alterations were to be made in the site of the town by demolishing almost a whole street with the lanes adjacent, leading from the High street to Miln street and from thence to the river, that nothing less than an act of parliament could have been sufficient to effect so great a design by 5 making good and confirming these grants and exchanges. Great complaints had been made formerly by the burgesses and townsmen of Cambridge against the desolation of houses by the foundation of the four religious houses of friars; but nothing like this had yet been attempted. And 10 therefore, though the design was formed and begun sooner, yet I believe little was done towards it till this act of parliament was obtained for confirming and advancing this royal foundation: and after all, though this good king had been nicely exact in satisfying claims and very scru- 15 pulous in answering objections, yet did he not at last think he had been over good? were not his last thoughts that he had done over much?

20

After this brief account of this magnificent foundation, the affairs of the house will look very small, and yet they were still growing in the latter end of this reign (for I have now done with the bishops of Ely) as well as in the following reigns of Edward the Fourth and Richard the Third, when they received additional endowments at Ashwell in Hertfordshire and Bradley in Suffolk, under two 25 careful masters, John Dunham and Robert Dunham.

It was under the former of these masters that the house was admitted to the privileges of the university, Thomas Rotheram, bishop of Lincoln and keeper of the privy seal, being then chancellor of the university. This 30 letter of privilege is entered (by way of appendix) upon the old cartulary', and deserves to be preserved. It sets forth, that whereas grievous complaints had been made to the university, that the master and company of St John's house together with their servants had been much dis- 35 quieted and disturbed by laical or secular power, not having formerly been reputed or received as members of the uni

gustin's hostel, St John's hostel near St John Bapt. church, &c.

1 Cartular. vet. inter archiva coll.

versity, the chancellor and body of regents, at the request of the house, thinking it unreasonable that they who were under the privileges of religion should be longer subject to secular disturbances, do therefore receive the master 5 and company into the society, liberties and number of their members, and make them and their servants partakers of the privileges of the university.

I have forborne saying much of the learning of the brethren till I came to this privilege, from which we may 10 with modesty enough infer that they were not very learned. I know they have usually been esteemed learned, but had they been really so they would have been received sooner into the privileges of that body, and when they are admitted it is with regard to the merits of their religion, and not 15 one word said of their learning, which is so usual in diplomatic forms, that it could not have been omitted had there been any ground for it. I never could meet with any great instances of their learning further than their breviary, for so much being clerks they certainly had, but that they 20 usually advanced further, I should be glad to be informed.

The religious of other orders have made a considerable figure in the affairs of the university, particularly the four orders of friars, the Dominicans, Franciscans, Austins and Carmelites, who had all their houses here at Cambridge; 25 the Gilbertines or White canons at St Edmund's chapel near Peterhouse are often mentioned, but the Austin canons are rarely to be met with beyond the precincts of their house: notwithstanding their unavoidable intercourse with other houses, by giving site to so many colleges and 30 other religious foundations; for the Austin friars, if not the Carmelites, were their tenants.

All the other orders take degrees', are in employments, stand in capite (for by our ancient constitution a religious doctor was to be one of the caput), have places assigned 35 them by our ancient formulary or ceremonial', both at pro-. cessions and other assemblies of the university; but the Austin canons give little or no trouble upon these occasions.

1 Regrum acad.

Cambridge orders inter MSS. Jo. Cosin. Epi. Dunelm.

It is true, by this letter of privilege they are dispensed with from attending at processions, and by a bull of Boniface the Ninth they are exempted from contributing to some ordinary charges of the university; but why they should not appear upon other occasions is very unaccountable, had 5 they been men of learning.

This mistake may have taken its rise from Hugh Balsham's scholars having been planted upon them, but their ill agreement with scholars is no good argument of their learning: had they continued together it might have given 10 them that reputation. The soil was not yet ripe for such purposes till it was better maturated; it will then produce a larger crop.

To come to the last period of the house under Henry the Seventh; some small immunities were granted by 15. that prince, and some little accessions were made to it in the beginning of his reign.

