the construction.
Elizabeth completed it nine years later (1564). The ante-chapel contains
the statue of Newton,
---- with his prism and silent face,
The marble index of a mind for ever
Voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone
a work of Roubiliac’s considered by Chantrey to be the noblest of
English statues. Bacon, Barrow, Macaulay, and Whewell have also statues
here, while Richard Porson is commemorated by a bust. Along the wall
which faces us as we enter are sixteen memorial brasses chiefly to
remarkable fellows of the college who have died within the last twenty
years.
The great court leads in the usual way, by hall and butteries, to
Nevile’s court, another work of Dr. Nevile’s, and here the library--to
the building of which Newton contributed--was erected by subscription,
the foundation stone being laid on February 26, 1676. The architect was
Wren who also designed the bookcases of the “stately library” as those
who had determined on its foundation had called it in anticipation. The
wood of the cases is Norway oak which has been stained to imitate cedar.
The building is very rich with decoration inside and out; the length is
194 feet as compared with the chapel 210 feet and the hall 100 feet. The
staircase and pavement are of marble. Pedestals with busts of members of
the college line the room on either side. The library contains 90,000
volumes, with 1900 MSS. including a Sarum missal on vellum of 1500,
Milton’s rough draft notes of “Paradise Lost,” the _Codex Augiensis_ of
Paul’s Epistles, four MSS. of Wyclif’s bible, and the Canterbury
psalter.[232]
A New Court, to which George IV. contributed, was erected in the first
quarter of the xix century and Dr. Whewell built, at his own expense,
the Master’s Court. Upon the site of Garret’s hostel, the then bishop of
Lichfield erected in 1670 a small building known as “Bishop’s hostel”
which is used as students’ quarters, and the proceeds of letting it are
spent according to the founder’s direction in the purchase of books for
the library. Macaulay “kept” here when he first went up to Cambridge.
[Illustration: THE GATEWAY OF TRINITY COLLEGE
The Great Entrance Gate, constructed about 1518-35. The panels over the
arch commemorate King Edward the Third and his six sons. The Master’s
lodge is seen in the distance through the gateway.]
[Sidenote: The Mastership.]
The Mastership of Trinity has been, ever since the Reformation, one of
the most important offices in the university; but it is rendered still
more distinguished by the great men who have successively filled it. The
last Master of King’s Hall became the first Master of Trinity and has
had among his successors Isaac Barrow, William Bill, Whitgift, Wilkins,
Bentley, and Whewell. Its chief benefactor Nevile was eighth Master.
Trinity has been equally great in literature and science, and has
effected more for both in the three hundred and fifty years of its
existence than any other centre of learning. Among its fellows it counts
Newton, Adam Sedgwick, Ray, Barrow, Porson, Roger Cotes, Macaulay,
Whewell, Westcott, Airy, Clerk Maxwell, Cayley, Hort, Thirlwall, Jebb.
Among lawyers Bacon, Coke, and Lyndhurst; among prelates Tunstall,[233]
Whitgift, Lightfoot. Among other famous _alumni_ are Robert Devereux,
Cotton, Spelman, Thackeray, Granville (_M.A._ 1679), Peacock, Kinglake,
Trench, De Morgan, F. D. Maurice, and the late Duke of Rutland (Lord
John Manners). Among poets, Byron, Dryden, Andrew Marvell, Tennyson,
Donne, Cowley, George Herbert, Monckton-Milnes. Another historic
friendship like that between Spenser and Kirke at Pembroke, Milton and
King at Christ’s, and Gray and Walpole, grew up in the shadow of
Trinity--the friendship of Tennyson and Arthur Hallam commemorated in
_In Memoriam_.
There are 60 fellowships, 74 scholarships worth each £100 a year, and 16
sizarships of the value of £80 each. The students of Trinity number
one-fourth of the undergraduate population. The college is not only the
largest but the most important scholastic institution in the world:
“being at this day” writes Fuller, “the stateliest and most uniform
college in Christendom, out of which may be carved three Dutch
universities.” Among the college livings are the university church of S.
Mary’s, S. Michael’s (the old church attached to Michaelhouse)
Chesterton Vicarage and several rectories and vicarages in the dioceses
of Ely, York, Lincoln, Lichfield, London, Peterborough, and Carlisle,
which include most of those belonging to King’s Hall and Michaelhouse,
with the exception of the Norwich benefices.[234]
[Sidenote: Gateways.]
The gateway of Trinity with its four towers, the two interior being the
larger and furnished with staircases, reminds us that the ornamental
gateway was the last architectural addition to the college quadrangle.
The first ornamental archway was the great gate built for King’s Hall in
1426.[235] It was copied in the turreted gateway of Queens’ College, and
afterwards in the old gateway of King’s,[236] and in the present
gateways of
[Illustration: THE GREAT COURT, TRINITY COLLEGE
The largest at either University or in Europe. We see the Great Gate in
the picture on the right, facing us--the Chapel. To the left of the
Chapel is seen King Edward’s Gate, fourteenth century. The beautiful
Fountain in the middle of the picture is in the Renaissance style, and
was built by Nevile in 1602, and rebuilt in 1716.]
Christ’s and S. John’s, and even in that second gateway of King’s Hall
which is the present entrance gate of Trinity.[237] The only gateway in
Cambridge which varies completely from these models is Alcock’s at
Jesus, which is much lighter in character. The xvi century gateways of
Caius are “the first specimens of the revival of stone work.”[238] The
ornamental gateway is a distinctive feature of Cambridge college
architecture. The room over the gate was used as a muniment room; in S.
John’s the chamber in the tower serves this purpose.
[Sidenote: Caius College A.D. 1557.]
In 1557 Doctor John Keys (whose name was Latinised as Caius) built and
incorporated with Gonville Hall a college for scientific research and
medical studies--the illustrious society which has since been known as
Gonville and Caius College.
Keys or Caius was one of the great physicians of the xvi century;
physician to Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, and President of the
College of Physicians. He was a Yorkshireman by race but a native of
Norwich, and had been Principal of Physwick hostel which was at that
time attached to Gonville Hall. Italian universities had turned his mind
from the study of divinity to that of medicine and he became a doctor in
that faculty at Padua in 1541, two years after leaving Cambridge. At
Padua he lived with one of the earliest anatomists--Vesalius; and he
himself lectured for twenty years on anatomy to the surgeons in London,
at the request of Henry VIII.[239] He was Master of the college of which
he was co-founder, but regularly spent the emoluments on fresh buildings
at Caius. He was not only a great naturalist, the first English
anatomist, a great physician, and an eminent classic,[240] but also a
distinguished antiquary, and to him we owe one of the most valuable
histories of the university. He had withal “a perverse stomach to the
professors of the gospel,” and clung like Metcalfe of S. John’s and
Baker of King’s to the old religion and the old ways of worship.[241] He
is buried in the college chapel, and the simple words _Fui Caius_ are
inscribed over him. The foundation-stone of Caius he had himself
inscribed: _Johannes Caius posuit sapientiae_; “John Caius dedicated it
to knowledge.”
He built his college in two parallel ranges, east and west; a chapel and
the Master’s lodge occupying the north side. On the south was a low wall
with a gateway. “We decree,” he writes in the statutes of Caius, “that
no building be constructed which shall shut in the entire south side of
the college of our foundation, lest for lack of free ventilation the air
should become foul.” This appreciation of the all-importance of air and
sun to living organisms was more than three hundred years in advance of
his time. If his instructions be not carried out, he says, the health of
the college will be impaired, and disease and death will ensue. Closed
quadrangles had been built in Cambridge ever
[Illustration: THE HALL OF TRINITY COLLEGE FROM NEVILE’S COURT
This is sometimes called the Cloister Court, and was built at the
expense of Dr. Nevile about 1612. The principal building in this picture
is the Dining Hall with its beautiful oriel window. Passing up the steps
and through the passage we enter the Great Court, where we get another
fine view of this Hall. Lord Byron occupied rooms in Nevile’s Court.]
since the erection of Pembroke College, but no more were built there
after the time of Caius.[242] Andrew Perne of Peterhouse was a
contemporary stickler for hygienic conditions in the colleges; he saw to
it that only pure water should be available “for the avoiding of the
annoyance, infection, and contagion ordinarily arising through the
uncleanness” of King’s Ditch “to the great endammaging” of health and
welfare.
The college founded by Gonville is still known as Gonville Court in the
joint college; but the other buildings are entirely new and make a
modern show at the corner of King’s Parade not necessarily justified by
the modernness of the science pursued within their walls.
In the xv century Gonville was peopled with monastic students: it is
said that when Humphrey de la Pole and Gresham were studying there the
other scholars were nearly all religious. If the monks of Ely, Crowland,
Ramsey, and Walden lived at Monks’ hostel, the monks of Norwich priory
had been allowed by a special papal exemption to continue to frequent
Gonville and Trinity Halls, as they had done since Bateman’s time.[243]
The Suffolk monks of Butley, black Benedictines from Bury, Cistercians
from Lewes, and Austin canons from Westacre in Norfolk were also to be
found there.[244] Gonville Hall was always regarded as the papal
favourite at Cambridge; yet by 1530 Nix Bishop of Norwich in a letter to
the primate Warham asserts that not one of the clerks at Gonville but
“savoured of the frying pan.”
Caius has always been a doctors’ college; Harvey, Glisson the anatomist,
and a long roll of eminent surgeons and physicians here received their
education. Jeremy Taylor and Sir Thomas Gresham the only one of the
Merchant Adventurers known to have been at a university, and founder of
the Royal Exchange, were also sons of this house; as was Samuel Clarke
(_b._ Norwich 1675) the metaphysician, “the lad of Caius.”
There are 22 fellows and some 36 scholars and exhibitioners, the value
varying from £100 down to £20. There are also two chapel-clerkships (£38
for one year), and the Tancred medical studentships each worth £100 a
year.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Emmanuel 1584.]
We now come to the last two colleges to be founded in the xvi century.
Emmanuel was founded by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of
[Illustration: NEVILE’S GATE, TRINITY COLLEGE
To the left are the College kitchens and on the right is Bishop’s
Hostel. The buildings on the left are among the most ancient in this
college. Through the picturesque old gateway we see up the lane into
Trinity Street.]
the Exchequer to Elizabeth, in 1584, his object being to plant the seed
of Puritanism in the university. The site he chose was the suppressed
house of the Dominicans, and Ralph Symons, the architect who worked with
so much skill and judgment at S. John’s and under Nevile at Trinity,
converted the friary buildings into the Puritan college. The friars’
church is now the college hall and the library which at one time served
as a chapel was it is said the convent refectory. The college chapel was
built, from Wren’s designs, by Sancroft Archbishop of Canterbury
(1668-78); and the college itself was rebuilt in the xviii and xix
centuries. Emmanuel has preserved an evangelical character, the relic of
its original Calvinism in doctrine and Puritanism in discipline; and the
clerical students of Ridley Hall are recruited chiefly from here. “In
Emmanuel College they do follow a private course of public prayer, after
their own fashion”; the chapel used was unconsecrated, the communion was
received sitting. The contrast must have been all the greater at this
time--the beginning of the xvii century--when incense was burning and
Latin was sung in other Cambridge chapels.
The name of Emmanuel College recalls the movement with which it was
connected later in that century: when Whichcote, Cudworth, Smith, and
Culverwell of Emmanuel, and More of Christ’s led the van of philosophic
thought.[245] Besides Cudworth, Emmanuel has nurtured at least four
eminent representatives of learning and science, Flamsteed, Wallis,
Foster, Horrox; and one great statesman, Sir William Temple; and as a
representative churchman, Sancroft who was also Master of the college.
Samuel Parr was here; and William Law, the author of the “Serious Call,”
was a nonjuring fellow. Harvard went from Emmanuel to America where he
founded the university which bears his name.
There are 16 fellowships, 30 scholarships, and 4 sizarships.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Sidney Sussex 1594.]
Sidney Sussex, the last of the xvi century colleges, was also built in
Elizabeth’s reign, on the site of the Greyfriars’ as Emmanuel rose on
the site of the Blackfriars’ house. Frances Sidney, daughter of Sir
William Sidney and wife to the third Earl of Sussex, bequeathed the
money for the foundation, and her executors purchased the property from
Trinity College. The ubiquitous Ralph Symons was the architect; but the
college was modernised in the early xix century. There are two courts:
the hall and lodge in one, the chapel and library in the other. In this
last is a x century pontifical from a northern diocese, probably Durham.
The character of the college has always remained Protestant, this and
Emmanuel being the first Protestant foundations in the university.
Oliver Cromwell was enrolled a member the day of Shakespeare’s death,
and Fuller the ecclesiastical historian was here for many years. Sterne
the founder of the
[Illustration:
TRINITY COLLEGE BRIDGE AND AVENUE, WITH GATE LEADING INTO THE NEW
COURT
The Bridge was built in 1763 by Wilkins. The trees in the Avenue in
foreground were planted in 1671-72.]
Irish College of Surgeons, Archbishop Bramhall, Henry Martyn,[246] May
the poet, and Seth Ward are among its worthies. Edward Montague, Earl of
Manchester, of whom the historian writes that he “loved his country with
too unskilful a tenderness” was a member of this college, and carried
out Cromwell’s destructive programme at his university. No one mentions
the founder of Sidney Sussex without saying that she was aunt to Sir
Philip, and it is a title of honour even for the founder of a college:
did not Fulke Greville have himself described in his epitaph as “Frend
to Sir Philip Sidney”?
There are 10 fellows and 36 scholars on the foundation, besides
sizarships of the value of £27 a year.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Downing 1803.]
One college has been built at Cambridge in modern times. The founder,
who bequeathed his property for the purpose, was Sir George Downing of
Gamlingay Park, Cambridgeshire, whose father was a graduate of Clare.
Wilkins (the architect of the modern portions of King’s and Corpus and
of the New Court of Trinity) began the structure in 1807, but he only
completed the west and east sides. The town has since grown up to the
college, which has large pleasure grounds. A “Downing” professorship of
law and another of medicine were also endowed by the founder. Six of the
8 college fellowships must be held by students of law or medicine; and
there are 10 scholars on the foundation.
Taking the place of the older hostels, but inversely as regards their
relative proportion to the colleges, there are now 6 hostels, colleges
in all but university status, with resident students reading for the
usual university examinations. There are also two post-graduate hostels.
The oldest of these are _Newnham_ (1871) and _Girton_ (1873) which are
described in another chapter. _Cavendish College_ on the Hills Road was
opened in 1876 by the County College Association and admitted students
from sixteen years old. It was recognised as a public hostel (November
9, 1882) but was closed nine years later.
_Ridley Hall_ was erected in 1880 for theological students who have
taken their degree. Its object is the maintenance of Reformation
principles.
_Selwyn College_ was founded in 1882, by subscription, in memory of
Bishop Selwyn, and for the maintenance of Church of England principles,
to whose members it is restricted. This institution occupies a somewhat
anomalous position in the university, for it is the only hostel on
avowedly “denominational” lines publicly recognised by and therefore
forming part of the academic society. Cambridge has set its face against
the recognition of colleges intended to meet the interests of one
religious section of the community to the exclusion of others, on the
ground that members of all religious communities may now receive
instruction in any of the colleges, and suffer no interference with
their religion, and also in pursuance of the main principle that a
university education is of greater use
[Illustration: CAIUS COLLEGE AND THE SENATE HOUSE FROM ST. MARY’S
PASSAGE
On the left is the Senate House, built 1772-30. The building facing the
spectator is the South Front of Gonville and Caius College by Waterhouse
(1870). Through the railings on the right is the Tower of Great St.
Mary’s. The street is King’s Parade.]
and value when young men are not classed and separated according to
their religious divisions. Thus when the Catholic hostel of _S. Edmund_
applied for recognition in 1898, the “grace” was refused, in spite of
the fact that many members of the university unconnected with any
religious denomination, voted in its favour. _S. Edmund’s House_ was
founded by the Duke of Norfolk in 1897, and is for clerical students
working for a tripos or other advanced work recognised in the
university. It ranks as a licensed lodging house. A Benedictine hostel,
_Benet House_, was founded in the same year, and supported by the father
of the present abbot of Downside. A few professed monks, who are entered
as members of Christ’s or some other college, pursue there the usual
university course.
_Westminster College_ is a post-graduate college for the Presbyterian
Church of England, founded in Cambridge in 1899 (removed from London).
_Cheshunt_ theological _College_, founded by the Countess of Huntingdon
in 1768, has just been removed to Cambridge, and is there lodged in
temporary premises. Undergraduate and post-graduate students are
received, the former being non-collegiate members of the university.
Students and staff must be of the Evangelical Reformed faith, but are
free to enter the ministry of the established or any Free Church
responding to that description.
These four last are the result of the abolition of the test act (1871)
which kept our universities closed both to catholics and nonconformists:
but Benet and S. Edmund’s houses were projected when the prohibition to
catholics, maintained by Cardinal Manning, was withdrawn.
[Sidenote: A note on the nationality of Cambridge founders.]
Hugh de Balsham, founder of Peterhouse, 1284, Cambridge. Ob. 1286,
bur. before the high altar, Ely.
Hervey de Stanton, founder of Michaelhouse, 1324. Ob. York 1327,
bur. in S. Michael’s church near his college.
Richard de Badew, founder of University Hall, 1326, Chelmsford,
Essex.
King’s Hall, Edward II. and Edward III., 1337.
Elizabeth de Clare, founder of Clare Hall, 1338 b. at Acre of
Norman settlers in England, Wales and Ireland; married to two
Irishmen. Ob. 1360, bur. Ware, Herts.
Marie de Chatillon, founder of Pembroke Hall, 1347. French, married
a Welsh earl. Ob. 1377, bur. in the choir of Denney Abbey.[247]
Edmund Gonville, founder of Gonville Hall, 1348. East Anglian. Ob.
1351.
William Bateman, founder of Trinity Hall, 1350, East Anglian (b.
Norwich). Ob. 1354, bur. Avignon.
Two Cambridge guilds, founders of Corpus Christi College, 1352.
William Byngham co-founder with Henry VI. of God’s House, 1439,
1448 (Rector of S. John Zachary, London; Proctor of the university
in 1447) (Fuller pp. 150, 161).
King’s College, Henry VI., 1441.
Margaret of Anjou, founder of Queens’ College, 1448, French. Ob.
1482, bur. at the cathedral of Angers.[248]
Elizabeth Woodville, co-founder of Queens’. Northants. Ob. 1492,
bur. at Windsor, near Edward IV.
Robert Woodlark, founder of S. Catherine’s, 1473, b. Wakerly near
Stamford, Northants. Ob. 1479.
John Alcock, founder of Jesus College, 1495, b. Beverley, Yorks.
Ob. 1500, bur. at Ely.
Margaret Beaufort, founder of Christ’s and S. John’s Colleges,
1505, 1509, b. Bletsoe, Beds.[249] Ob. 1509, bur. Westminster
Abbey, in the south aisle of Hen. VII.’s chapel.
John Fisher (her coadjutor) b. Beverley, Yorks. Beheaded 1534, bur.
in the Tower.
Magdalene College [first founded by the Fen abbeys and Walden 1428]
Henry and Edward Stafford 2nd and 3rd Dukes of Buckingham, then
Thomas first Baron Audley of Walden 1544. The two former (whose
family came from Staffordshire) were beheaded 1483 and 1521, and
bur. at Salisbury, and Austinfriars, London.[250] Lord Audley b.
Essex, ob. 1544, bur. Saffron Walden.
Trinity College, Henry VIII., 1546.
John Caius, founder of Caius College 1557. Yorks, but b. Norwich,
ob. 1573, bur. in the college chapel.
Sir Walter Mildmay, founder of Emmanuel College, 1584, Chelmsford,
Essex. Ob. 1589, bur. at S. Bartholomew the Great, London.
Frances Sidney, founder of Sidney Sussex College, 1595, Kent (the
family came from Anjou with Henry II.). [Her father and husband
were both Lords deputy for Ireland, and her father also President
of Wales.] Ob. 9th March 1589, bur. Westminster Abbey.
Sir George Downing, founder of Downing College, 1803,
Cambridgeshire. Ob. 1749, bur. Croydon, Cambridgeshire.
[Illustration: THE GATE OF VIRTUE, GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE
This picture represents the Court built by Caius, who refounded the
College. The Gate of Humility faces the spectator. This is the west
side, and over the gate are the words Io CAIVS POSVIT SAPIENTIAE 1567.
These words are taken from the inscription on the foundation stone.]
It will be seen that the university owes most to Cambridge itself and
East Anglia; and next to two counties which have always been in strict
relation to it, Yorkshire and Essex. Two of the founders of colleges
were French. Both Welsh and Irish names have been from the first
represented, but Cambridge owes nothing to Scotland.[251] Even as late
as 1535 when Henry issued the royal injunctions to the university during
the chancellorship of Cromwell, there were students from every diocese
and district of England, and from Wales and Ireland, at Cambridge, but
Scotland is not mentioned.[252] Of the 4 countesses who founded
colleges, one was twice married to Irishmen, and two married Welshmen.
Of the 14 (non-royal) men founders (including the third Duke of
Buckingham and Fisher) 5 were East Anglian (3 Cambridgeshire), 3 were
East-Saxons, 3 Yorkshiremen, one a Northamptonshire man, and one came
from Staffordshire. To Beverley the university owes Fisher and Alcock,
to Chelmsford Badew and Mildmay, to Norwich Bateman and Caius.
Of the 6 women founders, two were French (Chatillon and Queen Margaret)
one was of French extraction (Sidney), the Clares were Normans,
Elizabeth Clare and Chatillon were Plantagenets through Henry III. and
Edward, Margaret Beaufort and Buckingham by descent from Edward III.;
Elizabeth Woodville was half French through her mother Jaquetta of
Luxembourg, daughter of Peter Comte de Saint-Paul. Thus, curiously
enough, two of the women founders hailed from Anjou (Margaret and
Frances Sidney) and two from Saint-Paul (Chatillon and Elizabeth
Woodville).
The colleges they founded favoured different provinces.
[Sidenote: Scope of their foundations.]
Marie Valence, wished French fellows to be preferred to others of
equal merits, and, failing these, scholars from the college
rectories.[253]
Gonville wished to benefit East Anglian clergy.
Bateman wished chiefly to benefit clergy of the diocese of Norwich.
Henry VI. decided that failing scholars from the parishes of Eton
or King’s, Buckinghamshire and Cambridgeshire should have the
preference.
Margaret of Anjou’s college was, by Andrew Doket, allied with the
Cambridge Greyfriars.
Margaret Beaufort and Fisher favoured the northern districts of
Richmond, Derby, Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, York,
Lancashire, and Nottingham, from which half at least of the
scholars were to come.
Sidney Sussex College was, by its “bye-founder” Sir Francis Clerk,
endowed for students from Bedfordshire.
Hervey de Stanton founded Michaelhouse for clergy, and for the
study of theology.
The special character given to Peterhouse by Balsham was the studious
pursuit of letters, arts, Aristotle, canon law or theology. There were
to be 2 scholars for civil and canon law, and one for medicine; and poor
bible-clerks were to be instructed in grammar.
Marie Valence founded Pembroke for the study of arts as well as
theology.
Elizabeth de Burgh founded Clare for general learning. Three poor
boys were to be instructed in grammar, logic, and singing.
Edmund Gonville made the 7 Arts the foundation for a theological
training. (Bateman abolished its theological character.)
William Bateman founded Trinity Hall for the study of law only.
The two Guilds of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin founded
their college for scholars in sacred orders, and for the study of
theology and canon law.
William Byngham established God’s House for the study of grammar
among the clergy of the north-eastern counties.
Henry VI. required all the scholars of King’s to be candidates for
sacred orders, and made theology and arts the principal but not the
exclusive faculties.
Margaret of Anjou made theology the principal study at Queens’, and
in her college law was only tolerated. The master of arts must
either teach the _trivium_ and _quadrivium_ for 3 years, or devote
the same time to the liberal sciences or Aristotle.
Robert Woodlark made his fellows restrict their studies by vow to
“philosophy and sacred theology”--his college of S. Catherine was
founded to promote Church interests exclusively.
John Alcock required that the scholars of Jesus College when they
had graduated in arts, should devote themselves to the study of
theology. Canon law was prohibited, but one out of the 12 fellows
might be a student of civil law.
Margaret Beaufort founded Christ’s for the study of grammar, arts,
and theology, but law and medicine were excluded.
Edward III. and Henry VIII. founded King’s Hall and Trinity College
for general learning.
John Caius founded his college for the pursuit of science.
Sir Walter Mildmay founded Emmanuel for clergy who should maintain
the principles of the Reformation.
Sir George Downing founded his college for the study of law and
medicine.
[Illustration: THE GATE OF HONOUR, CAIUS COLLEGE
In the background on the right appear the buildings of the University
Library, one of the Turrets of King’s Chapel in the distance, and the
Senate House is seen on the left.]
Hence Michaelhouse, Gonville, Corpus, God’s House, King’s, Catherine’s,
Jesus, and Emmanuel were destined for a clerical curriculum only.
Bateman contemplated the union of the diplomatic career with the
clerical; and although there were many jurists’ hostels his is the only
college founded and endowed for the exclusive study of law. Caius is the
only college founded and endowed for the natural sciences and medicine;
but in the xiii century Balsham, in the xvith Caius, and in the xixth
Downing, all provided for medical studies. Similarly in the xiii, xiv,
and xvi centuries Balsham, Edward III., Elizabeth de Burgh and Henry
VIII. each founded a college for the pursuit of general knowledge.[254]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Wealth of the university.
Sources of revenue.]
Throughout the xiiith, xivth, and xvth centuries the university was
certainly a very poor corporation. It took a hundred years to build
three sides of the Schools quadrangle, and the money for the important
schools of Philosophy and Civil Law collected by Chancellor Booth in the
xv century was only got together by taxing the university.
The university as distinguished from the colleges has never been a
wealthy society, and its sources of revenue are now much the same as
they have always been. There are the capitation fees of members of the
university. Fees for matriculation, for the public examinations, and for
graduation, and proctors’ fines.
[Illustration: THE FIRST COURT OF EMMANUEL COLLEGE]
The income of Burwell rectory and of a farm at Barton, The trading
profits of the University Press; and one new source of income--the
annual contribution from each of the colleges, in proportion to its
revenues, provided for by statute in 1882. The vice-chancellor delivers
an annual statement of expenditure, which includes the upkeep of the
Senate House and Schools, of the University church, the Registrary’s
office, the observatory, museums and lecture rooms, and a yearly
contribution to the library: the salaries of professors and public
examiners, and the stipends and salaries of university officers and
servants.[255]
[Sidenote: College wealth and property.]
The original property of colleges was in land, benefices, and plate. The
portable property was laid by in a _chest_ kept in the muniment room:
here title deeds, charters, rare books, college plate, and legacies _in
specie_ were treasured; the last being drawn upon for the purpose for
which they were bequeathed until exhausted. Benefactors to a college
presented it with a “chest,” and hence the “University Chest” is still
the name for its revenue. Queen Eleanor presented a “chest” of a hundred
marks to the university in 1293 (“The Queen’s Chest”); and Elizabeth,
Duchess of Norfolk, enriched the public treasury with a thousand marks
in the reign of Henry VII. when the “chests” had been “embezzled to
private men’s profit”; a gift “which put the university in stock
again.”[256] The “Ely Chest” was given in 1320 by John sometime Prior of
Ely and Bishop of Norwich, and the other principal givers were country
parsons, university chancellors, a “citizen of London” in 1344, and
Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter (“Exeter’s Chest”) in 1401.
The wealth of the colleges differs greatly. Trinity college has a gross
income of over £74,000 and the next richest college is S. John’s. The
poorer colleges have gross incomes varying from 4 to £9000.[257] The
proportion contributed at Cambridge and Oxford for the royal loan of
1522 is interesting. At Oxford, New College and Magdalen contributed
most, more than eight times as much as Exeter and Queens’ (£40) which
gave least.[258] At Cambridge, King’s College and King’s Hall were the
richest corporations and contributed the same sums as New College and
Magdalen Oxford.
[Illustration: THE OLD COURT IN EMMANUEL COLLEGE
The large stained-glass window of the Hall is seen on the right, and
beyond that the window of the Combination Room. The Dormer window of
Harvard’s room is seen on the extreme left.]
CHAPTER III
THE UNIVERSITY AS A DEGREE-GIVING BODY
[pp. 157-164] Meaning of a degree--the kinds of degrees--the
bachelor--the ancient exercises of the schools called acts,
opponencies, and responsions--the
sophister--questionist--determiner--master--regent master--the
degree of _M.A._--introduction of written examinations--the tripos.
[pp. 164-189] The subjects of study and examination: the _trivium_
and _quadrivium_--grammar--Aristotle’s logic--rhetoric--the three
learned faculties--the doctorate--development in university
studies--the development of the mathematical tripos--the senior
wrangler--the classical tripos--Greek at Cambridge--the moral
sciences tripos--philosophy at Cambridge--the natural sciences
tripos--science at Cambridge--the language triposes--list of the
triposes--changing value of the examination tests--the double
tripos--present conditions for the _B.A._ degree--modern changes in
the examinations--standard of the ordinary and honour degree,
examples.
[pp. 189-201] Method of tuition at Cambridge--the lecture--the
class--the weekly paper--the professorial
chairs--readerships--lectureships--Lambeth degrees--degrees by
royal mandate--honorary degrees--the “modern subjects”--and the
idea of a university.
A university differs from other scholastic institutions in conferring
“degrees.” Having taught a man his subject it offers him a certificate
that he in his turn is able to teach it: the “degree” originally
signified nothing more nor less than the graduate’s competence to
profess the faculty in which it was obtained. This certificate of
proficiency referred to the “three faculties” of theology, law, and
medicine, to which was added later “the liberal arts.” The titles of
“master,” “doctor,” and “professor” were at first synonymous. A master
was a doctor in his subject, capable of professing it. The title of
“master,” however, clung to the faculty of arts, that of “doctor” to the
three liberal or learned professions.
The following degrees are now conferred: in arts, the bachelor and
master (_B.A._, _M.A._); in divinity, the bachelor and doctor (_B.D._,
_D.D._--formerly _S.T.P._, _sacrae theologiae professor_); in laws,
bachelor, master and doctor (_LL.B._, _LL.M._, _LL.D._[259]); in
medicine, bachelor and doctor (_M.B._, _M.D._); in music, bachelor,
master, and doctor (_Mus.B._, _Mus.M._, _Mus.D._); in surgery, bachelor
and master (_B.C._, _M.C._). Besides which a doctorate in science
(_Sc.D._), and a doctorate in letters (_Litt.D._), are conferred on
graduates in laws or in either of the last four faculties who have made
some original contribution to the advancement of science or
learning.[260]
[Illustration: THE LAKE AND NEW BUILDINGS, EMMANUEL COLLEGE
The building is known as the Hostel, and was erected between 1885 and
1894.]
[Sidenote: The bachelor and exercises of the schools.]
The title of bachelor originally marked the conclusion of a period of
study; it was not a degree, and bestowed no faculty to teach. Here, as
elsewhere, a bachelor was an apprentice or aspirant to another status or
position; and he remained _in statu pupillari_ as he still is in theory
to-day.[261]
It is only in modern times that the conferring of a degree follows upon
a set written examination. For six hundred years the aspiring bachelor
and master obtained their status by public disputations in the schools.
Public exercises, called “acts, opponencies and responsions,” were
regularly held during the period of probation, and the student advanced
to the degree of master by steps which recall the rites of initiation in
the catechumenate. After his first year the “freshman” became a “junior
sophister”[262] in one of the faculties, and began to attend the school
disputations, without however taking part in them. In his fourth year,
as senior sophister, he qualified to be “questionist,” and presented
himself as such at the beginning of Lent with ceremonies which turned
him into a bachelor; ceremonies in which the Cambridge bedell figures
as a veritable deacon. The procession was formed on Ash Wednesday and
introduced into the arts schools by the bedell, who exclaimed: “_Nostra
Mater, bona nova, bona nova!_” and “the father” (the presiding college
senior) having proceeded to his place, the bedell suggested to him the
stages of the ceremony: _Reverende pater, licebit tibi incipere_, etc.
After this day the new bachelor was no longer a questionist but a
“determiner” who determined in place of responding to the propositions
raised in the schools. This status continued through Lent, and hence the
incepting bachelor was described as _stans in quadragesima_.[263]
[Sidenote: The master of arts.]
In due course the bachelor “commenced master of arts,” the inception
taking place in Great S. Mary’s church on the day of the “Great
Commencement” the second of July. This is the traditional time of year
for the granting of degrees, and the ceremony is still called
“Commencements” in Cambridge and in universities which, like Dublin, are
derivative institutions. The status now attained was that of _regent
master_, _i.e._ a junior graduate whose
[Illustration: THE CLOISTER COURT, SIDNEY SUSSEX COLLEGE
The new buildings on the left of the picture were designed by Mr. J. L.
Pearson and erected in 1890. In the distance we see the large mullioned
window of the Hall, which is part of the old college building begun
1596.]
business it was to teach the subjects he had himself been taught, for a
period of five years; after which he became a non-regent, or full
master.[264] The obligation to teach was part of the university theory
of studies; so that when a Cambridge professor of our own time
astonished his hearers by declaring “I know nothing of political
economy, I have not even taught it” he was speaking in the spirit of the
university maxim _disce docendo_. It was the scholar who had taught who
was called _magister_ and _doctor_ in old times, not the men who, as is
the case nowadays, “go down” with no other qualification than that of
the bachelor and are nevertheless allowed in due time to write _M.A._
after their names. For the _degree_ of _M.A._ has virtually ceased to
exist: no one now “commences master,” and the master of arts is simply
the bachelor who has spent three years away from the university, in
which he has had time to forget what he once knew. Indeed as between the
master and the bachelor the case is often inverted, and if the former is
an ordinary degree man and the latter an honours man, it is the latter
who is the master in his subject while the former is little else than a
tyro. That the degree of master carries with it not one iota more of
scholarship or experience is certainly not understood by the public, but
the fact that it is understood elsewhere supplies the reason why such a
small proportion of men now proceed to take it.[265]
[Sidenote: Written examinations.]
It was not till the xviii century that written examinations were
introduced, and from the day of their introduction the practice grew and
flourished. Originally teaching and tests had both been oral, it was
only as books became cheaper that the book in a measure supplanted the
teacher, the written examination came to supplant the public acts and
disputations, and _the writing down of knowledge_ became the
characteristic feature of Cambridge training. “Then know, sir, that at
this place, all things--prizes, scholarships, and fellowships--are
bestowed not on the greatest readers, but on those who, without any
assistance, can produce most knowledge upon paper.” “Read six or eight
hours a day, and _write down what you know_,” is a tutor’s advice ninety
years ago.
[Sidenote: The tripos.]
The _tripos_, although it did not take shape till the middle of the same
century derives its name from a custom of the xvith. On the day when the
bachelor obtained his public recognition he had as his opponent in
discussion one of the older bachelors who posed as the champion of the
university. He sat upon a three-legged stool “before Mr. Proctor’s seat”
and
[Illustration: DOWNING COLLEGE FROM THE ENTRANCE IN REGENT STREET
These buildings are in the classical style and are all
nineteenth-century work.]
disputed with the senior questionist. This stool or _tripod_ was
eventually to provide a name for the great written examination of
succeeding centuries--the _tripos_. The champion bachelor was addressed
as “Mr. Tripos,” and his humorous orations were called “tripos
speeches.” _Tripos verses_ were next written, and on the back of these
the moderators, in the middle of the xviii century, began printing the
honours list:[266] from this _tripos list of names_ the transition was
easy to _tripos_ as the name of the examination itself--the tripos
examination. These disputations degenerated in Restoration times to
buffoonery, but the principle of examination made steady progress,[267]
and there were probably no tripos speeches after the Senate House was
built. In the xvi and xvii centuries, however, great personages had acts
and disputations performed for their entertainment; and the tastes of
Elizabeth and her Scotch successor were consulted when “a physic act”
was kept before the former, while “a philosophy act” was reserved for
James.
There were declamations, which did not escape Byron’s ridicule, in the
xix century, but the last general public “act” was kept in 1839. The
_viva voce_ examination in the “Little go” which was only discontinued
14 years ago, and the _viva voce_ and the “act” for the medical
degree[268] are the only survivals to our day of that oral examination
by which the scholar in the public acts constantly responded to the
living voice of the _magister_. For the first time in their long history
silence settled down upon the schools, and the eye replaced the ear as
the channel of knowledge.[269]
[Sidenote: Subjects of study. _Trivium_ and _Quadrivium_.]
The subjects in which university students were from the first exercised,
were those of the Roman _trivium_ and _quadrivium_, and the three
faculties of theology law and medicine. A special importance must be
assigned to the school of grammar--the first member of the _trivium_--at
Cambridge. There is every reason to believe that it flourished there not
only in the xiii century, under the patronage of the bishops of Ely, but
also in the xiith. It was called the school of glomery (glomery,
glamery, grammery)[270] and continued to be of importance till the xvi
century, the last degree in grammar being granted in 1542.[271] Degrees
in grammar were, nevertheless,
[Sidenote: xii-xiii c.]
considered inferior to those in arts. To begin with, grammar was only
studied for three years, arts for seven; grammar made the clerk, arts
the professor. The introduction of the “new art,” Aristotle’s
[Sidenote: A.D. 1712.]
analytical logic, increased the importance of the second member of the
_trivium_: the name of Aristotle was a name to conjure with, but no new
texts came to light to add lustre to the acquirements of the classical
grammarian. As to the third member of the _trivium_, public rhetoric
lectures were delivered in Cambridge by George Herbert (1620); but a
century later Steele complains that both universities are “dumb in the
study of eloquence.” There were still however rhetoric lectures in the
xviii century, but they were not about rhetoric, and the public
declamations in the senate house must be regarded as the last homage to
this most ancient of arts, whose modern successor is the Union debating
society.
[Sidenote: The three liberal or learned faculties.]
If the original Cambridge schools were grammar schools after the pattern
of Orléans and Bury-St.-Edmund’s, then the introduction of the arts
faculty--the trivium and quadrivium--was the first step towards the
formation of a _universitas_; and its appearance in the xii century
would account for the university status of Cambridge in the opening
years of the xiii century.[272] The first of the three learned faculties
to take its place in the university was divinity, and with the rise of
the earliest colleges provision was made for the study of the two
faculties of theology and law. The faculty of medicine was the last to
gain a footing. Cambridge never became famous as a school of any of the
faculties in the sense in which Paris represented divinity, Bologna
law, Montpellier medicine. The study of the civil and canon law was,
however, prominent in the xv and early xvi centuries, but was shorn of
its ecclesiastical moiety during the chancellorship of Thomas Cromwell
when Peter Lombard and Gratian were banished the Cambridge schools.[273]
Of the two universities Cambridge alone retains a recognition of canon
law in the title of its bachelors masters and doctors of laws, _LL.B._,
_LL.M._, and _LL.D._, a title commuted at Oxford into ‘bachelor and
doctor of civil law,’ _B.C.L._ and _D.C.L._ The medical progress of the
early xvi century which had been marked by the foundation in 1518 of the
Royal College of Physicians reached Cambridge by means of two great men,
Linacre from Oxford and its own distinguished son John Caius. Peterhouse
had been the first college to admit medical studies, but our naturalists
and physicians of later times, not content with the fare provided for
them in England, took their degrees at the continental schools.
Medicine, the last to obtain recognition, is now the most prominent
representative of the learned faculties at Cambridge. Until 1874 when a
theological tripos was formed, admitting to a degree in that subject
only, theology was studied as part of the mathematical tripos. Law was
taken as an additional subject, and degrees in divinity and law were
proceeded to separately, as now. Satisfying the examiners in the
theological, law, or natural sciences tripos does not admit the student
to any but the arts degree. Medical students need not, however, graduate
in arts, but may proceed at once, after taking the Previous Examination,
to read for the _M.B._ degree.[274] In addition they must keep an “act,”
which consists in reading a thesis previously approved by the Regius
Professor of Physic. Having read the thesis (of which public notice is
given) in the schools, the candidate is orally examined by the presiding
Regius Professor of Physic. After this he becomes an _M.B._[275]
A candidate who has obtained honours in Parts I. and II. of the law
tripos or honours in Part I. in addition to an arts degree, is eligible
for the degree in laws and may proceed to take the _LL.B._, the _B.A._,
or both. Any candidate may “incept in law” (_LL.M._), without further
examination, who has taken a first class in both parts of the law
tripos. If he has not this qualification he must have attained an
honours standard in one part of the tripos, or be a qualified barrister
or solicitor, or their equivalent in Scotland. In this case he must
submit a dissertation on law, its history, or philosophy. The doctorate
of laws is obtained after making an application in writing and sending
in an original written contribution to the science of law. The _LL.M._
cannot incept till six years have elapsed from the end of his first term
of residence, and five years must elapse between the master’s and the
doctor’s degree.
[Sidenote: The doctorate.]
A master of arts or of laws becomes a bachelor of divinity after
subscribing certain declarations required by statute and preaching a
sermon in the University church. Four years later he must “keep an act”
_or_ print a dissertation, in Latin or English, upon some matter of
biblical exegesis or history, of dogmatic theology, ecclesiastical
history or antiquities, or on the evidences of Christianity. The “act”
is kept in the same way as that for the medical degree, and includes a
_viva voce_ examination. To proceed to the _D.D._ the same preliminary
formalities as for the _B.D._ must be observed,[276] and a dissertation
be printed on one of the same subjects. Five years must elapse between
the two degrees, except in the case of a _B.D._ who is also an _M.A._ of
at least twelve years’ standing. In fact the lapse of time is all that
remains of incepting and proceeding to the higher degrees.
[Sidenote: Development of university studies.]
Until hard upon the close of the xv century there was no development in
university studies. Erasmus in 1516 describes them as having consisted
until thirty years previously in nothing but Alexander (the grammar
text-book at Cambridge) the “Little Logicals,” the old exercises from
Aristotle, the _quaestiones_ from Duns Scotus. The study of mathematics,
the new Aristotle, a knowledge of Greek, had all come within the last
few years.[277]
[Sidenote: The development of the mathematical tripos.]
Gradually the study of these “arts” yielded to the mathematical tripos.
The subjects which had been intended to embrace a general education
dropped out,[278] those which dealt with mathematics or mathematical
physics encroached more and more, till in 1747 the historic tripos with
which the name of Cambridge is identified was fully established. The
conviction of the paramountcy of mathematical reasoning had been
emphasised at the university by the discoveries of Newton, and when its
mathematical studies were consolidated in the xvii century under the
influence of Newton’s tutor, Isaac Barrow, “philosophy” was understood
to mean the mathematical sciences, and continued to mean this and this
only in English mouths till the threshold of our own times.[279] “By
the study of the great relations of form,” writes an old Trinity
student from the other side of the Atlantic, the Cambridge man acquired
that “breadth of reasoning,” that power of generalisation, and
perception of analogy “in forms and formulae apparently dissimilar,”
which characterise the scientific mind. A study which bestows accuracy
of scholarship, the perception of order and beauty, and “inventive power
of the highest kind,” was that “in which for two hundred years all, and
now more than half of the Cambridge candidates for honours exercise
themselves.”[280]
[Sidenote: Wranglers.]
Euclid and Newton filled the Cambridge horizon, and summed, as we have
seen, all philosophy and all “arts.” Theology itself ceased to rival the
mathematical disputations which became the business of the schools _par
excellence_, and which were of such importance that the name of
_wranglers_ was exclusively applied to those most proficient in them,
and “the senior wrangler” held the first position in the university. To
attain this place it was necessary to have “fagged steadily every day”
for six or eight hours. The quality of a man’s work would tell for
nothing in the final result if he had neglected, with this end set
before him, to practise that mere mechanical “pace” which would serve
him in the great week.[281]
[Sidenote: The classical tripos.]
In 1822 the classical tripos was added. The history of classical studies
at Cambridge is of special interest. The introduction of Greek into this
country was a movement due directly to our universities: students of
Oxford first learnt the language in Italy, but Cambridge as a university
first gave it an academic welcome. The last echoes among Englishmen of
the most wonderful idiom the world has heard resounded in the school of
York, when John of Beverley, Wilfrid, and Bede could be described as
Grecians, and where Alcuin taught Greek. More than seven centuries later
the efforts of Fisher chancellor of the university of Cambridge with the
co-operation first of Erasmus and then of Croke, re-established Greek in
an English seat of learning.[282]
[Illustration: TRUMPINGTON STREET FROM PETERHOUSE
Part of the new buildings of Pembroke College are seen on the right, and
the Tower of the Pitt Press, commonly called by undergraduates “The
Freshers’ Church,” is seen in the distance. The entrance to Peterhouse
is behind the tree on the left of the picture.]
[Sidenote: Greek at the universities.]
Erasmus had given up his dream of studying Greek in an Italian
university and had settled down three years before the close of the
century at Oxford on hearing that Grocyn was teaching there.[283] He had
known some Greek before he went to Oxford, and he knew but little when
he left, for its acquisition was still his great pre-occupation when he
accepted Fisher’s invitation and went to Cambridge. The work of Grocyn
and Linacre left no trace in their own university. When Colet introduced
the study of Greek into his new school, Oxford showed itself hostile;
when the Greek of Erasmus and Croke had taken permanent hold in
Cambridge, the Oxford students rose up in arms against the Cambridge
“Grecians,” and dubbing themselves “Trojans” sought street brawls with
the “Greeks.” Finally, Sir Thomas More himself wrote a protest to his
old university, which, he wrote, was engaged in casting ridicule on
those who “are promoting all the interests of literature at your
university, and especially that of Greek.” “At Cambridge, which you were
always accustomed to outshine, even those who do not learn Greek are so
much persuaded to its study in their university that they praiseworthily
contribute to maintain a salaried professor who may teach it to
others.”[284]
Colet took Greek into our public schools, in face of the hostility of
his university; it was the Cambridge Grecians settled by Wolsey at
Cardinal College who established it at both universities, and it was men
like Ascham, Sir Thomas Smith, and Cheke who introduced it as Cambridge
learning to the world outside. It has been well said that classics “kept
a firm hold on the Cambridge mind.” The mantle of Erasmus Croke and
Cheke fell upon Bentley and Porson who had no rivals among English
classics and critics, and the services rendered by Cambridge as a
university in this direction have been maintained by the present
generation of scholars.[285]
[Sidenote: Colloquial Latin and Greek.]
By order of Thomas Cromwell “two daily public acts one of Greek the
other of Latin” were to be held in all the colleges.[286] The
Commonwealth Committee tried to revive the colloquial use of Latin and
Greek in 1649, but the use of Latin in halls and walks ceased in this
century, though it lingered in the college lectures, the declamations,
and the “acts and opponencies.” It lingered also in the college chapels,
but the only relic now remaining is the Latin grace in hall. The study
of the classics themselves declined at Cambridge during the reign of
Charles II. and Gray laments, while Bentley was still living, that these
studies should have “fallen into great contempt.”[287]
[Sidenote: The moral sciences tripos.]
It was the introduction of the classical tripos which gave a foothold
for mental and moral philosophy. Occupation with Greek metaphysics,
contact with the Greek mind, brought into relief the one-sidedness of
the mathematical mind. It also placed the two methods in sharp contrast.
For hitherto a fundamental antagonism between mathematical and
metaphysical method had been unsuspected. It was not till the dispute
between Whewell and Hamilton that the idea was pressed home that there
were two philosophical methods, not one; that not only the reasoning
which begs but the reasoning which questions the premiss has a right to
be heard; that there was a philosophy of formal proof and one of
philosophic doubt; that axiomatical reasoning lay on the one side, and
the enquiry into the validity of the reasoning process itself on the
other.
[Sidenote: Psychology.]
It was indeed by way of psychology that this other philosophy gained a
foothold in the university. It was the contact with the scientific
temper of Cambridge of psychology and psycho-physics--the modern
science _par excellence_, the point of contact between the experimental
method and mental philosophy, the fine flower of science since Darwin,
its complement, its interpreter--which ensured the introduction of a
moral sciences tripos. This it was which won recognition for an organon
other than the mathematical. Metaphysics captured Cambridge based upon
psychology, and here the two have never been divorced.
The problem of education at Cambridge before 1851 had been entirely
concerned with the mutual relations of mathematics, physics, and
classics. The two historic triposes had between them ousted even Locke
and Paley, the relegation of which to the ordinary degree work
nullified, for all serious philosophic purposes, the “grace” of 1779
which had devoted a fourth day to examination in “natural religion,
moral philosophy, and Locke.”[288] Whewell who had lectured in 1839 as
professor of casuistry on moral philosophy, was chiefly instrumental
eleven years later in forming the new tripos. The college which took the
leading part was S. John’s, where the Rev. J. B. Mayor was fellow and
afterwards examiner; and the first man admitted to a fellowship for his
attainments in this direction was a Johnian who came out senior moralist
in 1863. When the tripos was framed, within twenty-five years of the
final disappearance of all mental philosophy from the higher schools at
Cambridge, it included papers on logic and psychology, on metaphysics,
ethics, political philosophy and political economy. The political
subjects now form a tripos to themselves, the Economics tripos created
in 1903. Hort was a candidate in the first examination (1851) and L. B.
Seeley in the third: until 1861, when Whewell and Leslie Stephen were
among the examiners, the tripos was taken in addition to one of the
others, and did not confer a degree.[289]
That vampire of the Cambridge schools, mathematics, had absorbed not
only philosophy and the arts but also the natural sciences. It had been
however through one of the great metaphysicians, Robert Clarke, that
Newton’s physics had taken their place in the Cambridge curriculum, and
Locke and Newton were there side by side, and had entered there
together. It seemed, then, a simple revival and continuance of these
traditions when the natural sciences tripos was formed in the same year
as the moral sciences.
[Sidenote: Empirical science at Cambridge.]
Empirical science at Cambridge dates from Linacre and Caius. The Puritan
masters of the university discountenanced science, discouraged the
university’s higher mathematics, but were led by their liking for the
open bible greatly to favour the study of Greek. It is a remarkable fact
that the natural ally of the reform movement was “Greek” not natural
science.[290] Greek and “heresy” were equivalents; Caius, the ardent
champion of medicine and empirical science in Cambridge, was one of the
last to cling to the old “popishe trumpery.”[291] Just two hundred years
before the publication of the “Origin of Species,” someone writes to Sir
Thomas Browne the author of _Religio Medici_, from Darwin’s college at
Cambridge, saying that there were then (1648) “so few helps” at the
university for the student of medicine and science. With the Restoration
scientific interests were revived, London setting the fashion to the
seats of learning. But even at the close of the xviii century--that dark
age of the universities--there was a professor of anatomy and there were
lectures on “human anatomy and physiology” at Cambridge.[292] A few
years later there was no physiology and the only physical study was
astronomy.[293] Such
[Illustration: PEASHILL
The Chancel of St. Edward’s Church is seen behind the stalls in the
roadway, and the Tower of Great St. Mary’s in the distance. On the right
is the Old Bell Inn and the old town pump is in the foreground.]
was the state of affairs two or three decades before the creation, in
1851, of a tripos which included physiology, comparative anatomy,
chemistry, geology, botany, and mineralogy. The examination now
comprises papers in 8 subjects, and is divided into two parts:
chemistry, physics, mineralogy, geology, botany, zoology and comparative
anatomy, human anatomy, and physiology. In the second part the last
paper is upon human anatomy and vertebrate comparative anatomy.
Cambridge owes its present prominent position as a teacher in the
scientific world to the remarkable development of its scientific
laboratories and equipment. For the purposes of the natural sciences
tripos it possesses some of the finest laboratories and museums in the
kingdom. The great Cavendish laboratory was built in 1874, the chemical
in 1887, the engineering in 1894-9, the new medical school in 1904 with
the museum of geology, while the same year saw the erection of the most
complete botanical laboratory in England. Cambridge therefore which is
“the most ancient scientific school in the country” is also among the
best equipped.
[Sidenote: The study of modern languages.]
Within a century of the decay of Norman French in England, a knowledge
of modern languages began to assume value. Throughout the Tudor epoch it
was those ecclesiastics and lawyers who were also linguists to whom the
diplomatic posts and the secretaryships of state were entrusted. Latin
did not cease to be the common official medium, but the growth of
national dialects gave to a knowledge of these the importance which
they must always possess for the diplomat and the trader. “Esperanto”
will not take its place until nothing is spoken anywhere but Esperanto.
Some progress was made in these studies in both the universities in the
xvi century:--“Petrarch and Boccace in every man’s mouth--the French and
Italian highly regarded: the Latin and Greek but lightly,” writes
Gabriel Harvey to Spenser: but the xixth opened at Cambridge barren of
anything linguistic, ancient or modern, eastern or western, except the
uncouth Latin of the schools.[294] The first languages tripos was formed
in 1878 for the Semitic languages; the Indian languages tripos (1879)
now forms part, with the Semitic tripos, of the Oriental languages
tripos created in 1895. In 1886 the “medieval and modern languages”
tripos came into being.
[Sidenote: List of the triposes.]
The complete list of Cambridge triposes with the date of their
introduction is as follows:--(1) Mathematical 1747.[295] (2) Classical
1822. (3) Moral Sciences 1851. (4) Natural Sciences 1851. (5) Law
1858.[296] (6) Theological 1874. (7) Historical 1875.[297] (8) Medieval
and Modern Languages 1886. (9) Mechanical Sciences 1894. (10) Oriental
Languages 1895. (11) Economics 1903.
[Sidenote: Changing value of examination tests.]
The value of the tests to which degrees have been attached in the past
has varied considerably, and the same is true of the present. The _M.A._
degree in the xvi and following century was obtained with little or no
examination; the disputations, as we have seen, were often idle forms,
but the improvement in methods dates from 1680 when the proctors were
replaced by _moderators_ as overseers in the sophisters’ school. Fifty
years later the building of the Senate House opened the new era, and the
next twenty years (1730-50) saw rapid progress; so that the Cambridge
degree was still something better than the Oxford when at the end of
that century aspirants for degrees at both universities were adequately
described as “term-trotters.”[298] The conspicuous university learning
of the xvii century was untested and unstimulated by any adequate
examination test; but earlier still the sheer number of years passed at
a university must have had a value which is now lost. Seven years was
the rule at Cambridge in the xv, xvi and xvii centuries, and the early
history of the oldest of Cambridge colleges shows us the Peterhouse
students residing _all the year round_.[299] Nowadays the standards of
the honour and “poll” degree[300] are so wide apart that the terms
bachelors and masters of arts applied equally to all degree work, are
misleading. “He only wanted to take his degree, he did not work much”
someone said to me a short time ago, and one felt one knew that degree.
The honours class standard is also variable, and “a good year” raises
the first class standard unduly.
[Sidenote: The double tripos.]
The condition which characterised Cambridge studies before 1850 was that
the mathematical tripos was obligatory on all candidates for honours.
Between 1823 therefore and 1850 every classic was obliged to pass in one
of the three classes of the mathematical tripos--he had, that is, to
satisfy the examiners in two triposes. The results were often curious.
Men like Macaulay, who became fellows of their college, were “ploughed”
in the tripos, and professors of classics wrote _M.A._ after their names
in virtue of a “poll” degree. The native repugnance to mathematical
method in some men’s minds was constantly shown and at all stages of the
university curriculum; Stratford Canning was “sorely puzzled” and indeed
“in an agony of despair” over the study for which he was a “volunteer”
at King’s, and Gray refused to graduate rather than pursue it. On the
other hand the Cambridge “double first” meant a degree unrivalled in any
part of the world.[301]
[Illustration: OLD HOUSES NEAR ST. EDWARD’S CHURCH AND ST. EDWARD’S
PASSAGE
This Passage leads from the Market into King’s Parade. Part of the South
side of St. Edward’s Church is seen on the right. The Reformers Bilney,
Barnes, and Latimer preached here. The three Tuns Inn, praised by Pepys
for its good liquor, formerly stood in this passage.]
The present conditions for obtaining the _B.A._ degree are (_a_)
residence for nine terms within the precincts of the university[302]
(_b_) satisfying the examiners in one of the examinations, or groups of
examinations to which a degree is attached. One may satisfy them in one
of four ways: (1) by reading for and obtaining ‘honours’[303] (2) by
taking the Previous, General, and Special examinations of the ordinary
degree[304] (3) by being ‘allowed the ordinary degree,’ which may
happen when a man fails to be placed in any class of a tripos, but when
his work is allowed to count as tantamount to the examinations of the
ordinary degree. (4) by being “excused the General,” which happens when
a man has failed in the tripos examination, but his work is counted as
putting him half way towards the ordinary degree. The _aegrotat_ is a
fifth way. If a man who has read for honours or for the ordinary degree
falls sick, he is allowed to answer one or two of the examination papers
only, and if he shows adequate knowledge of these is granted a degree,
but is not placed in any class.[305]
There have been frequent changes and regroupings in all the examinations
described, and other reforms are in contemplation. In 1850 the
Universities Commission led to radical changes at both universities. It
is now proposed to simplify greatly Part I. of the mathematical tripos,
placing the candidates in divisions in alphabetical order, and thus
abolishing the senior wrangler.[306] This classification is the rule in
the second parts of all the large triposes, all of which have been
divided since their formation. The abolition of compulsory Greek in the
Previous Examination is bruited and re-bruited, but for the moment the
question has been set at rest (May 1906) by a decided negative vote of
the senate.
[Sidenote: The lecture and class.]
The method of tuition at Cambridge consists of the lecture, the class,
the weekly paper, and the examinations. “Reading” has, naturally, taken
the place of oral teaching to a large extent, but the lecture still
holds its place in the university. In the view of many of the seniors
that place is still too large a one: the lecture at which copious
(often verbatim) notes are taken is, no doubt, in many instances thrown
away, especially in those subjects in which the lecturer simply goes
over ground covered by the existing text-books. The class permits of
lecturer and student discussing difficulties, and here the college
tutor’s rôle is also of first importance;[307] the weekly paper (usually
a “time paper,” to be answered in three hours) tests progress in the
subject, and teaches a man how to “write down what he knows,” and to do
so in a certain given time.
[Sidenote: Professorships.]
There was no salaried professorship in the university until Lady
Margaret founded her chair of divinity in 1502. Before this, tuition in
each faculty had been assigned to its doctors, the tuition in arts was
left in the hands of the masters of arts. The next three professorships
to be founded were also in the 3 faculties: the Regius of Divinity by
the king in 1540, the Regius of Civil Law in the same year, and the
Regius of Physic.[308] Henry also founded Regius professorships of
Hebrew and Greek. In 1632 Sir T. Adams founded the Arabic, and in 1663,
Henry Lucas, M.P. for the university, the Lucasian of Mathematics; the
Knightbridge of Moral Philosophy was founded by a fellow of Peterhouse
in 1683. Between that date and 1899 (when the professorship of
Agriculture was founded) 35 professorships have been endowed, 16 of
which are in natural sciences and medicine, 5 for languages, 4 for
history and archæology, 2 more for law, 1 for mental philosophy and
logic, and 3 more for divinity, one of which, the Norrisian, is tenable,
and is now held by a layman. Fisher and Erasmus were the first holders
of the Lady Margaret professorship, and Selwyn, Lightfoot, and Hort held
it between the years 1855 and 1892. Bentley and Westcott held the Regius
professorship (1717, 1870). Sir T. Smith was the first to hold the
Regius of Civil Law, which was also held by Walter Haddon, and by Sir
Henry Maine when he was twenty-five years old, Glisson of Caius was one
of the distinguished holders of the Regius of Physic (1636), Metcalfe of
S. John’s and Cudworth both held the Hebrew professorship, Sir J. Cheke
was the first to sit in the chair of Greek following on three such great
predecessors and professors of Greek at Cambridge as Erasmus, Croke, and
Sir Thomas Smith. Isaac Barrow (1660), Porson (1792) and Sir R. C. Jebb
(1889-1906), all Trinity men, have also held it. The Lucasian of
Mathematics was held by Barrow, then by Isaac Newton, then by his deputy
Whiston of Clare, then by Sanderson of Christ’s, and the chair was
filled in the xix century by Airy and Sir George Stokes. Roger Cotes was
the first to hold the Plumian of Astronomy (1707) founded three years
previously by the Archdeacon of Rochester, who endowed it with an estate
at Balsham. Professor Adams, the discoverer of Neptune, held the
Lowndean of Astronomy and Geometry (1858-1892). The Regius of Modern
History (George I. 1724)[309] was held by the poet Gray, by Sir J.
Stephen, Charles Kingsley, Sir J. Seeley, and Lord Acton: the Cavendish
professorship of Experimental Physics (founded by Grace of the Senate
1871) was first filled by Clerk Maxwell and Lord Rayleigh; F. W.
Maitland (ob. Dec. 1906) held the Downing of Law; and the new Quick
professorship of biology has just been offered to an American
graduate.[310]
Next in dignity to professors are the Readers in the different subjects,
who act as a sort of suffragans and assistants to professors; and next
to these come the lecturers in branches of knowledge which range from
comparative philology to electrical engineering, from medical
jurisprudence to ethnology.[311]
[Sidenote: Lambeth degrees and degrees by royal mandate.]
The Pope was the fountain of graduate honour in the middle ages and
conferred degrees in all the faculties, and he does so still. Doctors
and masters from Rome would receive
[Illustration: MARKET STREET AND HOLY TRINITY CHURCH
In this picture Holy Trinity Church (of which Charles Simeon was
incumbent) with its spire may be seen on the left. The cool grey
building in the middle of the picture is the Henry Martyn Hall, a modern
structure. In the distance is seen the Tower and North side of Great St.
Mary’s.]
incorporation at Cambridge, and Englishmen without a degree would be
given, on occasion, a degree by the Pope.[312] The general statute of
Henry VIII. conveying
[Sidenote: A.D. 1534.]
to the primate all licences and dispensations which had heretofore “been
accustomed to be had and obtained from Rome,” transferred the faculty of
conferring degrees in England from the Pope to the Archbishop of
Canterbury. This faculty had, until the date of the statute, formed part
and parcel of the legatine powers, and had been exercised as such by
Wolsey. It was among the more important powers transferred under the
statute, relating to licences of the taxable sum of £4 and over, and
required confirmation by Letters Patent under the great seal, or
enrolment in Chancery. The right was exercised by successive
archbishops, and every faculty so granted rehearsed the authority of
parliament by which authority the said power was now vested in the see
of Canterbury. In the reign of George I. the power was for the first
time disputed. The then Bishop of Chester refused to induct a Lambeth
_B.D._ and a law suit followed, as a result of
[Sidenote: A.D. 1722.]
which a prescriptive and statutable right was made out for the practice.
The matter was then carried by appeal to the King’s Bench and decided in
favour of the archbishop, three years later, in 1725.
[Sidenote: A.D. 1660-1700.]
From the accession of Charles II. till the end of the century the usual
recipients were members of one or other of the universities, and when
this was not the case incorporation in Cambridge university was granted
with the proviso that no precedent was thereby created. Between 1539,
when Cranmer created a _D.D._, and the accession of Charles II., only
seven instances of archi-episcopal degrees are recorded.[313] Over 450
were conferred between 1660 and 1848, and some 334 have been conferred
since.[314] A Cantabrigian primate confers the Cambridge hood, an
Oxonian the Oxford. There have been many instances of the incorporation
of men who were recipients of the ‘Lambeth degree’ in one or other of
the colleges. The Lambeth _M.A._ does not include membership of the
Senate or of Convocation.[315]
During Stuart times there were several examples of the conferring of
degrees by royal mandate; a custom commuted to the now traditional
compliment, when a sovereign or prince receives a degree, of conferring
degrees on any persons he may wish associated with him in the honour.
Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, whose studies at Cambridge were
interrupted by diplomatic missions, was created _M.A._ by royal mandate.
[Sidenote: _Ad eundem._]
_Ad eundem_ degrees, admitting a graduate to the same degree which he
already enjoys elsewhere, are granted by all universities; but such
degrees are no longer granted at Cambridge as a simple right.[316]
[Sidenote: Honorary degrees, and the idea of a university.]
The university confers other “complete” or “titular” degrees on certain
persons who have not qualified for them by residence and examination at
Cambridge. A list of those on whom this honour has been bestowed since
1859 is printed in the Cambridge Calendar. The complete degrees are
conferrable upon members of the royal family, privy councillors, bishops
and bishops designate, peers,[317] the judges of the High Court, the
deans of Westminster, of the chapel royal Windsor, and of Cathedral
churches; and also upon heads of colleges in the university, and other
distinguished persons who already have a Cambridge degree and are either
conspicuous for merit or holders of university office. Titular degrees
may be conferred on Englishmen or foreigners of conspicuous merit.
A propos of a recent list of ‘birthday honours’ a weekly literary
newspaper reminded us “that commerce, politics, and retired generals are
not the only vitalizing forces in this country”; it blamed a public
which it described as “increasingly illiterate and sheepish,” and
adjured the universities to make no “concessions to popular prejudice”
but “to confine the honours they are able to give to those who deserve
them.” It is in fact ludicrous and absurd that the universities should
be expected to come in with their blessing in cases of non-academic
success, and that degrees should be mere acclamations of popular
verdicts. The public should have every reason to regard these as the
blue riband of academic attainment in contrast with the attainments of
successful ignorance or successful vulgarity, or indeed with all those
kinds of success which are sufficiently rewarded by the _vox populi_,
and in other ways. It is expected that a university should set a limit
to the assumption that every good and perfect thing is at the beck and
call of the mere plutocrat, and should confer its honours and seat in
its rectorial chairs only those persons who present academic
qualifications. When one sees with what punctilious assiduity every mark
and brand of tradesman and tradesmen’s interests receives recognition
nowadays, one turns with anxiety to the Cambridge list of honorary
degree men. The university’s awards have not yet however been assigned
to people who have grown rich on “Trusts,” business ‘slimness,’ or
industries like the canned meat industry; whose title to recognition is
that they have been successful speculators. How very nice it would be if
instead of installing gasometers in the leper colonies or sending the
latest pattern of trichord overstrung grand piano to the deaf and dumb
schools of Europe and America, some rich man, with a less pretty taste
for publicity, should endow the university with a million pounds
[Illustration: GREAT ST. MARY’S, FROM TRINITY STREET
Here we only get a glimpse of the Tower of the Church with King’s Parade
in the distance. In the foreground on the right is Caius College.]
sterling! Should he be the recipient of an honorary degree? Would it not
be churlish to refuse it? If anything could increase one’s respect for
the benefactor it would be _his_ refusal of this kind of recognition of
his services. However there is no harm in very occasional exceptions,
because these shout the exceptional circumstances and confuse no one. It
is different altogether when to create an honorary degree list Mr.
Anybody and Mr. Nobody are called upon to step up. It seems a simple
programme that periods marked by dearth in merit should also be marked
by dearth of awards, but when did a simple programme ever prove
attractive from the days of Naaman downwards?
When we say that neither the elementary nor the advanced studies of a
university exist simply with a view to providing the members of the
community with a profession or the means of making their living, we say
what is a little less obvious, and trench on ground which is hotly
debated. Thousands upon thousands, it may be urged, have always gone to
a university to learn a profession, and thousands who have not had this
end in view have yet gone up there with no intention of acquiring
learning. The university has always prepared for the professions, why
not for the industries; why should it not comprise technical colleges?
