PART II. CHAP. V. in Cambridgeshire, the manor of Ditesworth, with lands there, and in Kegworth, Hathern, and Watton, with the advowson of Kegworth in Leicestershire, also the advowson of Sutton Bonnington in Nottinghamshire, and the manor of Roydon in Essex, and procured the appropriation of the churches of Fendrayton and Helpstone. By her will, she directed that the college buildings should be perfectly finished. and garnished at her cost; that the college should have other lands, of the yearly value of £16; that £100 or more should the college. be deposited in a strong coffer for the use of the college, to which she gave a moiety of her plate, jewels, vestments, altarcloths, books, hangings, and other necessaries belonging to her chapel; and that the manor-house at Malton should be sufficiently built and repaired at her cost, "soo that the maister and scolers may resort thidder, and there to tarry in tyme of contagiouse siknes at Cambrige, and exercise their lernyng and studies1"" Other be quests to The countess visits Cam bridge in 1505. Her second visit, with king Hetry, in 1506. Before the close of the year 1505 the countess honoured the university by her presence. We have no details of this visit, beyond the fact that she was met at a distance of three miles from the town by the dignitaries and other members of the community, whose gratitude she had so well deserved'; but in the following year we find her repeating her visit, accompanied by her royal son. King Henry, with that ostentatious devotion wherewith in his latter years he strove to efface the recollection of many a cruel act of oppression, was on his way to visit the famous shrine of St. Mary at Walsingham. He was met, in the first instance, at three miles distance from the town, by the civic authorities; as he approached within a quarter of a mile, he found awaiting him, in long array, first the four orders of the Mendicants, then the other religious orders, and finally the members of 1 Cooper, Annals, 1 275. 2 It was perhaps on this occasion that the incident recorded by Fuller occurred:Once the lady Margaret came to Christ's College to behold it when partly built; and, looking out of a window, saw the dean call a faulty scholar to correction; to whom she said Lente, lente! "Gently, gently," as accounting it better to mitigate his punishment than to procure his pardon: mercy and justice making the best medley to offenders.' 'This,' says Fuller, I heard in a clerum from Dr Collings.' FullerPrickett & Wright, p. 182. PART II. reception. tion to King adulation. the university according to their degree. As the monarch CHAP. V. passed along he stooped from his saddle to kiss the cross borne by each order, and at last arrived where the university cross King Henry's was planted, with a bench and cushion beneath. Here the chancellor, with the other doctors, was stationed to give him. welcome; the monarch alighted from his horse; and Fisher Fisher's orathereupon delivered what Ashmole terms 'a little proposi- Henry. tion,' or in other words, a short Latin oration, which has fortunately been preserved entire. It is not certainly in the florid oratory customary on occasions of this kind that we should expect to meet with the most severe fidelity to historic truth; but, after making all allowance for any necessity that the orator may have felt himself under to play the courtier, it must be admitted that the speech in question does more honour to his heart than to his head, and affords a noteworthy illustration of that intense and credulous reverence for tradition, which, notwithstanding his natural good sense and discernment, Fisher so often exhibited in the course of his life. The speech opens with the usual ex- His excessive pressions of fulsome adulation. King Henry is complimented on his skill in languages and on his finished eloquence; on his stately form and grace of figure, his strength, fleetness, and agility; these natural gifts however the orator seems rather disposed to regard as miraculous, 'inasmuch as,' he observes (complimenting the son, it would seem, somewhat at the expense of the mother), 'the countess was but small of person, and only fourteen years of age when king Henry was born.' But however this may be, it is impossible not to discern the direct interposition of Providence in the frequent royal escapes from peril and danger in early life, and from the plots and treasons that at a later period had endangered the stability of the throne. Other subjects of congratulation, the orator holds, were to be found in the prosperity of the kingdom, the warlike prowess of the people, and the monarch's enormous wealth. It seems singular that, at a time when the country was groaning under the extortion of the royal commissioners, so delicate a topic should have been touched upon; but Empson was at that time steward of the PART II. Traditions concerning tion of the university. CHAP. V. university', and it is not improbable that Fisher may have believed him to be unjustly assailed and have designed a rebuke to the prevalent discontent. Then follows a recital the founda- of some of the most extravagant fables respecting the origin of the university. Cambridge was founded by Cantaber, a king of the East Saxons, who had been educated at Athens. The archives, unfortunately, that should have preserved the records of this illustrious commencement, had been lost in . the 'carnage, conflagrations, and plunderings' of a former age. But other facts in the early history of the university were attested by independent evidence. It was notorious that Cambridge had been known as a seat of learning long before the time of Honorius, 'for we have,' says Fisher, 'copies, sub plumbo, of a letter which he sent us, and in that letter he expressly refers to times far more ancient than his own.' Honorius again, as every one knew, was pope sixty years before Charlemagne 'founded the university of Paris;' nor could it be reasonably doubted that Paris owed its origin to Cambridge, when we know that Alcuin, John Scotus, and Rabanus Maurus were educated here,-Gaguinum testem citabimus. After thus propping up one fiction by another, the orator turns to the less questionable records of the successive benefactions of former monarchs; and recalls, in a passage already partly quoted, how the favour of the monarch whom he addressed had quickened the university to new life when sunk in lethargy and despondency. Then follows an undoubtedly genuine expression of feeling,Fisher's acknowledgement of the benefactions he had himself received at the royal hands; and finally the oration closes with a devout prayer that length of days, an undisputed succession (prince Henry appears to have been standing at Fisher's ac knowledge ment of the favours he had himself received. 