CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE HISTORIES CORPUS CHRIST ?cr^-k-v^;.7:T LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. Class Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/corpuschristiOOstokrich COLLEGE HISTORIES CAMBRIDGE CORPUS CHRISTI OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 2%ntbev0its of (S^ambritrge COLLEGE HISTORIES COEPUS CHEISTI BY Rev. H. p. stokes, LL.D. VICAR OF ST. PAUL'S, CAMBRIDGE 'vJbraTt' OF THE UNIVERSITY or LONDON R E. ROBINSON 20 GREAT RUSSELL STREET, BLOOMSBUHY 1898 ?»8 UIRM Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson S^ Co At the BaUantyne Press TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAP. •'AGE INTRODUCTION I I. THE FOUNDATION OF THE COLLEGE ... ^ II. THE FIRST MASTER l8 III. THE CAMBRIDGE RIOT 27 IV. SOME OLD MASTERS 32 V. M. Parker's predecessor ... .42 VI. MATTHEW PARKER 49 VII. THE MASTERS IN PARKER's TIME .... 63 VIII. THE TWO JEGONS 75 IX. THE CORPUS DRAMATISTS 83 X. UNDER THE STUARTS QI XI. UNDER THE COMMONWEALTH . . . . lOI XII. AFTER THE RESTORATION HO XIII. TWO ARCHBISHOPS . , , , , . 122 120076 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE XIV. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: MASTERS . . • I3I XV. „ „ FELLOWS . . .136 XVI. „ „ BENEDICTINE ANTIQUA- RIES .... 146 XVII. „ „ STUDENTS . . • I51 XVIII. THE NEW COURT 158 XIX. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY . . . . . 168 APPENDICES PAGE 177 A. THE LIBRARY B. THE LEWIS COLLECTION 202 C. THE COLLEGE PLATE 204 D. PORTRAITS, ETC 220 E. THE COLLEGE ARMS 227 F. THE TITLES OF THE MEMBERS .... 23I G. RECREATIONS OF THE STUDENTS , , , 236 LIST OF PLATES I. C. C. C. VIEW BY LOGGAN (c. 1688) . . Frontispiece. II. GALLERY BETWEEN C.C.C. AND ST. BENEDICT'S facing p. 38 III. OLD CHAPEL, WITH LIBRARY AND PENSIONARY IV. OLD COURT, LOOKING S.E. V. FRONT OF NEW COURT VI. INTERIOR OF NEW COURT VII. INTERIOR OF CHAPEL . VIII. THE SEALS . 70 96 128 160 176 226 INTRODUCTION Among the compilers of the "College Histories," the writer who has to deal with Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, is fortunate in being able to avail himself of the labours of former historians. More than three hundred years ago, John Josselyn, the Latin secretary to Archbishop Parker, drew up his " Historiola ^ ; which, though ill-an-anged as to its matter and limited as to its scope, is of first-rate importance, as being founded upon original and curious documents, some of which are now lost. In the last century when the society was famed for its band of "Benedictine Antiquaries,**^ several of its learned members took in hand to collect records of the Old House ; and one of them, Robert Masters, printed a most elaborate and useful " History of the College."*"' Again in the present century, after the erection of the New Court, Dr. Lamb, the thirty-seventh Master, issued an up-to-date edition of that "History.'' And these historians — Josselyn, Masters and Lamb — had plenty of material to work upon. The unique origin of the College, the processional ceremonies linked with its name during the first two hundred years of its 2 CORPUS CHRISTI existence, the light and leading shown in Church and State by some of its prominent members in the stirring times of the Reformation, and the important parts played by able men who sustained the reputation and traditions of the College at various crises in the national history, these, together with the vigorous accounts of the internal life of the Old House, supply much for record and reflection to one who undertakes to write the chronicles of the "Ancient and Religious Foundation of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary." The words, the Ancient and Religious Foundation, are emphasised, because, whilst the society has a long and illustrious roll of members distinguished in various walks of life, its chief fame is built upon the fact that, in most of the great religious movements of the last five or six hundred years, it will be found that from this College have issued many of those who took a leading or an active part. To quote the words of a distinguished antiquary of the last century (Mr. Wm. Cole) : " To those who will look over the list of members of this society, it will be obvious to see, that they have occupied places in Church and State, equal to those of more ample foundations. In one instance, the comparison is too striking to be unobserved and unadmired : I mean, that a college of no very extensive foundation should singly in the compass of two centuries have given three Archbishops of Canterbury to the Church of England : a singularity not to be paralleled in any other that I can recollect.""' And so George Dyer, the Cambridge historian, says : " Bene^t College seems to have produced a greater number of prelates and a greater number of confessors of Puritanism, in INTRODUCTION 3 proportion to its size, than any other college in Cambridge." In illustration of these remarks it will be seen that there have gone forth from the society statesmen like Sir Nicholas Bacon, the great Lord Keeper ; soldiers like the brave Earl of Lindsey, who fell at Edgehill ; sailors like Thomas Cavendish, the circumnavigator (not to mention Sir Francis Drake's connection with the College) ; poets like Christopher Marlowe and John Fletcher; men learned in the law or skilled in science, with a long line of learned antiquarians and of refined scholars. But when we turn to the clerical members of the society, or to those