Hitherto, however, the universities have prepared men for the learned
professions, and there is a difference between learning philosophy,
theology, biblical exegesis, jurisprudence and political philosophy, or
physiology and comparative anatomy for the purposes of a life
profession, and learning agriculture, forestry, military tactics, or
mining engineering. The growth of great branches of industry has however
been as great as the growth of knowledge and the sciences; the
conditions of modern life are entirely and altogether changed,
competition extends far beyond the industrial world, to the universities
themselves, and to the struggle for existence of knowledge for its own
sake. Without supposing that this last condition will be permanent, one
may still think that the universities could not refuse to teach what are
called “the modern subjects,” which means industries like scientific
agriculture or electrical engineering that have more money in them than
the professions. In a way, too, it is only a turning of the tables; when
the learned professions were studied it was because they promised the
profitable careers.
It need not by any means be competition which urges the university to
undertake the ‘modern subjects’; it may be, and it is, the persuasion
that its rôle does not end with creating a career, that a university
possesses advantages extrinsic to the degree taken, or even the work
done at it. The truth perhaps is that the present conditions of life
afford an object to universities as far-reaching as has ever been
allotted to them since their foundation. In these days of haste, and
unchewed cuds of learning, they can suggest the value of leisure--and
when a man is now sent to Cambridge or Oxford this fact alone is some
security that he and his are content not to put haste and quick results
above and before everything else. The lazy man we have always with us,
the man in a hurry is a modern product, and suffers from a modern
disease with which a university is better able, by latent influence and
tradition, to deal than any other institution. And when it has taught
the value of intellectual digestion, the number of those things which
can only be well learnt by being gradually learnt, and in due season,
has the university nothing more to teach? Our modern malady of haste, of
quick methods, and quick results has a commercial basis, a certain
standard of values and returns which is best so described. The academic
spirit is the antagonist of this spirit, of the love of publicity, the
self-advertisement, the liking for cheap and unearned rewards. Even as a
business maxim it is being preached again that work done for its own
sake is the only lasting work. The university may be a bulwark against
false values in life, against the restlessness which is confounded with
action, the constant change which is not the same thing as adaptation,
against the prejudice that certain good things are not always and
everywhere ends in themselves. And there is another conspicuous service
which a university can perform. The commercial standard is the root of
our social vulgarity, and the academic life has been in all ages that
‘simple life’ of which we hear so much. It is not necessary for
generations of Englishmen to grow up to regard ‘poverty as a crime,’ or
to subscribe to the worship of mere prosperity and success. A university
may always be a protest against these and other mental vulgarities,
against even that debasing of the good coin of the King’s English in
which Milton saw the incipient undoing of a nation. What better place
for combating the last ridiculous refuge of English _mauvaise
honte_--the shamefacedness which prefers to speak one’s own language
incorrectly? Something every man at least who reads for a tripos must
learn about the uses of work, about its respect, something about breadth
of view and accuracy of detail--and also about the legitimate support
which such work is in life. It will be said that a man’s personal
character and his home life inculcate all these things and give him the
means to meet the shafts of outrageous fortune. But what the university
can give him which his own personal character and probably his home
surroundings cannot, is the way to set about making of learning a
possession for ever. Some nice person said “mathematics is such a
consolation in affliction,” and there is much to be said for the point
of view.
A university can teach these things because, unlike technical colleges
or seminaries for the professions, it exists first and foremost for the
advancement of learning. Traditionally inseparable from this is its
other object--education; and together they provide the tests it applies
to all such questions as ‘how far it shall adapt itself to a commercial
standard.’ For a university is not only a place of higher studies, it is
the nursery of study; and to instil the love of learning for its own
sake will always be required of it. In the words of Elizabeth of Clare:
“When skill in learning has been found, it sends out disciples who have
tasted its sweetness.” In the last resort universities must stand for
these things; the day when they cease to do so the idea of a university
will have oozed out of them. Like all good things the university will
bring forth from its treasure things new and old. We shall not look for
degrees in cricket, but there may be degrees in agriculture, degrees in
engineering, degrees in forestry. Why not, if a degree signifies a
diploma of competence? But there should be degrees and degrees. There
should be licentiates in the technical arts by the side of bachelors and
masters in the liberal arts: the university must claim to mete with its
own measure, and to teach its own lesson to all sorts of men. _Hinc
lucem et pocula sacra_----
CHAPTER IV
COLLEGIATE AND SOCIAL LIFE AT THE UNIVERSITY
University and college officers:--chancellor and
vice-chancellor--the senate--graces--proctors--bedells--the master
of a college--the vice-master or president--the fellows--unmarried
and married fellows--the combination room--dons’ clubs--‘Hobson’s
choice’--the dons of last century--classes of
students:--scholar--pensioner--fellow-commoner--sizar--age of
scholars--privileges of peers--position of the sizar--college
quarters and expenses--‘non-colls’--early discipline--jurisdiction
of the university in the town--present discipline:--the
proctors--fines--‘halls’--‘chapels’--town
lodgings--expulsion--rustication--‘gates’--the tutor--academical
dress--cap and gown--the undergraduates’ day--the gyp--the college
kitchen--‘hall’--‘wines’--teas--the May
term--idleness--rioting--modern studies and tripos
entries--athletics--the Union Society--Sunday at Cambridge--scarlet
days--academic terms and the long vacation--multiplication of
scholarships--class from which the academic population has been
drawn and careers of university men:--the Church--the rise of an
opulent middle class--the aristocratic era--English conception of
the benefits of a university--examples of the classes from which
the men have come--recruiting grounds of the university--popularity
of colleges--numbers in the colleges--religion at
Cambridge--Cambridge politics--university settlement at
Camberwell--married dons and future changes.
We have seen that it is of the essence of a university that it should
be both a learned and a learning body, and that from the first the
academic group consisted of “masters” or licensed teachers, and of
scholars maintained on the college foundations. Contemporaneously with
the growth of the college we find at the head of the university a
chancellor, and at the head of the college its principal or
“Master.”[318]
[Sidenote: The chancellor.]
A chancellor was originally a cathedral officer whose business it was to
grant licences to teach.[319] His connexion with schools of learning
seems to be due entirely to the authority which diocesans exercised in
the granting of these licences, especially in the faculties of theology
and canon law. It is then as a bishop’s officer that he makes his
appearance at our universities; at Cambridge as the local officer of the
Bishop of Ely, at Oxford as the local officer of the Bishop of Lincoln.
“The chancellor and masters” of the university of Cambridge are first
heard of together in Balsham’s rescript, in the year 1276;[320] but
Henry III.’s
[Sidenote: A.D. 1275-6.]
letter to the university written six years earlier is
[Sidenote: A.D. 1270.]
addressed to “the masters and scholars of Cambridge university.” It may
then be assumed that before this date the chancellor was still an
episcopal emissary rather than an academic chief, but that from about
this time he began to be chosen by themselves from among the
regent-masters of the university, although with the approval of the
Bishop of Ely. This approval was not dispensed with until in 1396 a
member of the noble family of Zouche became chancellor; and the
chancellor’s independence of the Bishop of Ely for confirmation of his
title was made absolute by
[Sidenote: A.D. 1402.]
Boniface IX. six years later.
[Sidenote: Vice-chancellor.]
The office was annual. The same man, however, was often appointed again
and again, and Guy de Zouche himself had been chancellor in 1379 and
again in 1382. Bishop Fisher who retained the chancellorship until his
death in 1534 was the first chancellor appointed for life.[321] As soon
as it became customary to elect as chancellor of the university some
personage who would be able to represent its interests in the world
outside, a vice-chancellor performed all those functions which before
fell to the chancellor, and the position and functions of the present
vice-chancellor are exactly equal to those of the old academic
chancellor.[322] The first political chancellor succeeded the greatest
of what, for distinction, I have called the academic chancellors of the
university. Thomas Cromwell took the post left vacant by Fisher’s
martyrdom and held it till his own downfall in 1540. The chancellorship
is now held by the owner of a traditional Cambridge name, Spencer
Cavendish 8th duke of Devonshire.
The chancellor is appointed “for two years” or such further time “as the
tacit consent of the university permits.” Under this proviso the
appointment is practically for life. The vice-chancellor is appointed
from among the heads of houses, and the office is annual. In each case
the appointment is in the hands of the senate, or legislative body of
the university which consists of all resident masters of arts and of
those non-resident _M.A.’s_ who have kept their names upon the
university register.
[Sidenote: Senate and graces.]
The meetings of the senate take place in the Senate House and are called
congregations. In these, degrees are conferred and “graces” are
considered; a “grace” being the name for all acts of the senate, or
motions proposed for its acceptance.
Resident members of the senate form the “electoral roll,” and elect the
council.[323] Lastly the executive body consists of the chancellor, the
high steward,[324] the vice-chancellor, a commissary appointed by the
chancellor, and the _sex viri_ who adjudicate on all matters affecting
the senior members of the university, are elected “by grace of the
senate,” and hold their office for two years.
[Sidenote: A.D. 1603.]
The university has sent two members to parliament since the first year
of James I. The exercise of the parliamentary suffrage belongs to the
whole senate and is the one exception to the rule which obliges every
member to record his vote personally in the Senate House.[325] The total
number of members of the senate is 7192; the total number of members of
the university is 13,819, this latter including all bachelors of arts
and undergraduates in residence, and all _B.A.’s_ whose names are on the
books pending their proceeding to the degree of _M.A._
[Sidenote: Proctors.]
After the vice-chancellor no officers are so much in evidence as the
proctors. Their duties are twofold: they conduct the congregations of
the senate, and they maintain discipline among the undergraduates. There
are 2 proctors elected annually, to whom are joined 2 pro-proctors, and
2 additional pro-proctors. The pro-proctors have not the standing of the
proctors as university officials, but they exercise the same authority
over the men.[326] Other executive officers are the public orator, who
is “the voice of the senate”[327]; the university librarian, the
registrary, the university marshal (appointed by the vice-chancellor)
and the bedells.
[Sidenote: Bedell.]
If the proctor is the procurator of the academic society, the bedell is
the executor of its mandates. The bedells attend the (chancellor or)
vice-chancellor on all public occasions, bearing silver maces, and, like
the beadles of all guilds and corporations, they summon members of the
senate to the chancellor’s court.[328] For bedel or bedell is an
obsolete form of beadle retained in the ancient corporations of Oxford
and Cambridge. As a town or parish officer the beadle brought messages
and executed the mandates of the town or parish authority. The apparitor
of a trades guild was also called a “bedel,” and it is, no doubt, as a
guild officer that he appears in our universities and has taken so firm
a footing there.
The bedell was the servant of a faculty, and also of a “nation” in the
continental universities: hence at Cambridge one was the bedell of
theology and canon law, the other of arts. They arranged and announced
the day and hour of lectures. For many centuries Cambridge had an
esquire and a yeoman bedell; but the latter was abolished in 1858.
Apparently the yeoman bedell was not a member of the university, and he
may have been a townsman.[329] The two esquire bedells of the present
day are nominated by the council of the senate, and elected by the
latter body.[330]
[Sidenote: The Master.]
Distinct from the university authorities are the college authorities.
The foremost of these is the Master of each college. This officer used
to be _primus inter pares_, the senior among the fellows or teaching
body of his house. The change to the later “splendid isolation” of the
“Head” is expressed architecturally in the relative positions of the
Master’s lodging, as we can see it to-day in the old court of
Corpus--the simple room leading to the dining hall and the college
garden with a garret bedroom above it--and the palatial dwellings which
in one or two of the colleges no longer form part of the main buildings.
It is one which has a curious chronological parallel with the change
that took place in the relative positions of a cathedral dean and
chapter after the Reformation. The old college Master, like the old
university chancellor, and the cathedral dean, was, officially and
residentially, part and parcel of the body he represented. After the
Reformation all these positions were shifted. The college Master became
in appearance, what the cathedral dean had become in fact, “a
corporation sole,” while the university chancellor was translated to
supra-academic spheres, and no longer resided even in the university
city. “Sixty years since,” writes a present member of the university,
“society at Cambridge was divided broadly into two classes--those who
were Heads and those who were not.” Ludicrous stories are told of the
pride which inflated “the Heads,” who at times resented being accosted
not only by the inferior undergraduate but by the fellows of their own
college. The provost of King’s of just a hundred years ago was referred
to familiarly by his irreverent juniors as ‘Tetoighty.’[331]
Heads of colleges have not only the statutory powers conferred on them
by their college, but as assessors to the vice-chancellor they join with
him in the government of the university. Their powers were largely
increased by the statutes of 1570 which Whitgift procured from
Elizabeth; and in 1586-7 it was decided that the vice-chancellor should
always be chosen from their number.[332] The modern “Head” emulates the
old academic Master, is _primus inter pares_ amongst his fellow
collegians, and is no longer dreadful to his juniors.
There are only two exceptions to the title of Master held by all heads
of colleges. The head of King’s College, like the head of Eton, is
styled Provost, and the head of Queens’ College is styled
President.[333]
The vice-master is called the president. His position is like that of a
prior under an abbot, or a subprior in a priory: the one representing
the college outside and ruling over the community, the other ruling in
the house and having the authority in all which concerns its management.
With the Master and vice-Master are associated the fellows, the dean,
the tutors, lecturers, chaplains, and the bursar.[334]
[Illustration: THE LAKE IN BOTANIC GARDENS
Many different kinds of trees surround this winding water, the banks of
which are lined with a variety of rushes and reeds, and are inhabited by
many sorts of water-fowl.]
[Sidenote: Fellows.]
“I can never remember the time when it was not diligently impressed upon
me that, if I minded my syntax, I might eventually hope to reach a
position which would give me three hundred pounds a year, a stable for
my horse, six dozen of audit ale every Christmas, a loaf and two pats of
butter every morning, and a good dinner for nothing, with as many
almonds and raisins as I could eat at dessert,” writes Trevelyan in his
“Life and Letters” of Macaulay whose appreciation of a Cambridge
fellowship fell nothing short of reverence.
The fellows are the foundation graduates, as the scholars are the
foundation undergraduates of a college. They are more; they are,
corporately, its masters and owners. Financially, a fellowship is
represented by the dividend on the surplus revenue of a college.[335] As
this surplus revenue varies while the fellows are a fixed number, the
value of fellowships varies, but may not now exceed £250 a year. A
fellow enjoys as a rule other emoluments, as tutor, lecturer, librarian,
bursar, of his college, so that his pecuniary position is by no means
represented by the value of the simple fellowship. All fellowships are
now bestowed for a term of years; life fellowships being held by those
only who are on the staff of their college, who have served it, that is,
in a tutorial or other official capacity.
[Sidenote: Married and unmarried fellows.]
Until the last quarter of the xix century fellows had to be bachelors.
The rule against married officials was first relaxed, after the
Reformation, in favour of heads of houses; Dr. Heynes, President of
Queens’ in 1529, having been the first married Master.[336] Fifty years
later the fellows of King’s complained that the wife of their provost
had been seen taking the air on the sacred grass of the college court,
where, nevertheless, her husband declared she could not have set her
foot twice in her life. Early in George III.’s reign a movement was
afoot among the fellows of a different character: in 1766 Betham of
King’s writes to Cole that the university had been in a most violent
flame: “young and old have formed a resolution of marrying”; “the scheme
is--a wife and a fellowship with her.” In the “sixties” certain colleges
began to admit married fellows, while in others a fellow might marry if
he held university office, as professor or librarian. No fellowship
nowadays is confined to unmarried men.
This is one of three radical changes which the university has undergone
in the last thirty years. The abolition of the Religious Test Act which
severed the strict connexion of our universities with the Church of
England, the marriage of fellows, and the appointment of men not in
clerical orders to fill the chief university and college offices, have
gradually changed the face of university life, secularising it and
socialising it, bestowing on it, definitely, a lay and undenominational
character which is perhaps not so far from its primitive ideal as
sticklers for the connexion of the universities with the Church would
have us believe. It is no longer an advantage to be in orders at
Cambridge: they do not help you to a fellowship for this is given to the
best man in open competition; even heads of colleges need no longer be
clergymen, and only one collegiate office, that of the dean, is still
preferably bestowed on a parson. The results are curious. Clerical
fellows are popular, but theology is a neglected subject in the big
colleges and the theological chairs are not centres of influence. At the
same time every college enjoys clerical patronage, which can be
exercised in favour of its deserving sons; and every college, besides
its dean, appoints chaplains for the maintenance of the chapel
services.[337] Clerical fellows, it is true, are now in a minority, but
there seems to be no reason why the clerical don should cease to abound,
as he has always abounded, in our university cities. A university
education has become more not less valuable for a clergyman now that it
enables him to meet men whose beliefs differ widely from his own; now
that the right to display an academic hood in church is no longer prized
as its chief advantage.[338]
[Sidenote: The combination room.]
Among the ‘dons’ the centre of social life has always been the
combination room. It represents that pledge of civilisation the
with-drawing-room, the room contiguous to the banqueting-hall, where the
pleasures of the spirit steal an advantage over the pleasures of the
table. The rudeness which marked the period of the early renascence,
from court to convent, in England, clung also to our academic life, and
it is not till the last quarter of the xvi century that we find the
fellows first provided with table napkins, and learn that the
enterprising college which made the innovation exacted a fine of a penny
from those who continued to wipe their fingers on the tablecloth. The
temptation to this latter practice must indeed have been great; for the
fork which made its appearance at the dawn of the renascence in France
was unknown in England two hundred years later. It is only in the course
of the next, the xviith, century that the combination room emerges as a
more or less luxurious apartment; the subsequent addition of newspapers,
magazines, and easy chairs marking in turn the rise of journalism and
the higher standard of comfort. The dons of Charles II.’s time who had
to be content with the “London Gazette” supplemented the lack of news by
social clubs. “The Ugly Faces” club dined periodically in what was then
the ugliest of college halls--Clare. “The Old Maids’ Club” flourished
in the early xix century, with Baker the antiquary, Tonstall, and
Conyers Middleton as members. The first “news letter” was however laid
on the table of Kirk’s coffee-house in Charles’s reign. The first
flying-coach, following the example of Oxford which had run a coach to
London in one day, sped to the Capital in 1671.[339]
When the xix century opened there was no general society in Cambridge.
It was more out of the way of polite England than Oxford, and many dons
whose homes were at a distance spent the whole year in their colleges,
emphasising the faults and therefore detracting from the virtues of
small learned societies. The dons in the xvi century, say at S. John’s
College, had been a brilliant company who bestowed as much on the
Elizabethan age as they took from it: but the xviii century closed upon
a period of dulness and reaction, in which the rudeness of material
civilisation met a social uncouthness little calculated to recall the
university of Spenser, of Burleigh, of Bacon. The intimacy between the
fellows and their head was a thing of the past; the familiarity between
scholar and don had been replaced by “donnishness” which kept the
undergraduate at arm’s length; the blight of the artificial and stilted,
the sterile and pompous aristocratism of just a century ago had settled
down upon the university. Isolated in this eastern corner of England,
just before the enormous impulse to travelling brought by railways, just
after the cosmopolitan spirit which took even the Englishman abroad--the
sense of a debt to Italy, of a continental comradeship--had finally
ceased to exist, Cambridge dons at the dawn of the xix century had
perhaps fathomed the lowest social depths. But before this century
passed a social change more wonderful than the material changes around
them metamorphosed university society. The unmannerly don married; and
the sex which makes society, the sex which suffers no social
deterioration when left to its own devices--the aristocratic sex--was
introduced as the don’s helpmeet. More still--worse still--she was
introduced in the same quarter of a century as what the weak-kneed among
us cry out upon--his rival. It is the same donnish bachelor, separated
by a gulph from the social amenities, wedded to ingrained habits and
some eradicable prejudices, who suffered women to come to Cambridge and
take what they could of the intellectual advantages he himself enjoyed.
The historian of the great movements of the age we live in will record
with interest this proof of the traditional open-mindedness which has
never deserted the Cantabrigian, which has never failed to respond to
the sacred dual claims of the age and the intellect.
[Illustration: PARKER’S PIECE
This large open space in the centre of Cambridge is one of the Town’s
playgrounds. In the distance is the Roman Catholic Church, and the
boundary wall of the Perse Grammar School, just behind the trees on the
left.]
[Sidenote: Classes of students.]
The learned body which congregates in the combination rooms is the
_ecclesia docens_ of the university; the learning body--the _ecclesia
discens_--includes all members of the university below the degree of
_M.A._, and is divided into four or five classes. The most important of
these from the academic point of view is the scholar, and for at least
two centuries after colleges were built the only resident students were
these students on the foundation.[340] To them were joined in course of
time the _pensioners_, youths who paid for their board and lodging, the
class which now makes up the great majority of undergraduates. Two other
classes were added. The peers and eldest sons of peers with other
_fellow-commoners_--a class which has fallen into practical desuetude
but is not obsolete--and the _sizars_. The peers enjoyed some privileges
which would not be coveted nowadays--they could make themselves
conspicuous on all occasions by their clothing, and they could take a
degree without working for it. The younger sons of peers and the richer
undergraduates also messed at the fellows’ table, and were therefore
called “fellow-commoners”: the advantages of this arrangement did not
end with the better treatment in hall, for the companionship of the
fellows and seniors of his college must have proved a welcome stimulus
to an intelligent young man.[341] Lastly, there were and are the
“sizars,” the poorer students, not on the foundation of the college, who
pay smaller fees and receive their commons gratis.[342] The sizar of
fifty years ago used to wait on the fellows at dinner and dine off the
broken victuals, reinforced by fresh vegetables and pudding.
When Macaulay summed the advantages of a Cambridge fellowship he omitted
perhaps the chief, the college residence which like “the good dinner” is
to be had “for nothing.” Fellows and scholars receive their college
quarters gratis; but the rest of the undergraduate population pays for
its lodging. It is housed in its 17 colleges, the new hostels which are
springing up on all sides, and the licensed lodgings in the town. The
cost of the college bed and sitting room a term varies from £3 to three
times this sum. Service adds £2 or £3 a term. Small lodgings with
service can be had in the less good streets for £5-£7; good rooms from
£8 to £10, while more than £12 is only charged in the best positions, or
near the big colleges. The expense of college rooms is augmented by the
prepayments for furniture (the average valuation of the permanent
furniture is £20, but the sum may be as low as £10 or as high as £40),
by the “caution money,” about £15, returned at the end of the term of
residence, the admission fee (varying with the college from 6/8 to £5)
and the matriculation fee £5. During residence there is also an annual
payment of £9-15 towards the upkeep of the college and its servants,
and the tuition fee, which covers all lectures in one’s own college, and
varies from £18 to £24 a year.
It was to obviate the necessity of paying these fees that the system of
non-collegiate students, familiarly called “non-colls,” was devised in
1869. While the expenses of an undergraduate who is a member of a
college average about £165 a year, £60 in excess of this and £60 less
representing the higher scale of expenses on the one hand and the
minimum on the other, the undergraduate who lives in lodgings and _is
not a member of any college_ can live for £78 a year (if he does not
require “coaching” or private tuition which costs about £9 a term) and
it is just possible to take the _B.A._ degree after a three years’
residence which has cost you at the rate of £55 a year.
Fifty years ago the minimum cost of living at Cambridge for a pensioner
was £150 and double this sum involved no extravagant outlay. A
fellow-commoner required £800 a year and could not live on less than
£500. These were the aristocratic days of English universities and they
were in sharp contrast to the time when scholars were poor, begged their
way to and from college, and were included among vagabonds in the
statute of 1380 directed against mendicancy. But the entertainment in
those days was also widely different. Two fellows shared not only a room
but a bed, or a two-bedded room would be shared by a fellow and two poor
scholars. It was not till the xvi century that each fellow had a bed to
himself and a room to himself if space permitted.[343] The dining hall
was a comfortless room where rude fare was served at a tresselled board
to guests who sat upon wooden stools. The conditions of the xiii and xiv
centuries were not greatly bettered in the xvth and xvith, and Erasmus
found it hard to stomach the fare at Queens’ College at a time when the
Cambridge ale appears to have been no improvement on the “wine no better
than vinegar” which came from the surrounding vineyards.
[Sidenote: Early discipline.]
The little lads who thronged the streets of Cambridge in the xiii
century were under little or no discipline. They ran up debts with the
Jews, who had established themselves there in the opening years of the
previous century, fought the townsmen, and had few duties to society
beyond making their own beds, a work certainly performed by university
scholars in the xiii and xiv centuries and enjoined on the boys of the
famous schools founded in the xvth. It was this custom of doing your own
work, at least until you became an advanced student when the little boys
did it for you, which was the origin of “fagging” in our two most
ancient schools connected respectively with our two universities--Eton
and Winchester.[344] Even this amount of work, however, was not expected
of fellow-commoners in the xvi century, who frequently got out of hand,
though few of them have left us so delightful a reminder of their
misdeeds as the young Earl of Rutland has done in a letter to his
mother who had complained of his behaviour: “I do aseure your Ladyship
that the cariage of myselfe both towardes God and my booke, my
comeliness in diet and gesture, shall be such as your Ladyship shall
hear and like well of.”
With the great era of college building in the succeeding century, the
founders’ statutes make their appearance; and in days when monks were
birched and nuns were slapped the college stocks held in durance vile
the fellow who had presumed to bathe in any stream or pool of
Cambridgeshire, while the college hall resounded to the strokes of the
birch which visited the scholar for the same offence. College discipline
was supplemented by university discipline, and the academic authorities
shared legal powers with the town authorities until recently. The
jurisdiction of the university extended not only to matters affecting
its members, but to a _conusance_ in actions which affected the
townsmen.[345] The last attempt to exercise the right of imprisoning
undesirable characters in the “Spinning House” was made by the
vice-chancellor in 1893; but the incarceration of a young woman on this
occasion caused so much indignation in the town that it led to the final
disallowance of all the vice-chancellor’s powers, in this direction,
which were waived by the university in 1894.
[Sidenote: Present discipline--proctors, fines, “hall,” “chapels.”]
University discipline is in the hands of the vice-chancellor and his
court,[346] and the proctors. College discipline in those of the
dean[347] and tutors. Two proctors perambulate the town every night,
each accompanied by two servants known to the undergraduate as the
proctor’s “bull-dogs.” They take the name of any offending student and
bring him up next morning if necessary before the vice-chancellor. They
can also send men back to their college or rooms, enter lodgings, and
exact fines. When the youth of 19 or 20 leaves the higher forms of a
public school and comes to the university, he is treated as a man, and
leads a man’s life guided by himself. But he becomes also a member of a
great society, existing for certain purposes. If he is a man, he is a
very young one; and if he guides his own life he has only just begun to
do so. He lives in his own house--for his college room, like the
Englishman’s dwelling, is his castle--but he must be at home by 10 p.m.
This is the first point of discipline. The gates of colleges and the
outer doors of lodgings are shut at 10, and any one who presents himself
after that hour, without his tutor’s permission, has his name taken by
the college porter, or by the lodging proprietor who acts _in loco
janitoris_. He must also dine in hall, if not every day at least five
times in the week, which must include Sunday. The third restriction on
his liberty is (or at least was originally) a care for his soul. The
obligation to attend chapel so many times a week resolves itself now
into two attendances in the week and generally two on Sunday. No means
of enforcing this are however taken nowadays, and the men are generally
left free to judge for themselves in this respect, though ‘moral
suasion’ is exercised by the deans except in the case of nonconformists
and conscientious objectors. Fifty years ago 8 “chapels” were expected;
but if a pensioner kept 6 and a fellow-commoner 4, he was left
untroubled by his dean. In New England at the same epoch no less than 16
attendances at chapel every week were required, seven at unseasonable
hours; a burden which was tolerated with more cheerfulness by the New
Englander than were the 8 “chapels” by his Cambridge contemporary.
[Sidenote: Town licences. Expulsion “rustication”. “gating.”]
The licensing of all lodgings and places of entertainment[348] to which
undergraduates may go, is the hold which the university has over the
town. Its sanctions for the undergraduate are fines and expulsion;
breaches of
[Illustration: TRINITY BRIDGE, KING’S COLLEGE CHAPEL IN THE DISTANCE
This is one of the many charming views on the Cam at “the Backs” of the
Colleges.]
college rules being visited by “gating” and expulsion. A man can be
expelled for any cause which in the judgment of the university or the
college warrants it. If a man thus expelled from the university society
refuses “to go down”--to leave Cambridge--he cannot live in any licensed
lodging house in the town.[349] A man may also be sent down for a term,
which is called “rustication,” an epithet which suggests to him that he
has forfeited the society of men of polite learning. If a man misbehaves
himself he can be “gated,” _i.e._ the porter receives instructions not
to let him out after a certain hour--and it may be any hour the
authorities choose to fix and for any length of time.
[Sidenote: The tutor.]
The college tutor is the official who supervises the undergraduate’s
academic career. He advises him what subject to read for, what
examinations to take, what books to master. The career of a mediocre man
is often made and that of a first-rate man heightened by an able tutor,
and Cambridge has boasted some very great men in this capacity. The
mathematical genius of Newton was quickened by having for his tutor
Isaac Barrow; Whichcote of Emmanuel, Laughton of Clare, and Shilleto of
Trinity were eminent as tutors and “coaches”; and “coaching”
supplements, for a very backward or a very advanced student, the
lectures of college and university.[350]
[Sidenote: The cap and gown.]
The academic appearance of a university owes much to the traditional cap
and gown worn by all its members. A bonnet and gown are very ancient
appanages of the learned professions of divinity law and medicine--they
were the dignified apparel of doctors in the three faculties. Short hose
had not become fashionable when universities sprang into existence, and
the clerk or scholar even if he were not destined for major was very
usually in minor orders: the gown is therefore a fitting distinction for
those learned societies which have never ceased their corporate
existence, and have carried into modern times, as a special dress, items
of attire which like clerical vestments, the cassock, the monastic
habit, and the friar’s tunic were proper to the age which saw their
rise.
The distinctive features of academic dress are simply survivals of this
ordinary dress of the period: the ceremonial hood is the hood which was
worn in everyday life in the xiith the xiiith xivth and xvth
centuries.[351] If we had looked in at the priory church of Barnwell on
a day when the novices made their profession we should have seen each
one enter dressed in the black habit or gown, a cloak of fur, and the
“amess[352] over his head”: and when he walked out he was already vested
with the _capa nigra_ of the canon. Here, then, we have all the elements
of early academic dress; the homely Gilbertine canons, so familiar in
the Cambridge thoroughfares, wore it in white; for it was the dress of
the more respectable, the decently clad, clergy and clerks as well as of
those most respectable and regular clergy, the canons. The dress of the
better looked-after scholars on the college foundations differed but
little from this. No doubt the scholars of Peterhouse habitually wore
the clerical _vestis talaris_[353]--the gown to the ankle--but the
special item of academic attire adopted at Cambridge appears to have
been the _capa nigra._[354] The majority of scholars in the hostels and
grammar schools observed no general rule as to costume,[355] but the
scholars of any standing wore the black cappa of the canon; and the
hood, lined with sheepskin or minever, was becoming--even in the xiv
century--the habitual, and therefore distinctive, dress of foundation
scholars when they “commenced” bachelor or master.[356] The hood indeed
was probably restricted to an academic use before this century closed,
for there is a statute of the year 1413 ordering hoods of kid or
lambskin to be worn. The incepting Cambridge bachelor,[357] then, wore a
_cappa_, a fine hood was gradually restricted to the master of arts.
The soft bonnets or caps--of doctors, bishops, jurists, canons--are
derivatives of the hood, as is the stiff cap--the biretta, as is the
mitre itself. The xviii century Cambridge student still wore a soft
round cap, like that worn to-day by the Italian university student and
quite recently adopted in France: but the Paduan doctors had adopted the
stiff square cap in the xvi century, and our own students revolted
against the round cap in 1769, and thereupon accomplished the feat
which neither Archimedes “nor our Newton” had attempted:
For all her scholars square the circle now.[358]
The chancellor of the university wears a black and gold robe. Scarlet is
the colour of the doctors’ gowns, as it still is of the papal doctors of
divinity. The physician of Chaucer’s time wore his furred scarlet gown,
and scarlet gowns and corner caps were worn by the Cambridge doctors
when the Cromwells entertained James I. on his way from the north in
1603.
The master wears a full-sleeved gown of stuff or silk; the bachelor’s
gown has two flowing bands hanging loose in front; the undergraduate’s
gown is both scantier and shorter than these; but ‘Advanced Students’
wear the bachelor’s gown, without the loose bands. The academic gown of
English universities is now black, but the earlier violet gown of
Trinity is recorded in the present blue gown of its undergraduates, a
blue gown being also worn by the neighbouring college of Gonville and
Caius.[359] The gowns of certain colleges are distinguished by little
pleats in the stuff or bars of velvet.
Peers and eldest sons of peers, in the first half of the xix century,
wore the black silk gown and tall silk hat of an _M.A._,[360] and on
great occasions a more splendid dress adorned with gold tassels and
lace. Fellow-commoners wore a gown with gold or silver lace and a black
velvet cap; the younger sons of peers being known as “Hat-fellow-commoners”
because they wore the _M.A.’s_ silk hat instead of the velvet cap.
Most of the pensioners at Cambridge in the xviii century (but not the
fellow-commoners) used to wear a sleeveless gown called a
“curtain.”[361] Neither the clerical cassock nor the _capa nigra_ in
fact account for the undergraduate’s dress of later or present times;
the original of which, I think, is to be found in the sleeveless gown or
coat, called _soprana_, of the ecclesiastical colleges founded between
the xv and xvii centuries. Two of the peculiarities of the _soprana_ are
still traceable. The bands of the bachelor’s gown may be seen attached
to the black coat of the _Almum Collegium_ founded in 1457 by Cardinal
Capranica, to the violet and black dress worn by the Scotchmen,[362] to
the red coat of the college founded by Ignatius Loyola, and the blue of
the Greek College founded by Gregory XIII.; while one string, adorned
with the papal arms, is left on the _soprana_ worn by the Vatican
seminarists: these are leading strings, denoting the state of
pupilage.[363] The Cambridge scholar’s and bachelor’s gown is black--the
descendant of the full black _cappa_--but as we have just seen the coat
or gown of the ecclesiastical colleges is of different colours, and the
ancient gowns of Trinity and Caius still record this variation.
Every one _in statu pupillari_ must wear cap and gown after nightfall,
on Sunday,[364] at examinations and lectures (except laboratory
demonstrations), when visiting the vice-chancellor or any other official
on academic business, in the library, the Senate House, and the
university church: professors and others usually wear the gown while
lecturing, and all dons wear it in chapel and hall.
[Sidenote: The undergraduates’ day.]
A twentieth century undergraduates’ day does not differ from those
recorded in his diary by Wordsworth’s brother when he was a freshman at
Trinity in 1793.[365] This is how he was employed during the Reign of
Terror and within a few days of the execution of Marie
Antoinette:--“Chapel. Lectures. Considered of a subject for my essay on
Wednesday se’nnight. Drank wine with Coleridge. Present the _Society_.
Chapel. Read ‘Morning Chronicle.’ Found in it an ode to Fortune, by
Coleridge, which I had seen at Rough’s yesterday. Read _ratios_ and
_variable quantities_, and Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy.” It was
indeed rather in its outer than in its inner circumstance that the life
even of the xiii and xiv century undergraduate differed from that of the
xxth. Then as now he listened to doctors in their faculties and his own
college seniors expounding the mysteries of art and science; then, as
now, he supplemented these lectures with private reading, then, seated
upon a wooden stool in a corner of a crowded room, or in the college
library, or best of all in the college meadows; now, in a comfortable
arm chair or stretched upon a sofa in his private sitting room.[366]
Then, as now, he caroused or discussed “the universe” with his friends,
as his nature suggested. Then, as now, he made early acquaintance with
the river Granta and knew each yard of the flat roads round the
university town. Even the periodical outbreak between “town and gown”
belongs as much to the xiii century as to the most recent history in
the xxth.[367]
Lectures take place in the morning, “coaching” and private study usually
in the late afternoon and evening. Two to four is the chosen time for
recreation, and the chief recreations of the Cantab used to be the road
and the river. The latter runs familiarly past the windows of his
college rooms, and invites him as he steps forth from the threshold of
his college court. Boating, swimming, or fishing, the student of a
bye-gone day found in the Granta a never-failing and an inexpensive
resource. Cambridge fish as we have seen has always been famous, and the
Merton scholars poached upon the townsmen’s fishing rights long before
the xiii century was out.
“Your success in the Senate House” said a well-known tutor “depends much
on the care you take of the three-mile stone out of Cambridge. If you go
every day and see no one has taken it away, and go quite round it to
watch lest any one has damaged its farthest side, you will be best able
to read steadily all the time you are at Cambridge. If you neglect it,
woe betide your degree. Exercise, constant, and regular, and ample, is
absolutely essential to a reading man’s success.” And the reading men
have taken the lesson to heart. No roads until the era of bicycles were
better tramped than the flat Cambridge roads which lend themselves so
well to this form of recreation; pair after pair of men, tall and small,
a big and a little together, used to keep themselves informed as to
their state of repair, or lose the sense of space and time in
discussions on the modern substitute for “quiddity” and _essentia_, or
the social and biological problems which are newer even than these.
Once back in his college the persons on whom the undergraduate’s comfort
most depends are the college cook the bedmaker and the “gyp.” The last
calls him, brushes his clothes, prepares his breakfast, caters for him,
serves his luncheon, waits on him and his friends, and carries back and
forth the little twisted paper missives which, as an American noticed
fifty years ago, Cambridge undergraduates are perpetually exchanging.
All these services the gyp may have to perform for a number of other
men. The only woman servant is the “bedmaker” whose name sufficiently
describes her official business, but who for the great majority of
modern students discharges the functions of gyp. The college kitchen is
a busy centre. Here is prepared not only the hall dinner but all private
breakfasts and luncheons served in college rooms; and most of the
college kitchens supply luncheons and dinners to residents in the town
if required. Dinner in hall costs from one shilling and tenpence to two
shillings and a penny, according to the college; bread and butter
called “commons” can be had from the buttery for 6d. a day; a breakfast
dish at a cost of from 6d. to 1/; and at some college halls a luncheon
is served at a small fixed charge.[368]
A hundred years ago the undergraduate dressed for “hall” with white silk
stockings and pumps and white silk waistcoat. A few wore powder, the
others curled their hair, and he was a bucolic youth indeed who omitted
at least the curling. “Curled and powdered” the Cambridge scholar wore
his hair even in the xiv century provoking the indignation of primates
and founders. A hundred and fifty years ago beer was served for
breakfast, and only Gray and Walpole drank tea. Even fifty years ago the
food was roughly served and in an overcrowded hall. It was however
abundant, and extras like soup, confectionery, and cheese could be
“sized for” _i.e._ brought you at an extra charge. The food provided
consisted of plain joints and vegetables, with plenty of beer. The
fellows’ table and the side tables of the bachelors were better served.
“The wine,” the famous entertainment which followed the old four o’clock
dinner fifty years ago, has yielded place to coffee and tea. In the May
term teas assume new proportions; for during the term which is fateful
to the reading man as that preceding the tripos examination, the idle
man turns work time into play, invites his friends and relatives up to
Cambridge, and entertains his sisters at “the races.” It is not indeed
to be supposed that the majority of undergraduates are to be found
keeping themselves awake with black coffee, a damp towel bound about
their brows, while they burn the midnight oil. Even the harmless
necessary “sporting of one’s oak” is no longer “good form.” In days when
you advertise for a curate and a schoolmaster who is a good athlete the
very thin literary proclivities of the bulk of Englishmen cannot be held
to be on the increase. What one might legitimately hope for is that
athletics should prove a safety-valve to the natural “rowdyism” of the
non-reading man; so that if school and university sports cannot make a
scholar they might at least turn out something not unlike a gentleman.
Last October (1905) proved a “record” in the number of men “going up,”
and November proved “a record” in the number of men who should have been
“sent down.” What took place is fresh in our memories; and it will not
quickly be forgotten that while the undergraduates of one university
were shouting their disgrace, a well-known bishop was signalising (and
exaggerating) the disgrace of the other; and we may choose between the
merits of leaguing with the town blackguard to kick policemen at
Cambridge or indulging the vice which changed the name of “wines” at
Oxford to “drunks.” At the rejoicings for Mafeking the iron railings
and posts were torn up along the ‘backs,’ and everything combustible
from drays to handcarts was “commandeered” to make a bonfire on Market
hill, where many panes of glass in the surrounding houses were smashed.
Proctors’ “bull-dogs” were rolled over in the mud, and the proctors
treated to the dignity of a “chairing.”[369] The bonfire on Market hill
is a development of a traditional ritual more amusing and less
dangerous: you drag out your own and your friends’ furniture and make a
bonfire in the middle of the college “court.”
Would it be impossible, among so many good rules, to make cap and gown
obligatory at both universities between the hours of 9 and 12? The
spectacle of youths hugging golf clubs on the Oxford station at ten
o’clock in the morning cannot be extraneous to examination results which
show that not 3 men in 4 who matriculate, take the _B.A._ At Cambridge
there is good promise in the large increase of scientific students who
take advantage of the facilities afforded by its laboratories: more men
entered for the “doctors’ college” in October 1905 than for any other,
except of course Trinity; and even “the sporting college” has been a
principal contributor to the number of medical graduates. Since 1883
there has been a board of Indian Civil Service studies, and the
universities between them send up far the larger number of candidates
for this service. A board of agricultural studies was instituted in
1899, a diploma in agriculture is now awarded, also one in sanitation,
and geographical studies are encouraged by prizes. Since 1899, when the
tripos was divided, the Historical has become one of the larger triposes
and in 1905 had the highest number of entries after the Natural
Sciences.[370]
[Sidenote: University athletics.]
The traditional rivalry in sports has of course been that between the
two universities. The inter-university boat race was begun in 1836, and
the first 4 races were won by Cambridge, as was also the first race
rowed in outriggers in ’46. Of the 64 races run, Oxford has won 6 more
than Cambridge; Cambridge has won 5 out of the last 6, and has also won
by the greater number of lengths (in ’49 by “many,” and in 1900 by
20).[371] The great inferiority of the ‘Cam’ to the ‘Isis’ is partly
compensated by the excellent style of rowing which Eton
[Illustration: THE TOWER OF ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE CHAPEL FROM THE RIVER
Trinity College Library lies on the right, through the trees.]
traditions carry on into Cambridge. The happy connexion between
Cambridge and Eton established by Henry VI. has never ceased to link the
most aristocratic English school with the more democratic of the English
universities, and many boys come to the “light blue” university already
wearing her favours. In football and golf the two universities have
shown equal prowess; Cambridge cricket is superior (the inter-university
match was started in 1839 and Cambridge won the first 6 matches), and in
athletics (1868-1906) Cambridge took the lead until the Rhodes scholars
arrived at the sister university.
The Union Society forms another distraction well calculated to turn out
the English ideal of a university man--a man, _id est_, ready for public
affairs. It was founded in 1815 by the _union_ of three already existing
debating societies, the present building was erected in 1866 and fitted
up as a club. Stratford Canning (Lord Stratford de Redcliffe) and
Blomfield, afterwards Bishop of London, belonged to one of these earlier
“spouting clubs” in 1806, where Palmerston and Ellenborough both “laid
the foundation” of their parliamentary fame. The college ball and the
college concert are also crowded into the student’s seven weeks of
residence in the May term, taking the place of the plays which formed
the staple entertainment in the xvi and xvii centuries. The modern
“A.D.C.” has been rendered famous by the “Greek Plays” which were
inaugurated twenty-five years ago with a performance of “Ajax.”
[Sidenote: Sunday at Cambridge.]
But the round of work and play comes to an end with Sunday, and the
university has preserved the festival aspect of this day, the day when
continental beadles and _gens d’armes_ don their fine plumes and when
what is bright and gay rather than what is dull and grave is mated to
the idea of a day of rest. The college courts--the outdoor centre and
rallying point of college life--are thronged with men gay in surplice or
gown[372] as they were thronged on that Sunday 370 years ago when
Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester found two hundred dons assembled
“as is their wont” and buttonholed the men who were likely to pleasure
his grace in the matter of the divorce. That fine day in the xvi century
was no doubt a repetition of many fine days in the centuries preceding
it, for it is always fine in Cambridge on Sunday. And Sunday after
Sunday the undergraduate has received a lesson in dignities, as he
circled becapped and begowned on the cobbled paths round the greater
luminaries becapped and begowned tranquilly stepping on the college
grass. The modern undergraduate does not remember a time when a pathway
ran across the turf from corner to corner of the college courts, as it
did in Clare Hall, in the old court of Corpus, and in William of
Wykeham’s foundation at Oxford. On “scarlet days” the courts are still
more gay, for the doctors then appear in their scarlet.[373]
The gowns in the court clothe the learned and the unlearned, and make a
present of as brave an academic appearance to the rowdiest of
non-readers as to the future senior wrangler. The academic year is
divided into 3 terms of 8 or 9 weeks each: half the year only is
therefore passed at Cambridge. For serious study the intervals are too
long and the ‘long vacation term’ has become the reading man’s term _par
excellence_; all the colleges are then half full, the numbers being
swelled by the medical students. The multiplication of extra-collegiate
scholarships has not told all one way. Parents who used to make
sacrifices to send a son to the university now count upon a scholarship,
with the result that on the principle of ‘light come light go’ less use
is made of opportunities. The university authorities look to the
“advanced students” (of whom there are now 60 or 70 in residence) who
are staying up for research work or come from other universities, for
solid academic achievement.
[Sidenote: Class from which the academic population has been drawn.]
There is no more interesting enquiry connected with our subject than
that concerning the classes from which the academic population has been
recruited at different epochs, and the careers for which the university
has fitted its members.
The Church has always remained the most constant client of academic
advantages: it was the churchmen who on the decline of the monasteries
and when the universities were established as learned corporations,
exchanged the cloister for the college education. The dissolution of the
monasteries and the breach with Rome left the universities as the only
representatives of the faculty of theology; and during the last century,
especially, if a man were destined for the Church he went--_ipso
facto_--to Cambridge or Oxford even though he were the only member of
his family to do so. In the xv as in the xvi centuries it was chiefly
men destined for the faculties of theology and law who frequented the
universities, and then, as always in their history, the poorest scholar
lived side by side with the youth of family and influence.
The lawyers, perhaps, have gone in equal proportions to a university or
to one of the Inns of Court; many have gone to both. The great change to
be observed is as regards students of the third faculty, medicine. In
the xix century the doctor and the tradesman’s son did not go to a
university; but this century, as we have seen, has already been marked
by the enormous accession of medical students at Cambridge. The gradual
growth of a powerful middle class resulted in the later xvi century in
filling the universities with the sons not only of the older yeomanry of
our shires but of the new Merchant Adventurers, often themselves men of
gentle blood and coat armour. It is perhaps from this century that the
idea began to prevail that an academic education was the proper
education of a gentleman. Of this century it was true as it had been
true of no other that “the civil life of all English gentlemen” is begun
at Oxford or Cambridge. Statesmen and ministers, the political and the
diplomatic careers, were recruited at the universities, and
university-trained canonists and lawyers like Cranmer and More, and
churchmen like Wolsey and Gardiner were chosen to be the ambassadors and
secretaries of state. Ascham complains to Cranmer that sons of rich men
“who sought only superficial knowledge” and “to qualify themselves for
some place in the State” overran the university, and both universities
soon became, in Macaulay’s words, the training ground not only of all
the eminent clergy, lawyers, physicians, poets, and orators, but of a
large proportion of the “nobility and opulent gentry” of the country.
In England men belonging to what have, hitherto, been the governing
classes have always sought advantages which would doubtless be less
apparent in countries where nobility and gentry are synonyms and where
government is not carried on by means of two such institutions as the
House of Commons and the House of Lords. A _noblesse_ which gives no
scions to the professions or to a representative chamber has seldom
sought academic distinction. The man destined for parliament for the
diplomatic service and the government office--occupations which an acute
American observer has said are chosen by Englishmen as the business of
their lives “without studying any other profession”[374]--prepared
himself in no other way than by three or four years spent at the
university, with or without graduating there. It was not however till
the nineteenth century opened that the distinctively aristocratic trend
of a university was defined. Throughout that century the university was
_par excellence_ the seminary of the English gentleman, and the parson.
A few bankers’ sons might be put into their fathers’ counting houses, a
few government officials might place their sons at an early age in a
government office, but the exception only proved the rule.
[Sidenote: Examples.]
[Sidenote: xvi c.]
[Sidenote: xvii c.]
Let us look at some examples of the class from which Cambridge was
recruited through the xvi and xvii centuries. Hugh Latimer (_b._ 1491)
was the son of a yeoman farmer; Sir Thomas Wyatt (_b._ 1503) was the son
of a knight. The father of Matthew Parker (_b._ 1504) was a Norwich
merchant; Bacon (_b._ 1561) and his brother, fellow-commoners of
Trinity, were sons of the Lord Keeper and nephews of Burleigh. Fletcher
(_b._ 1579) the dramatist, was the son of the Bishop of London, and his
cousins the poets were sons of Elizabeth’s Master of the Requests and
ambassador to Russia.[375] In the xvii century Herrick the poet (_b._
1591) was the son of a goldsmith established in London; Waller (_b._
1605) a nephew of Hampden’s, a man of large private fortune; Cowley
(_b._ 1618) was
[Illustration: UNIVERSITY BOAT-HOUSES ON THE CAM--SUNSET
This view is taken near Stourbridge Common and the bend of the river
known as Barnwell Pool, looking towards the town.]
[Sidenote: xviii c.]
son to a city grocer; Marvell (_b._ 1620) son to a Yorkshire clergyman;
while Temple was the son of an Irish Master of the Rolls. In the latter
half of the xvii century we still hear of “the farmer’s son newly come
from the university”[376]--Bentley was one of them--and at the same time
we hear that Tuckney, Whichcote’s tutor, “had many persons of rank and
quality” under him at Emmanuel College. In the xviii century, Pepys’
(_b._ 1703) father was a tailor, the Wordsworths were sons of a north
country attorney, Sir William Browne (_b._ 1692) was the son of a
physician.
[Sidenote: Recruiting schools.]
Men of low origin were sent up, and have always been sent up, to the
universities through the beneficence of patrons, and the poor tailor
Stow was enabled to write his history owing to the patronage of
Archbishop Parker who sent him to Oxford. Through the xv and early xvi
centuries the monastic and other convent schools supplied university
students. Bale (_b._ 1495) had been educated by the Norwich Carmelites,
Coverdale (_b._ 1487) had been an Austinfriar at Cambridge. At the
present day the big grammar schools, and in especial the Norwich grammar
school which educated Nelson, send every year a contingent of students,
as they have done since the reign of Edward VI. If we take the sporting
representatives sent from the two universities the year before last, 23
from Oxford and 21 from Cambridge, we shall find that one third of the
Cambridge men hailed from the greater public schools, Eton,
Charterhouse, and Rugby.[377] Our colonies are also a recruiting ground,
and with them Cambridge is favourite university.[378]
The number of undergraduates entered this academic year (1906-7) was the
largest on record, totalling 1021. The reputation and the popularity of
colleges of course wax and wane: for the past two years the largest
number of entries (excluding Trinity) has been for Caius and Pembroke,
Emmanuel coming next, and then S. John’s.[379] The number of
non-collegiate students is steadily increasing.
[Sidenote: Religion at Cambridge.]
There are no ‘high Church’ centres among the colleges, and there is no
‘broad Church’ movement among the undergraduates. The ‘broad Church’
movement is among the younger dons and in connexion with the University
Settlement. There are nonconformists in every college, but the reunion
with Christendom which begins at home finds no advocates among other
university men. As usual there is at Cambridge no particular ‘school’ of
religious thought. There is however just now a decided religious
movement among the undergraduates, almost exclusively connected with the
‘high Church’ parish of S. Giles. The majority of the men make little
religious profession, but there is no violent reaction such as agitated
Oxford in the ‘forties’ and ‘fifties,’ and the yearly increasing number
of scientific students inclines to a pantheistic rather than a
materialistic standpoint.
[Sidenote: Cambridge politics.]
The undergraduate population is decidedly conservative, as the
university has always been. At the present moment both sides of the
fiscal controversy are represented, the distinguished Cambridge
economist Dr. Cunningham advocating tariff reform, while the Professor
of Political Economy is a free-trader.
[Sidenote: The university settlement in Camberwell.]
The “slumming” movement made an early appeal to the younger members of
the university. Their present work in south London was begun over twenty
years ago, and “Cambridge House” has existed for ten years in a district
which has been called “the largest area of unbroken poverty in any
European city.” The workers are all laymen, 11 out of the 17 colleges
being represented by resident Cambridge men, while an undergraduate
secretary in every college assists in furthering the movement.
[Sidenote: Married dons.]
We saw at the beginning of this chapter that the aspect of the
university had changed with the marriage of fellows, tutors, and
officials; and in time this factor must greatly modify the conditions of
life at our universities. Both of these are now overrun with children’s
schools, and there can be little doubt that all the boys (and many of
the girls) will go to college. The natural profession for many of these,
owing to the father’s influence with his college and the son’s inherited
inclinations, will be academic. It would certainly not be to the
advantage of our seats of learning if they became in this sense close
corporations. It is obvious that this would mean less movement of ideas
and less opportunity for the outside world to affect the university; and
if a large number not only of the teachers but of the scholars belonged
to such a caste as this, if the profession of teaching were handed down
from father to son, the situation would not be unlike that which
threatened Europe when Gregory VII. interposed and made the Christian
world his executor in enforcing clerical celibacy. A new tuitional field
would be open to the young graduate in the numerous schools of Cambridge
and Oxford, but this would only accentuate the vicious circle of an
education which might come to suggest the ecclesiastical seminary rather
than the English university. Perhaps, too, a young man loses more than
half the social and worldly advantages of a college life if when
[Illustration: DITTON CORNER, ON THE CAM
From this spot the boat races are viewed. Behind the elms is the village
of Ditton, and the building we see is Ditton Church.]
he “goes up to the university” he does not change his habitat.
The married fellow cannot begin life again elsewhere after the 5 or 10
years’ teaching at his college which used to precede his departure for a
benefice: the old bachelor, if he stayed on, no longer taught, and new
men took his place in the lecture room. But now a fellow cannot renounce
the lecture room, for he and his family cannot live on the fellowship.
Lecturers are therefore often men past the prime of life, and moreover
men who no longer live in daily contact with the undergraduate. New
blood comes in seldom, and percolates slowly. On the other hand valuable
men stay who would under the old system have left. The influx of the
“monstrous regiment” will not however, one hopes, diminish an advantage
at present possessed by the seniors at our centres of learning--a
general equality of fortune which frees university society from the
laborious vulgarity that travails the soul elsewhere, from the general
“ponderousness,” as someone has called it, of English life. At least
Gray’s advice to Wharton not to bring his wife to Cambridge would now be
quite out of place; the “few” women are no longer “squeezy and formal,
little skilled in amusing themselves or other people,” and the men are
no longer “not over agreeable neither.”
CHAPTER V
UNIVERSITY MEN AND NATIONAL MOVEMENTS
Men who owe nothing to a university--40 great Englishmen--Cambridge
men: the scientists, the poets, the dramatists, other literary men,
the philosophers, the churchmen, lawyers and physicians, the
statesmen. (pp. 250-260.)
National movements: King John and the barons--the peasants’
revolt--York and Lancaster--the new world--Charles and the
Parliament--James II. and the University--the Declaration of
Indulgence--the Nonjurors--William and Mary and Cambridge
whiggery--Jacobitism and Toryism at Cambridge in the reign of
Anne--George I. and Cambridge--modern political movements. (pp.
260-269.)
Religious movements: Lollards, the early reformers, the question of
the divorce, Lutheranism at Cambridge, later reformers and the
Reformation, the English bible, and service books, the Cambridge
martyrs, the Puritans, the Presbyterians, the Independents, the
Latitudinarians, the Deists, the evangelical movement, the
Tractarian movement, anti-calvinism. (pp. 269-281.)
Intellectual movements: the New Learning and the age of
Elizabeth--the Royal Society--the Cambridge Platonists--modern
science. (pp. 281-291.)
Connexion of Cambridge founders and eminent men with the
university: early Cambridge names--a group of great names in the
xiii and xiv centuries--Cambridge men in the historical plays of
Shakespeare--genealogical tables of founders--Cantabrigians from
the xv century to the present day--Cambridge men who have taken no
degree. (pp. 291-309.)
What part is played by a university in the life of a people? This can
only be gauged by its output of men, its influence on great movements,
the trend and character of the learning it fosters and the opinions it
encourages.
During the centuries in which the English universities have existed, the
first degree of excellence has been reached in every department of human
knowledge and activity by men whom no university can claim. Shakespeare,
Bunyan, Hawkins, Raleigh, Drake, the Hoods, Howard of Effingham, Clive,
Warren Hastings, Marlborough, Nelson, Wellington, Scott, Dickens, Keats,
Browning, were at no university; the same is true of Smollett,
Richardson, and Sheridan. It is noticeable, nevertheless, that the
literary names cited include none but poets and novelists. Among
scientific men and philosophers, Bishop Butler, Faraday, J. S. Mill,
Huxley, Lubbock (Lord Avebury), Spencer, G. H. Lewes, Buckle, and Grote
were not trained at universities--even among the great educationalists,
the founders of colleges in our universities and of great public
schools, few received an academic education. Some careers, again, are
entirely outside the sphere of university influence--admirals and great
captains, sailors and soldiers, do not go to universities, and among
inventors hardly one hails from a seat of learning. Art, also, is not
fostered by an academic atmosphere; painters, architects, and musicians
owe nothing to it; and although universities adorn themselves with
professorships of the fine arts, and of music, it is not to them that
we go for definitions of art, or for an output of artists. In Orlando
Gibbons, indeed, Cambridge possessed a native musician whose
compositions and unrivalled technique as an organist place him in the
first rank of musical Englishmen; but while nearly every English artist
owes something to a _wanderjahr_ in Italy, scarcely one ever resided at
a university.
Nevertheless if we were to take a short list of representative
Englishmen, of the men who have influenced and shaped the national life,
its religion, its politics, its thoughts, who have helped to realise the
English genius and to make England what it is, we should find that a
large proportion of those who could have been educated at Cambridge or
Oxford were in fact university men. In the following list those who have
had a preponderant influence on English education from the vii century
onwards, are included:--
vii-viii c. Bede.†
vii c. Hild.*†[380]
viii c. Alcuin.*†
ix c. Alfred.†
xii c. Stephen Langton (Paris).
“ Grosseteste* Oxford (and Paris).
xiii c. Roger Bacon (Paris) and Oxford.
“ Edward I.†
xiv c. Wyclif Oxford.
“ Chaucer Cambridge.
“ William of Wykeham*[381] none.
xiv-xv c. Lady Margaret.*†
xv-xvi c. Colet* Oxford.
“ Bishop Fisher* Cambridge.
“ Wolsey Oxford.
xvi c. Sir Thomas More Oxford.
“ Cranmer Cambridge.
“ Ascham* Cambridge.
“ Elizabeth†
“ Drake none.
“ Raleigh[382] none.
“ Sir Philip Sidney Oxford.
“ Lord Bacon Cambridge.
xvi-xvii c. Shakespeare none.
“ Harvey Cambridge.
“ Cromwell Cambridge.
“ Milton Cambridge.
“ Jeremy Taylor Cambridge.
“ Bunyan none.
“ Locke Oxford.
“ Newton Cambridge.
xvii-xviii c. Marlborough none.
xviii c. Wesley Oxford.
“ Clive none.
xviii-xix c. Nelson† none.
“ Pitt Cambridge.
xix c. John Stuart Mill none.
“ Darwin Cambridge.
“ Gladstone[383] Oxford.
“ Florence Nightingale†[384]
Of these, 9 could not have been at a university and are marked †,
but of the remaining 31, 23 were at a university; 12 at Cambridge, 10 at
Oxford. Two were at both Paris and Oxford, and one was at Paris.
In this chapter, however, our concern is with the great men produced by
the one university. There are two fields in which Cambridge is and
always has been _facile princeps_. She has nurtured all the great
scientists, and all the great poets. The discoveries of world-wide
importance have been the work of Cambridge men--such were the three
which revolutionised the science of the world, the laws of the
circulation of the blood, of gravitation, of evolution. From Bacon the
founder of experimental philosophy to Darwin and Kelvin, every great
name is a Cambridge name, if we except indeed the few who like Wallace,
Humphry Davy, Faraday, and the elder Herschell owe nothing to a
university.
[Sidenote: Literature.]
If the scientific pre-eminence of Cambridge is unquestioned, her
poetical pre-eminence is no less absolute. Chaucer, Spenser, Marlowe,
Milton, Dryden, Gray, Wordsworth, Byron, Tennyson called her mother. In
the long list of English poets every poet of first rank (excluding
Shakespeare and Keats who were at no university) was at Cambridge,
except Shelley who was expelled from Oxford.
The dramatist movement from Marlowe to Shirley is one of the most
important in our literature. Here for the first time in English history
a group of Englishmen set themselves, on leaving the university, to earn
an independence by literature--and the opportunity offered them was
writing for the players. The dramatists were, with but few exceptions of
which the greatest is Shakespeare himself, university men; and of these
all who were epoch-marking hail from Cambridge. The list is headed by
the first English tragic poet, Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare’s great
predecessor; and Ben Jonson the greatest of his younger contemporaries
was also a Cambridge man. Lyly who created the art tradition of English
comedy, went to Cambridge from Oxford and there graduated _M.A._ Lodge
after leaving Oxford went to Avignon, took his _M.D._ degree there, and
on returning to England went to Cambridge. Shirley, the last of the
dramatists, went from Oxford to Cambridge.[385]
The sonneteers had preceded the dramatists, and the first writer of an
English sonnet was another Cambridge man, Sir Thomas Wyatt.[386] Surrey
whose university, if he went to one, was certainly Cambridge, wrote the
first blank verse. The first English essayist was Bacon, and he takes
his place in literature by another tide, because he was the first to
adapt our language as the vehicle for a scientific literature. Of the
five men who in the great days of the flowering of English poesy wrote
about the art of verse Spenser, Webbe, Harvey, Sidney, and Puttenham,
the first three, whose contribution is also the most important, were
Cambridge men.
All literary initiative, indeed, between the xiv and xviii centuries
appears to have come from the one university; the epoch-making
representatives of our literature, that is, were Cambridge men: Chaucer,
Spenser, Marlowe and Ben Jonson (in defect of
[Illustration: THE FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM--EVENING
In the distance are seen the square tower of the Pitt Press and Pembroke
College. Behind the trees are Peterhouse and the Congregational
Church.]
Shakespeare), Bacon, Milton, Dryden.[389] The first history of English
literature also comes from the hand of a Cantabrigian, John Bale. There
are two other classes of English literature to which reference must be
made. The novelists as we have already seen have not been _alumni_ of
our universities, partly because this is a field in which women have
attained the highest rank, partly because there seems to be that
something more of the artistic afflatus in the novelist’s craft and that
something less of the academic, as compared with the other forms of
literature, which we should à priori have certainly predicated of poetry
also. A list of the novelists, from Mrs. Afra Behn to George Meredith
would however show how different is the case of the novelists to that of
the poets.
The last branch of literature, the importance of which is much greater
than its literary merit, is journalism. Here, too, Cambridge led the
way, though here, as elsewhere, it has not maintained its position. It
was Roger Le Strange who as sole licenser and authorised printer and
publisher of news, printed the first number of the “London
Gazette”;[390] and Andrew
[Sidenote: A.D. 1658-78.]
Marvell’s newsletters to his constituents at Hull were among the
earliest attempts at parliamentary reporting.
[Sidenote: The learned professions.]
When we turn to philosophy, we find that Cambridge has been singularly
poor in metaphysicians, logicians, and political philosophers.
Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow, and Oxford all precede her. Among eminent
representatives of the learned faculties Cambridge had, with the
exception of Segrave, Bateman, and Beaufort, no great churchmen in the
xiv century. In the xvth it can boast that it nurtured Thomas Langton,*
Fox,* Rotherham,* Alcock,* Tunstall, and Fisher.* In the next century
Cambridge has it all its own way, the succession of primates is hers,
and nearly every one of the prelates who took the leading parts in that
busy century were Cambridge _alumni_: Fox,* Gardiner,* Latimer,*
Ridley,* Cranmer,* Parker,* Grindal,* Whitgift,* Bancroft.[391] In the
xvii century Andrewes,* Cosin,* Williams* the opponent of Laud, Taylor,
Stillingfleet, and the primates Bancroft, Sancroft, Tillotson, Tenison,
represented the university.
Cambridge has also contributed her large share of the lawyers, lords
chancellors and chief justices of England, from Thorpe, Cavendish and
Beaufort in the reigns of Edward III. and his successors to Booth,
Rotherham, Alcock, Fox, Ruthall, Goodrich, Wriothesley, Gardiner, Heath,
Coke, the two Bacons, Williams, Guilford and Lyndhurst in later times.
The great physicians, Caius, “Butler of Cambridge,” Gilbert, Harvey,
Wharton, Sydenham,[392] Paris, Grew, Sir William Browne and Sir Samuel
Garth, were all Cambridge men, and illustrate the early history of
medicine from the xvi century to the xixth.
[Sidenote: Statesmen and diplomatists.]
The roll of Cambridge statesmen is not less distinguished: the two
Cecils, Walsingham, Boyle ‘the great earl’ of Cork, of whom Cromwell
said that had there been one like him in every province it would have
been impossible for the Irish to raise a rebellion; Cromwell himself,
Sir W. Temple, Halifax, Walpole, Chesterfield, Pitt, Castlereagh,
Wilberforce, Stratford de Redcliffe, Palmerston.
[Sidenote: National movements.]
The first great national movement in which the groups of scholars and
teachers settled at Cambridge and Oxford could have taken part was the
conflict with King John under the leadership of Stephen Langton, and the
Barons’ war led by Simon de Montfort. Cambridge clerks were implicated
in the former, for as soon as Henry III. came to the throne he ordered
the expulsion of all those excommunicate scholars who had joined Louis
the Dauphin, the Barons’ candidate for the throne of England; and it is
surmised that Hugh de Balsham
[Sidenote: Wars of the Roses.]
later in the century favoured the side on which Simon de Montfort
fought. It was at Cambridge too that the Dauphin held his council after
the demise of John. Much had happened at the university between this
struggle in the xiii century and the latter part of the
[Sidenote: A.D. 1378-1381.]
xivth when the peasants’ revolt again raised the standard of rebellion.
The university was no longer a mere aggregate of poor scholars and
unendowed teachers, it had long grown into a privileged corporation
possessing fine buildings and a full treasury. As such, peasant and
burgess bore to it no good will, and Wat Tyler’s riots were seized as
the opportunity to burn the university charters, ransack the colleges,
and mishandle the masters and scholars. At the neighbouring manor-house
of Mildenhall (which had formed part of the historic dowry of Queen Emma
the mother of the Confessor) Prior John of Cambridge who was acting at
the time as abbot of Bury-St.-Edmund’s, was murdered by the mob. In 1381
Buckingham, after dispersing the revolted peasantry in Essex, held ‘oyer
and terminer’ at Cambridge, and the town was among the few which was
exempted from the general pardon.
Through the next great national crisis Cambridge was Lancastrian. The
men of letters of this party, its poets and historians, were Cambridge
men, members of Cambridge colleges--Warkworth, Skelton, the Pastons. The
Lancastrian sympathies of the university dated indeed from the time of
“the good duke” and of John of Gaunt, both of whom befriended it and
became patrons of one of its important colleges; and the intimate
connexion with the House of Beaufort, which began when Cardinal Beaufort
studied at Peterhouse,[393] culminated when Lady Margaret Beaufort, the
mother of Henry VII., crowned by her singular benefactions the
sympathies of the university for the House of Lancaster. Edward IV. had
not loved Cambridge, had indeed robbed Henry VI.’s college of its
revenues; but it was there that the royal houses laid down the sword to
join in a work of scholarly peace, and few episodes in the annals of a
university are more interesting than the building of Queens’ College by
Margaret of Anjou and Elizabeth Woodville, and the labours of Lady
Margaret in whose son were at length reconciled the rival claims of York
and Lancaster.
