All sorts of games of dice, chess, and others giving opportunity of losing money, were prohibited, especially dice and other similar games which give occasion for strife and often beggary to the player. An exception was made for such games occasionally played, not in the hall, for recreation only, when it did not interfere with study or divine service. All Chaplains, poor clerks, servants, and other inhabitants of the Hall were bound by this prohibition, and the Provost or his locum tenens were bound on pain of perjury to inflict the penalties which might be necessary to stop these or other infractions of the statutes. When stage plays came into vogue the College followed the fashion. In the accounts of 1572-3, 3s. 8d. is paid “pro fabricatione scenae in aula ad tragicam comoediam narrandam,” and 7s. 5d. “in expensis tragicae comediae in natal. Xti.”
The chambers and studies were to be assigned to the scholars by the Provost, who was to assign, except for special reasons, according to seniority. There were to be at least two in each chamber unless the status or pre-eminence of the quality of any of the scholars should require otherwise. The arrangement of rooms adopted in the front quadrangle when the College was rebuilt seems to retain a trace of the old regulations. A large “chamber” with two “studies” recalls the days when John Boast and Henry Ewbank were chamber-fellows or “chums” in their youth, before the dark time when the younger man was the cause of the elder being butchered alive for exercising his priestly functions in England.[150] Nowadays in the rare case of two brothers or intimate friends living together in a set of rooms, the old disposition is reversed, the chamber becomes the joint study, and the two studies the separate bed-chambers.
Except for urgent cause, or by leave of the Provost or his locum tenens, the scholars were not to have meals except in the hall, and they were to avoid, in accordance with the laws of temperance, expensive and luxurious meals of all kinds, suppers and other eatings and drinkings. The Provost or his locum tenens was to restrain all such excess.
The scholars were not to pass the night outside the College in the town or its suburbs unless leave had been previously obtained from the Provost, his locum tenens, or the senior in hall; and the application for leave must specify the cause for which such leave is asked.
A Fellow, poor cleric, or Chaplain expelled was not to have any remedy against the College by law or otherwise, and was to renounce any right to such remedy under the obligation of an oath at the time of his admission to the Hall. The College sometimes showed compassion to former Fellows who fell into misfortune: 28th September, 1625, 50s. is paid to Mr. Lancaster formerly a Fellow, now reduced to the depths of misery, and in following years a similar payment is made, the amount being raised later to £4.
A scholar was to forfeit his emolument by entering religion, by transferring himself to anybody’s obedience, by being absent except on College business or by special leave of the Provost for more than the greater half of a full term, or for wilfully neglecting to take the prescribed steps of advancement in study.
Offences generally were to be tried by the Provost and two assessors, and punished by the Provost with the consent of the scholars.
The College was to bake its own bread and brew its own beer within the College, by its own servants acting under the supervision of the steward of the week and of the treasurer’s clerk. Every loaf before it was baked was to weigh 46s. 8d. sterling, from whatever market the corn came, and of whatever kind the bread was; and this weight was not to be changed whatever was the price of corn.
A sum of £40 specially given for this purpose by the founder was always to remain in hand, to be set apart at the beginning of each year, and accounted for at the end as ready-money or floating balance, to be used for buying stores of victuals and fuel, and not to be employed in part or whole for any other purpose.
The Scholars were to have a horse-mill of their own to grind their wheat, barley, and other corn within the College, or at least very near thereto, to save the excessive tolls and payments to millers which might otherwise fall upon them.