laymen who mingled in the various religious movements, we find the most vigorous activity all down the course of history ; and it will be further noticed (as hinted in the extract from Dyer) that this activity has not been all in one direction. Since the beginning of the Reformation the general trend of opinion has indeed always been in accordance with the religious freedom, as well as the sober standard of feeling, of the Church of England, but, as usually happens, where religious views are keenly asserted, there have ever been those who have broken away from the prevailing line of thought, and branched off in different directions. The Gilds, which united in connection with the foundation of the College, had their commercial and their social aspects, but it was religion which induced them to carry out their scholastic intentions; and in the early statutes not only were the Catholic faith and the Church put in the forefront of the charter, but it was hoped that by the great ceremonies connected with the festival of Corpus Christi, " the perfidy of Heretics " 4 CORPUS CHRISTI would be confounded. One of the earliest of the Fellows, the " Ingenious Doctor," John Thorpe (1399), earned his doctorate and his fame by the persecution of Wicliffites. Yet on the other hand, the society chose as its second patron, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, who openly countenanced the renowned rector of Lutterworth. Coming to the days of Henry VIII., in the chambers of the old Court of Corpus there dwelt or assembled many of " the Gospellers " who laid the foundation of the English Reformation, some of whom lost their lives for the opinions they held, like Dusgate and Wishart, while others had their share in the translations of the Holy Scriptures, like Taverner and Huett, Pierson and Matthew Parker; and yet, on the other hand, there were those who vigorously resisted the new measures, like Richard Reynolds, one of the monks of Sion who suffered at Tyburn rather than acknowledge the royal supremacy. The reign of Mary saw many of the reformers driven from the College, and the old court almost tenantless; but on the death of that Queen we find Elizabeth choosing among her foremost advisers Bene't men like Matthew Parker and Nicholas Bacon. All the members of the College, however, did not follow the sober judgment of the new archbishop, nor adopt the celebrated motto, mediocria Jirma, of the Lord Keeper ; some, after endeavouring for a while to maintain papistical opinions at Cambridge, left for Douay or for Rome, while on the other hand, Puritanism found many supporters from the Old House; two of its Masters, Porie and Aldrich, were forced to resign on account of their non -conformist tendencies, senior members like Wythers and junior Fellows like Stallar, openly advo- INTRODUCTION 5 cated anti-church practices, while Browne and Harrison started those Independent, or Congregational principles, for which Barrow and Greenwood suffered so cruelly in Newgate and at Tyburn. Other members of the College drifted off into heresy, like Francis Kett, or into atheism, like Christopher Marlowe. In the days of the Civil War and the Connuonwealth, Episcopalian fellows were ejected in favour of Presby- terians, Presbyterians in their turn were expelled by Independents ; whilst later on the St. Bartholomew Act completed the circle. The Revolution of 1689 found members of the society like Tenison ready to take the foremost place in maintaining religious and constitutional freedom in the land ; and yet on the contrary, we read that a Cambridge mob forced its way into the old Court to wreak its fury on a Roman Catholic bursar, who only saved himself by an ignominious retreat ; whilst, yet again, quite a number of Bene't men, like Brett and Johnson, joined the ranks, and, it may be added, sustained the learned reputation of the " non-j urors.^' The long ecclesiastical rule of Tenison did much to maintain the Protestant succession on the English throne, and in the year of that archbishop's death (1716), there was elected to a fellowship at Corpus, Thomas Herring, who afterwards, before he left the Archbishopric of York for that of Canterbury, aroused the nation to a sense of the danger to which it was exposed by the advance of the Pretender. At this college, too, was incorporated Samuel Wesley, whose sons John and Charles inherited from their father the evangelical principles and some of the remarkable 6 CORPUS CHRISTI qualities exhibited by the founders of Methodism and all its numerous offshoots. The great Missionary Associations, by which in modern times the Church is endeavouring to fulfil her Lord's command, owe much to members of the society. Dr. Stanley, 28th Master of the College, and Arch- bishop Tenison, were among the first promoters of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel ; John Owen, a Fellow of Corpus, was a leading spirit, pcene parens^ in the foundation and establishment of the British and Foreign Bible Society; while the Church Missionary Society has enrolled in the ranks of its devoted workers in the foreign field a quite remarkable number of members of the College. And so with regard to Home Missions, Corpus Christi College as a Society supports a well-equipped and well- worked Mission Settlement in the South of London, whilst among the parish clergy ministering in the great towns and the country villages of our land there are scores of the members of the College. Turning from the expansion and the deepening, to the organisation