CHAP. III. be inferred from the prominent part assigned to him on PART II. different occasions. His name appears foremost among those this energetic of the syndicate appointed for the erection of the new character. Forbids the study of the civil and canon law at St. Catherine's Hall. schools; he was clerk of the works at King's College, and the spirit with which he carried on the buildings during the civil wars, when Henry VI was a prisoner, earned him but an indifferent recompense: for confiding in the fortunes of the house of Lancaster, and relying probably on his royal master for reimbursement, he was left to sustain a heavy deficit of nearly £400 which he had advanced from his private fortune1. Such public spirit would alone entitle his memory to be had in lasting remembrance in the university, but 'herein,' says Fuller, he stands alone, without any to accompany him, being the first and last, who was master of one college and at the same time founder of another.' There is little in the statutes given by Woodlark to the college which he founded, deserving of remark, beyond the fact that both the canon and the civil law were rigorously excluded from the course of study. The foundation was designed to aid 'in the exaltation of the Christian faith and the defence and furtherance of holy church by the sowing and administration of the word of God.' It appears to have been the founder's design that it should be exclusively subThe founda- servient to the requirements of the secular clergy. The to benefit the following oath, to be administered to each of the fellows on his election, shows how completely the whole conception was opposed to that of bishop Bateman :—Item juro quod nunquam consentiam ut aliquis socius hujus collegii sive aulæ ad aliquam aliam scientiam sive facultatem ullo unquam tempore se divertat propter aliquem gradum infra universitatem suscipiendum, præterquam ad philosophiam et sacram theologiam, sed pro posse meo resistam cum effectuR. tion intended secular clergy. 1 In prosecution of the royal scheme, it was originally commanded that £1000 per annum should be paid to Woodlark out of the estates of the duchy of Lancaster; but owing to the change of dynasty and other causes, a large balance was at last remaining due to the magnanimous provost. Robert Woodlark, by Charles Hardwicke, M.A., Cam. Antiq. Soc. 2 Accordingly, in the library which Woodlark bestowed on his foundation, not a single volume of the canon or civil law appears. See Catalogue of the Books, etc. edited by Dr Corrie; Cam. Antiq. Soc. Pub. No. 1. PART II. *** Evident deperiod on the sire at this part of the different founders to check the devotion to the civil and If in addition to this fact, we observe that among the few CHAP. III. alterations introduced by Chedworth, or Wainfleet, into the statutes given by William of Wykeham to New College at Oxford, the most important was that whereby the students in civil law were reduced from ten to two, and in the canon law from ten to four, that in the statutes of Queens' College the excessive study of both these branches appears to have been permitted the study of rather than encouraged, and that in the statutes of Jesus canon law. College, which next demand our attention, the study of the canon law was altogether prohibited, while only one of the fellows was allowed to devote himself to the civil law,— we shall have no difficulty in arriving at the conclusion that at Cambridge, at least, a manifest reaction with reference to these studies had set in', and that it had become evident to those who sought to foster true learning in her midst, that acquirements which well subserved the purposes of worldly ambition and social success needed but little aid, but that it was far from unnecessary to guard against their attaining to such predominance as to overshadow that higher culture which could only really prosper when pursued as an end in itself and bringing its own reward?? fifteenth century, is to almost pre- It CHAP. III. of JESUS COLLEGE, 1497. of St. Rhade The circumstances attendant upon the foundation of Jesus College, the fourth and last college founded in the Foundation fifteenth century, illustrate both the degeneracy and the higher aims of the age. Among the most ancient religious The nunnery houses in the town was the nunnery of St. Rhadegund, gund. which, if tradition may be trusted, referred back its origin so far as the year 1133, or not more than forty years later than the foundation of the priory of St. Giles by the wife of Picot the sheriff. The nuns of St. Rhadegund often come under our notice in the early annals of Cambridge. The foundation appears at one time to have enjoyed a fair share of public favour; it was enriched by numerous benefactions, and derived additional prestige from its close The nunnery connexion with the see of Ely: even so late as the year protection of 1457, we find William Gray, one of the most distinguished of the many able men who successively filled the chair of Hugh Balsham, granting a forty days' pardon to all who should contribute to the repair of the conventual church'. But the corruption that so extensively prevailed among the religious houses of every order towards the close of this century invaded likewise the nunnery of St. Rhadegund; Its corrupt the revenues of the society were squandered and dissipated; the conduct of the nuns brought grave scandal on their the fifteenth profession; and in the reign of Henry VII not more than two remained on the foundation, so that, to borrow the Charter of language of the college charter, 'divine service, hospitality, tion of Jesus or other works of mercy and piety, according to the primary under the the bishops of Ely. state and final disso lution with close of century. the founda College, 1496. 