PART L CHAP. I. It was chiefly with a view to recruiting the thinned ranks of the clergy in his diocese, that William Bateman proceeded, Fation in the year 1350, to the foundation of Trinity Hall'. In fact, no less than three of the colleges that rose at Cambridge in this century, distinctly refer their origin to the plague. of TRINITY Its early statutes, as In the statutes of Trinity Hall the design of bishop Bateman appears in its original and unmodified form. The college is designed for students of the civil and canon law, and for such alone, the balance inclining slightly in favour of the civilians. The foundation, it is contemplated, will support a master and twenty fellows; of these twenty it is required that not less than ten shall be students of the civil law, not less than seven students of the canon law. A civilian may, at a subsequent period, devote himself to the study of the canon law, or a canonist to that of the civil law, so as The college to augment the number of canonists to ten or that of the evely civilians to thirteen; but these numbers represent the maxand civians imum limits of variation allowed in the proportion of the two designed for canonists elements. Thrice a week, on the evenings of Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, disputations are to be held, at which some. question taken from the decretals or the Pandects is to supply the place of the ordinary theological or logical quæstio. All the fellows are to apply themselves to the prescribed course of study until qualified to lecture; and are then to lecture, the civilians on the civil law, the canonists on the canon law, so long as they continue to be bachelors, until they have gone through the Vol. I. It is however open to ques 1 It had before been a hostle be- customary course of reading'. when they came to Cambridge. Bishop Bateman afterwards made an exchange with them, and gave them several parsonages for the said hostle, and converted it into a college or hall.' Warren, Hist. of Trinity Hall, Cole MSS. LVIII 85. 2 Volumus enim quod Socii om. nes studio intendant scholastico diligenter, quousque habiles fuerint ad legendum; et ex tunc ad legendum continue in statu Baccalaurei se convertant, quousque volumina in Jure Civili Legista, et libros Decretalium Decretista, more perlegerint consueto.' Documents, 11 419. A fellow, whether a civilian or a canonist, is eligible to the AP. SEL 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 Condom appropriated to civilians, it may be filled by electing a ba chelor or a scholar of three years standing, whose studies 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'. A library given by the bishop to the new college affords tam additional illustration of the comparative importance attached by him to theological and juridical studies. No less than 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 Liblie, in uno parvo pulcro volumine, and unum librum Recapitulacionis 'Si quis eorum ad audiendum jura Canonica, et ad gradum Presby ten voluent grare. Documents, 11 621. Item statuimus et ordinamus, quod exceptis inceptors in Jure Civili, jura Canonica infra tempus ad ine pendua edem limit itum an li ent loss, ut prefertar, et Doctoribus Juris Civilis per lacntium proximum post corum cessationem gentibus ordinariè vel eursorid Decretales; PART L. 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'. Gonville's Poundation 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 Confirmation college would probably have ceased to exist, had not the Fund 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 be bishop Bateman, Pa good thing, preferring it even to life itself. The founder of CAP. VIE 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, prdain, and appoint the said college, and morcover confirm and will that the said college be called the college of the Annunciation of the Blessed he Mary, proposing by the assistance of the said glorious Virgin, so to endow the said college with revenues and sufficient 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 neces sary 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 Dum: Willm: Bateman Norvie Epise: MSS. Baker, 11: 271. Mary. CHAP. IIL effected with the Gild of Corpus Christi, and the scholars PART 1. were removed from that part of the town to the present site 'du Amicabi late be In the Tratt Hall ap: Conville Mail, 1353. 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 de Amicabilitate,-which, unnecessary and unmeaning as any 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 præ Statutes Even br beshop Bate stantiores'. But the original statutes of Gonville Hall harmonised man to Gon but little with bishop Bateman's views, and his aid, unlike Hall of the that of Hugh Balsham, was to be bought only with a price. tion, 1253 To the bustling canonist Avignon and her traditions were all nie Hall of Anuncia 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, dc. Baker MSS. xxix 279. 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 Suncte Trinitatis per eos ju |