and the unity of the English Com- munion, it may be remarked, that the annual Church Congresses still welcome year by year their energetic secretary, the Venerable Archdeacon Emery, formerly a Fellow of this College ; while at last year's celebrated CEcumenical gathering of bishops at Lambeth and Canterbury, it was noted that not only the Home Country, but also the continents of Asia, and Africa, and Australia, and America, were represented by epis- copal members of the Ancient and Religious Foundation of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. CHAPTER I THE FOUNDATION OF THE COLLEGE Our story begins in the middle of the fourteenth century by the ancient tower of St. BeneTs Church, Cambridge. The bells of St. BeneTs had long previously been used, not only to summon the townsfolk to their parochial worship, but also for ringing the university men "to ye schooles, att such times as neede did require — as to acts, clearums, congregations, lecturs, disses, and such like.*" The plot of ground between St. Bene'fs and St. Botolph^s, now the site of our College, was then chiefly occupied by private dwellings and gardens. There was, however, a University tenement near where the Chapel now stands, which was called " The Long Entry,"' and was let out as a hostel. Another hostel stood at the corner of Freeschool Lane and Botolph Lane; it belonged to the Hospital of St. John, and was commonly called "St. Crosse's Hostle."" Yet a third, over towards the High, or Trumpington Street, was better known and longer lived — St. Bernard's. 8 CORPUS CHRISTI But more important scholastic institutions were about to arise near these hostels.* The first of these, and the one whose history we are about to trace, arose in a manner unique in the annals of our University. Among the Cambridge communities at that period there was none more flourishing than the Gild of * The three Hostels mentioned above all eventually came into the possession of the college. The house, called " The Long Entry," is mentioned as a Hostel in a deed dated 1327 ; and as the property of the University was conveyed to the Gonville establish- ment in 1352, and to Corpus Christi College in the following year. The tenement of the Hospital of St. John, which stood at the S.E. corner of the present college property, is stated in a deed of 19 Richard H. to be "commonly called the Hostel of the Holy Cross." It had passed from the brothers of St. John to Gonville, and had become Corpus property in the year 1353. Dr. Caius, in his Annals under the date just given, says: "Thus was the Hall of Gonville, otherwise of the Annunciation of the Blessed Mary, converted into an orchard for the College of Corpus Christi, the ancient walls still remaining, and the gates, one opening into Lurghburne Lane, the other into the Churchyard of St. Botolph ;" but the expression in the deed of 1395 shows that the conversion into an orchard was of a later date. St. Bernard's Hostel was bought by Corpus from Queens' for 100 marks, on July 2, 1534 {see p. 43). In addition to these three Hostels, there were three or four others which at various periods were the property of the college. The celebrated St. Mary's Hostel stood in North School Street, opposite the " Public Schools," near the South gate (of Honour) of Caius College. Masters (p. 2) says that the building was formerly the property of the Gild of St. Mary ; and he remarks (p. 65) it seems " very extraordinary that we should meet with no account of this Hostle or its students down to the time of Henry VIII.." He mentions (p. 41) that Henry VI. had, in exchange for certain Corpus property, bestowed upon our college "an annual rent of 35. 4«i. issuing out of St. Mary's Hostle, and a piece of ground, being part of its garden," together with other tenements. He also came across the names of two members of St. Mary's — Daniel (1456) and Purdy (1503) — and an allusion to " a canon " of that house in 1504. Cole, FOUNDATION OF THE COLLEGE 9 Corpus Christi, which apparently had its headquarters to the south of the churchyard of St. Bene'^s. About this time, as we learn from the old " History," a noble desire seized "the Alderman and the brothers and sisters of the Gild — how they could build a college, where pei*sons might be trained up in academical learning, and fitted for putting up supplications to in various parts of his 47th MS. volume in the British Museum, gives the names of five " Principals " of the Hostel: Messrs. Foster (1510), Chyld (6-. 1513), Ffolsery (before 1518), Arthur (1518-1520), and Hyert (1521). The only well-known name among these is that of Thomas Arthur, who was not a member of Corpus Christi College. A college record speaks of rent being paid by the Public Schools to " the Warden of St. Mary Hostell, who then was Outward Principal and Steward of Bene't College." When Matthew Parker came to Cambridge, on Sept. 8, 1522, he tells us he was placed in " Corpus Christi College, under a tutor, Robert Cowper .... partly in St. Mary's Hostel, and partly in Corpus Christi College." In the following March, 1523, he was elected a Bible-Clerk of the college. The way in which Robert Cowper 's name occurs suggests that that fellow of Bene't was officially connected with the Hostel. In 1524, however, the building was leased out to Dr. (afterwards Sir) William Butts for 99 years, and Cooper thinks that he was the principal of the Hostel. In 1565, the tenement was in the tenure of Thomas Peed, and soon afterwards the lease was purchased by