In the year 1542, the spoliation of the monasteries was turned to the advantage of secular education in the university in a somewhat remarkable manner. On the other side of the river, cut off,' as Fuller describes it, 'from the continent of Cambridge,' there stood an ancient house known as Buckingham College, its name having been derived from Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham, who was beheaded in 1483. The foundation of the house, however, dated as far back as the year 1428, when the Benedictines of Croyland, dissatisfied with the somewhat shiftless condition of those members of their order who sought to pursue their studies at the university, erected a separate building for their accommodation, in which monks repairing to Cambridge 'to study the canon law and the Holy Scriptures' might reside under their own rule'. This tenement was supplanted about half a century later by a more solid structure, the gift of the above duke, and thenceforth bore the name of Buckingham College'. Other Benedictine monasteries built additional rooms', while the society received from Edward Stafford, the son of Henry and third duke, a considerable endowment, and it is probable that the foundation of the college as a secular, or semisecular society, dates from this period'. But in the year 1521 the chivalrous Stafford was executed on the charge Collegii nomen adinvenit. Caius, Hist. Acad. Cant., p. 77. Cooper (Annals, 1 179, n. 3) appears to have overlooked this distinct assertion by Dr Cains, 3 Nam Elien-e monasterium unum cubiculum, alium Waldense, 3 Ramisense monasterium fabricarunt.' Caius, Ibid. p. 77. It is worthy of note that in a sheet contained in a copy of Caius' de Antiquitate Cant, presentel by John Parker (son of the archbishop) to James I, now preserved in the British Museum, in which the aims of the different colleges are emblazoned with the dates of their respective foundations superscribed, the date assigned to the foundation of Magdalen is 1519. The same date is given by Carter in his History of the University. of high-treason, and the endowment of the college along CHAP. I. with his other estates was confiscated by the Crown'. There seems little doubt that the secular element in the college about this time was considerable. Cranmer, on resigning his fellowship at Jesus College after his first marriage, had supported himself by giving lectures here in theology'; it was here that Sir Robert Rede, the distinguished benefactor of the university, and lord chancellor Sir Thomas Audley were said to have received their education'; while the last prior of the house was Henry Holbeach, a Cambridge doctor of divinity and afterwards bishop of Lincoln'. It is to the presence of this secular element that we may probably attribute the exemption of the society from the operation of the successive acts for the dissolution of the monastic bodies, and the inclusion of its name with the names of the other Cambridge colleges which, by one of the provisions of the Royal Injunctions of 1535, were required to maintain 'two daily public lectures, one of Greek the other of Latin". The loss of the endowment received from Edward Stafford was now succeeded by the loss of the fees formerly paid by students from the monasteries, and the financial state of the college was such as to threaten its speedy dissolution. It was at this crisis that, to use the expression of Baker, the house was restored" by the intervention of Sir Thomas Audley. d 1514 Among those who had urged on the overthrow of the Thom religious houses none had taken a more active part in the work or had shared more largely in the spoil than that eminent statesman. Endowed with consummate tact and a commanding presence, he had achieved no ordinary political success and had acquired considerable wealth by a singular combination of talent, audacity, and craft,-the characteristics. of one who in the language of Lloyd 'was well seen in the flexures and windings of affairs at the depths whereof other als not so steady turned giddy'. The offices of speaker of the House of Commons, chancellor of the duchy of Lanraster, lord keeper of the great seal, and lord chancellor of the realm had successively rewarded his untiring perseverance and real services. Among the first to profit by the rander of the monasteries, he was also one of those who red in its final distribution. In 1535, the priory of Agate with its estates-the first cut,' as Fuller terms it, in the feast of abbey lands'-fell to his share, and was flowed in 1536 by the bestowal of St Botolph's Priory at Cole Lester. But these splendid prizes were far from satisfying his cupidity. He pleaded that he had been a heavy 1er by the rebellion in the North and again by the cessation of the fees which in his capacity as chancellor he had f.nerly derived from the monasteries. When accordingly the wealthy abbey of Walden, with its large estates, was eLfiscated he begged boldly for the gift. In the besy world,' he says, in a letter to Cromwell, I susteyned damage ard injury and this shal restore me to honeste and comodyte. His representations were favourably heard by Henry, al in 1538, Sir Thomas, as possessor of the property, was rise to the peerage under the title of lord Audley