[Sidenote: The colonisation of the new world.]
We have seen that a Washington lies buried in the ancient chapel of the
first Cambridge college, and we are to see further on that the impulse
which set the “Mayflower” on her course proceeded from a Cantabrigian.
The oldest of the ‘pilgrim fathers’ was a Peterhouse man, persecuted in
England for his ‘Brownist’ opinions. There were many university men
among the first settlers, but they were chiefly from the one university;
and ‘Cambridge’ was the name which rose to their lips when they
christened the town in the great state of Massachusetts where they first
set foot. Thomas Hooker, one of the founders of Connecticut, was a
Cambridge graduate and exercised great influence among the New England
settlers. John Eliot, “the Indian apostle,” had graduated at Cambridge
in 1622; and Harvard, the ‘Cambridge’ of the new world, was founded by
another of her sons.
[Sidenote: The Parliament and the Stuarts.]
No sooner had America been colonised by these exiles for their faith
than the English revolution brought about the changes which would have
kept them in this country. Both universities declared for the king. The
loyalty of Oxford is a household word, and it certainly was not
diminished by the fact that Charles had his headquarters in the
university town: but Cambridge loyalty was not less; the university
plate was sent to Charles at York in
[Sidenote: A.D. 1642-4.]
1642, and among the chests which reached Oxford there were some which
arrived safely at the colleges and never arrived anywhere else.[394] The
royalist poet was a Cambridge man with a Devonshire cure, Robert
Herrick. Cambridge also supplied ‘the first cavalier poet’ John
Cleveland, who lost his fellowship for the king, Abraham Cowley, ejected
in the same way
[Sidenote: A.D. 1643.]
by the Puritans, and yet another poet and yet another fellow in Richard
Crashaw, a royalist born in the year that Shakespeare died, who on
refusing to sign the Covenant retired to Paris where he was employed on
royalist business by the exiled queen. Isaac Barrow, too, whose father
lost everything for the royal cause, and had been with Charles at Oxford
when Isaac went up to Trinity, refused the Covenant; and lived to find
himself in an increasing solitude amidst the growing Puritanism of the
university. A royalist
[Sidenote: A.D. 1645.]
sermon preached by Brownrigg (Bishop of Exeter) deprived him of the
Mastership of S. Catherine’s, and Queens’ College was entirely
depopulated by the Parliament men.
But contemporary with Herrick and Crashaw there were Cambridge men still
more famous, and they espoused the parliamentary cause. Chief of these
was the Cambridge poet on the parliament side, John Milton. Both
universities suffered severely from the Roundheads, yet together they
contributed the chief actors against the king. From Cambridge came
Cromwell, Milton, and Hutchinson, from Oxford Ireton, Hampden, and Pym.
Anti-monarchical and Puritan opinions were, however, only grafted on the
university as a result of the violent measures and the wholesale
ejectments carried out by Cromwell and his agents.[395]
[Sidenote: A.D. 1657.]
By the middle of the xvii century Cambridge had become Puritan, though
here she was outstripped by Oxford which had been Puritan fifty years
earlier, before Elizabeth died. Among the “regicides” many were
university men; Andrew Marvell and the young Dryden at Cambridge were
friends to Oliver: but the Presbyterian Wallis, a member of Emmanuel
College and later one of the founders of the Royal Society, protested
against the king’s death warrant which met with the approval of such men
as Milton, Hampden, and Hutchinson.
[Sidenote: The university and James II.]
The Restoration was welcomed at both universities. The scheme to secure
a Protestant succession and the attempt to exclude James now agitated
men’s minds. The ‘bill of exclusion’ was condemned both at Oxford and
Cambridge; and the earlier Rye House plot was met at the latter by the
deposition of Monmouth at that time chancellor of the university. To the
loyal addresses sent by both Cambridge and Oxford on the coronation of
James II., Cambridge added a condemnation of the attempt to alter the
succession. The attitude of the bench of bishops was not less
emphatic--only two prelates could be found to sign the invitation to
William of Orange.[396] It was with these facts before him that James
set to work to affront a loyal clergy and the two loyal seats of
learning; and thus gave to each a rare occasion of proving their
quality. The king first attempted to force the hand of the universities,
and began by ordering Cambridge to confer the _M.A._ degree on a
Catholic.
[Sidenote: A.D. 1687.]
This was refused. The vice-chancellor, and with him eight fellows (one
of whom was Isaac Newton) was cited to appear at Westminster before the
High Commission. Oxford was much more harshly treated, and there is
nothing in the history of either university to surpass the splendid
resistance of Magdalen College to tyranny, during which it was twice
depleted of its
[Sidenote: A.D. 1688.]
fellows. The Declaration of Indulgence, however admirable in itself,
struck a blow at constitutional principles, and introduced the dangerous
corollary that he who could loose _motu proprio_ could also bind. The
loyal archbishop of Canterbury, a graduate of Emmanuel, with six other
prelates refused to publish the Indulgence, and were sent to the Tower.
Lloyd of S. Asaph, Lake of Chichester, Turner of Ely, and White of
Peterborough were Cantabrigians; Ken of Bath and Wells and Trelawney of
Bristol, Oxonians.[397] Perhaps never since the primacy of Stephen
Langton had the Church in England been so popular, or shown itself so
ready to slough the servilism which attends on state Churches.
[Sidenote: A.D. 1689.]
[Sidenote: The nonjurors.]
In the following year five of the seven staunch prelates who had
withstood James, refused to take the oath of fealty to William and Mary.
The primate, with Turner, Lake, White, and Ken, to whom were joined
Lloyd of Norwich[398] and Frampton of Gloucester, headed some 400 of
the clergy as ‘Nonjurors.’ Under Bancroft the non-juring clergy
established a schism in the English Church which lasted till the xix
century. The Cambridge Sherlock had at first the greatest influence
among them, but neither he nor Ken followed them in the subsequent
schism. If another Cambridge man, Jeremy Collier, was the ablest of the
nonjurors, Dodwell, a Dublin man, and professor of Ancient History at
Oxford, was the most erudite.
[Sidenote: The House of Hanover.]
Although, as we have seen, the two bishops who signed the invitation to
William were Oxford men, Oxford had no love for the ‘Roman-nosed
Dutchman,’ and William had no love for Oxford. Halifax, William’s
henchman, and Nottingham, the leaders of the party which placed William
and Mary on the throne, hailed respectively from Cambridge and Oxford:
but it was the favour with which Cambridge greeted the accession of the
new sovereigns that became the seed of its whiggery. During the reign of
Anne, nevertheless, an anti-Hanoverian spirit spread among the younger
men. Not only were there Jacobites
[Sidenote: A.D. 1702-14.]
among the undergraduates and the junior dons, but a political party was
forming which represented the permanent elements in Toryism when
separated from Jacobitism. Amongst this party high churchmanship also
found refuge. The non-juring clergy still left at the university lived
there in close retirement, and helped to swell the ranks neither of the
nascent
[Sidenote: A.D. 1714.]
Jacobitism nor the new high churchism. A new
[Sidenote: A.D. 1715.]
vice-chancellor, favourable to the House of Hanover, followed a Jacobite
predecessor just in time to present a loyal address to George I. on his
accession. This was rewarded by the splendid gift of Bishop Moore’s
library; while at Oxford, where the Jacobites were more noisy and had
just made the anniversary of the Pretender’s birthday the occasion for a
disturbance, two Jacobite officers were placed under arrest, and a troop
of horse was quartered in the city. These events gave rise to the
following couplets:
(Oxford) The King observing with judicious eyes,
The state of both his Universities,
To one he sends a regiment; for why?
That _learned_ body wanted _loyalty_.
To th’ other books he gave, as well discerning
How much that _loyal_ body wanted _learning_.
* * * * *
(Sir Wm. Browne
for Cambridge)
The King to Oxford sent his troop of horse:
For Tories own no _argument_ but _force_.
With equal care to Cambridge books he sent:
For Whigs allow no _force_ but _argument_.
[Sidenote: Modern politics.]
When we come to modern politics, the parts are played on the political
stage at Westminster.
In the radical matter of parliamentary reform, the first step was made
by one of Cambridge’s great sons, the younger Pitt, fifty years before a
Whig ministry led by Earl Grey, another Cantabrigian, laid the Reform
Bill on the table of the House. The claims of America to self government
and freedom from taxation were upheld by both the Pitts, by Fox and by
Burke, and opposed by Samuel Johnson. The Whigs, as we know, were, as a
whole, of Johnson’s mind in the matter.
Cambridge opposed the Manchester school of Liberalism--and Catholic
emancipation, Free-trade, Reform bills, and Home Rule for Ireland were
all measures which received no support from the Whig-Conservative
university.
Philanthropy seems to be as far removed from the academic purview as art
or practical politics: none of the great humanitarian movements which
dignified the xix century took their rise in Cambridge; but Clarkson and
Wilberforce were Cambridge men, and Grey
[Sidenote: A.D. 1807-34.]
abolished slavery itself in 1834.
[Sidenote: Religious movements. The Lollards.]
In the century succeeding that which saw the historical birth of our two
national universities, the first breath of the early renascence was
wafted to our shores: but that dual aspect of the later movement which
haunted and shaped its whole course in England had been presaged in a
remarkable way, and in Wyclif Oxford gave a forerunner of the religious
renascence a hundred years before the advent of the humanistic. Even
when Henry IV. ascended the throne, Ralph Spalding, a Carmelite friar,
was the only person of note at Cambridge
[Sidenote: A.D. 1401.]
suspected of Lollardry; and when Archbishop Arundel set himself to crush
Wyclif’s movement at the two universities, the Cambridge harvest was of
the poorest.
[Sidenote: The Reformation.]
But with the blaze of the renascence the reform movement passed from
Oxford to Cambridge. Great national movements, as we have seen, are
seldom the consequence of an opinion of the Schools. The struggles of
the barons, the parliamentary wars, the restoration, the revolution
which placed William and Mary on the throne, were not prepared in any
university. But there is one exception--and the prime part in that
reawakening of the human mind which issued in the English Reformation,
must be assigned to the university of Cambridge. Here was laid the
intellectual and historical basis of the reformed religion, and
Cambridge produced the men and the minds which created the
ecclesiastical order, the liturgy, and the service books deemed suitable
to the reformed faith. The stones of Cambridge are indeed a monument to
the academic and intellectual form of Protestantism, as the cathedral at
Orvieto is a monument to the crudest form of eucharistic doctrine.
The end of the xv century found Cambridge very happily situated. It met
the dawn of the religious awakening with a galaxy of men representing
the noblest spirit of the time: Fisher, Fox, Thomas Langton, Alcock,
Rotherham, even Lady Margaret herself and Erasmus, belonged to Cambridge
in a sense which did not apply to Colet and More at Oxford. They
constitute a group of Cambridge ‘reformers before the Reformation’ who
were eager patrons of the New Learning; and the epoch was marked there
by the rise of important college foundations. As a result, the
university benefited to an extraordinary degree by gifts of religious
lands made not by the hand of the despoiler but by the friends of the
old faith.
[Illustration: UNIVERSITY CHURCH OF GREAT ST. MARY
The original church dates back at least to the thirteenth century and
was partially rebuilt in 1351. The present edifice is Perpendicular
Gothic, and was begun in 1478 and not completely finished until 1608. It
is the largest Parish Church in Cambridge, and the University sermons
are preached in it.]
Peterhouse had itself been one of the earliest known instances of the
conversion of religious property to secular purposes;[399] but in the xv
and early xvi century the instances crowd upon us. Henry VI. bestowed on
King’s College and on God’s House land from the alienated priories;
Alcock obtained from the Pope the dissolution of the Benedictine nunnery
which he converted into Jesus College; Lady Margaret endowed Christ’s
College with abbey lands; her stepson the Bishop of Ely dissolved the
Canons’ House of S. John’s bestowing its property upon the new S. John’s
College; and Mary gave monastic property to Trinity.
But the hopes raised in England by the spirit of catholic reform were
defeated: and it is again to Cambridge that we must look for the next
group of men in the march of events--Tyndale, Cranmer, and Latimer all
drew their inspiration from Cambridge.
[Sidenote: The divorce of Catherine.]
Closely allied to the movement for reform was the question of the
divorce, and Cranmer, less scrupulous than Wolsey, was the first to
suggest a legal solution in the king’s favour. The Church and the
universities were invited to emit a (favourable) judgment on the point;
and as a result of the tactics to this end the junior leaders at Oxford
pronounced in its favour, while the opinion elicited from Cambridge
really left the matter where it was before. The university declared that
Henry’s marriage with his brother’s wife was illegal if the previous
union had been consummated, but no answer was given to the second
question--whether the pope possessed the dispensing power. This was no
answer at all, and undermined neither the king’s position nor the
pope’s.
[Sidenote: Lutheranism.]
Meanwhile, at the Austinfriars, a Lutheran movement had sprung up. Here,
as elsewhere, the community to which Luther himself belonged led the way
in the Protestant revolt. Barnes, the Augustinian prior, was the centre
of a group of reformers who met at the White Horse inn; and Miles
Coverdale, one of his friars, learnt his reforming principles at the
Cambridge friary. The meetings at the White Horse were to have
consequences which affected the other university. Clerke Cox and
Taverner were to form part of the little group of Cambridge scholars who
took possession, at Wolsey’s bidding, of Cardinal College, and to
provoke the cry of the warden of Wykeham’s house: “We were clear without
blot or suspicion till they came!” The famous “Oxford Brethren” were the
Cambridge nucleus of the Reform in the sister city.
[Sidenote: The English bible and service books.]
The travail of the times, indeed, passed through a series of men who
came from the one university--the laboratory of the Reformation was at
Cambridge. The English Bible comes from
[Sidenote: A.D. 1524-68.]
its hands: Tyndale was the earliest worker, and Coverdale produced the
first complete English bible in 1535-6. “Cranmer’s bible” appeared in
1540; “Matthew’s” bible (1537) was the work of the Cambridge martyr John
Rogers who had also assisted Tyndale. Amongst the latter’s assistants
had been Roy, a Cambridge Franciscan, and Scory, a Cambridge
Dominican.[400] The “Bishop’s bible” was published under the auspices of
the Cambridge primate, Parker; and other scholars associated in the work
of translation were Clerke and Dillingham of Christ’s, Layfield,
Harison, and Dakins of Trinity, Sir Thomas Smith, and Bishops Andrewes
and Heath.[401] Erasmus’ New Testament had appeared under the auspices
of Warham, and of three Cambridge men, Fisher, Fox, and Tunstall.[402]
The service books owe as much to the one university: it is the
‘Cambridge mind’ which sets its seal on these formularies. The Cambridge
scholars were the best prepared men: Cranmer knew more about liturgies
than any one among the reformers; no one but Andrewes was the equal of
the catholic divines in patristic knowledge. The prayer book as it
stands is in the main Cranmer’s work; Cox and Grindal were on the
Windsor Commission which compiled the Communion service in the first
Prayer-book of 1549. Nine years later Elizabeth entrusted the revision
of Edward VI.’s 1552 Prayer-book to Parker, and Cox and Sir Thomas Smith
were among the revisers. In the final revision of 1660 Cosin rendered
great services; and even when the still-born attempt was made to revise
the liturgy in the reign of William and Mary, the task was once more
assigned to Cambridge men, Tenison, and Patrick who was set to mutilate
the collects.
The Articles of Religion in their original form and number were the work
of Cranmer, their reduction to Thirty-nine was the work of another
Cambridge primate, Parker.[403] Whitgift drew up for Elizabeth the
famous “Lambeth Articles”; and when the vexed subject of the Athanasian
creed agitated the ecclesiastical commission of 1689 as it is agitating
the national Church now--then, as now, when Cambridge heads of houses,
professors of divinity, and deans and tutors of colleges have signed a
declaration in favour of its excision from the public services, two
Cambridge men protested--the one against its retention, the other
against its unqualified damnatory clauses.[404] Dryden had already made
a similar protest.
Long however before the reformers had a free hand, Burleigh in his
retirement in Lincolnshire had jotted down the names of the eight
learned men most fit to carry out the Reform and to settle its
formularies when a Protestant queen should succeed. Seven of these men
hailed from Cambridge.[405]
[Sidenote: The Cambridge martyrs.]
It was not only in what concerned scholarship that the travail of the
Reformation belonged to Cambridge. It gave, in the person of Fisher, the
only member of the episcopal bench who died for denying the royal
supremacy. Early in the reign of Henry VIII. the first group of
Cambridge Lutherans gave other martyrs: Bilney, like Barnes, had carried
his faggot and recanted Lutheran opinions before Wolsey, but afterwards
took new courage and went to the stake for them. The cause left
smouldering by the death of Barnes, Bilney, and George Stafford (a
fellow of Pembroke) was rekindled by Latimer. Henry himself had examined
another Cambridge reformer, John Nicholson (“Lambert”) who denied the
corporal presence in the eucharist, and that royal and rigid
sacramentarian had condemned him. “Pleasant Taylor” “making himself
merry with the stake” was another Cantabrigian.[406] The first man to
die for his faith when Mary’s reign opened was Rogers of Pembroke[407];
and “the hardiest” of the Marian Martyrs was another Cambridge man,
Bradford. As she had nurtured the only martyr-bishop on the Catholic
side, so Cambridge nurtured the Protestant group of prelates who died at
the stake: Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer are three Cambridge martyrs
whose only title to be known as “the Oxford martyrs” is that Oxford
burnt them. It must not be forgotten, also, that one of the fifteen
heroic London Carthusians, martyred at Tyburn in 1535, was William Exmew
of Christ’s.
The death of Fisher, chancellor of the university, was followed by a
wholesale ejection of the professors of the ancient learning, and the
man who died for his denial of that ‘anglican solecism’ the royal
supremacy was immediately succeeded by the man who first suggested it to
Henry--Thomas Cromwell.[408]
[Sidenote: The Puritan.]
The next religious movement in the country was the Puritan, against
which we know that Elizabeth fought as lustily as Henry had combated
Lutheranism. Despite the fact that there were Puritan nuclei, as there
had earlier been Lutheran nuclei, at Cambridge, Puritanism was
eventually imposed on the university only by the same violent means as
had banished the old religion--wholesale ejections. The Anglican heads
of colleges were turned out, under Oliver, to be replaced by Puritan
Masters, in precisely the same way as Thomas Cromwell had replaced the
Catholics by men who accepted the royal supremacy.
[Sidenote: Early Presbyterianism.]
One of these early nuclei of Puritanism was fomented by Thomas
Cartwright, and Thomas Aldrich, Master of Corpus, became the leader of
the Cambridge Puritans. Cartwright was one of the first Presbyterians,
and canvassed the English counties in the interest of that form of
Church government. The movement was checked by Elizabeth, and
Cartwright was driven from his professorship. Later on the Puritan
Tuckney was Regius professor of Divinity as Cartwright had been Margaret
Professor. Presbyterianism was not congenial to the university: Hall
Bishop of Norwich, the satirist who was a contemporary of Shakespeare,
and Archbishop Williams the life-long opponent of Laud, both went to the
Tower for protesting against the acts of the Long Parliament, and Hall
though he was a noted ‘low-churchman’ remonstrated against the proposed
abolition of episcopacy. Among still more eminent Cantabrigians, Jeremy
Taylor was as much opposed to its abolition as Milton favoured it: but
when, in 1643-4, the Westminster Assembly met, Wallis the Cambridge
scientist acted as its secretary, the Oxonian Selden being another of
the thirty laymen present at its deliberations.
[Sidenote: The Brownists or Independents.]
Milton had no liking for the Westminster Assembly; with Cromwell he
sympathised with the rising Independent Congregations who took their
principles from the Brownists of Elizabeth’s time. Of the five movements
which were still to sweep over the face of religious England, two
originated in Cambridge. How inept the university is to the creation of
such schools of thought, how alien to its genius such creations are, may
be gauged by the comparatively puny character of these two movements.
The Brownists and the Cambridge Platonists do not suggest a world set
ablaze; but though ineffective as schools both of them represented
far-reaching principles, and have left a lasting impression on
Anglo-Saxon religion. It is easy to show this in the case of the
Brownists: for Browne was the spiritual father of the Pilgrim Fathers,
of the men who colonised a continent to obtain space to form those free
Church communities which many Englishmen regarded as the logical
completion of the principles of the Reformation. The English refugees at
Amsterdam were disciples and adherents of Robert Browne, and it was a
little company
[Sidenote: A.D. 1620.]
of Brownists which eventually set out in two ships for the new world,
one of which--the “Mayflower”--reached what is now the State of
Massachusetts. The Brownists were the first party of separatists from
the newly established Church in England, and the old and new worlds
recognise in them the true spiritual forbears of all Independent and
Congregational Churches; whose ecclesiastical polity requires that each
congregation should suffice to itself, be complete in itself.
[Sidenote: The Latitudinarians.]
In the next century arose the liberal church movement of Hales,
Chillingworth, and Jeremy Taylor. Falkland, the great layman who
inspired it, had been educated at Dublin university, but was entered for
S. John’s College as early as 1621, and claimed in after life, in a
letter to the then Master, to have been a member of that society. Taylor
was a Cambridge man who had removed to Oxford; Hales and Chillingworth
were both distinguished Oxford scholars. The distinction made by Taylor
and Chillingworth between essential and non-essential articles of
belief was very far ahead of the theoretical and practical narrowness of
the German Protestantism around them. The problem at issue was stated by
Stillingfleet,[409] “fresh from the generous intellectual life of
Cambridge,” on the eve of the Restoration: Does there exist, in regard
to Church government, any such _jus divinum_ as would prevent men, under
the stress of circumstances, learning from each other, and arriving at
unity? The doctrine of _accommodation_ stated in his _Eirenicum_, though
it was not in advance of the earlier speculation of Ussher,
Chillingworth, Taylor, and Hales, anticipated later developments of
theological speculation with which we are all familiar.
[Sidenote: Deism.]
The xvii and xviii centuries saw the rise and progress of Deism. Lord
Herbert of Cherbury[410] “the father of deism” was educated at Oxford;
the great opponent of his doctrines was the Cambridge philosopher Samuel
Clarke. Nevertheless deism was not a university movement. Bolingbroke,
Morgan, and Blount (1654-93) were at no university; Shaftesbury (b.
1621) and Tindal had been at Oxford; Woolston and Anthony Collins (b.
1676) had been at Cambridge; and Toland after a residence at three other
universities, retired to Oxford. Conyers Middleton, librarian of
Trinity, was another opponent of the deists. Like unitarianism, deism
undoubtedly responds to a certain temper of English religious
speculation and sentiment, but apparently to no very wide-spread
temper; and the success of English deism was consummated not here but on
the continent.
[Sidenote: The Evangelical movement.]
The evangelical movement is entirely associated with the names of John
and Charles Wesley and Whitfield--with a group of Oxford men. There was
no principle of ecclesiastical polity and none of philosophy underlying
it: it was a fervent religious revival begun within the Church of
England and ending outside it, and as such the great influence it has
exerted would appear to have presented few attractions for the Cambridge
mind.
[Sidenote: The Tractarian movement, and the earlier Cambridge movement.]
The ‘Tractarian movement’ which also arose as a renewal of religious
life in the Church of England, was, like Wesleyanism, due exclusively to
Oxford men. A still earlier ‘High Church’ movement--a ritualistic
movement before ‘Tractarianism’--had however found its home in Cambridge
under the auspices of Andrewes, Wren, and Cosin. These three men, later
bishops of Winchester, Ely, and Durham respectively, established a type
of Reformed churchmanship not only more tolerant and scholarly than
Laud’s but one which was more genuinely a university movement; for it
was indigenous--its patrons were all heads of Cambridge houses--and it
did not meet, as did Laud’s efforts at Oxford, with dislike and
rejection at the university. Two hundred years passed before the
Tractarian movement at Oxford reproduced its likeness and tendered it to
Englishmen as the _vera effigies_ of the Church of England.[411] The
influence on religion of Charles Simeon and other Cambridge men in
ante-Tractarian days should also be remembered; neither should it be
forgotten that the liberal anti-Calvinistic churchmanship of Peter Baro
and Overall was first taught by Cambridge men.
[Sidenote: The age of Elizabeth and the New Learning.]
The pre-eminence of Cambridge during the age of Elizabeth would be in
itself sufficient proof of its relation to the New Learning--to the
revival of letters and of Greek, the rise of experimental science, and
the theological speculations of the century. Round Elizabeth there
gathered from the first to the last days of her reign a brilliant group
of men--scholars, poets, tutors, prelates, lawyers, statesmen,
philosophers, travellers, explorers. Every name we chance upon, every
man who influenced the court, the letters, the science of the day, hails
from Cambridge. The tutors of Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary,
and Elizabeth had all been Cambridge men, and Cambridge men were
appointed as their physicians and chaplains. Names like those of
Skelton, Fisher, Erasmus, Croke, Tyndale, Ascham, Sir Thomas Smith, and
Cheke; of Spenser, Gabriel Harvey, Marlowe, and Ben Jonson; of Bacon,
Gilbert, Harvey and Caius, conjure up a picture of the scholarship of
the age, of the new stir in thought, letters, and learning. Let us look
at two other well-defined groups of Elizabethans--the statesmen and the
churchmen. The two Cecils, Walsingham, Haddon and Fletcher (Masters of
the Requests), Bacon, Knollys, Sussex, Smith, and Mildmay were all
Cambridge men; and so were all Elizabeth’s great prelates: Lancelot
Andrewes, her chaplain, and dean of Westminster, and the primates
Parker, Grindal, and Whitgift: and they represented every party in the
country. Fulke Greville the most fortunate of the Queen’s favourites,
Sir John Harrington her godson, and Essex, were also Cambridge men.
Among the gallant little company of the first adventurers one only is
known to have studied at a university, and he was at Cambridge: Sir
Thomas Gresham conducted the expedition fitted out by Raleigh which
resulted in the discovery of Virginia--named after the virgin queen--and
in the introduction of the tobacco leaf. Cavendish, a Corpus man,
brought to England the tobacco called after him. Clifford, third earl of
Cumberland, a Trinity man, was one of the early privateers and
navigators; and young Roger Manners, of Queens’ and Corpus, went the
“Islands Voyage” with Robert Devereux who had studied at Trinity. Even
Drake, who was at no university, is known as a Cambridge benefactor, and
was as we have seen a large subscriber to the chapel of Corpus Christi
College.
In the last place the New Learning of the Tudor age was carried from
Cambridge to the sister university. It was so well understood that
Cambridge represented this new learning that Wolsey went there for the
men who, by colonising Cardinal College, were to introduce it at
Oxford; and Fox of Pembroke founded a belated _Corpus Christi College_
with the express purpose of erecting a monument in Oxford to the
Renaissance.
[Sidenote: The schoolmasters.]
The last half of the xv century brought with it the great schoolmasters.
Mulcaster of Eton and King’s was master of Merchant-Taylors’ on its
foundation; Colet’s school, S. Paul’s, sent to Cambridge for its second
head, and five of its first eight head masters were Cambridge and King’s
men. King’s College has supplied a large proportion of the Provosts and
head masters of Eton, many of the famous masters of Harrow, and a King’s
man counts as the creator of Rugby “as it now is.” Ascham’s
“Schoolmaster” was epoch-making, and his connexion with his university
was much closer than William Lily’s with Oxford.
[Sidenote: The Royal Society A.D. 1660-62.]
The brilliant epoch of Elizabeth spent, intellectual life smouldered
during the reigns of the first two Stuarts and the Protectorate, to be
renewed and rekindled not by fresh literary activity but by the
inquisitive temper which invaded the nation as it emerged, with the
Restoration, from civil conflict and the slough of doctrinal wrangling.
This inquisitiveness took shape in the institution of the Royal Society.
The _foyer_ of the Royal Society was London, although some of its most
distinguished members migrated later with Wilkins to Oxford. Of the
eminent men who formed the first Royal Society Wallis, Wilkins, Foster,
Jonathan Goddard, Sir William Ball, Lawrence Rooke, Sir William Petty,
Ward the mathematician, Ray, Woodward the mineralogist, Flamsteed,
Sloane, Boyle, Halley, Chief-Justice Hale, Lord Keeper Guilford, with
Sprat the Bishop of Rochester (its historian), Cowley and Dryden (its
poets), and Sir Robert Moray--Wallis, Foster, Rooke, Ray, Woodward,
Flamsteed, Guilford, Cowley, and Dryden, were Cantabrigians. Four of the
most prominent, Ward, Boyle, Sloane and Ball, were at no university;
Goddard went from Oxford to Cambridge where he graduated; Petty though
he became Professor of Anatomy at Oxford was educated at foreign
universities; Moray was at S. Andrews and Paris; Wilkins, Halley, Hale,
and Sprat were at Oxford. Among the first fellows there came from Oxford
Christopher Wren, John Evelyn, Hook of the microscope, Sydenham: More
the Platonist, Sir William Temple, Willughby the ornithologist, and
Grew, came from Cambridge. Two more of Charles’s courtiers joined Moray,
Kenelm Digby from Oxford, and Villiers Duke of Buckingham from
Cambridge.
[Sidenote: The Cambridge Platonists.]
The next movement in English thought was both religious and
philosophical. When Latitudinarianism ceased to be ecclesiastical it
passed from Oxford and became identified with the sister
university.[412] Here it was handled by a group of men, from the two
colleges Emmanuel and Christ’s, so as to embrace a moral and political
philosophy, to which the term _Platonist_ is only aptly ascribed if it
be meant to stand for the “mass of transcendental thought”; that
traditional Platonism of the speculative schools which had succeeded one
another down the centuries, always at war with nominalism and constantly
asserting the transcendent character of moral ideas and the reality of
free will. Hobbism came to assail this position; for Hobbes applied
Bacon’s method to the moral and social order, and found the basis for
them in certain obvious facts of human nature. The spirit of enquiry set
afoot by the Cambridge Platonists was none the less real because it was
opposed to such tenets. They set themselves, in fact, to enquire whether
authority and tradition should guide men in matters of faith. They
asserted that reason was supreme, and they sought to place Christianity
again--to place Protestantism for the first time--under the protection
of that noble spiritual idealism which the great thinkers of the early
Church had chosen for the new faith; to penetrate Christianity with
philosophy.[413]
The early Latitudinarianism was merely an essay in liberal
ecclesiastical polity. The new movement was something more, something
finer. Cambridge now gathered up the floating philosophical speculation
which existed in the xvii century side by side with the intense
absorption in dogmatic wranglings, the rapid growth of sects--of
Anabaptists, Antinomians, anti-Trinitarians, Arians. “A kind of moral
divinity,” as Whichcote’s tutor, the Puritan Tuckney, cried out in
alarm, was to be substituted for theological polemic. The movement
indeed was due to the combination of a higher spirituality than the
Puritan with the new spirit of bold enquiry in moral and speculative
fields[414]--it constituted a Cambridge reaction against the trammels of
Puritanism. It was the first of all English religious movements (not
excepting Wycliffism) to ally a growth of the religious sentiment with
the demand for a wide and liberal theoretical basis to theology. At the
head of this theological movement stands Benjamin Whichcote (_b._ 1609)
tutor of Emmanuel, who numbered among his pupils Wallis, Smith, and
Culverwell, and who was afterwards Provost of King’s. Ralph Cudworth
(_b._ in Somersetshire 1617) is perhaps the central figure: he is great
as a moral philosopher, great in his impartial statement of an
opponent’s case, great even in his freedom from the party and political
heat which consumed his contemporaries.[415] In John Smith (_b._ 1616)
of Emmanuel[416] the movement becomes more speculative, his was the
finest and most richly stored mind, and his “Select Discourses” perhaps
mark the culminating point of the Cambridge school. There remains Henry
More (_b._ 1614) the better known name, of Christ’s College, the
exponent of Descartes, the ardent follower of Plato, from whom he learnt
“that something better and higher than the knowledge of human things
constitutes the supreme happiness of man.” His _Enchiridion ethicum_ and
_Enchiridion metaphysicum_ were the text books of the school.
This academic group forms, as Tulloch points out, not only “one of the
most characteristic groups in the history of religious and philosophical
thought in England,” but one of the most homogeneous. Whichcote’s
aphorism “There is nothing more unnatural to religion than contentions
about it” sums an epoch in religious thought. Questions of Church order
and Church policy were left aside, to philosophise; the clash of
ecclesiastical parties ceased to trouble, and an academic enquiry into
the relation of philosophy to religion takes its place. Neither Puritan
nor Presbyterian had brought any such liberating attitude towards
theology, for which indeed the early Protestantism cared not one jot,
but which has never entirely died out of England since the speculations
of the Cambridge Platonists.[417] The Englishman--fed with the crude
dogmatism of Luther, the arid ecclesiasticism of Laud, the dull fancy of
the Puritan, and the intolerance of all three--now for the first time
was called dispassionately to consider the claims of the philosophical
reason, the eternal distinction between essential and non-essential--a
distinction anathema to the ordinary Protestant--fundamental and
non-fundamental, between the reality and the figure; to the claims, in
fine, of those ontological verities on which belief in the revealed
verities ultimately depends. A “rational Christian eclecticism” was for
the first time presented to Protestants, and in so far anticipated the
principle upon which the problems of the present day attend for
solution. The values to be assigned to the notions of “orthodoxy,” of
dogma--who around them had ever thought of such things before! At Oxford
it has always been a question of form, of Church order; but at Cambridge
a question of substance, an enquiry into the criteria of truth, the
credentials of theories.
Nevertheless, the Cambridge Platonists were ineffective. Their
philosophy lacked a touchstone, concentration; and they allied its fate
to a ridiculous bibliology. For More, who taught at the university which
gave us our school of biblical critics--Erasmus, Colenso, Westcott,
Lightfoot, Hort--the wisdom of the Hebrew had been transmitted to
Pythagoras, and from Pythagoras to Plato, who thus becomes the heir of
divine (the Hebrew) philosophy. Such a doctrine was a serious
embarrassment to a cause in the age of Hobbes; it meant that the
rational and critical _criteria_ of the day went unutilised, and no
doctrine can withstand such a charge. There was, too, a certain lack of
the spirit of adventure, that gallant spirit which is not out of place
even in philosophy, and of the courage which belongs to enthusiasm. The
appeal to reason made by Hooker had debouched as Latitudinarianism; Laud
and George Herbert had both opposed it; but Puritan England was stronger
than both and would have none of either. The Platonists stood between
them--called upon the Laudian to modify his conception of authority,
upon the Puritan to admit the claims of reason, enriched Latitudinism
with a philosophy. They were not listened to. None the less the _via
media_ they offered has penetrated English thought. The Englishman
favours reason but is no Hobbist, he must have his God behind the
machine; he likes the supremacy of reason with a nebulous Plato behind
it--not the real Plato, but a Plato to hurl as a weapon in the face of
the materialist, without understanding too much about it. The ‘Cambridge
mind’ hit on a middle term, a resting place for speculation and for
faith, which suits the Englishman in the long run better than either
Laud or Hobbes. In Cudworth we have that mind typified--that union of
toleration with half lights which triumphs in England. Very bold
speculation is not the Englishman’s _forte_. His intellect in such
_gesta_ is not clear-cut, and his practical sense is always compatible
with unturned-out-corners of mysticism, prejudices, reverences false and
true--all the haziness made by those useful half lights loved by a
people who do not like to be mystified, but do not wish to be too much
enlightened.
And if we ask why Cambridge should be Platonist, the answer is because
it always resisted the Aristotelianism of the Schools. Reaction against
scholasticism had brought Plato to Florence in the xv century, it made
Plato at home in Cambridge in the xviith. We have called Cambridge the
laboratory of the Reformation; there too, we see, was made the first
attempt to reconcile Protestantism with philosophy: in undoing the
servitude of the latter to religion, which had been the mark of the
middle ages, the Cambridge Platonists did away with medievalism, joined
hands, behind its back, with that Neo-Platonism of the Alexandrine
schools which had influenced the early Church, defied, of course,
scholasticism, and prepared the place for our modern moral sciences
tripos.
[Sidenote: Modern science.]
We have already seen that Cambridge is the representative in England of
the scientific movement which has changed the face of the modern world.
It may perhaps be pretended that the stages of its development in Europe
have been marked by the great men emanating from this one university.
The names of Bacon, Gilbert, Harvey, Flamsteed, Newton, Darwin, are
signposts of the direction which science was to take and landmarks of
its achievements.
[Illustration: ADDENBROKE’S HOSPITAL IN TRUMPINGTON STREET
This building, as we now see it, was remodelled by Sir M. Digby Wyatt
1864-65.]
William Gilbert the discoverer of terrestrial magnetism and of the
affinity of magnetic and electric action, was praised by Galileo, while
Erasmus called him “great to a degree which is enviable.” Flamsteed
began that series of observations which initiated modern astronomy,
Horrox came still earlier, and they have been followed by such
Cantabrigians as Newton, Nevil Maskelyne, Herschell, Airy and Adams.
Newton and Darwin are two of the greatest names in the history of the
physical and physiological sciences--they stand out as creators of
epochs in the march of human knowledge: on Newton’s statue in Trinity
chapel are inscribed the words _qui genus humanum ingenio superavit_--of
whom else could they be spoken?--Darwin has revolutionised our thoughts
in spheres far removed from those directly affected by his great
hypothesis.
When we turn to consider the relation of these distinguished sons to the
university which bred them, it is interesting to find how close this has
always been. From the first makers of Cambridge to the last, from its
earliest distinguished sons to its latest, the individual’s relation to
the university has been a close one and the same names come down the
centuries and create a homogeneity in Cambridge history which has
certainly not received its due meed of recognition. A group of
persons--of families--is already assembled in this remote eastern corner
of England in the xiii and xiv centuries which contains the elements of
our university history: Stantons, de Burghs, Walsinghams, Beauforts,
Clares, Greys, Pembrokes are there--and Gaunt and Mortimer the roots of
Lancaster and York. If we had looked in upon the town earlier still, in
the xi and xii centuries, we should have found Picot--the ancestor of
the Pigotts whose name is recorded in Abingdon Pigotts hard by--who
succeeded to the honours of Hereward the Wake[418] and who founded the
church dedicated to the Norman saint Giles; Peverel who brought the
Austin canons to Cambridge, Clare, de Burgh, Fitz-Eustace (or Dunning)
and, by the side of these companions of the Conqueror, the sons of the
soil--the Frosts and Lightfoots. In the xiii century there were the
Dunnings assisting the Merton scholars to establish themselves, Mortimer
endowing the Carmelites, the Veres[419] establishing the Dominicans, de
Burghs, Walsinghams, Walpoles, and Bassetts,[420] the Greys, and
Manfields,[421] and “Cecil at the Castle”--all of whom appear in Edward
I.’s Hundred Rolls.
The name of Clare figures on every page of the history of the
Plantagenets. The first Gilbert de Clare had been employed to terrorise
the East Anglians who held out against William; another Gilbert is at
the head of the barons, his son is the guardian of Magna Charta, and
_his_ granddaughter founded Clare College. She also built the Greyfriars
house at Walsingham in 1346, was, with her kinsmen the Monthermers a
great benefactor to the first Augustinian priory founded a hundred years
earlier at Stoke Clare[422] and found time
[Sidenote: A.D. 1248.]
to send timber from her estates towards the building of the king’s Hall,
as Queen Elizabeth sent a similar gift just two hundred years afterwards
to the king’s college of Trinity. The Clares had received 95 lordships
in Suffolk, which formed “the honour of Clare,” and they gave their name
to the county in Ireland. Through Ralph de Monthermer the founders of
Clare and Pembroke were allied, for he was Elizabeth de Clare’s
stepfather, and afterwards brother-in-law to Aymer de Valence (see
Tables I, II).
[Sidenote: A.D. 1198.]
We first hear of the de Burghs in 1198 when Thomas, brother to Hubert
the king’s chamberlain,
[Sidenote: A.D. 1225.]
became guardian to a Bury ward. In 1225 a de Burgh was bishop of Ely,
and a hundred years later John de Burgh the 4th earl of Connaught and
2nd earl of Ulster married with Elizabeth de Clare. Towards
[Sidenote: A.D. 1385]
the end of the xiv century another de Burgh, author of the “_Pupilla
oculi_” was chancellor of the university, and it is he who purchased the
land of S. Margaret’s hostel in 1368.
[Sidenote: A.D. 1291.]
The connexion of the Mortimers with Cambridge also dates from the xiii
century: Guy de Mortimer figures in the Cambridge Hundred Rolls as the
benefactor of the Carmelite friars, and sixty years later Thomas, son of
Sir Constantine de Mortimer, ceded land for King’s Hall.
The name of Walsingham occurs as that of a prior of Ely in 1353. The
Walsinghams held two manors
[Sidenote: A.D. 1344.]
in Suffolk, besides land in Cambridge part of which was sold to the king
for the site of King’s Hall.
[Sidenote: A.D. 1290-1299.]
There was a Ralph Walpole bishop of Ely, and subsequently of Norwich in
the time of Edward I., who gave a messuage to Peterhouse as early as
1290. The Walpoles continued to figure on the roll of this college till
in the xvi century the Walpole of that day fled with the Jesuit Parsons
to Spain after the trial of Campian; he became vice-rector at Valladolid
but was eventually martyred at York five years before the close of the
century. Robert and Horace Walpole continued the Cambridge traditions of
their family.
With the xiv century other names appear: the Scropes, Gonvilles,
Stantons,[423] the families of Cambridge and of Croyland, Haddon,[424]
Zouche,[425] and Cavendish, and last but not least Valence, and the
house of Gaunt and Beaufort.
The connexion of the Scropes with Cambridge probably dates from the
earlier half of the xiv century. Scropes, as we have seen, figure among
the chancellors of the university in that century, and were allied not
only to the Mortimers but to the Gonvilles: when therefore we find the
representative of the house of Valence who is also a grandson of Roger
Mortimer, and whose son married a descendant of the founder of Clare,
engaged in a political intrigue with Gaunt,
[Sidenote: A.D. 1371.]
Scrope, and the Master of Pembroke in 1371, and the Scropes[426] Greys
and Mortimers conspiring with
[Sidenote: A.D. 1414.]
Richard Earl of Cambridge[426a] early in the next century, we gain a
very definite impression of a Cambridge _coterie_.
“---- Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey, in their dear care,
And tender preservation of our person”----
are the words which Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Henry V. before
his discovery of their treachery.
[Sidenote: Shakespeare and Cambridge men.]
Indeed the historical plays of Shakespeare, from the dawn of our
university history in the reign of John to its zenith in that of Henry
VIII., place prominently before us our Cambridge protagonists. In “King
John” the names of Louis the Dauphin, Chatillon, and de Burgh recall the
Cambridge history of two centuries. Chatillon is here the ambassador of
Philip of France who calls upon John to surrender his “borrowed majesty”
into Prince Arthur’s hands; and in the next century Marie de Chatillon
and Elizabeth de Burgh are building colleges. Sir Stephen Scrope figures
in “Richard II.” In “Henry IV.” Scroop Archbishop of York and Edward
Mortimer, and in “Henry V.” the Earl of Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey,
appear. In “Henry VI.,” with Beaufort, Mortimer, Suffolk, Somerset,
Buckingham and Stafford, Stanley, Woodville, and Margaret of Anjou--all
of whom were to play a part in Cambridge history--we have Bassett of the
Lancastrian faction, and Vernon representing the Yorkists. The _dramatis
personae_ of this play thus include the _dramatis personae_ of King’s
and Queens’ Colleges, of Haddon Hall, of Magdalene, and Christ’s. In
“Richard III.” Rotherham of York appears, with many others who belong to
Cambridge in the xv century; while in “Henry VIII.” even Dr. Butts of
Gonville, Henry’s physician, is not omitted.
[Sidenote: xv c.]
[Sidenote: xvi c.]
In the xv century we have some new names. Zouche is there still, and
Scrope, and Bassett, and Beaufort, but there are also Langton, Stafford,
Pole, Brandon, Stanley, and Babington. In the xvi century Stanley,
Brandon, Stafford, Sidney, Audley, Bacon and Cecil, are all prominent
names.
These various groups are not independent. The annexed pedigrees will
show us that the Clares, Mortimers, de Burghs, Audleys, and Staffords
had intermarried: that Valence and Chatillon, Mortimer, Grey, and
Hastings, formed one family; that the Beauforts, through John of Gaunt,
joined the house of Edward III. to the house of Tudor, and were allied
to the Staffords, Nevilles, and Stanleys; that the Scropes were allied
to the Mortimers, the Staffords again to the family of Chatillon and to
the Woodvilles: the Sidneys to the Brandons, the Brandons to the Greys,
the Greys to the Woodvilles;[427] and that the xvi century Audleys
intermarried with the Greys as the xiv century Clares had wedded with
the Audleys; that through Mortimer, Stafford, Hastings, and Grey, the
founders--Clare, de Burgh, Chatillon, Valence, Beaufort, Stafford,
Woodville, Audley, and Sidney--form one clan. Before we proceed with the
list of well-known Cambridge names from the xvi century onwards, let us
notice in passing that certain titles have always clung to Cambridge, no
matter who bore them: such are Pembroke, Huntingdon, Buckingham,
Suffolk, Leicester.[428]
TABLE I.
PEDIGREE OF CLARE
Gilbert de Clare, ob. 1229 = Isabella, daughter of William Mareschall,
Earl of Hertford and Gloucester, | Earl of Pembroke in right of his wife
descended from Richard, founder | Isabella de Clare, and granddaughter of
of the House of Clare (whose | Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke,
4th son was abbot of Ely) and | surnamed “Strongbow” (who married
great-grandson of Richard the | a dau. of the Irish prince Dermot).
Fearless, Duke of Normandy. |
The family settled in Wales |
in the xii c. Gilbert (ob. 1148) |
being created Earl of Pembroke |
by Stephen in 1138. Attests, |
with Hubert de Burgh, John’s |
charters to the town of |
Cambridge. |
+--------+
|
Richard, ob. 1262 = Matilda de Lacy, dau. of the
Earl of Gloucester and Lord of | Earl of Lincoln.
the Honour of Clare. He |
and his father were |
the acknowledged heads of the |
baronage and guardians of |
Magna Charta. |
|
Gilbert, 1243-1295 = in 1290 Joan,
Earl of Gloucester, Clare and | dau. of Edw. I.
Hertford, called ‘the red.’ The | = 2ndly Ralph de
greatest of the barons in the | Monthermer.
reign of Edw. I. Supported de |
Montfort till after the battle of |
Lewes. Endowed Merton scholars. |
|
|
+-----------+--------------------+-------------+----+
| | | |
| Eleanor = Hugh le Margaret = 1st Piers Elizabeth Lady of the
| Despenser. Gaveston Honour of Clare, b. at
| = 2nd Hugh Acre during the crusade
| | Audley. _c._ 1291-2.
| FOUNDER OF CLARE COLLEGE
Gilbert killed at |
Bannockburn June 24 | married = 1st John de Burgh
1314, one of the | 3rd Earl of Ulster
“ordainers.” | and 4th Earl of
| Connaught.
+-------------------------+ = 2nd Lord Verdon.
| = 3rd Roger d’Amory.
| |
Margaret = Ralph Earl of Stafford, |
ob. 1372. |
|
+---------------+
|
William = Matilda, dau. of Henry
last Earl of | Earl of Lancaster. She
Ulster. | = 2ndly Ralph Stafford.
|
+-----------------+
|
Elizabeth de Burgh = in 1352 Lionel Duke
Lady of the | of Clarence second
Honour of Clare.[429]| son and heir of Edw.
+---------------------------------+ III. The title
| _de Clarentia_ is taken
| from his wife, Lady of the Honour
| of Clare, and is also recorded in
| that of _Clarenceux_, or Clarence,
| king-of-Arms, an heraldic title
| derived from the duke’s.
|
Philippa de Clarentia = Edmund Mortimer
| Earl of March.
|
Philippa = John Hastings
Earl of Pembroke.
The descendant of the Duke and Duchess of Clarence became Edward IV.,
and the ‘honour of Clare’ was thenceforth merged in the crown, and now
forms part of the duchy of Lancaster.
TABLE II.
PEDIGREE OF VALENCE
Guy de Chatillon = Mary of Brittany,
Comte de | dau. of Beatrice,
Saint-Paul. | sister of Edw. I.
+----------------------------------+ |
| | |
Isabel = John Lord Hastings, | |
= 2ndly | ob. 1312. | |
Ralph de | | |
Monthermer. | Aymer de Valence = 3rdly Marie de Chatillon,
| Earl of Pembroke, FOUNDER OF PEMBROKE
| youngest son of William de COLLEGE.
| Valence, half-brother of
| Hen. III. Slain June 23 1324.
| He supported Edw. II., and
| was his minister and chief
| counsellor and one of the
| ‘ordainers.’ _Great-grandson_
| _of Wm. Mareschall and Isabella de Clare._
|
+---------------------------------------+
| |
John Hastings, Elizabeth = Roger
ob. 1326. | 1st Lord Grey de Ruthyn,
| | ob. 1353.
| |
Laurence Hastings = Agnes, dau. of 2nd Lord Grey, ob. 1441.
Earl of Pembroke, | Roger Mortimer |
ob. 1339. | Earl of March. |
| |
John Hastings = Margaret, dau. of Reginald 3rd Lord Grey, heir
2nd earl, | Edw. III. to John Lord Hastings Earl of
ob. 1375. | Pembroke, whose grandson John
| (killed in the battle of S. Albans
| 1460) married Elizabeth Woodville,
| afterwards wife to Edw. IV.
|
John Hastings = Philippa Mortimer,
3rd Earl of dau. of Edmund
Pembroke, Earl of March.
ob. 1390, s.p.
PEDIGREE OF LADY MARGARET
John of Gaunt = Catherine Swynford
|
John Beaufort, = Margaret Holland, dau.
ob. 1410 | of Thomas Earl of Kent.
+--------------------------------------------+
| |
John Duke of = Margaret Beauchamp Edmund = Eleanor Beauchamp, dau. of
Somerset, | of Bletsoe. ob. 1467. | Richard Earl of Warwick.
ob. 1444 | |_________
| |
Lady Margaret = 1st Edmund Tudor Margaret Beaufort = Humphrey
1441-1509, Earl of Richmond Stafford
FOUNDER OF (half brother to ‘Earl of Stafford,’
CHRIST’S AND Henry VI.) by whom slain fighting for
ST. JOHN’S she was the mother House of Lancaster
COLLEGES. of Henry VII. at the battle of
= 2nd Sir Henry Stafford, S. Albans.
younger son of Duke
of Buckingham.
= 3rd Thomas Lord Stanley,
Earl of Derby.
Lady Margaret was the representative of John of Gaunt and the House of
Lancaster, as Elizabeth de Clare was the ancestor of the House of York.
TABLE III.
PEDIGREE OF THE DUKES OF BUCKINGHAM
Edward III.
|
+-------------------+
|
Thomas of Woodstock = Eleanor de Bohun.
(youngest son) Duke of |
Gloucester and Earl of |
Buckingham, ob. 1397. |
+----------------------------+
|
Edmund Earl of Stafford = Anne Plantagenet, sister and heiress of Humphrey
ob. 1404. | Plantagenet Earl of Gloucester and
| Buckingham (he died unm. 1399).
| She had previously married Thomas ‘Earl
| of Stafford,’ and her son by her 3rd husband,
| William Bourchier, married Anne, dau.
| of Richard Woodville Earl Rivers.
|
Humphrey Stafford = Anna Neville, dau. of Ralph
created Duke of | Earl of Westmoreland.
Buckingham, |
ob. 1460. |
|
Humphrey styled = Margaret Beaufort,
‘Earl of Stafford,’ | great-granddaughter of
slain fighting for | John of Gaunt.
the House of | (See Table II.)
Lancaster 1455. |
|
Henry = Katharine Woodville,
2nd Duke of | sister of
Buckingham, | Elizabeth, wife to
beheaded | Edw. IV.
1483. |
Edward
3rd Duke of Buckingham,
FOUNDER OF BUCKINGHAM COLLEGE.
beheaded 1521. Great-grandson
through his mother of Peter Comte
de Saint-Paul. [See Table II.]
PEDIGREE OF AUDLEY OF WALDEN
Thomas 1st Lord Audley of Walden = 2ndly Elizabeth Grey, dau.
(1488-1544) | of Marquess of Dorset.
FOUNDER OF MAGDALENE COLLEGE. |
|
+---------------------------+-------+
| |
Eleanor = 1stly Despenser. Margaret = 1stly Dudley Duke of
= 2ndly Lord Zouche Northumberland (beheaded).
of Mortimer. = 2ndly Thomas Howard
Duke of Norfolk (beheaded).
Thomas was very possibly descended from the ancient family of that name which
intermarried with the Clares, Staffords, and Greys.
TABLE IV.
PEDIGREE OF STAFFORD AND AUDLEY
Edward Stafford = Eleanor Percy, dau. of
3rd Duke of | 10th Earl of Northumberland.
Buckingham, |
beheaded 1521. |
FOUNDER OF BUCKINGHAM |
(now Magdalene) COLLEGE. |
|
Thomas Howard = Elizabeth Stafford
3rd Duke of | (2nd wife).
Norfolk, ob. 1554. |
|
Henry Howard ‘Earl = Frances de Vere,
of Surrey’ (the poet) | dau. of John Earl
beheaded 1547. | of Oxford.
|
+-----------------------------+-------------------+
| |
Thomas Howard = 2ndly Margaret, dau. of Henry Howard
4th Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Lord Audley of Earl of Northampton,
beheaded 1572. Walden, widow of Robert ob. 1624 (King’s
Dudley. _Daughter of the_ Coll. Cambs).
_founder of Magdalene_ Chancellor of the
_College._ University.
Their son Thomas Howard (ob. 1626) was created Earl
of Suffolk, and was Chancellor of the University.
PEDIGREE OF SIDNEY
Nicholas Sidney = Anne, sister of William Brandon,
| father of Charles Duke of Suffolk.
|
Sir William,
ob. 1553.
|
+----------------------------+
| |
Thomas Ratcliffe Earl = 2ndly Frances, Sir Henry = Mary, dau. of
of Sussex, ob. 9 March 1589, ob. 1586, | John Dudley
Lord Deputy for FOUNDER OF SIDNEY resident | Duke of
Ireland, 1557. SUSSEX COLLEGE. of Wales | Northumberland.
and Lord |
Deputy for |
Ireland. |
|
+-------------------------------+-------------------+--|
| | |
Sir Philip Sidney = a dau. of Robert Sidney Henry Herbert = 3rdly Mary.
ob. 1586. Sir Francis created Earl Earl of Pembroke
Walsingham. of Leicester, (2nd earl
She married ob. 1616. of this line).
2ndly Robert
Devereux Earl of
Essex (beheaded 1600),
and 3rdly Richard de Burgh
the ‘great Earl’ of Clanricarde.
The names of great Cantabrigians hardly ever appear singly in the annals
of the university, and as there are family groups among founders so
there are also among its other benefactors and distinguished
representatives. Babington, Bacon, Beaumont, Bryan, Cavendish, Cecil,
Coleridge, Darwin, Devereux, Fletcher, Greville, Harvey, Langton,
Lightfoot, Lytton, Manners, Montague, Neville, Newton, Palmer, Shepard,
Taylor, Thackeray, Temple, Wordsworth--all form such groups, and have
provided the university not only with great names, but with a family
history.
No name has clung more steadily to Cambridge than Babington--it was
known there at least as early as the xv century, and was that of the
25th abbot of Bury in the time of Henry VI. Henry Babington was
vice-chancellor in 1500; Dr. Humphrey Babington built the two sets of
rooms on the south side of Nevile’s court known as ‘the Babington
rooms,’ in 1681, and his family have given prominent members to the
university ever since. One of the Bacons was the last Master of
Gonville, and Nicholas Bacon and his two sons were at Corpus and
Trinity. Beaumont is a Peterhouse name; but in the reign of Elizabeth
Dr. Robert Beaumont was Master of Trinity and vice-chancellor, and a
Beaumont was Master of Peterhouse
[Sidenote: Temp. Ric. ii. 1380-1397.]
in the xviii century. Towards the end of the xiv century William
Cavendish was fellow and master of the same college, and John Cavendish
had been chancellor in 1380. In Gray’s time Lord John Cavendish was at
Cambridge, in the next century Henry Cavendish the scientist; and the
connexion of this family with the university has never been severed.
The Cecils appear at Cambridge with the rise of Burleigh’s family in
Elizabeth’s reign, and they were connected with the Bacons a family
which also came into prominence at the same time; the great Bacon was
Burleigh’s nephew, and the Cecils were kinsmen of other celebrated
Cambridge men--Cheke, Hatton, Howard, and the founder of the Brownists.
Moreover one of the early Cecils had been made water
[Sidenote: Temp. Hen. viii.]
bailiff of Whittlesey (‘bailiff of Whittlesey mere’) and keeper of the
swans in the fen district. William, first Lord Burleigh, was born in his
mother’s house at Bourn--the place which gave its name to the barony
held successively by Hereward, Picot, and Peverel. The third and fifth
lords married with the Manners, the sixth with a Cavendish. Both the
Cecils of Elizabeth’s time were chancellors of the university;
Burleigh’s eldest son Thomas Earl of Exeter and Lady Dorothy Nevill his
wife gave no less than £108 a year to Clare Hall, and ‘Mr. Cecil’ was
moderator when James visited the university in 1615. Darwin had been
preceded at Cambridge by old Erasmus Darwin, botanist and poet, the
‘Sweet Harmonist of Flora’s court’ as Cowper calls the ancestor of the
man who gave us the great harmonizing hypothesis of the century.[430]
Fletcher is another Cambridge name. Fletcher Bishop of London was at
Corpus, so was his son the dramatist; Giles the brother of the bishop,
one of Elizabeth’s ambassadors, was at King’s, his two poet sons were
Cambridge men, and there was a scientific Fletcher at Caius in the xvi
century. Greville or Grenville is another Cambridge name: Fulke
Greville, first Lord Brooke (whose mother was a Neville) was at Jesus
College, so was his cousin the second lord, whose father had been sent
to Trinity in 1595 by Robert Devereux Earl of Essex with a letter of
advice on Cambridge studies written by another old Cantabrigian, Bacon.
The first Lord Lansdowne in the time of Charles II. and Sir Bevil
Greville (ob. 1706) were both at Trinity.
The Suffolk name of Hervey is another which has always figured in
Cambridge--there was Hervey Dunning in the xiiith and Hervey de Stanton
in the xiv century; a Harvey succeeded Gardiner and Haddon in the
Mastership of Trinity Hall, of which he was a considerable benefactor,
and was vice-chancellor in 1560, Gabriel Harvey, a kinsman of Sir Thomas
Smith’s, was a fellow of this college and of Pembroke, William Harvey
was at Caius. Langton[431] is an ancient and honoured name; it was that
of the 6th Master of Pembroke, of John Langton chancellor of the
university in the time of Henry VI., of Thomas Bishop of Winchester, and
other Cambridge men. Lightfoot is a name which was known in the fen
before the Conquest, and was that of the eminent Cambridge Hebraist two
hundred years before the Bishop of Durham studied there. The Lyttons
have been known at the university since the xvii century, Sir Rowland
Lytton the antiquary was a member of Sidney Sussex College[432] and
Bulwer Lytton was at Trinity Hall. The Montagues and Montacutes have
been important since the day when Simon Montacute Bishop of Ely
befriended Peterhouse. Through the xvii century, the first Master of
Sidney Sussex, Richard Bishop of Norwich (the antiquary), the 2nd Earl
of Manchester, and Charles Montague (afterwards Lord Halifax) who, with
Prior, replied to Dryden’s “Hind and Panther,” were all Cambridge men;
and Sir Sidney Montague of Barnwell was one of Charles I.’s Masters of
the
[Sidenote: A.D. 1627.]
Requests. We have seen how the Nevilles intermarried with the families
of Cambridge founders; Henry Neville was proctor, and vice-chancellor in
1560; Thomas Nevile was 8th Master of Trinity[433] and vice-chancellor,
and 6th Master of Magdalene, where the name was again recorded in the
last Master of the college (Lord Braybrooke). There was a Newton at
Cambridge, 6th Master of Peterhouse, contemporary
[Sidenote: A.D. 1381.]
with Beaufort, Thorpe, Scrope, and de Burgh. In the middle of the xvi
century another Newton was vice-chancellor; fifty years later Fogg
Newton was Provost of King’s and vice-chancellor in the 8th of James I.,
and an Isaac Newton unknown to fame entered for Peterhouse about the
same time as the discoverer of the law of gravitation entered Trinity.
Palmer is another well-known name: a John Palmer was proctor in the
reign of Elizabeth, Edward Palmer was fellow of Trinity in the reign of
Charles I., and Edward Palmer Professor of Arabic, the sheikh Abdullah,
was a Cambridge man. Skeltons have been found at
[Sidenote: A.D. 1391.]
the university since a proctor of that name who flourished in the days
of Richard II.; Shepards since the days of Elizabeth when there was a
proctor of that name; Jeremy Taylor was kin to Rowland Taylor the
Cambridge martyr; and Palmerston continued the tradition of the Temples.
The Sternes had played a part in Cambridge before the days of Laurence
Sterne;[434] Thackeray followed other members of his family to the
university, and there have been Wordsworths at Cambridge ever since the
poet went to S. John’s and his brother Christopher was Master of
Trinity.
Other Cambridge names claim attention. There had been Latimers and
Ridleys at Cambridge before the Protestant martyrs. Aldrich belongs to
the xvi and xvii centuries. Byngham was not first heard of when the
parson of S. John Zachary built God’s House, but is the name of no less
a personage than the first Master of Pembroke (Thomas Byngham), and
another William Byngham was proctor
[Sidenote: A.D. 1570.]
in the year when Whitgift was vice-chancellor. One of the Bassetts was
proctor as late as 1488, and Roger Ascham’s father in the xvi century
was steward to the great Yorkshire house of Scrope; Mildmay, the founder
of Emmanuel, was brother-in-law to Sir Francis Walsingham, and was
allied to the Ratcliffes.[435] There were Days before the Days of
King’s; the Harringtons--allied to the Montagues, Stanleys and
Sidneys--were Cambridge men; a Hatton was proctor in 1499 and later
Provost of King’s, and the Hattons of the time of Elizabeth and her
successors--who intermarried with the Montagues--were all benefactors of
Jesus College.[436] The northern Percies have often taken part in
Cambridge affairs, and Percy Bishop of
[Sidenote: A.D. 1451.]
Carlisle was chancellor of the university in the time of Henry VI. Roger
Rotherham was Master of King’s Hall before the days of the great
chancellor. There were Somersets at Cambridge from the days of Henry
VI., and a Stafford was proctor the year Henry VIII. beheaded
---- bounteous Buckingham
The mirror of all courtesey.
Stokys and Stokes was a well-known name before Sir George Stokes went to
Pembroke; Sedgwick was on the papist side in the controversy held before
Edward VI.’s commissioners; Tyndale, like Aldrich, belongs to the xvi
and xvii centuries. Fitzhugh is a name which flourished at the
university in the xv and early xvi centuries. Parker, Paston,[437]
Morgan, Cosin and Cousins, and the various forms of Clark are constant
Cambridge names. In modern times Macaulay, Trevelyan, Paget, Maitland,
and Lyttelton should be added.
The subject of university men must not be dismissed without noticing how
many of the most distinguished Cantabrigians never earned a degree. We
have already seen (in chapter iii.) that in some periods of greatest
intellectual achievement the examination tests at the university were
wholly inadequate: what follows is a list of great and prominent men who
took no degree at all:--Bacon, Byron, Macaulay (fellow of Trinity), Gray
(professor of history),[438] Morland the hydrostatician,[439] Woodward
the founder of mineralogy,[440] Donne, Fulke Greville, Parr the classic,
Sir William Temple, Cromwell, Pepys and Mildmay both of whom were
conspicuous benefactors of the university, Dryden who received his
degree by dispensation of the Primate, Stratford de Redcliffe who was
created _M.A._ by royal mandamus, Palmerston who graduated “by right of
birth.” There was no one so important as Macaulay in 1822 when his name
was absent from the tripos list, no one so great as Darwin in the tripos
lists of 1831 when he took an ordinary degree.
The Oxford roll of non-graduates is not less distinguished: Sir Thomas
More, Sir Matthew Hale, Sir Christopher Hatton, Sir Philip Sidney,
Wolsey, Massinger and Beaumont the dramatists, Shaftesbury, Gibbon,
Shelley--while Halley the astronomer took his _M.A._ by royal mandamus,
and Locke’s degree was irregular. Dublin university has not a dissimilar
tale to tell; Burke failed to distinguish himself there, and Swift was
given a degree _speciali gratia._
CHAPTER VI
GIRTON AND NEWNHAM
Etheldreda of Ely and Hild of Whitby connect the school of York
with the monastery of Ely--English women and education--the four
“noble and devoute countesses” and two queens at Cambridge--the
rise of the movement for university education--two separate
movements--Girton--Newnham--rise of the university lecture
movement--Anne Clough--the Newnham Halls and Newnham College--the
first triposes--the “Graces” of 1881--social life at the women’s
colleges--character and choice of work among women--the
degree--status of women’s colleges at Cambridge and Oxford--and
status elsewhere.
The foundation of the women’s colleges is of sufficient importance to
call for a chapter in any history of the university, even if they did
not in themselves awaken so much general interest. Cambridge cannot be
otherwise than proud of its position as pioneer university in the higher
education of the women of the country; the women’s colleges count as one
of its glories and stand to it in the relation which Spenser gave to the
river Ouse:
My mother Cambridge, whom as with a crowne
He doth adorne, and is adorn’d of it.
They belong to its atmosphere of vitality and growth, their presence
adds something to that air of newness and renewal which has never been
absent from the university town.
Etheldreda of Ely and Hild of Whitby were of the same blood, kin to
Edwin and Oswy. They founded two of those famous double monasteries for
women and men, one of which became the greatest school in England, the
other the nursing mother of the university of Cambridge.[441] The
histories of the School of York and of the School which was to rise on
the banks of the Granta had therefore been linked together since the vii
century by Hild and Etheldreda. Was any prevision vouchsafed to Hild,
that mother of scholars, of the day just twelve hundred years later when
two women’s colleges were to rise by the side of the great school in the
diocese of Ely? The centre of learning which had Etheldreda of Ely for
one of its patrons was certainly propitious to women; but Cambridge had
another patroness--whose name was among the earliest to be invoked in
the town after the coming of the Normans--that Rhadegund who ruled the
first nuns and the first double monastery in France, who was ordained a
deacon by S. Médard, in whose convent study came next to prayer, who
lectured each day to her spiritual children, and whose learning is
recorded with admiration by one of her monks, the poet-bishop Venantius
Fortunatus.[442]
Perhaps there is no country with a long history where women have played
a smaller part on the national stage than England. But a conspicuous
exception must be made--in education they have played a great part, and
this part was nowhere greater than in Cambridge. We have the little
group of college builders who lived in contiguous centuries--Elizabeth
de Clare, Marie de Saint-Paul, Margaret of Anjou, and Margaret of
Richmond--to prove it: but the activity of the xiv and xv centuries was
equally apparent between the viith and xth. It was Saxon nuns who
carried learning to Germany, and the rôle of the great abbesses in those
centuries, while it must be reckoned among the exceptions to the
inconspicuous part played by women in English history, also served
prominently the cause of education.[443]
The “two noble and devoute countesses” who built Clare and Pembroke, and
whom Margaret of Anjou desired to imitate, realised perhaps more than
anyone else in the xiv century the extraordinary joy of launching those
first foundations with their promise for the
[Illustration: THE GREAT BRIDGE--BRIDGE ST.