I have not named the tenth part of the particulars as I have gone along, which being commonly very small things were too many to be enumerated, and would have 20: made this account unreasonably tedious: but from what has been said, and much more from what might have been said, it is very plain the house was still growing from the first date of its foundation to the last period of its ruin, from Henry Frost to Henry the Seventh. And there- 25 fore in its beginnings it must have been a very small thing, and could have had no such large original endowments as have been assigned it.

One hundred and forty pounds per annum was a vast sum in those days when it is supposed to have been 30 founded, and must have made it very considerable. There were two neighbouring houses of the same order, Barnwell and Anglesey; the former of these, by a middle computation', might be valued at £300 per annum at the dissolution, and what that would amount to at the foundation 35 might easily be computed; the latter (Anglesey) at about £100 per annum. And yet Barnwell priory was some-time able to maintain thirty canons, whereas St John's

1 Dugdal. Speed..

never maintained above five or six; and both of these priories, Barnwell and Anglesey, were so considerable as to send members to convocation', whereas St John's as it never attained to, so I dare be confident it never dreamt of 5 that honour, or if it did, it was very vain.

The house thus far having been under a constant growth and improvement, its decay and fall must have been very sudden. I do not meet with any very irregular proceedings till towards the middle of this reign, when Wil10 liam Tomlyn was admitted master, though there must have been some connivance under the former prior Robert Dunham in his declining years, which gave occasion to some new and strict injunctions from the bishop upon the admission of this master.

15

Amongst other things the bishop requires of him3— quod caste, continenter et honeste vivet; quod nullas mulierculas suspectas in consortium suum admittet; et quod non sit bonorum dilapidator dicti hospitii—which with other injunctions William Tomlyn promises very religi20 ously and under his hand to observe. But these promises were easily forgot, nor was he sooner entered upon his charge than he begun to dilapidate the goods of the house, and to be guilty of those excesses that usually occasion such dilapidations, which gives further ground to suspect 25 that he had been guilty of the same looseness when he was a brother.

The year after he was admitted, he with the brethren let a long lease for ninety-nine years of an estate in Langley in Essex, and their estate at Bradley in Suffolk 30 was mortgaged for a sum of moneys, which being at a distance would be less observed. The college accounts set forth that their lands had been sold; nothing of this kind could have been done without the consent of the bishop of Ely, who, whatever he was himself, can hardly 35 be supposed to be consenting to such sacrilegious bargains: but long leases and mortgages might be looked upon as sales.

1 Regr. Elien. passim.

2 Admissus magister Nov. 19 an. 1498. Regr. Alcok.

3 Regrum Alcok ad an. 1498.

4 Ex archivis coll,

The moveables of the house might be alienated with the consent of the brethren, who being then only three in number, Sir Christopher Wright, Sir John Kensham, and Sir William Chandler, and these probably little men (for these sirs were priests or brethren, either of no degrees, or 5 such as had not yet commenced masters) these men of no degrees, and no deserts, would easily consent to mean designs, and so their plate and other moveables (amongst which I have found little mention made of books) were alienated or pawned for sums of money.

ΤΟ

As their excesses increased, so did their wants; these put them upon engaging deeper, till their estate at last was so involved, that the master of the house was forced to hide his head and the brethren were dispersed; and so hospitality being neglected, divine offices intermitted, and 15 the house in a manner abandoned, this gave a fair ground and pretence for a dissolution; which as it was begun under this prince, so it was not finished till the following reign; the manner whereof shall be the subject of another treatise.

20

I shall only observe upon this occasion, that without this opportunity offered by dissolute men, and permitted by providence to be used, there could have been no such thing as a college here. For there were not wanting men of note of the other university, then in the foundress' 25 court and of her family, persuading and inciting her to the same charitable offices at Oxford as she had shewn at Cambridge'; that having already founded a college here, there wanted only the like foundation to be placed at Oxford to immortalize her name in both universities, and 30 pointed out to her St Frides wide's priory as an easy way and large field for such a foundation. This argument was not to be answered but by pointing out the like or equal advantages, which the bishop of Rochester, who was her deserved confessor and could influence her devotion 35 more than any one, suggested to her, and inculcated so effectually as at last to determine her charity and devotion to this place.

This, as it gave the finishing stroke to the ruin of the

1 Ex libro rub.