Archbishop Parker, whose son Sir John seems to have passed the declining years of his life in the house where his father had commenced his university education. The subsequent history of the building need not here be further traced ; beyond the statement that in 1673, when it was^known as " The New Inn," it passed into the hands of the University authorities, who afterwards erected the present Senate House in its neighbourhood. Two Hostels in the street now known as St. Andrew's Street, became at different periods the property of our college. Thomas LoUeworth, by will dated 1393, bequeathed to the Master and Fellows- the whole of his messuages, including the Hostel of St. Nicholas. This, after having previously changed owners, became the property of Emmanuel College soon after its foundation, and the materials of it were used in the erection of the Master's Lodge. 10 CORPUS CHRISTI God for the souls of every one of the Fraternity as he departed out of this life. With which view those of the brethren who had houses in the parishes of St. Bene't and St. Botolph, adjoining to one another in the street called Luthhurne Lane, had them pulled down, and with one consent set about building a college in their room."' The date assigned for these preparations lies between the sixteenth and twentieth years of Edward III. (1342-1347). But further, at about the same time (in the year 1347), an enlightened and wealthy Norfolk clergyman, named Edmund Gonville, purchased some three adjoin- ing tenements in the same street, for the use of some students whom he intended to place there. He took the precaution of securing a royal licence for the building of his college ; and, as he held the position of steward to Henry, Earl of Lancaster, one of the king's most distinguished nobles and relatives, he had little difficulty in obtaining his request. The actual mover in the matter, however, was the celebrated Sir Walter Manny, K.G., who in the French wars had saved the life of the earl and who had married the Lady Margaret, Rudd's Hostel was a very ancient building, being mentioned in the foundation deed of Peterhouse; it subsequently became the Castle Inn, and in Cole's time was "almost the first house in entering Cambridge from the Gog-Magog Hills." This property is still in the hands of Corpus Christi College. Cole mentions also a house called the Stone Hostel, which may have been either the celebrated Stone House of St. Michael's parish, or a building (some- times called Bede's House) in th*e parish of St. Sepulchre. It may be added that, early in the reign of Henry VIII., a distinguished member of Corpus, Richard Wolman (afterwards Dean of Wells), was principal of St. Paul's Inn ; whilst Robert Knight, a Fellow of the College, held a similar position at St. Gregory's Hostel. FOUNDATION OF THE COLLEGE 11 the king's cousin. He is remembered chiefly, however, by his generosity, after the calamities of the Black Death, in purchasing the gi'ound, where subsequently he erected the Charterhouse. By means of this noble- man, then, Gonville obtained permission in the year 1348, to erect the building which he called the Hall of " the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary." He was proceeding with his design and had appointed a Master and four Fellows, when his lamented death occuiTed in 1351. He left, however, ample means for the com- pletion of his work, which he had committed to the care of his diocesan. Bishop Bateman, who at that time was also engaged in building a college, that now known as Trinity Hall. The Bishop purchased the Long Entry on the north side, and the Holy Cross on the south side of the Annunciation Hall, but he soon after- wards determined to remove the Hall to the neighbour- hood of his own College, and proceeded to effect an exchange of property with the Gilds of Corpus Christi and St. Mary (which societies, as we shall see, had lately joined hands). Bishop Bateman thereby secured some substantial buildings and proceeded with the contiguous erection of the twin halls ; while the Gilds now had a large and convenient site for their college. Meantime the Gilds wisely determined to obtain royal and legal sanction for their collegiate plan ; and they looked in the same direction as Edmund Gonville had done. Sir Walter Manny and the Earl of Lancaster, with various members of their families and households, were induced to enrol themselves as members of the Gild of Corpus Christi. The earl seems to have visited Cambridge in the year 1348, when we find his pipers 12 CORPUS CHRISTI {Jistulatores) rewarded by the Gild for their services at their feast. Before, however, we relate how in 1352 a royal licence was obtained through the influence of Henry of Lancaster, who thus became (what Fuller calls) " an honorary founder '' of the College, we must stop to speak more in detail of the real founders, the above-mentioned Gilds. In Cambridge, at this period, as in most of the towns of England, there were several flourishing communities, known as Gilds. Among these w^ere the two with which we are concerned, those of Corpus Christi and of the Virgin Mary. They consisted of persons who were associated for charitable, for religious, and for mercantile purposes. In the archives of the Colleges, there still remain records showing how the Gild of Corpus Christi, " traded and made money by selling boars, pigs, steers, sheep, malt, grains, and herbs from their garden ; "* and there are Admission Books, in which their transactions, receipts, and expenses