This view is painted from the old Quay side. The water-gate of Magdalene
College is seen on the right, and in the distance is the Tower in the
New Court of St. John’s College rising above the tree-tops.]
future:[444] but it was something of this joy which was reserved for
their descendants who saw the rise of Newnham and Girton. It was,
indeed, not to two but to four noble and devoute countesses[445] that
Cambridge owed its most efficient co-operation in the great periods
which mark its history--the dawn of the renascence in the xiv, the
threshold of our modern life in the xv, and the consolidation of the
religious movement in the xvi century:[446] and if Queens’ College was
built by Margaret of Anjou “to laud and honneure of sexe femenine”
Cambridge has repaid her by extending the significance of her ambition.
The women’s colleges which we now see did not, then, begin the connexion
of women and the university, they completed it. It is a curious thing
when one looks down a list of Cambridge benefactors to find that from a
college to a common room fire, from a professorship to a Cambridge
“chest,” from the chapel to a new college to the buttress of a falling
college, from a university preacher to a belfry,[447] the names of women
never fail to appear as benefactors, but appear in no other way. Not
once until the xix century did any woman benefit from the learning
which her sex had done so much to inaugurate, to sustain and
consolidate.
In the year 1867 the idea of founding a woman’s college and of
associating the higher education of women with the university of
Cambridge began to take shape.[448] No movement of the century, it may
confidently be affirmed, has done so much to increase the happiness of
women, and none has opened to them so many new horizons. If men look
back on the years spent at the university as among the happiest in their
lives, so that everything in later life which recalls their _alma
mater_--not excluding the London terminus from which they always “went
up”--borrows some of its glamour, the university life meant all this,
and more, for women. To begin with it repaired a traditional injustice,
the absence of any standard of individual life especially for the
unmarried; the neglect of every personal interest, talent, or ambition,
which a woman might have apart from looking after her own or other
people’s children. The Reformation, in itself, had done singularly
little for women. Puritan views were of the kind patronised by a Sir
Willoughby Patterne, and no step had been made towards recognising
women’s claims as individuals since the days when convents had in some
measure certainly admitted these, a fact which probably sufficed to make
the convent turn the scale on the side of happiness.
Girton and Newnham are the outcome of two contemporaneous but separate
movements. In 1867, as we have seen, the moral foundations were laid of
a college in connexion with Cambridge university where women should
follow the same curriculum and present themselves for the same
examinations as men. In 1869 the late Professor Henry Sidgwick, fellow
of Trinity, and afterwards Knightbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy,
suggested that lectures for women should be given at Cambridge in
connexion with the new Higher Local Examination which the university had
that year established for women all over England. To-day, more than
thirty years after the building of the two colleges, Newnham and Girton
are as alike in character as two institutions can be, but this likeness
is the consequence of changes on both sides. The view taken by the
promoters of Girton was that if women were to be trained at the
university by university men they should undergo precisely the same
tests, and take precisely the same examinations as men. Professor
Sidgwick contented himself with a scheme for relating the higher
education of women to university teaching, and not only accepted but
encouraged a separate course of study and a separate examination test.
Girton represents the principle that a woman’s university education
should closely resemble that which the centuries had evolved as the best
for men. Newnham was started to further a scheme of education as unlike
the men’s as preparation for the higher work made possible. The one grew
out of a claim to have the same examination as men; the other was the
outcome of an examination established expressly for women. Events have
not justified the second scheme. If women’s education was to be
connected with the university, the only permanently satisfactory way
was, clearly, to follow the curriculum already traced out. If this was
not actually the best which could be devised, the foundation of women’s
colleges was not the moment to attempt to alter it. A “best” created for
women would always have been thought to be a second best. There were in
fact not one but two objects set before all who interested themselves in
these things--to get higher education for women, and to win recognition
for their capacity to do the same work as men. Among the founders of
women’s colleges many had present to their minds something further than
the advantages of education--they looked forward to a time when women
should participate in the world’s work, and have a fair share in the
common human life; not a fair share of its labour, for this had never
been lacking, but of the means, the opportunities, and the recognition
enjoyed by men.
[Sidenote: Women and the ordinary degree.]
Girton at once prepared its students for the university Previous
Examination, and claimed that they should be examined for both the
[Illustration: VIEW OF CAMBRIDGE FROM THE CASTLE HILL
The central object in the picture is the tower of St. John’s College
Chapel, with the tower of Great St. Mary’s a little to the right and
King’s College Chapel to the extreme right. In the middle distance on
the left is Jesus College and the Round Church, and nearer to us we look
down upon the roofs of Magdalene College. The building on the right in
foreground is St. Giles’ Church, the original foundation of which takes
us back nearly to the Conquest. In the extreme distance is the rising
ground known as the Gog-Magog Hills.]
ordinary and the honour degree. Newnham at first prepared its students
for the Higher Local examinations and the triposes, discountenanced the
Previous Examination and would not allow its students to prepare for the
Ordinary degree. In the event, Newnham has had to abandon the
examination which was the original _raison d’être_ of its existence, and
Girton has had virtually to abandon its claim to examination for the
ordinary degree. This means that every woman who takes a degree takes it
in honours: the same is true of no college of men in Cambridge except
King’s. The founders of Newnham considered it a waste of time for women
to come to the university to qualify themselves for that Ordinary degree
which graces the majority of our men, and which represented such a
mysterious weight of learning to sisters at home in the old days. This
decision has a double _ricochet_--it is good for the colleges, for only
the better women come up; it is bad for many women who, like many men,
are unfit to do tripos work and who might yet enjoy from residence at
Cambridge the same advantages--direct and extraneous--which the ‘poll’
degree man now obtains.
[Sidenote: Girton.]
The first committee for the future Girton College met on December 5th
1867;[449] but the foundation of Girton dates from October 16, 1869
when a hired house at Hitchin, midway between Cambridge and London, was
opened to six students at a time when it was not thought advisable to
plant a women’s college in Cambridge. The college at Hitchin[450] was
carried on under serious tuitional and other disadvantages--lecturers
from the university, for example, were paid for the time occupied in the
journey--and in 1873 the college was removed to Girton, a village two
miles out of Cambridge.
[Sidenote: The manor and village of Girton.]
The manor of Girton on the Huntingdon road--the old via Devana--belonged
in the xi century to Picot the Norman sheriff of Cambridge who
expropriated part of its tithes for the endowment of the canons’ house
and church of S. Giles which is passed by Girtonians on their way from
the college to the town. In the xvi century the manor provided a rent
charge for Corpus Christi College. Earlier still it was the site of a
Roman and Anglo-Saxon burial ground (discovered in a college field in
1882-6). The college itself is built on old river gravel.
[Sidenote: The founders.]
The final decision to build near but not in the university town was
taken at the last moment when Lady Augusta Stanley, wife of Dean
Stanley, refused both money and moral support if it were decided
otherwise.[451] Lady Augusta Stanley who thus determined a step which
has not proved advantageous to Girton was not, however, one of the
founders of the college. This honour is due in the first place to Madame
Bodichon (Barbara Leigh Smith before her marriage) and to Miss Emily
Davies, daughter of Dr. Davies, rector of Gateshead, who elaborated the
scheme together. The first thousand pounds which made possible the
realisation of the scheme was given by the former, whose activity in all
causes for the advancement of women’s interests was crowned by her gifts
to the first women’s college: part of her capital was made over in her
life-time to Girton which became her trustee for the payment of the
interest until her death in 1891, and of certain terminable annuities
afterwards.[452] The third founder was Henrietta wife of the 2nd Lord
Stanley of Alderley and daughter of the 13th Viscount Dillon,[453] a
munificent donor to the college, who joined the movement in 1871,
before the removal from Hitchin, and who died in 1895.
[Sidenote: The college.]
The picturesque and collegiate-looking building which arose in 1873 for
the accommodation of 21 students, was thus the first residential college
for women ever built in connexion with a university. It was, like
Pembroke, the result of a woman’s intention to found and finish a _domus
seu aula scholarium_, the scholars being, for the first time, of the sex
of the founder. Subsequent building in 1877, 1879, 1884, 1887 (when Jane
C. Gamble’s legacy enabled the college to house 106 students) and
finally between 1899 and 1902, has greatly increased its capacity, and
the college now holds 150 students in addition to the Mistress and the
resident staff. It contains a large hall, libraries, reading room,
lecture rooms, a chemical laboratory, chapel, hospital, and swimming
bath; and its position outside the town gives it the advantage of large
grounds, some thirty acres being divided into hockey fields, ten tennis
courts, an orchard, and kitchen garden; while a seventeen acre field,
purchased with the Gamble bequest in 1886, is utilised as golf links and
woodland. Over the high table in the hall are the portraits of the three
founders; Madame Bodichon is represented painting, reminding each
generation of students that one of their founders was a distinguished
and delightful artist.
[Illustration: GIRTON COLLEGE--EVENING
These buildings were designed by Mr. Waterhouse. They are of red brick,
and were first occupied in 1873.]
[Sidenote: Government.]
The college is governed by its members,[454] from whom is drawn the
Executive Committee, three members of which are indirectly chosen by the
old students. The Executive Committee appoints the Mistress and college
officers, but the Mistress nominates the resident staff with the
exception of the bursar, junior bursar, librarian, and registrar. The
fees for residence and tuition are thirty-five guineas for each of the
three yearly terms, and they include “coaching.” Students may be in
residence who are not reading for a tripos, the goal of the great
majority. A great part of the preparation for triposes is done at the
college by its own resident staff. The first Cambridge degree
examination taken by women was in 1870 when five of the six Hitchin
students were examined for the Previous Examination;[455] and the first
tripos examination taken by women was two years later when three of
these students passed in the classical and mathematical triposes.[456]
In scholastic successes, Girton trained the first wrangler (Miss Scott,
equal to 8th wrangler 1880), the first senior moralist (Miss E. E.
Constance Jones, the present Mistress of Girton), and the only senior
classic (Miss Agnata Ramsay, now wife to the Master of Trinity); and was
the first to obtain first classes in the classical tripos.[457]
Among scholarships and exhibitions are six foundation scholarships the
gift of private persons; the scholarships of the Clothworkers’,
Drapers’, Goldsmiths’, and Skinners’ Companies and of the Honourable the
Irish Society; in addition to which there are other valuable
scholarships and studentships due to private benefactors, and the
Gamble, Gibson, Montefiore, Metcalfe, and Agnata Butler prizes.[458]
[Sidenote: Former Girton students.]
Former Girton students not only fill posts all over Great Britain and
Ireland as head or assistant mistresses in high schools, grammar
schools, and women’s colleges, but they are to be found holding the
professorship of mathematics and a classical fellowship at Bryn Mawr
College Pennsylvania, in the high schools of Pretoria, Bloemfontein, and
Moscow, in women’s colleges at Toronto and Durban, as mathematical or
other tutors in Queen’s College London, Queen’s College Belfast, and
Alexandra College Dublin. A Girtonian is vice-president of the British
Astronomical Association, computer at Cambridge Observatory, assistant
inspector to the Scotch Education Department, lecturer in modern
economic history in the university of London, a fellow of the university
of London, on the staff of the Victoria History of the Counties of
England, assistant on the staff of the English Dialect Dictionary (just
published); while one is secretary and librarian of the Royal Historical
Society, and another (a _D.Sc._ of London) is a fellow of the same
society. Old students are also to be found as educational missionaries
in Bombay and Calcutta, as members of the Missionary Settlement for
University Women in Bombay, and of the Women’s Mission Association
(S.P.G.) at Rurki; as medical missionary at Poona, as missionaries at
Lake Nyasa, and in Japan, and the principal of the North India Medical
School for Christian Women is also a Girtonian. In special work, a
Girtonian is H.M.’s principal lady inspector of factories, one of H.M.’s
inspectors of schools, a Poor Law guardian, a deputy superintendent of
the women clerks’ department of the Bank of England, and on the
secretarial staff of the Tariff Commission. An old Girtonian is the
only woman member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, and the
only woman to hold the Hughes Gold Medal of the Royal Society.
All other colleges which have been founded or will be founded for women
owe a debt to Girton for upholding the principle of equal conditions and
equal examination tests in the university education of women and men.
Its promoters always kept steadily before them the two ends of women’s
education, and never moved from the position that “what is best for the
human being will be found to be also the best for both sexes.” To them
it is mainly due that when Plato’s ideal of equal education of the sexes
came at length to be realised, after women had waited for it more than
two thousand years, it was not upon a basis of separate examinations for
women, and separate tests so designed as to elude comparison.[459]
[Sidenote: Newnham.]
The village of Newnham which is approached from the “Backs” of the
colleges, and
[Illustration: THE BOATHOUSE ON ROBINSON CRUSOE’S ISLAND
On the upper river at the back of King’s Mill, not far from Queens’
College. Across the bridge in the distance and behind the trees on the
left is Coe Fen, and on the right is Sheep’s Green.]
which, until 1880, was also accessible by a ferry over Coe fen, played
an important part in the early history of the university. It was the
site given to the Whitefriars, who had been the first arrivals in
Cambridge, and who from the time of their appearance there as romites
till they became the sons of S. Theresa were the most conspicuous
community in the town. The first general of the Carmelites--an
Englishman--had been a contemporary of the founder of the first college,
and it was at Newnham that he visited his friars in the middle of the
xiii century, at the convent there which is described in the Hundred
Rolls and the Barnwell Chartulary.[460] In the same century William de
Manfield left his lands in Newnham to the scholars of Merton. In the
next (the xiv) century the manor of Newnham was given to Gonville Hall
by Lady Anne Scrope, and both Sir John Cambridge and Henry Tangmer, who
were aldermen of the guilds of the Blessed Virgin and Corpus Christi,
gave or bequeathed lands and houses they held in Newnham to the new
college which the
[Sidenote: A.D. 1291.]
guilds had built.[461] The Carmelites moved later to the present site
of Queens’ and the adjoining ground, and the edge of their property is
skirted by every Newnham student on her way to lectures either through
Silver Street or King’s College. This new residence was the gift of Sir
Guy de Mortimer and was in the busy university centre--Mill Street in
the parish of S. John Baptist--so that the friars still heard the sound
of the horn which was blown at the King’s Mill to tell the miller at
Newnham that he might begin to grind. Beyond the mill was Newnham Lane,
which stretched to Grantchester.[462]
Like Peterhouse which was adapted and built for the “Ely Scholars,” the
Hall at Newnham was the outcome of a students’ association:--the North
of England Council for the Higher Education of Women, of which Miss
Clough was president, and the association formed to promote the
interests of the Higher Local students were its real progenitors.
As soon as the removal from Hitchin had been decided, it was hoped that
the students already settled in Cambridge and the Girton community might
form one body; but the decision to build away from the town put a stop
to any such scheme. The standpoint of the promoters of Newnham had
always diverged in some particulars from that of the promoters of
Girton. The former wished to reduce the expenses of
[Illustration: QUEENS’ LANE--THE SITE OF THE OLD MILL STREET
The Towers of Queens’ College Gateway are seen on the left, through the
trees on the right is St. Catherine’s College, and in the distance a
portion of King’s College.]
a university education to the minimum, and they wished, too, that it
should be completely undenominational, while a clause in the
constitution of Girton provided for Church of England instruction and
services. Finally, the question as to which preliminary and degree
examinations should be preferred by women was still pending.[463] But
when the moment came to hire and build a house of residence, the
advantage was all on the side of Newnham. Work began in a hired house in
the centre of the town with five students, in the October term of
1871.[464] These quarters were too noisy, and Miss Clough, who loved a
garden, found an old house set in a large garden and orchard, with the
historic name of Merton Hall, and moved there in 1872. A supplementary
house in Trumpington Street was taken next year, and there were then in
residence 14 students in Merton Hall, 7 in Trumpington Street, and 8 in
town lodgings. In 1875 Newnham Hall was built on one side of Coe fen and
Newnham Mill, as Peterhouse had been built on the other. So that
Newnham students frequented the streets of Cambridge from the first, and
had their house of residence in the town two years before the sister
community settled at Girton. The founders of Girton had been the first
to ideate a women’s college in connexion with university teaching, but
Newnham was the first college for women to take its place by the side of
the historic colleges in Cambridge.
Let us now retrace our steps for a moment. In March 1868 the North of
England Council memorialised the university to obtain advanced
examinations, and in the following year Cambridge instituted the
examinations for girls over eighteen since known as the Higher Local
Examination. In the autumn of the same year (1869), as we have seen--the
year which saw the establishment of the future Girton community at
Hitchin--the organisation of the Cambridge lectures for women was mooted
under the auspices of Mr. Henry Sidgwick. The first meeting was convened
at the house of Mrs. Fawcett, whose husband was then Professor of
Political Economy at the university, and whose little daughter, the
future senior wrangler, was peacefully cradled at the time in a room
above. The result of this meeting was the formation of a committee of
management consisting of members of the university, and of an executive
committee, and the programme of a course of lectures was printed for the
following Lent term 1870.[465] The original scheme
[Illustration: MERTON HALL
An old house in the Merton Estate district.]
included a students’ house where women from a distance could be lodged.
Two students applied in the autumn term of 1870 for permission to reside
in Cambridge, and were received into private houses in the town.
Meanwhile in response to an appeal, originating with Mrs. Fawcett,
exhibitions of £40 for two years for students attending the lectures had
been given by John Stuart Mill and Helen Taylor, and before the year
closed it was found necessary to open a house of residence. In March
1871 the post of head of a house of residence was offered to Miss Anne
J. Clough.
[Sidenote: Anne Clough.]
We know more about Miss Clough than about any founder or first principal
of a college on which he or she left a personal mark. Of the life and
thoughts of others, with the exception perhaps of Bateman in the xiv
century and Fisher in the xvith, we know singularly little. Anne J.
Clough was born on January 20, 1820, at Liverpool. Through her Newnham
received, what Girton missed, the impress of a strong individuality, now
placed by “great death” at a distance which enables us to focus and
appraise it. Her father’s family was of Welsh origin and traced itself
to that Sir Richard who was agent to the great merchant-adventurer, Sir
Thomas Gresham. To her Yorkshire mother, Anne Perfect, she and her
brother, the poet Arthur Hugh Clough, owed their literary interests. In
appearance she was of middle height and spare--an old woman of that
Victorian epoch in which she was born, out of whose eyes looked the soul
of the twentieth century, and after. She seemed indeed to have two
personalities--the white hair and an uncertain gait typified the one,
but the eyes, very dark and very bright, would lift unexpectedly in the
midst of a conversation, and then the visitor would receive a
revelation; he would see no more the old woman but the woman who must
always be young, the stamp of an inexhaustible energy, that shrewdness
with an unconquerable idealism close behind, an atmosphere about her of
uncouth poetry.
For she was no artist. She had not that which separates the artist from
the man of ideas, or the dreamer, or the seer--expression. No poetical
imagination was ever more tongue-tied. She spoke by actions, and used
words only as indications of thoughts. Her speech was compared by a
former student to the works of early painters, before command over the
material had been obtained, but where “sheer force of character and
feeling had risen over the difficulties.” She was an idealist, but she
could never understand the value of an abstract principle. Her interest
was always in the individual, in the career, and she came to no matter,
to no person, with a store of general principles ready for the case. She
wanted to give women not merely learning, but a life of their own, to
call out interests, to satisfy their individuality. She liked to find in
them many and marked vocations, for she understood the dignity of all
work and had no disdain of common things. She wanted every one to have a
place and an office in life, and must perforce fit the squarest bits
into a round hole, so intolerably pathetic was it to her that they
should have no hole. You could not “hand her the salt or open the door
for her” without receiving “some recognition of your individuality” a
student said of her. This recognition of the individuality of women and
of the human and practical sides of higher intellectual training was her
contribution to the movement in which she took so great a part. And the
contribution was all important.
She had besides a strong belief in the value of academic advantages. It
was in order that some crumbs of things academic might fall to the
teachers in elementary schools, that she arranged the summer meetings
of University Extension Lecture students. Miss dough’s belief in
happiness--in people’s right to happiness--was the source of most
delightful qualities. She had waited, she said, for her own till she was
fifty years old, and it had come to her with Newnham. She insisted on
the little pleasures “which bring joy by the way.” Nothing was too small
to engage her own attention, and her educational qualities lay in
awaking similar interest in others, as her moral disposition led her to
share and so to increase the common stock of interests and supports in
life. And so on the rare occasions when she left the college boundaries
she would recount to the students at her table or in her room all that
had interested her during her absence. She busied herself over the
minutest details of their health or well-being, and finding that two
students made a simple supper upstairs on Sunday, she arrived at the
door carrying a good-sized table, because she had noticed there was none
convenient for the purpose. Newnham was for her a big house, and the
students were grown-up daughters in a delightful family not yet realised
elsewhere, each of whom had her own place in the world, her own personal
life, its rights and liberties. Yet the “head” who habitually intervened
in small college matters (with a total lack of power of organisation,
which in the administration of Newnham she left to others) and who was
frequently agitated and over anxious about them, balanced these things
by a life-long habit of interest in large public affairs, and, what was
more strange, by a very real serenity. She did not think the individual
should be sacrificed to the college, or “to a cause, however good.” She
never lived in a small milieu--even Newnham.
She constantly exercised a simple diplomacy, not divorced from
sympathy--with independent-minded students, with university dons who
viewed Newnham with disfavour, and in generally vain attempts to
conciliate high theory with prudent practice. It was here that her
characteristics sometimes jarred on the early students, among whom were
many ardent spirits, people whose presence there at all was the
consequence of a struggle _à outrance_ with convention and prejudice;
and who resented Miss Clough’s temporising ways, as though the first
maker of Newnham were a backslider in the matter of first principles.
They thought her indirect and timid. She was neither. She had real
courage, not only as her biographer has said “audacity in thought”[466]
but audacity in execution. She was staunch and tenacious, and might be
found taking an individual’s part against the whole college; and whether
the help she gave was moral or financial, no one ever knew of it but
herself. Neither did she always prefer the most brilliant or useful
student, but would take under her wing the apparently most
insignificant. She had no fear of the unusual, though the younger
students thought so, and it was “her indifference to abstract principle”
which made them sometimes judge that she despised ideals. She had also
a singular frankness--a singular directness--when speaking with others
face to face; her important things were said at odd moments, odd moments
were her opportunities. Neither did she compromise; she went all the way
round and came out at the same place. This expedient made it quite
unnecessary to override obstacles, and her aphorism “my dear, you must
go round” was received with hostile scorn by a student seated on the
high horse of abstract considerations. Indeed Miss Clough was not a
fighter in the sense that she could neglect the quantity of others’
feelings: and her desire that people should not be offended was part of
a sympathy, not of a timidity, which could not be conquered. The working
of her mind is shewn in the saying: “If we watch, we may still find a
way to escape”--because to her there was no inevitable where her
sympathies were engaged. Her diplomacy led her to keep her notions to
herself, so that they should not be nipped in the bud by the frost of
hostile criticism.
“My dear, I did wrong” was the disarming reply to a very young student
who asked her “as one woman to another” whether she considered she had
been justified in a certain course of action. Her singleness of
purpose--the absence of all vanity--a complete disinterestedness, shone
on all occasions. Her never failing search after the right course she
once tried to express by saying to a student: “You must remember that I
try to be just but I don’t always succeed”; and she criticised the
performance with complete detachment from the personal equation.[467]
Among the ideas which seethed in her brain was the training of students
as doctors to work among Hindu women; and one of the last things she
interested herself about was a school for girls at Siam. She wanted
teachers trained to teach.[468] She urged students to know at least one
country and one language besides their own. Her liking for new people,
her interest in foreigners, especially in Italians, and in travel, was
part of a spirit of adventure with which she was largely endowed. She
liked old students to go to the colonies, and her interest in such
doings never flagged. Her hold on the xx century was foreshadowed in the
interest she took during the last years in the Norwegians, and in Japan.
She felt very special sympathy with elementary teachers who receive
small encouragement for highly important and difficult work. Even the
monotonous life of the country clergy claimed her attention, as did a
Sunday class for working men inaugurated by one of the students--which
she visited, taking the keenest interest in the handwriting of the men,
in the books they read. Her relations with her servants were always
delightful, and she found time in the midst of a busy life to teach the
Newnham house boy to write.
She sometimes spoke at the college debates, and usually, as a student
remarked, “spoke on both sides.” On college anniversaries she would make
short addresses, and point the connexion of study with
life--“examinations demand concentration, presence of mind, energy,
courage,” qualities which “come into use every day”: or she would tell
students “to bear defeat, and to try again and again”; or she would
quote the American who said we should not complain about things which
can be remedied, or which cannot be remedied; and add: “there is great
strength in these words.”
Her religion was unconventional like her mind; full of aspiration, but
lacking in definiteness. She spoke of it as “a longing towards what is
divine,” as “arising from the contemplation of the divine.” She spoke of
“bringing our hearts into a constant spirit of earnest longing after
what is right” and added in language which discovers the burning thought
and the halting utterance that made strange partnership in her: “There
is no occasion, then, of kneeling down and repeating forms to make
prayers.”
One of the last acts was to preside on February 3, 1892 at a meeting
which recommended the Council to build a college gateway; the gateway
which was to symbolise the concentration of the work--for the public
pathway had just been closed--and the _attollite portas_ to ever fresh
generations of students. Its bronze gates are the old students’ memorial
of her. And on the morning of October 27, 1892, she died, in her room
on the garden at Newnham, looking out at the gathering light of the new
day.
She was buried with the honours of the head of a college, the Provost
and fellows of King’s offering their chapel for the purpose. She lies in
the village church-yard of Grantchester, the _civitatula_ which Bede
describes where the sons of Ely monastery came to fetch the sarcophagus
for S. Etheldreda. So in her death she is not divided from the great
memories which link the history of the university to that of the
movement to which she gave her life.
The first 28 students came into residence in Newnham Hall on October
18th 1875, and found the moment no less thrilling because they
approached the door of their _alma mater_ across planks and unfinished
masonry. More room was at once needed, and “Norwich House” in the town
was hired. In 1879 the Newnham Hall Company and the Association for
promoting the Higher Education of Women[469] amalgamated, and as “the
Newnham College Association for advancing education and learning among
women in Cambridge” built the second, or North Hall. Thus Newnham Hall
became Newnham College. A public pathway led between the two halls, and
this was not closed till 1891; but in 1886 a still larger building,
containing the college hall, was erected, and called Clough Hall, the
original Newnham (“South”) Hall becoming the “Old Hall,” and the North
Hall becoming “Sidgwick Hall.” Lastly the two original halls were joined
by the “Pfeiffer building”[470] and the college gateway in 1893, and in
1897 Mr. and Mrs. Yates Thompson presented a fine library, the pretty
old library of Newnham Hall which had been built in 1882, being
converted into a reading room. The land for the three Halls was
purchased from S. John’s College, the hockey field is on Clare land, and
the total acreage is about ten and a half acres. The college holds 160
students, a few ‘out students’ being affiliated to one or other of the
halls--and consists of a large hall, capable of seating 400 persons, a
smaller hall and reading room in each building, the library, nine
lecture and class rooms, gymnasium, small hospital, chemical laboratory,
and the Balfour laboratory in the town which is a freehold of the
college. The grounds contain two fives courts, lawn tennis courts, and a
hockey ground. In the hall are the portraits of Miss Clough, Professor
and Mrs. Sidgwick, and Miss M. G. Kennedy, as the four people who had
given most of their life work to Newnham.[471]
The fees vary from £30 to £35 a term according to
[Illustration: NEWNHAM COLLEGE, GATEWAY
This shows the east front, and is called the Pfeiffer Building. The
whole of the buildings are in the Queen Anne style, and were designed by
Basil Champneys. The Bronze Gates were placed here as a memorial to Miss
Clough.]
the rooms occupied. The college is governed by a Council, and presided
over by a Principal, Old Hall Sidgwick Hall and Clough Hall having each
a resident vice-principal.[472] Miss Clough hoped to effect a real and
lasting union between the old students and Newnham--that the college
might be the support of the students, and the students of the college.
It was a principle she had always present to her mind, and she herself
did much to realise it. School and college have long bestowed this
advantage on men, which is reinforced by the support men are accustomed
to give to each other; but all this is lacking for the woman who goes
forth into the world to fend for herself. University life might however
do much to supply the want, and it is to be hoped that women will form a
tradition on the point, as men have done. The constitution of the
college at least preserves some part of its first Principal’s idea, old
students have from the first had a share in the government and a place
on the Council.
Candidates for entrance must pass the College Entrance examination (of
the same standard as the university Previous Examination), unless they
have already taken equivalent examinations. The greater number read for
a tripos, but students may follow special lines of study. As to its
university successes--the first tripos to be taken was the Moral
Sciences (1874), and here Newnham students at once obtained the highest
honours.[473] In 1876 Sir George Humphry,[474] as one of the examiners
for the Natural Sciences tripos, when he met his fellow examiners said
“I don’t know, gentlemen, who your first is, but my first is a man
called Ogle.” The man called Ogle was a Newnham student.[475] In 1883
first classes were obtained in the Second Part of the Classical tripos,
but Newnham waited till 1885 for its two first wranglers. In 1890 the
University Calendar inserts in its Mathematical tripos list: “P. G.
Fawcett, above the Senior Wrangler.” Miss Fawcett obtained (it was
reported) several hundred marks above the university senior wrangler
Bennett of John’s. It is customary to ring the bell of Great S. Mary’s
in honour of this _enfant gaté_ of Cambridge university; but Mr. Bennett
stopped the ringing, and a bonfire at Newnham celebrated the occasion.
In the History tripos two Firsts were obtained in 1879, and this tripos
has frequently been duplicated with another--the Moral Sciences, Modern
Languages, Mathematical, Classical, or Law. The first woman to take the
two historic triposes, mathematical and classical, together, was Miss E.
M. Creak in 1875. The first examinations in the Medieval and Modern
Languages tripos were passed in 1886, 1887, and 1888, when Firsts were
obtained, and 30% of first classes have been taken in this tripos.
Newnham has indeed been remarkable from the beginning for the number of
its first class honours in the university lists.
[Sidenote: Former Newnham students.]
There have been 880 honour students, and the total number of past and
present students is 1600.[476] Like the Girtonians, old Newnhamites are
to be found engaged in all kinds of work and in every corner of the
world, and like Girton they have their large share of the teachers in
the County and High schools of the country; the towns which are perhaps
most conspicuous for the number of Cambridge ‘graduates’ being Norwich,
Exeter, Cambridge, and Birmingham. Among the mathematicians one is
lecturer on Physics in the London School of Medicine for Women, another
is mathematical lecturer at the Cambridge Training College, a third is
warden of the House for Women Students at Liverpool, a fourth (who took
the Natural Sciences as a second tripos) is senior physician in a Bombay
hospital. Others are lecturers in the Civil Service Department of King’s
College London, and others again are teaching in Toronto, Cape Town, the
Training College of Cape Colony, in Nova Scotia, the diocesan school at
Lahore, and at an Indian mission school; one is assistant investigator
in the Labour Department of the Board of Trade, another who was
secretary for secondary education in the Transvaal is now Chief
Assistant on the Education Committee (Executive Office) of the L.C.C.
The classics are engaged as classical tutors in Columbia University, in
Trinity College Melbourne, at Mysore, and Cape Colony, at the Girls’
High school at Poona, and as lecturers on history in University College
Cardiff, on Method in the Chancery Lane Training school of the L.C.C.,
as assistant to the Professor of Humanity at Aberdeen, and as members of
the educational committees of the Staffordshire County Council and
Newcastle Town Council. The moralists have posts as lecturers at
Newnham, as Mistress of Method at University College Bristol, and in the
training department of the government school for girls at Cairo, as
member of the Chiswick education committee, and as sub-warden of the
Women’s University Settlement at Southwark; and a senior moralist was
first Principal of the Training College Cambridge. The natural
scientists lecture on physiology in the London School of Medicine, on
chemistry in Holloway College, are to be found in the geological
research department of Birmingham University, as Quain student of botany
in University College London, and as assistant demonstrator in geology
to the Woodwardian professor at Cambridge. One is in Bloemfontein, one
is sanitary inspector at Hampstead, another assistant curator of the
museum at Cape Town, and another in the missionary
[Illustration: THE GRANARY ON THE CAM
Coe Fen is on the left, and Prof. George Darwin’s House on the right of
the Granary. This view is taken close to Queens’ College.]
school at Tokio; and a daughter of a late master of S. John’s is a
market gardener. The historical students are to be found teaching in New
Zealand, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, and Winnipeg, lecturing in English
literature in Birmingham University, assisting the Professor of
Education and assistant secretary in the faculty of commerce and
administration in Manchester University, Principal of S. Margaret’s Hall
Dublin, of the Cambridge Training College, of the Diocesan school at
Lahore, of the missionary school at Kobé, Japan, superintendent of the
women students in University College Bangor, and on the Education
committee of the Somerset County Council. The Medieval and Modern
Languages students are to be found as tutor and lecturer in French at
University College Bristol, as readers in German at Bryn Mawr College
Philadelphia, lecturers in English and French at Holloway College,
mistress of the Ladies’ College Durban, and of the convent school
Cavendish Square. Teaching in Queen’s College Barbadoes, in Londonderry,
Brecon, and Guernsey (Newnham and Girton students are to be found in
both the Channel Islands), Vice-principal of the Samuel Morley Memorial
College London, and, not least interesting, lecturer at the University
Extension College Exeter. One is assistant librarian of the Acton
library Cambridge, another almoner of King’s College hospital, and a
third is on the Education committee of the Gateshead County borough
Council. Among the 658 who have not taken triposes,[477] among the
usual number of principalships and head and assistant mistress-ships of
schools and colleges, we find old students lecturing in History at the
Women’s College Baltimore, demonstrating in Physics at Bryn Mawr College
Philadelphia, lecturer at Smith College Northampton U.S.A., Professor at
Wellesley College Massachusetts, tutor at Owens College Manchester, head
of the Presbyterian school Calcutta, head mistress of the Church
Missionaries’ High school Agra, warden of the Women’s University
Settlement Southwark (and ex-vice-principal of Newnham College), and
Principal of Alexandra College, Dublin (_LL.D._ of Dublin _honoris
causa_). One is clinical assistant at the Royal Free hospital, another
is in the superintendent’s office at Guy’s, a third is a physician at
Newcastle-on-Tyne and member of the County borough Education committee.
There is a lecturer in botany at Holloway, the director of a lyceum at
Berlin, a teacher and superintendent of a class for blind women
(Association for the Welfare of the Blind), a clerk to London
university, a member of the council of Queen’s College London, and the
secretary of the Association of University Women Teachers. These old
students are also to be found in Toronto, the West Indies, Vancouver,
New South Wales, New Zealand, Pietermaritzburg, Natal, Johannesburg,
North China, New York, and Christiania; and on the Education committees
of the Dorset, Herefordshire, and West Sussex County Councils, on the
Croydon Education committee, and lecturing on English literature and on
classical archaeology.
A large number of students take the tripos with a view to tuition, with
which the above lists are, as we see, mainly concerned; but an account
of the literary output of Newnham students is in course of preparation.
Newnham has formed a collegiate character which is partly due to
elements in its original constitution, partly to its first principal,
and partly to its physical vicinity to the university. To take the last
first. The college has always benefited by what one of the professors
once described to the present writer as “the life of the university
passing through it.” It was not only this proximity, but the fact that
Newnham was the product of the interest taken by university men in the
advanced education of women--(Girton of a just and fully justified claim
to university education made by women for women)--which made the
acquirement of this character easier: and Newnham has in a marked degree
the character of the university which harbours it--its cult of solid
learning, its width and range, the absence of all pretentiousness, of
that which every man and woman educated at Cambridge abhors as
“priggishness.” The delightful informality of Newnham and the liking for
simple appearances is already outlined in the first Principal’s views
about the scheme and the new building; “nothing elaborate or costly” is
wanted: “The simple Cambridge machinery will be found all the better and
all the more lasting because it suggested itself so very naturally, and
almost, so to speak, created itself. It is all the better for a college,
as for other institutions, when it is not made, but grows.”[478] And
Newnham was not made but has grown, grown “very naturally” out of the
“simple machinery” first designed for it; has “created itself” because
these simple elements suggested the way and the means of growth. There
is no chapel at Newnham, all sorts and conditions of men have always
been found there, and have worshipped God their own way--“not on this
mountain, nor in Jerusalem.” Old students sit at its council board, and
come up to read in the Long Vacation. Miss Clough governed without
rules, in conditions which were not then normal--which were thought
indeed to be so abnormal that no company of women could venture to
accept them.
If the enthusiasm expended over the two colleges by those who did most
for them--the anxiety when things seemed to go wrong, the rejoicing when
they went right--be remembered best by those who experienced it, it has
had its enduring result in the
[Illustration: GRANTCHESTER MILL
This picturesque old mill is on the upper river about two miles from
Cambridge, and is a favourite rendezvous of boating parties. The walk
from Cambridge to this mill is by ‘Varsity men called the Grantchester
Grind’. The famous Byron’s Pool is just below the mill.]
movement itself. For nothing great is born without enthusiasm, and this
was one of the greatest movements of the century. The lecturers--those
“trained and practised teachers” who as an original prospectus declared
“were willing to extend the sphere of their instruction“--took no fees,
or returned them for several years as a donation to Newnham. Miss Clough
not only took no stipend as Principal but helped the college with money;
Dr. and Mrs. Sidgwick, in addition to financial help of every kind, gave
up their home in Chesterton and lived in three rooms at the “North Hall”
of which Mrs. Sidgwick became vice-principal; and here Miss Helen
Gladstone, Gladstone’s unmarried daughter, acted as her secretary. Miss
M. G. Kennedy has been honorary secretary of the college since 1875,
Mrs. Bonham-Carter its honorary treasurer and Mr. Hudson its honorary
auditor. It may fairly be said of Newnham also, that it is partly the
outcome of the enthusiastic loyalty of its first students, who have
since taken so large a share in its welfare.[479]
[Sidenote: The “Graces” of 1881.]
In the Lent term of 1881 there happened the greatest event in the
history of the women’s university movement. Three “Graces” were proposed
to the Senate (_a_) should women be entitled to examination in the
triposes (_b_) to a certificate of the place won (_c_) to the insertion
of their names, after that of the men, in all tripos lists, with a
specification of the corresponding place attained by them in the men’s
list? On the eve of the day fixed for the vote--February 24th--the vicar
of Little S. Mary’s church and a Mr. Potts announced that they would
_non-placet_ the ‘graces,’ and as the day dawned some believed that
their recruits would swamp the vote. On the same evening Mr. John
Hollond, late M.P. for Brighton, was differently engaged in the House of
Commons getting members to promise to share in a special train which was
to take them to the university by two o’clock to record their votes, and
get them back to their places by four when there was to be an important
division in the House.[480] The students of Girton and Newnham crowded
the roof of the latter college to watch for the pre-arranged signal--a
handkerchief tied to the whip of a student who rode along the “Backs”
from the Senate House carrying the news. The vote in favour of the
Graces had been 398 to 32, and when it was declared the venerable Dr.
Kennedy, the distinguished headmaster of Shrewsbury school and at that
time Regius Professor of Greek,[481] waved his cap under the eyes of the
vice-chancellor like any schoolboy. The loyal friends now came hurrying
up to Newnham, one by one, Henry Sidgwick, Miss Emily Davies, Professor
Cayley (first president of the College Council) Mr. Archer-Hind, Mr.
(now Dr.) J. N. Keynes, and received an ovation from those whose
battles they had fought to such a successful issue: and if one of the
seniors of the university became a boy in his delight, another
Johnian[482] did not fail to cover himself with glory by his verses in
imitation of Macaulay’s Lay of Horatius, in which “Father Varius” and
his friends hold the bridge against progress:
Then out spake Father Varius
No craven heart was his:
‘To pollmen and to wranglers
Death comes but once, I wis.
And how can man live better,
Or die with more renown,
Than fighting against Progress
For the rights of cap and gown?’
The anniversary has since been kept at Newnham as “Commemoration” day:
and if one touch were needed to complete it it would be found in Miss
Clough’s reminder to the students that they commemorate not only what
women gained that day, but what the university gave that day. There was
an amusing sequel to the vote: the official charged with the preparation
of the university certificates consulted a confidential clerk as to the
colour of the knot of ribbon which is attached to the university
seal--“Don’t you think blue--the university colour?” he hazarded; but
was met by the prompt and horrified rejoinder “blue stockings, sir, blue
stockings!” So the colour is green.
[Sidenote: Social life.]
Except under special circumstances the age for admission at Newnham and
Girton is 18. Students’ quarters at Newnham consist, in most cases, of a
bed-sitting room; at Girton each student has a sitting room with a small
bedroom leading from it. The necessary furniture is supplied, and can be
supplemented according to taste by the student. All students must be
within college boundaries by 7 o’clock (but with permission they can be
out till 11) and are “marked in” two or three times a day, the chief
occasion being the 7 o’clock “hall.” Girton and Newnham students, if no
other lady is to be present, can only visit men’s rooms accompanied by
some senior of the college. Visits of men to students’ rooms are not
permitted, except in the case of fathers and brothers; but a student
cannot ask her brother to her room to meet her college friends, for as
Miss Clough observed “the brother of one is not the brother of all.”
Careful supervision with large liberty and an atmosphere which
encourages the students to make themselves the trustees of the rules,
characterise both colleges; and women students, as Miss Davies has
pointed out, carry on their university life without being subject to the
proctorial control which is found necessary in the case of men.
In the early days it required some independence of character to
encounter the gibes and the wonder which women’s life at the university
aroused outside it. People who did not know what a “divided skirt” was,
undertook to affirm that all Girtonians wore them: at Newnham some
unconventionality in dress was amply concealed by the general dowdiness
of the early Newnhamite. The dreaded eccentricities in conduct or
clothes would not indeed have killed the movement; and the authorities
did not allow this dread to paralyse the quality of mercy, so that there
was in fact small justification for the witty suggestion of a Newnham
student that “Mrs. Grundy rampant and two Newnham students couchant”
would make appropriate armorial bearings for the college. Nevertheless,
as a concession to human weakness, smoking was not, and still is not,
tolerated.
Both colleges hold debates in the great hall and also inter-collegiate
and inter-university debates. Here are some of the subjects discussed:
“Is half a loaf better than no bread?” “That we spend too much” (lost).
“That the best education offered to our grandmothers was more adequate
than that offered by the High Schools of to-day” (lost). The most
important society at Newnham, however, is the Political Debating
Society, and the lively and absorbing interest in politics shown
nowadays by the college is in striking contrast to the general
indifference to politics at Girton. This year (1906) in an
inter-university debate (Oxford and Newnham) the motion “That this house
approves Chamberlain’s conception of empire” resulted in a ‘draw.’ Most
of the students of both colleges are members of the Women’s University
Southwark Settlement, to which they subscribe. There is a Sunday Society
and two musical societies in addition to the original Choral Society at
Newnham, and societies in connexion with each of the triposes take the
place of the select “Jabberwock” and “Sunday Reading Society” of earlier
days. The great indoor institution at both colleges is the students’
party at 10 p.m. known at Newnham as the “Cocoa.” Two to four is the
chief recreation hour, and there are college, inter-collegiate, and
inter-university hockey, fives, cricket, tennis, and croquet matches.
One of the first conveniences provided at Newnham was its gymnasium,
where in the early days of the college a senior moralist might be seen
leaping over the back of a student who had just been “ploughed” in the
divinity of the “Little-Go,” and a series of reverend seigniors would
engage in a hopping match round the room led by the youngest “first
year” who was an acknowledged expert in the art.
The public of a generation ago imagined that
[Illustration: MADINGLEY WINDMILL
This old ruin is on a hill near Madingley, about four miles from
Cambridge. A great sweep of Fen Country is seen in the far distance. The
long range of red buildings in the middle distance is Girton College. On
a clear day Ely Cathedral can be seen from the left of the windmill.]
learned women would not marry and that men would specially ‘fight shy’
of taking to wife women who had done the same work as themselves. It may
therefore be recorded that the first Newnham student to take a tripos,
who was also the first lecturer appointed at Newnham Hall, married the
professor of Political Economy, and that they wrote a book on that
subject together. That the first classical lecturer at Newnham married a
well-known classic and classical tutor of his college (Trinity); that
the next Moral Sciences lecturer married the distinguished psychologist
who is now professor of Mental Philosophy; that the first historical
lecturer, Ellen Wordsworth Crofts, married Darwin’s biologist son Mr.
Francis Darwin; and that the first woman to come out senior classic (a
Girtonian) married the Master of Trinity College, himself senior classic
of his year.
Writing about the proposed Bedford College for women, in 1848, Frederick
Denison Maurice had declared that “The least bit of knowledge that is
knowledge must be good, and I cannot conceive that a young lady can feel
her mind in a more dangerous state than it was because she has gained
one truer glimpse into the conditions under which the world in which it
has pleased God to place her actually exists.” So “ambitious” a name as
“college” for a girls’ academy had a novel sound “to English ears.”
To-day the words which excuse and explain its use sound strange and
antiquated in ours. Many of the things about which men have fought and
borne the heat of long days will seem incredible to posterity, and the
refusal of a ‘college’ or of university education to women will no doubt
be among them. No one else, nevertheless, had given to women the
opportunity they wanted when Cambridge gave it. Cambridge returned
affirmative answers to each request as it was preferred--in 1863, in
1865, in 1870, and in 1880 when in reply to a memorial signed by 8600
persons praying that the Senate would “grant to properly qualified women
the right of admission to the examinations for university degrees, and
to the degrees conferred according to the result of such examinations,”
the Syndicate appointed to consider it returned the memorable answer:
“The Syndicate share the desire of the memorialists that the advantage
of academic training may be secured to women and that the results of
such training may be authoritatively tested and certified.”[483] The
irony of history required that this memorial, which led to the granting
of the Graces, should be rolled and unrolled over the drawing room
carpet of a vice-chancellor known to be hostile to the movement. Forty
years after F. D. Maurice had penned the words already quoted women had
come out at the head of the list in each of the principal triposes. The
most striking instance of the misjudgment which it is possible to make
about things simply because custom has allowed no one to try them,
occurred at the dinner table of friends of the present writer when the
late Professor Fawcett, in urging the claims of women to university
education, said: “I don’t say that a woman would ever be senior
wrangler, but women would take very good places.” His daughter was to be
the first senior wrangler: but at no other period of English history
would the comparison have been possible by which a parent could test
such capacities in his own child. After this it is not surprising that
lesser men were unable to gauge the unused powers of half the race; and
when one spirited person declared he had no objection whatever to women
competing with men but that he considered the air of Cambridge would not
be beneficial to them, the argument was as reasonable as any other.
[Sidenote: Character and choice of work.]
As to the character of the work in which women do best. It had been said
that they would not do well in “abstract” subjects. The tripos in which
they have taken the highest distinction is the Moral Sciences,[484]
where they have been at the top of the list or alone in the First Class
five times, provoking Punch’s cartoon in the ‘eighties’ of a girl
graduate entering a first class railway carriage marked “For Ladies
only.” Their best work has been done in pure mathematics, and, agreeing
in this with the men, it is these subjects which they choose for the
Second Part of the tripos. In choice of subject the order is as follows
(_a_) Mathematics (_b_) Classics (_c_) History (_d_) Natural Sciences
(_e_) Languages (_f_) Moral Sciences. The scale of success has been
highest in Moral Sciences, then in (_b_) Languages (_c_) Natural
Sciences (_d_) Classics (_e_) History (_f_) Mathematics.[485] The
classical and mathematical triposes lead to those general tuitional
posts for which so many women seek a university education; the languages
tripos is easier for those women who go up without the usual school
preparation; while the lower places in the history tripos do duty for
that “ordinary degree” which is not open to women. It is therefore in
the moral and natural sciences that there is distinct evidence of
choice of subject: the proportion of women who take the former is
overwhelmingly greater than the proportion of men,[486] and the taste of
women for the natural sciences is as marked, a fact which might have
been foreseen by those who watched the signs of the times many years
ago.
[Sidenote: The degree.]
The refusal of the degree, of the magic letters _B.A._ and _M.A._, to
women, need not be discussed here. That women have the same use for the
degree as men is obvious; that it strains their alleged liking for
self-sacrifice too far to suggest that they prefer to forgo the
legitimate rewards of their work, not less so; and it should not be
regarded either as satisfactory or logical that when they do the same
work the men only should have the recompense. Dublin university has just
offered an _ad eundem_ degree to all women who had qualified themselves
for the degree at Cambridge or Oxford--187 have taken the _B.A._, 121
the _M.A._, and three have become doctors of letters or science. The
credit of this act belongs to the gallant Irishman, and the coffers of
Dublin university have thus been enriched, very warrantably, at the
expense of the impoverished coffers of Cambridge which sent the far
larger number of graduates.[487]
We have moved step by step from the cautious recommendation of the
university that the names of the young girls examined for the Local
Examination should not appear, and that no class lists should be
published (1865) and the informal examination for the triposes, when for
nine years (until 1881) the examiners in the classical tripos “objected
to state” what class had been attained, to the present state of things
when all the “publicity and intrusion” dreaded forty years back in the
case of little girls being examined somewhere privately in the same town
as little boys, is annually given to hundreds of women in the highest
examination in the country in the midst of the university. There had
been prophets who opined that under these circumstances Cambridge would
be deserted by the other sex. Visions of the halls of Trinity and John’s
empty and forsaken, while Girton and Newnham poured forth a ceaseless
flow of undergraduates disturbed the sleep of these prophets and seemed
worth putting on record in their waking moments. No sooner were the
Local Examinations opened to girls in 1865 than the number of boys
entered rose from 629 to 1217;[488] and the largest entry of
undergraduates on record was that of this present year 1906-7. What has
happened? Has a robuster generation of undergraduates arisen, or were
the undergraduates of the “seventies” and “eighties” simply maligned?
[Sidenote: The status of women students at Cambridge and Oxford.]
As between the two ancient universities Cambridge remains the pioneer in
the education of women. The examinations are open to women at Oxford,
but the same restrictions as to preliminaries and residence are not
imposed.[489] It is, however, by the restrictions imposed that Cambridge
has established the position of its women students. It has thus bound
itself to compare the work of all tripos students irrespective of sex.
While at Oxford there is no university recognition of the status of the
candidate or of her hall, and no university certificate of the place
obtained, Girton and Newnham are recognised colleges at Cambridge; the
name of the successful candidate followed by that of the college is read
aloud in the Senate House and published on the Senate House door; and
only students presented by these colleges are admitted to the university
examinations, as is the case with men. Girton and Newnham each owe
something to the other. Newnham to Girton in the collegiate status now
enjoyed by both, Girton to Newnham because the considerable advantages
accruing to women students through proximity to Cambridge have been
reflected on the sister college. Each displayed a boldness distinctively
its own which has been the main source of the success of the movement:
Newnham planted her house of students in the university town, Girton
asked to follow the same curriculum as men; and these two things have
had a mutually favourable reaction ever since.
Index
OF
Names of Persons and of Cambridge Families referred to in the Text
_chr._ = chancellor, _v.-c._ = vice-chancellor, _proc._ = proctor (of
the university), _M._ = master (of a college), _abp._ = archbishop,
_bp._ = bishop.
Acre, Joan d’, 64 _n._, 298
Acton, 1st lord, professor, 192, (quoted) 99
Adams, Prof. John Couch, 126, 172 _n._, 191, 291, 318 _n._, 329 _n._,
Mrs., 329 _n._,
Sir T., founder of chair of Arabic, 190
Addenbrooke, Dr. John, 115
Agnes, daughter of Philip the tailor [_Rot. Hund. Cant._], 42, 43
Aidan, S., 2
Airy, G. B., prof., 139, 172 _n._, 191, 291
Albert Pr. Consort, chr., 113
Alcock, 347 _n._
John, bp. of Ely, 76, 150, 152, 259, 260,
his arms on the watergate of Coe fen, 57 _n._,
probably a Peterhouse man, _ibid._,
a pluralist, 63,
chancellor of England, 76 _n._,
obtains dissolution of nunnery from Alex. VI., 115, 271,
founds Jesus, 115,
restores the church of S. Rhadegund, 116,
his gateway at Jesus, 141,
scope of his foundation, 153,
its dedication, 319 _n._,
friend of the new learning, 270
Alcuin, 1, 2, 172, 252, 254 _n._
Aldrich, 306, 308
Robert, bp., 105, 174 _n._,
Thos., Puritan M. of Corpus, 276
Alexander VI., 78, 115, 271
Alfred, 8, 252, 254 _n._
Alfred of Beverley, 3
Alley, Wm., bp. of Exeter, 106
Andrewes, Lancelot, bp. of Ely & Winchester, M. of Pembroke,
74, 189 _n._, 259, 273, 280, 282, 354 _n._
Anjou, see _Margaret of_
Anna, king of the East Angles, 311 _n._
Anne, queen, visits Cambs., 113,
Jacobites there in her reign, 267
Anselm, S., 101 _n._
Antony of Padua, S., 23 _n._
Arthur, Prince (duke of Brittany), 295
Arthur, Prince (Tudor), 176 _n._
Arundel, abp., 29, 58, 235 _n._, 269,
Wm. FitzAlan, earl of, 75
Ascham, Roger, 3, 126, 173, 174, 175 _n._, 207,
243, 253, 254 _n._, 281, 283, 360
Athelstan, 32, 87 _n._
Audley, 296, 297, 298
Thos., Ld., founder of Magdalene Coll. 76, 129, 150, (quoted), 129,
pedigree, 300, 301
Audrey, S., see _Etheldreda_
Augustine, S., of Canterbury, 2
Austen, Jane, 257
Babington, 296, 302
abbot of Bury, 302,
Prof. C. C., 329 _n._,
Henry, v.-c., 205 _n._, 302,
Humphrey, Dr., 302
Bacon, 244, 296, 302
Francis, lord, 3, 85, 137, 139, 215, 218 _n._, 244,
253, 254 _n._, 255, 256, 258, 281, 282, 285, 290, 302, 303, 308,
Sir Nicholas, 83, 85, 106 _n._, 107, 244, 302,
Thos., M. of Gonville, 302
Badew, Ric. de, chr., 64, 64 _n._, 150, 152
Baker, Dr. Philip, v.-c., 106 _n._, 142,
Thos., historian of S. John’s (1656-1740), 126, 215
Bale, John, bp. of Ossory, 16 _n._, 20, 20 _n._, 116, 245, 258
Balfour, Frank, prof., 329 _n._
Ball, Sir Wm., Royal Soc., 283
Balsham, Hugh de, bp. of Ely, 15, 27, 29, 30, 54, 55, 76, 150, 192 _n._
His judgment cited, 6 _n._, 28 _n._, 203,
limits archidiaconal authority in university, 14, 28, 37,
design to graft secular scholars on the canons’
house of S. John, 38, 55, 122-123,
founds Peterhouse, 55-6, 62,
his motives for so doing, 62,
leaves money to build a hall, 56,
leaves his books to the college, 58, 138 _n._,
scope of foundation, 153, 154,
sides with de Montfort, 260,
S. Simon Stock his contemporary, 325,
see _general index_
Bancroft, abp., 99, 116, 118, 259
Bardenay, John de, prior of Benedictine students, 128 _n._
Barnes, prior, 22, 272, 275
Baro, Peter, 60, 280
Barrow, Isaac, prof., 60 _n._, 139, 170, 191, 225, 263
Bassett, 44, 110 _n._, 292, 296, 306, 307 _n._, 347 _n._
Alan (quoted), 68 _n._,
John, 306,
Philip, chief justice 44,
William, proc. 19, 306
Bateman, Wm. bp. of Norwich, 76, 150, 152, 153, 259, 330.
Changes character of Gonville statutes, 67,
Gonville’s executor, 78, 83,
Edw. III.’s ambassador, 79,
founds Trinity Hall, 79,
motives of the foundation, _ibid._,
founds the library, 80,
obtains licences for the 2 college chapels, 109 _n._,
Ely hostel conveyed to him, 127,
Norwich monks come to Cambs. during his episcopate, 128 _n._, 143 _n._
Bateson, Wm., M. of S. John’s, 329 _n._,
Mrs., 329 _n._
Beauchamp, 150 _n._
Eleanor dss. of Somerset, 299,
Margaret dss. of Somerset, 299, 305 _n._
Beaufort, 262, 292, 294, 296-97
Anna, sister to Ly. Margaret, 308 _n._,
Henry, Cardinal, scholar of Peterhouse, 58 _n._, 59, 106, 259, 260, 262,
Thos. duke of Exeter, 58 _n._, 156
Beaumont, 202, 297 _n._
Charles, 62,
Francis (the dramatist), 257, 306,
Joseph, M. of Peterhouse, 62,
Dr. Robt. v.-c., 302
Bede, 2, 5, 5 _n._, 10, 10 _n._, 172, 252, 254 _n._
Behn, Mrs. Afra, early novelist, 258
Beket, Thos. à, educated at Merton priory, 44 _n._
Benedict XI., 143 _n._, 144 _n._,
XII. 127, 144 _n._
Benjamin the Jew, his house in Cambridge, 21 _n._
Benson, abp., confers Lambeth degree, 194 _n._
Bentley, 347 _n._
Ric., 126, 135, 139, 174, 175 _n._, 176, 191, 219 _n._, 245
Betham, Edw., fellow of King’s, his letter to Cole, 212
Beverley, John of, 2, 172
Bill, Wm., bp., v.-c., 139, 274 _n._
Billingford, Ric., chr., 205 _n._
Bilney, Thos., 80, 275, 275 _n._
Bingham, 347 _n._, & see _Byngham_
Blomfield, bp., 239
Blount, Chas., the deist, 279
Bodichon, Barbara L. S., 317 _n._, 318 _n._, 319, 320, 327 _n._
Boleyn, 102 _n._
Anne, 102, 102 _n._,
Henry, 102 _n._,
Wm., 102 _n._
Bolingbroke, Ld., the deist, 279
Bonham-Carter, Mrs., 347
Boniface IX., 204
Bonner, bp., 273 _n._
Bonney, T. G., 318 _n._, 329 _n._
Booth, Laurence, abp., chr., 74, 76 _n._, 154, 260, 347 _n._
Boquel, Lucien, 329 _n._
Bossuet, has Sherlock for opponent, 60
Bottlesham, John de, bp. of Rochester, M. of Peterhouse (1397-1400), 58
Bowling, E. W., 349, 349 _n._
Boyle, earl of Cork, 85, 260,
Robt., Royal Soc., 284
Bradford, John, 75, 275
Bramhall, Protestant abp. of Armagh, 147
Brandon, 296, 297, 297 _n._, 301
Charles, 1st & 3rd dukes of Suffolk 106,
Henry, 2nd duke 106
Brantingham, bp., 27
Braybrooke, see _Neville_
Brodrick, abp., 66
Brontë, Charlotte & Emily, 257
Brooke, see _Greville_
Brown, Ford Madox, 57 _n._
Browne, Robert, of Corpus, 278, 303,
Sir Thos., letter to, from Christ’s, Coll., 180,
Sir Wm., 61, 245, 260, 268
Browning, Robert, 251
Brownrigg, Ralph, bp., M. of Catherine’s, v.-c., 115, 264
Bruce, Robert, 69
Bryan, 302
Augustine, 175 _n._,
John, 174 _n._
Bucer, Martin, 60
Buckingham, see _Stafford & Villiers_
Buckle, H. T., 251
Bullock, 347 _n._
Henry, v.-c., 111, 170 _n._, 174 _n._
Bunyan, 251, 253, 254 _n._
Burgh, de, 291, 292, 293, 296, 297
Elizabeth de, see _Clare_,
Elizabeth jnr., _domina Claræ_, dss. of Clarence,
95, 295 _n._, 297 _n._, 298,
Hubert, earl of Kent, 293, 295, 298,
John, chr., 203 _n._, 293,
John, bp. of Ely, 293,
John, 3rd earl of Ulster, 64 _n._, 293, 298,
Ric. 2nd earl of Ulster, the ‘red earl’, 64 _n._, 320 _n._,
Ric. ‘the great earl of Clanricarde’, 301,
Thos., 293,
William, last earl of Ulster, 297 _n._, 298
Burke, Edmund, 268, 309
Burleigh, see _Cecil_
Burn, Rev. R., 318 _n._
Burnet, bp. (quoted), 284 _n._
Buss, Miss, 335 _n._
Butler, bp., 251
Butler ‘of Cambridge,’ 260
Butts, Sir Wm., _M.D._, 296
Byng, Thos. v.-c., 180 _n._
Byngham, 306, 307 _n._
Thos. 1st M. of Pembroke 306,
Wm., founder of God’s House 117 _n._, 150, 153,
165 _n._, 306, (quoted) 165 _n._,
Wm. proc. 306
Byron, lord, 139, 163, 255, 308, (quoted) 7, 182 _n._
Caedmon, 2
Caesar, 4
Caius or Keys, John, 151, 152, 260, 281,
founds Caius, 78, 141, 142,
President of College of Physicians, 141,
Principal of Physwick hostel, 141,
studies in Italy, 141,
lives with Vesalius, 141,
lectures in London on anatomy, 142,
the first English anatomist, 142,
his influence on Cambridge, 167, 179,
scope of his foundation, 153, 154,
an eminent classic, 142, 174 _n._,
lectures at Padua on Greek, 174,
opposes the new pronunciation of Greek, 177 _n._,
Master of Gonville & Caius, 142,
antiquary & historian of the university, 142,
his care for sanitation, 142,
his inscription on foundation stone & his epitaph in Caius chapel, 142,
clings to Catholicism, 142, 180, 180 _n._
Cambridge, earls of, 36 _n._,
family of, 294,
Sir John de, 24 _n._, 132,
prior John of, 261,
Ric. earl of, 36 _n._, 295, 295 _n._, 296,
Ric. earl of, & of Ulster, Lord of Clare 295 _n._,
see _York, duke of_
Cantaber, 4, 20 _n._
Canterbury, abp. of, see _Bancroft_, _Cranmer_,
_Grindal_, _Langton_, _Parker_, _Bancroft_,
_Sumner_, _Tenison_, _Tillotson_, _Whitgift_, _Whittlesey_
Cantilupe, Nicholas, 20, 20 _n._
Canute, 10
Capranica, Card., 230
Carlisle, bp. of,
see _Aldrich_, _Close_, _Goodwin_, _Law_, _May_, _Percy_ & _Scrope_
Carlyle, Thos., 140
Carr, Nicholas, 175 _n._
Cartwright, Thos., 276, 277, 347 _n._
Castle-Bernard, a Cambridge name, 292 _n._
Castlereagh, viscount, 126, 260
Catherine of Alexandria, S., 114
Catherine of Aragon, 114, 121
Cave, Wm., 126
Cavendish, 294, 302, 303
Henry, the scientist, 59, 303,
Lord John, 302,
Sir John de, chr., 203, 260, 302,
Wm., M. of Peterhouse, 302,
Mary, countess of Shrewsbury, benefactor of S. John’s, 124, 125,
Spencer, 8th duke of Devonshire, chr. 205,
Thos., the circumnavigator, 282
Caxton, 75, 99, 112
Cayley, Prof., 139, 172 _n._, 329 _n._, 348
Cecil, 296, 302, 303
Wm. lord Burleigh, chr., 126, 215, 260, 282, 303,
Thos. earl of Exeter, chr., 303,
Robert earl of Salisbury, chr., 126, 260, 282, 303,
lady Dorothy (see _Neville_),
lady Mildred, 313 _n._,
Mr. Cecil, moderator, 303,
‘Cecil at the castle’ [_Rot. Hund. Cant._], 42 _n._, 292
Chantrey (quoted), 137
Chapman, Geo. (dramatist), 257
Charlemagne, 2
Charles I., 113, 263, 264 _n._
Charles II., 113
Charles V., Emperor,
Pole’s letter to 121,
(quoted) 129 _n._
Chatham, lord, 268,
(quoted) 74 _n._
Chatillon, 69, 296, 297
Marie de, see _Valence_, Gaucher de, 1st Comte de Saint-Paul, 295, 296,
Guy de, 69, 299,
Walter de, 69,
pedigree of, 299
Chaucer, 3, 88, 89, 252, 254 _n._, 255, 256
Cheke, Sir John, first Professor of Greek, fellow
of S. John’s, 105, 126, 174, 175 _n._,
177 _n._, 191, 207 _n._, 281, 303
Chester, Gastrell, bp. of, 193
Chesterfield, Philip 4th earl of, 80, 260
Chillingworth, Wm., 278, 279, 286 _n._
Clare, 292-293, 296, 297, 297 _n._, 320,
pedigree of, 298
Elizabeth de 64, _n._, 67, 95, 151 _n._, 152,
293, 295, 296, 297, 312, 320 _n._, 325 _n._
Benefactor to Austin priory at Stoke Clare, 22 _n._, 293,
founds Clare, 64-5,
conveyance to her of the _domus universitatis_, 65 _n._,
her statutes quoted, 67-8,
scope of foundation, 153, 154,
founds Greyfriars of Walsingham, 293,
sends timber to King’s Hall, 293, (quoted) 64 _n._, 86 _n._, 201,
lineage, 64 _n._, 150, 299,
pedigree of, 298
Gilbert de (temp. Conquest), 292,
Gilbert earl of Hertford & Glouc. (_ob._ 1229), 292, 298,
Gilbert ‘the red’ (father of the founder of Clare), 40, 44,
64 _n._, 298,
Gilbert earl of Glouc. (killed 1314), 65, 151 _n._, 298
Richard, earl of Glouc., 22 _n._, 292-3, 298,
Richard de, abbot of Ely, 298,
Richard, 2nd earl of, 320 _n._
Clarence, Elizabeth dss. of,
see _de Burgh_,
George duke of, 111,
Lionel duke of, 94, 95, 295 _n._, 297 _n._, 298
Clarentia, Philippa de, 298
Clark, 308
J. W. 8, 31, 32, 44,
Rev. W. G. 318
Clarke, Robert, 179,
Samuel, 144, 279
Clarkson, Thos., 126, 253 _n._, 269
Clerk, Sir Francis, 152
Clerk Maxwell, Jas., first Cavendish Prof., 139, 192
Clerke, Ric., a Cambs. colonist at Cardinal College, 272, 273
Cleveland, John, 263
Clifford, 3rd earl of Cumberland, 282
Clifford, W. K., 329 _n._
Clive, Robt., 251, 253, 254 _n._
Close, Nicholas, bp., 105, 327
Clough, Anne J., 326, 327, 327 _n._, 329, 330-337,
338, 339, 346, 347, 350, 357 _n._,
Arthur Hugh, 330,
Sir Ric., 330
Coke, Edw., lord, High Steward of the University, 139, 260,
(quoted) 100
Cole, Wm., (ob. 1782), 66, 105, 212
Colenso, bp., 126, 172 _n._, 288
Coleridge, S. T., 116, 232, 302
Colet, dean, 173, 176 _n._, 253, 254 _n._, 270
Collier, Jeremy, 267
Collins, Anthony, of King’s, the deist, 279
Compton, bp., 265 _n._, 266 _n._
Coningsby, Sir Wm., 105
Constantia, wife to Earl Eustace, grants Cambs. fisheries, 116 _n._
Cook, R. S. (Mrs. Scott), 321 _n._
Cornwallis, 1st marquess, 66
Cosin, Cousins, 308
John, bp., M. of Peterhouse, 58, 59, 259, 274, 280
Cotes, Roger, 1st Plumian Prof., 139, 191
Cotton, Sir Robert, 139
Courtney, abp. of Canterbury, stays with the Whitefriars, 20
Coverdale, Miles, an Austinfriar at Cambs., 22, 245, 272
Cowley, Abraham, 139, 244, 263, 284
Cowper, Wm., 303, 303 _n._
Cox, Richard, bp. of Ely, 105, 175 _n._, 272, 273, 274 _n._
Cranmer, abp., 116, 194, 243, 253, 254 _n._, 259, 271, 273, 273 _n._, 274, 275
Crashaw, Ric., 59, 60 _n._, 263
Crawden, John de, prior of Ely, 127
Creak, E. M., 340
Creighton, 347 _n._
Crofts, Ellen, see _Darwin_
Croke (Crooke), first Reader in Greek at Cambs., 105,
172, 173, 174, 175 _n._, 191, 207, 281
Cromwell, Oliver, 22, 146, 147, 253, 254 _n._, 260,
264, 264 _n._, 275, 277, 308,
Thos. 151, 167, 175, 205, 244 _n._, 276, 276 _n._
Cromwells, the, 229
Crook, 347 _n._
Crouchback, Edmund earl of Leicester, 42 _n._
Croyland, 294
Robert de, 132
Cudworth, Ralph, prof., 66, 119, 145, 145 _n._, 191, 286, 289
Culverwell, Nathanael, 145, 286
Cumberland, Ric., bp., 130
Cunningham, Dr. W., fellow of Trinity, archd. of Ely, 247, 322 _n._
Curteys, abbot of Bury, 16 _n._
Curthose, Robert, 8
Dakins, Wm., of Trinity, a translator of the bible, 275
Daniel, Samuel, 256 _n._
Darwin, 302
Charles, 119, 178, 253, 254 _n._, 255, 290, 291, 303, 309,
Ellen Wordsworth Crofts (Mrs. Francis), 353,
Erasmus, 126, 303,
Francis, 353
D’Aubeney, Reiner, 75 _n._
David of Scotland, 36 _n._, 297 _n._
David’s, S., Thirlwall, bp. of (see also _Thirlwall_), 318 _n._,
see _Langton_
Davies, Miss Emily, 314, 317 _n._, 319, 348, 351
Davy, Humphry, 255
Day, 307, 347 _n._
George, bp., v.-c., 105, 273 _n._,
W., bp., 105, 273 _n._
Defoe, Daniel, 257, 354 _n._
Dekker, Thos. (dramatist), 257
De Morgan, Prof., 139, 172 _n._
Derby, css. & earl of, see _Ly. Margaret_ & _Stanley_
Descartes, 287
Devereux, 302
Robert earl of Essex, 139, 282, 301, 304
Devonshire, see _Cavendish_
Dickens, Charles, 251, 257
Digby, Sir Kenelm, 284
Dillingham, Francis, M. of Emmanuel, a translator of the bible, 175 _n._, 273.
