Wm. Bateman

Law.

Among the students who were the first to profit by the generosity of Edmund Gonville was William Bateman, afterwards bishop of Norwich from and the Canon 1344 to 1355. He had gained a high reputation in the university by his proficiency in the civil and canon law, attainments which had been recognised by his promotion to high office in connection with the papal court at Avignon; and it was amid the ostentatious splendour and the glaring profligacy which, in the days of Innocent VI., made that court a by-word in Europe that his life came suddenly to a close. By the more enlightened teachers of the universities at this period the studies of the civilian and the canonist were regarded with no friendly eye, owing to the mercenary spirit in which they were generally pursued as the means to the acquirement of wealth and of political influence; and we find Roger Bacon declaring that men hastened to enrol themselves in these professions just as men hied to some newly discovered gold-mine. The great Plague of 1349, that terrible visitation which reduced the population from four to two millions, doubled wages, and raised prices all round nearly one-fifth, had fallen with especial severity on the local clergy, and it was with the professed design of seeking to repair these losses that, in the following year, Bishop Bateman founded Trinity Hall. It can hardly, however, admit of much doubt that his real object was the education of canonists and civilians rather than of parish priests; for, of the twenty fellows whom, together with a master, he proposed to maintain on the new foundation, ten were required to be

Foundation of Trinity Hall, 1350.

students of the civil, and seven of the canon, law. They were, however, prohibited from going about to practise; and it seems, accordingly, a legitimate inference that it was his object to establish a school of legal studies in the university, and thus raise the standard of professional acquirement rather than to augment the numbers of actual practitioners. We would gladly conclude that, as a scheme disinterestedly designed to further the cause of higher education, the foundation of Bishop Bateman might take rank side by side with that of Edmund Gonville, but the evidence will hardly admit of such a conclusion. It would rather seem that it was his primary design to further Ultramontane interests. It was the time when, both in Teutonic and Latin Christendom, the disposition to resist the papal exactions was greater than it had ever been before; and it was as an institution calculated to promote the interests of the Church, and to maintain, in defiance of statutes of provisors and præmunire, the claims of Avignon to levy tribute in England, that Trinity Hall arose. If the design of the foundation, taken by itself, permitted any doubt on this point, that doubt would be set at rest when we turn to note the experiences of Gonville Hall.

Shortly before Bishop Bateman's death, a part of his wealth had been devoted to assisting that struggling institution, where the funds left by the founder were found to be so inadequate for the carrying out of his purpose, that the college would probably have become defunct had not the founder of Trinity Hall now come forward to render it the necessary aid. He took the little society under his protection, removed it from

the site it originally occupied in Luthborne Lane to that which forms a part of the present site of Caius College, and endowed it with additional revenues. His munificence, however, can hardly be regarded as entirely disinterested, when we observe that he altogether set aside the statutes given by Edmund Gonville, and substituted for them a code but slightly modified from that which he had given to Trinity Hall. It is true that the fellows of Gonville Hall were not absolutely required to be either civilians or canonists, but the civil and the canon law are placed foremost among the studies to which their attention is especially to be given; and such encouragement, when held out in connection with subjects already sufficiently alluring from their association with a professional career, would scarcely fail to determine the choice of those to whom the option was permitted.

To return to Trinity Hall. The sudden death of its founder at Avignon frustrated the completion of his designs in connection with his own foundation; and, for a century after, the society had to contend with difficulties scarcely less serious than those which had threatened the existence of Gonville Hall, its revenues barely sufficing for the maintenance of a master, three fellows, and three scholars. The buildings rose with corresponding tardiness. First, in the last quarter of the fourteenth century, the principal court, or quadrangle, arose on the present site (although with a different boundary to the north); the chapel, about a century later; and the present library, a century later still. No college library in the university has better maintained its original aspect, the ancient desks,

Foundation of

which are still retained, constituting a singularly characteristic and almost unique feature. In 1852, owing to an accidental fire, the front portion of the quadrangle was burnt down; it was rebuilt in stone, with a slight increase in the height of the structure. The second college which refers its origin to the great Plague was that of Corpus Christi, founded by the joint efforts of two Cambridge comCorpus Christi munities, the Guild of Corpus Christi and College, 1352. the Guild of the Blessed Virgin. The superstition of the age was a largely contributing cause. Prayers for the dead were held, in those days, to be of efficacy in promoting an earlier release of a soul from purgatory. The fearful mortality had consequently given rise to the celebration of an immense number of masses for the repose of the souls of the departed. But among no class had the mortality been greater than among the country clergy themselves, on whom the performance of these services devolved. The diminution in their numbers had thus been coincident with a greatly increased demand for their services. The survivors, however, instead of profiting by the solemn lesson involved in the recent visitation, appear to have exhibited an unbecoming spirit of worldliness in charging exorbitant fees for the discharge of their duties as celebrants. The commercial mind of Cambridge was deeply and not unjustifiably incensed; and in founding the new college, the guildsmen made it a condition that the scholars should, whenever called upon, celebrate masses for the repose of the souls of departed members of the two guilds.

Such being the circumstances of its foundation, we

should scarcely expect to find the statutes of the society reflecting any very original or enlightened conception of education. They appear, indeed, to have been largely taken from the statutes of Michaelhouse, some passages being an almost verbatim reprint of the earlier code of that society. The scholars are described as capellani, though it is intimated that others may be admitted to the foundation. It is required that they shall 'one and all' be in priest's orders, and shall have lectured in arts or philosophy, or at least be bachelors in either the civil or the canon law, or in arts, intending to devote themselves to the study of theology or of the canon law, the number of those devoting themselves to the lastnamed faculty being restricted to four.

But although the two guilds evince no breadth of view in their views respecting the education to be imparted on the new foundation, they manifested a commendable promptitude in erecting the buildings. Josselin, the historian of the college, who was secretary to Archbishop Parker, tells us that 'the building of the college,

with walls of enclosure, chambers arranged about a quadrangle, hall, kitchen, and master's habitation, was fully finished in the days of Thomas Ellisley, the first Master (1352-1376), and of his successor, Richard Treton' (1376-1377). Its separate chapel owed its erection to the munificence of Sir Nicholas Bacon, and was brought to completion early in the seventeenth century. After this, no alteration or addition of any importance was made for a lengthened period. The entrance to the premises was from Freeschool Lane, a row of private dwelling-houses completely separating them from Trumpington Street. The new buildings