The text is corrupt, but the meaning is clear. A marginal note suggests the obvious correction that decemdiali should be read for decennali. The deans superintended, even if they did not inflict, corporal punishment when it was ordered.
Another code of statutes was drawn up in 1554, but was never sealed, and thus did not become effective. I need not quote the text which, on tutorial matters, does not differ materially from that of 1560. The draft contains a clause to the effect that the master of the College was not to take more than four pensioners as his pupils, a fellow who was a master of arts or of some superior degree was not to take more than two, and no one else was to take a pensioner as a pupil. The word “two” however has been crossed out and “one” substituted. From this it would seem that the question of how many pensioners it was desirable to admit was already a matter of debate.
In 1560 new statutes were granted to the College, and its constitution as then settled remained [34] ]practically unaltered till 1861. In this code the foundation is described as including a master, sixty fellows, four chaplains, sixty-two scholars, and thirteen sizars or gyps, namely, three for the master and one for each of the ten senior fellows. Henceforth scholars were elected annually in the spring, from undergraduates already in residence. By a gracious provision, whose disappearance in 1861 I regret, it was ordered that forty of the scholarships should be specifically associated with the name of Henry VIII, twenty with that of queen Mary, and two with that of Thomas Allen as pre-eminent benefactors. Pensioners and subsizars were also admissible to the Society on conditions. If fellow-commoners dined at the high table, as seems likely, they may have been reckoned extra numerum. Every student under the degree of master of arts was required to have a tutor, thus regularizing the position of fellow-commoners, pensioners, sizars, and subsizars as members of the College, and bringing them under the same rule as scholars.
The regulations in point are as follows:
Est ea quidem ineuntis aetatis imbecillitas ut provectiorum consilio et prudentia necessario moderanda sit, et propterea statuimus et volumus ut nemo ex baccalaureis, discipulis, pensionariis, sisatoribus, et subsisatoribus tutore careat: qui autem caruerit, nisi intra quindecim dies unum sibi paraverit, e collegio ejiciatur. Pupilli tutoribus pareant, [35] ]honoremque paternum ac reverentiam deferant, quorum studium, labor, et diligentia in illis ad pietatem et scientiam informandis ponitur. Tutores sedulo quae docenda sunt doceant, quaeque etiam agenda instruant admoneantque. Omnia pupillorum expensa tutores collegio praestent, et intra decem dies cujusque mensis finiti aes debitum pro se ac suis omnibus senescallo solvant. Quod ni fecerint, tantisper commeatu priventur dum pecunia a se collegio debita dissolvatur. Cautumque esto ne pupillus quispiam vel stipendium suum a thesaurariis recipiat vel rationem pro se cum eisdem aliquando ineat, sed utrumque per tutorem semper sub poena commeatus menstrui a dicto tutore collegio solvendi fieri volumus.... Pensionarios ut studiorum socios in collegium recipiendos statuimus; sitque in illis recipiendis ratio morum ac doctrinae diligenter habita; magistris artium aut superioris gradus unum, baccalaureis autem nullum omnino concedimus. Nemo illorum admittatur nisi a decano seniore et primario lectore examinatus.
In time, serious discrepancies between the statutes and the practice of the College grew up. Some, but not all, of these were removed in 1844, when the statutes were revised. The sentence above quoted “magistris artium aut superioris gradus unum, baccalaureis autem nullum omnino concedimus” was then struck out.
In 1861 new statutes were given to the College: these contain no mention of pensioners, but merely prescribe that no bachelor or undergraduate shall be without a tutor. The present statutes of 1882 similarly direct that no member of the College in statu pupillari shall be without a tutor.
[36]
]Except by accident, we have no record before 1635 of the names of the tutors of the various students, but it is probable that at first the master regularly entered some undergraduates as his own pupils: certainly Whitgift did so, and so too did some of his successors. It seems most likely also that by 1560 it was already usual for the master to assign a student to that fellow who was to act as his tutor, though of course regard must always have been paid to the wishes of a parent or guardian in this matter. This remained the ordinary custom for perhaps two hundred years.
Some information on tutorial affairs in the sixteenth century may be gathered from an account-book kept by Whitgift, covering parts of the years 1570 to 1576, and containing statements of the charges he made as tutor: the names of thirty-nine men are given. In the history of Trinity College which I wrote for my pupils some years ago, I published a few of these bills. I give here a few details illustrative of the many matters with which a tutor was then concerned.
The payment made to him as tutor varied in different cases, but 6s. 8d. a quarter for a sizar, 10s. for a pensioner, and 13s. 4d. for a fellow-commoner were usual sums. In a few cases there are records of an admission-fee to the College or a fee for entering into commons: the normal payment [37] ]for this was 15s. for a pensioner, and 20s. for a fellow-commoner—there is no mention of any such charge in the case of a sizar. The cost of the silly ceremony by which the senior undergraduates initiated a freshman, known as his salting, was charged in the bills, and varied from 8d. for a sizar and 1s. 4d. for a pensioner to 4s. for a fellow-commoner. The charge for matriculation appears to have been 4d. for a sizar, 1s. for a pensioner, and 2s. for a fellow-commoner.