are regularly entered for many years. The statutes of the Gilds, judging from certain rules, which are still in evidence, and from the codes of similar societies, contained interesting regulations as to their assemblies and feasts, as to their benevolence towards their poorer brethren, and as to their religious observances at the death of any member of their fraternity. Curious old Bede-rolls still remain, with long lists of members of the Gild, and benefactors, whose souls the chaplains remembered in prayer at the * The accounts of the Gild of Corpus Christi for 1348 contain a charge " for splentes for the vineyard " (see Historical MSS. Commissioners' Report, i. p. 65). So in Botener's Inventory, heginning in 1375 (see p. 27), the College Garden is mentioned, and wood is entered as being bought for the support of the vines. FOUNDATION OF THE COLLEGE 13 altars of St. Bene't's, St. Botolph's, or St. Mary'*s-at-the- Market. They doubtless, each had their central hall for their assemblies and for the feasts ; that of Corpus Christi was probably somewhere in what is now the old quadrangle of the College, and that of the sister Gild was a building, subsequently known as St. Mary''s Hostel, and situated opposite the church of that name. There is still carefully preserved by the College, and used at its feasts, a most curious old Drinking Horn, given to the Gild of Corpus Christi, by John Goldcorne, another of its early members. This, says Josselyn in his Histoiiola, the brothers of the Gild used especially at the festival of Corpus Christi sa?ie liberaliter, which phrase that staid old antiquarian, Mr. Robert Masters, expands as follows: "at their general meeting they usually feasted together, when they drank their ale (of which they kept good store in their cellars), out of a gi-eat Horn finely ornamented with silver gilt,"'"' &c. At this festival, too, they annually elected their Alderman and other officers, upon whose functions and duties we have not space to dwell ; nor can we refer to some of the distinguished citizens who were chosen to these honourable positions in the separate or the united Gilds. The Gild of Corpus Christi, which was the more flourishing, had, as we have seen, initiated the plan of erecting a College ; while the Gild of St. Mary, though much poorer in its possessions and influence, had yet this advantage, that it had some years previously obtained a Royal Licence to hold certain lands and tenements in mortmain. Induced by this consideration, the two societies agreed to unite and form one fraternity. 14 CORPUS CHRISTI to be called the Gild of the Precious Body of' Jems Christ arid the Glorious Virgin Mary. Thus united, they proceeded with great vigour to carry out the erection and establishment of their College. They made arrangements for the election of a Master and two Fellows ; they drew up statutes for the regula- tion of the new community ; and they proceeded with the erection of the new buildings. That dreadful scourge, the Black Death, which, j ust at that period (1349), spread with such calamitous effects throughout the land, doubtless solemnised the minds of the brethren, and emphasised their desire to enlarge the number and secure the continuance of their Chaplain- fellows. Among the measures which they took for the better establishment of their College, and the security of their privileges, was the obtaining a Faculty from the king. To effect this, they looked for friends at Court, and, as mentioned above, they determined to secure the favour of Henry, now Duke of Lancaster. This nobleman con- sented to become the head of their Gild, and was elected Alderman at the annual feast of Corpus Christi in the year 1352. Through the Duke's intercession, a Royal Licence authorising the foundation* of the College was soon afterwards obtained ; and further permission was given to acquire the advowson of the Church of St. Benedict. And here it may be remarked, that although the * The year 1352, when the Royal Licence was obtained, is now officially given as the date of the foundation of the college ; but part at least of the Old House had been built before that date ; the Master and the Fellows had been appointed, and statutes drawn up. FOUNDATION OF THE COLLEGE 15 College was by its title-deeds to be called " The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Mary,'^ yet very early in its history and for nearly 500 years of its existence, it had (to use the quaint words of Thomas Fuller) " an- other working-day name,* commonly called (from the adjoining church) Ben'et College ; yet so, that on festival solemnities (when written in Latin, in public instruments) it was termed by the foundation name thereof.""' It was not until the new court opening into Trumpington Street was erected in the year 1827, and the old entrance by the church yard was closed, that the name, Beiie't College^ was lost in the more official title. The election of the duke as alderman and the obtain- ing of the Royal permit gave security to the growing college. The Master and two Fellows with their servants were re-elected and new statutes were drawn up. These were ratified at different times by the Bishop of Ely, by Alan de Walsingham prior of Ely and his convent, by the duke as Alderman of the Gild, by the Chancellor of the University, and by the Master and Fellows of the College. These College statutes which were formally adopted on St. Benedict's Day (March 21) 1356, were largely taken from the ordinances which Harvey de Stanton, the * These alternative names have led to several instances of con- fusion. Mr. H. Webber, the editor of The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, says that Bishop Fletcher was educated " either in Bene't or Corpus Christi College;" while Dean Hook in his Life of Archbishop Parker speaks of the two colleges of Corpus Christi and the Virgin Mary. [Carter, the author of The History of Cambridge, says that the Gild of Corpus Christi was for men, and that of St. Mary for women !] 