PART I. be observed the master fellowships. A fellow, whether a civilian or a canonist, is eligible to the CHAP. III. mastership; but should none of the fellows appear deserving of the dignity, a master of arts may be chosen from the university at large, whose reputation entitles him to such a distinction. On a vacancy occurring among the fellowships Conditions to appropriated to civilians, it may be filled by electing a ba- in elections to chelor or a scholar of three years standing, whose studies s have been directed to the civil law, or by the election of a master or a bachelor of arts (the latter to be within a year of incepting as master), provided he be willing to enrol himself in the faculty. On a like vacancy occurring among the canonists, whereby their number is reduced below seven, the vacancy may be filled by the election of one of the civilians already holding a fellowship, on his signifying his readiness to become a canonist, and to take holy orders'; but should seven canonists still remain, the vacancy may be filled by the election of either a civilian or a canonist as the majority may decide. It is, however, imperative that whoever elects to become a canonist, shall within a year from his election to a fellowship, take upon himself full priest's orders, and forthwith qualify himself for the performance of masses*. sented by bp his founda A library given by the bishop to the new college affords Library preadditional illustration of the comparative importance attached Bateman to by him to theological and juridical studies. No less than tion. four copies of the code of the civil law, each in five volumes, integrum et glosatum, head the catalogue; these are followed by volumes of the lectures of Clinius, Raynerus, and Petrus, on the Codex, Inforciatum, and Authentica. The volumes of the canon law are seventeen in number; those in theology only three! viz. a small bible, a Compendium Biblie, in uno parvo pulcro volumine, and unum librum Recapitulacionis 1 Si quis eorum ad audiendum jura Canonica, et ad gradum Presbyteri voluerit migrare.' Documents, II 621. 2 Item statuimus et ordinamus, quod exceptis incepturis in Jure Civili, jura Canonica infra tempus ad incipiendum eisdem limitatum audientibus, ut præfertur, et Doctoribus Juris Civilis per biennium proximum post eorum cessationem legentibus ordinariè vel cursoriè Decretales; PART I. CHAP. III. Biblie. There is however a second catalogue, the volumes in which are reserved by the bishop for his own use during his lifetime, wherein theology is somewhat better represented'. Confirmation Gonville's Foundation It is sufficiently evident from this outline that the new foundation was certainly not conceived in a manner calculated to remove the evils which Roger Bacon deplored; the combination of two branches of study which he held should be regarded as radically distinct, the predominance given to the secular over the sacred branch,-the subservience in which theology and the arts were to be placed to both,—all point to the training of a body of students either wholly given to what he deemed, and what probably then was, an ignoble and corrupting profession, or, to use his own expression, civiliter jus canonicum tractantes, and thus debasing a religious calling to secular and sordid purposes. We must now go back to trace the fortunes of Gonville Hall. The plans of the founder, it appears, were so far from being fully consolidated at the time of his death, that, either from insufficiency of funds or some other cause, the college would probably have ceased to exist, had not the of Edmund founder of Trinity Hall given it effectual aid. In the same year that the original statutes were given, the year in which Dec. 21, 1351. Edmund Gonville died, bishop Bateman ratified the rule of the house, and announced his intention of carrying out the designs of the founder. 'Wisdom,' he says, in a somewhat pompous manifesto, 'is to be preferred to all other possessions, nor is there anything to be desired that can compare with it; this the wise man loved beyond health and every by bishop Bateman, 1 Warren, Hist. of Trinity Hall, MSS. Cole, LVIII 115-18. 2 The prominence given to the study of the civil law both at Oxford and Cambridge in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries seems to have altogether escaped the observation of Huber. The department of civil law,' he says, 'which was of national importance, was but limited; and the number of individuals who studied it was too small to constitute a school.' English Universities, 1 158, 159. A closer acquaintance th It our college history would have saved PART I. good thing, preferring it even to life itself. The founder of CHAP. III this college proposed to create a perpetual college of scholars in the university of Cambridge, in the diocese of Ely, but death prevented the execution of his praiseworthy design. We therefore, bishop of Norwich, by divine permission,although already over-burdened with the founding and endowing of the college of Scholars of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, in order that so praiseworthy an endeavour may not wholly be brought to an end, and considering the great benefits that must result in the salvation of souls and to the public weal, if the seeds of the knowledge of letters becoming moistened by the dew of scholastic teaching bring forth much fruit,-being also the more incited to such work in that we have here ourselves received the first elements of learning, and afterwards, though undeservedly, the doctorial