St. John's College under Metcalfe's rule. his best reward. The promotion of Metcalfe to the master- CHAP. VI. ship in 1518 had proved eminently favorable to the best Prosperity of interests of the society. Metcalfe was himself indeed no proficient in the new studies; but in Fuller's phrase, though 'with Themistocles, he could not fiddle, he knew how to make a little college a great one';' and before Fisher's death, the overflowing numbers of the students, their conspicuous devotion to learning, and names like those of Ascham and Cheke, had already caused the college to be noted as the most brilliant society in the university. In the year 1524 Fisher had drawn up a new code as the rule of the foundation, modelled to a great extent upon that of Fox at Corpus Christi College, Oxford; and in 1530 he gave a third body of statutes in which he incorporated many of the regulations given by Wolsey for the observance of Cardinal College. Of the minuteness of detail and elaborateness of the provisions that characterise these last statutes some idea may be formed from the fact, that while the original statutes fill forty-six Fisher's closely printed quarto pages, and those of 1524, seventy-seven, 1524 and the statutes of 1530 occupy nearly a hundred and thirty. Alarmed at the signs of the times and timorous with old age, Fisher seems to have sought with almost feverish solicitude to provide for every possible contingency that might arise. Of the new provisions some, such as the institution of Multiplicity lecturers in Greek and Hebrew, and the obligation im- rateness of posed upon a fourth part of the fellows to occupy themselves with preaching to the people in English,—are undoubtedly entitled to all praise; but the additions that most served to swell the new statute-book were the lengthy and stringent oaths imposed alike on master, fellows, and scholars, and the introduction of innumerable petty restrictions, which it is difficult to suppose might not safely have been left to the discretion of the acting authorities from time to time. It illustrates the fallacious nature of such elaborate 1 Fuller-Prickett & Wright, p. 227; Baker-Mayor, 107-8. 2 For Cheke's celebrity in the university see Ascham, Epistolæ statutes of 1530. and elabo the details however con omission in standard of with respect to pen sioners. CHAP. VI. precautions that, though the good bishop's care extended to The statutes details so trifling that the statute against 'fierce birds' was tain a grave extended to include the most harmless of the feathered fixing no race,--the thrush, the linnet, and the blackbird',-he yet acquirement nevertheless omitted altogether to make provision with respect to one most important point,-an omission which fifteen years later it was found necessary to repair. We have already noted that the statutes of Christ's College are the first that contain a provision for the admission of pensioners, and that it was therein required, as also in each of the three codes given by Fisher to St. John's, that students thus admitted should have previously furnished satisfactory evidence with respect to character. Unfortunately it was not deemed necessary to insert a similar requirement with respect to attainments, and an inlet was thus afforded at both colleges to a class whose ignorance was only equalled by their disinclination to study, and who, as it was soon found, were a scarcely less formidable element of demoralisation than the riotous and dissolute. In less than twelve years after Fisher's death we accordTestimony of ingly find Ascham in writing to Cranmer (then archbishop), harm result informing him that there were two things which proved great hindrances to the flourishing estate of the university;' and of these one was occasioned by such as were admitted, 'who were for the most part only the sons of rich men, and such as never intended to pursue their studies to that degree as to arrive at any eminent proficiency and perfection in learning, but only the better to qualify themselves for some places in the state, by a slighter and more superficial knowledge. Of the general concurrence of the college authori Ascham to ing from this laxity. 1 Early Statutes (ed. Mayor), p. 138. 2 See supra, p. 459; though pensioners are not recognised by college statutes, they existed in practice long before the sixteenth century. When the number of fellows on the different foundations was but small, it was common for members of the university, generally masters of arts, to rent a chamber of the college, for which they paid a pension, and hence the name of pensioner. Dr. Ainslie, in his Inquiry concerning the earliest Masters of the College of Valence Mary, p. 297, notes an example of this practice, in the case of William Humberston, vicar of Tilney, as early as the fourteenth century. 3 Strype, Memorials of Cranmer, 1 242. repaired at in the statutes of 1545. ties in the view thus expressed by Ascham, we have satis- CHAP. VI. factory proof in the fact that in the statutes given by king Henry to St. John's in the year 1545, an endeavour is made The omission to remedy the above evil (so far at least as the college was St. John's concerned), by the insertion of a clause requiring that no pensioner should be admitted who did not already possess such a knowledge of Latin as would enable him to profit by the regular course of instruction, and prevent his proving an impediment to the progress of others1. UNIVERSITY It must however be acknowledged that Fisher's mistrust THE of the tendencies he saw around him was far from singular, PRESS. and the action of the university in reference to one important matter, at about the same time, sufficiently proves that a policy of repression and coercion was rapidly gaining ground. It was soon seen that Tunstal's plan of burning the Lutheran writings was of but small avail, and the efforts of the ecclesiastical authorities were now directed to a more effective method,—that of stifling the press itself. The first Cambridge printer was Erasmus's friend, John Siberch: and John in the year 1521 he printed seven books, one of which, Linacre's translation of Galen De Temperamentis,—a prescribed text-book in the medical course of study, claims to be the first book printed in England containing Greek characters. In the following year he printed two more volumes, and after that time we lose sight of his productions. 