16 CORPUS CHRISTI founder of Michael House, had some thirty years before drawn up for the regulation of his colleges. The sub- stance of these is printed in the Appendix to Masters's "History"'' (pp. 11-13). They required the scholars one and all to be in Priesfs orders, who had lectured in Arts or Philosophy, or at least had been students of the Canon or the Civil Law, or of Arts, who intended to devote themselves to the study of Theology, or Canon Law; provided however that not more than four scholars should be permitted to pursue the study of Canon Law. They dealt with the moral character of the scholars ; with their obedience to the Master ; with the commons, the dress* and the salaries of the Master and Fellows ; with the duties and wages of their * The old statutes required all the members of the college to have " habitum similem et conformem quanto commodius poterint," which expression is somewhat stronger than the phrase from which it is copied in the Michael-House Statutes, where only the latter of the two adjectives is used. In the early records of the College we find several instances of bequests to buy •• liveries" for the Master and Fellows ; such benefactions were made, for instance, by Margaret Barber in the time of the first Master, by Dr. Botwright, the seventh Master, and by Mr. Kent, whose will is dated 1482. The word " liveries" {liberaiura), Mr. Masters observes (p. 52) "is not to be taken in its present common acceptation, but must be understood to comprehend such gowns or wearing apparel in general, as were proper for the Master, Fellows, and Scholars, according to their respective ranks." The great Cambridge Fair afforded facilities for the purchase of cloth, &c. ; and the College authorities, about the year 1400, were " such good ceconomists that we find them constantly laying in cloth for liveries both of Fellows and servants at Stirbich Fair;" that for the former costing £y 8s. 4^., and for the latter £1 10s. jd. ; the allowance to the Master being 8 ells, to some of the Fellows the same, to others 7, 4, or 3. Another old fifteenth-century accompt (quoted by Masters, App. p. 33) says that the Master and Fellows had two liveries or vestures apiece every year, or IIS. 3^. in lieu thereof. The Tudor Statutes contain no allusion FOUNDATION OF THE COLLEGE 17 servants ; with the election of the Master and of the Fellows ; with the causes of their resignations or even expulsion ; with their duties as chaplains, with the saying of the canonical hours daily, &c. ; with the super- vision of the College in matters spiritual by the Chancellor, and in matters temporal by the Alderman and six brothers of the Gild ; with the chambers they occupied in college ; with the common chest, whose three keys were to be kept, one by the Master, another by one of the chaplains, and the third by the Alderman ; and so on. These statutes remained in force for the next two hundred years, until Matthew Parker drew up the new statutes which, confirmed by Queen Elizabeth, lasted till the present century. to the Academic dress ; nor do the modern statutes. On pp. 156 and 172, reference has been made to various alterations in the caps and gowns of the undergraduates. The special liveries for the College servants were discontinued about the year 1710. CHAPTER II THE FIRST MASTER The first Master was Thomas de Eltisle,' chosen (says Fuller) "not that the place might maintain him, but he the place ; being richly beneficed, and well seen in secular affairs.*''' The exact date of his appointment is uncertain ; indeed, as we have seen, he is said to have been nominated Master in the forties and re-appointed in the fifties. As, however, he was not admitted a member of the Gild of Coi'pus Christi till the year 1350, it is not probable that he assumed office before that date. His rule lasted for more than a quarter of a century, during which time he wisely nursed and guided the infant College; to which his position and character gave standing ; for he had been chaplain to John Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury, who had appointed him to the important living of Lambeth, with which he held other ecclesiastical preferments. His Fellows at the foundation of the College were two priests, named John Rayson of Fulborne, and Thomas Caumpes. Of the latter we know nothing further; nor indeed do we know anything of the ten or twelve THE FIRST MASTER 19 priests whom Dr. Lamb names as Fellows dming the first mastership. But Sir John Rayson, though he did not retain his fellowship for long, was closely associated with the College for many years, being a lifelong- friend of Thomas de Eltisle, who nominated him as one of the executors of his will. His seal resembled that of the Master; both being modelled on the seal of the Gild of St. Mary, and both being at times used for College purposes. Rayson was also for many years rector of St. Bene't's. It has already been mentioned that Henry, Duke of Lancaster, had, with the royal licence authorising the foundation of