degree-desiring that this design may be brought to its full accomplishment, do constitute, ordain, and appoint the said college, and moreover confirm and will that the said college be called the college of the Annunciation of the Blessed The name Mary, proposing by the assistance of the said glorious Virgin, altered to so to endow the said college with revenues and sufficient College of the resources. (when the present site or any other shall have been approved by our diocesan bishop of Ely,) that they shall, in all future time, be able to obtain the things necessary for life'.' Within three months from the time when this document received the bishop's signature, we find the royal license issuing to the chancellor of the university and the brethren of the Hospital of St. John empowering them to transfer to the new foundation of the Annunciation of the Blessed Mary two messuages in Lurteburgh Lane, manso prædicto Custodis et Scholarium contigua. The phrase in the bishop's manifesto indicating a possible change of locality, is probably to be referred to some uncertainty at the time as to the permanent settlement of the college in Lurteburgh Lane, for we find that in the following year an exchange of property was 1 See Stabilitio Fundacionis per Rev. Patrem Dnm: Willm: Bateman Norvic: Episc: MSS. Baker, xxIx 271. Gonville Hall that of the Annuncia tion of the Blessed Mary. PART I. 'de Amicabi litate' be tween the Trinity Hall Hall, 1353. CHAP. III. effected with the Gild of Corpus Christi, and the scholars were removed from that part of the town to the present site of the college in close proximity to Michaelhouse. The Hall of the Annunciation was thus also brought into the immediate neighbourhood of Trinity Hall, and under the bishop's Agreement auspices a formal agreement of a somewhat novel character was entered into between the two foundations,-a Compositio scholars of de Amicabilitate,-which, unnecessary and unmeaning as any and Gonville such convention would now appear, was probably of real service in preventing rivalries and feuds between colleges in close juxtaposition and schools of the same faculty. By this agreement the members of the two foundations, as sharers in the protection of a common patron and living under nearly the same rule, pledge themselves to dwell in perpetual concord, in all and each of their necessities to render to one another mutual succour, and throughout life as far as in them lies to aid in promoting the reputation and welfare of the sister college and its individual sons. On all public occasions it is stipulated, however, that the scholars of Trinity Hall shall have the precedence tanquam primogeniti et præstantiores1. Statutes given by man to Gonville Hall or Hall of the Annunciation, 1353. But the original statutes of Gonville Hall harmonised bishop Bate- but little with bishop Bateman's views, and his aid, unlike that of Hugh Balsham, was to be bought only with a price. To the bustling canonist Avignon and her traditions were all in all; to him, as to pope Clement, the theologian seemed a 'dreamer,' and the civil and the canon law the only studies deserving the serious attention of young clergymen aiming at something better in life than the performance of masses and wranglings over the theory of the Real Presence or the Immaculate Conception. Accordingly, without explanation, and even without reference to the former statutes, he substituted as the rule of the foundation of Edmund Gonville, twelve of the statutes, but slightly modified, which he had already drawn up for his own college. The direction thus 1 See Stabilitio Fundacionis, &c. Baker MSS. xxix 279. 2 Volumus insuper quod omnes et singuli socii dicti Collegii qui pro tempore fuerint plene et integraliter faciant et observent omnia et singula que in duodecim Statutis Sociorum Collegii Sancte Trinitatis per eos ju PART I. given to the course of study is a kind of mean between that CHAP. III. designed by the original founder and that of Trinity Hall. The Trivium and Quadrivium are retained in the prominence originally assigned to them, but the requirements with respect to the study of theology are abolished. All the fellows are to be elected from the faculty of arts, and are to continue to study therein until they have attained to the standing of master of arts, and even after that period they are to lecture ordinarie1 for one year; but from the expiration of that year it is required that they shall devote themselves to the study of either the civil law, the canon law, theology, or medicine; but only two are permitted to enter the last-named faculty. The order of enumeration would alone suggest that the first-named branches held the preference in the bishop's estimation. The principal provision in reference to other studies is that requiring that all students elected to fellowships shall not simply have gone through the usual course, but shall have attended lectures in logic for three years; the three years being reducible to two only in cases of distinguished proficiency. of CORPUS COLLEGE, The college of Corpus Christi is another foundation, Foundation whose rise may be attributed, though in this case less directly, CHRISTI to the effects of the plague; but the whole circumstances of 1352. its origin are peculiar. In the fourteenth century Cambridge was distinguished by its numerous Gilds, among which those of the Holy Trinity, the Annunciation, the Blessed Virgin, and Corpus Christi, appear to have been the more important. A recently published volume by a laborious investigator of |