Dillon, viscount, 319 _n._
Diss, Walter, 16 _n._, 20, Wm. 15 _n._
Dodwell, Prof., 267
Doket, Andrew, 109, 111, 152
Donne, John, 139, 308
Downing, Sir George, senr., 66, 147,
founder of Downing, 147, 150, 153, 154
Downside, abbot of, 149
Drake, Sir Francis, 83, 251, 253, 254 _n._, 282
Drayton, Michael, 256 _n._
Dryden, John, 139, 255, 258, 258 _n._, 264, 274, 284, 305, 308
Dudley, 297 _n._
Robert earl of Leicester, 297 _n._, 300, 301
Dunning, 39, 123, 292
Eustace, 42,
Hervey, 42, 42 _n._, 304
Durham, William, bp. of, 45 _n._, & see _Cosin_,
_Lightfoot_, _Pilkington_, _Ruthall_, _Tunstall_, _Westcott_
Edmund, king & saint, 12 _n._, 15 _n._
Edward I., 64 _n._, 152, 252, 254 _n._, 298, 299.
Builds Franciscan friary, 21,
visits Cambs. as Pr. of Wales, 36,
composes disputes between scholars & townsmen, 37,
his Scotch wars, 69,
lodges at the castle, 113,
visits Walsingham with Eleanor, 114,
redresses a later dispute, 233 _n._
Edward II. 150.
Obtains from pope European status for university, 35, 35 _n._,
maintains scholars there 37, 131,
lodges at Barnwell priory, 113,
gives licence for University Hall, 64,
intends to found a college, 37, 131, 131 _n._
Edward III., 88, 94, 150, 152, 153, 154, 260, 295 _n._, 297, 298, 299, 300.
Quarries Cambridge castle for King’s Hall, 5 _n._,
bestows a hospice on Oriel College, Oxford, 18 _n._,
gives licence to Gilbertines, 19,
creates earls of Cambridge, 36 _n._,
fulfils intentions of Edw. II., 37, 131,
gives privileges to university, 37 _n._-38 _n._, 222 _n._,
issues letters to town of Stamford, 46,
knights the Master of Pembroke, 75,
gives licence to Gonville, 78,
Bateman his ambassador, 79,
letters about King’s Hall, 95 _n._,
his arms on Entrance Gate of Trinity, 103 _n._,
visits Cambridge 113,
builds King’s Hall, 131,
his effigy on Great Gate, 131,
his gateway at King’s Hall, 132.
See _general index_.
Edward IV., 36 _n._, 37 _n._, 86 _n._, 112, 262, 298, 299.
His arms in King’s chapel, 103 _n._,
sequestrates building funds of, 104,
visits university, 112,
King’s Hall chapel built in his reign, 137,
robs King’s College of revenues, 262
Edward VI., 141, 175 _n._
Continues favour shown by Tudors to Cambs., 37 _n._,
sends foreign Protestants there, 60 _n._,
Trinity College built under, 135,
his tutors Cambridge men, 175 _n._, 281
Edward VII., 113
Edward the Confessor, 261
Edward the Elder, 4
Edwin of Northumbria, 2, 311
Eleanor of Castile, 114, 155
Eliot, George, 257, 317 _n._,
John, ‘the Indian apostle,’ 263
Elizabeth, 21 _n._, 60, 141, 145, 175 _n._, 219 _n._, 233 _n._, 253, 254 _n._
Apostrophizes Pembroke College, 73-4,
sends timber for Corpus chapel, 83,
visits Cambs., 107, 108, 113, 163,
completes Trinity Chapel, 134, 137,
makes Leicester High Steward, 206 _n._,
her statutes, 28 _n._, 210,
entrusts revision of Edward’s Prayer-book to Cambs. men, 273,
‘Lambeth articles’ drawn up, 274,
her anti-puritanism, 276,
checks Presbyterianism, 277,
Cambridge men round her, 281-2,
sends timber to Trinity College, 293.
See _general index_
Elizabeth of York, 114
Ellenborough, 1st lord, 59, 172 _n._, 239
Eltisley, Thos. first M. of Corpus, 82
Ely, bps. of, see _Alcock_, _Andrewes_, _Balsham_, _Cox_, _Felton_,
_Fleetwood_, _Fordham_, _Goodrich_, _Gunning_, _Holbroke_,
_Kilkenny_, _Moore_, _Montacute_, _Patrick_, _Stanley_,
_Thirlby_, _Turner_, _Walpole_, _West_, _Wren_.
For abbot, prior, & sub-prior of, see _Balsham_,
_Clare_, _Norwich_, _Walsingham_
Harvey Goodwin, dean of, aftw. bp. of Carlisle, 317 _n._
Emma, queen, 261
Empson, Sir Ric., 206 _n._
Erasmus, 88, 174, 270, 281, 288,
knows Franciscan nuns at Cambs., 25 _n._,
bp. Sampson a pupil of, there, 80,
Thos. Aldrich a Cambridge friend of, 105,
lives at Queen’s, 111,
influence of on statutes of Christ’s, 119,
writes lady Margaret’s epitaph, 120,
his description of Cambs. studies at the end of the xv. c., 170,
letter to Bullock of Queen’s, _ibid._,
co-operates with Fisher in introducing Greek, 172,
studies Greek at Oxford, 173,
studies Greek at Cambs., 173,
teaches Greek there, 174 _n._,
his Cambs. supporters, _ibid._,
date of leaving Cambs., _ibid._,
motive for leaving Oxford, 175 _n._,
holds Margaret professorship, 191,
cannot stomach Cambridge fare, 221,
praises Wm. Gilbert, 291,
his ‘three colleges’, 313 _n._, (quoted) 221
Essex, see _Devereux_
Essex, archdeacon of, receives a Lambeth _B.D._ (1635), 194 _n._
Ethelbert of Kent, 4
Etheldreda, S., 311, 311 _n._, 312 _n._, 337
Ethelred, king of the East Angles, 8 _n._
Eugenius IV., 140 _n._
Eustace, earl, 116 _n._
Evelyn, John, 284
Everett, Wm., (quoted) 171, 213 _n._- 214 _n._, 243
Exeter, see _Beaufort_ & _Cecil_
Exmew, Blessed Wm., 119, 275
Fagius, Paul, 60
Fairfax, Thos., lord, 126
Falkland, Lucius, viscount, 126, 278
Faraday, Michael, 251, 255
Fawcett, Rt. Hon. H., prof. 328, 329 _n._, 355,
Mrs., 328, 329, 329 _n._, 346 _n._,
P. G., 328, 340
Fawkes, Francis, the poet, 116
Felix, bp., 4 _n._
Felton, Nich., bp. of Ely, 75
Fenton, Elijah, the poet, 116
Ferrers, Eligius, receives a Lambeth _D.D._ (1539), 194 _n._,
Dr., M. of Gonville & Caius, 329 _n._
Fielding, Henry, 257
Fisher, John bp. of Rochester & Cardinal, 3, 105, 119,
125, 150, 152, 253, 254 _n._, 259, 281, 330.
Suggests foundation of Christ’s to Ly. Margaret, 118,
co-operates with her, 120,
her panegyrist, 120, 120 _n._-121 _n._,
perpetual chancellor, 120, 204,
succeeded by Thos. Cromwell, 205,
chancellor & vice-chancellor, 205 _n._,
Master of Michaelhouse, 120,
completes foundation of S. John’s, 120, 124,
statutes for, 67, 126,
President of Queen’s, 111,
establishes study of Greek in Cambs., 172, 174 _n._,
& invites Erasmus 173,
upholds Erasmus, 174 _n._, 273,
a reformer before the Reformation, 120, 270,
first Lady Margaret Professor, 191,
created cardinal priest, 121 _n._,
Hen. VIII.’s opinion of, 121,
Hallam’s, 121 _n._,
martyred, 121, 275, (quoted), 120, 120 _n._
Fitz-Eustace, a Cambridge name, 292
Fitzhugh, a Cambridge name, 308
Flamsteed, John, 1st astronomer royal, 146, 284, 290, 291
Fleetwood, Wm. bp. of Ely, 105
Fletcher, 302, 303
Giles, _LL.D._, 282, 304,
Giles (poet), 304,
John (the dramatist), 257, 304,
Phineas (poet), 304,
Ric. bp. of London, 303,
John, of Caius, 304
Ford, John, 257
Fordham, bp. of Ely, 61, (quoted) 62 _n._
Foster, Saml., Royal Soc., 146, 283, 284,
Sir Michael, prof., 329 _n._
Fowler, Edw., aftw. bp. of Gloucester, 266 _n._
Fox, Edw. bp. of Hereford 105,
Ric. bp. of Winchester, M. of Pembroke, chr. (1500),
3, 74, 177 _n._, 205 _n._, 259, 260, 270, 273, 283
Frampton, bp., 266, 266 _n._
Francis, S., of Assisi, 21, 22, 22 _n._
Frost, 292, 347 _n._
Henry, 18, 122 _n._
Fry, Mrs., 253 _n._
Fuller, Thos., 5 _n._, 47, 51, 99, 111, 120, 146, & see _general index_
Galileo, 291
Gamble, Jane C., 320, 322
Gardiner, Stephen, bp. of Winchester, M. of Trinity Hall,
chr., 79, 80, 177 _n._, 240, 243, 259, 304
Garrett, Dr. G. M., 329 _n._
Garth, Sir Samuel, 260
Gaunt, 294 _n._, 347 _n._
Gaunt, House of, 294, 297,
John of 20, 27, 95, 261, 292, 295 _n._, 297 _n._, 308 _n._
George I., 99, 113, 192, 268
George II., 113
George IV., 138
Gibbon, Edw., 309
Gibbons, Orlando, 252
Gilbert, S., of Sempringham, 19
Gilbert, Wm., 126, 260, 281, 290, 291
Gladstone, W. E. 253, 254 _n._,
Miss H., 347
Glisson, Francis, prof., 80, 144, 191
Gloucester, duke of,
see _Clare_
Goddard, Jonathan, Royal Soc., 283
Goldcorn, John, 98 _n._
Goldsmid, Sir Francis, 318 _n._,
lady, 318 _n._
Goldsmith, Oliver, 257
Gonville, 294, 295
Edmund, 77, 78, 150, 152, 153,
Sir Nicholas, 77
Goodrich, Thos., bp. of Ely, 106, 260
Goulburn, bp., 2nd wrangler, 184 _n._
Grafton, 3rd duke of, chr., 59
Gray, Thos., prof., 7, 58, 59, 73, 74,
75, 104 _n._, 139, 184, 192, 232 _n._,
235, 255, 308, 308 _n._, (quoted) 7, 56, 74 _n._, 176, 249
Green, W. C., 329 _n._
Greene, Robt., 257
Gregory the Great, 4
Gregory XIII., 230
Gresham, Sir Thos., 78, 143, 144, 218 _n._, 282, 330
Greville, 302, 304
Fulke, 1st Ld. Brooke, 99 _n._, 116, 192 _n._, 282, 304, 308,
2nd Ld., 304,
Sir Bevil, 304,
(Grenville or Granville) 1st Ld. Lansdowne, 139, 304
Grew, Nehemiah, of Pembroke, 260, 284
Grey, 252, 295, 297, 297 _n._, 299, 300
earl, 268, 269,
lady Jane, 113, 175 _n._,
Sir Thos., 295, 296,
of Wark, Ld. 264 _n._,
pedigree of, 299
Grindal, Wm., the classic, pupil of Ascham, 126,
Edmund, abp., 74, 99, 118, 130, 130 _n._, 259, 263, 274 _n._, 282
Grocyn, Wm., 173, 173 _n._, 176 _n._
Grosseteste, Robert, bp. of Lincoln, 172 _n._, 252, 254 _n._
Grosvenor, Sir Robert, 94
Grote, Geo., 251
Guest, Edm., bp. of Rochester & Sarum, 106
Guilford, Francis North, Ld., 260, 284
Gunning, Peter, bp. of Ely, M. of Clare, then of S. John’s, 126
Gurgentius, 4
Gurney, Rt. Hon. Russell, 318 _n._,
Mrs., 318 _n._
Guthlac, S., of Mercia, 12 _n._
Hacket, bp. of Lichfield, 138
Haddon, 294
abbot of Thorney, 294 _n._,
Walter, v.-c., 80, 105, 191, 282, 304
Hainault, John, count of, earl of Cambridge, 36 _n._
Hale, Chief Justice 284,
Sir Matt., 309
Hales, John, 278, 279, 286 _n._
Halifax, Geo. Savile, visc. & marq., 260, 267,
see _Montague_
Hall, Joseph, of Emmanuel, bp. of Norwich, 277,
Ric., biographer of Fisher, 119
Hallam, Arthur, 139
Halley, Edm., Royal Soc., 284, 309
Hamilton, Sir Wm., 177
Hampden, John, 244, 264, 265
Harison, Thos., a translator of the bible, 273
Harrington, 307
Sir John, 1st Ld., 105, 282
Hartley, David, 116
Harvey, Hervey, 302, 304
Gabriel, 74, 74 _n._, 256, 281, 304, (quoted), 182,
Henry, v.-c., 304,
Wm., 144, 253, 254 _n._, 260, 281, 304
Hastings, 297, 297 _n._
Henry earl of Huntingdon, 111,
John earl of Pembroke, 27, 295, 295 _n._,
Warren, 251
Hatfield, Wm. of, 104 _n._
Hatton, 203 _n._, 294 _n._, 303, 307
Sir Christopher, 309,
Ric. Provost of King’s, 307
Hawkins, John, 251
Heath, Nicholas, abp., a translator of the bible, 66, 273, 273 _n._
Henrietta Maria, queen, 114
Henry I. (Beauclerk), 18 _n._, 88.
Favours the town, 8, 36, 36 _n._,
gives it a charter, 9,
charter referred to, 5-6, 6 _n._, 13,
fabled to have studied at Cambs., 36
Henry II., 151
Henry III., 6 _n._, 36, 38, 45, 51 _n._, 54, 69, 152.
Sends to Cambs. for fish, 11,
orders the adherents of the dauphin to leave the town, 33, 260,
establishes taxors, 33,
rescript quoted, 33-34,
gives a charter to the university, 34,
rescripts on behalf of the university, 35,
47-48, 203, quoted, 30 _n._, 34 _n._, 203,
withdraws licence to found university at Northampton, 46,
licence quoted, 46 _n._,
visits Cambs., 113,
privileges of university date from his reign 222 _n._
See _general index_
Henry IV., said to have granted stone for a chapel at King’s Hall, 5 _n._
Henry V., 37 _n._, 59, 205 _n._, 228 _n._
Intended building a college at Oxford, 101,
betrayed by “Cambridge, Scroop, & Grey”, 295
Henry VI., 58 _n._, 106, 117.
Favours Cambs., 37 _n._,
statutes for King’s, 67, 105 _n._, 152, 153,
imitates Wm. of Wykeham, 67, 101 _n._,
portrait of in Pembroke, 73,
coins money at Cambs., 8 _n._,
invites abbot of Bury to Cambs., 16 _n._,
buys & conveys ground in Cambs., 24 _n._-25 _n._, 101,
founds King’s College, 100, 150,
dedicates to S. Nicholas, 101,
double charter of Eton & King’s, _ibid._,
lays foundation stones, 101, 102, 112,
his original design for King’s, 101 _n._-102 _n._,
visits Cambs., 4
times 112, lodged in King’s Hall, 112, 112 _n._,
founds God’s House, 117 _n._, 118, 150,
bestows church lands on this & King’s, 271,
Byngham’s letter to, 165 _n._,
half-brother to lady Margaret’s first husband, 299
Henry VII., 118, 175 _n._, 281, 299.
Favours Cambs., 37 _n._,
chief builder of King’s chapel, 104,
visits Cambs. 5 times, 113,
accompanied by lady Margaret, 114,
& by the queen, _ibid._,
makes Empson High Steward, 206 _n._
Henry VIII., 106, 123, 151, 212 _n._, 281, 295.
Favours Cambs., 37 _n._,
monogram with that of Anne Boleyn in chapel screen at Trinity, 102,
visits Cambs., 113,
Henry & Fisher, 121, 121 _n._,
founds Trinity, 131,
effigy on the Entrance Gate, 131,
endows college with abbey lands, 133,
motives for the foundation, 133,
scope of, 133-134, 153, 154,
portrait of in Trinity lodge, 136 _n._,
invites Caius to lecture on anatomy, 142,
his divorce from Catherine, how met at the university, 240, 271,
his injunctions imposing the royal supremacy, 167 _n._,
founds the Regius professorships, 190
Henry of Huntingdon, chronicle cited, 7 _n._
Henry of Orléans, bailiff, 16 _n._
Herbert, George, 139, 166, 207, 218 _n._, 289,
of Cherbury, lord 279
Hereswitha, 311 _n._
Hereward the Wake, 11, 146, 292, 303
Herrick, Robert, of S. John’s, 244, 263
Herschell, 347 _n._
Sir John, 126, 172 _n._, 218 _n._, 291,
senr., 255
Heynes, Dr. Simon, Pres. of Queen’s, v.-c., 212, 212 _n._
Heywood, Thos. (the dramatist), 59, 257
Hild, 2, 252, 254 _n._, 311, 311 _n._, 312
Hill, Rowland, 126
Hind, Archer, 329 _n._, 348
Hobart, lady, 318 _n._
Hobbes, Thos., 285, 289
Hobson the Cambridge carrier, 215 _n._
Holbroke, John, M. of Peterhouse, chr. (1430), bp. of Ely, 59
Holland, Margaret, 299
Hollond, John, M.P., 348
Honorius I., 28
Honorius III., 111, 127
Hoods, the, 251
Hooke, Robt., Royal Soc., 284
Hooker, Ric. 289, Thos., 262
Hope, Alex. Beresford-, 136
Horrox (Horrocks), Jeremiah, 146, 291
Hort, F. J. A., prof., 139, 179, 191, 288
Hottun, Hugo de, chr. (1246), 203 _n._
Howard, 297 _n._, 300, 301, 303
of Effingham, 251,
Henry, earl of Northampton, chr., 301,
Henry, earl of Surrey, 256, 256 _n._, 301,
John, 253 _n._,
Thos. earl of Suffolk, chr. 301, 303 [see _Norfolk_]
Howe, John [_Rot. Hund Cant._], 42, 43,
Walter [_Rot. Hund. Cant._], 42
Hrostwitha of Gandersheim, 108
Huddleston, Sir Robert, 5 _n._, 113
Hudson, Prof. H. H., _LL.M._, 347
Hughes, Miss E. P., 335 _n._
Hugolina, wife of the Norman sheriff, 17
Hulle, Wm., English Prior of the Order of S. John, 24
Humphry, Prof. Sir Geo., of Downing Coll., 318 _n._, 340
Huntingdon, css. of 149,
earl of, see _David of Scotland_ & _Hastings_ & 297 _n._
Hutchinson, Col., 59, 264, 265
Huxley, T. H., 251
Ingulph, abbot of Crowland, 13, 13 _n._
Ingworth, Ric., Franciscan friar, 20
Innocent VI., 72, 75
Ireton, Henry, 264
Jackson, Henry, Prof., 329 _n._
James I., 113, 116, 163, 229
James II., 265, 266
James, Thos. of King’s, Headmaster of Rugby, 283
Jaquetta of Luxembourg, 152
Jebb, 347 _n._
Dr. John, 183 _n._,
Sir Ric., prof., 139, 176 _n._, 191, 329 _n._, (quoted) 153 _n._
Jessopp, Dr., 10 _n._, 80
Jocelyn of Bury, 16 _n._, (quoted) 15 _n._
Jocelyn, John, secretary to abp. Parker, (quoted) 81, 82
Joffred, abbot of Crowland, 12, 122, 127
John, king, 6 _n._, 11, 32, 36, 113, 260, 295
John XXII., 28, 35, (quoted) 35
John, prior, of Cambridge, 261
Johnson, Samuel, opposes American claims, 269
Jones, Burne, 57 _n._, Miss E. E. C. 321,
Inigo, 65, 118
Jonson, Ben, 126, 256, 257, 281
Keats, John, 251, 255
Kelvin, Ld., 59, 172 _n._, 255
Ken, bp., 266, 267
Kennedy, B. H., _D.D._, prof., 338 _n._, 348,
Miss M. G., 329 _n._, 338, 338 _n._, 346 _n._, 347
Kenton, Nicholas, Carmelite, chr., 20
Keynes, J. N., Dr., 329 _n._
Kilkenny, bp. of Ely, 38 _n._, 40, 192 _n._
King, Edw., 119,
Oliver, bp., 105
Kinglake, A. W., 139
Kingsley, Chas., prof., 130, 192
Kirke, Edward, 139
Knollys, Sir Francis, 282
Kyd, Thos. (the dramatist), 257
Lake, of Chichester, one of the 7 Bishops, 266
Lancaster, Henry, the “good duke” of, 89, 89 _n._, 261,
earl of 297 _n._, 298
Lanfranc, abp., 18 _n._
Langham, 304 _n._
Simon, bp. of Ely, afterwards primate, 62
Langley, 304 _n._
abp., 194 _n._,
Edmund earl of Cambridge, 20, 36 _n._, 295 _n._
Langton, 296, 302, 304
John, chr., M. of Pembroke, bp. of S. David’s, 101, 304,
Stephen, abp., 252, 254 _n._, 260,
Thos., proc. fellow of Pembroke, bp. of S.
David’s, Winchester, & elect of Canterbury, 3, 74, 259, 270, 304
Latimer, 306
Hugh, bp., 66, 119, 244, 259, 271, 275, 275 _n._, 306
Latymer, Wm., 176 _n._
Laud, abp., 143 _n._, 259, 280, 288, 289, (quoted) 208 _n._
Law, 59
Edm., bp. of Carlisle, 59,
Wm., author of the “Serious Call”, 146
Layfield, J., a translator of the bible, 273
Lee, abp. of York, opposes Erasmus, 174 _n._
Leicester, Henry of Lancs., earl of, 297 _n._,
Robt. Dudley, earl of, 206 _n._,
de Montfort, earl of, 42 _n._, 260, 261, 298, 307 _n._,
Robt. Sidney, earl of, 301,
Wm. of [_Rot. Hund. Cant._], 43 _n._
Leland, John, 119
Le Strange, Roger, 258
Lewes, G. H., 251
Lichfield, bp. of, see _Hacket_, _Sampson_, _Scrope_
Lightfoot, 292, 302, 304
J. B., bp. of Durham, fellow of Trinity, prof.,
3, 139, 191, 288, 305, 318 _n._,
John, 115, 119
Lily, Wm., 176 _n._, 283
Linacre, Thos., 80 _n._, 125, 167, 173, 176 _n._, 179, 190 _n._
Lincoln, bp. of, see _Close_, _Wickham_, _Williams_, & _general index_
Liveing, Prof., 126, 318 _n._
Lloyd, non-juring bp. of Norwich, 266, 266 _n._,
bp. of S. Asaph’s, one of the 7 Bishops, 266
Locke, John, 178, 253, 254 _n._, 309
Lodge, Thos., 256, 257
London, Dr., Warden of New Coll. (quoted), 272
Louis the Dauphin, 33, 260, 261, 295
Loyola, S. Ignatius, college founded by in Rome, 230
Lubbock, Sir John (Ld. Avebury), 251
Lucas, Henry, founds Lucasian professorship, 190
Lumsden, L. I., 321 _n._
Luther, Martin, 272, 288
Lydgate, monk of Bury, 4, 88, quoted 7 _n._, 88 _n._
Lyly, John, 256, 257
Lyndhurst, Ld., 139, 172 _n._, 260
Lyttelton, 308
4th Ld., 318 _n._
Lytton, 302, 305
Bulwer, 80, 305,
Sir Rowland, 305
MacArthur, Thos., an early Cambs. Protestant, 275 _n._
Macaulay, 308
Thos. Babington, Ld., 137, 138, 139, 184, 211, 308, 309
Main, P. T., 329 _n._
Maine, Sir Henry, prof., 74, 80, 191
Maitland, 308
F. W., prof., 192, 308
Malcolm ‘the Maiden,’ 36 _n._, 116 _n._, 151 _n._, 297 _n._
Malherbe, Michael, owns land at Newnham, 325 _n._
Manchester, earl of, see _Montague_
Mandeville, earl of [_Rot. Hund. Cant._], 24 _n._
Manfield, 292
Wm. de, 39, 42, 292 _n._, 325
Manners, 302, 303
Sir John, 1st Ld., 110 _n._,
lord, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, 172 _n._,
lord John (duke of Rutland), 139,
Roger son of 1st earl of Rutland, Esquire of the Body to Eliz., 86,
Roger 3rd earl of Rutland, 111, 222, 232 _n._, 282
Manning, Card., 150,
Mrs., 317 _n._
Mareschall, 297 _n._, 298, 299
Margaret of Anjou, 114, 123, 150, 152, 296, 312,
founds Queen’s, 100, 109,
her motives for so doing, 109, 112 _n._, 313,
dedication, 109, 112,
scope, 153,
Eliz. Woodville co-founder with, 112, 262
Margaret, lady, 119-120, 125, 133, 150, 252, 254 _n._, 305, 312, 312 _n._
Most conspicuous figure in university hist.,
representative of John of Gaunt, 299,
joins Ho. of Edw. III. to Ho. of Tudor, 297, 299,
reconciles Houses of York and Lancs., 262,
in her own person, & through alliance with Stafford,
stands mid-way between founders of King’s Hall Clare
& Pembroke & founders of Queens’ Magdalene & Sidney, 297, 299, 300,
Three times married, 64 _n._, 299, 325 _n._,
marries a Stanley, 299,
reformer before the Reformation, 120, 270,
friendship with Fisher, 120,
her sojourns in Cambs., 114, 120,
founds Christ’s, 118,
endows it with abbey lands, 271,
scope of foundation, 119, 153, 154,
fellows from northern counties, 119, 152,
bequeaths gold plate, 118,
statutes, 67, 119,
founds S. John’s, 123,
alienates gifts to Hen. VII’s chapel for this coll., 120 _n._,
institutes first university chairs & preachership, 120, 190,
bur. Westminster Abbey, 120, 150,
epitaph written by Erasmus, 120,
Fisher’s panegyric, 120 _n._-121 _n._,
lineage, 118, 152, 297,
pedigree, 299
Margaret of Montefiascone, S., 109, 112 _n._
Markby, T., 318 _n._, 329 _n._
Markland, Jeremiah, 60, 175 _n._
Marlborough, duke of, 251, 253
Marlowe, Christopher, 85, 255, 256, 257, 281
Marshall, Alf., prof. 329 _n._,
Roger, benefactor to Peterhouse library, 58 _n._
Marston, John (dramatist), 257
Martin V., 28, 28 _n._
Martyn, Hen., 126, 147
Marvell, Andrew, 139, 218 _n._, 245, 264
Mary, queen, 5 _n._, 60, 113, 134, 136, 141, 175, 175 _n._, 271, 281
Maskelyne, Nevil, astronomer royal, 291
Massinger, Philip, 257, 309
Matilda, empress, 6 _n._, 36 _n._, 114, 292 _n._
Maurice, F. D., prof., 139, 318 _n._, 329 _n._, 353, 354
Maxwell, James Clerk, prof., 139, 192
May, 347 _n._
May, Thos. (dramatist), 147,
Wm. bp., M. of Queen’s, v.-c., 115, 274 _n._
Maynard, Wm. lord, 179 _n._
Mayor, J. B., 178,
J. E. B. prof. of Latin, 329 _n._
Médard, S., 311
Meredith, George, 257, 258
Merton, Walter de, bp. of Rochester, 38, 76 _n._, 252 _n._
His scheme to endow scholars, 39, 40, 41,
buys land Cambs., 39, 43 _n._, 45,
buys land Oxford, 39, 40, 45,
his statutes, 40, 41, 68,
quoted, 39, 40, 41, 45, 68 _n._,
the phrase “at any other university”, 45,
scheme to found a coll., 43, 54,
house of scholars at Cambs., 41, 41 _n._, 44, 45,
buys house called ‘school of Pythagoras’, 39, 122,
founds Merton, Oxford, 41,
a pluralist, 63,
his name, 44 _n._,
Wm. de, 44 _n._
Metcalfe, Nicholas, M. of S. John’s, 106 _n._, 126, 126 _n._, 142, 191
Middleton, Conyers, 215, 279, Thos. (the dramatist) 257
Mildenhall, Edmund of, 15 _n._,
Robert of, chr., 15 _n._
Mildmay, 307 _n._
Sir Walter, founder of Emmanuel College, 76, 119,
119 _n._, 144, 151, 152, 153, 282, 307, 308
Mill, J. S., 251, 253, 254 _n._, 329
Millington, Wm., 1st Prov. of King’s, 112 _n._
Milton, John, 3, 7, 7 _n._, 118, 119, 139, 215 _n._,
218 _n._, 253, 254 _n._, 255, 258, 264, 265,
277, (quoted) 7, 7 _n._, 104, 175 _n._, 200
Monckton-Milnes, Lord Houghton, 139
Monmouth, Jas. duke of, chr., 265
Montague, 302, 305, 307
Charles, Ld. Halifax (Trinity), 305,
Edw. 2nd earl of Manchester, 147, 264 _n._, 305,
James, bp. of Bath & Wells, then of Winchester, 1st M. of Sidney, 305,
Richard, bp. of Norwich, 305,
Sir Sidney, 305,
Simon (Montacute), 17th bp. of Ely, 28, 28 _n._, 55 _n._, 67 _n._, 123, 305
Montefiore, Claude, 322, 322 _n._
Montfort, de, 297 _n._
Simon de, 11, 42 _n._, 254 _n._, 260, 261, 298, 307 _n._
Monthermer, 293, 298, 299
Ralph de, 293
Moore, bp. of Ely, 99
Moray, Sir Robert, an original member of Royal Soc., 284
More, Hannah, 253 _n._,
Henry the Platonist, 257, 284, 288, (quoted) 119, 145, 287,
Sir Thomas, 120, 121, 126 _n._, 173, 175, 175 _n._,
176 _n._, 243, 253, 254 _n._, 270, 309
Morgan, 308
Philip, second esquire bedell, 208 _n._,
Thos., the deist, 279
Morland, 347 _n._
Sir Saml. the hydrostatician, fellow of Magdalene, 308
Morris, Wm., 57 _n._
Mortimer, 292, 293, 295, 296, 297, 298, 299
Anne, 295 _n._,
Sir Constantine de, 132, 294,
earl of March & Ulster, 298 _n._,
Edw., 296,
Guy de, 293, 326,
Philippa, 295 _n._, 299,
Roger, 295,
Thos. de, 132, 294
Morton, Card., 259 _n._
Moulton, J. F., 329 _n._
Mowbray, Anne, wife to Ric. of York, 86 _n._
Mulcaster, Ric., 283, 354 _n._
Munday, Anthony (the dramatist), 257
Nash, Thos. (the dramatist), 257
Necton, Humphrey, Carmelite, 20
Nelson, Horatio lord, 245, 251, 253, 254 _n._
Nelson, Edmund (Hobhouse) bp. of, 41, 44 _n._
Neville (Nevile), 297, 300, 302, 304, 305
lady Dorothy, css. of Exeter, 303,
Henry, proc., 305,
Latimer 6th lord Braybrooke, M. of Magdalene, 305,
Thos. (Nevile) v.-c., M. of Trinity, 113, 135, 139, 140 _n._, 145, 305
Newton, 302, 305
Fogg, Prov. of King’s Coll. (1610-12) v.-c., 305,
Francis v.-c. (1562-3), 305,
John de, M. of Peterhouse, 305,
Isaac, fellow of Trinity, prof., 3, 31,
66, 137, 139, 170, 191, 218 _n._, 219 _n._,
225, 253, 254 _n._, 265, 290, 291,
Isaac, of Peterhouse, 305
Nicholas, S., of Bari, 101, 106
Nicholson, John (”Lambert”), 275
Nightingale, Florence, 253, 254 _n._
Nix, bp., 144
Norfolk, Eliz. Talbot, dss. of, 86, 155,
Margaret Audley dss. of, 301,
Henry Howard 15th duke of, 149
(see also _Howard_)
Northampton, earl of, see _Howard_
Northumberland, see _Percy_ & _Dudley_
Norwich, John, bp. of, prior of Ely, 156,
see also _Bateman_, _Hall_, _Montague_,
_Nix_, _Overall_, _Thirlby_, _Walpole_
Nottingham, Daniel Finch, earl of, 267
Occam, Wm., 88
Ockley, Simon, professor of Arabic, 111
Odo, monk of Orléans, 14 _n._
Ogle, Amy, 340
Oswy, king of Northumbria, 311, 311 _n._
Oughtred, Wm., mathematician, 105
Overall, John, bp. of Norwich, M. of S. Catherine’s, 28, 115, 126, 126 _n._
Oxford, see _de Vere_
Pace, Ric., 176 _n._
Paget, 308
Sir James, 318 _n._
Paley, 347 _n._
Mary (Mrs. Marshall) 340 _n._,
Wm., Preb. of S. Paul’s 118, 172 _n._,
& see _general index_
Palmer, 302, 306
Edw., prof, (sheikh Abdullah), 306
Palmerston, Hen. Jno. Temple, visc., 126, 239, 260, 306, 309
Paris, Dr. J. A., 260,
Matthew, 23 _n._, 33 _n._, 55 _n._, 84
Parker, 308, 347 _n._
Matthew, v.-c., abp., 49, 84, 85, 99,
106 _n._, 244, 245, 259, 273, 273 _n._, 274, 274 _n._, 282
Parr, 347 _n._
Samuel, 146, 308
Parsons, the Jesuit, 294
Partholin, Spanish king of Ireland, 4
Paston, 261, 308, 308 _n._
Sir Wm., 85
Patrick, Simon, bp. of Ely, 266 _n._, 274
Paul III., 121 _n._
Paulinus of York, 2
Peacock, Geo. dean of Ely, Lowndean prof., 139
Pearson, bp., 106, 111, 111 _n._
Perse, Stephen, 99 _n._
Peele, Geo. (dramatist), 257
Peile, Dr., M. of Christ’s, 329 _n._
Pembroke, css. of, see _Chatillon_, earls of, 292, 297 _n._, 298, 299
Pepys, Samuel, 130, 145, 308
Percy, 301, 307, 307 _n._
Eleanor, 301,
Wm., bp., son of 2nd earl of Northumberland, chr., 307
Perfect, Anne, 330
Perne, Andrew, M. of Peterhouse, 58, 60, 99 _n._, 143
‘Peter of Blois,’ 13 _n._, 14, (quoted) 14 _n._
Peterborough, Francis Jeune, bp. of, (Oxonian), 317 _n._,
see also _Cumberland_, _White_
Petrarch, 88
Peverel, 110 _n._, 292
Pain, 17, 292, 303
Pfeiffer, Mrs., 338
Philip of France, 296
Physwick, Wm., first esquire bedell, 50, 208 _n._
Picot, Hugh, baron of Bourne, 17, 292
Pigott, 292
Pilkington, Jas., bp. of Durham, 10th M. of S. John’s, 274 _n._
Pitt, Wm., 73, 74, 74 _n._, 100, 218 _n._, 253, 254 _n._, 260, 268
Plantagenet, 8 _n._, 152, 292, 300
Beatrice, 69,
Joan, see _Joan d’Acre_
Pole, 296, 297 _n._
Card., chr., 259 _n._,
(quoted), 121,
Humphrey de la, 78, 143,
Edw. de la, archd. of Richmond, 78
(sons of 2nd duke of Suffolk), Wm. de la,
earl & 1st duke of Suffolk, 117 _n._
Porson, Ric., prof., 137, 139, 174, 175 _n._, 190
Porteous, bp., 172 _n._
Porter, Rev. Jas., M. of Peterhouse (1876), 318 _n._
Potts, Mr., 348
Prior, Matthew, 126, 305
Pritchard, fourth wrangler, 172 _n._
Pugin, Aug. W., 130
Puttenham, Geo., writes of art of poetry, 256
Pym, John, 264
Raddyng, _frater_, of Rome, incorporated as a Cambs. doctor, 193 _n._
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 251, 253, 254 _n._, 282
Ramsay, Agnata (Mrs. Butler), 322, 322 _n._
Ratcliffe, 307, 307 _n._
Thos., 3rd earl of Sussex (crd. _M.A._ 1564), 146, 282, 301
Ray, John, the botanist & zoologist, 115, 139, 284
Rayleigh, 3rd lord, prof., 172 _n._, 192
Rede, Sir Robt., 130, 192 _n._
Rennell, Thos., of King’s, (quoted) 209 _n._
Repingale, bp. of Chichester, chr., 204 _n._
Rhadegund, S., 115, 311, 312 _n._, 319 _n._
Richard II., 18, 20, 67, 113
Richard III., 104
Richard of Devon, Franciscan, 21
Richardson, Saml., 251, 257
Richmond, earl of 299, css. of, see _Margaret, lady_
Ridley, 306
Nicholas, bp., M. of Pembroke, 74, 75, 79, 212 _n._, 259, 275, 306, 347 _n._
Rivers, earl, 112
Rochester, Dr. Plume archd. of, 191
Rochester, bp. of, see _Bottlesham_, _Fisher_, _Merton_
Rogers, John, 75, 272, 275, 275 _n._, 307
Rooke, Lawrence, Royal Soc., prof. at Gresham Coll., 283
Rosse, Ld., see _Manners_, _3rd earl of Rutland_
Rotherham, Thos., abp. of York, chr., 74,
76 _n._, 97, 98, 98 _n._, 105, 115,
259, 260, 270, 307
Roubilliac, sculptor, 137
Routh, E. J. of Peterhouse, senior wrangler, 172 _n._
Rowley, Wm., dramatist, 257
Roy, Wm., Franciscan translator of the bible, 273
Ruthall, Thos., bp. of Durham, chr., 260
Rutland, see _Manners_
St. John of Bletsoe, Anne, 305 _n._
Saint-Paul, 152, 296, 300
Gaucher, 1st comte de, 296,
Guy comte de, see _Cotillon_,
Marie de, see _Valence_
Salisbury, see _Cecil_
Salisbury, bp. of (temp. Hen. VI.), 101
Sampson, abbot of Bury, 15, 15 _n._, 16 _n._
Sampson, bp. of Lichfield, 80
Sancroft, abp., 145, 267
Sanderson, 347 _n._
(Saunderson), Nicholas, prof., 118, 191
Sandys, Edwin, abp., v.-c., 115
Sanger, Ralph., proc., 98
Savona, Wm. of, printer, 99
Scory, bp. of Hereford, 273, 273 _n._
Scott, Sir Gilbert, 57 _n._, 102 _n._, 124, 125
Scott, Miss E. P., 321,
Sir Walter, 251, 257, 257 _n._
Scrope (Scroope), 93, 94, 294, 295, 296, 307
lady Anne, 94 _n._, 325, 325 _n._,
Henry le, 1st baron Scrope of Masham, 94,
Henry 3rd baron (beheaded 1415), 295, 295 _n._, 296,
Ric. le, 1st baron Scrope of Bolton, treasurer
& Lord Chancellor, 1371, 1378-1381 (ob. 1403), 27, 295,
Ric. abp. of York, chr. (1378), 94, 94 _n._, 203 _n._, 296,
Ric. le, M. of King’s Hall, bp. of Carlisle, chr. (1461), 94 _n._,
Stephen le, chr., brother of the conspirator, 94 _n._, 204 _n._, 295 _n._,
Sir Stephen (brother of Wm. Scrope, earl of
Wilts, & aftw. 2nd Ld. S. of Bolton), 296
Scrope & Grosvenor (controversy), 93
Sedgwick, 308, 347 _n._
Adam, Woodwardian prof. of Geology, 139, 308,
junior, 329 _n._
Seeley, Sir John, prof., 119, 192, 318 _n._,
--Clough (quoted), 346, 346 _n._,
L. B., 179
Segrave, Nicholas, 307 _n._,
Stephen, bp., chr., 203, 259, 307 _n._
Selden, John, 277
Selling, Wm., 176 _n._
Selwyn, bp., prof., 98 _n._, 126, 148, 185 _n._, 191
Sergius, pope, 27
Sexburga, abbess of Ely, 10
Shaftesbury, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st earl of, 253 _n._, 279, 309
Shakespeare, 146, 251, 253, 254 _n._, 255, 256, 257, 295,
(quoted) 295, 297 _n._
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 255, 309
Shepard (Shepherd), 302, 306
Nicholas, M. of S. John’s, proc., 306
Sheridan, Ric. Brinsley, 251
Sherlock, dean, 60, 266 _n._, 267
Shilleto, tutor of Trinity, 325
Shirley, James (dramatist), 115, 255, 256
Shrewsbury, John, 1st earl of (killed 1453), 86 _n._,
see _Talbot_ & _Cavendish_
Shuckburgh, Dr. E. S., 329 _n._
Siberch, printer, 99, 100
Sickling, John, 1st M. of Christ’s, 118
Sidgwick, Hen., prof., 315, 318 _n._, 327 _n._, 328, 329 _n._, 338,
Mrs., 338, 338 _n._, 347
Sidney, 296, 297, 297 _n._, 307 _n._
Frances, css. of Sussex, founder of Sidney Sussex Coll., 145, 151, 152, 312,
Sir Philip, 147, 253, 254 _n._, 256, 309,
Sir Wm., 146, pedigree of, 301
Siegebert, king of the East Angles, 3, 3 _n._
Simon Stock, S., 20, 325
Skeat, W. W., 329 _n._, (quoted) 7 _n._, 164
Skelton, 306, 347 _n._
John, 261, 281
Sloane, Hans, 284
Smith, John, the Platonist, 145, 286, 287,
Sir Thos., v.-c., 111, 174, 175 _n._, 177 _n._, 191,
207, 273, 274 _n._, 281, 282, 304
Smollett, Tobias, 251, 257
Somerset, 307
Dr. John, of Pembroke, proc., 58 _n._, 76 _n._, 106,
106 _n._, 117 _n._
Somerset, Sarah Alston dss. of, 125,
earls & dukes, 296,
& see _Beaufort_ & pedigree, 299
Southampton, see _Wriothesley_
Spalding, Ralph, Carmelite, 269
Spelman, Sir Hen., 139, (quoted) 165 _n._
Spencer, Herbert, 251
Spenser, Edmund, 3, 7, 7 _n._, 47, 74, 74 _n._, 106 _n._,
124, 139, 182, 189 _n._, 215, 218 _n._, 255, 256, 281, (quoted) 310
Sprat, Thos., bp., historian of Royal Soc., 284
Stace, Thos. of Ipswich, 93
Stafford, 296, 297, 297 _n._, 298, 299, 300, 301, 307 _n._,
& Audley, pedigree, 301
Edw. 3rd duke of Buckingham, 128, 129 _n._, 150, 152, 307,
Hen. 2nd duke, 129, 150, 151 _n._,
pedigree of, 300,
John, proc., 307,
George, an early Protestant, 275
Stanley, 269, 297, 299, 307 _n._
of Alderley, Henrietta, Ly., 319, 319 _n._,
Ly. Augusta, 319,
dean, 318 _n._,
Jas. bp. of Ely, 271,
Thos. Ld., 299
Stanton, 291, 294
Hervey de, 63 _n._, 68, 76, 150, 304.
Founds Michaelhouse, 63,
statutes & scope of, 67, 68,
scope of foundation, 153, 154,
Robt., original fellow of Pembroke, 75, 75 _n._
Steele, _frater_, of Rome, incorporated as a Cambs. _D.D._, 193 _n._,
Ric. 257, (quoted) 166
Stephen, Sir J., prof., 192,
Sir Leslie, 80, 179
Stephen, king, 36 _n._
Sterne, 146, 306
John, 1st pres. of Irish Coll. of Surgeons, 146,
Laurence, 116, 257, 306,
Ric., abp., M. of Jesus, 116, 306 _n._
Stillingfleet, Edw. bp. of Worcester, 126, 266 _n._, 274 _n._, 279
Stokes, Stokys, 307
Sir George, prof., 73, 74, 172 _n._, 191, 308
Stow, John, 245
Stratford, abp., 88
Stratford de Redcliffe, Ld., 105, 184, 194, 209 _n._,
239, 260, 308, (quoted) 104 _n._
Strype, John, 115, 116
Sudbury, John of, prior of Benedictine students, 128 _n._
Suffolk, 296, 297 _n._, 301
2nd duke of, 78,
earls & dukes of, 297 _n._,
see _Brandon_, _Howard_, _Pole_
Sumner, abp., 106, 194 _n._
Surrey, earl of, 256,
& see _Howard_
Sussex, 3rd earl, 146, 282,
see _Ratcliffe_
Swanwick, Anna, 318 _n._
Swift, Jonathan, 309
Sydenham, Thos., 74, 260, 260 _n._, 284
Symons, Ralph, architect, 145, 146
Tait, abp., confers Lambeth degree, 194 _n._
Talbot, Eleanor, 86 _n._,
Eliz. see _Norfolk_
Tangmer, Hen., alderman of a Cambridge guild, 325
Taverner, Ric., one of the colonisers of Cardinal Coll., 272
Taylor, 302, 306
Brook, 126,
Jeremy, 144, 219 _n._, 254 _n._, 259, 277, 278, 279, 306,
Helen, 329,
Rowland, 275, 275 _n._, 306,
Sedley, 317 _n._, 318 _n._, 329 _n._
Temple, 302, 306
abp., confers Lambeth degree, 194 _n._,
Sir Wm., 146, 245, 260, 284, 306, 308
Tenison, abp., 85, 259, 266 _n._, 274
Tennyson, lord, 139, 255
Thackeray, 302
Wm. Makepeace, 139, 257
Theodore, abp., 2
Theresa, S., 325
Thirlby, Thos., bp. of Ely, then of Norwich, 80
Thirlwall, bp., 139, 175 _n._
(see _S. David’s_)
Thixtil, John, fellow of Pembroke (1519), 74
Thompson, W. H., prof., 176 _n._
Yates, Mr. & Mrs., 338
Thorpe, Sir Robt., M. of Pembroke, 27, 75, 76 _n._, 96, 260, 295,
Sir Wm., 98 _n._
Thurloe, secretary to Cromwell, 308 _n._
Tillotson, abp., 66, 259, 266 _n._, 274 _n._
Tindal, Matthew, the deist, 279
Tiptoft, John, earl of Worcester, 112
Todhunter, senior wrangler, 172 _n._
Tokerham, Ric., proc., 98
Toland, John, the deist, 279
Tomkinson, H. R., 317 _n._
Tonnys, John, prior of the Cambs. Augustinians, 174 _n._
Tooke, Horne, 126
Tonstall, Jas., of S. John’s, 215
Trelawney, bp. of Bristol, 265 _n._, 266
Trench, R. C., Protestant abp. of Dublin, 139
Trevelyan, 308
Macaulay’s biographer (quoted), 211
Tuckney, Anthony, Puritan M. of Emmanuel, 245, 277, (quoted) 286
Tudor, see the Tudor sovereigns & _general index_
Tulloch, Principal (quoted), 285 _n._, 286 _n._, 287, 288 _n._
Tunstall, Cuthb. bp. of Durham, 98, 139, 174 _n._, 259, 273, 273 _n._
Turner, bp. of Ely, one of the 7 Bishops, 266, 266 _n._
Twining, Miss, 318 _n._
Tyler, Wat, 261
Tyndale, 308
Wm., 175 _n._, 271, 272, 281
Upton, Jas., headmaster of Taunton school, 105
Urban V., 72
Ussher, abp., 279
Valence, 27, 294, 295, 297, 297 _n._,
pedigree of, 299
Aymer de, earl of Pembroke, 69, 150, 151 _n._, 293, 299,
Marie (_or_ de Saint-Paul, born Chatillon) css.
of Pembroke, 74, 77, 150, 296, 312,
Founds Pembroke, 69, 71,
scope of foundation, 152, 152 _n._, 153,
statutes of, 68, 73, 73 _n._,
founds Denney, 25, 25 _n._, 73, 73 _n._,
lineage, 69, 152, 293, 297,
pedigree, 299
Venantius Fortunatus, bp., monk of Sainte-Croix, 312
Venn, Dr. J., 318 _n._, 329 _n._,
Mrs., 329 _n._
Verdon, Theobald Ld., 298
Vere, 36 _n_., 292, 292 _n._, 301
Alice de, css. of Oxford, 21 _n._,
Aubrey de, 1st earl of Oxford, 36 _n._,
Maud, wife of 8th earl, 111
Vernon, 110, 296
Dorothy, of Haddon, 110 _n._
Verulam, visc., see _Bacon, Ld._
Vesalius, early Italian anatomist, 141
Victoria, queen, visits Cambs., 113, 176 _n._
Villiers, dukes of Buckingham, 297 _n._
Geo. 2nd duke of Buckingham (Trinity College), 99 _n._, 284
Wallace, Alf. R., 255
Waller, Edm., 105, 244
Wallis, John, fellow of Queen’s, one of founders
of Royal Soc., 145, 146, 265, 277, 283, 286, 347 _n._
Walpole, 292, 294
Ralph, bp. of Ely & Norwich, 294,
Robt., 105, 260, 294,
Horace, 105, 139, 235, 294
Walsingham, 291, 292, 294
Edm., owns land in Cambridge, 132,
Sir Francis, 105, 260, 307,
Ld., 206 _n._,
prior of Ely, 294
Ward, John, bp. of Salisbury, one of the founders of Royal Soc., 284,
Prof. James, 340 _n._,
Seth, 147
Warham, abp., 12 _n._, 144, 174, 175 _n._, 259 _n._, 273
Warkworth, John, M. of Peterhouse, 58, 59, 261
Washington, Godfrey, bur. at Peterhouse, 61, 262
Watson, Thos., early sonneteer, 256 _n._
Watts, Wm., of Gonville & Caius, archd., 175 _n._
Webbe, Wm., writer on art of poetry, 256
Webster, John (dramatist), 257
Wellington, duke of, 251
Wentworth Ld. Strafford, 126
Wesleys, the 280, John, 253
West, Nicholas, bp. of Ely, 105
Westcott, B. F., bp., fellow of Trinity, prof., 139, 191, 288
Wharton, Thos., the anatomist, 74, 260,
Thos., fellow of Pembroke, Gray’s letter to, 249
Whewell, Wm., M. of Trinity, prof., 3, 136, 137, 138, 139, 172 _n._, 177, 179
Whichcote, Benj., the Platonist, 105, 145, 245, 286, (quoted) 287
Whiston, Wm., prof, in succession to Newton, 66, 191
White, bp., one of the 7 Bishops, 266, 266 _n._,
Jessie, 360 _n._,
Kirke, 126
Whitefield, Geo., 280
Whitehead, David, one of the 8 men on Cecil’s memorandum, 274 _n._,
Wm., poet laureate, 66
Whitgift, abp., v.-c., 59, 60 _n._, 74, 74 _n._, 139, 259, 274, 282, 306,
his thesis for the _D.D._, 169 _n._
Whittlesey, Wm., abp., M. of Peterhouse, 58
Wickham of King’s, bp., 105
Wilberforce, John, 126, 260, 269
Wilfrid of York, 2, 172
Wilkins, architect, 102 _n._, 147,
John, bp. of Chester, M. of Trinity, 139, 283
William the Conqueror, 5, 8, 10, 11, 114, 254 _n._, 292, 292 _n._
William & Mary, 266, 267, 276,
Wm. of Orange, 265, 266, 267
Williams, abp., 124, 125, 259, 277
Willughby, Francis, of Trinity, Royal Soc., 284
Winchester, bp. of, see _Andrewes_, _Beaufort_,
_Day_, _Fox_, _Gardiner_, _Langton_, _Montague_, _Wickham_
Wisbeach, John of, abbot of Crowland, 128 _n._
Wolsey, Card., 63, 129 _n._, 174, 193 243, 244 _n._,
253, 254 _n._, 271, 282, 309
Woodhead, S. (Mrs. Corbett), 321 _n._
Woodlark, Robt., chr., founder of S. Catherine’s, 105, 114, 150, 153
Woodstock, Thos. of, earl of Buckingham, later
duke of Glouc., 261, 295 _n._, 300
Woodville, 296, 297, 300
Anthony, see _Rivers_, Eliz., co-founder of Queens’,
112, 114, 150, 152, 262, 299
Woodward, John, founder of mineralogy, 284, 308
Woolston, Thos., of Sidney Sussex, the deist, 279
Wordsworth, 245, 302
Christopher, M. of Trinity, 136 _n._, (quoted) 231,
Wm., 136 _n._, 255, (quoted) 7, 74 _n._, 103, 124, 137
Worsley, Mrs., wife of the M. of Downing, 136 _n._
Wren, Christopher, 58, 73, 137, 145, 284,
Matthew, bp. of Ely, 58, 72, 75, 280,
his staff & mitre, 75
Wright, Mr. Justice, 322 _n._
Wriothesley, Sir Thos., of King’s Hall? (crd. earl of Southampton 1547), 260
Wulfhere, king of Mercia, 12 _n._
Wyatt, Sir Thos., 218 _n._, 244, 256
Wyclif, John, 27, 252, 269
Wykeham, Wm. of, 27, 63, 67, 101 _n._, 252, 254 _n._
York, abp. of, see _Booth_, _Heath_, _Rotherham_,
_Sandys_, _Scrape_, _Sterne_, _Wilfrid_, _Williams_
York, Cecilia, dss. of, 111,
Ric. of, 86 _n._,
Ric. duke of, 36 _n._, 295 _n._
[see _Langley, Edmund_]
Zouche, 294, 296
Guy de, chr., 111, 203, 204, 294, 296
General Index
(FOR NAMES OF PERSONS SEE P. 361.)
The principal references are in black type.