the College, obtained permission to acquire the advowson of that church. The purchase- money had been provided by Henry de Tangmer, William Horwood, and other distinguished citizens and brothers of the Gild. It is a further proof of the good and generous feeling existing among all parties for the furtherance of the new college, that the then rector of St. Bene'fs, William de Eyton by name, when royal and episcopal permission had been obtained for the appropriation of the rectory, himself became a member of the Gild, and proceeded to resign the living into their hands. He further gave the College a tenement lying near the churchyard, with another house and garden, valued at upwards of forty pounds. Sir John Rayson, his successor as rector of St. Bene'^fs, held the living for the long period of thirty years, and at his death in 1382 left his house adjoining the College for the use of future rectors. Another benefit which the Master secured for the College doubled the number of the Fellows and augmented the income of the society. He induced 20 CORPUS CHRISTI Thomas de Cambridge, son of Alderman Sir John, of whose generosity mention has before been made, to remove the Chantry founded by his father into the churches of St. Benedict and St. Botolph, and to convert the chaplains into Fellows of the College, provided they still continued to observe the conditions prescribed in the will. This arrangement was effected in the year 1354. This same Thomas de Cambridge, who died in 1361, left by will eight marks per annum for the support of another chaplain attached to the College. In the same year died another generous member of the Gild and benefactor of the college, Henry de Tangmer, whose name has already been mentioned in connection with the purchase of the advowson of St. Benedict's. He gave the College eighteen or nineteen houses in Cambridge and Newnham, and lands lying on both sides of the town to the amount of eighty-five acres. He had formerly presented the Gild with a cup called the Gripe's Eye, which was used for carrying about the Host in the great Annual Procession on Corpus Christi Day, till one more proper for that purpose was given by Sir John Cambridge. This latter was called the Monstre, and was presented in 1344. Henry de Tangmer also gave certain enamelled shields, similar to some which had been presented by the Duke of Lancaster. Other benefactors, during the mastership of Thomas de Eltisle, were Wm. Horwood, who, having a royal licence, granted to the society five messuages with eight cottages, and gave to the common chest six pounds; Eudo and Goda de Repham, and Geoffrey Seman, who THE FIRST MASTER 21 bestowed various properties on the College ; and Margaret Barber, who gave certain annual rents for buying liveries for the Master and Fellows. Letters patent were procured in 1373 for holding in mortmain one hundred and sixty -five acres of land, with some houses and meadows in Cambridge and Grant- chester, the gift of the brethren and sisters of the fraternity. From these Letters it appears that the Society had previously accepted certain lands and tenements without having obtained a royal licence. It was fortunate for them that the patronage formerly accorded to the College by Henry, Duke of Lancaster, had, on that nobleman's death, been continued by his son-in-law, John of Gaunt, third son of King Edward III. This celebrated prince, who was subsequently known as Duke of Lancaster and King of Castile and Leon, was very serviceable to the society in procuring the letters patent just mentioned, in obtaining the king's pardon for the above offence against the law of mortmain, as well as, later on in the fourth year of the reign of his nephew Richard II., in securing a confirmation and ratification of all their possessions by a new and more comprehensive licence. Hence we find this celebrated nobleman, John, Duke of Lancaster, sometimes spoken of as a second founder of the society, and his arms used on documents connected with the College. Besides the houses and lands which had thus become college property, the Master was instrumental, in con- junction with other patrons and friends, in securing certain ecclesiastical endowments. We have already more than once alluded to the acquisition of the ad- vowson of St. Benedict's, and reference ought to have 22 CORPUS CHRISTI been made to the fact that, as a part of the agreement whereby the exchange of properties was effected between Corpus Christi College and Gonville Hall, the appro- priation of the Rectory of St. Botolph's was also secm-ed for the former society. It will be seen later on that this right, and even the advowson, were parted with to Queens' College. More important acquisitions were the procuring the Manor of Barton, the Rectory of Grantchester, the manor and advowson of Landbeach, and other posses- sions. There were certain delays in connection with some of these properties, but they were all eventually secured, and they mark the foresight and generous care which the founders bestowed upon the College they were erecting. Turning now to the building, which must naturally have engaged much of the attention of the Master and his friends, we have before noted how certain of the founders who possessed houses in the vicinity of St. Benedict's had demolished them and cleared a space, square in form, ready for the erection of their new College. The exchange with the authorities of Gonville Hall, and the hiring of the piece of land long known as the Master's garden, gave them