as a favor and concession the monks treated it as a sign of their triumph, and in 1336 a grace had to be passed forbidding the friars to receive into their orders any scholar under the age of eighteen. Oxford passed a similar statute in 1358. Under pressure from Rome these statutes were subsequently repealed, but in 1359 the university passed a grace by which only two friars from each house were allowed to incept in the same year', which sufficiently served to protect the university from excessive proselytizing. The establishment of these numerous and powerful bodies had however another and more lasting effect. Although the monks and friars were nominally members of the university, they were divided from the rest of the masters on nearly every question of policy, and thus acted as a counterpoise to the overwhelming power of the university in local matters. They were also wealthy, and materially increased the prosperity of the town, so that by 1300 the mayor and burgesses formed a well-organized corporate body. In that year the total population of the university and town was about 4000, but except at the time of the annual Stourbridge fair there does not seem to have been any considerable trade, save that arising from the supply of the needs of the university and the monasteries. The statements about the number of students at the mediæval universities must be received with considerable caution. They represent vague impressions rather than the result of an accurate census. It must also be recollected that it was customary to reckon as members of the university all servants and tradesmen whose chief employment was in connection with students, while the fact that the average student spent at least seven years at the university before he became a master, and generally twenty years or more if he aspired to become a doctor (after which he probably still resided for some years), caused the university to be largely composed of permanent residents of every age from 12 to 40. 1 Statuta antiqua, 163, 164. Peacock, xliii; Mullinger, 1. 263. The question has been very carefully considered by M. Thurot', who comes to the conclusion that the total number of students at Paris never rose much above 1500 nor of regents above 200. I think I should probably not be far wrong if I estimated the total number of masters and students (exclusive of monks) at Cambridge during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries as varying between 500 and 1000. The numbers at Oxford in the thirteenth century were perhaps about 700; in the fourteenth century probably nearly 2000; in the fifteenth century the university is described as "wholly deserted," perhaps the total number then did not exceed 200 or 300. I ought to add that all these numbers are considerably less than those usually given, but the latter probably include servants and tradespeople. Peacock says that the number of regent-masters created at Cambridge in each year [I presume in the fifteenth century] averaged about 40; and that of bachelors in law about 15. This, as far as I can judge, will give a result not very different from that which I had independently arrived at. The question as to the social position of the students in mediæval times is a difficult one3. The balance of opinion is that a large majority were poor, and it is certain from several of the ancient statutes that poverty was not uncommon*. On the other hand, a considerable minority must have been wealthy. The grace, to which allusion was made in chapter VIII., by which any incepting master was forbidden to spend in presents and dinners, on the occasion of taking his degree, what would now be equivalent to £500, would have been absurd if there were no wealthy men at the university. Moreover it is clear from internal evidence, that Richard II. in framing the statutes of King's Hall (which had been founded by Edward II. 1 See pp. 32, 42 of De l'organisation de l'enseignement au moyen âge, by C. Thurot, Paris, 1850. See also Munimenta academica, p. xlviii. 2 Observations, 33. 3 Mullinger, 1. 345, note. 4 See Cooper, 1. 245, 343. and Edward III., and is now a part of Trinity College), expressly designed it for wealthy and aristocratic students'. All regulations about poverty were erased from its rules, while in place of them various sumptuary and disciplinary regulations were inserted. Among these I notice that the daily expenditure of food for each student was not to exceed 1s. 2d. a week, which would be worth now say about 14s. or 15s. and, was nearly half as much again as at Gonville Hall. Other rules were that students should not keep dogs in college, or play the flute to the annoyance of their neighbours. The additional provision that no one should practise with the cross-bow in the courts or walks of the college must commend itself to every one of mature age. A tradition that the society laid down a rule that no student should strike a fellow, or under any circumstances the master, is suggestive that its members were not wholly devoted to study. In the fifteenth century no one was