of Wden. But the royal munificence was not yet exhausted, and in 1542 the priory of Crutched Friars at Colchester and Tilty Abbey completed the intriguing statesman's magni 1 State Worthies (2n1 ed.), p. 73. Jare the same writer describes as one whose knowledge was as large as his authority, whose wit was equal with his wisdom, whose metry was strong and judgement » UL." "Tind. p. 72. See also Fronde, It w*, of Enslind, 1 218. The 'Gray's In lawyer' mentioned by the saine writre as making a happy rejoinder to the bishops' appeal to 'custon' 217) was Sir Thomas Andley. Ye brile assigns to him ‘a middle ng the eo tending interests 14. tv 207. * liut. of Audley End, by Lord Braybrooke, p. 12. Every grant,' observes the noble author, which Sir Thomas obtained encouraged him to importune the king for further recompense.' Ibid. The charges of the rebellion and the occasion cost me xje, markes and above....I have lost by capa eytecz liberally and frely grantel to relegeous persones of all the howses suppressid, of very ordinary, fleez anexid to my office above a M", and have it no recompens for it.' Letters relating to the Suppression of the Monasteries, p. 212. ficent reward. If ever the hope that the suppression of the CHAF monasteries might prove the gain of the universities was to be in some measure realised, it must be admitted that there was no courtier from whose aggrandizement the latter bodies. had a better right to look for some advantage than the newly-created lord of Walden. He was moreover, when his years were estimated by the average of life in those days, already an old man. He had no male heir; and the Cam itself, as it stole onward through the abbey grounds at Walden, might serve to remind him of those ancient and impoverished foundations which rose on its banks in its remoter course, and in behalf of which his powerful influence had more than once been exerted'. We have no record of any specific appeal to him on the subject, but he was fully informed of the straitened condition of the university and of the existing desire for more colleges, and in the year 1542 we find him applying for the royal licence to change the name of Buckingham College to that of St Mary Magdalene and subsequently reconstituting the society as a college of the university endowed for the maintenance of a mnaster and eight fellows. foundat COLLEG statute Although however the college was reconstituted in 1542 Charter and its charter granted by Henry, Ecclesiae Anglicanae et M Hiberniae supremum caput,' it devolved on the executors of Apr the founder (who died in April, 1544) to draw up the statutes, and it was not until the sixteenth of February, 1554, that Farty these received the sanction of Philip and Mary-'Dei gratia the firs Regis et Reginae Angliae. The executors were Elizabeth 12304 lady Audley (the widow), Edward lord North, Sir Thomas. Pope, knight, and Edmund Martin and Thomas Barber, esquires. Of these, two at least were staunch Catholics, In the Epistolae Academiae (1 181) there is a letter thanking him for his assistance in procuring for the university the remission of the payment of firs-fruits and tenths (see supra, p. 12). * Documents, 111 316. 3 In Documents and also in Cooper (v 255) the last two names are transposed, but in the original statutes, which by the courtesy of the present 4 Lord North was one of the CL and when we take into consideration the date at which the statutes were drawn up, it is evident that, whatever might have been the founder's designs, the display of any decided preference for the 'new learning' would probably have proved subversive of the whole scheme. In marked contrast therefore to the statutes of Christ's College and St John's, the original code of Magdalene College is noticeable chiefly for what may be termed its more domestic character, and the evident design of the founder and his executors that the society shall be permanently to a great extent under the control of his heirs,-the successive owners of Audley End. They are to possess the sole right of appointing the master of the college, while the whole tenour of the statutes is carefully directed towards maintaining intact the master's authority. As regards the head himself, it is required that at the time of succeeding to the office he shall be about thirty years of age', 'a promoter of religion, virtue, and Bound learning,' and that if not in holy orders he shall forthwith take the necessary steps for admission to the same. No statute recognises the contingency of his suspension or removal, while, on the other hand, he himself is invested with full power to eject from the college (sine ulla mora ant appellatione') any of the fellows who may resist or refuse to obey his authority. The stipend originally attached to the office was liberal, being, after that of the provost of King's and that of the master of St John's, the largest derived from a similar position among all the other foundations then existing in the university. No clause requires that he shall be resident, a fact which is partially explained by the provision made, notwithstanding the limited numbers of the ciety, for the appointment of a president. This officer is required to exercise a general supervision over the whole |