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occupation would doubtless swarm down, as at L tance. to the lower ground beside the river, and build, along its Via Devana, what is now called Bridge Street. It is pro able that their habitations extended southwards till they joined those previously built round St. Benet's; for in the midst of this line, in the angle formed by Trinity Street and Bridge Street, was at this period established the Cambridge Jewry.

§ 44. The establishment of the Jews in England was one of the incidental effects of the Conquest. They had followed in the wake of the invading army (as they followed the German hosts into France in 1870), assisting the Normans to dispose of their spoil, finding (at usurious interest) ready money for the impoverished English to meet requisitions withal, and generally meeting so universally felt a need for money-broking of all kinds, that ere long every large town had its Jewry. In a curious diatribe by Richard of Devizes (1190),1 Canterbury, Rochester, Chichester, Oxford, Exeter, Worcester, Chester, Hereford, York, Ely, Durham, Norwich, Lincoln, Bristol, Winchester, and of course London, are all mentioned as containing Jewish settlements; and doubtless many other places are, like Cambridge, omitted in this list. That its "Judaismus " already existed we know from contemporary documents.

§ 45. Yet the position of the Jew in England was all along highly anomalous. As a member of an alien race, and still more of an alien religion, he could acquire no kind of constitutional recognition within the realm. The common law ignored him; his Jewry, like the royal forest, was outside its domain. Legally he was nothing more than the King's chattel, holding all he had simply at the King's pleasure. But to the Crown the Jew was so great a source of profit that it was careful not to 1 Chron., § 78.

2 Green, "Hist. Eng. People," chap. ii., § 5.

establis him over-much, and to guard him as far as counble from the oppression of others. His bonds were

aneserved in the royal archives (a fact of which the Imemory long remained in the name of the "Star" Chamber1), and their payment was enforced by royal authority, It was this special protection of the Throne which caused the Jews to be considered instruments of monarchical despotism, and led to the many popular outbreaks against them. Nor were the Jews in medieval England by any means the tame and cringing beings portrayed by Sir Walter Scott in Ivanhoe.' History rather shows them as overweening and insolent, at no pains to conceal their contempt for what they regarded as the superstition of their Christian neighbours, and relying on the royal support to protect them even in outrages against the rites and emblems which those neighbours held sacred, thus giving ground for the "anti-Semitic " feeling which finally brought about their expulsion.

§ 46. In close contiguity with the Jewry rose along with it two noteworthy Christian edifices. On the northeast, across the Via Devana, a confraternity (presumably connected with the newly-established Military Order of the Temple) built one of the round churches which reminded beholders of that Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem which it was the special office of the Templars to defend against the infidel, from whom it had just been won (1099) in the First Crusade.2 On the south-east Bishop Nigel, of Ely, found time, during his busy political and military permutations under Stephen, to erect his Hospital of St. John, on the site with which the name of that Evangelist has ever since been indelibly associated, and which was designed to play so special a part in the coming development of Cambridge.

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2 See above § 34. The only other like churches in England are those of the Temple in London, of Maplestead in Essex, and of St. Sepulchre, Northampton.

§ 47. The existence of the Jewry shows that Cambridge was in the twelfth century a place of some importance. Whether that importance was in any degree due to its being already a seat of special learning has yet to be proved. In the above-mentioned list of English cities," the clerks" of Oxford are specially referred to, and we may perhaps infer that no such were yet to be found at Cambridge. But with the growth of the place would arise a demand for education, which would be met partly by Picot's monks at Barnwell, but chiefly by teachers from the old and famous abbey school at Ely, the training-place of more than one monarch. And early in the next century events occurred which caused this germ to burst into profuse life, and gave to Cambridge its great and lasting renown as a University.

CHAPTER VI.

EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD.

§ 1-4. Burst of progress in the thirteenth century-Church-building -Friars in Cambridge-Educational movement-Literary development of the thirteenth century-English historians-Foreign dialecticians.

§ 5-15. First universities-Bologna, Paris, Oxford, CambridgeEarliest University organization-Course of study-Trivium and Quadrivium-Proctors-Collegiate system begun-Its advantages -Merton, Peterhouse.

$16-19. Bishop Longchamps-Interdicts-Queen Eleanor-Papal ban-Exemption of preceptories-Shingay-" Fairy-cart"-Report of bailiwick.

§ 20-25. Barons' War-Cambridgeshire a national strongholdRavaged by Royalists-Recovered by Barons-John's march from Wisbeach-Patriot defence of Ely.

§ 26-33. Historians of the period-Local anecdotes-Eltisley cyclone -Matthew Paris-His notes on the weather and the crops. § 34-41. Growth of Cambridge-The King's Ditch-Monastic buildings-Religious Houses throughout the county-Hospitals-Hermitages-Our Lady of Whitehill-Papal Bulla.

§ 42-61. Episcopal registers-Vicarage of Grantchester-The polltax-Wat Tyler-The Black Death-Ashwell inscription-Ely lantern-Lady Chapel.

§ I.

TH

HE thirteenth century opened in our county with a burst of material and intellectual progress. While, as we have seen, but little Norman work is to be found in our parish churches, this is far

from being the case with the "Early English" style, which came in with the Plantagenets, before the twelfth century closed. It is scarcely too much to say that the present lines of almost every church in Cambridgeshire date from this time. Windows and arches of later style have been inserted, roofs and clerestories added, but the ground-plan of nearly all our village churches is still as it was then planned out and laid down. Now were built the exquisite chancels of Cherry Hinton and Foxton, and the lovely doorway of Barrington, with many another gem of architecture glorifying many a remote and quiet hamlet. Now, at Cambridge, came into being the beautiful church of St. Rhadegunde's Priory, still remaining to us as the chapel of Jesus College; now, at Ely, rose the Galilee at the western door of the minster, and the lancet-pierced façade which closes it to the east. The former was completed by Bishop Eustace, 1215, the latter by Bishop Northwold, 1252. It may be here mentioned that the accurate record kept at Ely of each addition to the cathedral is the standard which has enabled the dates of the various architectural styles to be known through out England. Roughly speaking, those styles may be said to begin:

Norman, 1075.
Early English, 1175.
Decorated, 1275.
Perpendicular, 1375.

§ 2. And along with these surviving remains of this great epoch, the zeal and piety of the age erected other buildings, of which, alas! the greed and rapacity of a later age have robbed us. It was at this time that there was begun in Cambridge (A.D. 1214) that noble church of the Franciscans which the University vainly endeavoured to save for itself on their dissolution; and not long afterwards the town was adorned by yet another famous church, belonging to the rival Order of the Dominicans.

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