admitted who was not bene natus. I think therefore we may safely say that the students were drawn from all classes and ranks in the kingdom, but that a large proportion were poor. I may perhaps be pardoned for adding a few words on the social side of the life of a medieval student. The majority of the students and all the wealthier ones resided in hostels2. Some of these houses no doubt contained all the comforts which were then customary, but no account of life at a hostel is now extant. It would seem, however, that there was usually a common sitting-room or hall; and at the better hostels a lad could hire a bedroom for his sole use, the rent of which varied from 7s. 6d. to 13s. 4d. a year3. The total expenditure of the son of a well-to-do tradesman at Oxford in the reign of Edward III. came to £9. 10s. 8d.; board was charged at the rate of 28. 1 Mullinger, 1. 252-254. 2 See Lever's sermon at St Paul's Cross, preached in 1550: Arber's edition, p. 121. 3 Munimenta academica, 556, 655. a week, tuition at 26s. 8d. a year, and clothes cost 20s1. In 1289 the allowance to two brothers de la Fyte was half-a-mark each per week, which was raised in their second year of residence to 35 marks a year: besides this bills for certain necessary expenses, which seem to have averaged nearly £5 a year for each of them, were paid by the king. This scale of allowance was exceptionally high, as the boys were well connected, and protected by the king: they had a manservant to themselves. At the other end of the social scale two poor lads named Kingswood were sent by bishop Swinfield to Oxford in 1288, and the bills for both of them for forty weeks' residence came to £13. 19s. 2d. From these and similar facts it would seem that a student could hardly support himself on less than £9 a year, and that anything beyond £15 a year was a handsome allowance. If these totals be multiplied by 12 or 13 they will represent about their equivalents in modern value. 2 The colleges, except King's Hall, were intended for poor students, but compared with those of Paris seem to have been fairly comfortable, and indeed for that age luxurious. Every student swore obedience to the college authorities, and it was rigidly enforced with birch and rod. The younger students slept three or four in a room, which also served as study, but was more often than not unwarmed. There was a dining hall, in which on great occasions a fire was lit. Here meals were served, namely, dinner about 10 a.m. and supper about 5 p.m.; meat being apparently provided on each occasion, except in Lent. The colleges generally required their members to speak nothing but Latin (or in a few cases French) in hall and on all formal occasions except the great festivals of the church. In the evening mock contests were held in the hall, by which students were practised for the acts they had to keep in the schools. There was usually an attic fitted up as a library where students could find the text-books of the day, and 1 The accounts of the guardian of Hugh atte Boure, quoted in Riley's London, p. 379. 2 The authorities are quoted in Lyte, 93. from which a fellow could borrow books: this use of a library was one of the most highly valued privileges of college life'. The disciplinary rules of the colleges were naturally stricter than those in force in the hostels. Until a student of a college became a bachelor he was not allowed to go out of college bounds unless accompanied by a master of arts. A bachelor had much the same freedom as an undergraduate now-a-days, except that he generally had but one room, which he had to share with another man, and only a fellow of considerable standing had a room to himself. Allowances were conditional on residence, but were generally sufficient to supply all the necessaries of a student's life. The master was absolute within the college: a fatal defect in organization, for a single incompetent master could destroy the progress of centuries, as every medieval college in succession found to its cost. The amusements of the students were much what we should expect from English lads. Contests with the crossbow were common, and cock-fighting-at any rate in the hostels-was a usual amusement. To the more adventurous student the opportunity of a fight with the townsmen was always open. As far as we can judge at this distance of time the university authorities in their dealings with the town were arrogant and exasperating, but always kept within the law; and technically in all the serious riots the townsmen were in the wrong. The riots of 1261, 1322, and 1381 were particularly violent, and the townsmen not only committed outrages of every kind, but burnt some of the hostels, and all the charters and documents of the university as well as of such colleges as they were able to sack. After the last of these riots the government confiscated the liberties of the town, and bestowed them on the chancellor, in whom they remained vested till the reign of Henry VIII. To this stringent measure the subse1 Mullinger, 1. 366–372. 2 See for example Mullinger, 1. 424. |