And storied windows, richly dight, In service high and anthems clear, As may with sweetness, through mine ear, And bring all heaven before mine eyes." And the sonnet of the latter "To King's College Chapel" echoes the same strain: "Tax not the Royal Saint with vain expense, With ill-matched aims the Architect, who planned (Albeit labouring for a scanty band Of white-robed scholars only) this immense And glorious work of fine intelligence ! Give all thou canst, High Heaven rejects the lore Of nicely-calculated less or more. So deemed the man who fashioned for the sense Like thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof § 27. So stands King's College Chapel, a worthy memorial even of one so truly great and good as its sainted founder. And it is interesting to note that it was completed distinctly as a memorial to him. Henry Tudor deliberately chose this method of commemorating him, in preference to paying the exorbitant sums demanded by the Roman Curia for his formal canonization. § 28. This preference shows that we are now approaching the religious controversies of the next century. Already, while the Wars of the Roses were filling all thoughts, there was pining to death in his secluded cell at Thorney Abbey, in our County, one of the first sufferers in those controversies-Reginald Pecocke, Bishop of St. Asaph. Protestants have claimed him as a confessor, because he was a translator of Scripture, and on the ground of his condemnation for heresy by the same ecclesiastical tribunals which stamped out the last of Lollardism; but in truth he suffered, not as a Protestant, but as an extreme Papalist. His advocacy of the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, since so famous, was denounced in 1457 as heresy against "the Holy Catholic Church," the Bulls issued by Pope Calixtus II. in his favour were disregarded, and he was sentenced to lifelong imprisonment, under conditions which would now be called those of a "first-class misdemeanant.” He was allowed a room "with a chimney" (i.e., a fire), and a window whence he could see the performance of Mass; also food such as that of a Brother of the Abbey. But he was to have no books except the Bible and the Missal, no writing materials, and no companionship save the occasional visits of one "sad" attendant; nor was he ever permitted to cross the threshold of his apartment. And thus, ere long, ennui and heart-break fretted him to death. § 29. The foundation, in 1473, of St. Catharine's College by Robert Woodlark (who as Provost of King's extorted the consent of the University to the exceptional privileges which, for 400 years, exempted that body from all University authority) calls for little remark. But in the next in age we meet with yet another foreshadowing of the coming Reformation. Jesus College was set up by Bishop Alcock of Ely (where his beautiful chapel remains at the north-west corner of the cathedral), in place of the ancient Priory of St. Rhadegunde, as the result of a series of transactions showing forcibly how the old was, at that date, giving place to the new. § 30. The account books of the priory are still preserved in the College archives, and show that in 1455 the Society was fully solvent, though far from wealthy, on an income of £70 per annum. As we shall shortly see, the value of money at that date was about ten or twelve times what it is at present. This sum, equivalent to some £800 a year, sufficed, with care, for the expenses of the House; but it left no margin, and thus a single extravagant Prioress was enough to reduce the convent to the verge of ruin. In less than twenty years one such Head had run it deeply into debt. In a deed executed March 13, 1478, the unhappy Sisters speak as follows: "Whereas we and our predecessors, the Prioresse and Nunnes of the Blessed Mary and S. Rhadegunde, at dyvers tymes before-passed whan we were destitute of money for our pore lyffyng had flesshe of R. Wodecock of Cambrydge boucher into the summe of xxi li. of lawful money of England, which he for our ease many day hath forborne," etc. In payment of this very considerable butcher's bill, they agree to take two of his daughters, free, amongst the perhendinantes,1 or boarders, by whom their necessities now obliged them to eke out their means. § 31. Things, however, were too far gone. In spite of the boarders, the income by 1481 had sunk to only £30, and the Bishop of the diocese had to intervene to save the nunnery from immediate collapse. It was in vain. In 1487 a capable manager, Joan Fulbourn, was appointed Prioress by Alcock (who had succeeded to the episcopate of Ely in the previous year)—but too late. The institution continued to dwindle, and the Royal Letter, which in 1496 authorized him to suppress it altogether in favour of his new College, spoke more truth than such documents usually did when it stated, in the ordinary conventional formula, that the revenues had been squandered, that only two nuns remained, and that "Divine Service, hospitality, and other works of mercy and piety, according to the ordinance of the Founders, could not be discharged." 1 The word is derived from prandium. And one of the earliest scholars of this new College was Thomas Cranmer. § 32. Before the bursting of the great "storm of events" with which that name is associated, we may turn to a happy picture of Cambridgeshire rural life at this period, set forth for us in the Churchwardens' accountbooks of the parish of Bassingbourn, in the extreme south of the County. These books, extending from 1498 to 1534, are kept with most business-like minuteness, and include receipts and expenditure not only for distinctively church purposes, but for roads, bridges, etc., the churchwardens seeming to have acted also as overseers and surveyors. § 33. It was evidently a period of great prosperity. Money was from ten to twelve times dearer than now, barley being 3s. per quarter, and the regular charge for a labourer's keep 2d. per day. We see the abiding effect of the Black Death in the very high rate of his wages, 3d. per day if so kept, and 5d. without keep, equivalent to 24s. per week, which is more than twice the current [1896] rate of wages in the district. Masons, carpenters, and other skilled artisans got 7d. or 8d. a day, while an organ-builder could command as much as a shilling. The general prosperity brought about by these high wages is shown in the large profits made at the "Church Ales" (public entertainments corresponding to the concerts, teas, etc., now often held in connection with places of worship), which took place eight or nine times a year, and brought in a clear average gain, "after all charges borne," of at least ten shillings; the most popular occasion being always May Day. $34. The sums thus received were expended upon the current church expenses; for example: To Agnes Worthyngton ffor washyng off the Chyrche gere and mendyng-the yere ended att Ascension in the 13th yer of Kyng har' the vijth Washing of the ymages of allablaster 3s. 4d. 4d. Scouring 4 pr candlesticks 1 year for Baner bering about fields on Rogacion Monday for strawing church and fulfylling fonte For making out of old surplis 5 challis clothes To sexteyn ffor keeping of the bellys the yer For a lyne to the Sanctus bell 4d. 6d. id. 2d. Is. 6d. 4d. 25s. 8d. 4d. A sexton's shovel To a bookbinder off Cambryg repairing 10 books Reparacion of one mass-booke clasp For a book to wrytt in our accounse and the Chyrch onoureamentes Ffor writing this Inventorye of ye Chych goodes 5 new torches. For 21 lb. wax and 16 lb. Rosyn and 18 lb. of wyke with the colours The Rood Lights for halfe y' 12 lb wax Half a yer washing surpples, altares clothes and other lynyns off the chirch 6s. od. Is. 4d. Mendyng a slewid surpless,1 with ye cloth, and setting together of 3 Vestment maker ffor 2 dayes in Reparacion of Ch. ger Is. 5d. 21s. od. 4d. 2d. Lose of evil money taken at the May ale on good fryday for the holy fyer $35. The cultivation of the "obit" lands (ie., lands left by benefactors for annual commemoration of their death) is also entered: 5 quarters of seed barley for sowing harrowyng and rolling mowing and carting those grains 12 lodes of barley carrying A rope 2 shovels and a payer of plow traces A horse 4 days work for the warden to ride upon 1 I.e., a surplice with sleeves. |