Abbesses, Saxon, 312, 312 _n._
Abbey lands and the University, 133, 270-71
Aberdeen University, 259
Abingdon Pigotts, 292
Academic year, the, 182 _n._, 241
“Accommodation,” doctrine of, 279
“Acts,” 163, 168, 169, 175, 176, 189
A.D.C., 239
Addenbrooke’s Hospital, 115
_Additional MSS. Brit. Mus._, cited, 6 _n._, 39 _n._, 161 _n._
_Ad eundem_ degrees, 195
Advanced students, 229, =241=
_Aegrotat_ degree, 188, 188 _n._
Age of students, 217 _n._-218 _n._
Agriculture, professorship of, 190
studies, board of, 238
Alban’s Abbey, S., 172 _n._
Ale, Cambridge, 221
Alexander (text book), 170
All Souls’, Oxford, 176 _n._, 218 _n._
Almanacks, printing of, 100 _n._
Almshouses, 18 _n._, 117 _n._
_Almum Collegium_, 230
America and Cambridge, 61, 146
colonisation of, 262, 263
American fellows at Cambridge, 246 _n._
independence, 268
professor, 192
Anatomy, 98 _n._, 180, 180 _n._, 181
Andrew’s (S.), parish of, 117
Street, 50
university, 284
Angers, 150
Angles, 3
Anglesey, Prior of, 24 _n._, 43 _n._
Priory, 24, 24 _n._
Anglo-Saxon burial ground, 318
Chronicle, 5, 6 _n._, 84
schools, _see Saxon schools_
Anjou, 151
Anne, S., hermitage of, 23
Antipuritanism in Cambridge, 60, 60 _n._
Arabic professorship, 190
Archidiaconal jurisdiction, 28, 28 _n._, 55 _n._
Aristotle, 153, 165, 166, 170, 170 _n._, 171 _n._, 178 _n._, 290
Aristotle’s logic, 15, 159 _n._, 165
Armiger bedell, _see bedell_
Art and universities, 251-2
‘Artist,’ the, 162 _n._
Arts, faculty, 119, 153, 166, 168, 170
schools, 98 _n._
the seven, 153
Ash Wednesday, ceremonies of, 160
_Assembly of Ladies_, cited, 57
Association of Assistant Mistresses, 335 _n._
Astronomy, 180, 180 _n._
Athanasian creed, 274
Audley-End, 129, 130
Augustinians, 18 _n._, 40, 91 _n._, 127, 127_n._, 272, 293
canons, 143, 292
habit, 91 _n._
Hospitallers, 22 _n._
Romites, _see Austinfriars_
rule of, 17, 18, 19 _n._, 23 _n._
_Aula_, 44, 63, 115 _n._
_scholarium_, 63, 71, 71 _n._
Austinfriars, 22, 89, 91
in Cambridge, =22=, 22 _n._, 23, 97, 98 _n._, 107, 174 _n._, 272, 293 _n._
London, 151
Austin’s hostel, 25 _n._, 49, 50, 50 _n._, 101, 102 _n._
Lane, 89
Avignon, 72, 79, 150
_B.A._, 104, 158, 168, 168 _n._, 184
Bachelor, the, 159-160, 168 _n._, 161
of arts, 206, 208 _n._, 217 _n._, 228, 231 _n._, 235
number of resident, 246 _n._
Bachelors’ school, 98
‘Backs,’ the, 65, 324, 348
Bailiffs of the town, 16 _n._, 33, 37 _n._, 222 _n._
Baker, Thos., cited, 122-123
Bale, cited, 20 _n._
Ball, W. W. Rouse, cited, 95 _n._
Balliol College, Oxford, 45 _n._, 174 _n._
Balsham’s Judgment, cited, 28 _n._, 165 _n._, 203, 208 _n._
Balsham, village, 55 _n._, 60, 191
Bannockburn, 64 _n._
Barnwell, 31, 64
canons, 17, 18, 22 _n._, 49, 91
Chartulary, 6 _n._, 19, 20, 23, 325
fair, 215 _n._
prior of, 40
priory, 17, 28, 113, 130, 227
Process, 59
Barons’ wars, 260
Bartholomew’s the Great (S.), London, 151
hospital, Oxford, 18 _n._
Barton, advowson of, 44 _n._
farm, 155
Basingstoke, 44 _n._
“_Bataille des Sept Arts_,” 15 _n._
Bath, road to, 6
Bathing, 222
_B.C._, 158, 168 _n._
_B.C.L._, 167
_B.D._, 158, 169
_Beata Maria de Gratia_, 58
Beaufort, House of, 262
Bede, cited, 3 _n._-4 _n._, 5 _n._, 10, 10 _n._
Bedell, 8, 50, 160, 164 _n._, =207-8=, 208 _n._
Bedford College, 353
Bedfordshire, 19 _n._, 150
Bedmaker, 234
Begging friars, 22 _n._, 23 _n._
Belfry, 72, 313
East Anglian, 66 _n._
Benedict (S.), rule of, cited, 29 _n._
Benedict XII., constitution of, 127, 144 _n._
Benedictine hostels, 26, 49, 127, 128, 128 _n._, 129, 143
nuns in Cambridge, 16, 23, 25, 115, 116 _n._, 312 _n._
Benedictines, 17, 25, 127, 127 _n._, 128 _n._, 143
‘black,’ in the fen, 12 _n._
in Cambridge, 12, 25 _n._, 27, 29, 128, 128 _n._, 143, 143 _n._, 311 _n._
prior of, at universities, 127, 128, 128 _n._
Benet College, 78, 83, 176 _n._
House, 149
Benet’s (S.) church, 78, 80, 83, 85, 89
parish of, 81
tower of, 96
Bernard, S., 109, 112 _n._
Bernard’s (S.) Hostel, 49, 50, 83, 109
Berwick, 8 _n._
Bethlemite friars, 23, 23 _n._, 91
Beverley, 150, 152
Bible, the English, 84, 100 _n._, 179, =272-273=
clerks, 62 _n._, 153, 217 _n._
_Bibliotistae_, 62 _n._
Biology, chair of, _see Quick professorship_
Birmingham, 341, 346 _n._
Bishop’s Hostel, 138
Mill, 11, 11 _n._, 97 _n._
Black book, the, 20 _n._
Black death, 86 _n._, 165 _n._
in East Anglia, 79, 80, 86, 88, 117
Blackfriars, _see Dominicans_
Bletsoe, 150, 299, 305 _n._
Boccaccio, 182
Bodleian, 99 _n._
Bologna, 35, 166
Botanical gardens, 22, 98 _n._
laboratory, 181
Botany, 180 _n._, 181
Botolph’s (S.) church, 83, 89
parish, 81
Bourne, barony of, 292 _n._, 303
Bowling green, 66, 70
Bridge, the great, 85, 90
Bridge “of Sighs,” 124, 125
Street, 90
British Museum, 99 _n._
remains, 5
Brownists, the, 262, =277-8=
Buckingham, earls and dukes of, 296, 297 _n._, 299, 300
College, 128, 129, 176 _n._
‘Bull-dogs,’ 223, 237
Bulls, papal, at Cambridge, 276 _n._
Burleigh’s 8 learned men, 274 _n._
Burnet, bishop, cited, 284 _n._
Bursar, 210, 210 _n._, 211
Burwell Rectory, 155
Bury-St.-Edmund’s, 8 _n._, 11, 12, 12 _n._,
15, 16, 16 _n._, 19, 143, 165 _n._, 166,
261, 293, 293 _n._
patron saint, 15 _n._
school, 15 _n._, 106 _n._
Butley, 143
Butteries, 110, 137
Cair-Graunth, 5, 5 _n._, 6, 20 _n._
Caius College, 100, 106 _n._, 107, 151, 153,
154, 229, 231, 246, 329 _n._
statutes, 142
Caius, Dr. John, cited, 7 _n._, 48 _n._, 62,
99, 207 _n._, 217 _n._, 246 _n._, 326 _n._
Calvinism, 145
Calvinists, anti-, at Cambridge, 281
Cam, the, 6, 7, 7 _n._, 9 _n._
(_and see the river_)
_Camboricum_ or _Camboritum_, 5
Cambridge, aldermen, 37, 222 _n._
bailiffs, 16 _n._, 33, 37 _n._, 222 _n._
bedells or beadles, 8
a British town, 5, 6
burgesses, 18, 18 _n._, 21, 34, 37, 261
castle, 5, 5 _n._, n, 39, 90, 113
castle mound, 5, 6, 7 _n._
charters, 9, 34, 298
and the Conqueror, 5, 8, 8 _n._, 11
and the Danes, 8, 8 _n._
and Domesday survey, 5, 8 _n._
earldom of, 6 _n._, 36 _n._
early landlords in, 23, 24, 24 _n._, 25, 25 _n._,
39, 41, 42 _n._, 43 _n._, 44, 97 _n._,
116 _n._, 132, 292, 292 _n._
and Ely, 8, 11, 12, 14, 17
fair, _see Stourbridge_
fire at, 14
a fish market, 10-11
floods, 47
guilds, _see guilds_
and Henry I., 8, 13, 36, 36 _n._
hospitals and almshouses, 18, 23, 32
Hundred Rolls, 43, 43 _n._, 44, 292, 294
in 1353, 88
and the Jews, 9, 9 _n._, 13, 22
under John, 11, 32, 36, 260, 261
jury, 35, 42
Lancastrian, 261
legends of its origin, 4, 20 _n._
martyrs, 275
mayor, 33, 34, 37 _n._, 38 _n._, 222 _n._
men, groups of, 291-7, 302-8
‘mind,’ the, 134, 174, 273, 280, 288, 289
a royal mint, 8 _n._
the name, 5, 6, 6 _n._, 7 _n._
the Norman town, 90, 91, 96
oldest academic site in, 122
‘oyer and terminer’ at, 261
place-names, 294 _n._
pre-university history, 1
Roman roads in, 6
a Roman town, 4, 5, 6, 10 _n._
the Saxon town, 5, 83, 89, 91, 96
schools, 14, 16, 16 _n._, 27, 33
schools, first glimpse of the, 33
sheriff of, 17, 34, 36 _n._
shire, 7, 8, 11, 12 _n._, 152
town, 5, 7 _n._, 8, 10, 10 _n._, 11, 13, 36, 326 _n._, 341
university jurisdiction in, 222, 222 _n._, 223
Camden, cited, 7 _n._, 9 _n._
Camus, 7, 7 _n._
_Cancellarius scholasticus_, 203 _n._
Candle rents, 84, 84 _n._
Canon Law, new schools of, 24
Canonical Houses, 17
Canons, 227, 228
in Cambridge, 16, 17, 19, 24, 318
of S. Giles, _see Barnwell_
of S. John, _see S. John’s Canons_
in Norfolk, 77
of Sempringham, _see Gilbertines_
_Cantaber_, 4, 20 _n._
Cante, 7 _n._
Cantebrigge etc., _see Cambridge, the name_
Canterbury, 2, 4, 8 _n._
archbishops of, 259 _n._
archbishops and degrees, 193
Canterbury, psalter, 138
school, 176 _n._
Cap and gown, =226-231=
when worn, 231
Capitation fees, 154
Cappa, bachelor’s, 227, 228, 230, 231, 231 _n._
Cardinal College, Oxford, colonised from Cambridge, 174, 272, 282
Carmelites at Cambridge, 16 _n._, =19-20=,
26, 38, 89, 91, 102 _n._, 109, 292, 294, 325, 326
cloak of, 91
first to take degree, 20, 22
Carter, cited, 99, 104, 130 _n._, 203 _n._
Carthusians, the London, 276
Castle, the Conqueror’s, _see Cambridge_
Castle Inn, 50
Cathedral officers, 203 _n._, 209
Catherine’s (S.) College, 100, 110, =114=, 150, 153, 154, 156 _n._
Catholic Emancipation, 269
martyrs, xvi c., 276, 294
Cavendish College, 148
laboratory, _see laboratories_
professorship, 192
Cavaliers in Cambridge, 60, 263, 264
_Celar_, 66 _n._
Celts, 3
Chancellor, 14, 26, 35, 38 _n._, 53, =203-5=, 206, 207, 209, 222 _n._
and masters, 14, 35, 53, 203
Chancellors, in the xiv c., 203-4, 203 _n._, 295
list of, in Carter, 203 _n._
Chapel of S. Lucy, 108 _n._
of the university, 97, 98 _n._
“Chapels,” 224
Chapels, College, 56, 70, =107=, 176, 313
list of, 108
ritual and services in, 58, 145, 213, 223 _n._, 240 _n._
Chaplains, 210, 213, 213 _n._
Charterhouse, 55 _n._, 246
Chatteris Abbey, 12 _n._
Chaucer in Cambridge, 88, 93-96
cited, 11, 47 _n._, 66
Chelmsford, 150, 151, 152
Cherry Hinton, 61, 62 _n._, 140 _n._
Cheshunt College, 149
“Chest,” 99 _n._, 155, 156
college, 155
Chest, University, 114, 155, 313
Chesterton, 20, 44 _n._
hundred, 42 _n._
vicarage and rectory, 140, 140 _n._
Chester, 6
Christ’s College, 25 _n._, 70, 101 _n._, 103 _n._,
=117-120=, 125, 133, 149, 150, 152, 153, 170 _n._,
176 _n._, 180, 210 _n._, 217 _n._, 235 _n._,
271, 275 _n._, 285, 313 _n._, 329 _n._
statutes, cited, 210 _n._, 217 _n._,
220-221, 235 _n._
Christ’s Pieces, 25
Churchmen, Cambridge, 254 _n._, 259
Cirencester, 6
Cistercians, 127 _n._, 128 _n._
at Cambridge, 19 _n._, 25, 143
Rule of the, 19 _n._
City companies and education, 322
Civil law, _see Law_
in the courts, 182 _n._
Regius of, 190, 191
school of, 154
Clare College, 44, 49, =64-66=, 67, 68,
70, 76, 77, 79, 82, 86 _n._, 87, 89, 95,
95 _n._, 101 _n._, 102 _n._, 114, 147, 153,
176 _n._, 214, 217 _n._, 218 _n._, 240, 293, 303, 312, 338
chapel, 109 _n._
Clare, county, 293
‘Honour of,’ 22 _n._, 293, 298
statutes, cited, 109 _n._, 226 _n._
Clarence, the title, 298
Clark, J. W., cited, 31, 44
Clark-Planché, cited, 103 _n._
Classes of students, 217-219
Classical tripos, 172, 184, 187 _n._, 238 _n._, 322 _n._
Classics at Cambridge, 119
decline of, 176
_see Greek_
“Cle,” the river, 7 _n._
Clement’s (S.) church, 102 _n._
Clergy and the University, 212, 213, 217 _n._, 242, 244
Clerk, 34 _n._
-canon, 38
-friar, 38
and religious, 29, 30
Clerical patronage, 213
Clough Hall, Newnham, 338
Clubs, 214, 239
‘Coaching,’ 226, 233
_Codex Augiensis_, 138
Coe fen, 56, 56 _n._, 57, 57 _n._, 89, 325, 327
Colchester, 6
Colet’s school, 283
College, benefactors, 131 _n._, 155, 313
“on the boards of a,” 246 _n._
building, eras of, 54-55
chapels, _see chapels_
cook, the, 234
court, _see courts_
expenses, 219-220, 234-5
gateway, _see gateways_
hall, _see hall_
kitchens, 234
libraries, 138 _n._
lodge, _see lodge_
plan of a, 69-71
porter, 224, 225
rooms, 219-220, 232
scheme of a residential, 53-54
statutes of, 6 _n._, 67-68, 222
visitor of a, 63
the word, 63, 65 _n._
of Physicians, 141, 167, 260
Colleges, built first for adult students, 54, 217 _n._
decoration of, 82, 109 _n._
early series of, 77
educational scope of, 153-154
founders, _see founders_
the ‘large’ and ‘small,’ 123
list and dates of, 55
numbers in, in xvi c., 246 _n._
popularity of, 246, 246 _n._
the first Protestant, 22, 55, 307 _n._
rebuilt since their foundation, 114
related to different counties, 152
scope of foundations, 153
and the University, 52-53
wealth of, 155-156
Collegiate _domus_, 44, 63, 70
officers, 208-212
system, 53
_Collegium_, 64, 115 _n._, 122
Colonies, the, and Cambridge, 245
Combination room, 56, 69, 135, 135 _n._, 214
Commencement, Great, 160
‘Commencements,’ 107, 160
Commissary, 206
Commission documents, cited, 123
Common Prayer, book of, 100 _n._, 273, 274, 274 _n._
‘Commons,’ 235
early allowance for, 235 _n._
Commonwealth committee, 176 _n._
marauders, 58
Congregation of the Senate, 205, 206
Congregationalists, 278
Connaught, Earls of, 293
Connecticut, 262
Consistory Court, 97
“Constitutionalize,” 215 _n._
Constitutions of Honorius III., 25
_Convivae_ of Christ’s College, 217 _n._
Convocation, 194
Copyright libraries, 99
Cornhythe, the, _see hythes_
Corpus Christi College, 22, 24 _n._, 49,
67, 77, 78, =81-86=, 87, 89, 89 _n._, 95 _n._,
100, 102 _n._, 106 _n._, 107, 110 _n._, 147, 150,
153, 153 _n._, 154, 156 _n._, 276, 282, 318, 325, 325 _n._
antiquaries at, 85
arms of, 85
guild of, 23, 81 _n._, 87 _n._
hall, 81 _n._, 130
library, 85
old court of, 209, 217 _n._, 232 _n._, 240
Corpus Christi, feast of, 84, 85
Oxford, 174 _n._, 283
procession in Cambridge, 85
Cosyn’s Place, 71 _n._
Cottenham, 12, 12 _n._
Council of Constance, 59
of Lyons, 23, 23 _n._
Countesses, the four Cambridge, 151, 313
County College Association, 148
Court of the Vice-Chancellor, 223, 223 _n._
Courts, College, 69, 70, 109 _n._, 142, 143 _n._, 240
arrangement of, 69-70
bonfires in, 227
cloistered, 110, 116
early, 79, 81-82, 132
grass-plots in, 240
oldest example of a, 32, 89
size of, 82, 102 _n._
Covenant, the, refused at Cambridge, 263, 306 _n._
Cross (S.), _see Crouched Hostel_
Crowland Abbey, 11, 12, 12 _n._, 13, 16, 24, 127, 128, 128 _n._, 129, 143
Croydon, Cambridgeshire, 151
‘Curtain,’ 230
Curteys’ Register, cited, 165 _n._
Damietta, 69
Dandies, at Cambridge, 66
Danelagh, 8
Danes, 4, 8, 8 _n._, 10, 12 _n._
David’s (S.) cathedral, 103
_D.C.L._, 107
_D.D._, 158, 169
Dean, the college, 210, 213, 223, 223 _n._, 224
Declamations, 107, 163, 176
Decoration of college rooms, 232 _n._
Degree, conditions for the, 185, 186
Degrees, kinds of, 158
meaning of, 157
by royal mandate, 194, 265, 309
titular, 195
and women, 357
Deists, 279
Denney Abbey, 24, 25, 73, 73 _n._, 150
monks at, 25 _n._
‘Determiner,’ 160
_Deva_, 62
Dialectic, 159 _n._, 185 _n._
Diplomatists and the university, 243, 260
Discipline, college, 221, 223
early, 221, 223
present, 221, 223
university, 221, 223
_Disce docendo_, 161
Disputations, 97, 107, 159, 171, 182 _n._
_Diversoria Literarum_, 63
Divinity, in Cambridge, 166, 192 _n._
regius of, 190, 191
school of, ancient, 97, 98 _n._
school of, modern, 98 _n._
Divorce, question of the, 240, 271
Doctorate, the, 158, 161, 169
_Doctores legentes_, 161 _n._
Doctors, as heads, 210 _n._
Doctors’ hoods and gowns, 158 _n._, 226, 229
Domesday, 5, 6 _n._, 8 _n._
Dominicans, 21, 22, 26, 91 _n._, 92
in Cambridge, =21=, 38, 78, 91, 145, 146, 273, 292, 292 _n._
priory of, 21 _n._
_Dominus_, 160 _n._
_Domus scholarium_, 44, 63, 65 _n._, 71, 71 _n._
_universitatis_, 65 _n._
‘Dons,’ 214, 215, 216, 231, 246, 248
married, 248-9
number of, 246 _n._
‘Double-first,’ 184
Double monasteries, 311
Downing College, 65, =147=, 151, 153, 154, 156 _n._
professorships, 147, 192
Dramatists, 255, 256
list of the, 257
Dublin University, 160, 267, 278, 309, 344, 357
degrees for women, 344, 357
Dugdale, cited, 21 _n._, 116 _n._, 129, 293
Duns Scotus, 170
Dunwich, 3
Durham, 146
University, 360 _n._
Dyer, cited, 28 _n._, 117 _n._, 163 _n._
East Anglia and East Anglians, 3, 3 _n._, 4,
9, 12 _n._, 21, 44 _n._, 77, 78, 98, 150, 151, 152, 292, 311 _n._
dialect of, 91, 93
Economics tripos, 179
Edinburgh University, 259
Edmund’s (S.) chapel, 58
house, 149
priory, 19
Educationalists, 251, 254 _n._, 312
Edward III. and his house, their connection with
Cambridge, 36 _n._, 37, 37 _n._-38 _n._, 87, 88,
89, 94, 95, 95 _n._, 103 _n._, 104 _n._, 131,
222 _n._, 295 _n._, 297, 297 _n._
letters of, cited, 95 _n._
Edward VI.’s commissioners, 308
Edward (S.), church of, 65, 79
Ee or Ea, 7 _n._
Egbert’s, Abp., _Penitentiale_, 84
_Eirenicum_ of Stillingfleet, 279
Ejections of masters and fellows, 264, 276, 306 _n._
Electoral roll, 205
Elizabeth, age of, 21, 215, 219 _n._, 233 _n._, 274, 274 _n._
Elizabeth’s visit to the university in 1564, 73, 107, 108, 113
Ely, 6, 7, 10, 11, 11 _n._, 12, 12 _n._, 17, 25, 77, 140, 150, 311
Abbey, 11, 12 _n._, 25 _n._, 31, 49, 337
archdeacon of, 14, 55 _n._, 165 _n._
bishops of, 14, 28, 28 _n._, 38, 54, 55 _n._, 117,
122, 164, 203, 204, 205 _n._, 235 _n._
chartulary, cited, 122 _n._
hostel, see hostel
Isle of, 8, 11, 12 _n._, 19, 36 _n._, 307 _n._
jurisdiction of see of, 28, 55 _n._
monks, 10, 91, 127, 128, 128 _n._
register, cited, 164 _n._
scholars, 37, 38, 45 _n._,, 55, 56, 61, 122, 123, 326
school at, 12, 311
see of, 12 _n._, 16 _n._, 28, 55 _n._
turbulence of men of, 11
Emmanuel College, 76, 107 _n._, =144-146=, 151, 153,
154, 245, 246, 265, 285, 307, 307 _n._
“_Enchiridion_” of Henry More, 287
Endowed colleges, 38, 44, 45 _n._, 217 _n._
intention in, 54, 219 n.
Endowed foundations, 31, 52, 54
scholars, 38, 45 _n._
Endowments vested in religious houses, 40
Engineering, electrical, 192
English philosophical temper, 289-290
Episcopal schools, 2, 12, 30, 30 _n._
_Episcopia_, 30
Erasmus, cited, 170
Holbein’s picture of, 111
his “Three Colleges,” 313 _n._
“Esperanto,” 182
Esquire bedell, _see bedell_
Essex, 100, 151, 152, 261
Ethics lecture, 210 _n._
Ethnology, 192
Eton, 101, 101 _n._, 105 _n._, 106 _n._, 152, 164 _n._,
210, 221, 239, 246, 283, 354 _n._
Provost of, 101 _n._, 105
Etonians, 101 _n._, 105, 221 _n._
Euclid at Cambridge, 171, 185 _n._
Evangelical movements, 145, 280
“_Evidences of Christianity_” of Paley, 178 _n._, 185 _n._
Examinations, 107, 154, 189, 231
changing value of, 183
growth of system of, 163
Examinations, oral, 163, 164, 189
written, 162, 190
Exclusion, bill of, 265
Exercise, necessity for, 233
“Exercises,” scholastic, 107
Exeter, 341
College, Oxford, 176 _n._
Exhibitions, 38 _n._, 107 _n._, 192 _n._
Expenses, college, 219-220
Experimental Physics, chair of, _see Cavendish professorship_
Faculties, the learned, 166, 217 _n._, 226
Fairs, 32
“_Fairy Queen_,” the, 7 _n._
‘Father,’ presiding, 160
Fellow-commoners, 218, 218 _n._, 220, 221, 230
Fellows, 68 _n._, 210, =211-213=, 214, 217 _n._, 218 _n._,
220, 222, 226 _n._, 229 _n._, 235
clerical, 212, 213
married, 211-212, 213 _n._, 216, 249
number of, 246 _n._
proportion of priests among, 68 _n._
Fellowships, 28 _n._, 211, 217 _n._
Macaulay on, 211
Fen Abbeys, 11, 12 _n._, 150
Fens, the, 11 _n._, 13
Ferry, the, 9
Fettes school, 107 _n._
Fires in college halls, 313
Fisheries, 116 _n._
Fitzwilliam museum, 57, 136 _n._
_Flavia Caesariensis_, 8
Florence, 290
Flying coach, 215
Ford, the, 8
Forty great Englishmen, 252-254
Foundation scholars, _see scholars_
Founders, 76, 117 _n._, 251, 295 _n._, 297, 312
bishops as, 76
chancellors of England as, 76, 76 _n._
kings as, 76
list of, 150
nationality of, 150
what constitutes, 117 _n._
women, 76
Franciscan friary, 21
readers in Divinity, 21
Franciscans, 21, 25, 26, 27, 38, 91 _n._, 293
at Cambridge, 6 _n._, 21, 25 _n._, 33, 73, 73 _n._,
91, 97, 107, 137, 146, 152, 273
orders of, 23
of Waterbeach, 25 _n._
Free school lane, 78
Free trade, 269
French influence in Cambridge, 69, 109, 152
Freshmen, 159
Friars at Cambridge, 19, 205 _n._, 307 _n._
dissensions with university, 26
gate, 102 _n._
rôle of the, 26
Frideswide, S., Oxford, 30 _n._, 31, 40 _n._
Fuller, cited, 5 _n._, 16 _n._, 47 _n._, 99, 119 _n._,
120 _n._-121 _n._, 126 _n._, 130, 130 _n._, 140, 160 _n._,
165 _n._, 167 _n._, 171 _n._, 173 _n._, 177 _n._, 180 _n._, 204 _n._
Prickett-Wright, cited, 165 _n._
Galleries, college, 110, 125
musicians’, 130, 130 _n._
Gamlingay, 43 _n._, 44 _n._, 147
Gardens, fellows’, 66, 70
master’s, 70
the, at Oxford, 65
Gateways, college, 70, 109 _n._, =140-41=
“Gating,” 225
General Examination, the, 185, 185 _n._
“excused the,” 187
Geographical studies, 238
Geology, 180 _n._, 181
museum of, 181
George I. and Cambridge, 267-8
Germany, Christianised, 1
Gibbs’ buildings, 102 _n._
Gilbertines, 19, 22, 49, 57, 91, 227, 319 _n._
of Chiksand, 19 _n._
a double order, 19 _n._
Giles, S., canons of, _see Barnwell_
church of, 17, 90, 101 _n._, 292, 318
parish of, 130, 247
Girton College, 148, 313, 315, 316, =317-324=,
325 _n._, 326, 326 _n._, 327 _n._, 328, 330,
341, 343, 345, 348, 350, 352, 357 _n._, 359, 360
first committees, 317 _n._, 318 _n._
Gisborne buildings, 57
Glasgow, 259
Glomerels, 14, 15, 16, 165 _n._, 218 _n._
_Glomeriae, vicus_, 15 _n._
_Glomeriaus, clers_, 15
Glomery Lane, 15 _n._
Glomery, master of, 14, 164 _n._, 165 _n._, 207 _n._, 208
school of, 14-16, 164, 164 _n._
God’s House, 25 _n._, 90, 101, 117, 117 _n._, 119, 150, 153, 154, 165 _n._
Gogmagogs, 6
Golden ages of the university, 87
Gonville Hall, 24 _n._, 50, 67, =77-78=, 78 _n._, 79 _n._,
86 _n._, 87, 89, 94 _n._, 106 _n._,
141, 143, 144, 150, 152, 154, 176 _n._, 296, 325
chapel, 109 _n._
court, 143
Gonville and Caius, _see Caius_
“Graces,” 205
the three, in 1881, 347, 350, 354
Graduate, 52, 158, 195, 229 _n._
Grammar at Cambridge, 14, 15, 119, 153, 164-5,
165 _n._, 185 _n._, 217 _n._, 218 _n._
degrees in, 164-165
schools, 27, 228, 245
Granta, 5, 5 _n._, 6, 7, 7 _n._, 9
Grantabrigge, 5, 7
_Grantanus_, 20 _n._
Grantchester, 5, 5 _n._, 6, 7, 8 _n._,
10, 10 _n._, 43, 89, 326, 326 _n._, 337
Gratian banished the schools, 167
Greek, in Cambridge, 170, =173-175=,
175-176, 179, 180, 182, 210 _n._, 322 _n._
College, Rome, 230
compulsory, 189
gospel, in examinations, 185 _n._, 186 _n._, 194 _n._
and Italy, 172, 173, 173 _n._, 176 _n._
and Oxford, 174 _n._-176 _n._
plays, 239
printing in England, 99
pronunciation of, 177 _n._
regius professorship, 190, 191
revivers of, 174 _n._-175 _n._
“scholars” at Pembroke, 175 _n._
Green, J. R., cited, 258, 258 _n._
Greencroft, 90
Gregory VII., 248
Gregory’s (S.) Hospital, Canterbury, 18 _n._
Greyfriars, _see Franciscans_
Guant, 7, 7 _n._
Guild of the Annunciation, 79 _n._
Blessed Virgin or S. Mary, 81, 85, 132, 153, 325
Corpus Christi, 80, 85, 153, 325
Holy Trinity, 79 _n._
Guildhall chapel, 103
Guilds, 80, 81, 86 _n._, 87 _n._, 150, 207, 208
“Gyp,” the college, 234
Haddon Hall, 70, 110, 110 _n._, 296
Hall, the college, 59, 69, 70, 71
Hallam, cited, 121 _n._
“Halls,” 221, 224, 234, 235
Harrow school, 106 _n._, 283
Haslyngfeld, 24 _n._
Hat fellow-commoners, 230
Hatcher’s _Hist. of Salisbury_, cited, 151 _n._
“Heads” of colleges, 195, 208, 210, 212, 223 _n._
marriage of, 211-12 (_and see Lodge, the Master’s_)
powers of, 205, 210
Hebrew, Regius professorship, 190, 191
Helyg, 10
Henney, 24 _n._
Lane, 79 _n._
Henry III.’s rescripts, cited, 33-34, 34 _n._, 35, 46 _n._, 151 _n._, 203, 222
Henry VI., charter of, cited, 73 _n._
Henry VIII., portrait of, at Trinity Lodge, 136 _n._
Heraldry at Cambridge, 103 _n._-104 _n._, 125
Hertfordshire, 7
High Commission, 265
High Steward, 206, 206 _n._
High Street, 64, 66, 78, 89
Higher Education of Women, Association for the, 337
Higher Local Examination, 315, 326, 328
Hills Road, 148
“Hind and Panther,” Dryden’s, 305
_Historia Croylandensis_, 13 _n._
Historical Tripos, 238, 238 _n._
_Historiola Cantabrigiae_, 20
Hitcham building, _see Pembroke_
Hitchin, 19, 317 _n._, 318, 319 _n._, 321, 326, 328
Hobbism, 289
‘Hobson’s choice,’ 215 _n._
Homer MS. at Corpus, 84
Honorary degrees, _see degrees_
Honours degree, 104, 161, 184, 185
examination for, 185 _n._, 187 n., 188 _n._
Hoods, academic, 158-9 _n._, 213, 226, 226 _n._, 227 _n._, 228
_Hospitia locanda_, 47, 51 _n._, 63
Hostel, the, 25 _n._, 47, =48-51=, 63, 148, 217 _n._, 227
Austin’s or Augustine’s (S.), 25 _n._, 49, 50, 50 _n._, 89, 102 _n._
S. Bernard’s, 49, 50, 83
Bolton’s, 72
Borden’s, 49
Crouched, 24, 25 _n._, 49, 49 _n._, 63, 90, 133
S. Edmund’s, 19, 49
Ely, 26, 49, 79, 127, 128 _n._
Garrett’s or Gerard’s, 90, 95 _n._, 133, 138
S. Gregory’s, 63, 133
Harleston, 49
Holy Cross, _see Crouched_
Jesu, 49, 57
S. John’s, 49
S. Margaret’s, 133, 293
S. Mary’s, 49, 50, 81 _n._, 83, 275 _n._
Monks’, 49, 127, 128, 128 _n._, 129, 143, 144 _n._
Newmarket, 49
S. Nicholas, 25 _n._
Physwick, 49, 50, 133, 141
principal of a, 48, 51 _n._
scholar-principal of a, 51 _n._
Rud’s, 49
S. Thomas’s, 50, 72
Trinity, 50
Tyled, 133
University, 70, 71, 72
Hostels, catholic, 149
denominational, 148
jurists’, 50, 154
number of, 50, 90, 148
Peterhouse, 49, 56, 57, 58, 89
statutes relating to, 51 _n._
Hulsean lecture, 192 _n._
Hundred, 8 _n._
Hundred Rolls, 6 _n._, 16 _n._, 24 _n._, 25 _n._,
35 _n._, 39 _n._, 41, 42 _n._, 43, 43 _n._, 44, 44 _n._, 292, 294, 325
entries _re_ Merton scholars, 41-44
Hundred Rolls of Oxford, 25 _n._
Huntingdon, earls of, 36 _n._, 297 _n._
grammar school, 107 _n._
Road, 6, 318
Huntingdonshire, 12 _n._
Hygiene, college, 142-143
Hythe, hythes, 11 _n._
Clay, 11 _n._
Corn, 11 _n._, 132
Dame Nichol’s, 11 _n._
Flax, 11 _n._
Salt, 11 _n._
Incorporation in Cambridge University, 193, 193 _n._, 194
Independence, declaration of, 268
Independents, 277-78
_Index Monasticus_, 44 _n._
Indian civil service board, 237
languages, 182
Indulgence, declaration of, 266, 266 _n._
“_In Memoriam_,” 139
Inns, 48, 50
“_Installation Ode_,” cited, 56
Ipswich, 93
Ireland and the Irish, 4, 37, 64 _n._, 150, 151, 151 _n._, 298, 301, 319 _n._
Irish ‘Home Rule,’ 269
Isis, 9, 9 _n._
Islands voyage, 282
Italian, early study of, 182
Jacobitism, 267
James II. and the University, 265, 266
Jerome’s four gospels, 84
Jessopp, Dr., cited, 10 _n._
Jesus College, =115-117=, 150, 153, 154, 176 _n._,
235 _n._, 271, 307, 319 _n._
chapel, 109, 116, 116 _n._, 126
Jewish buildings at Cambridge, 15 _n._, 21 _n._
Jews and Jewish quarter, 9, 9 _n._, 22
Jocelin of Brakelond, Chronicle of, cited, 15 _n._
John XXII., cited, 35
John of Jerusalem (S.), Order of, at Cambridge, 18 _n._, 24, 25, 25 _n._, 49
Baptist (or Zachary) (S.), church of, 24, 65, 79, 101, 109 _n._
parish of, 24 _n._, 326
Zachary, London, 150
John’s (S.) canons, 18, 22 _n._, 91, 116 _n._, 122
house, 18, 124, 271
John’s (S.) College, 18, 55, 70, 76, 103 _n._, 107 _n._,
110, 114, 120, =121-126=, 133, 141, 145, 150, 152, 156,
176 _n._, 215, 235 _n._, 246, 271, 274 _n._,
313 _n._, 328 _n._, 329 _n._, 338, 338 _n._, 349
chapel, 109, 126
Oxford, 115 _n._, 143 _n._
statutes, 126
John’s (S.) Hospital, 18 _n._, 49, 56, 90, 122, 124, 127, 132
Street, 24, 96, 98 _n._
Keeper or warden, 79 _n._, 210 _n._
Kenilworth, defenders of, 307 _n._
Kent, 2, 42, 151
King’s Childer’s Lane, 19 _n._
King’s College, 5 _n._, 16 _n._, 25 _n._, 49, 55,
65 _n._, 67, 74, 89, =100-106=, 109, 110, 110 _n._,
111, 112, 113, 114, 115 _n._, 116, 117, 117 _n._,
133 _n._, 140, 147, 150, 152, 153, 154, 156, 176 _n._,
184, 210, 217 _n._, 218 _n._, 271, 283, 317, 326, 337, 354 _n._
chapel, 52, 89, =102-104=, 107, 109, 137
old court of, 102 _n._
original design for, 101 _n._, 102 _n._
old gate of, 102 _n._
provost of, 101 _n._, 107
scholars, 37
“ privileges of, 104 _n._
statutes, 101 _n._, 164 _n._, 218 _n._
King’s ditch, 143
Mill, 11 _n._, 97 _n._, 326
scholars, 131
school, Canterbury, 106 _n._
King’s Hall, 5 _n._, 6 _n._, 19 _n._, 65 _n._, 67,
68, 76, 77, 81, 87, 89, 95, 95 _n._, 106, 112,
112 _n._, =131-133=, 131 _n._, 135 _n._, 139,
139 _n._, 140, 140 _n._, 141, 150, 153, 156,
176 _n._, 217 _n._, 218 _n._, 226 _n._, 273 _n._, 293
chapel, 5 _n._, 102, 137
statutes, 95 _n._, 228 _n._
accounts of, cited, 112
Kirk’s coffee-house, 215
Knightbridge professorship, 190
Knights of Malta, _see S. John, Order of_
Laboratories, scientific, 98 _n._, =181=, 237, 329 _n._, 338
Lady Margaret professorships, 120, 190, 191
Lambeth degrees, 192-194, 308
“articles,” 274
Lancaster, duchy of, 298
dukes and earls of, 89 _n._, 297 _n._
house of, 262, 297 _n._, 299
“_Lancastrian Chronicle_,” 59
Lancastrians at Cambridge, 60, 261
Languages, modern, 181-2
oriental, 182
Latimer-Neville scholarships, 106 _n._
Latin, 176, 181, 182
grace in hall, 176
professorship, 338 _n._
pronunciation, 176 _n._-177 _n._
Latitudinarianism, 278, 284, 284 _n._, 285, 289
Law, study of, 79, 119, 153, 154, 166, 167, 242
civil and canon, 153, 167, 167 _n._, 208
civil and canon, schools of, 97, 98, 98 _n._
tripos, 168, 169, 238 _n._
Lawyers in Cambridge, 80, 242, 260
“_Lay of Horatius_,” parodied, 349, 349 _n._
Lazars, _see S. Anne’s Hermitage for_
Lecture, the, 189-190
Lectures, 208, 231, 233, 329 _n._
Lecturers, college, 210, 211
university, 192
“_Legend of Good Women_,” mentioned, 57
Leicester, earls of, 42 _n._, 297, 297 _n._
Le Neve, cited, 16 _n._
Leonard’s (S.) of Stratford le Bow, nuns of, 23, 96
Lepers, S. Magdalene’s Hospital for, 23
Lewes, 143
Lewis collection, 83
Liberalism, Manchester school of, 269
Libraries, college, 138 _n._
Library, the ‘old’ or ‘great,’ 97, 98 _n._
chancellor’s, 97, 98, 98 _n._
Bishop Andrewes’, 75
Bishop Moore’s, 268
university, 97, =98-99=, 98 _n._, 155, 231
Librarian, college, 211
university, 207
Licensed lodgings, 224, 225
Lichfield, 140
bishop of (1670), 138
Lincoln, 140
bishops of, 101, 101 _n._, 203
register of bishops of, 68
diocese, 12 _n._
shire, 12 _n._
Lists, classification of candidates in, 189
Literature and the university, 255-8
Litlyngton, advowson of, 65 _n._
_Litt.D_, 158
“Little-go,” 163, 178 _n._, 183 _n._, 185 _n._
Liverpool, 330
Livery stable, the first, 215 _n._
_LL.B_, 158, 167, 168
_LL.D_, 158, 167, 168
_LL.M_, 158, 167, 168, 169
Local Examinations, University, 314 _n._, 324 _n._, 358
Locke’s works at the university, 178, 179
Lodge, the primitive master’s, 69, 82, 110, 120, 209
evolution of, in the xvi and xix centuries, 110-111, 125, 209
Lodging-house Syndicate, 225 _n._
Logic, 14 _n._, 153, 159 _n._, 165, 178 _n._, 179,
179 _n._, 192 _n._, 210 _n._
Lollards, 20, 269, 286
‘London Gazette,’ 214, 258
London university, 360 _n._
Long Parliament, 277
vacation term, 241
Lowndean, 191
Lucasian, 190, 191
Lucy, S., chapel of, 108
Lurteburgh Lane, 78, 83
Lutheranism, 272, 275, 276
“_Lycidas_,” 119
Lydgate, cited, 7 _n._, 88 _n._
_M.A._, 158, 161, 169, 183, 184, 206, 217, 230 _n._
Macaulay, cited, 243
Mace, bedells’, 208 _n._
Magdalene College, 76, 106 _n._, =127-131=, 150, 156 _n._, 296
Magdalen College, Oxford, 156, 266
_Magister_, 161
_scholarium_, 15 _n._, 39
Malden manor, 39, 40, 41, 44, 44 _n._, 45
Mandate, royal, _see degrees_
Manfield, Wm. de, deed of, cited, 39 _n._
Margaret, _see Lady Margaret_
S., of Montefiascone, 109, 112 _n._
Market Hill, 137
Marlborough school, 107 _n._
Marshal, university, 207
Martyrs, the Cambridge, 272, 275 _n._, 278
Mary, portrait of, 136 _n._
Mary’s, Great S., 15 _n._, 21, 78, 81, 89,
107, 140, 140 _n._, 155, 160, 161 _n._, 169, 185 _n._, 231, 340
Guild, 80, 81 _n._, 87 _n._
Hall, 81 _n._
Hospital, 32
parish of, 22
Mary’s, Little S., 57, 58, 61, 74 _n._, 348
Massachusetts, 262, 277
Master of Arts, 27, 38 _n._, 99, 158, =160-161=, 169, 217, 228, 230 _n._
Master, the, 203, =208-9=
election of, 107
Mathematical method, 170-171, 177
tripos, 167, =170-2=, 184, 238 _n._
Mathematics, 164 _n._, 170, 171 _n._, 177, 178, 179, 184
Matriculation, 154
‘Mayflower,’ the, 262, 278
May term, 31, 235, 239
“Mays,” the, 183 _n._
_M.B._, 158, 168, 168 _n._
_M.C._, 158
_M.D._, 158
Mechanical Sciences tripos, 183, 238 _n._
Medical degree, 167, 168, 168 _n._
jurisprudence, lecturer in, 192
school, new, 181
Medicine, study of, 119, 153, 154, 166, 167, 175 _n._, 180, 237, 242
school of, 98
Medieval and Modern Languages tripos, 183, 238 _n._
Members of the university, number of, 206, 246 _n._
Mental philosophy, _see philosophy_
Merchant adventurers, 144, 242, 282, 330
Taylors’ school, 106 _n._, 283, 354 _n._
Mercia, 12 _n._
Merton, 39, 44 _n._
brethren of, 39, 44
_Clerici de_, 34 _n._, 42, 42 _n._
College, Oxford, 40, 41, 43, 43 _n._, 45 _n._, 108, 125
estate, 39
Hall, 90, 327
house of, 41, 44, 45, 90
prior of, 44, 44 _n._
priory, 40, 44 _n._
scholars, 6 _n._, 34 _n._, 37, 39, 39 _n._,
40, 41, 42, 42 _n._, 43, 44, 45, 116 _n._, 233, 292, 298, 325
scholars, Oxford, 40, 41, 43, 43 _n._, 45
statutes, 44 _n._, 67, 68
statutes, cited, 40, 68 _n._
Metaphysics, 170, 259
at Cambridge, 170 _n._-171 _n._, 177, 178, 179
Michaelhouse, 16 _n._, 25 _n._, 63, 65 _n._, 67,
68, 77, 78 _n._, 89, 120, 133, 140, 150, 153,
154, 176 _n._, 217 _n._, 235 _n._
book, 68
statutes of, 29
Michael’s (S.) church, 140, 150
rectory house, 24 _n._
Middle class, effect on university of growth of, 242
Migrating students, 130 _n._
Mildenhall, 15 _n._, 16 _n._, 137, 261
Mill Lane, 100
(Milne) Street, 11 _n._, 20, 24, 24 _n._,
25 _n._, 49, 89, 100, 101, 101 _n._, 133 _n._, 326
“_Miller’s Tale_,” 11, 93
Mills, 11 _n._, 97 _n._, 326, 327
Mirmaud-at-Welle, Isle of Ely, 19 _n._
Moderators, 163 _n._, 183
Modern History, Regius of, 99, 192
Modern subjects at Cambridge, 198, 201, 238
Monks at Cambridge, 16, 25-6, 27, 29, 127-8, 143, 144 _n._
Montfort, de, parliament of, 307 _n._
Montpellier, 167
Moral Philosophy, professorship, 190
Moral Sciences tripos, 177-179, 187 _n._-189 _n._, 290, 356-7
Mullinger, _Hist. Univ._, cited, 51 _n._, 68, 235 _n._
Muniment room (or treasury), 70, 70 _n._, 141
Museums, new, 22
_Mus.B._, 158
_Mus.D._, 158
_Mus.M._, 158
Names, Cambridge, 292-5, 302-8
“Nation,” 208
“_Nativity_,” Milton’s “_Hymn to the_,” 119
Natural Sciences tripos, 168, 168 _n._, 179, 181, 182, 238, 238 _n._
Navigators, early, 282
Neo-Platonism, 290
Nevile’s Court, 137
New College, Oxford, 102 _n._, 104 _n._, 105 _n._, 156, 176 _n._, 240
New England, 224, 263
New learning, the, 133, 270, 281, 282, 313 _n._
men of, 270, 273, 281
Newnham, 20, 324, 325, 325 _n._, 326
College, 148, 313, 315, 316, 321 _n._, =324=, 327, 332, 337, 359, 360
College Association, 337
Hall, 327, 337, 337 _n._, 338, 345
Hall Company, 337, 337 _n._
Lane, 326, 326 _n._
Mill, 11 _n._, 326, 327
“_New Sect of Latitude-men_,” quoted, 245
Newspapers, 214, 215, 258, 258 _n._
Newton, statue of, 137
Newton’s works at the University, 170, 171, 179
Non-collegiate students, 220, 246
Nonconformists at Cambridge, 149, 247
Nonjurors, 267
Non-Regent, 161, 161 _n._
Norfolk, 6, 44 _n._
and Cambridge, 77, 80, 106 _n._, 144
canons, _see Westacre_
French of, 90
litigants, 80
Norman houses, 15 _n._, 90
town, the, 90, 91, 122
Normans, 17, 150, 152
Norrisian professorship, 191
Northampton, 46, 46 _n._
chapter, 128 _n._
S. Peter’s, 140 _n._
shire, 150, 152
university, 45, 46, 46 _n._, 160 _n._
Northern Christianity, 1
North of England Council of Education, 326, 328
Northumbria, 1, 2, 311 _n._
Norwich, 16 _n._, 23, 75, 79 _n._, 91, 140, 141, 150, 151, 152, 341
monks, 27, 91, 128 _n._, 143
priory, 27, 143, 143 _n._
school, 26, 106 _n._, 245
Observatory, 155
Opponencies, 159, 176
Ordinary degree, the, 161, 184, 317
examinations for, 185 _n._-186 _n._
“allowed the,” 186
Organs in college chapels, 109 _n._
Oriel College, Oxford, 18 _n._
Orléans, 12, 13, 14, 16, 16 _n._, 92, 165 _n._, 166
school of, 12, 13, 15
Ostia, titular bishop of, 307 _n._
‘Our-Lady’ friars, 23, 91
Ouse, the, 7, 7 _n._, 9, 310
Over-Merton, 44 _n._
Oving’s Inn, 50, 90, 133
Oxford, 9, 10 _n._, 11, 13 _n._,
15 _n._, 27, 30, 31, 34, 35, 36,
38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 44, 45, 46 _n._,
68 _n._, 72, 74, 93, 100, 100 _n._, 101,
106, 108, 115 _n._, 117 _n._, 120, 125, 128 _n._,
136 _n._, 143 _n._, 156, 167, 172, 173, 173 _n._,
174 _n._, 175 _n._, 176 _n._, 183, 194, 207, 207 _n._,
215, 218 _n._, 228 _n._, 236, 237, 238, 240, 245, 247,
252, 256, 259, 263, 264, 265, 266, 267, 268, 269, 271,
272, 275, 279, 280, 282, 283, 284, 288, 322 _n._, 359, 359 _n._
“brethren,” 271
charter, 34 _n._
depleted in 1209, 33
friars at, 26
“martyrs,” 275
Padua, 92, 141, 174 _n._, 228
Paley’s “_Evidences_,” 178, 178 _n._
Papal bulls, 28, 28 _n._, 29
forged, 34 _n._
“_Paradise Lost_” MS., 138
Paris, Matthew, cited, 23 _n._, 33 _n._, 55 _n._
Paris, 16, 92
students at Cambridge, 33
university, 35, 38, 166, 176 _n._, 254, 284
Parish churches and the colleges, 56, 65, 71, 79, 82, 83, 108
Parliament and the Stuarts, 73, 263, 264
and the university, 145, 264, 264 _n._
Parliamentary suffrage, 206, 206 _n._
Parliaments at Cambridge, 8 _n._, 112 _n._
Paston in Norfolk, 25 _n._
_Pato, moniales de_, 25 _n._
Patterne, Sir Willoughby, 315
Paul’s (S.) Inn, 50
School, 86, 106 _n._, 283
Pavia, 92
Peacock, Geo., dean of Ely, cited, 165 _n._
Peasants’ revolt, 84, 261
Peers, 195, 218, 229, 232 _n._, 309
_Pembrochiana, aula_, 69
Pembroke College, 56, 65_n._, 67, =69=,
70, 76, 77, 81, 84, 87, 95, 95 _n._, 100, 106 _n._,
108, 142, 150, 152, 153, 176 _n._, 189 _n._,
217 _n._, 246, 275, 293, 312, 320
chapel, 72, 109
fellowships, 152, 152 _n._
Hitcham building, 72
statutes of, cited, 152 _n._, 153 _n._
Pembroke, earls of, 69, 297, 297 _n._, 298, 299
_Penitentiae Jesu, de_, friars, 22
Pensioners, 52, 217 _n._, 218, 220, 226 _n._, 229 _n._, 232_n._
number of, in 1574, 217 _n._
Pepysian library, 130
_Perendinant_, 217 _n._
_Pernare_, 60
Peter of Blois, cited, 14, 14 _n._
Peterborough, 12, 12 _n._, 140
bishopric of, 12
psalter, 84
see of, 12 _n._
Peterhouse, 16 _n._, 19, 28 _n._, 45 _n._,
49, =55=, 64, 65 _n._, 67, 69, 74 _n._,
76, 77, 89, 90, 107 _n._, 108 _n._, 122,
123, 137, 150, 153, 156 _n._, 167, 176 _n._,
183 _n._, 184, 217 _n._, 218 _n._, 227, 262,
271, 294, 302, 326, 328
chapel, 73
library, 56, 58
scholars, 62 _n._
statutes, 29
statutes cited, 235
stone parlour, 57 _n._
Peter Lombard, 167
Peter’s (S.) church, 56, 58, 90
college, _see Peterhouse_
parish, 23
Petrarch, 182
Pfeiffer buildings, 338
Philanthropy, 269
Philology, 192
Philosophy at Cambridge, 145, 170, 170 _n._,
177-179, 185, 189, 190, 191, 192 _n._, 285-290
school of, 154
Physics, Linacre lecture, 125
Physic, Regius of, 168, 190, 191
Physiology, 180, 181
_Pileum_, 230 _n._
Pilgrim fathers, 262, 278
Pits, John, cited, 20 _n._
Pitt Press, the, 99-100
Plague, the, _see Black Death_
Plate, the university, sent to Charles, 263
Plato, 289, 290
Platonists, Cambridge, 145, 277, 284-290
Plumian professorship, 191
Pluralists and the universities, 63
Poets, the, 255
Politics at Cambridge, modern, 268-269
“Poll” degree, 184, 184 _n._
Pollard willows, 11 _n._
Pope, the, and university degrees, 192, 193, 193 _n._
Portraits, college, 136 _n._
Preachership, 120
Prelates, great Cambridge, 259
Pre-Reformation Reformers, 120, 270
Presbyterianism in Cambridge, 149, 265, 276-277, 287
President, 210
of Queen’s, 110
Previous Examination, 165 _n._, 168, 185, 185 _n._, 189, 316, 321, 339
Principal, 48, 51 _n._, 210 _n._, 339 _n._
Printing in Cambridge, 99-100
Proctor, 117 _n._, 210 _n._
Proctors, 183, 206, 207 _n._, 223, 237
courts, 97
fines, 154
Professor, 158
Professorships, 179 _n._, 180 _n._, 190-192, 192 _n._
Pro-proctors, 206
Protestant college, first, 146
Protestantism, 60 _n._, 144, 146, 270, 272, 275, 285, 287, 288, 290
Provost, 210
Psychology, 177-8, 179
Public orator, 175 _n._, 207, 207 _n._
Public schools, 218, 221, 223, 245
connected with the university, 106 _n._
Greek at, 173
Puritan college, first, 145
commissioners, 60 _n._
Puritans, 22, 116, 145, 179, 263, 264, 276, 277, 286, 287, 288, 314
Pythagoras, 288
‘school of,’ 39, 122
Quadrangle, _see court and schools_
_Quadrivium_, 153, 164
Queen’s College, 49, 64, 70, 74 _n._,
76, 101, 102 _n._, =109-112=, 113,
114, 115, 123, 125, 140, 150, 152,
153, 156 _n._, 170 _n._, 176 _n._,
210, 221, 262, 263 _n._, 264, 282,
296, 313, 313 _n._, 326, 329 _n._
statutes, 112 _n._
Oxford, 87
Queens, English, and the university, 112 _n._, 113, 114
Queens’ Lane, 100, 102 _n._
Questionist, 159
Quick professorship, 192
Ramsey, 12 _n._, 128, 137, 143
Readers, 192
Reading, Berks., 46, 318 _n._
Rector, 101 _n._, 210 _n._
Recruiting grounds of the university, 245-246
Red-brick buildings, 110
“_Reeve’s Tale_,” 89, 93, 95
Reform Bill, the, 268, 269
Reformers and Cambridge, 153, 269-271, 272, 274, 274 _n._, 275
early, 270, 276
later, 271-272
Regent master, 14, 50, =160=, 161 _n._, 162 _n._, 207 _n._
and non-regent houses, 97, 98, 205 _n._
‘Regicides,’ 264, 265
Registrary, university, 100, 207
Registry, university, 155
MSS. cited, 89 _n._, 94 _n._
Religion at Cambridge, 246-247
Religious Orders in Cambridge, 16-27, 29, 91
Renascence, 92, 131, 281-283
Residence obligatory, 185
Responsions and opponencies, =159=
Restoration, the, and the university, 265
Revival of learning temp. Ed. IV., 112
Rhadegund, S., nunnery of, 16, 18, 90, 91, 116 _n._, 151 _n._
Rhee, 7 _n._
Rhetoric, 166, 210 _n._
Rhodes, 176 _n._
scholars, 239
Ridley Hall, 145, 148
“Ridley’s walk,” 75
Ritualistic movement at Cambridge early, 59, 145, 280
River, 6-7, 7 _n._, 9-10, 11 _n._, 233
Roman remains, 10 _n._, 318
Rome, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 176 _n._, 192, 193, 193 _n._, 205 _n._
Romites in Cambridge, 22 _n._, 325
Roscellinus, 32
Roundheads at Cambridge, 264
Royal Exchange, 144
Injunctions, 151, 167 _n._, 176 _n._
Society, 265, 283-284, 324
supremacy, 121, 167 _n._, 212 _n._, 276
Rugby school, 283, 296
“Rustication,” 225
Rutebeuf, the troubadour, cited, 15, 161 _n._
Rye House plot, 265
Sack, friars, 22, 23, 49, 109 _n._
Saffron Walden, 151
Salisbury, 46, 151
Sanitation, diploma in, 238
Sawston, 5 _n._
Saxon nuns, 312
schools, 3, 3 _n._, 4, 4 _n._
town, the, 83, 89, 91, 96
Saxons, 3, 96
Scapular of Mount Carmel, 20
“Scarlet days,” 240, 241 _n._
_Sc.D._, 158
Scholar-fellow, 93, 217 _n._
Scholar-principal, 5 _n._
Scholars, 14, 34 _n._, 53, 54, 217, 217 _n._
age of, 95, 95 _n._
dress of, 226-231
early list of, 48, 139 _n._
Hall of, 63
house of, 63
Lane, 24
major and minor, of Pembroke, 95, 217 _n._
and masters, 46, 53, 233 _n._
Scholars, poor, 39, 40, 47 _n._, 52, 62 _n._, 66, 92, 218 _n._, 220
secular, 30, 38, 122
Scholarships, extra collegiate, 241
tied, 106 _n._
School Hall Street, Bury, 15 _n._
School Street, 15 _n._, 24, 96
“_Schoolmaster_,” the, 283
Schoolmasters, famous Cambridge, 283, 354 _n._
Schools, 27, 76 _n._, 89, 97, 98 _n._
Anglo-Saxon, 1, 3, 3 _n._, 4, 4 _n._, 311
Enquiry Commission, 314 _n._
monastic, 30 _n._
new, of Philosophy and Law, 97, 154
pre-university, 14, 30, 166
quadrangle, 24, 25, 76 _n._, 89, 98, 133 _n._, 154
_see civil law and divinity_
Science and Cambridge, 14, 153, 154, 179, 180, 192 _n._, 290-291
revival of, at Restoration, 180
Scientists, eminent, 255, 290-291
_S.C.L._, 182 _n._
Scotch universities, 360 _n._
Scotland, 37, 61, 151, 151 _n._
Scottish Church, the, 2
Scroope Terrace, 57, 325
Seaham, 3
Sects, growth of, in the xviith c., 286
Selwyn College, 148
Seminaries, clerical, 29
Semitic languages, 182
Senate, the, 194, 205
council of, 205, 205 _n._, 321 _n._
numbers of, 206, 321 _n._
Senate House, the, 100, 107, 155, 163, 183, 206, 233, 348, 359
Sepulchre’s, S., 90
Seven arts, the, 153
_Sex viri_, 206
Shakespeare and Cambridge men, 295-6
Shakespeare, cited, 295-6, 297 _n._, 307
“_Shepherd’s Calendar_,” 74
Sheriff of Cambridge, 36 _n._
of Huntingdon, 36 _n._
Shrewsbury School, 107 _n._
Sidney Street, 21
Sidney Sussex College, 76, =146=, 151, 152, 307 _n._
Sidgwick Hall, 337
Silver St., 326
Singing taught at Clare, 153
Sixtus IV., Bull of, cited, 143 _n._, 144 _n._
Sizar, 62 _n._, 74 _n._, 217 _n._, 218, =219=, 219 _n._
Skeat, W. W., cited, 7 _n._, 164
Slave trade and slavery, 269
_Solarium_, 58, 66 _n._, 69, 82
Soler, 66 _n._
Hall, 66, 95, 95 _n._
Sonneteers, 256 _n._
Sophister, 159, 160 _n._, 171 _n._
Sophisters’ school, 97, 183
Sophistry, 159 _n._, 217 _n._
_Soprana_, 230
South and North riots, 34 _n._, 44 _n._, =45=
Special examinations, the, 185, 186 _n._
Spelman, cited, 165 _n._
Spinning House, the, 222
“Sporting one’s oak,” 236
Sports, university, 236, 238
Staffordshire, 150, 152
Stamford, 46, 47, 150
_Stans in quadragesima_, 160
Stars and stripes, 61
Statesmen, 260
Stationers’ Company, 100 _n._
_Status pupillaris_, 159, 223 _n._, 225 _n._, 231, 231 _n._
_Statuta antiqua_, 28 _n._
cited, 228 _n._
Statutes, cited, 131 _n._, 164 _n._, 207 _n._
college, 29, 54, =67-8=, 222
of Elizabeth, 28 _n._, 210
of Victoria, 28 _n._
Stoke Clare, 293
Stokys, cited, 164 _n._
Stone houses in Cambridge, 15 _n._, 24 _n._, 39, 78 _n._, 89
Stour, the, 31
Stourbridge fair, 10, 31, 32, 207 _n._
leper hospital, 23
_S.T.P._, 158
Stratford-le-Bowe, 25
prioress of, 43 _n._
Stubbs’ _Const. Hist._, cited, 8 _n._, 27, 86 _n._, 87 _n._
Students’ chambers, 70
“Students” of Christchurch, Oxford, 218 _n._
Students, classes of, 14, 165 _n._, 217-219
migration of, 45, 46, 47
Studies in colleges, 70, 232 _n._
_Studium generale_, 30 _n._, 31, 32, 35, 37, 38, 68, 68 _n._
Suffolk, 14, 16 _n._, 22 _n._, 293, 304
earls and dukes of, 78, 106, 296, 297, 301
Sunday in Cambridge, 240
Surgery, degrees in, 168 _n._
Surplice, wearing of the, 240 _n._
Tancred studentship, 144
Tanner, cited, 117 _n._
“Tawdry,” 215 _n._
_Taxatores_, _see taxors_
Taxors, 33, 48, 51 _n._
Court of, 98
Teachers, training of, 335, 354 _n._
Templars, 24, 25
Tennis courts, 70
Test act, 149, 212, 213 _n._
“Tetoighty,” 209
Thames, 9
Theology, study of, 119, 153, 166, 208, 213, 242
tripos, 167, 168, 238 _n._
Thirty-nine Articles, 60, 84, 274
Thorney, 12 _n._, 294 _n._
Titular degrees, on whom conferrable, 195
Titles connected with Cambridge, 297, 297 _n._
Tobacco, introduction of, 282
Tonsure, clerical, 92
Tories, 267
Tower of London, 126, 277
Town and gown, 14, 37, 221, 222 _n._, 232, 233 _n._
lodgings, 14, 33, 47, 48
Tractarians, 280, 281
Treasury, 70 _n._
Trinity College, 50, 63, 64, 68, 73,
76, 77, 89, 106, 106 _n._, 113, 116,
123, =130-140=, 141, 145, 146, 147, 151,
153, 156, 213 _n._, 226 _n._, 229, 231,
246, 282, 293, 308 _n._, 315, 329 _n._, 335 _n._, 342
Babington rooms at, 302
Bishop’s hostel at, 138
chapel, 107, 108, 136-7
chapel, memorial brasses in, 137
Entrance Gateway, 36 _n._, 103 _n._, 104 _n._, 133, 136 _n._, 141
great court, 134, 136
Great Gate (Edward’s), 131, 132, 140
library, 137-38
Queen’s Gateway, 133, 135
sedan coach, 136 n.
Trinity Hall, 25 _n._, 64 _n._, 65 _n._,
74 _n._, 76, 77, =78-80=, 82, 86 _n._,
87, 89, 90, 127, 143, 150, 152, 156 _n._, 176 _n._
chapel, 109 _n._
library, 79
Trinity, the, dedication to, 25 _n._
church, 25 _n._
Holy, monks of, at Cambridge, 25 n.
Holy, of Norwich, 79 _n._
Holy, guild of, 25 _n._, 79 _n._
Street, 96
Tripos, =162-3=, 163 _n._, 200, 238 _n._
double, 184
results, 238 _n._
standard variable, 184
Triposes, divided, 185 _n._, 189, 231, 238 _n._
list of, 182
not conferring a degree, 179, 184, 185 _n._
popularity among the, 238 _n._, 356
_Trivium_, 153, 164, 164 _n._, 165 _n._, 166
‘Trojans,’ 173, 349 _n._
“_True Intellectual System_” of Cudworth, 287 _n._
Trumpington, 7, 7 _n._, 8 _n._, 23 _n._, 93
Street, 23, 23 _n._, 57, 62, 86, 91, 96, 100, 327
Tudor architecture, 102-3, 103 _n._
Tudors, the, and Cambridge, 74, 87,
102-4, 104 _n._, 131, 133-4, 135,
136-7, 206 _n._, 281, 297
Tutor, 210, 211, 224, =225-226=, 226 _n._
Tyltey monks, 25 _n._
Priory, 24
Ulster, earls of, 293, 295 _n._, 298, 298 _n._, 320 _n._
Undergraduates, 99, 115, 160 _n._, 206,
217 _n._, 219, 223, 225, 231-237
numbers of the, 246, 246 _n._, 357 _n._, 358
entertainments given by, 224 _n._
Union Society, 239
Unitarianism, 279
_Universitas_, 30 _n._, 53, 68 _n._, 166
University, the, 30, 30 _n._, 31, 38, 53, 166, 243, 244
aristocratic period of, 216, 220, 242-3, 244
“on the boards of,” 246 _n._
University buildings, 96-100
Calendar, 192 _n._, 195
careers prepared by, 242-244
a chartered corporation, 30, 30 _n._
charters, 34-35
chest, 155
church, _see Great S. Mary’s_
classes frequenting, 241-245
and the Colleges, 52, 154
diplomatists and, _see diplomatists_
discipline, _see discipline_
earliest existing references to, 33
and the education of women, 310, 354
and great Englishmen, 250-260
Extension lectures, 382
first public buildings in, 97
Hall, 64, 77, 89, 144 _n._, 150, 339
idea of a, 197-200
and intellectual movements, 281-291
jurisdiction, 37 _n._-38 _n._, 222-223, _see also chancellor_
and the kings, _see Henry III.’s
rescript, Edward III. and his relation to the university_;
and in the index of names of persons
under _John_, _Hen. III._, _Edw. I._, _II._, and _III._, _Edw. IV._, _etc._
legends of origin of, 3-4
and national movements, 281-291
officials, 203-208
and the popes, 28-9, 35, 78, 78 _n._, 143, 143 _n._-144 _n._, 144, 193
licensed preachers at, 78 _n._
precincts, 185, 185 _n._
press, 155
and the professions, 197, 198, 242, 259-260
and religious movements, 269-281
secular and religious studies at, 26, 28
settlement, 247, 248
statutes, _see statutes_
a _studium generale_, 30 _n._, 31, 32, 35, 37, 38, 68, 68 _n._
and technical education, 197-198, 201
and the town, _see town officers and, above, jurisdiction_
wealth of, 154
University College, Oxford, 45 _n._, 150 _n._
Universities Commission, 189
continental, 35, 53, 227 _n._, 228
Uppingham school, 107 _n._
Valence-Mary College, 64, 69
Vercelli monastery, 140 _n._
_Via Devana_, the, 6, 7, 8, 318
Vice-chancellor, 38 _n._, =204-205=,
206, 207, 223, 223 _n._, 225 _n._, 231, 241 _n._, 254
_Vicecomes_ of Cambridgeshire, _see sheriff_
Victoria University, 360 _n._
Vineyards, Cambridge, 221
Visitation of 1401, 109 _n._, 217 _n._
Visits of sovereigns to the university, 112-114
_Viva voce_ examinations, 163, 169
‘Volunteers’ at King’s, 184
Walden Abbey, 128, 129, 143, 150
Wales and the Welsh, 150, 151, 151 _n._, 298, 301, 319 _n._, 330
Walsingham, 114, 293
Warden, 79 _n._, 93, 210 _n._
Ware, Herts, 150
Wareham, 8 _n._
Washington arms, the, 61
Waterbeach, _see Franciscans_
Wealth of the university, 154
Wesleyanism, 280
Westacre, Norfolk, 143
Westminster Abbey, 100, 103, 103 _n._, 120, 120 _n._, 150
Assembly, 277
College, 149, 151
Whigs, 267, 268
Whitefriars, _see Carmelites_
White Horse Inn, 272
‘White nights,’ 240 _n._
Whittington Hospital, 18 _n._
Whittlesey mere, 303
Winchester school, 102 _n._, 107 _n._, 221
Windsor, 150
“Wilderness” the, at S. John’s, 124
Willis, Prof., cited, 95 _n._
Willis and Clark, cited, 58 _n._, 102 _n._, 110, 115, 123, 130 _n._, 141
“Wine,” the, 238
Wisbech school, 107 _n._
Women, colleges for, at Cambridge, 310, 313, 314
and convents, 315
and education, 312, 313
and pioneer committee for, 314 _n._
first Cambridge lecturers to, 328 _n._, 329 _n._
and the ordinary degree, 117
Women and the Reformation, 314
subjects of study chosen by, 355-357
academic successes, 321, 339-40
university settlement, 342, 344, 352
university status of, 359, 360 _n._
and the university, 216
Wranglers, 171, 172 _n._, 322 _n._
senior, 171, 172 _n._, 189
Wyclif’s bible, 138
Wycliffism, 286 (& _see Lollards_)
Yeoman bedell, see _bedell_
York, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 140, 150, 151, 152, 330
School of, 2, 3, 4, 173, 311
York and Lancaster, 112, 262, 292, 296, 299
Yorkshire, 66, 91, 94, 141, 152, 311
dialect, 93
Zachary’s Inn (S.), 50
THE END
_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Cf. iii. p. 172.
[2] Siegebert, who had been baptized in France, on returning to his
own country and becoming king of East Anglia “desiring to imitate
those things which he had seen well ordered in France, at once set
up a school in which youths could be instructed in letters, and was
helped herein by bishop Felix who came to him from Kent, and who
supplied him with paedagogues and masters after the custom of the men
of Kent.“--Bede, cap. xviii.
[3] Cair-Graunt means the Castle on the Granta, and is exchanged in
the A-S. Chronicle for _Grantacaester_.
[4] “_Civitatulam quandam desolatam ... quae lingua anglorum
Grantacaestir vocatur._“--Bede, cap. xix.
[5] The castle, ruinous by the middle of the xv c., was quarried to
supply stone for King’s College and other university buildings in that
and the next century. Edw. III. had quarried it for King’s Hall, and
Hen. IV. granted more of the stone for King’s Hall chapel. Finally
Mary gave the stone to Sir Robert Huddleston in 1557 for his new house
at Sawston: “Hereby that stately structure, anciently the ornament of
Cambridge, is at this day reduced next to nothing,” writes Fuller.
[6] A-S. Chron., _Grantebrycge_. Domesday, _Grentebrige_. Henry I.’s
charter (1118) _Grantebrugeshire_ and borough of _Grantebruge_.
In Matilda’s grant of the earldom of Cambridge (before 1146)
_Cantebruggescire_. Temp. John, _Cantebrige_, _Cantebrig_. Temp. Hen.
III., _Cantebr._ (1218) _Cantabr._ (1231, 1261) _Cantabrigiense_.
_Cauntebrigg._ and _Cantebrigg._ in the same deed relating to the
Merton scholars (1269-70) Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 5832. f. 74. Hundred
Rolls (1276-9) _Cantebr._ In a document of Hugh de Balsham’s,
1275, _Cantabr._ Barnwell Chartulary, circ. 1295, _Cantebrige,
Cantebrigesire, burgum Cantebrigiae_. In the earliest college statutes
(1324) _Cantebrigia_. In Chaucer, Cantebrigge, Cantebregge. In the
first half of the next (xvth) century we have _Cambrugge_ in a
petition sent by King’s Hall to the Franciscans. Cf. also note _infra_
p. 7, on the name of the river.
[7] The Roman _Deva_.
[8] Caius, writing in 1447, says that the town is divided into two
parts by the Canta and the Rhee, called earlier le Ee; and by Spenser
the Cle. We have _Granta_, _Guant_, and _Cante_: the _r_ dropped out,
and _G_ was replaced by _C_ in the name of both town and river (see
_supra_). Cante does not seem to have been the name of a river at all.
The river bank by Castle Mound is spoken of in the xiv c. as “the
common bank called Cante“: one arm at least of the Cambridge river was
known simply as “the water” [Prof. Skeat has pointed out that Ee is
the xii, xiii, and xiv c. form of the A-S. _éa_, cognate with _aqua_]
and for centuries there would appear to have been no need for any
other name. In Henry of Huntingdon’s Chronicle (1130) the river is
called the _Grenta_; but Lydgate writes
And of this noble vniuersitie
Sett on this ryver which is called Cante.
In the same decade Spenser knows only the Guant (_Faery Queene, Book
iv, Canto xi._ 1590) and Camden for the first time tells us that it
was called both Granta and Cam (_alii Grantam_, _Camum alii._ 1586)
the name used as we have seen by Milton. If there was no river Cante
_à fortiori_ there was no river Cam; for the _m_ in the name of
the town is only another change in the original first syllable of
Cambridge. See _footnote_, p. 6.
[9] Trumpington is 2 miles S., Grantchester 2 miles S.S.W. of the town.
[10] 878. It was from the town (Grantebrycge) that the Danes set
forth, two years before, and surprised Alfred at Wareham. In the
time of Ethelred, just before the Danish invasion, Cambridge was a
royal mint; it was so in the time of the Conqueror, and had a Danish
‘moneyer,’ and continued to be so under the Plantagenet kings: even
Henry VI. coined money at Cambridge. In Domesday the town is described
as a “Hundred,” a description, says Stubbs, belonging to big towns
with large surrounding common land--Norwich and Canterbury are
similarly described. After the history of the town became merged in
that of the university, two parliaments were summoned there; in 1388,
and in 1447 (afterwards held at Bury-St.-Edmund’s). For the city, see
also p. 36 and v. p. 260.
[11] Fuller, p. 7.
[12] The edict expelling the Jews from England dates from 1290, and
the Jews left Cambridge the year following.
[13] The fancy appellations Cam and Isis appear to have both been due
to Camden. They are not heard of before his work appeared in 1586.
[14] Cambridge, writes Doctor Jessopp, existed as a town and fortress
“a thousand years before Oxford was anything but a desolate swamp, or
at most a trumpery village, where a handful of Britons speared eels,
hunted for deer, and laboriously manufactured earthenware pots.”
[15] They found a Roman stone coffin, sculptured; one, apparently, of
many known to have been left there, for portions of Roman sarcophagi
are even now to be seen walled up in the church at Grantchester. Bede,
cap. xix.
[16] The pollard willow is the chief denizen of the fens.
[17] The water runs flows and dances through the Cantabrigian’s life.
The king’s and the bishop’s mills, Newnham mill just beyond, the Mill
street, and the hythes, all courted constant recognition. As at Ely,
the _hythes_ were the small trading ports along the river: there was
Dame Nichol’s hythe, Cornhythe, Flaxhythe, Salthythe, Clayhythe.
[18] For the vii c. foundation of _Ely_ see chap. vi. p. 311. The see
dates from 1107, when the minster became a cathedral. _Crowland_, in
Lincolnshire on the borders of Cambridgeshire, was built over the tomb
of Guthlac, a prince and a saint of the house of Mercia, in the vii c.
_Bury_ rose after the martyrdom of the East Anglian king Edmund (870)
_c._ 903; it did not become a monastery till 1020. _Peterborough_ was
founded by Wulfhere, king of Mercia from 659 to 674: it formed part
of the diocese of Lincoln till the xvi c. Ramsey and Thorney were
other fen monasteries. Ramsey was on the borders, in Huntingdonshire,
but Thorney was in Cambridgeshire. Peterborough and Thorney with Ely
and Crowland were sacked by the Danes in 870. All these were ‘black
Benedictine’ houses.
[19] Cottenham 7 miles north of Cambridge; the benefice became an
advowson of Chatteris abbey in the isle of Ely, and was bestowed by
the abbess on Warham in 1500.
[20] Joffred was appointed abbot of Crowland in 1109 in succession to
Ingulph: the xiv c. forgery the _Historia Croylandensis_ pretends to
be written by Ingulph (_nat._ 1030) and continued by Peter of Blois.
It contains fables about the antiquity of Oxford. See _Ingulph and the
Historia Croylandensis_ by W. G. Searle, _M.A._
[21] p. 8.
[22] Fuller.
[23] “The monk Odo, a singular grammarian and satirical poet, read
grammar to the boys and those of the younger sort assigned to him”;
logic and rhetoric were imparted to the elder scholars. _Soi-disant
Peter of Blois._
[24] iii. p. 164. Their school was in the parish where the university
schools rose later--under the shadow of Great S. Mary’s; and opposite
was Le Glomery Lane (the _Vicus Glomeriae_).
[25] _La Bataille des vii Ars._ Oeuvres Rutebeuf, Paris 1839, ii. 415.
[26] Abbot Sampson (_b._ 1135) had himself been “a poor clerke” at the
school of Bury, and William Diss, a Norfolk man, was the schoolmaster.
In 1160 Sampson became its _magister scholarum_. He proceeded to buy
certain stone houses--those solid structures which either as Jewish or
Norman building were sought for at Cambridge and at Oxford also--so
that the scholars might live rent free; and in 1198 he endowed the
_magister scolarum grammaticalium_ so that the tuition too became
free. (_The Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond_, newly edited by
Sir Ernest Clarke, _M.A., F.S.A._) “School Hall Street” was just
outside the abbey precincts, and answered to the “School Street” and
the _Vicus Glomeriae_ in Cambridge. There was an ancient chapel in
Cambridge dedicated to the patron saint of Bury, and one of the chief
possessions of that rich abbey was the manor of Mildenhall, which
provided the expenses of its sacrist and cellarer: it is at least an
interesting coincidence that Robert and Edmund of Mildenhall were
original fellows of Michaelhouse; the former was its second master,
third master, according to Le Neve, of Peterhouse, and chancellor of
the university in 1334. An abbot and a monk of Bury are two of those
to be specially commemorated in every mass said by the scholars of
the new foundation of Michaelhouse (1324); and Curteys the 24th abbot
of Bury was one of the personages invited by Henry VI. to assist at
the laying of the foundation stone of King’s College. Walter Diss (a
name well known in Bury) was a famous Carmelite friar at Cambridge in
the xiv c. Fuller preserves the legend that Jocelyn, Abbot Sampson’s
Boswell, had studied in the Cambridge schools, the source of which
is Bale who was a Carmelite of Norwich and Cambridge. Together these
things perhaps suggest that the schools of Cambridge and Bury had some
relation to each other as well as to Orléans.
