Alterations to the organ were made in 1594, and elaborate hangings placed in the organ loft in 1604. Thenceforward repairs and reconstructions of the organ followed one another every few years. The history of the instrument has been published in pamphlet form, and I shall not again refer to its successive enlargements. The west window was blocked up about this time owing to the removal of King Edward’s Tower to its present position.
There is an account of college doings in chapel in 1635 in the following memorandum sent to Laud, and endorsed by him as embodying matter which he intended to examine during an intended visit to Cambridge in September 1636.
In Trinity College, they have been long noted to be negligent of the chapel and of prayers in it; the best come [95] ]but seldom, and by their example the rest make small account of service. In some tutors’ chambers (who have three or four score pupils), the private prayers are longer and louder by far at night than they are at Chapel in the evening. Some fellows are there, who scarce see the inside of the chapel thrice in a year, nor public hall, nor St Mary’s Church, and (they say) impugn all.
A quire is there founded for Sundays and holydays, but the quiremen are so negligent and unskilful, that, unless it be an anthem, they often sing the hymns no otherwise than in the common psalmerie tune. And to mend the matter, they have divers dry choristers (as they call them), such as never could and never meane to sing a note, and yet enjoy, and are put in to take the benefit of those places professedly. They have a large chapel, and yet the boyes rows of pews are placed just in the middle of the chapel, before and behind the Communion-table, which some there are about to reform.
They lean, or sit, or kneele at prayers, everyone in a several posture as he pleases. At the name of Jesus few will bow, and when the creed is repeated, many of the boyes, by some men’s directions, turn towards the west door. Their surplices and song-books, and other furniture for divine service, is very mean. The cloth that lies upon the table not worth 14d. He that executes, steps over the exhortation and begins, Wherefore I pray and beseech you, &c. They use no Litany for the most part, but in Lent only, and in Lent only upon Sundays, and when they say it, it is at the Communion-table. They repeat not the Creed after the Gospel, and instead of the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis, they will at pleasure (sometimes when the quiremen are present) sing the 23rd or some other riming Psalm.... They have lately taken advice, and are about mending their chapel, if it holds.
Fellows ... (when of the degree of M.A.) and fellow-commoners, [96] ]take themselves generally to have a privilege to miss prayers, as well as the public table of the hall. From hence it comes to pass, that so many of that ranke are to be founde at those times, either in taverns and towne-houses, or at some other pleasant imployments, where they please.
Whether all this was true or not we cannot say, but at any rate in the following year, 1636, the College spent a considerable sum on alterations and decorations in the chapel. The communion table was removed to the east end and the ground there raised, a pavement of stone and marble laid down, the walls were panelled, and rich hangings provided. Charles I, with his son the prince of Wales, visited the chapel in March 1642, and was much pleased therewith: we read at this time of candlesticks, tapers, and a crucifix on the altar; other references show that the ritual was high.
The next year 1643 saw a great change, for the parliamentary party secured control of the town and district. The order compelling the use of the surplice on certain days was now rescinded, and under Dowsing the chapel was purged, the altar steps levelled, the altar taken away, and a wooden communion table without rails set up in the middle of the chapel; the organ and hangings were removed; and certain figures, painted on the walls at the east end whitewashed. The zealots did not think the reforms had gone far enough, but [97] ]no other changes were forced on the College, and a few months later the Society made a money present “to some of Major Scot’s souldiers who defended the chappell from the rudenesse of the rest.” A few years later, on 12 March 1647, Sir Thomas Fairfax then in command of the district came, and was received “in great state ... in the Chapel, he was presented with a rich bible, and in the hall with a sumptuous banquet”—a pleasant combination.
At the restoration, the original altar of 1643 was recovered and replaced at the east end, a screen of rich mosaic work erected behind it, and as far as practicable the chapel restored to its former appearance. Doubtless, however, practices continued which to-day would strike us as unseemly, for I notice that in 1665 “it was agreed that Dod have the place of keeping the dogs out of the chapel.”
In the early years of the eighteenth century the condition of the fabric caused anxiety; after only a little more than a century’s wear the roof was found to be in a dangerous condition, and a portion of one of the external walls in danger of falling. It was determined to place the building, inside as well as outside, in thorough repair. Work began in 1706 and was nearly thirty years in progress. The fellows and a few friends subscribed a large part of the cost, and the rest was paid out of corporate [98] ]income. In the plan adopted, which is associated with the names of Bentley and Cotes, the east window was blocked, and the present stalls, baldachino, organ-screen, and wainscotting erected: the design of the latter is excellent of its kind, though not altogether suited to the architecture of the building. Some of the old stalls are said to have been removed to St Michael’s church, and the tradition may be accepted as probable. Later in the century, 1787–88, the roof was painted in white and gold.
The number of residents in College in the early half of this century was small, and probably the chapel was in regular use during most of its restoration. A trivial incident at this time afforded some amusement. Complaints had been made that Bentley—an illustrious scholar, genuinely interested in promoting learning, but as master of Trinity arrogant, unscrupulous, and dishonest—never went to chapel though required to do so by the statutes. This was true enough, and he determined to silence his critics by appearing again. But so long had he been absent that the door of his stall had got fixed and could not be opened till the lock had been wrenched off.
Prof. Hughes has called my attention to some unpublished notes[24] by a friendly visitor about the [99] ]chapel services on Saturday and Sunday evenings in the fourth decade of the eighteenth century. The writer says that interpolated in the evening prayers were elaborate musical performances sometimes involving two symphonies[25] and two anthems in which the choir, organ, and six violins took part; he also repeats more than once that the building was crowded [by strangers] and the noise so great that little of the service could be heard. Thus, to quote one instance, under date of 28 May 1738, he writes:
This evening I was at Trinity Colledge Chapple where there was so great a crowd that nothing could be heard of the whole service, I could see the Readers lips go, but, not so much as heare the least sound of his voice, and when Dr Walker read the 2d Leason could I only heare the sound of his voice but not to distinguish one word. There was great difference in the Musick part from what used to be, for the symphony was first by the Organ and then by 6 violins in 3 parts to all which the Organ was the base. After the reading the first and 2nd Lessons, 3 men sang the [blank] to which the Choire was the Corus. Before the Prayer for the King there was another Symphony by the Organ, & Violins, and the Anthem was Sung by one man, to which the choir was likewise the chorus.