possession of the whole of the land along the street now called Freeschool Lane. Josselyn, who seems to have been specially interested in the buildings and the structural improvements gradually made in the College, and who apparently had access to memoranda as to such alterations and additions which are now lost, tells us that so intent were the Alderman and brothers on adorning and equip- ping their building, that they nearly put the finishing THE FIRST MASTER 23 touches to their outward walls in the same year (1352) in which they obtained the royal licence authorising the foundation of the College. This, of course, refers to the old quadrangle ; but how much of the building was at once erected we have little information to guide us in forming an opinion. The old statutes do not speak of a Master's lodge, they simply say : " de Cameris in manso habitationis scolaribus assignandis, habeat magister principalem/' A chapel was not needed, for St. Benedict's Church, not to mention St. Botolph's, was close at hand. A hall and kitchen, however, would doubtless be early contemplated, for the great annual feast was one of the most important features of their corporation and one of the chief links between the brothers of the Gild and the scholars of the House. The only contemporary document throwing light upon the building operations is the record of a grant, dated 32 Edward IH., by the owners of a quarry at Cherry Hinton giving building materials to some of the chief brethren of the Gild. This date, 1358, does not favour the immediate erection of the quadrangle. Josselyn, in a later section, tells us that "the building of the college was entirely finished, chiefly in the days of Thomas de Eltisle, the first Master, but partly in the days of Richard Treton, the second Master, as far as extend the surrounding walls with the chambers made in a quadrangle, the hall, the kitchen, and the Master's habitation," as they appeared in his time. The men- tion in this section of the mastership of Richard Treton which only lasted for a year or two, if so long as that, would suggest that some special effort was made at that period ; perhaps that the sum of money which he U CORPUS CHRISTI assigned to the College from the legacy of his friend, the Lord Chancellor Thorpe, may have been expended on the completion of the quadrangle. In any case, whether we place the erection at the commencement, or at the end, of the first mastership, the quadrangle of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, may claim to be " the Jirst originaUy planned close quad- rangle.'''' This consisted " simply of a hall range on the south, and chambers on the three other sides. The former contained^ in addition to the hall, the butteries and kitchen at the west end, and the Master's chamber at the east end. The area of the quadrangle is a trapezium, of which the west and south sides are at right angles to each other, and measure 86 feet and 118 feet respectively. The east and north sides measure 74 feet and 110 feet. It was entered on the north side from the churchyard, through a plain four- centered arch without even a hood-mold, having a pointed window of a single light over it. The chambers were built, as in all the early colleges, in two floors, but they subsequently had garrets added to them as at present." This description is extracted from the great Cambridge Architectural H'lstory by Messrs. Willis and Clark. Mr. J. W. Clark goes on (i. 252-4) to quote Josselyn's curious and minute description of the chambers as they existed in his time and of alterations and additions that had been made by various members of the College. "This detailed account (he continues) shows that the rooms had in the first instance bare walls, and the windows were probably half- shuttered, half-glazed. On the ground story they had clay floors. On the first floor they were open to the roof like modern workshops," THE FIRST MASTER 25 Such was the somewhat primitive quadrangle in which dwelt Thomas de Eltisle and the earliest members of the College. As to the number of those who thus lived within the old walls, there remains no Oi'der Booh older than the year 1567, to tell us the dates of the election of Fellows, nor does any Register exist before 1576, to give us a list of members. We have seen that on the original foundation there were only two Fellows, and that two others were added by the generosity of Sir John de Cambridge, whose son Thomas by his will endowed a chaplaincy. Dr. Lamb has compiled from various deeds and College papers a list of some twenty or thirty Fellows during the fourteenth century ; and the names of donors of plate and books, recorded by Botener and others, would suggest not only that the College had outside patrons, but that it had old members, who by their gifts recorded their continued interest in the house in which they had studied. " Scholars," in the modern sense of the term, we do not meet with in connection with the College until some one hundred years or more after its foundation ; but that students were entertained at the expense of generous patrons appears from the following extract from the accounts * of some great ecclesiastic (probably Henry de Spencer, Bishop of Norwich, 1370 to 1402) : " Item : for the expenses of Thomas Assheburne, scholar of the charity of my Lord in the University of Cambridge in the College of St. Benedict for his teaching there for a year by the hands of Dr. John Kyme, warden of the same college, by Letters from Lord de Ware, £,\\ 4