Bury was reckoned among fen monasteries because of its Suffolk
property (of which Mildenhall formed part) where the See of Ely
possessed several manors.
[27] A Henry of Orléans was sub-bailiff of Cambridge in the 2nd year
of Edw. I. (Hundred Rolls i. p. 49).
[28] The transformation of houses of canons serving a church or
cathedral into Regular Canons in the xii and xiii centuries was the
effect of the rule indited by Yvo of Chartres which gave its final
form and name to the “Canons Regular of S. Augustine” at the end of
the xi c. The canons of S. Giles and Lanfranc’s hospital of S. Gregory
at Canterbury were among the earliest of these communities to be
converted, in the reign of Henry I., into Regulars.
[29] In the xi and xii centuries a large number of hospitals of the
order of S. Augustine were founded for the relief of poor and impotent
persons, the type being that of the Whittington hospital in London.
Sometimes their object was to succour the wayfarer, sometimes they
were virtually almshouses where leprous and indigent “brethren” formed
the larger part of the community with a few “healthful brethren”
and the master to look after them. Such was the origin, in the xi
c., of the Knights of Malta, or Order of the Hospital of S. John of
Jerusalem. At Canterbury Lanfranc erected a hospital of S. Gregory; at
Oxford the hospital of S. Bartholomew, founded in the reign of Hen.
I., was bestowed by Edw. III. on Oriel College; and Magdalen, Oxford,
was erected on the site of another S. John’s hospital, which numbered
brethren and sisters among its members. Amalfi merchants trading to
the Holy Land endowed the first “master and brethren” of the Order
of S. John of Jerusalem; a well-to-do burgess endowed the Cambridge
hospice, and the nobles, the bishops, and the sovereign himself are
to be numbered among the founders and benefactors of these first
almshouses and hospitals. Cf. ii. p. 117 _n._
[30] See chap. ii. Peterhouse and S. John’s.
[31] See chap. ii. S. John’s and Jesus Colleges.
[32] Fordham and Mirmaud-at-Welle. The Gilbertines of Chiksand in
Bedfordshire had a house and garden in King’s Childers’ Lane by King’s
Hall, which they leased to the university for the schools quadrangle
in 1433. The Gilbertines were a double Order of nuns and canons;
the former followed the Cistercian rule but were never affiliated
to that Order. The canons followed the rule of S. Augustine, but
the sympathies, like the dress, of the Gilbertines were Cistercian:
“_militat sub instituto Cisterciensi_.” Only in this indirect way did
Citeaux enter Cambridge: but see i. p. 25 and ii. p. 143.
[33] The Carmelite Bale says: _ex omni factione sua primus tandem fuit
qui theologicus doctor sit effectus_. Pits says the same in the _De
illust. Angl. Script._ For Carmelite property in Cambridge see also
vi. pp. 325-6.
[34] This was the treatise known in Cambridge as ‘the black book,’ in
which Prior Cantilupe tells of Cantaber and his son Grantanus, and
their foundation of Cambridge on the site of Caergrant.
[35] The prison or tolbooth had been the house of Benjamin the Jew,
which became university property in the reign of Elizabeth, but after
a famous trial in the next reign reverted to the citizens. Like the
Jewish houses elsewhere it was amongst the most solid structures in
the town.
[36] Dugdale says “before 1275.” Their priory was enlarged and perhaps
refounded by Alice, wife of de Vere second Earl of Oxford.
[37] Chap. ii., Sidney Sussex and Emmanuel Colleges.
[38] v. p. 275.
[39] All branches of the Augustinians were represented at Cambridge:
the Augustinian canon at Barnwell, the hospitaller at S. John’s, and
the hermit-friar at the Austin friary. ‘_The friars heremites of the
order of S. Austin_’ were settled in Suffolk from the middle of the
xiii c., probably by Richard de Clare Earl of Gloucester and Lord of
the honour of Clare. One of their chief benefactors was Elizabeth de
Burgh. See Clare College chap. ii. p. 64.
[40] Confraternities and friars “of the Sack,” known as Sacconi in
their birthplace, Italy, and so called because of the loose gown or
‘sack’ common to begging friars and confraternities, and also because
of the large sacks which they sometimes carried when begging for
the poor, were associations due to the preaching of S. Francis and
especially of S. Antony of Padua in the first quarter of the xiii c.
So that the Cambridge friars, dispersed after the Council of Lyons
in 1307, were one of the earliest of these communities; and it is
interesting to find them addicted to scholarship.
[41] Matthew Paris, anno 1257. _Concessa est mansio fratribus
Bethleemitis in Cantabrigia, silicet in vico qui ducit versus
Trumpintonam._
[42] They were begging friars following the rule of S. Austin.
[43] They had held land in Cambridge for over 100 years “of the gift
of the earl of Mandeville.” At the Suppression they were seized of
land in Haslyngfeld, co. Cambridge. Cf. ii. p. 96.
[44] The property was situated “in Henney,” a well-known part of Mill
Street in the parish of S. John Baptist, and included the stone house
on the high street by S. Michael’s rectory house which passed to the
family of Sir John Cambridge in 1311 was by him bequeathed to Corpus
Christi College, and became the nucleus of Gonville Hall. The prior of
Anglesey is found leasing this land in the reign of Edward III., and
selling it to Henry VI. in 1447. The priory lay between Cambridge and
Newmarket.
[45] _Rot. Hund._ ii. 360. Cf. also _ibid._ p. 370.
[46] pp. 25 _n._, 49 and ii. p. 90.
[47] Another piece of this ground was conveyed by Henry VI. (who
bought it of the university in the same year) to Trinity Hall in 1440
(and became the college garden). It is there described as “a void
ground” _pertinent priori et confratribus sancti Johannis in Anglia_.
Crouched hostel had already been pulled down for the schools. Like
other hostels in Mill Street--God’s house, S. Nicholas, and Austin’s
(see King’s and Christ’s Colleges) it stood, as we see, on open
ground: “a certain garden of the hostel of the Holy Cross” we hear of
in 1421.
[48] It is supposed that monks from Denney and Tyltey came here to
study. The former was in fact a cell to Ely abbey before Marie de
Chatillon transferred the Franciscans of Waterbeach thither. The
two ‘nuns of the Order of S. Clare’ who were friends of Erasmus at
Cambridge were probably inmates of Denney. In _Rot. Hund._ two other
communities are recorded: the _moniales de Pato_, of whom we know
nothing--there is a _Paston_ in Norfolk and another in Northants.;
and ‘the monks of the Holy Trinity at Cambridge’ who are mentioned in
the Oxford Hundred Rolls of the 7th year of Edw. I.: the name affords
another instance of the antiquity and popularity of this dedication
to the Trinity, which we find at Michaelhouse, Trinity Hall, Trinity
church, and in the guild of the Trinity at Cambridge.
[49] p. 127.
[50] Fuller.
[51] For later monastic influences in Cambridge, see ii. pp. 127-9,
Magdalene College.
[52] Pembroke College p. 69. For Scrope see ii. 94, v. 295; for Thorpe
ii. 75, 96, v. 295.
[53] _ ...in statutis universitatis ejusdem ... familia scholarium
... immunitate et libertate gaudeant qua et scholares, ut
coram archidiacono non respondeant...._ (Balsham’s Judgment
A.D. 1275/6). The _Statuta Antiqua_, the old body of
statutes of the university, have for the most part no chronological
arrangement, and the date cannot in some cases be determined to within
a century. The earliest ‘grace’ to which a date is attached belongs
to the year 1359, but there is another referable to the year 1275/6.
The latest, reduced to chronological order, is of the year 1506. The
_Statuta Antiqua_ were replaced in the 12th year of Elizabeth by a
fresh body of statutes, and these again by the statutes of Victoria,
1882. The former are printed in Dyer’s _Privileges of the University_.
[54] Simon Montacute (1337-1345) ceded the right of the bishops of Ely
to the presentation of fellowships in their own college of Peterhouse.
Cf. also iv. pp. 203-4.
[55] Dated February 20, 624; and 689. Martin’s bull recognises their
authority. Copies exist in the Cambridge Registry, Nos. 107 and 114 in
the catalogue.
[56] “_Si quis de ordine sacerdotium in monasterio suscipi rogaverit,
non quidem citius ei assentiatur._“--_Regula S. P. Benedicti, caput
lx._
[57] See, chap, ii., Michaelhouse, Corpus, Gonville, and Trinity Hall.
[58] A chartered corporation and a university in the sense of a
_studium generale_ possessing European privileges. Cambridge was a
_universitas_ many years before this, and was so familiarly styled by
Henry III. in 1231.
[59] It has been pointed out that our knowledge of Oxford’s
intellectual activity during the xii c. is confined to the visits
of three or four celebrated teachers who lectured to its changing
population and in its schools, among which the priory school of S.
Frideswide was the most important. We must not of course confuse
the activities of monastic and episcopal schools with those of a
university.
[60] Matthew Paris, _in anno 1209: Ita quod nec unus ex omni
universitate remansit_.
[61] p. 47.
[62] _Satis constat vobis quod apud villam nostrum Cantebr’ studendi
causa e diversis partibus tam cismarinis quam transmarinis confluit
multitudo, quod valde gratum habemus et acceptamus, cum exemplum
toti regno nostro commodum non modicum, et honor nobis accrescat,
et vos specialiter inter quos fideliter conversantur studentes non
mediocriter gaudere debetis et laetari._
[63] _Clerk_ and _scholar_ were used interchangeably in the xiii c.
as they are in these two rescripts, _clericus_ being employed in the
rescript of 1218 and in that addressed to the sheriff (_vicecomes_)
of the county cited above: _Quoniam ut audivimus plures nominantur_
clerici _apud Cantabr. qui sub nullius magistri scholarum sunt
disciplina et tuitione, sed potius mentiuntur se esse_ scholares
_cum non sint_.... In a further rescript of the king’s the meaning
is no less clear: _Ita tamen quod ad suspensionem vel mutilationem
clericorum non procedatis, sed eos alio modo per consilium
universitatis Cantabr. castigetis_. (Referring to “insults recently
offered to certain northern scholars of the university of Cambridge,”
1261.) In the Hundred Rolls, at the same period, we have _clerici de
Merton_ and _scholares de Merton_; and _clerici in scholis degentes_
is W. de Merton’s own description of his scholars.
[64] The charter of Oxford university belongs to the same reign.
[65] _Rot. Hund._ 7th Edw. I.
[66] The Pope no doubt refers to the forged bulls (p. 28) but his
reference to previous royal rescripts is likely to be more correct,
and to have been supplied by Edward himself.
[67] See _studium generale_ pp. 30 _n._, 31.
[68] The importance of Cambridge was steadily growing in the reigns
of Henry I. and Stephen. The isle of Ely supported Matilda; and the
earldom of Cambridge was conferred both by her and by Stephen for the
first time. The former by her letters, issued before the year 1146,
bestowed it on her favourite Aubrey de Vere, “if the King of Scotland
hath it not,” as prior in dignity to the counties of “Oxfordshire,
Berkshire, Wiltshire, or Dorsetshire” one of which he was to take if
Stephen’s gift of the earldom of Cambridge to Saint David of Scotland
held good. De Vere had to accept the county of Oxford which has since
remained in that family--the earldom of Cambridge passing to royal
hands and becoming in time a royal dukedom. David of Scotland held
Cambridge in his own and Huntingdon in right of his wife. Malcolm of
Scotland held both earldoms together in exchange for the northern
counties of Northumberland and Cumberland. The union of these earldoms
is still represented by the union of Huntingdon and Cambridge under
one _vicecomes_ or sheriff. Edward III. created his wife’s brother
(the Count of Hainault) and after him his son Edmund Langley, earls of
Cambridge. Edmund’s son Richard held the earldom until his attainder,
and his son Richard Duke of York was again created Earl of Cambridge
by Henry V. (p. 295). This was Edward IV.’s father in whom the earldom
became merged in the crown. The arms of Edmund Langley, Duke of York
and Earl of Cambridge, are on the first of the 6 shields of arms of
Edward’s sons over the entrance gate of Trinity; beneath is inscribed:
EDMONDUS D. EBOR. C. CANTABRUGIE.
[69] See “Town and Gown” chap. iv. p. 233 _n._
[70] Cf. “the students from regions near home” (_e partibus diversis
tam cismarinis_ ...) of his father’s rescript p. 33.
[71] For other references to this important document see _ante_ pp.
14, 28; chap. iii. p. 165 _n_, iv. p. 203.
[72] Henry VI., VII., VIII., and Edward VI. continued the favour shown
by the Henrys and Edwards to Cambridge; the exceptions were Henry V.
and Edward IV. See ii. p. 101, v. p. 262. For the relation of the
English queens to the university see Queens’ College pp. 109, 112, and
p. 114.
Edward III. allowed the university to appropriate any church of the
yearly value of £40; to receive (through its chancellor) the oaths
of the mayor and aldermen and the bailiffs; to take cognizance of
all causes in which the scholars were concerned, “maim and felony”
excepted; and required that the chancellor should not be disquieted if
he imprisoned offenders; that masters of arts should not be cited out
of the university; and that the mayor should make assay of the weight
of bread as often as the chancellor demanded it.
[73] pp. 29, 54.
[74] Peterhouse p. 55, S. John’s pp. 122-3.
[75] Except Kilkenny’s exhibitioners, _infra_ p. 40.
[76] “I have given to God, the Blessed Virgin, blessed John Baptist,
and to the House of the Scholars of Merton“: these words occur in the
same deed with those in the text. _Harl. Add. MSS. 5832. ff. 74, 75._
The gift includes a stone house in the town: _Dedi etiam et concessi
prefatae domui ... domum illam lapideam in Cauntebrigg. cum gardino et
curia adjacente_.... Three deeds relating to the same transaction are
dated _mense Martii_ 54th of Hen. III. In _Rot. Hund._ 7th Edw. I. p.
366, a certain John gives a quit rent to the scholars of Merton for 18
acres of this property.
[77] The priory of S. Frideswide granted him land in 1265, and he
obtained much more two years later.
[78] The wording provides for the existing or any other _ordinatio_
Merton may formulate.
[79] “_Domus scolarium de Merton._” _Burg. Cantebr. Rot. Hund._ i. 55.
[80] _Rot. Hund._ ii. 360.
[81] The “Merton clerks,” _clerici de Merton_, are mentioned again in
the next paragraph. At the same date a certain Johanna declares that
she had as a marriage portion from her father a messuage given him by
Cecil at the Castle, for which is paid a quit rent of twelve pence a
year to “the scholars of Merton.” _Rot. Hund._ ii. 379. In the Hundred
of Chesterton (p. 402) we find that “the scholars of Merton hold of
the fee of Hervey Dunning” such and such properties. They also paid a
quit rent to Edmund Crouchback for lands he held (on the death of de
Montfort) as earl of Leicester.
[82] _Rot. Hund._ ii. 364, 407.
[83] The general rule in these Rolls is to add no qualification of
origin in cases where the owner, or religious house, has another
habitation in the locality to which the transaction refers. Hence we
find “the prior of Anglesey,” “the prioress of Stratford,” side by
side with “the scholars of Merton” in the Cambridge Hundred Rolls (cf.
_Rot. Hund._ ii. 364).
[84] Grantchester (7th Edw. I. p. 565): _et tota dicta pars alienata
est scolaribus Oxon’ per dominum Walter’ de Merton’, nescit quo
warranto_. Gamlingay: “William of Leicester sold the whole of that
holding to _dominus_ Walter de Merton and the said Walter _gave it all
to the scholars_ of the _domus de Merton Oxonie_.”
[85] “Villani ejusd’ Gunnor’ dicunt quod _prior de Mertone_” held the
advowson of the church of Barton. (_Rot. Hund._ ii. 564.)
The Bishop of Nelson points out that the scholars were called not
after Walter de Merton, but after the place--Merton priory. Merton
himself had no surname; he was born at Basingstoke, and was perhaps
educated at the priory from which he also took his name. Beket was
certainly educated at this well-known Merton, which gave its name
to the “Statute of Merton” devised there in 1236, and was also the
theatre of a council held by the archbishop 22 years later. At the
evaluation of 1291, the priory held property in Norfolk (_Index
Monasticus_). The Cambridge estates settled on the scholars of the
_domus apud Meandon_ (Malden) in 1270 were in Gamlingay, _Merton_,
_Over-Merton_, Chesterton, etc. It is worth notice that among a number
of scholars who received the king’s pardon in 1261 for the part they
had taken in a riot, there is a _William de Merton_, servant to two of
the East Anglian scholars implicated.
[86] For the “Ely scholars” see ii. pp. 122-3. The first _to leave an
endowment_ for scholars was William of Durham in 1249; but several
years elapsed before the fund was utilised, scholars maintained, or
University College Oxford founded. University College was thus the
outcome of an earlier _intention_ to endow, and Balliol College was an
earlier foundation in embryo, than either Peterhouse or Merton.
[87] The preamble of these letters addressed to the civic
authorities at Northampton is as follows: _Occasione cuiusdam
magnae contentionis in villa Cantabrigiensi triennio jam elapso
subortae nonnulli clericorum tunc ibidem studentium unanimiter ab
ipsa villa recessissent, se usque ad villam nostram praedictam
Northam. transferentes et ibidem (studiis inherendo) novam construere
universitatem cupientes_. The letters are dated from Westminster 1
Feb. in the 49th year of his reign (1265). _Rot. Claus._ 49, _Hen.
III. membr._ 10. _d._ [1 Feb. 1264-5].
[88] Chaucer shows us that the system of private lodgings continued in
vogue at Oxford even in the late xiv c. His “pore scholer” lodges in
the house of a well-to-do carpenter.
[89] p. 33.
[90] Cf. the regulations for lodgings at the present day, iv. pp. 224,
225.
[91] Caius speaks of “two principals” overseeing respectively the
studies and the economics of Physwick hostel.
[92] Cf. ii. Trinity Hall p. 79, Magdalene pp. 127, 128.
[93] Crouched, Crutched, for _Crossed_. So the Trinitarians who also
wore a conspicuous cross on their habit were known in England as
Crutched friars.
[94] p. 56.
[95] S. Austin’s or Augustine’s hostel had a length of 220 feet with
80 of breadth.
[96] See _pensioners_, iv. p. 217 _n_.
Mr. J. Bass Mullinger has published (_Hist. Univ. Camb._ pp. 218-220)
a highly interesting statute relating to hostels which dates in
all probability from the end of the xiii c., and shows how rapidly
university rights in these _hospitia locanda_ were extended as a
consequence of Henry’s rescript (p. 47). Any scholar who “desired to
be principal of a hostel” offered his “caution“--with sureties or
pledges--to the landlord and became _ipso facto_ its head, and could
be instituted by the chancellor against the will of the landlord. The
scholar, who has become principal, may not abdicate in favour of a
fellow scholar but only give up possession to the said landlord. The
next candidate could also appeal to the chancellor should the landlord
refuse his request to succeed when a vacancy in the principalship
occurred. An interesting clause provides that though the landlord
should agree with the scholar-principal that “mine hostel” should not
be taxed, the scholars who come to live there may, in spite of both
of them, have the house taxed by the taxors, “inasmuch as agreements
between private persons cannot have effect to the prejudice of public
rights.”
[97] For university and collegiate officials, see iv. pp. 203-10.
[98] i. 29, 38, ii. 55-6.
[99] See iv. 217 _n._, and early college discipline pp. 221-2.
[100] Balsham (a village 9-1/2 miles S.E. of Cambridge) was one of the
10 manorhouses, palaces, and castles of the bishops of Ely in the xiv
c. Montacute resided here in 1341. In 1401 a controversy regarding
archidiaconal jurisdiction in the university was held here: a similar
dispute occurred in Balsham’s time (p. 28). On the alienation of this
manor from the see of Ely it was purchased by the founder of the
Charterhouse, and now forms part of the endowment of that college.
There is a mention of Hugh de Balsham (Hugo de Belesale) in Matthew
Paris.
[101] S. John’s College, pp. 122-3.
[102] iv. p. 214.
[103] Gray, _Installation Ode_. There has been little water in Coe fen
for the last hundred years. The wall and water gate were made during
the mastership of Warkworth and the episcopacy of Alcock (1486-1500)
and ornamented with the arms of the latter, who was probably a
Peterhouse man.
[104] i. p. 22. Their house was on a messuage purchased by them
“opposite the chapel of S. Edmund“: it lay on the south of the two
hostels, and reached “as far as the marsh“--_i.e._ Coe fen.
[105] The rebuilding of the hall and combination room took place in
1866-70. Gilbert Scott, William Morris, Burne-Jones and Ford Madox
Brown were called in, and an excellent piece of work accomplished, the
fellows’ old “Stone parlour” and “inner parlour” being thrown into one
to make the present picturesque combination room.
[106] College libraries, p. 138 _n._ The two Beauforts, the Cardinal
and the Duke of Exeter, and two of Henry VI.’s physicians Roger
Marshall and John Somerset (p. 106), all enriched this library.
[107] _Beata Maria de Gratia._ For S. Peter’s church and Peterhouse
chapel, see _Willis and Clark, i. p. 40_.
[108] v. p. 280.
[109] v. pp. 263-4. Isaac Barrow uncle of his great namesake was
one of the fellows ejected by the Puritan commissioners, before his
nephew who had been entered for the college could come into residence.
Crashaw was another; and Whitgift was a third fellow whose name stands
for anti-Puritanism.
[110] Both sent by Edward VI. to inculcate Protestant doctrine in
Cambridge.
[111] See v. p. 278.
[112] In the reign of Richard II. the merits of the Peterhouse
scholars were as celebrated as their “indigence” was “notorious”;
they continued in unceasing exercise of discipline and study, and the
tithes of Cherry Hinton appear to have been bestowed in the hope of
providing through them a bulwark against lollardry.
[113] The Bible-clerks (_bibliotistae_) were so called because it was
their duty to read the Scriptures in hall at meal time: they were a
sort of poorer scholar or ‘sizar,’ see iv. p. 219.
[114] He was Chancellor of the Exchequer to Edward II.; Canon of York
and Wells, and Rector of East Dereham and of North Creake in Norfolk.
For Michaelhouse, see also Statutes p. 67 and Trinity College p. 133.
[115] Elizabeth de Burgh speaks of “the college” of her “aforesaid
house.” Cf. the words used by the founder of Trinity Hall as regards
his own foundation: University Calendar _sub rubrica_ Trinity Hall.
[116] See royal visits, p. 113.
[117] See Mill Street, pp. 96-7 _n._
[118] She was daughter of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and
Hertford by Joan daughter of Edward I. Her brother and co-heir fell
at Bannockburn 1314. Like Lady Margaret she was three times married,
first to John de Burgh son and heir of Richard Earl of Ulster, her
third husband also being an Irishman.
Chancellor Badew was a member of the Chelmsford knightly family of
that name.
[119] April 5 1340. Grant by the university of the _domus
universitatis_ to Elizabeth de Burgh Lady de Clare, in consideration
of her gift of the advowson of Litlyngton. See Caius p. 144 _n._
[120] Peterhouse, Michaelhouse, Clare House--the earliest name for
a Cambridge college; Corpus also was incorporated as the _Domus
Scholarium Corporis Christi_, etc. King’s Hall is the first to be
so styled and is followed by Pembroke Hall. In 1440 we have King’s
College. Peterhouse and Trinity Hall are now the only colleges which
retain the older style, although Clare itself was called Clare Hall
until 1856.
[121] Cf. p. 109 _n._
[122] “Soler,” apparently used for a loggia or balcony. East Anglian
belfries were called bell-solers. Cf. _solarium_ for an upper chamber,
and _nei solai_ (Ital.) for “in the garrets.” In early Cambridge
college nomenclature _solar_ was an upstairs, _celar_ (cellar) a
downstairs room.
[123] Simon Montacute, 17th Bishop of Ely, re-wrote the statutes of
Peterhouse, 1338-44.
[124] Cf. Merton’s “Oxoniae, vel alibi ubi _studium vigere_
contigerit” (1264), and the words in Alan Bassett’s bequest for
monastic scholars at Oxford or elsewhere _ubi studium fuerit
universitatis_ (1233).
[125] See also p. 86 footnote.
[126] The proportion of priests among the fellows (_i.e._ scholars on
the foundation) was to be 6 in 30, 4 in 20, 2 in 12. See also pp. 152
and 153.
[127] Cf. King’s Hall, p. 132.
[128] The xv c. library at Pembroke was over the hall; the older
library of the same date at Peterhouse was next the hall.
[129] The earliest of these features appears at Pembroke, which had a
treasury. For the combination room see p. 135 and iv. p. 214. For the
gateway, p. 140. For students’ studies, iv. p. 232 _n._
[130] Cf. Peterhouse p. 56. The Christian church evolved in Rome no
doubt originated in the domestic _aula_, the basilica, of a great
private house, and was surrounded by those dwelling-rooms which
constituted the first _titulus_ or _domus ecclesiae_. So at Cambridge
we have a _domus collegii_, and _domus vel aula scholarium_ sancti
Michaelis or Clarae.
[131] After the founder’s death two rectors were to exercise complete
jurisdiction, one of these was to be a secular graduate but the other
is to be a Franciscan. Moreover the fellows of the college were “to
give their best counsel and aid” to the abbess and sisters of Denney
abbey who had from the founder “a common origin with them.” For
Denney, see i. p. 25, 25 _n._
[132] _Notabile et insigne et quam pretiosum collegium quod inter
omnia loca universitatis ... mirabiliter splendet et semper
resplenduit._
[133] Spenser entered as a sizar.
[134] Gray left Peterhouse on account of some horseplay on the part of
its students who raised a cry of fire which brought him out of bed and
down from his window overlooking Little S. Mary’s church in an escape
which his dread of fire had induced him to contrive. Of his treatment
at Pembroke he writes that it was such as might have been extended to
“Mary de Valence in person.”
[135] Pitt in introducing his son to the college writes: “Such as he
is, I am happy to place him at Pembroke; and I need not say how much
of his parents’ hearts goes along with him.” (Letter to the Senior
tutor of the college, 1767.)
[136] He was afterwards fellow of Trinity Hall, and Spenser dedicates
one of the Eclogues to him there.
[137] See Trinity Hall, p. 80.
[138] The asterisks denote Masters of the College. Whitgift migrated
from Queens’ to Pembroke, and was subsequently fellow of Peterhouse
and Master of Pembroke. Langton of Winchester was a fellow.
[139] pp. 27 and 96.
[140] v. p. 275.
[141] Reyner D’Aubeney and Robert Stanton.
[142] p. 68 _n._
[143] Alcock himself, by a unique arrangement made with Rotherham,
held the Seals conjointly with that prelate, then Bishop of Lincoln,
from April to September 1474; and he had acted in parliament in
the same capacity for Stillington in 1472. Merton whose Cambridge
operations were described in the last chapter was Lord Chancellor;
so was Sir Robert Thorpe who began the Schools, and so were Booth
and Rotherham who completed the Schools quadrangle and built the old
library. John Somerset, who was chiefly instrumental in the founding
of King’s College, was Chancellor of the Exchequer to Henry VI.
[144] Cf. nationality of founders of colleges p. 150.
[145] The stone house (p. 24 _n._) and John Goldcorn’s property--all
opposite Michaelhouse--were then fashioned by Bateman, after the
founder’s demise, as Gonville Hall.
[146] See Gonville and Caius, pp. 143-4.
[147] Twelve preachers from each university were annually licensed for
any diocese in England. Gonville was now allowed two such licences on
its own account.
[148] p. 141.
[149] He landed at Yarmouth in June, and the charter of foundation is
dated November 20.
[150] Magdalene, p. 127.
[151] The style “the keeper and scholars of the college of the Holy
Trinity of Norwich,” reminds us that the original dedication of this
and Gonville corresponds to that of two of the ancient Cambridge
guilds--the Holy Trinity and the Annunciation.
[152] The N.E. corner was obtained four years after the foundation by
the purchase of a house at the corner of Henney Lane.
[153] See also King’s.
[154] See also Caius.
[155] Account given of the building of Corpus by Archbishop Parker’s
Latin secretary, John Jocelyn, fellow of Queens’. It is supposed that
the hall of the guild of Corpus Christi was near the old court; S.
Mary’s guild met at the hostel of that name near the present Senate
House. See also p. 83.
[156] _Ibid._
[157] The brethren and sisters of the two guilds presumably thus taxed
all house property bequeathed by them to their college, to defray
the expenses of the wax lights so freely used in funeral and other
liturgical rites. It has been pointed out that the riots occurred two
days after the feast of Corpus Christi, with its recent procession in
England, the contribution of wax tapers for which may have greatly
aggravated the grievance. The feast is of xiii c. origin, the outdoor
procession dates from the late xivth.
[158] She was heiress to her sister Eleanor who had been betrothed to
Edward IV. They were the daughters of John Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury,
and Elizabeth’s only child Ann was wife to Richard of York murdered in
the Tower.
[159] The dearth of clerks or clergy and the failure of learning: the
former engaged the attention of the founders of Gonville, Trinity
Hall, and Corpus, the latter of the founder of Clare who writes: “to
promote ... the extension of these sciences, which by reason of the
pestilence having swept away a multitude of men, are now beginning to
fail rapidly.”
[160] The fact that we have a guild college built in Cambridge is
especially interesting, for, as Dr. Stubbs has shown, Cambridge
ranks highest among English towns for its guild history. Even the
Exeter statutes do not rival those of one of its ancient guilds
which united the craft or religious guild with the frith-guild--the
guild instituted for the religious interests of its members or
to protect craftsmen and their craft, and the guild which was an
attempt “on the part of the public authorities to supplement the
defective execution of the law by measures for mutual defence.” The
Cambridge statutes, in fact, show us the guild as an element in
the development of the township or burgh, one of those communities
within a community which was the earliest expedient of civilisation,
the earliest essay in organisation, everywhere. The guild which
combined these two institutions was a thanes guild. It made and
enforced legal enactments; it paid the blood-money if a member slew
a man with righteous cause, and exacted eight pounds from any one
who robbed a member. “It is improbable” writes Dr. Stubbs “that
any institution on so large a scale existed in any other town than
London.” In Athelstan’s reign we have a complete code of such a London
frith-guild. (_Constitutional History of England_, vol. i. p. 414.)
It is against this historic background that we find the guilds
of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin uniting to add a common
scholastic interest to interests civil and religious, by founding a
college. The guilds were lay institutions; in two of the best known
Cambridge guilds priests were either excluded, or, if admitted, denied
a share in the government; and a chaplain for the guild of the Blessed
Virgin was only to be maintained if the necessary assistance to the
poorer members permitted of it.
[161]
“Thus of Cambridge the name gan first shyne
As chieffe schoole and vniuersitie
Vnto this tyme fro the daye it began”
[162] The “good duke of Lancaster” was Alderman of the Guild of Corpus
Christi. John of Gaunt greatly befriended the college. It was _anno
1356_ that the “translation of the college of Corpus Christi out of
lay hand to the patronage of the duke of Lancaster,” took place; a
document so entitled once formed part of the Registry MSS.
[163] Augustinians never enjoyed their habit in comfort; in the xiii
c. they were obliged to make their leather girdle long and their tunic
short because they were suspected of a desire to pass as corded and
sandalled Franciscans, and to cover over their white tunic with black
in the streets lest they should be taken for friars preachers.
[164] pp. 127, 128 _n._, and p. 143, 143 _n._
[165] _Recorda et placita coram cancellario Ric. le Scrope in le
Tollebouth. 2 Ric. II. 1378-9._ MS. No. 49 in the Cambridge Registry.
[166] Stephen le Scrope was chancellor in 1400 and 1414, Richard
Scroop (who had been Master of King’s Hall) in 1461, and Lady Anne
Scroope was one of the early benefactors of Gonville’s hall; see vi.
p. 325, 325 _n._
[167] Edward himself speaks of it as “so important a college” in 1342.
See p. 132. Since going to press I see that Mr. Rouse Ball identifies
King’s Hall as ‘Solar Hall’ in his monograph on Trinity College,
published in March 1906. Prof. Willis conjectured that ‘Solar Hall’ =
Garrett Hostel.
[168] King’s Hall statutes name 14 as the age.
It will be remembered that Pembroke, Clare, Corpus, and King’s Hall
were all directly or indirectly connected with the reigning house. For
the group of great names connected with Edward’s household and with
Cambridge at this time cf. v. pp. 291-295.
[169] The main artery of the xiv and xv century university was not, as
now, the High street, but the Mill street (Milne street). It lay in a
direct line between Clare Hall and Queens’ Lane, and 7 colleges had
their entrances on it: Michaelhouse, Trinity Hall, Clare, old King’s
College, S. Catherine’s, and Queens’. Gonville was approached from
the north end, and King’s Hall lay on the same side. The church and
property of the Knights of S. John and Garret’s and Ovyng’s hostels
were in the same street. Mill street began at Queens’ Lane, and led
northwards from the King’s and the Bishop’s Mills, which gave it its
name. The larger part was alienated in 1445 to build the second King’s
College.
Another characteristic feature of old Cambridge was the _King’s
Ditch_ made by Henry III. in 1267, which starting from Castle Mound,
with a walk beside it, formed the western boundary of King’s Hall,
Michaelhouse, and Trinity Hall, and polluted the water supply of
Peterhouse even in Andrew Perne’s time.
[170] Temp. Laurence Booth, chancellor.
[171] See Loggan’s print, 1688. The great schools in the School street
are first mentioned 1346-7. The divinity schools were the first to
be completed, by Sir _William_ Thorpe’s executors, in 1398. The
quadrangle was completed _c._ 1475. The eastern front was rebuilt in
1755. The buildings lie under the present library and are now used
for the keeping of “acts” and for discussions, but not for lectures
in the various faculties. The new Divinity schools are in S. John’s
street, and were erected by friends as a memorial of Bishop Selwyn.
The Science schools, school of Human Anatomy, chemical laboratories,
etc. are on the site of the university botanical garden which was once
Austinfriars’ property.
[172] The room where these were treasured was the _libraria communis_
or _magna_ (in the time of Caius the “old” or “public” library), which
still exists on the south side, with Chancellor Rotherham’s library on
the east. The ancient two-storeyed building on the west which existed
as early as 1438 still contains the old Canon Law (now the Arts)
school, with the original library and the university chapel (disused
for centuries) above (p. 97).
[173] Fuller and Caius both record this fact.
[174] It consists of 700 MSS. and 30,000 volumes. Other and earlier
benefactors to the library were Perne (1574), Fulke Greville, Stephen
Perse of Caius, and George Villiers Duke of Buckingham.
There is a library “Chest” and endowments, amounting to about £2000,
plus the income of £4500 from the common university Fund.
[175] A copy of every book and pamphlet published in England is sent
here, to the British Museum, and to the Bodleian.
[176] The printing of bibles and of the Book of Common Prayer is still
confined to the king’s printer and the 2 universities. Until 1779 the
printing of almanacks was also restricted to the universities and the
Stationers’ Company.
[177] See iii. p. 183, and iv. p. 205.
[178] Cf. the laying of the foundation stone of the Norman church of
S. Giles in 1092, when Anselm of Canterbury and the Bishop of Lincoln
(then the diocesan) were present.
[179] In 1439. Its site was the present ante-chapel, see Christ’s
College p. 117.
[180] The king’s design did not at first include the connexion of Eton
and King’s. The foundations of a college and chapel for a rector and
12 scholars were first laid opposite Clare, between Mill Street and
the Schools, on April 2, 1441. Within three years this foundation was
changed into a society which, like Eton, is under a Provost and which
was bound to provide the free education of poor Etonians. Here Henry
imitated William of Wykeham, and the statutes which he drew up follow
the lines laid down by the founder of Winchester and New College. The
original “mean quadrant” was used till 1828 when it was sold to the
university for the library extension on that side. The chapel fell
down in 1536. A wall and gateway on the west, remain. The new design
had the original court and Clare on the north, Austin’s hostel and
Whitefriars on the south: the chapel was to form the north side of a
quadrangle measuring 230 × 238 feet (cf. the measurements of Corpus);
and, as in previous colleges, the west side was to contain the hall
and provost’s lodging, a library and lecture rooms. The south and
east sides were to be for the chambers and the latter was to have a
gateway and tower. The present Queens’ College is on the site of the
Whitefriars’ house; and the old gate of King’s which led from the
chapel yard to Queens’ Lane used to be known as “Friars’ gate.” (For a
full account of this most interesting design the reader is referred to
Messrs. Willis and Clark’s book.)
For the modern buildings four _separate_ ranges were designed, the
first to be erected being the Gibbs’ building on the west: the
southern side and the screen have been built since 1824, Wilkins
being the architect; on this side are the hall, combination room,
and library, and the Provost’s lodge. Sir Gilbert Scott erected the
building on the south east, which was projected after 1870.
[181] The Norfolk name of Boleyn is found at the university in the
xv c. Henry Boleyn was proctor in 1454-5, and Anne’s uncle was
churchwarden of S. Clement’s.
[182] It has been suggested that Tudor architecture might be styled
Heraldic architecture, so freely does heraldry and blazonry enter into
its plan and the scheme of decoration. England’s two great specimens
of the Perpendicular--King’s College chapel and Henry VII.’s chapel
at Westminster--are pervaded by a “gorgeous display of heraldry.” The
west and south entrances of King’s are decorated with bold carvings of
the badges of Henry VII.--the crowned rose and portcullis. “No person
ever glanced his eye over the wonders around and above him, without
being awestruck at the daring of the architect that could plan, and
the builders that could erect such a structure. The whole of the
lower part of the Chapel beneath the windows is divided into panels,
and every panel is filled with the arms of the king who erected the
building.” “The immense pendants hanging from the gorgeous roof are
ornamented with the rose, the royal badge of both the king and queen
at this period.” (Clark’s _Introduction to Heraldry_, edited by J. R.
Planché, Rouge Croix.) The arms and supporters of Eton, Henry VI. and
VIII., Richard II., Edward IV. and VIth, Mary and Elizabeth, appear
also. The gateway towers of Christ’s and John’s afford other examples
of heraldic display as the exclusive scheme of decoration--they bear
the arms, supporters, and badges of their founder, the mother of Henry
VII. Finally the Entrance Gateway tower of Trinity exhibits the arms
of Edward III. and his six sons (William of Hatfield being represented
by a blank shield); above is a statue of Henry VIII. No street--no
town--in England presents anything like this “boast of heraldry” which
Gray had always under his eyes in Cambridge. It is a permanent record
of the two royal groups in England who preferred this university; the
gateway at Trinity being the _trait d’union_ between them.
[183] “The scholars of King’s enjoyed the questionable privilege of
drifting into their degrees without examination. Lectures and rare
compositions in Latin were the only demands upon their time,” writes
Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. The same arrangements obtained at New
College Oxford until 50 years ago.
[184] The “13 poor men” who are to form part of the foundation at
Eton are an addition of Henry’s own; they do not appear on Wykeham’s
foundation.
[185] For the Days, see v. p. 273 _n._ Wickham was vice-provost of
Eton.
[186] Somerset returned to Cambridge in later life, after he had
fallen into disgrace and poverty, and met, like Metcalfe of John’s,
with small gratitude. Dr. Philip Baker, though a Catholic, retained
the provostship under Elizabeth till 1570. For King’s men see also pp.
174-5, 272-3-4 _n._, 283.
[187] Eton is the only public school joined from its foundation with
a Cambridge college. Merchant Taylors’ used however to be related to
Pembroke (which owes Spenser’s presence there to this circumstance)
and the ancient school of Bury used, it is said, to send its _alumni_
to Gonville. S. Paul’s school has tied scholarships and exhibitions at
Corpus Christi and Trinity: Corpus was connected with Norwich school
and Norfolk by Bacon, Parker, and other Norfolk benefactors, and has
tied scholarships with King’s School, Canterbury, and Westminster;
the last being also closely connected with Trinity College. Harrow
has two tied scholarships at Caius; Magdalene holds the Latimer
Neville scholarships for Shrewsbury, Marlborough, Uppingham, and
Fettes schools, and tied exhibitions from Wisbech school. Uppingham
is similarly connected with Emmanuel; Peterhouse with Huntingdon Free
Grammar School, and S. John’s with 18 schools all over England and
with several towns as well.
[188] A chapel of S. Lucy (erected 1245) came into the possession of
Peterhouse with the property of the friars of the Sack (1309) and was
used by the fellows towards the end of that century. The licences
obtained by Bateman (1352 and 1353) for chapels in Trinity Hall and
Gonville were never acted upon. Gonville however had a house chapel
in 1393. At this date Clare also had a chapel, which was used at the
primate’s visitation in 1401. The Clare Statutes (1359) direct that S.
John Baptist’s church be used. For ritual in the college chapels, see
pp. 59, 145. Organs were placed in most of the chapels in the reign of
Charles I., at a time when the courts, gates, and frontage of colleges
underwent repair and decoration.
[189] Cf. with the dimensions of Corpus old court which was
considerably larger (220 by 140), of the proposed quadrangle at King’s
p. 102 _n._, and with the frontage of some of the hostels p. 50.
[190] Haddon Hall in Derbyshire; the first owners of which were those
Peverels (”of the Peak”) who figure in Cambridge history at the time
of the Conquest (i. p. 17). The house passed to the Bassetts, a name
which was also well known in the university; and from there--so the
old story runs--Dorothy Vernon, a daughter of the last owners of the
manor, ran away with Sir John the first Lord Manners.
[191] For the marriage of a xvi c. President of Queens’, see iv. pp.
209, 212.
[192] Pearson was educated here, then at King’s of which he became
fellow, and was Master of Jesus and, in 1662, of Trinity.
[193] See Bernard’s hostel p. 109.
[194] Margaret had however called it “the quenes collage of sainte
Margarete and S. Bernard.” In her petition for a charter she tells the
king: “in the whiche vniuersitie is no college founded by eny quene of
Englond hidertoward.” The statutes were drawn up by Millington first
Provost of King’s, and others.
[195] Accounts of King’s Hall. Here, too, the king was to have been
lodged for the parliament of 1447.
[196] Henry VII. was on his way to the same celebrated shrine when he
came to Cambridge in 1506.
[197] He was at S. John’s Oxford, which he left without his degree.
[198] “Hall of S. Katerine,” the only foundation since King’s College
founded as a _hall_ not a _college_.
[199] Willis and Clark.
[200] It was the gift of Malcolm “the Maiden” of Scotland. The
monastery was much enlarged and enriched by him _circa_ 1160. Dugdale
dates the house to the middle of Stephen’s reign or perhaps as early
as 1130. In the xiii c. Constantia wife to Earl Eustace granted to the
nuns all the fisheries and water belonging to the town of Cambridge,
and the convent at that time shared with the canons of S. John’s and
the Merton scholars the fame of being the greatest landlords in the
town. See i. pp. 16, 18 and 36 _n._, vi. p. 311 and ii. p. 109. On a
stone by the south-eastern corner of the south transept in the church
there is this inscription (A.D. 1261):
_Moribus ornata
Facet hic bona Berta Rosata._
[201] Fuller.
[202] See iii. p. 165 _n._ Dyer points out that William Byngham is
called “proctor and Master of God’s House,” but not founder: he
considers that Hen. VI. was the founder, Byngham being its procurator
as Doket was procurator of Queens’ and Somerset of King’s colleges.
The facts recorded here and in chap. iii. appear to support this
conclusion. At the same time Byngham in his letter to the king in
1439 distinctly claims to have built the house: “Goddeshous the which
he hath made and edified in your towne of Cambridge.” In the case
of every Cambridge college the founder is the man who endows it. A
college may owe its existence (as certainly in Byngham’s case) to the
energies of some one else, but its founder remains the man by whom
it was built and endowed. A God’s House at Ewelme in Oxfordshire was
founded about the same time by William de la Pole and Alice his wife,
Earl and Countess of Suffolk. “It is still in being,” writes Tanner,
“but the Mastership is annexed to the King’s professor of Physic in
the university of Oxford.” A God’s house was an almshouse for some
object of mercy. Thirteen poor men were maintained at Ewelme.
[203] Founder of Emmanuel College. Fuller says he was “a serious
student in” and benefactor of this college.
[204] Refer to iv. p. 217 _n._
[205] p. 153, iii. p. 165 _n._
[206] She diverted some of her gifts to Henry VII.’s chapel at
Westminster, with the king’s consent, in favour of S. John’s College
Cambridge.
[207] “Fryvelous things, that were lytell to be regarded, she wold let
pass by, but the other that were of weyght and substance, wherein she
might proufyte, she wolde not let for any payne or labour, to take
upon hande. All Englonde for her dethe had cause of wepynge ... the
students of both the unyversytees, to whom she was as a moder; all the
learned men of Englonde, to whom she was a veray patroness ... all the
noblemen and women to whom she was a myrroure and exampler of honoure;
all the comyn people of this realme, for whom she was in their cause a
comyn medyatryce, and toke right grete displeasure for them.”
Fisher was created cardinal priest of S. Vitalis, in the modern Via
Nazionale (the ancient _titulus Vestinae_) by Paul III. When Henry
VIII. heard that the Hat had been conferred, he exclaimed that he
would not leave the bishop a head to wear it on. The following prayer
appears in the Roman breviary for the feast day of Blessed John
Fisher (June 22):--_Deus, qui beato pontifici tuo Joanni pro veritate
et justitia magno animo vitam profundere tribuisti; da nobis ejus
intercessione et exemplo; vitam nostram pro Christo in hoc mundo
perdere, ut eam in coelo invenire valeamus._
“The most inflexibly honest churchman who held a high station in that
age.“--Hallam. Fisher was confessor to Catherine of Aragon and to Lady
Margaret.
[208] See i. 38; ii. 55-6. An old Ely Chartulary says: “Henry Frost
ought never to be forgot, who gave birth to so noted a seat of
religion, and afterwards to one of the most renowned seats of learning
in Europe.”
[209] _History of the College of S. John the Evangelist_, Baker-Mayor,
pp. 22-3.
[210] _Lit. Pat. 9 Edw. I. membr. 28_ (23 Dec. 1280). Printed in
Commission Documents vol. ii. p. 1.
[211] Willis and Clark.
[212] See p. 103 _n._
[213] v. p. 278.
[214] Overall had been a scholar at Trinity, and was Master of S.
Catherine’s.
[215] Metcalfe was the Catholic Master who made the great reputation
of S. John’s, but whom “the young fry of fellows” combined to oust in
1534. “Did not all the bricks of the college that day double their dye
of redness to blush at the ingratitude of those that dwelt therein?”
(Fuller.)
[216] He was buried by the side of Sir Thomas More in the chapel of S.
Peter ad Vincula in the Tower.
[217] Constitutions for the reform of the Black Benedictine,
Cistercian, and Augustinian Orders, issued in 1335, 1337, 1339.
[218] i. p. 27. The university for English and Irish monks provided by
papal authority and by the Cistercian Constitutions was Oxford. The
licence for Monks’ hostel Cambridge stipulates that all monks of the
order of S. Benedict in England or in other the king’s dominions shall
henceforth dwell there together during the university course. There
was a small recrudescence of monastic studies in Cambridge in the xiv
c. when Ely hostel was built, and from this time forward 3 or 4 Ely
monks were regularly to be found pursuing the university course there
(Testimony of John of Sudbury, prior of students, at the Northampton
chapter in 1426). But there was no prior of students at Cambridge till
towards the end of that century; Ely hostel itself was dismantled
before the middle of the century; the black monks of Norwich however
came to Cambridge under Bateman’s influence with what the bull of
Sixtus IV. 150 years later shows to have been considerable constancy.
See Caius pp. 143-4, 144 _n._
[219] Chambers for Crowland were built by its abbot John of Wisbeach
in 1476. John de Bardenay had preceded John of Sudbury as prior of
Benedictines in 1423, and both were probably Crowland monks.
[220] Dugdale. When Charles V. heard that Stafford Duke of Buckingham
had been beheaded through the machinations of the butcher’s son
Wolsey, he exclaimed: “A butcher’s dog has killed the fairest buck in
England!”
[221] It is clear from the masonry of the chapel that this was
anterior to the college of 1519. See Willis and Clark ii. 362, 364.
[222] Corpus hall is the only one in Cambridge not provided with a
musicians’ gallery.
[223] The retired position of the earlier college had been, he held,
a salutary assistance to study: it “stood on the transcantine side,
an anchoret in itself, severed by the river from the rest of the
university.”
[224] Fuller and Carter say the college site was purchased by the
convents of Ely, Ramsey, and Walden. Cf. p. 128.
[225] Grindal is a good instance of a migrating student: he entered at
Magdalene, and subsequently migrated to Christ’s and Pembroke, where
he became fellow and Master.
[226] The university statute providing for the commemoration of
benefactors and others, directs that mass be said every 5th of May for
Edward II. as founder of King’s Hall.
[227] Which is on the site of the hall, pulled down in 1557 to make
room for the chapel.
[228] For changes made in the Mill Street district in the xv c. when
the School’s Quadrangle and King’s College were built, cf. pp. 24, 24
_n._, 25 _n._, 97 _n._, 101.
[229] There was a fellows’ “parloure” in King’s Hall as early as
1423-4.
[230] There is a fine series of most valuable portraits in the Lodge;
among them one of Mary, and the standing portrait of the young Henry
VIII. which Wordsworth made the subject of a poem. A careful list of
university portraits appears at the end of Atkinson’s volume, but
such a list--useful and valuable as it is--tucked away somewhere in a
book on Cambridge is not an adequate homage to so important a source
of university history as these portraits. The loan exhibition at the
Fitzwilliam Museum in 1884-5 was the first attempt to collect the
Cambridge pictures: the example was followed by Oxford in 1904-6, and
the Catalogue of portraits then published is a model of what can and
should be done.
No complete list of the portraits of either university, however, at
present exists. Many canvasses remain unidentified or misidentified;
some are doubtless perishing for want of care, and the artist’s name
has long disappeared from many more. The work therefore that remains
to be done is a big one, but is eminently worth the doing.
[231] A sedan coach is preserved in the entrance hall of Trinity
Lodge, and is used to transport visitors from the Gateway to the Lodge
when the Master entertains. It is the college tradition that the coach
was presented by Mrs. Worsley, wife of the then Master of Downing,
to Christopher Wordsworth Master of Trinity, and brother of the poet
(1820-41).
[232] This is the largest college library but it is not the most
ancient. Peterhouse led the way in the xiii century with divinity and
medicine books of Balsham’s. In 1418, 380 volumes were catalogued,
containing “from six to seven hundred distinct treatises.” Here were
to be found books on law, medicine, astrology, and natural philosophy,
as well as the preponderating theological tomes. Trinity Hall was
another famous xiv century library, and Pembroke has a catalogue of
books in that and the next century amounting to 140 volumes. In the xv
century Queens’ had 224, and S. Catherine’s 137 (in 1472 and 1475).
In 1571 the French ambassador to this country deemed the library at
Peterhouse “the worthiest in all England” Cf. the university library,
p. 98.
[233] His name appears in the House List of King’s Hall.
[234] The tithes of Great S. Mary’s and Chesterton both belonged to
King’s Hall, on which the advowson of S. Peter’s Northampton was
bestowed, as Cherry Hinton had been bestowed on Peterhouse. The
rectory of Chesterton, which had pertained till then to the monastery
of Vercelli, was given by Eugenius IV.
[235] Removed to its present position by Nevile in 1600; see p. 132.
[236] p. 102 _n._
[237] See p. 133.
[238] Willis and Clark.
[239] iii. p. 179.
[240] iii. p. 174.
[241] iii. p. 180.
[242] Closed courts, however, continued to be built at Oxford; a late
instance being the second court of S. John’s built by Laud so that his
college should not be outshone by its Cambridge namesake.
[243] Bull of Sixtus IV. 1481. The bull recites that in the time
of William Bishop of Norwich the Norwich Benedictines had been
accustomed to lodge at Gonville and Trinity Hall where Bateman had
made convenient arrangements for them. When the pope proceeds to say
that Benedict XI. had required all Benedictines who wished to study
in Cambridge to live _in certo alio collegio dictae universitatis_,
“deputed ad hoc,” he is mistaking the authorisation of Monks’ hostel
50 years before for the papal Constitution of 150 years before, as
he mistakes Benedict XI. for Benedict XII. The suggestion that he
refers to University Hall (the _hospicium universitatis_) is certainly
erroneous: the words above quoted simply mean “in the said university”
and not “the college called university college“: there was no such
house for monks in Cambridge between 1347 and 1428, when “the college
deputed in the said university ad hoc“--Monks’ College--was founded.
Benedict’s Constitution does not specify whether the religious are to
dwell in common, or not.
[244] Cf. Magdalene, p. 127.
[245] v. p. 286. Cudworth was afterwards Master of Clare, then of
Christ’s; Whichcote became Provost of King’s.
[246] p. 126.
[247] The spot is marked by the black tombstone in the present
farmyard, half way between Cambridge and Ely.
[248] At her own request made to Louis XI. The tomb was destroyed
during the Revolution.
[249] The seat of the Bedfordshire Beauchamps, her mother’s family.
[250] A headless skeleton found, before the middle of last century,
near the spot where tradition says that Henry Duke of Buckingham
suffered, is presumed to be that of the duke, of whose burial there is
no other record. Hatcher’s _History of Salisbury_, 1843.
[251] Elizabeth Clare was heir to her brother who fell at Bannockburn:
Marie Chatillon was widow of Valence Earl of Pembroke who fell in the
wars against Bruce. The only Scotch benefactor was Malcolm the Maiden
who endowed the nunnery of S. Rhadegund; but this was before colleges
were built.
[252] “_Ex omni dioecesi et qualibet parte hujus regni nostri Angliae,
tam ex Wallia quam ex Hibernia._” There were, however, Scotchmen at
Cambridge in the xiv c., i. p. 37.
[253] To this day Pembroke fellowships are open to men “of any
nation and any county,” whereas at other colleges (as e.g. Corpus)
the restriction is to “any subjects of the king, wherever born.” Cf.
Jebb’s “_Bentley_,” p. 92.
[254] See divinity, canon and civil law, medicine, arts, and grammar
in the next chapter, pp. 164-7.
[255] To these must be added: insurance, rates, and taxes, repairs,
legal expenses, printing, and stationery, gifts made by the
university, and the _honorarium_ paid to the university preacher.
[256] Fuller.
[257] Magdalene, S. Catherine’s, Downing, Queens’, Peterhouse, Corpus,
and Trinity Hall are the small and least wealthy colleges, and in this
order. All the others have a gross income of over £10,000 a year. The
income of all the colleges is published annually in Whitaker.
[258] University College contributed £50.
[259] See p. 167.
[260] A man’s university and the faculty in which he has graduated are
shown by the hood: the Cambridge master’s hood is black silk lined
with white silk; the bachelor’s black stuff hood is trimmed with white
rabbit fur. The doctors in the three faculties wear scarlet silk hoods
lined with pink and violet shot silk (_D.D._), cherry silk (_LL.D._)
and magenta silk (_M.D._).
_B.D.’s_ wear a hood of black silk inside and out; _LL.M.’s_ wear an
_M.A.’s_ hood; _LL.B.’s_, a _B.A.’s_ hood; _M.B.’s_ a black hood lined
with scarlet.
The _Mus.Doc._ wears a brocaded hood lined with cherry satin;
_Mus.Bac._ black silk lined with cherry silk and trimmed with rabbit
fur; _Litt.D._ scarlet silk inside and out; _D.Sc._ scarlet, lined
with shot pink and light blue silk.
[261] Thus the _knight bachelor_ is one enjoying the titular degree
and rank of knighthood, without membership of any knightly order, to
the companionship of which he is supposed to be an aspirant.
[262] The study of sophistry or dialectic, which preceded Aristotle’s
analytical logic.
[263] Junior and senior sophister and bachelor: Fuller writing of
Northampton says: “But this university never lived to commence
Bachelor of Art, Senior Sophister was all the standing it attained
unto. For, four years after,” etc.
On tutors’ bills a century ago the style of _dominus_ was always
given to bachelors, that of “Mr.” to masters; the undergraduate had
to be content with “freshman” or “sophister.” The bachelors are still
designated _dominus_ in the degree lists; a style which reminds us of
the clerical “dan” of Chaucer’s time, and the Scotch “dominie” for a
schoolmaster. For the degree ceremonies and processions see _Peacock_,
_Appendix A_.
[264] Regent: _regere_ like _legere_, to teach; cf. the _doctores
legentes_ and _non-legentes_ of Bologna: _regere scholas_, and
_officium regendi_ occur in Bury school records, xii c. (Brit. Mus.
Add. MSS. 14,848, fol. 136). A congregation of the Cambridge masters,
regents and non-regents, met in S. Mary’s church as early as 1275.
[265] It must be realised that the degree in arts always differed
from degrees in theology law and medicine inasmuch as these latter
implied competence to exercise the corresponding professions. There
was no such corresponding profession in the case of arts, except
that of the schoolmaster. The clergyman, lawyer, or doctor at least
exercised himself in these subjects, but the “artist” unless he was a
regent-master, or a _magister scholarum_ elsewhere, left his studies
when he left his university.
[266] “The Tripos is a paper containing the names of the principal
graduates for the year. It also contains 2 copies of verses written by
two of the undergraduates, who are appointed to that employment by the
proctors.“--Dyer. An extract from one of these sets of tripos verses
is given in Dyer, _Hist. Camb._ ii. 89.
[267] It was at this time that the moderators were substituted for the
proctors, see p. 183.
[268] pp. 168, 169.
[269] Cf. p. 189, the lecture.
[270] The derivation is Prof. Skeat’s.
[271] The school of glomery was nourishing in 1452 (Ely Register
_anno_ 1452); but a few years previously, when the statutes of King’s
College were written, it was understood that grammar would be studied
at Eton not at Cambridge. A century later (1549) the parliamentary
commissioners introduced mathematics into the _trivium_ where it
replaced grammar. A school of grammar existed at the university side
by side with the school of glomery [see the provision for the teaching
of grammar at God’s House (below) and Peterhouse and Clare p. 153 of
the last chapter]. As late as 1500 there was a _magister grammaticae_
and a _magister glomeriae_, who, _in ejus defectu_, is represented
by proctors (_Stat. Cant._). “The Master of Grammar shall be browght
by the Bedyll to the Place where the Master of Glomerye dwellyth, at
iij of the Clocke, and the Master of Glomerye shall go before, and
his eldest son nexte him.” A.D. 1591 (_Stokys in G.
Peacock_). By Fuller’s time the master of glomery had ceased to exist.
His work seems to have resembled the preparatory work of the Previous
Examinations at the university to-day.
In the Curteys Register of Bury-St.-Edmund’s (in the time
of Abbot Sampson xii c.) we have the students of dialectic
distinguished from the students of grammar and the latter from
other scholars--“_dialecticos glomerellos seu discipulos_,” and
“_glomerellos seu discipulos indistincte_”; surely a clear reference
to two branches of the _trivium_. The use of the word _glomerel_ in
O.E. law to signify an officer who adjusts disputes between scholars
and townsmen, is obviously the result of a misinterpretation of
Balsham’s rescript of 1276 “_Inprimis volumus et ordinamus quod
magister glomeriae Cant. qui pro tempore fuerit, audiat et dicedat
universas glomerellorum ex parte rea existentium.... Ita quod sive
sint scholares sive laici qui glomerellos velint convenire ... per
viam judicialis indaginis, hoc faciat coram magistro glomeriae...._”
The form of the latter’s oath to the Archdeacon of Ely and the
functions which fell to the master of glomery when the school became
decadent, may also have led to the mistake (which was made by Spelman
as regards the Cambridge glomerels). Cf. i. p. 14, iv. p. 207 _n._,
and Fuller, Prickett-Wright Ed. pp. 52-4. The second of these editors,
indeed, was the first to call attention (in 1840) to the irrefutable
evidence in the Cole and Baker MSS. as to the meaning of master
and school of glomery, and to light on the confirmation from the
university of Orléans in the verses of the troubadour Rutebeuf. For
glomery, see also _Peacock, Appendix A, xxxii-xxxvi_.
The foundation of God’s House in 1439 was due to Parson Byngham’s
zealous desire to remedy “the default and lack of scolemaisters of
gramer,” following on the Black Death. In a touching letter to the
king (Henry VI.) Byngham points out “how greatly the clergy of your
realm is like to be empeired and febled” by the default, and relates
that “over the est parte of the wey ledyng from Hampton” to Coventry
alone, “and no ferther north yan Rypon,” _70 schools_ were empty
for lack of teachers. “For all liberall sciences used in your seid
universitees certein lyflode is ordeyned, savyng only for gramer.”
[272] See chapter i. p. 33.
[273] _Royal Injunctions_ to the university of 1535, requiring the
denial of papal supremacy. “King Henry stung with the dilatory pleas
of the canonists at Rome in point of his marriage, did in revenge
destroy their whole hive throughout his own universities,” _Fuller_.
The last Cambridge doctor in canon law “commenced” in this reign.
[274] The usual course is to take the special medical examinations
with the First Part of the natural sciences tripos. Sometimes however
these are taken in addition to the ordinary _B.A._ degree. The last of
the three _M.B._ examinations is divided into two parts, of which Part
I. is taken at the end of the fourth year of medical study, and Part
II. after six years, three of which must have been spent in medical
and surgical practice and hospital work. The keeping of the “act” is
not intended to be a mere form, and students are advised to prepare
for it during the years of their hospital practice.
[275] The degrees of bachelor of surgery (a registrable qualification)
and master of surgery require no separate examination; the candidate
must have done all that is required of a bachelor of medicine; but
bachelors of surgery who are not also masters of arts cannot incept
until three years have passed since they took the _B.C._, and masters
of arts must have become legally qualified surgeons.
[276] Whitgift’s thesis for the _D.D._ degree (1570) was “_Papa est
ille anti-Christus_“--‘the pope is himself anti-Christ.’
[277] _Erasm. Epist._ (London 1642), _Liber secundus, Epist. 10_.
Letter to Bullock dated from the Palace at Rochester, August 31, 1516.
[278] Or were relegated to the previous examinations.
[279] Till then it had meant Aristotle: the statutes of Queens’ and
Christ’s, framed within 50 years of one another, provide for its
teaching--“the natural, moral, and _metaphysical_ philosophy of
Aristotle”; and even in Fuller’s time these metaphysics were the study
of the bachelor of arts: “Let a _sophister_ begin with his axioms, a
_batchelor of art_ proceed to his _metaphysicks_, a _master_ to his
_mathematicks_, and a _divine_ conclude with his _controversies_ and
_comments_ on scripture....”
Philosophy, meaning Aristotle, had come in to disturb the peace and
the sufficiency of the old ‘seven arts.’
[280] William Everett, _M.A._, 1865.
[281] It has been said that senior wranglers are hidden in country
rectories and are never heard of again. In a hundred and sixty years
(1747-1906) there have been eight senior wranglers who could be placed
in the first rank as mathematicians and physicists:
Herschell 1813
Airy 1823
Stokes 1841
Cayley 1842
Adams 1843
Todhunter 1848
Routh 1854
Rayleigh 1865
Paley, in 1763, was the first distinguished senior wrangler. On the
other hand Colenso Whewell and Lord Kelvin were second wranglers, so
was the geometrician Sylvester; de Morgan and Pritchard were fourth
wranglers; the learned Porteous was tenth wrangler, Lord Manners (Lord
Chancellor of Ireland) was 5th, Lord Ellenborough (Lord Chief Justice)
3rd, Lord Lyndhurst (Lord Chancellor) second.
[282] Another distinguished Oxonian, and East Anglian, Grosseteste,
attempted in the xiii c. the re-introduction of Greek into England;
but the foreign linguists whom he invited to St. Albans left no
successors.
[283] The west countryman Grocyn (b. 1442) who learnt his Greek in
Italy and returned to teach it in Oxford was, chronologically, the
first English classical scholar since the revival of learning.
[284] “All students equally contributed to his” (Croke’s) “lectures,
whether they heard or heard them not.” _Fuller_.
[285] REVIVERS OF GREEK IN CAMBRIDGE.
[Sidenote: First period: Early patrons of Greek learning, and the
group round Erasmus.]
1. John Fisher, b. Beverley, Yorks, 1459. Chancellor of the
university, Master of Michaelhouse, President of Queens’, a
co-founder of S. John’s. Though not himself a Greek classic, one
of the chief instruments of its introduction into Cambridge. See
also ii. pp. 120-21.
2. John Tonnys, _D.D._ prior at Cambridge and provincial of the
Augustinians. Ob. 1510. One of the first men in the university to
desire to learn Greek.
3. John Caius, ii. pp. 141-2 (lectured in Greek at Padua after
leaving Cambridge).
4. Erasmus, _D.D._ Queens’, Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at
Cambridge, and lecturer in Greek. Befriended by Fisher, Warham,
Tunstall, and Fox, but opposed by the Oxonian Lee, Abp. of York.
Left Cambridge 1513.
5. Richard Fox (Bishop of Winchester) Master of Pembroke College.
Introduces Greek learning into his college of Corpus Christi,
Oxford, and founds the first Greek lectureship at the sister
university.
6. Cuthbert Tunstall (Balliol Oxford, King’s Hall Cambridge, and
university of Padua) b. 1474. Ob. 1559. Bishop of Durham.
7. Henry Bullock, fellow of Queens’ and vice-chancellor.
8. John Bryan, fellow of King’s, ob. 1545. Lectured on Greek
before the appointment of Croke.
9. Robert Aldrich, fellow of King’s, senior proctor 1523-4, Bp. of
Carlisle.
10. Richard Croke or Crooke, scholar of King’s 1506; later a pupil
of Grocyn’s; studied Greek in Italy at the charges of Abp. Warham.
Greek tutor to Henry VIII. Appointed first Reader in Greek at
Cambridge 1519; and was first Public Orator. Afterwards professor
of Greek at Oxford.
11. Tyndale, b. circa 1486, ob. 1536 (resided at Cambridge between
1514-1521, and owed his Greek to that university). Left Oxford for
Cambridge, as Erasmus had done, probably on account of the sworn
hostility at Oxford to classical learning. See his “Answer” to
Sir Thomas More, written in 1530 (Mullinger, _The University of
Cambridge_ p. 590).
[Sidenote: Greek Classics, Second period.]
Roger Ascham, b. 1515, fellow of S. John’s. Reader in Greek and
Public Orator in the university. Tutor to Mary, Elizabeth, and
Lady Jane Grey.
Sir Thomas Smith, b. 1514, _LL.D._ Queens’. Regius Professor of
Law and Reader in Greek at Cambridge, and Public Orator.
Sir John Cheke, b. 1514 at Cambridge, fellow of S. John’s. First
Regius Professor of Greek. [”Thy age, like ours, O soul of Sir
John Cheek | Hated not learning worse than toad or asp, | When
thou taught’st Cambridge, and King Edward, Greek” (Milton).]
Nicholas Carr, fellow of Pembroke, who replaced Cheke. Ob. Cambs.
1568-9. (As with other Cambridge men he joined science and
classics, and afterwards became a doctor of physic.)
Richard Cox, scholar of King’s (v. pp. 272-4). One of the
introducers of Greek and the new learning into Oxford.
Francis Dillingham, fellow of Christ’s. One of the translators of
the English bible.
Dr. Thomas Watts, of Caius, who endowed 7 “Greek scholars” at
Pembroke College in the xvi century.
[Sidenote: A few later names.]
Augustine Bryan, ob. 1726, Trinity College,
Jeremiah Markland, b. 1693, fellow and tutor of Peterhouse.
Richard Bentley, 1662-1742, of S. John’s, Master of Trinity.
Richard Porson, 1759-1808, scholar and fellow of Trinity, Regius
Professor of Greek.
