[3]
]CHAPTER I.
THE FOUNDATION OF TRINITY COLLEGE.
Trinity College was founded by Henry VIII in 1546. To obtain a site for it, he suppressed King’s Hall and Michael-House, two medieval colleges which were built on or owned most of the ground now occupied by the Great Court, and with their revenues, largely augmented by property of dissolved monasteries, he endowed it. The scheme of the College and his objects in founding it are stated in his letters patent of 19 December 1546, and particulars of the income assigned by him to the foundation are set out in his charter of dotation dated 24 December 1546. These documents have been printed[1] and are readily accessible, but the history of the events leading up to the foundation of the College is less generally known. I cannot promise that the story in itself is interesting but the material facts have never before been brought together[2] so its telling is justified.
[4]
]After the dissolution of the monastic houses, anxiety was felt in Cambridge and Oxford lest they should suffer a similar fate. The policy of the suppression of the two universities and the confiscation of their property was openly advocated by politicians at court, and naturally great alarm was felt when in 1544 an Act[3] was passed empowering the king to dissolve any college at either university, and appropriate its possessions.
The universities were right in thinking that the danger was pressing, for Parker, who played a leading part in the affair, has put on record[4] the fact that after the passing of the Act certain courtiers importunately sued the king to have the possessions of both bodies surveyed, meaning afterwards to obtain the same on easy terms. In these circumstances the Cambridge authorities, says Strype, “looked about them and made all the friends they could at court to save themselves.” In particular they urgently begged the aid of two of their professors, John Cheke, then acting as tutor to the prince of Wales, and Thomas Smith, then clerk to the queen’s council. Here is the letter[5] of the senate to Smith on the subject:
Si tu is es, Clarissime Smithe, in quem Academia haec Cantabrigiensis universas vires suas, universa pietatis jura [5] ]exercuerit, si tibi uni omnia doctrinae suae genera, omnia reipub. ornamenta libentissime contulerit, si fructum gloriae suae in te uno jactaverit, si spem salutis suae in te potissimum reposuerit: age ergo, et mente ac cogitatione tua complectere, quid tu vicissim illi debes, quid illa, quid literae, quid respublica, quid Deus ipse pro tantis pietatis officiis, quibus sic dignitas tua efflorescit, justissime requirit: Academia nil debet tibi, imo omnia sua in te transfudit. Et propterea abs te non simpliciter petit beneficium, sed merito repetit officium: nec unam aliquam causam tibi proponit, sed sua omnia, et seipsam tibi committit. Nec sua necesse habet aperire tibi consilia, quorum recessus et diverticula nosti universa. Age igitur quod scis, et velis quod potes, et perfice quod debes. Sic literis, academiae, reipublicae, et religioni; sic Christo et Principi rem debitam et expectatam efficies. Jesus te diutissime servet incolumem.
Parker tells us that the London friends of the University, among whom Smith and Cheke were doubtless conspicuous, wisely took the line of welcoming an enquiry, but begged the king to avoid the expense of a costly investigation. Their representations were successful, and he issued a commission[6] dated 16 January 1546 to Matthew Parker (then vice-chancellor, and later archbishop of Canterbury), John Redman (warden of King’s Hall, chaplain to the king, and later master of Trinity), and William Mey (president of Queens’, and later archbishop-elect of York) to report to him on the [6] ]revenues of the colleges and the numbers of students sustained therewith. The commissioners were capable and friendly.
The king must have been impatient to know the facts, for in less than a week, on 21 January, he ordered Parker to come to Hampton Court with the report. Immediate compliance was impossible, but the command may well have stimulated the commissioners to act as rapidly as possible. In fact they obtained the services of eleven clerks from the Court of Augmentations in London, and at once set to work to collect information.
The University was keenly alive to the risks it was incurring. To placate the king, the senate, on 13 February, put all its belongings at his service, and when forwarding a copy of the grace to Secretary Sir William Paget it reminded him of the value of the University to the state, and begged his protection. At the same time it addressed the queen, Katharine Parr, through Thomas Smith, imploring her advocacy.[7]
The queen replied[8] on 26 February. After complaining that he had written to her in Latin, though he could equally well have expressed himself in the vulgar tongue, she discoursed at length on the duties of members of the University, and, saying that [7] ]she was confident that her wishes in these respects would be fulfilled, she concluded her letter as follows:
I (according to your desires) have attempted my lord the King’s Majesty, for the establishment of your livelihood and possessions: in which, notwithstanding his Majesty’s property and interest, through the consent of the high court of parliament, his Highness being such a patron to good learning, doth tender you so much, that he will rather advance learning and erect new occasion thereof than [to] confound those your ancient and godly institutions, so that learning may hereafter justly ascribe her very original whole conservation and sure stay to our Sovereign Lord.