§ 1-2. Results of the Black Death-Free labour-Perpendicular architecture-Insularity-John Bull. § 3-13. The first colleges-Peterhouse-Michaelhouse-King's Hall -Early collegiate life-Special studies-Pembroke-Clare-Assize of Barnwell-Ely manors-Stock-"Smoke farthings"Spoliation of the see. § 14-27. Foundation of King's College-Henry VI.-Eton-Will of King Henry VI.-Queens' College-Wars of the Roses-Completion of King's College Chapel-Milton's and Wordsworth's descriptions of it. § 28-31. Heralds of the Reformation-Reginald Pecocke-Jesus College founded. § 32-38. Bassingbourn accounts-Inventory-The Use of Sarum. § I. T HE Black Death lies like a dark streak across the line of our annals. After it had passed, and its attendant convulsions with it, we find ourselves, historically, in a new region. Quiet has settled down upon the County, and society is reorganizing itself on fresh and more familiar lines. For the pestilence had done its work, and shattered the old social conceptions of the realm. King, Lords, and Commons might pass laws binding the labourer by the old bonds of villenage; but their decrees were powerless against the yet stronger mandates of Political Economy. Demand would create supply, and draw the now precious labour, however legally attached to the soil, whither it was most sorely needed. Henceforward, therefore, we find the "villain" no more. Almost at a bound he develops into the free hind, tied, as now, only by the current restrictions of the open labour market, and able, whatever the law might say, to sell his work for the best price obtainable. § 2. Thus, much that was mediæval and romantic disappeared from our social life, to give place to ideas more prosaic and more modern. The contrast between the new style of architecture which at this time came in, the "Perpendicular," with its scientific but rigid lines, and the flowing grace of the later " Decorated," is a not inapt measure of the difference between the new and the old England after and before the Death. In another respect, too, this contrast helps us to realize the change which at this date took place. The earlier styles had been common to all "Gothic" architecture in every land. "Norman," Early English," and "Decorated" work is to be found in France and Germany, no less than in England. But "Perpendicular" is a purely English development, and appropriately appears at the time when our insular characteristics began most strongly to develop themselves. It is about this date that we first meet with the familiar "John Bull" as a general term for "Englishman," and also find the expletive which has unhappily remained as our special national oath already distinctive of English lips.2 66 § 3. The rural life of our County thus assumed the familiar form which it has exhibited ever since. And along with it the University, too, took upon itself the shape which it has retained to this day. For now came 1 The earliest example I know of is in a Breton ballad of 1347 (Villemarqué). 2 Joan of Arc, on being pressed to take food before attacking the English at Orleans, is said to have replied, "I will not eat save with a goddam” (i.e., an English prisoner). This was in 1429. that great development of the College system which transformed ancient into modern Cambridge. Peterhouse, as we have seen, had begun the process two generations earlier. But even Peterhouse did not fully organize itself till 1338, by which time the rival foundation of Michaelhouse (the germ of Trinity College) was over ten years old, and the neighbouring King's Hall, destined also to be absorbed in Trinity, already in being. Simultaneously with these arose Clare Hall. Ten years later, again, in 1347, was founded Pembroke Hall, in 1348 Gonville Hall, in 1350 Trinity Hall, in 1352 Corpus Christi College. This rapid succession of foundations, unparalleled even at Oxford, shows how rapidly the ideal of University life was changing. Henceforward the Fellows of colleges became the recognised aristocracy among the Masters, and their Scholars amongst the students. § 4. From the earliest days these two elements formed part of every College system. Nowhere do we find at Cambridge any corporation, like All Souls' at Oxford, consisting of Fellows only; though the number of Fellowships was everywhere much larger in proportion to the Scholarships than it afterwards became. Thus, at Peterhouse there were fourteen Fellows to two or three "Indigent Scholars"; at Michaelhouse eight Fellows to four "Bible Clerks"; at Pembroke twenty-four Fellows to six Minor Scholars," or "Students." The idea in every case was to keep the College Body exceedingly select, and as far as possible self-contained, association with the promiscuous horde of hostel students outside being rigidly guarded against. As fast as the college finances allowed, buildings were erected, forming an enclave which the younger members, at least, were seldom permitted to pass, save (under escort of some senior) for their exercises in the Schools, or their devotions in the nearest parish church. And as soon as a College was able to build itself a chapel of its own, their seclusion became yet more complete. § 5. The early accounts of King's Hall, where as many as thirty-two Scholars had been established by Edward III. (an expansion of his father's sustentation of thirteen "Children of our Chapel" at the University), give us a contemporary picture of this early collegiate life. The foundation provided the Scholars with lodging, food, and clothing. The food was plentiful; the college kitchen supplying meat and fish (mostly salted), its bakery bread, its brewery beer, its garden vegetables, its vineyard vinegar, and its cellar wine (imported annually from Bordeaux). The college laundry, moreover, provided the students with napkins and table-cloths in Hall (a great piece of luxury at that date), and also washed for the Society; which even kept a barber to shave and physic its members, one of his special functions being the "minutio," or periodic blood-letting, which was a regular feature of medieval community life, submitted to by each inmate in turn. For exercise, archery, tennis and bowls were provided (space permitting) in the college grounds. The Scholars were forbidden to supplement the "robes and furs" provided for their attire by any vain or indecorous apparel, such as red or green shoes, finger-rings, or embroidered girdles. The wearing of arms was strictly prohibited, also that of long hair or beard. Dogs then, as now, were contraband in college, as were hawks. Latin or French only was allowed to be spoken at meals, which, indeed, were mostly consumed in silence, while the Bible or some other edifying book was read aloud (a practice of which the survival may to this day be traced at Eton College). The Master alone had a separate bedchamber of his own, the other rooms mostly accommodating two Fellows apiece, while the young Scholar had to content himself with the moiety of a "trundle-bed "-a couch on low wheels, which lived during the day beneath the senior's standing bedstead, and was drawn out for the night. In the Patent Rolls we find on September 9, 1377, the confirmation of a grant made by "the late King" (Edward III.) to the Warden and Scholars of King's Hall. The former is to have 4d. per diem (equivalent to about £100 per annum), and each of the thirty-two latter 2d. per diem. The income of the College from this source must thus have represented nearly £2,000 per annum. The Warden (Simon de Nayland) is, moreover, allowed 8 marks yearly for two official robes, the one lined with fur, the other of linen. § 6. Such was the earliest collegiate life, when fully developed in its own buildings. This consummation, however, was not reached for a good many years after the foundation of a College, which almost invariably began its existence in some private lodging-house. § 7. To deal in detail with the origin and progress of each particular college scarcely falls within the scope of a popular history of Cambridgeshire. The subject has been exhaustively treated in various easily accessible works, notably those of Mr. J. W. Clark and Mr. J. B. Mullinger. While all had the same general object, and were founded on the same general lines, each of these earliest Colleges tended to specialize in some particular branch of study. The "Scholars of Ely," as they were originally called, at Peterhouse, were mostly to devote themselves to "Arts" (i.e., Classics, particularly Aristotle) and Theology. Two, however, of the Fellowships were to be assigned for proficiency in Canon and Civil Law, while one was given to the encouragement of Medicine. Gonville Hall (so called from its founder, Edmund Gonville, Vicar-General of the Diocese of Ely) strictly confined its members to Logic and Theology. Trinity Hall, on the other hand, founded by William Bateson, afterwards Bishop of Norwich, was equally strict in the direction of legal studies. Of its twenty Fellows, ten were required to read Civil, and seven Canon, Law. This was done with the |