Thirlwall, b. 1797, fellow of Trinity, Bishop of S. David’s.
W. H. Thompson, ob. 1886, Trinity. Regius Professor of Greek,
Master of Trinity.
Sir R. C. Jebb, ob. 1906, Trinity, Regius Professor of Greek.
REVIVERS OF GREEK IN OXFORD.
1. William Selling. Got his love of Greek from Italy. Taught at
Canterbury. Afterwards of All Souls’ Oxford.
2. Linacre, b. _circa_ 1460 and studied at Canterbury with
Selling, and at Oxford under Vitelli, but learnt his Greek in
Italy. Lectured in Oxford on physic. Tutor to Prince Arthur. Ob.
1524.
{ 3. Grocyn b. Bristol 1442. New and Exeter Colleges,
Inspired by { Oxford. The first to lecture on Greek.
Linacre to start { 4. William Latymer, educated at Padua, but afterwards
for Italy to { a fellow at Oxford.
learn Greek. { 5. William Lily, b. Hants. 1468, learnt Greek at Rhodes
{ and Rome.
6. Colet, b. 1466. At Oxford and Paris; learnt Greek in Italy.
7. Thomas More, b. 1480. Learnt Greek with Linacre and Grocyn.
8. Richard Pace.
[286] Namely “in King’s Hall, King’s, S. John’s and Christ’s
Colleges, Michaelhouse, Peterhouse, Gonville, Trinity Hall, Pembroke
Hall, Queens’, Jesus, and Buckingham Colleges, Clare Hall and Benet
College.” Royal Injunctions of 1535.
[287] The ancient pronunciation of Latin (so far as it can be
recovered) has been taught, as an alternative, at Cambridge for
the last 25 years, and has of late been widely adopted there, as
elsewhere. Perhaps at the bottom of the preference for English Latin
there lies the notion that without it Latin would no longer be the
English scholar’s second tongue. The simple retort is that with it
Latin is no longer (has not been for centuries) a common medium, the
second tongue, of European scholars. Anglicised Greek is due to Sir
John Cheke and Sir Thomas Smith, though it was promptly abolished at
the time by Stephen Gardiner then chancellor of the university, and
opposed also by Caius. “Nor mattereth it if foreigners should dissent,
seeing hereby we Englishmen shall understand one another,” so Fuller
explains the position.
[288] Paley continued to keep his traditional hold on Cambridge
through the divinity paper in the “Little Go” which is based upon
the “Evidences for Christianity.” On the other hand logic has
recaptured the place which Aristotle held in the general curriculum
by being admitted, since 1884, as the alternative subject for Paley’s
“Evidences.”
[289] Lord Maynard of Wicklow (S. John’s College) endowed a professor
of logic at Cambridge in the reign of James I., with £40-50 a year.
For university activity in philosophy in the xvii c. see chapter v.
pp. 284-90.
[290] One must not forget, however, that both the remarkable men who
planted the study of the experimental sciences in Cambridge were
distinguished ‘classics’ as well as scientists.
[291] Letter of Vice-Chancellor Byng to Burleigh then chancellor of
the university, 14 Dec. 1572, in which he advises him of a “greate
oversighte of Dr. Caius” who had long kept “superstitious monuments
in his college.” “I could hardly have been perswadid,” he continues,
“that suche things by him had been reservid.”
“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.... We leave the heat of his faith to God’s sole
judgment, and the light of his good works to men’s imitation,” writes
old Fuller.
[292] Chairs of anatomy, botany, geology, and astronomy had been
created in the first quarter of that century. See also Peterhouse p.
153.
[293] For the natural sciences professorships, see pp. 190-92, and
_n._ p. 192.
[294] “In barb’rous Latin doom’d to wrangle” writes Byron of the
Cambridge of his time.
[295] The year is counted from the beginning of the academic year,
_i.e._ Oct. 1747--the first degrees were taken in 1748.
[296] A classified list of civil law graduates exists from the year
1815. There used to be a university _title S.C.L._ (Student of Civil
Law) in relation to the civil law classes. The Act of 20-21 Vict.,
disestablishing civil law in the courts, led to a revolution of law
studies at Cambridge. From then dates the abolition of the old quaint
ceremonies and disputations connected with this faculty.
[297] From 1870, before the creation of the history tripos,
examinations were conducted in a mixed law and history tripos.
[298] Among educational reformers in the second half of the xviii
c. Dr. John Jebb must not be omitted. To him is due the annual test
examinations of tripos students called ‘the Mays,’ and perhaps also
the “Little-Go.” He was a distinguished scientist, and member of
Peterhouse.
[299] Cf. chap. ii. p. 61 and chap. iv. p. 241.
[300] “Poll,” οἱ πολλοἱ.
[301] In 1835 Goulburn (afterwards Bishop of Trinidad) was second
wrangler and senior classic; in 1828 Selwyn, another bishop, was
senior classic and sixth wrangler. For the 2 triposes cf. iv. p. 238
_n._
[302] “Within 2-1/2 miles in a direct line” from Great S. Mary’s. For
the academic year see iv. p. 241, and _n._ p. 182.
[303] Part I. of most of the divided triposes entitles to the degree.
Advanced and research students (p. 241) are entitled to the _B.A._
and higher degrees after receiving a “certificate of research” and
residing for 6 terms at the university.
[304] The Previous Examination or “Little-Go,” as it is popularly
called, consists of two parts, the first containing 5 papers on (_a_)
one of the four Gospels in Greek (set book) (_b_) a Latin classic
(set book) (_c_) a Greek classic (set book) (_d_) simple unprepared
passages in Latin (_e_) simple Latin and Greek syntax. Since 1884
a Greek or Latin classic may be substituted for the Greek Gospel.
Part II., since June 1903, consists of 5 papers on (1) Paley’s
Evidences, for which since 1884, elementary logic may be substituted
(2) geometry (3) arithmetic (4) elementary algebra (5) subjects for
an English essay from some standard English work or works. Until 1903
the geometry paper was exclusively on Euclid’s lines, and required
knowledge of the first three books and of parts of the vth and vith
books. To qualify for admission to an ‘Honours’ examination a student
must pass in certain subjects ‘additional’ to the ordinary Previous
Examination. He is now allowed to choose between (1) additional
Mathematics (Mechanics and Trigonometry) (2) French (3) German.
A student must satisfy the examiners both as to grammar and
orthography in answering the questions--a last relic of the grammar
studies of the university!
The General Examination, taken by those who read for the ordinary
degree, includes (in Pt. I.) (1) a Greek classic (2) Latin classic
(3) mechanics (4) simple trigonometry [(5) English passages for
translation into Latin prose]. (Pt. II.) (1) The Acts of the Apostles
in Greek (2) English history, selected period (3) subjects for an
English essay, from the selected period (4) elementary hydrostatics
and heat [(5) a paper on a Shakespeare play or on Milton’s works]. The
5th paper in each part is not obligatory.
The Cambridge General Examination for the ordinary degree leaves much
to be desired.
The Special Examination for the ordinary degree may be in one of the
following subjects: (_a_) _Theology_ (_b_) _Political Economy_ (_c_)
_Law_ (_d_) _History_ (_e_) _Chemistry_ (_f_) _Physics_ (_g_) _Modern
Languages_ (_h_) _Mathematics_ (_i_) _Classics_ (_k_) _Logic_ (_l_)
_Geology_ (_m_) _Botany_ (_n_) _Zoology_ (_o_) _Physiology_ (_p_)
_Mechanism and Applied Science_ (_q_) _Agricultural Science_ (_r_)
_Music_. The standard for the subjects _k_, _l_, _m_, _n_, _o_, is
that of the papers on those subjects in the first part of the moral
and natural sciences triposes. The standard in the Theological Special
examination may be judged from the following: Pt. I. (1) Outlines of
O. T. history (2) a gospel in Greek [(3) history of the Jews from the
close of O. T. history to the fall of Jerusalem]. Pt. II. (1) Selected
portions of historical and prophetical books (2) one or more of the
epistles in Greek (3) outlines of English Church history to 1830 [(4)
selected portion of historical books of O. T. in Hebrew. (5) outlines
of Early Church history to the death of Leo the Great. (6) paper on
a selected period of English Church history]. (7) Essay subjects
on the subject matter of papers (1) (2) and (3). But paper (3) in
Pt. I. and 4, 5, and 6 in Pt. II. are not obligatory. Law Special
examination:--Pt. I. (_a_) some branch of English constitutional
law (_b_) English criminal law [(_c_) select cases in illustration
(voluntary)]. Pt. II. (1) elementary English law relating to real
property (2) English law of contract or tort, or similar. [(3) select
cases in illustration (voluntary)]. (4) Essay on the subject matter of
(1) and (2).
The first part of the Historical Special examination consists of 3
papers on English history before 1485, the third on a special period
being optional. Pt. II. contains 5 papers (1) outline of general
English history from 1485-1832. (2) outlines of English constitutional
history for the same period (3) a period or a subject in foreign
history (4) a special period of English history. [(5) an essay,
optional]. The Mathematical Special is all elementary. The Classical
Special is on the lines of the Previous Examination--set papers on
portions of two Greek and Latin prose and two Greek and Latin poetic
authors; to which is added an unprepared Greek and an unprepared
Latin translation and a Latin prose composition. The papers on Greek
and Roman history belonging to Pt. I. (Greek) or Pt. II. (Latin) are
optional. Candidates for all these examinations may present themselves
again in case of failure.
The standard of the tripos examination may be gauged by the following
examination schedules for (A) Classics (B) Moral Sciences. (A) Pt.
I. 15 papers--4 composition papers; 5 translation; (10) History of
words and forms, and syntax, in both classical languages. (11) Short
Greek and Latin passages relating to history and antiquities of
Greece and Rome for translation and comment. (12) A paper on history
and antiquities. (13) Same as 11, with reference to Greek and Roman
philosophy, literature, sculpture and architecture. (14) Same as 12
(the questions on Greek philosophy being on portion of a set book).
(15) Essay.
Pt. II. Examination in 1 or 2 of the 5 following sections: (1)
Literature and criticism (2) ancient philosophy. (3) history. (4)
archaeology. (5) language. The following are examples of Sections
(1) and (5): I. (_a_) Questions on the history of Greek literature
and passages illustrating Greek literary history or criticism for
translation and comment. (_b_) The same, Latin. (_c_) Passages
from Greek and Latin authors for interpretation, grammatical
comment, or emendation; on the paleography and history of Greek and
Latin MSS., and the principles of textual criticism; questions on
textual criticism of a Greek _or_ Latin author (set book). (_d_)
A special author (set book) or a special department of Greek or
Latin literature. (_e_) paper of essays. V. (_a_) Greek etymology
and history of Greek dialects. Greek syntax. (_b_) Latin, collated
with cognate Italic dialects, and syntax. (_c_) Easy passages from
Sanskrit authors (set books) for translation and comment, and simple
Sanskrit grammar. (_d_) and last, general questions on the comparative
grammar and syntax of the Indo-European languages. Early Indo-European
civilisation. Indo-European accent. Greek and Italic alphabets.
The Italic dialects. The whole of these two examinations, with the
exception of one portion of paper 14 in Pt. I. and one portion of
papers _c_ and _d_ in Pt. II. Section I., deal with unseen Greek and
Latin authors.
(B) Moral Sciences:--Pt. I. _Psychology_ (2 papers). Standpoint, data,
and methods of psychology. Its fundamental conceptions and hypotheses.
Relations of psychology to physics, physiology, and metaphysics.
(_a_) analysis of consciousness. (_b_) sensation and physiology of
the senses--perception. (_c_) Images and ideas. (_d_) Thought and
formation of concepts. Judgment. (_e_) Emotions, and theories of
emotional expression. (_f_) Volition--pleasure and pain--conflict of
emotions. [In the 2nd part, advanced knowledge on these subjects is
required, plus a knowledge of the physiology of the senses and nervous
system, etc., and of mental pathology in its relation to psychology.]
_Logic_ (2 papers). Province of logic, formal and material. Relation
of logic to psychology, and to the theory of knowledge. (_a_)
names and concepts, definition and division, predicables. (_b_)
classification of judgments and propositions. Theory of the import of
propositions. (_c_) laws of thought, syllogisms, symbolic logic. (_d_)
induction and deduction. (_e_) observation and experiment, hypotheses,
classification, theory of probabilities. (_f_) inference and proof.
Fallacies. [In the 2nd part, advanced knowledge of these subjects and
of the controversies connected with them is required.]
_Ethics_ (1 paper), (_a_) moral judgment, intuition, and
reasoning, motives, pleasure and pain, free will and
determinism, (_b_) ends of moral action--right and wrong--moral
sanctions--obligation--duty--pleasures and pains. (_c_) types of moral
character. Principles of social and political justice. (_d_) The moral
faculty, its origin and development. (_e_) relation of ethics to
psychology, sociology, and politics.
Two papers on political economy and an essay paper exhaust Pt. I.
For those who proceed to Pt. II., two papers on metaphysical and moral
philosophy (as below) must be answered, one on the general history of
modern philosophy, and _one_ or _two_ of the 3 following papers (A)
Psychology II.; (B) Logic II.; (Special) history of modern philosophy
(subject announced each year); _or_ (C) papers in politics and in
advanced political economy:
Metaphysical and moral philosophy:--(_a_) analysis of knowledge,
material and formal elements of knowledge, self-consciousness,
uniformity and continuity of experience. (_b_) identity and
difference, relation, space and time, unity and number, substance,
cause. (_c_) certainty, and necessities of thought. (_d_) fundamental
assumptions of physical science--causality, continuity etc. (_e_)
sources and limits of knowledge, relativity of knowledge, phenomena,
and things in themselves. (_f_) fundamental assumptions of ethics,
absolute and relative ethics, intuitionism, utilitarianism,
evolutionism, transcendentalism. (_g_) mechanical and dynamical
theories of matter, relations of mind and matter, problem of the
external world, idealism, dualism, freedom of intelligence, and of
will, good and evil in the universe, teleology.
[305] Even if the candidate answer most of the tripos papers the
conditions of the _aegrotat_ degree preclude his being placed in any
one of the classes. Edmund Spenser the poet and Lancelot Andrewes
the scholar-bishop were both on the _aegrotat_ list of Pembroke
College--in 1571--before, however, this necessarily implied absence
from any of the university “acts.”
[306] Since going to press, this change has been effected.
[307] See chap. iv. p. 225.
[308] This professorship was an expansion of the natural science
lectureships founded by the great Linacre.
[309] A chair of history was endowed by Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke,
with £100 a year, in the reign of Charles I. It no longer exists.
[310] A list of the professorships, with date of creation and
emoluments, and of the readers and lecturers, appears in the
University Calendar every year.
There were no less than 7 chairs of medicine and natural science
before 1851 when the tripos was created. The chairs existed, but with
no scientific school to support them.
[311] In 1524 the executors of Sir Robert Rede, Lord Chief Justice,
endowed _tres liberae lecturae_ in humane letters, logic, and
philosophy; and many distinguished men have been invited to deliver
this annual lecture. The Hulsean lecture was founded in the xviii c.
The first _exhibitions_ were founded in the xiii c. by Kilkenny, 9th
Bishop of Ely, Balsham’s predecessor, for “2 priests studying divinity
in Cambridge.”
[312] Towards the end of the xv c. we have several instances of papal
degrees conferred on members of religious orders which were followed
by incorporation and full membership of Cambridge university. Thus
_frater Steele_ “of Rome” was incorporated in 1492, and _frater
Raddyng_ as a doctor five years later.
[313] 1539 Eligius Ferrers, _D.D._; 1544 a Venetian _B.A. ad eundem_;
1559, _circa_, a _B.D._; 1615 an _M.A._ created _B.D._; 1617 the same;
1619 an _M.A._; 1635 the archdeacon of Essex _M.A._, is created _B.D._
[314] Archbishop Sumner (1848-62) 120 degrees; Langley (1862-68) 46;
Tait (1868-82) 101; Benson (1882-96) 55; Temple (1896-1903) 12.
[315] Degrees in the 3 faculties are conferred without examination.
Since Aug. 1858 degrees in medicine have carried with them no
qualification to practise.
All candidates for the _M.A._ must pass an examination in preliminary
arithmetic, Greek gospels, and English language and literature: the
two classical languages, modern languages, mathematics, mental and
moral sciences, and the natural sciences, forming 6 subjects from
which the candidate must choose two, and the standard enforced being
“that of candidates for honours at the universities.” The Stamp Duty
and other expenses reach at least £55.
[316] An _ad eundem_ was given in 1501 to a Roman graduate by grace of
the Senate.
[317] See iv. p. 218.
[318] Cf. ii. pp. 52-3.
[319] The _cancellarius scholasticus_ of a cathedral chapter.
[320] The earliest chancellor of whom we have a mention belongs to the
year 1246 (_Baker MSS._). A list of chancellors exists from the year
1283, and is reprinted in Carter, _History of the University_. Among
xiv c. chancellors belonging to great families, we have--
Stephen Segrave 1303-6
Richard le Scrope 1378
Guy de Zouche 1379
John de Cavendish 1380
John de Burgh 1385.
See v. p. 307 _n._ The name recorded in 1246 is Hugo de Hottun
(Hatton?).
[321] By acts of the university 1504 and 1514.
[322] Fuller places the first vice-chancellor in the year 1417, after
Stephen le Scrope and Repingale Bishop of Chichester had held the
chancellorship--1414 and 1415. Men “of great employment” began then to
fill the position, and hence, he says, the necessity. 1454 is however
the date of the earliest vice-chancellor usually given, and there
were only intermittent appointments between then and 1500. In that
year Richard Fox was chancellor, and Henry Babington vice-chancellor,
and was succeeded in 1501 by John Fisher _who filled both offices_.
In 1413 a friar was chosen as “president” of the university in the
absence of Chancellor Billingford sent by Henry V. with the Bishop of
Ely and the chancellor of the sister university to Rome.
[323] In this body, which was created by act of 19th-20th Vict., are
concentrated the powers of the houses of regents and non-regents, the
ancient governing body of the university. Its 10 members are chosen
from the roll.
[324] The high steward is elected in the same way as the chancellor.
He appoints a deputy who must be approved by the senate. The Cambridge
high stewardship has been frequently held by favourites of the
sovereign; Elizabeth gave it to Leicester, and Henry VII. to Empson.
The present holder, Lord Walsingham, bears a name intimately connected
with the history of the university.
[325] At the last parliamentary election, January 1906, the university
electorate numbered 6972.
[326] The proctors are appointed according to a statutory cycle--they
are nominated by the colleges in turn, two colleges nominating
each year. The proctors at Oxford originally represented the north
countrymen and the south countrymen. Entries of Cambridge proctors
exist from 1350. The office, of course, is kin to that of the
procurator of monastic orders; and the Cambridge proctors supervised
Stourbridge fair, the markets, weights and measures, and all those
matters which affected the supply of provisions for the university or
its finances: to which were added their scholastic functions.
[327] The first public orator was Richard Croke; Sir T. Smith, Sir J.
Cheke, Roger Ascham, and George Herbert the poet, all held the office.
Caius supposes that the master of glomery was university orator, whose
duty it was to entertain princes and peers and to indite the epistles
of the university on great occasions. He supposes also that as “senior
regent” he collected and counted the suffrages in all congregations:
the _Statutes_ however show us this officer in company with two
_junior regents_ sorting the votes cast for the proctors. See also
iii. p. 164 _n._
[328] Thus a guild order in 1389 runs: the alderman “ssal sende forthe
the bedel to alle the bretheren and the systeren.”
[329] We find Archbishop Laud writing of Oxford: “If the university
would bring in some bachelors of art to be yeomen-bedels ... they
which thrived well and did good service might after be preferred to be
esquire-bedels.”
[330] The first esquire or armiger bedell on the Cambridge register is
Physwick in the xiv c.; no one else is entered for this office till
1498 when Philip Morgan held it. After him there is another esquire
bedell in 1500. The yeoman bedell probably stood in the same relation
to the esquire bedell as the trumpeter to the herald. The herald did
not blow his own trumpet and the esquire bedell of the university was
doubtless not a macebearer. The original two bedells, nevertheless,
used to go before the chancellor and masters _virgam deferentes_; and
Balsham in 1275 arranges that _the bedell of the master of glomery_
shall not carry his stave on these occasions, but only when on his
superior’s own business. A bedell is mentioned in the xiii c. hostel
statute referred to on p. 51.
[331] Letter of Rennell to Stratford Canning, Nov. 16, 1807.
[332] Until 1534 only those who had graduated doctor were elected to
the office.
[333] Principal (see vi. p. 339 _n._), warden, keeper, proctor, and
rector are all titles which at one time or another were familiar in
Cambridge.
[334] In the xviii c. the colleges had already 4 lecturers in
rhetoric, logic, ethics, and Greek. Cf. the provisions in the statutes
of Christ’s College xvi c. The college _bursar_, the purse-bearer
of his college, is its treasurer and oeconomus: a senior and junior
bursar are appointed.
[335] The decreasing value of the statutable stipends in the xvii c.
led to the adoption (in 1630) of the new scale of payments.
[336] He signed the university instrument which was presented to Henry
renouncing the pope’s supremacy; Ridley, who was proctor at the time,
signed after him.
[337] From 1741 two chaplains were appointed in each college, to
replace the fellows who before this used to take the chapel services
in rotation. The Trinity College rule which provided that a fellow
engaged in instruction in his college for ten years kept his
fellowship for life or until he married, made the first rift in the
obligation to take orders within a certain period after election, or
forfeit the fellowship.
[338] An American student, 20 years before the abolition of the
Religious Test Act, was scandalised at the manner in which the
reception of the sacrament was used as a mere condition for
obtaining the certificate of fitness for orders. Men who had not
made 3 communions in their college chapel during their stay, came
up afterwards for the purpose, and received thereupon a document
certifying that they had entirely satisfied “the vice-chancellor and
the 8 senior fellows” of their fitness for their vocation.
[339] In the same century Hobson, who died in 1630 at a great age,
was the famous Cambridge carrier and kept the first livery stable in
England. His numerous clients would find a large stable full of steeds
from which “to choose” (with bridle whip and even boots provided); but
everyone was expected to take the horse next the door: hence ‘Hobson’s
choice,’ which has become an English household phrase, as has another
Cantab expression, ‘constitutionalize’ for walking. Yet another phrase
is ‘tawdry,’ the name given to the flimsy gaily coloured chains which
were sold at Barnwell (now Midsummer) fair on the eve of S. Awdrey’s
day. Hobson was immortalised by verses of Milton’s.
[340] Colleges were not at first built for the ‘undergraduate.’ The
scholar of the xiii, xiv, and xv centuries was the _socius_ (fellow)
of to-day. His clerical position was that of a young man in minor
orders, his scholastic that of a bachelor in art. He attended the
schools of the doctors and masters, and was assisted by his fellowship
and by exhibitions in the learned faculties to study for the degrees
(master of art, and doctor in the faculties). The pensioner, who
might or might not be an undergraduate in standing and who lived at
his own charges, was provided for in the hostel. It was not till the
visitation of 1401 that we find _socii_ and _scholares_ distinguished;
and when King’s College was founded in the same half century its
scholars were young students and nothing else. Nevertheless,
although such was the original conception of the endowed college--at
Peterhouse, Michaelhouse, Pembroke, Corpus--the later developments
were outlined from the first. The bible clerks at Peterhouse were
poor students not of the standing of bachelors, and a proviso in the
statutes enabled the college to maintain “2 or 3 indigent scholars
well grounded in grammar” when its funds shall permit. At Clare (1359)
the sizar was regularly recognised. At Pembroke (1347) there were in
addition to the “major scholars” 6 “minor scholars” who might fit
themselves to be major scholars. At King’s Hall (Statutes Ric. II.)
boys from 14 years old were admitted. At Christ’s (1505) the standing
of the scholar was defined by requiring him to give instruction in
sophistry; but the pensioner was contemplated for the first time as
a regular inmate of the college. In fact the _perendinant_ who ate
at the college tables became, before the middle of the xv c., the
_commensalis_; the class being fully recognised 50 years later in the
_convivae_ of Christ’s. There were no fewer than 778 _convivae_ or
pensioners in the colleges in the time of Caius 1574.
As to the age at which youths went up, it was not until the xix c.
that the university was finally regarded as the complement to a full
‘college’ (public school) course elsewhere. The grammar boys at Clare
and Peterhouse, the richer youths at King’s Hall, and the glomery
students, must always have kept Cambridge peopled with little lads:
but when grammar disappeared altogether (in the xvi c.) from the
university curriculum, scholars continued to go up very young. In the
xvi c. Wyatt went to S. John’s at 12, Bacon and his elder brother to
Trinity at 12 and 14; Spenser was in his 16th year. In the xvii c.
George Herbert was 15, so was Andrew Marvell, Milton had not attained
his 15th year; Newton went to Trinity at 17, and Herschell to S.
John’s at the same age. Pitt was a precocious exception in the xviii
c. at 14.
All the scholars of the early colleges were to be indigent; the one
exception was King’s Hall, but the proviso appears again in the
statutes for King’s College.
We may note that All Souls’ Oxford retains the characteristic of the
ancient college foundations, in being a college of fellows only. The
title “students” for the fellows of Christchurch recalls the same
intention.
[341] When Gresham went to Gonville in Hen. VIII.’s time the
fellow-commoner had just made his appearance. Cambridge was full of
them in the reign of Elizabeth.
[342] Jeremy Taylor was a sizar, Newton and Bentley sub-sizars.
[343] Statutes of Christ’s College.
[344] The scholars of Eton were directed to recite the Matins of our
Lady while making their beds.
[345] This right was given up in 1856. The legal powers and privileges
of the university date from the xiii c. and the reign of Henry III.:
_Ita tamen quod ad suspensionem vel mutilationem clericorum non
procedatis, sed eos alio modo per consilium universitatis Cantabr.
castigetis_ is the clause inserted in 1261 in the matter of a quarrel
between students from the north and south parts of the realm. The
privileges granted to the university by Edward III. include the
power of imprisoning offenders; and even the king’s writ could not
be invoked to free them. In the 10th year of Edward’s reign the
university chancellor maintained this right both over scholar and
townsman. The oath taken by the mayor of Cambridge to maintain the
“privileges liberties and customs of the university” dates from the
same reign (when the mayor bailiffs and aldermen were obliged to swear
to respect the chancellor’s rights). When the riots of 1381 led to a
suspension of the town charter its privileges were transferred to the
university, till the restoration of the charter in 1832.
[346] The vice-chancellor’s court for persons _in statu pupillari_ is
composed of the vice-chancellor and six heads of colleges elected by
grace.
[347] It will be observed that the academic dean possesses
disciplinary functions like his predecessor and prototype the monastic
dean. The academic dean is also the presiding official at the chapel
services.
[348] Undergraduates may not give entertainments in taverns or public
halls without permission of their tutor: even then more than 5 men
_in statu pupillari_ cannot meet together in a public place without a
further permit from the proctor.
It was agreed in 1856 that the licence of any ale house was liable to
be revoked if a complaint in writing was made by the vice-chancellor
to the Justices of the Peace.
[349] Lodging house keepers sign a hard and fast undertaking with the
Lodging-house Syndicate. They cannot let to other than members of the
university without permission.
[350] The tutor probably made his first appearance at King’s Hall;
his office was firmly established by the middle of the xvi c. (later
Statutes of Clare College, 1551), and marks the epoch when students
other than those on the foundation were also firmly established as
college inmates. Before the xviii c., however, the official tutor of
to-day was not known; any fellow whom the master designated filled the
post. In some colleges the tutor is appointed for life; at Trinity for
a term of 10 years.
[351] Like all other items of headgear the derivatives of the hood
acquired ceremonial significance. The removable hood of the xiv c.,
which was slung over the shoulder or attached to the arm, became the
_capuce_ of the dignified clergy, of the doctors in the 3 faculties,
rectors of colleges, and others in authority. It is preserved to-day
in the _pellegrino_ of the Roman Church. The hood itself appears to
have gained this ceremonial importance in the xv c.; and it is in the
middle of that century that the hood as head-gear disappears, and is
replaced by the various caps and bonnets which were formed from it.
[352] The amess was a capuce of fur.
[353] Statutes of Peterhouse 1338-1342. The same is prescribed for the
junior students of King’s Hall (temp. Richard II.). Precisely the same
regulations--for the tonsure and _vestis talaris_--were made for the
scholar at the university of Paris.
[354] This accorded with the custom at Bologna and at Salamanca
(xiv c.)--_una capa scolastica_ ... _foderata sufficienter pellibus
pecudis_. At Salamanca each scholar received annually one cappa lined
with sheepskin, and one unlined, and a lined hood.
[355] The object of most of the rules regarding scholars’ dress seems
to have been to enforce sumptuary restrictions, and impose something
clerical and sober in appearance--_decenter et honeste_ are the words
used in the statutes of King’s Hall. The same is true of similar
regulations in Italian universities.
[356] The cappa (with a hood?) probably constituted the _speciem
scholasticam_ which pseudo-scholars in the town were forbidden to
imitate. (_Statuta Antiqua_, statute 42.)
[357] An order of the time of Henry V. (documents Nos. 90, 91 in the
Registry) requires the Cambridge bachelors to dress like those at
Oxford; which probably referred to the black _capuce_ or hood of the
Oxford bachelor?
[358] This feat was celebrated by verses inscribed: _Mutantque
Quadrata Rotundit_. A square cap (called both ‘scholastic’ and
‘ecclesiastical’) was recognised as the proper head-gear for Cambridge
fellows graduates and foundation-scholars in the later xvi. c.
Pensioners were to wear a round cap.
[359] For the coloured gown see _infra_.
[360] The _pileum_ placed on the head of the new master of arts in
the xv? and xvi centuries, probably symbolised the termination of
the _status pupillaris_. Cf. _Haec mera libertas, hoc nobis pilea
donant_; and _servos ad pileum vocare_ (Livy). The tall silk hat
signified the same thing. It was worn by young _M.A.’s_, and by the
‘Hat-fellow-commoners,’ and is still worn by _M.A.’s_ on a visit to
their _alma mater_ though not by resident ‘dons.’
[361] This was not worn at Trinity, King’s, and one or two other
colleges.
[362] It is interesting to note that the Scotch universities retain
the violet gown. The Scots’ College in Rome (founded in 1600) dresses
its collegians in a violet cassock, over which is a black _soprana_.
[363] Bachelors of arts whether they be scholars reading for a
fellowship or young graduates preparing for the ‘Second Part’ of
a tripos, are still _in statu pupillari_. Perhaps, then, the more
important gown, the bachelor’s, retained this vestige of the older
dress which has been lost in the modification undergone by the
undergraduates’. That the strings indicate a state of dependence
is confirmed by their being found on the dress of the pope’s lay
chamberlains called _camerieri di cappa e spada_; the papal palfrey
men and other domestics being also provided with them.
[364] A custom now dying out.
[365] Christopher Wordsworth became Master of his college.
[366] Studies were much later additions in the colleges, and at first
a room would be fitted with 8 or 10 ‘studies,’ alcoves or cabinets
5 ft. 6 in. by 6 ft., which would be eagerly hired by students.
Sometimes the studies were furnished by the pensioners with the
necessary desk and shelves. No attempt at decoration of college rooms
appears to have been made till the poet Gray placed scented flowers
in his window and bought Japanese vases of the blue and white china
afterwards to become so fashionable--which caused much remark. When
young peers came up to Cambridge attended by their tutor and an
ample _suite_ the colleges were much put about to lodge them, and we
find Lady Rutland as early as 1590 sending hangings for her son’s
with-drawing-room at Corpus.
[367] The enmity of ‘town and gown,’ a consequence, no doubt, of
the thronging of our university towns with an alien population, is
traditional, and we first hear of it in 1249 before any colleges were
built. Fifty years later (in 1305) the townsmen attacked the gownsmen,
wounding and beating both masters and scholars “to the manifest
delaying of their study” says the King’s letter on the subject
(33rd of Edw. I.). Bad relations between ‘town and gown’ prevailed
throughout the reign of Elizabeth. Cf. v. p. 261.
[368] The allowance per head per week for food or “commons” was at
Michaelhouse 12d. in 1324, and no more was allowed in the xvi c. at
Christ’s and S. John’s. The allowance at Jesus College was 4d. a week
in excess of this, and this was the sum which Archbishop Arundel
had sanctioned for fellows’ commons earlier in the century (1405).
Peterhouse statutes made no provision, but the Bishop of Ely as
visitor restricted commons to 14d. a week in 1516. Mullinger, _Hist.
Univ. Camb._ p. 461.
[369] Undergraduates have perhaps shown a tendency to get out of
hand since the day a few years back when some of the dons invited
an expression of their opinion, apparently expecting that a serious
question affecting the university would receive illustration from a
little hooliganism.
[370] In June 1905 there were 647 tripos candidates, 146 for
the Natural Sciences, 127 for History, 111 Classics, 95 Law, 63
Mathematics, 28 Mechanical Science, 25 Theology, 13 Modern Languages,
5 Moral Sciences, 5 Economics, 1 Oriental Languages. The year before
Natural Sciences was also at the top of the poll with 131 graduates;
the Classical came next with 112, the Mathematical 67, History 63.
Some 30% therefore take Natural or Mechanical Sciences, and some of
the mathematical students stay on for scientific work. The far larger
number of men now take the First Part of the Mathematical, Classical,
or Natural Sciences tripos in their third year, which gives them the
_B.A._, and do not proceed to the Second Part. For the proportion of
First and Second classes obtained cf. vi. p. 356 _n._
It was, however, only very gradually that the classical and other
triposes worked their way to an equality in popularity with the
mathematical. It was not till 1884, after the division of the tripos,
that the classical men were slightly in excess of the mathematical
(see chap. iii.).
[371] On the other hand Oxford has had 9 wins in succession.
[372] The wearing of the surplice in chapel on Sundays and holidays
by all undergraduates, scholars, and bachelors, is a very interesting
historical survival at Cambridge, which has successfully resisted
the attacks of Puritanism. It is worn by all members of a college on
‘white nights’ (vigils and feasts), and is the ancient dress of the
canon and of clerks of all grades at divine service.
[373] “Scarlet days” are Easter, Christmas, Ascension, Whitsunday,
Trinity Sunday, All Saints, the first Sunday in November (when
benefactors are commemorated) and Commencement Tuesday (the next
before June 24). The vice-chancellor may appoint other days.
[374] Everett, _On the Cam_. Everett’s father was United States
ambassador at the Court of S. James’, and he himself was a graduate of
Trinity College.
[375] Wolsey, son of a well-to-do Suffolk butcher, was sent to Oxford,
but Thomas Cromwell, who was the son of a blacksmith, probably was not
educated at a university.
[376] _The New Sect of Latitude-men_, 1662.
[377] Eton--Cambridge and Oxford--3 each; Oxford had 3 from
Winchester, all the rest coming from the lesser public schools,
Haileybury (3), and church schools such as Radley.
[378] A very interesting symptom is the recent election of an American
fellow at Trinity and Christ’s Colleges.
[379] In the time of Caius the number of students was 1783 (see p. 217
_n._). Trinity held 359 of these, John’s 271, Christ’s 157, King’s
140, Clare 129,
[Sidenote: A.D. 1573.]
Queens’ 122. Magdalene and S. Catherine’s were the smallest with 49
and 32 respectively. The remaining 6 colleges held between 62 and 96
students each, except Jesus which had a population of 118. A hundred
[Sidenote: A.D. 1672.]
years after Caius the numbers were 2522. 3000 is about the maximum at
either university since the xiii c. At Cambridge the undergraduate
population at the present date (October 1906) exceeds 3200, with over
350 resident bachelors, and about 650 _M.A.’s_ and doctors, 400 of
whom are fellows.
Cf. with the figures given on p. 206. A man may keep his name on the
boards of his college by a payment varying from £2 to £4 a year. The
number of men “on the boards” of the university includes all those on
the boards of their colleges and has grown in 150 years from 1500 (in
1748) to 13,819 in 1906-7.
[380] Those marked with an asterisk are included principally for their
influence on education.
[381] _Or_ Walter de Merton.
[382] Raleigh was entered as a boy for Oriel College but never resided
there.
[383] Gladstone was by race a pure Scotsman, but was English by birth
and breeding.
[384] Miss Nightingale is taken as a representative of the work of
Howard, Clarkson, Shaftesbury, Hannah More, Mrs. Fry, and others of
the same noble army among whom she is perhaps typical for the English
adventuresome and pioneer spirit.
It would not be possible to choose 40 great Englishmen whom every
one should agree to be among the 40 greatest, or the best types in
the lines indicated. Some great English names--as e.g. Simon de
Montfort--do not appear for the same reason which excludes William the
Conqueror, viz. that they were not Englishmen.
The following is a short analysis:--
(1) _Men representing English Learning and education_:
Hild.
Bede.
Alcuin.
Alfred.
Grosseteste.
William of Wykeham.
Lady Margaret.
Dean Colet, Ox.
Bishop Fisher, C.
Thomas More, Ox.
Roger Ascham, C.
(2) _English Churchmen_:
Stephen Langton.
Robert Grosseteste, Ox.
William of Wykeham.
Fisher, C.
Wolsey, Ox.
Cranmer, C.
Jeremy Taylor, C.
(3) _English Religion_:
Wyclif, Ox.
Lady Margaret.
More, Ox.
Jeremy Taylor, C.
Bunyan.
Wesley, Ox.
(4) _English politics_:
Alfred.
Stephen Langton.
Grosseteste, Ox.
Edward I.
Elizabeth.
Cromwell, C.
Milton, C.
John Locke, Ox.
Pitt, C.
Gladstone, Ox.
(5) _Literature and makers of English language_:
Bede.
Chaucer, C.
Ascham, C.
Philip Sidney, Ox.
Shakespeare.
Francis Bacon, C.
Milton, C.
Bunyan.
Locke, Ox.
(6) _Philosophers_:
Locke.
Mill.
(7) _English Science_:
Roger Bacon, Ox.
Francis Bacon, C.
Harvey, C.
Newton, C.
Darwin, C.
(8) _English Adventure_:
Drake.
Raleigh.
Clive.
Nelson.
Nightingale.
[385] See the list of dramatists below.[387]
[386] Sonneteers: Wyatt, Cambridge. Surrey, Cambridge? Thomas Watson,
Oxford? Philip Sidney, Oxford. Samuel Daniel, Oxford. Lodge, Oxford to
Cambridge. Drayton, none.
[387]
_The Dramatists._
Greene (Cambridge).
Lyly (Oxford to Cambridge).
Peele (Oxford).
Lodge (Oxford to Cambridge).
(_disciple of Greene_)
Christopher Marlowe (Cambridge).
Kyd (none).
Shakespeare (none).
Ben Jonson (Cambridge).
Nash (Cambridge).
Chapman (?)
Marston (Oxford).
Dekker (nothing known).
Thomas Heywood (Cambridge).
Middleton (nothing known).
Munday (“The pope’s
scholar in the
seminary at
Rome”).
Fletcher (Cambridge).
(_12 years at Benet College_)
Beaumont (Oxford).
Webster (nothing known).
Massinger (Oxford).
Rowley (nothing known).
Ford (Oxford ?).
James Shirley (Oxford to Cambridge).
_The Novelists._
Richardson (none).
Fielding (University of Leyden).
Defoe (none).
Steele (Oxford).
Smollett (none).
Sterne (Cambridge).
Goldsmith (none).
_And the 7 great names of our century_:
Jane Austen.
Scott (none).[388]
The two Brontës.
Thackeray (Cambridge).
Dickens (none).
George Eliot.
Meredith (none).
[388] Scott attended the law classes at Edinburgh university.
[389] “The first of the great English writers in whom letters asserted
an almost public importance.” In the new ‘republic of letters’ Dryden
was “chosen chief”; “He had done more than any man to create a
literary class”; “he was the first to impress the idea of literature
on the English mind.” Master “alike of poetry and prose, covering the
fields both of imagination and criticism.... Dryden realized in his
own personality the existence of a new power which was thenceforth to
tell steadily on the world ... our literature obeyed the impulse he
had given it from the beginning of the eighteenth century till near
its close.”--J. R. Green.
[390] The first number appeared in November 1665 and was called “The
Oxford Gazette,” the court being at that time at Oxford on account of
the plague which was then raging in town.
[391] The succession of archbishops of Canterbury from 1486 is:
Cardinal Morton, Oxford; Warham (1500), neither university; Cranmer,
Cambridge; Pole, Oxford; Parker, Cambridge; Grindal, Cambridge;
Whitgift, Cambridge; Bancroft (1604), Cambridge.
Among the names given above, those with an asterisk were further
connected with their university as founders, Masters and fellows of
colleges, or as chancellors.
[392] Sydenham took a medical degree at Cambridge.
[393] Cf. the Duke of Exeter, ii. pp. 58 _n._, 156.
[394] The plate of Queens’ College is preserved at Oxford to this day.
[395] Chief of whom was the Earl of Manchester, like Cromwell himself
a Cambridge man. Cromwell and Lord Grey of Wark had “dealt very
earnestly” with the Heads of colleges to extract a loan of £6000 for
the public use. The earnest dealing included shutting most of them up
till midnight. Cromwell on their refusal declared he would have taken
£1000; not that that sum would have been of any service, but because
it would have shown that they had one of the universities on their
side. All that Cambridge had, however, was sent to Charles.
[396] Compton and Trelawney.
[397] There had been a previous meeting at Lambeth Palace in which
Turner, White, Tenison (then rector of S. Martin’s) and Compton, the
suspended Bishop of London, took part. All were Cambridge men except
Compton. At a consultation of London clergy Tillotson, then Dean of
Canterbury, Sherlock, Master of the Temple, Stillingfleet, Archdeacon
of London and Dean of S. Paul’s, and Patrick, Dean of Peterborough,
supported Edward Fowler (an Oxonian) in a declaration that they were
unable to publish the Indulgence. Every one of these men was from
Cambridge.
[398] He had not received his call in time to sign the protest of the
seven bishops. Lloyd was at Cambridge, Frampton at Oxford.
[399] See ii. p. 57, the dissolution of the friars of the Sack.
[400] Scory, Bishop of Hereford, had been given preferment by Cranmer
on the dissolution of the Dominicans; he was put into the see of the
deprived Catholic bishop Day of Chichester, a King’s man, and was
one of Parker’s consecrators. In 1554 he renounced his wife and did
penance before Bonner. The other, Day of King’s, Bishop of Winchester
and brother of the Catholic prelate, was an ardent reformer.
[401] Heath of Clare College was successively Bishop of Rochester and
Worcester, and Primate of York.
[402] Cuthbert Tunstall, who had come to King’s Hall from Oxford, and
afterwards studied at Padua, was himself one of the translators of the
1540 bible.
[403] See ii. p. 84. Corpus Christi College.
[404] Tillotson and Stillingfleet, the most prominent churchmen in the
reign of James II.
[405] They were Matthew Parker of Corpus, Cox of King’s, Grindal of
Pembroke, Bill and Pilkington of S. John’s, May and Sir Thomas Smith
of Queens’, and David Whitehead.
[406] Rowland Taylor of Christ’s College, a Suffolk rector, suffered
in 1535. Latimer who had argued on the Catholic side at the
university, was persuaded to Protestantism by Bilney. With Bilney
Thomas M’Arthur, a fellow of S. John’s and then Principal of S. Mary’s
Hostel, recanted.
[407] Rogers b. 1509 at Birmingham. Burned at Smithfield Feb. 1555.
[408] It was Cromwell who, as chancellor, began to wean the university
from the pope; and he removed its papal script--bulls, briefs, and
dispensations--which was not returned till such time as he judged the
substitution of the king for the pope to be complete.
[409] Falkland, _b._ 1610. Chillingworth born and educated in Oxford.
Taylor born and educated in Cambridge. Stillingfleet, _b._ 1635,
fellow of S. John’s, bishop of Worcester.
[410] _ob._ 1648.
[411] Cf. Peterhouse pp. 58-9, and Emmanuel p. 145. For religion in
Cambridge at the present day, see iv. pp. 246-7.
[412] Burnet, the historian of the movement, writes: “They loved the
constitution of the church, and the liturgy, and could well live
under them; but they did not think it unlawful to live under another
form.... They continued to keep a good correspondence with those
who differed from them in opinion, and allowed a great freedom both
in philosophy and in divinity; from whence they were called men of
latitude. And upon this, men of narrower thoughts and fiercer tempers
fastened upon them the name of Latitudinarians.”
[413] “Within the bosom of Protestantism they kindled for the first
time the love of this nobler speculation.” (_Tulloch, vol. 2. p. 24._)
[414] Cf. Tulloch, _Rational Theology in England in the xvii century_
(1872) vol. 2. p. 13, to whose able and interesting account of the
movement I am very much indebted. “They sought,” writes Tulloch, “to
confirm the union of philosophy and religion on the indestructible
basis of reason and the essential elements of our higher humanity”:
and again: “It is the glory of the Cambridge divines that they
welcomed this new spirit of speculation” and “gave it frank
entertainment in their halls of learning.” “Their liberalism takes a
higher flight” than that of Hales and Chillingworth.
[415] His _True Intellectual System of the Universe_ was published in
1678.
[416] Afterwards fellow of Queens’, Hebrew lecturer and Greek
praelector.
[417] Whichcote’s moral and philosophical style of preaching now
replaced “that doctrinal style which Puritans have curiously always
considered to be more identical with the simplicity of Scriptural
truth.” Tulloch.
[418] The Conqueror gave him the barony of Bourne in the fen.
[419] The de Vere of Matilda’s time had been her faithful adherent;
Cambridgeshire was one of the ten English counties in which the Veres
held lands, and they were the benefactors of the Cambridge Dominicans.
[420] See also i. pp. 19, 44, ii. p. 110 _n._ and p. 296.
[421] Manfield was nephew to Castle-Bernard another Cambridge
landowner.
[422] Dugdale, _Monasticon_ p. 1600. Stoke in the deanery of Clare was
within the liberty of S. Edmund. The Augustinian hermits, as we have
seen, came to Cambridge about the same time.
[423] Stanton is a Cambridge place-name; other names derived from
places in the district (besides of course ‘Cambridge’ and ‘Croyland’)
being Walsingham, Walpole, Gaunt, Balsham, Bourne, Chatteris, Haddon,
Milton, Newton, Caxton, Drayton, Brandon, Connington, Shelford;
and Chancellor Haselfield (1300, 1307) probably took his name from
Haslyngfield. Long Stanton was the seat of the Hattons.
[424] The name appears early in the fen country as that of an abbot of
Thorney--xiv c.
[425] Cf. iv. p. 204.
[426] 2nd son of Edmund Langley. His wife was Anne Mortimer
great-granddaughter of Elizabeth de Burgh, Duchess of Clarence; the
son of Hastings, who figures in the earlier conspiracy, married her
granddaughter.
Richard’s son was earl of Ulster and lord of Clare in right of his
mother. The sons of Edw. III.--Clarence, Gaunt, Edmund Langley, and
Thomas of Woodstock--were all allied to founders of Cambridge colleges
(see Tables I, II, III). Scrope’s brother Stephen was chancellor of
the university; see p. 94, 94 _n._
[427] “In all which time, you, and your husband Grey, were factious
for the house of Lancaster.” _Richard III._ Act i. scene 3.
[428] Pembroke held by the Clares, Mareschalls, Valence, Hastings.
Huntingdon by David of Scotland and Malcolm the Maiden, by Hastings,
and Grey. Buckingham by Stafford and Villiers. Suffolk by Pole,
Brandon, Grey, and Howard. Leicester passed from the Beaumonts to
the de Montforts, from the earls of Lancaster to John of Gaunt, the
Dudleys and the Sidneys (p. 42 _n._).
Henry of Lancaster Earl of Lancaster and Leicester, ob. 1345.
|
|
William de Burgh, last = Matilda = 2ndly Ralph Stafford.
Earl of Ulster. |
|
Elizabeth de Burgh = Lionel Duke of Clarence.
[429] From her, her grandson Mortimer Earl of March derived the title
of Earl of Ulster.
[430] Cowper was not himself at Cambridge, but he lived near by and
frequently visited his brother a fellow of Benet College.
[431] Langley and Langham were both names known at Cambridge in early
days.
[432] He married Anne daughter of the first Lord St. John of Bletsoe,
a descendant of Margaret Beauchamp the mother of Lady Margaret.
[433] See Trinity College pp. 135, 7, 9.
[434] His ancestor Dr. Richard Sterne was one of the Masters ejected
for refusing the Covenant.
[435] In the Mildmay-Ratcliffe alliance, the two Protestant
foundations of the xvi c. meet. The Ratcliffes, in addition to the
alliance with Sidney, intermarried with the Staffords and Stanleys.
Beside the xv c. Bynghams and Bassetts and Percies, and the xiv c.
names so often recorded, it should not be forgotten that few early
figures in the university are more interesting than that of Chancellor
Stephen Segrave mentioned on pp. 203 and 259. Segrave was Bishop of
Armagh and titular bishop of Ostia. He had been a clerk in the royal
household, and was the champion of the university against the friars.
It will be remembered that Nicholas Segrave--a baron of de Montfort’s
parliament in 1265--had been one of those defenders of Kenilworth who
held out in the isle of Ely till July 1267.
[436] Cf. pp. 203 _n._, 294 _n._
[437] One of the Pastons married Anna Beaufort a great-granddaughter
of John of Gaunt.
[438] Gray took the _LL.B._ on returning to the university.
[439] Morland improved the fire engine and invented the speaking
trumpet--one of his trumpets is preserved in the library at Trinity.
He was 10 years at Cambridge, and was assistant to Cromwell’s
secretary, Thurloe.
[440] Woodward went to Cambridge when he was 30 years old.
[441] The original double monastery of Ely did not become Benedictine
till 970. See i. p. 12. Etheldreda (‘S. Audrey’) was the daughter
of Anna king of the East Angles, and of Hereswitha sister of Hild,
and wife to Oswy king of Northumbria. She thus united in her person
the destinies of the northern provinces and East Anglia (where she
was born) a union which has been perpetuated in the university of
Cambridge. She was born _circa_ 630, and died in 679. As “the Lady of
Ely” her will, living or dead, was held to decide the fortunes of the
city.
[442] i. p. 16. Her name was given to the only monastic house in
Cambridge. Rhadegund was abbess of Ste. Croix A.D.
519-587.
[443] It is sufficiently remarkable that a conspicuous rôle pertained
almost exclusively to Englishwomen who were of the blood royal. This
is true in the case of the great abbesses, and from the time of Hild
and Etheldreda to that of Lady Margaret.
[444] For the circumstances in which Clare and Pembroke were founded,
see chap. ii. pp. 67-8 and 69, 71-2.
[445] The countesses of Clare, Pembroke, Richmond, and Sussex.
[446] Erasmus’ “three colleges” which represented for him the
university and its new learning were Queens’, Christ’s, and S. John’s,
all founded by women.
[447] Lady Mildred Cecil gave money to the Master of S. John’s “to
procure to have fyres in the hall of that colledg uppon all sondays
and hollydays betwixt the fest of all Sayntes and Candlemas, whan
there war no ordinary fyres of the charge of the colledg.” And pp. 72,
86, 120, 155.
[448] A pioneer committee had been formed in October 1862 to obtain
the admission of women to university examinations; Miss Emily Davies
was Hon. Secretary. The first step taken was to secure the examination
of girls in the university Local Examinations which had been started
in 1858, and a private examination for girls simultaneously with
that for boys was held on the 14 Dec. 1863. These examinations were
formally opened to girls in February 1865 (_infra_ p. 358). Meanwhile
the Schools Enquiry commission of the previous year had brought into
relief the absence of any education for girls after the school age.
The commissioners were memorialised, and the immediate outcome was the
scheme for a college, and the formation of a committee to carry it
into effect. Cf. pp. 317-18 _n._
[449] There were present Mrs. Manning, *Miss Emily Davies, *Sedley
Taylor, and *H. R. Tomkinson. *Madame Bodichon, who was ill, was not
present, but George Eliot wrote to her four days before the meeting, à
propos of an appointment to see one of the members of the committee:
“I am much occupied just now, but the better education of women is one
of the objects about which I have _no doubt_, and I shall rejoice if
this idea of a college can be carried out.”
On the General Committee of Hitchin College the bishops of Peter
borough and S. David’s, the Dean of Ely, Lady Hobart, Lord Lyttelton,
Prof. F. D. Maurice, Sir James Paget, Rt. Hon. Russell Gurney, M.P.,
Miss Anna Swanwick, and Miss Twining, sat with several others. On the
Executive Committee were Mme. Bodichon, *Lady Goldsmid wife of Sir
Francis Goldsmid elected liberal member for Reading in 1866, *Mrs.
Russell Gurney, Prof. Seeley, Dean Stanley, and the members of the
1867 committee: while a Cambridge Committee included Professors Adams,
Humphry, Lightfoot, Liveing, Drs. J. Venn, T. G. Bonney, the Revv. J.
Porter, R. Burn, T. Markby, W. G. Clark; Henry Sidgwick, and Sedley
Taylor. The asterisked names denote those who also constituted with 11
others the first members of Girton College (p. 321).
[450] Incorporated from 1872 as Girton College.
[451] Two or three of the Cambridge colleges were built at a
distance from the schools and the centre of the town: thus Alcock
described Jesus College as “the college of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
S. John Evangelist, and S. Rhadegund, _near Cambridge_.” Hitchin in
Hertfordshire, the first site of Girton, was one of the homes of the
English Gilbertines, a double order for men and women which was also
established in Cambridge. i. p. 19 and _n._
[452] This was followed by a bequest of £10,000.
[453] It is interesting to find the names of Dillon and Davies
continuing in the case of the first college for women at Cambridge the
Irish and Welsh traditions of college founders. It is perhaps still
more interesting to find that on her mother’s side Lady Stanley was
descended from the companion-in-arms of de Burgh the “red earl” of
Ulster, and that a Dillon intermarried with the heiress of the 2nd
earl of Clare, names honoured as those of the woman founder of one of
the first Cambridge colleges.
[454] See the original committee _supra_ pp. 317-18 _n._ The existing
members elect the majority of new members. The first official
recognition of the existence of the college was made in 1880 when the
Council of the Senate elected three members of the college from among
its number, and so exercised a power conferred on it in the original
articles of association.
[455] The college still prepares for this examination; at Newnham it
must be prepared for at the student’s own expense. It is however now
usually taken by all students before coming up.
[456] Classics: R. S. Cook (Mrs. C. P. Scott) and L. I. Lumsden.
Mathematics: S. Woodhead (Mrs. Corbett) senior optime.
[457] This was in 1882. First class honours in this tripos did not
become usual until women came up better prepared from schools. A
Cambridge man, however, writing in 1873 declares that a man may be a
wrangler when his mathematical knowledge was contemporary with his
admission to the university, but that “no one was ever placed in
_any_ class of the (classical) tripos who came up to the university
knowing only the elements of Greek grammar.... The classical man, if
plucked,” (_i.e._ in mathematics) “loses 10 years’ labour”--the time
spent in classics from early school days. Women, nevertheless, belied
this dictum from the first; many have not known even “the elements of
Greek grammar” when they came up, and few indeed have 10 years’ Greek
studies on their shoulders when they take the tripos.
[458] The Claude Montefiore prize was founded in memory of the
donor’s wife, who was at Girton. The Agnata Butler prize is awarded
to classical students by the Master of Trinity and his wife. One of
the early scholarships, offered by Mr. Justice Wright, was described
as “a year’s proceeds of an Oxford fellowship.” Dr. W. Cunningham,
fellow of Trinity College, assigned, in 1898, the entire profits of
his book _Growth of English Industry and Commerce_ towards a fund for
publishing dissertations of conspicuous merit written by certificated
Girton students. The above-named city companies have always been
generous donors to the women’s colleges.
[459] The committee of 1862 had had (as we see) for its avowed object
the “obtaining the admission of women to university examinations”:
the subsequent committee (of December 1867) was formed “for the
establishment of a college holding to girls’ schools and home teaching
a position analogous to that occupied by the universities towards the
public schools for boys.” The following was the reply given by the
first named committee when approached in March 1868 with a view to a
joint memorial asking for “advanced examinations for women”:--“That
this committee, believing that the distinctive advantage of the
Cambridge University Local Examinations consists in their offering
a common standard to boys and girls, and that the institution of
independent schemes of examination for women exclusively tends to keep
down the level of female education, cannot take part in the proposed
memorial to the university of Cambridge for advanced examinations for
women above the age of eighteen.”
[460] “The brethren of Mount Carmel had a site at Newnham where
they dwelt and where they founded their church, which site they had
of Michael Malherbe” (Hundred Rolls ii. 360). “Here they made many
cells, a church, a cloister, and dormitory, and the necessary offices,
sufficiently well constructed, and here they dwelt for 40 years”
(Barnwell Chartulary). See i. p. 20.
[461] Scroope Terrace occupies part of the ground of Newnham Manor.
Like the other great benefactors of colleges, Lady Elizabeth Clare and
Lady Margaret Beaufort, Lady Anne was three times married. Her mother
was a Gonville. Corpus Christi College benefited by tithes and houses
in the manors both of Girton and Newnham (p. 318).
[462] Those who held that Grantchester and Cambridge were but one
and the same town, told us that the principal part lay on the north,
towards Girton, while Newnham Lane, beyond the mill, extended as far
as Grantchester “the old Cambridge”: _Ad Neunhamiae vicum, ultra
molendinam, que se longius promovebat versus Grantacestriam_....
(Caius).
[463] It may be recorded here that Madame Bodichon’s scheme was for
a college (_a_) _in_ Cambridge (_b_) with the same intellectual
conditions and tests as applied to men and (_c_) free of
denominationalism. A chapel was not erected at Girton till after
1895. Of Mme. Bodichon as a pioneer it has been said that she had
the singular faculty for realising in her imagination exactly what
she wanted, down to the last detail--the creative power. Her failing
health for the last fourteen years of her life made impossible the
active share in the work which had been so ungrudgingly undertaken by
her between 1867 and 1877; but her interest extended to every student
who went up to Girton, and she was at pains to know them and to find
out from their conversation how the college might be improved.
[464] This house, 74 Regent Street, had been hired by (Professor)
Henry Sidgwick in the spring of the year at his own financial risk,
and here Miss Clough came in September.
[465] The names of the 16 men (one being a Frenchman) who first
lectured to women at the university are treasured at Newnham. Six were
S. John’s men, 4 Trinity, and the other colleges represented were
Christ’s, Queens’, and Caius. They were:
†F. D. Maurice.
†W. W. Skeat.
†J. E. B. Mayor.
J. Peile.
W. C. Green.
M. Boquel.
†Prof. Cayley.
J. F. Moulton.
†W. K. Clifford.
J. Venn.
†A. Marshall.
Prof. C. C. Babington.
T. G. Bonney.
P. T. Main.
G. M. Garrett, Mus.D.
S. Taylor.
Dr. (afterwards Sir) Michael Foster, Adam Sedgwick, Frank Balfour (all
of the Physiological laboratory) H. Sidgwick, Mr. Archer-Hind, Dr. E.
S. Shuckburgh, and Mr. Keynes were also among the earliest lecturers.
The general committee then formed included the first 3 of these names,
and Nos. 7, 8, and 10; with Prof. Adams, Mr. Henry Jackson, and Mr.
(afterwards Sir) R. C. Jebb. The Executive were: Prof. Maurice, Mr. T.
G. Bonney, Mr. Ferrers (afterwards Master of Gonville and Caius) Mr.
Peile (now Master of Christ’s) Mrs. Adams (the wife of the Lowndean
professor) Mrs. Fawcett (the wife of the professor of Political
Economy) Miss M. G. Kennedy, and Mrs. Venn (the wife of Dr. Venn of
Caius) H. Sidgwick and T. Markby, Hon. secretaries, and Mrs. Bateson
(the wife of the Master of S. John’s) Hon. treasurer.
Certain courses of lectures in the public and inter-collegiate lecture
rooms were open to women from 1873--22 out of the 34. A few years
later 29 were open, and now all are open.
[466] _Memoir_ of her aunt, by Blanche Athena Clough, Arnold, 1897--to
which I am indebted for many of these details.
[467] In her diary written the year she came of age she writes that
honour and praise were not what she cared for. “If I were a man I
would not work for riches or to leave a wealthy family behind me; I
would work for my country, and make its people my heirs.”
[468] This she lived to see accomplished. A training college for
women was proposed by Miss Buss in 1885 and Miss E. P. Hughes was its
first principal and guiding spirit at Cambridge. Out of this grew the
latter’s Association of Assistant Mistresses.
[469] The Association formed to promote the interests of students
working for the university Higher Local examinations; see p. 326. The
Newnham Hall Company was constituted in 1874 to build the first Hall.
[470] The cost of which was mainly defrayed by a bequest for the
benefit of women left by Mrs. Pfeiffer and her husband.
[471] Mrs. Sidgwick is the daughter of the late James Balfour and of
Lady Blanche Cecil, who was the sister of one Prime Minister as Mrs.
Sidgwick is of another. Miss M. G. Kennedy is the daughter of the late
Benjamin Hall Kennedy, one of the revisers of the New Testament with
Lightfoot, Westcott, and Hort; fellow of S. John’s, Canon of Ely, and
Regius Professor of Greek, in whose honour the Latin professorship was
founded.
[472] The style of Principal was, as we have already seen, used for
the chief of a hostel in the university; it was also the tide of the
head of the _domus universitatis_, University Hall (1326).
[473] See page 355. 1874 was the year in which Prof. James Ward was
alone among the men in the first class when two of the examiners
thought Mary Paley (Mrs. Marshall) should be there also, and two
placed her in the second: no one doubts that Miss Paley attained the
first class standard of any other year.
[474] Professor of Anatomy.
[475] Afterwards Mrs. Koppel.
[476] October 1906. There are at Newnham 6 scholarships worth £50 a
year, 1 of £70, 1 of £40, and 2 of £35. There is also a studentship of
£75 and another of £80 a year, tenable for one year or more. Of these,
two are for natural science students, one for a classic.
Through the munificence of private donors Newnham has been enabled to
appoint 4 fellows of the college, and a fund is being formed which it
is hoped will place these fellowships on a permanent basis.
[477] These include many who read for a tripos, and a large number who
in early days passed in the various Higher Local “Groups,” besides all
who have taken special courses of study.
[478] Professor Seeley’s rendering of her views for use at the public
meeting at Birmingham. In a leaflet appealing for funds, Miss Clough
said that the Cambridge lectures had been “a free-will offering”
made to women by members of the university; here at Cambridge women
of “different occupations, different stations in life, and different
religious persuasion” were brought together to receive in common “at
least some share of academic education.” “If we are right,” she says,
“in thinking our object one of national importance” the expense should
not be thrown on Cambridge residents, “much less should members of the
university, who are already giving their time ungrudgingly, be called
upon to give money also.” The journey to Birmingham was made with Miss
M. G. Kennedy, and Mrs. Fawcett addressed the meeting.
[479] It is interesting to note that there have been several students
at both colleges bearing old Cambridge names, some known there in the
xii, xiii, xiv and xv centuries: Bassett, Mortimer, Frost, Gaunt,
Bingham, Booth, Parker, Alcock, Skelton, Crook, Bullock, Bentley,
Parr, Creighton, Cartwright, Ridley, Day, May, Wallis, Sanderson,
Morland, Herschell, Jebb, Sedgwick, Paley, and several others.
[480] Some forty members of Parliament voted in favour of the “Graces”
on this occasion.
[481] See p. 338 _n._
[482] Another clergyman also--the Rev. E. W. Bowling, afterwards
rector of Houghton Conquest, and a light blue champion in the boat
race.
_Battle of the Pons Trium Trojanorum_, Thursday Feb. 24. 1881.
Aemilia Girtonensis
By the Nine Muses swore
That the great house of Girton
Should suffer wrong no more.
By the Mutes Nine she swore it
And named a voting day
* * * * *
But by the yellow Camus
Was tumult and affright
* * * * *
‘O Varius, Father Varius,
To whom the Trojans pray,
The ladies are upon us!
We look to thee this day!’
* * * * *
The Three stood calm and silent
And frowned upon their foes,
As a great shout of laughter
From the four hundred rose.
[483] The first man to maintain that girls had a right to as good
an education as boys, was a _Cantab_ (Eton and King’s College) a
master at the new Merchant-Taylors’ school, and afterwards headmaster
of Colet’s school. Lancelot Andrewes was one of his pupils. This
famous Cantab and famous schoolmaster--Richard Mulcaster--also
advised that teachers should be trained to teach. In the xviii c.
Defoe’s appreciation of the woman with ‘knowledge’--“well-bred and
well-taught”--led to his suggestion that there should be a college for
her higher education.
[484] For the subjects of this tripos, see iii. pp. 187-189.
[485] _For the 20 years from 1886 to 1906_:--
Mathematics 345 candidates,
31 wranglers First and 2nd classes 56 per cent.
Classics 296 candidates,
54 first classes “ “ 61 “
Moral Sciences 83 candidates, 21
first classes (this excludes
the triumphs of the first
12 years) “ “ 76 “
Natural Sciences 246 candidates,
64 first classes “ “ 70 “
History 290 candidates,
49 first classes “ “ 64 “
Medieval and Modern Languages
(tripos created in 1886) 246
candidates, 73 first classes “ “ 74 “
Hence in these 6 triposes the highest percentage of Firsts has been
obtained in the Moral Sciences, Languages, and Natural Sciences,
Classics coming fourth; while in the percentage of First and Second
classes the order is again: Moral Sciences, Languages, Natural
Sciences, followed by History, Classics, and Mathematics.
In the first 10 years 250 students took a tripos, of whom one in five
(51) was placed in the first class.
Among the men the percentage of _First Classes_ for _the years
1900-1905_ is: mathematics 39 per cent, classics 28 per cent. For the
subjects chosen by men cf. iv. p. 238 _n._
[486] There are, roughly, 3000 men and 300 women at the university.
Since 1881, 94 women and 168 men have taken this tripos--the
proportion should have been 940 men.
[487] The founders of Girton have been steadfast in demanding the
degree. In 1887, 842 members of the senate signed a petition in
favour of it. Miss Clough had signed a similar petition earlier. The
objections to opening the degrees to women have been adequately met
in the pamphlet “Women in the Universities of England and Scotland,”
Cambridge, Macmillan and Bowes, 1896.
[488] The entries for 1863, when girls were first informally examined,
were 639, the next year they rose to 844.
[489] Statutes regulating the examination of women, and opening to
them the Mathematical, Natural Sciences, and Modern History schools,
were voted in 1886 by a majority of 464 votes to 321. Responsions and
the other schools were opened to women in 1888, 1890, and 1893 (the
Theological school, Oriental studies, and the _D.Mus._) and in 1894
the remaining examinations were opened. Pass and honour examinations
are both open to women at Oxford, and the names of successful
candidates appear in the official lists. The certificate, however,
is given by the Oxford Association for the Education of Women, who
restrict it to those students who have qualified like the men on all
points.
[Sidenote: The position of women in other universities.]
In 1856 the first application was made--by Jessie White to London
university--for admission as a candidate for the medical degree. A
similar request was made seven years later. A supplementary charter
establishing special examinations for women was procured by this
university in 1869. In 1878 it made “every degree, honour, and prize
awarded by the university accessible to students of both sexes on
perfectly equal terms.” Since 1889 all disqualification for women
in Scotch universities has ceased. The Victoria university, by its
original charter 20 April 1880, admitted both sexes equally to
its degrees and distinctions; and in 1895 Durham became a “mixed”
university. All the more recent universities treat men and women
equally.
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