1 'Maximum itaque quod formidamus ex his provenire malum potest, si quosdam præter hunc numerum convictores et pensionarios intra collegium admiserimus, quorum non integra conversatio ceteros inficiat, atque ita sensim reliquo corpori pernicies inferatur. Magnopere etiam collegii interest ut adolescentes, priusquam in collegium admittuntur, aliquam progressionem et cursum in litteris factum habeant. Debet enim nonnihil inter ludos litterarios et academiam interesse, ut nisi fundamentis bene jactis e scholis grammaticorum ad academiam non procedant. Et fere cernitur eos postea maximum fructum studiorum percipere, qui ante in linguis mediocriter profecerunt. Itaque nullus in hoc collegio quemquam, ne externum Siberch. Licence of 1534. CHAP. VI. The humble dimensions of the publishing trade in t days often led to the publisher, bookseller, and printer b represented in one person; and the opponents of the Reformation probably flattered themselves that they had discovered an effectual means of excluding heretical literature, when in the year 1529 they petitioned Wolsey that only three booksellers should be permitted to ply their trade at Cambridge, who should be men of reputation and 'gravity,' and foreigners, with full authority to purchase books of foreign merchants'. The petition appears to have received no immediate response; but in the year 1534 a royal licence was issued to the chancellor, masters, and scholars of the university to appoint, from time to time, three stationers and printers, or sellers of books, residing within the university, who might be either aliens or natives. The stationers or printers thus appointed were empowered to print all manner of books approved of by the chancellor and his vicegerent, or three doctors, and to sell them, or any other books, whether printed within or without the realm, which had been allowed by the above-named censors. If aliens were appointed to the office, they were to be reputed in all respects as the king's subjects. In pursuance of this grant, Nicholas Speryng, Garrat Godfrey, and Sygar Nicholson, were appointed stationers of the university. The licensed press was however singularly sterile; and for more than half a century, from the year 1522 to 1584, it would appear that not a single book was printed at Cambridge.2 Sygar Of the three booksellers above appointed, the third, Nicholson. Sygar Nicholson, had been educated at Gonville Hall, and justified bishop Nix's description of the college, by so strongly 'savouring of the pan,' that he had already been charged in 1529 with holding Lutheran opinions and having Lutheran books in his possession. He had consequently been for some time imprisoned, and, according to Latimer, was treated with cruel severity. That a member of the university should 1 Cooper, Annals 1 329; see also supra, p. 500, n. 2. 2 See an article, The Cambridge University Press, in The Bookseller (Feb. 1860), by Mr. Thompson Cooper, F.S.A. 3 Cooper, Athena, 1 51; LatimerCorrie, II 321. phase of the town and have engaged in a trade so directly and honorably associ- CHAP. VI. ated with learning calls for little comment; but it is not undeserving of notice that it was far from unusual for students in those days to betake themselves to crafts and callings that had much less direct affinities to academic culture. Nor does it appear that any discredit attached to such a change in their vocation; it is certain at least that many who thus turned their energies into a different channel saw no necessity for seeking a distant scene of action. The singular disputant who perhaps made but a poor figure in the schools relations of of the university, not unfrequently reappeared as a prosper- university. ous tradesman in the town. With his wits sharpened on quæstiones and by necessity, he flung aside his clerical attire, espoused a wife, and commenced business as an innkeeper, grocer, baker, or brewer, or devoted himself, in the language of the corporation, 'to other feats of buying and selling, getting thereby great riches and substance.' Though naturally jealous of such competition, his fellow-tradesmen might have contemplated his endeavours with tolerable equanimity, had he pursued a consistent course, and shewn his readiness to bear his part in the civic burdens and imposts. But the habits of the schools were still strong upon him, and he too often eluded the bailiff's appeals with Protean facility. Qua profits and emoluments he was a townsman; qua taxes, attendances, and contributions, he was a master of arts of the university. The indignation of the honest burgesses, in their petition to the lord chancellor and chief justices, evidently exceeds their powers of expression1. last days. In the meantime significant events in the political world Fisher's came on in rapid succession; and not long after Fisher had drawn up his last code for St. John's College, it began to be evident to all that the care and vigilance he had so often exercised in the cause of others would soon be needed in his own behalf. The credence which he, in common with so many other able men, gave to the pretensions of the Maid of Kent, and his subsequent refusal to take the oath imposed by the Act of Supremacy, resulted in his committal to the 1 Cooper, Annals, 1 347. |