foundation and ordinance of their founders there used, could CHAP not be discharged by them'. In the year 1497, through the exertions of John Alcock, bishop of Ely, the nunnery was accordingly suppressed by royal patent; the bishop was 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 witnesses'; and under his auspices Jesus College' now rose in the place of the former foundation. The historian of the college, The the a fellow on the foundation in the seventeenth century, 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. The original statutes of the college were not given until early in the sixteenth century. Their author was Stanley, the successor, one removed, to Alcock, in the episcopal chair at d Ely, and son-in-law of Margaret, countess of Richmond: they were subsequently considerably modified by his illus trious successor Nicholas West, fellow of King's, and the friend of bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More'. The new plane fundamentis construxit que Statuta insuper Jacobus [Stan- CHAP. I statutes however were in professed conformity with the * PART II. presumed intentions of the founder'; it is consequently all of the the more significant that, though both Alcock and West 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 Prof languor that followed upon the Wars of the Roses lasted. per nearly to the end of the reign of the first of the Tudors. Despond mcy observ. afe in the pretmeters carning at Libraries 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- Ceterum quia tantus pater morte præventus, quod pio conceperat animo, explere, et opus tam memorabile absolvere non potuit, quo fit, ut nec pro tanto numero snstinendo collegium prædictum sufficienter dotaverit, nec pro bono studentium regimine ac recto et quieto vivendi ordine, servanda statita ant ordinationes aliqua efecte vel stif ficienter ediderit: No igitur pus tam pium tamque fi patito ob optimi præsulis propositur, ut me. tu divino, ut sperus, tuin, quantum cum Deo possumus, et spiritualiter et temporaliter firmiter stabiliri paterno affectu intendentes et magnopere cupientes, etc.' Documents, 111 94. See supra pp. 101-3. to the catalogues of two libraries of the period when the CAP. of the I It was on a certain seventeenth of November, the feast Fontaine of St. Hugh in 1444, that Dr Walter Crome presented to the university a collection of books designed to increase the slender stores of a new room, just finished and ready for use, erected for the purpose of giving shelter to the recently founded common library'. The library appears to date from the earlier part of the same century, and a Mr John Croucher, who presented a copy of Chaucer's translation of Boethius De Consolatione, seems entitled to be regarded as the original founder. One Richard Holine, who died in Rome 1424, appears as the donor of several volumes; many others presented single works; and in this manner was formed, within the first quarter of the fifteenth century, the little library of fifty-two volumes, the catalogue of which we still T possess. Next to this catalogue comes one drawn up by Ralph Songer and Richard Cockeram, the outgoing proctors in the year 1473, containing 330 volumes. This later catalogue possesses a special value, for it shews us the volumes. as classified and arranged; and we have thus brought y before us the single room (now the first room on entering the library) where these scanty treasures lay chained and displayed to view, with stalls on the north side looking into the quadrangle of the Schools, and desks on the south side looking out upon the rising walls of King's Collego chapel. These two catalogues do not include the splendid 1 Two Lists of Books in the Unirersity Library. Cam. Ant. Soc. Pub, No. III. Communicated by Henry Bradshaw, MA. See also The Uni- + Rostram, of the uni vermiy. CHAP. III. addition of some two hundred volumes, made by Thomas PART II. Rotheram very shortly aftor; but the liberality of that eminent benefactor of the university was already conspicuous ant in the completion of the library and of the east part of the quadrangle; and the new buildings, bright as they appeared to that generation, with polished stone and sumptuous splendour',' were already evoking those sentiments of gratitude towards the illustrious chancellor, which, two years later, led the assembled senate to decree that his name should be for ever enrolled among those of the chief benefactors of the university. Farly enta fogues of the I cartes rhouse, The two above-named catalogues alone constitute valuaof ble evidence respecting the literaturo at this time most Ti, esteemed at Cambridge, but other and ampler evidenco and remains. It was on Christmas Eve, 1418, exactly eight years before Gerson drew up his De Concordia, that an unknown hand at Peterhouse completed a catalogue of the library belonging to that foundation. As libraries, in those days, were almost entirely the accumulations of gifts from successive benefactors, the most ancient college had, as we should expect to find, acquired by far the largest collection and possessed no less than from six to seven hundred distinct. treatises. The library given by bishop Bateman to Trinity Hall has already come under our notice. If to these collections we add a catalogue of 140 volumes presented to the library of Pembroke College in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,—one of the library of Queens' College in the year 1Quoniam ratio humanitasquo requirere videtur ut superioribus nobis benefactoribus, etsi non condignas, saltem utcunque congruas referamus gratias, eisque juxta virium exilitatem, ut possumus, meritoria obsequia reddamus. hinc est quod merito cum probitatis tum bonorum operum exhibitione reverendus in Christo pater ac dominus dominus Thomas Rotheram divina miseratione Lincolniensis episcopus ac magnus Angliæ generalis hujusque alma universitatis præcipuus dignusque cancellarius et singularis patronus tum in honorem Dei, incrementum studii, et universitatis nostræ pro fectum, scholas novamque superius librariam polito lapide, sumptuosa pompa, ac dignis ædificiis perfecerit, camque, omnibus ut decuit rebus exornatam, non paucis vel vilibus libris opulentam reddidit, plurimaque insuper alia bona eidem universitati procuravit, etc.' De exequiis Thome Rotheram, Documents, 1 414. This catalogue is still in manuscript: I am indebted to the authorities of Peterhouse for permission to consult the volume in which it is contained. 3 See supra pp. 243, 244. A List of Books presented to Pembroke College, Cambridge, by different t 1472', amounting to 224 volumes,—and one of the library of ena m St. Catharine's Hall in the year 1475, amounting to 137 volumes, our data, so far as Cambridge is concerned, will be sufficiently extended for our purpose. of the A systematic study of these several catalogues and an enquiry into the merits of cach author, however interesting such researches might be, is evidently not needed at our hands, but it will be desirable to state some of the general conclusions to be derived from a more cursory view. On referring to the contents of each catalogue it will be seen me that they represent, in much the same proportions, those new contributions to mediaval literature which have already so long engaged our attention. Anselm, Albertus, Aquinas, Alexander Hales, Boethius, Bonaventura, Walter Burley, Duns Scotus, Holcot, Langton, John of Salisbury, Grosse teste, and Richard Middleton; Armachanus against the Franciscans, Wodeford against Armachanus; the discourses of Reppington, bishop of Lincoln, once a Lollard, but afterwards one of the fiercest opponents of the sect; Historia Chronicales, or metrical histories, after the manner of Laya mon and Robert of Gloucester, such as it was customary to recite in the college hall on days of festivity;-none of these are wanting, and they constitute precisely the literature which our past enquiries would lead us to expect to find. But besides these, other names appear, names which have tons of now almost passed from memory or are familiar only to those who have made a special study of this period. Again and again we are confronted by the representatives of th: t great school of medieval theology which, though it aspired less systematically to the special task of the schoolmen,—the reconciliation of philosophy and dogma,-was scarcely less influential in these centuries than the school of Albertus and Aquinas. Divines from the famous school of St. Victor at Donors, during the Fourteenth and Fif- Catalogue of the Library of Queens' College in 1472; communicated by the Rev. W. G. Scarle, M.A., late Fellow of Queens' Collere. Cam * A Catalue of the er'aing' Ii. |