1 Cooper, Athenæ, 1 14. Gaguinus was an accepted authority at this time. He was the author of De Origine et Gestis Francorum, a chronicle of French history from the time of Pharamond down to 1491, and held a chair of rhetoric in the university of Paris. His account of contemporary history has generally been regarded as trustworthy. See Potthast, Bibliotheca Historica Medii Evi, ed. 1862, 240, 325. Erasmus speaks of him in the highest terms, Robertus Gaguinus, quo uno litterarum parente, antistite, principe, Francia non injuria gloriatur.' Opera, III 1782. See supra, p. 427. his father's side), and every temporal and spiritual blessing CHAP. V. may descend on the monarch and his son. PART II. sion through This ceremony over, the king remounted his horse, and The procesthe procession moved on; it appears to have made a kind the town. of circuit of the best part of the town, passing by the house of the Dominicans, where Emmanuel College now stands, until the monarch alighted at the lodge of Queens'. It was not his first visit to this society, for he had already, in 1497, during the presidency of Wilkinson, been entertained under the same roof. After resting for an hour, he again rose and 'did on his gown and mantle of the Garter,' his example being followed by all the knights of that order in his train, and then mounting his horse rode in solemn state to King's. King Henry The chapel there, commenced half a century before, was at service in this time only half completed'; ever since the accession Edward IV the work had either altogether stood still, been carried on in a spiritless and inadequate fashion, owing to the want of funds. As yet the red rose of Lancaster gleamed not from the variegated pane; the rich details of the architecture, wearing the greyhound of Beaufort and the portcullis of Blanche of Navarre, were still mostly wanting; 1 King Henry VI had set apart, from the revenues of the duchy of Lancaster, a special fund for carrying on the building. But after Edward IV was proclaimed King,' says Cole, which was on 5th March, 1460, an entire stop was put to the works, for the duchy of Lancaster and the whole revenue of the college was seized by him, part of which was regranted to the provost and scholars for their maintenance, but nothing from the duchy for the building...... 1479-83. £1296. 1s. 8d. were expended on the works, of which £1000 was given by the King, and £140 by Thomas Rotheram, bishop of Lincoln and chancellor of England, and formerly fellow of the college 1483. Thomas Cliff was by Ric. III appointed overseer of the works, and continued so till December 23 following, A. R. 2 Ric. III; during this time £746. 10s. 94d. was expended on the works, of which the King seems to have given £700...... At this time the E. end of the chapel attends the of lege Chapel. or seems to have been carried up to the King's ColIncomplete condition of the building. effects of the royal visit. CHAP. V. the building was not yet roofed. Sufficient progress had PART II. however been made to admit of the performance of divine service, in which Fisher took part as chief celebrant. Possible good It is not unreasonable to suppose that the monarch's visit, and personal observation of the fate that seemed threatening to overtake an unequalled design, may have roused him to his after liberality in behalf of this great memorial to the 'holy Henry's shade.' He had at one time, it is said, intended that 'the body and reliques of his uncle of blissful memory should rest in his own chapel at Westminster,' but this design was never carried into effect: perhaps, in abandoning it, he conceived the idea, which he carried out only on his death-bed, of proving his regard for the memory of his Lancastrian ancestor in another way,-by finishing, in noble fashion, the work that Henry VI had commenced at Cambridge. However this may have been, within three years after the above visit, he left those princely bequests that converted a sad spectacle of apparent failure into one of splendid completion. Three weeks before his death he made over for this purpose to the college authorities the sum of five thousand pounds, and left directions in his will, that his executors should from time to time advance whatever additional sums might be required for the 'perfect finishing' of the whole. We can better estimate the magnitude of these grants in the eyes of that generation, when we find that a gift of one hundred marks to the university, and another of a hundred pounds towards the rebuilding of Great St. Mary's, made by king Henry before his departure from Cambridge on the foregoing occasion, were hailed as indications of special favour in one whose parsimony was so notorious. The mo narch's sub Bequent be quests for the comple tion of the chapel. His gifts to Great St. Mary's and to the university. ERASMUS. b. 1467. d. 1536. There is some reason for conjecturing that, among those who followed in the royal train on this occasion', was Desiderius Erasmus, for we find that he was in England during 1 Dr John Caius directly asserts (Hist. Cant. Acad. p. 127), that Erasmus was living at Cambridge at the time when King Henry visited the university,-'quo tempore Hen ricus etiam Septimus Angliæ rex prudentissimus Cantabrigiam invisit:' but this statement appears to be without sufficient authority. See Knight's Life of Erasmus, pp. 85-8. |