321 PART II. Alcock, LLD. 1486-1501. foundation and ordinance of their founders there used, could CHAP. III not be discharged by them'. In the year 1497, through the exertions of John Alcock, bishop of Ely, the nunnery John was accordingly suppressed by royal patent; the bishop was bp. of Ely, a munificent encourager of the arts, and to his liberality and taste the church of Great St. Mary and his own chapel in the episcopal cathedral are still eloquent though silent witnesses2; and under his auspices Jesus College now rose in the place of the former foundation. The historian of the college, The site a fellow on the foundation in the seventeenth century, included in remarks that it appears to have been designed that, in form at least, the new erection should suggest the monastic life'; and to this resemblance the retired and tranquil character of the site, which long after earned for it from king James the designation of musarum Cantabrigiensium museum, still further contributed. originally not Cambridge. statutes of given by Stanley, D.D. The original statutes of the college were not given until Early early in the sixteenth century. Their author was Stanley, the college the successor, one removed, to Alcock, in the episcopal chair at James Ely, and son-in-law of Margaret, countess of Richmond: of y they were subsequently considerably modified by his illus- Nicholas trious successor Nicholas West, fellow of King's, and the bp. of Ely, friend of bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More3. The new 1 Cooper, Memorials, 1 364. Documents, III 91. Shermanni Historia Collegii Jesu Cantabrigiensis, ed. Halliwell, p. 20. 2 Alcock was also a considerable benefactor to Peterhouse (Cooper, Memorials, 1 363); he was tutor to the unfortunate Edward v until removed from that post by the Protector. Bentham, Hist. and Antiq. of Ely Cathedral, p. 182. 3 The college was to have been called "the College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St John the Evangelist, and St Radegund, near Cambridge: to be governed by such statutes as he or his successors should think proper to make and ordain. But the bishop having thought proper to add to this title, that of the holy name Jesus, it was even in his time commonly called Jesus College.' Ibid. p. 182. Collegium ea figura ab ipsis plane fundamentis construxit quæ monasterium etiamnum referat, et quantum ad situm, id sane loci occupat, quod musis est accommodatissimum, viz. ab oppidanorum strepitu et tumultu remotissimum.' Shermanni Historia, p. 23. 5 Statuta insuper Jacobus [Stan- copus Eliensis Jacobi statuta revisit, 1506-1515, and West, LLD. 1515-1533. CHAP. III. statutes however were in professed conformity with the PART II presumed intentions of the founder'; it is consequently all Study of the the more significant that, though both Alcock and West Canon law forbidden. Despond ency observ Promoters of this period. Libraries. were distinguished by their acquirements in the canon law, of the twelve fellows to be maintained on the foundation not one is permitted to give his attention to that branch of study, and only one to that of the civil law; the others, so soon as they have graduated and taught as masters of arts, being required to apply themselves to the study of theology. But though the injurious effects of such encouragement to students as that extended by bishop Bateman had by this time become apparent to nearly all, and though it is evident that the founders of the fifteenth century were fully sensible of the necessity for a different policy if they desired to stimulate the growth of honest culture, we shall look in vain within the limits of this century and of our own university for much indicative either of healthy intellectual activity or true progress. The tone of both the patrons and the professors of learning is despondent, and the general languor that followed upon the Wars of the Roses lasted nearly to the end of the reign of the first of the Tudors. Before however we turn away from this sombre period, it will be well to note not merely the studies enjoined upon the student but the literature within his reach; to examine the college library as well as the college statutes; and briefly survey the contents of the scantily furnished shelves as they appeared while the new learning still delayed its onward flight from its favoured haunts in Italy. In a previous chapter we have devoted some attention terpolatas, amanuensium incuria er- 1 Ceterum quia tantus pater vivendi ordine, servanda statuta aut ordinationes aliquas perfecte vel sufficienter ediderit: Nos igitur opus tam pium tamque devoti patris et optimi præsulis propositum, instinctu divino, ut speramus, inceptum, quantum cum Deo possumus, et spiritualiter et temporaliter firmiter stabiliri paterno affectu intendentes et magnopere cupientes, etc.' Documents, III 94. See supra pp. 101-3. |