[27] Exchequer Accounts, 552/10.

[28] In my original paper the days of the week were given incorrectly.

[161]
]CHAPTER X.
AN OUTLINE OF THE COLLEGE STORY[29].

I have been asked to take you round Trinity College to-morrow, and by way of preface to say to-night something about its history. The first of these tasks, to anyone who lives here, is not difficult, but it is far from easy to give, in forty minutes, a sketch of a history covering centuries of academic life and involving references to the lives of many distinguished scholars and men of affairs. If I confined myself to an account of the buildings the problem would be simpler, but though they must form the chief topic of our talk to-morrow, I would prefer to-day to say something about the growth of the College. On these lines then I proceed, though necessarily in an incomplete way, to state the outline of our story.

2. Trinity College was founded in 1546, just about half-way back in the history of the University. Of those pre-Trinity days I will only say that the University arose about the end of the twelfth century, and that it was nearly a hundred years after its establishment before the first college was [162] ]founded. Colleges were erected for the benefit of selected scholars who were maintained at the expense of the foundation, and throughout the middle ages, most of the students lived in Private Hostels. In Tudor times undergraduates who paid their own expenses were admitted to colleges, and finally, every student was required to be a member of one of these Houses: the peculiar collegiate character of Oxford and Cambridge dates from this change. I need hardly add that women were not (and are not) admissible as members of the University, and that in former days teachers and students alike were unmarried.

3. Towards the close of his reign, Henry VIII determined to found a college at Cambridge which should promote his views on religion and the new learning. He decided to use for the purpose the buildings and land occupied or owned by two of the chief medieval colleges, King’s Hall and Michael-House. Accordingly, under parliamentary powers, he compelled those Societies to surrender to him their charters and possessions, purchased such small parts of our present Great Court as did not belong to them, and gave all this property to his new college together with large revenues from religious houses which he had recently dissolved. The proceedings were high-handed, but we may say that the result justified him. It is believed that, during [163] ]these proceedings, the university careers of a few of the students, at any rate of King’s Hall, were not interrupted, and that thus our academic life runs without a break from the days of Edward II to the present time. Most of the buildings of Michael-House have now disappeared, but our connection with King’s Hall is still evident through the remains of its Cloister Court, our Great Gate which bears an inscription commemorating the permanent establishment of King’s Hall by Edward III, and our Clock Tower on which is a statue of that monarch. To this group of buildings we must first direct attention to-morrow.

4. Trinity was far larger than the colleges to whose buildings and property it succeeded. Of course it has had ups and downs in its career, but it has generally occupied and still occupies a predominant position in the University. Thus in 1564, its residents numbered three hundred and six out of a total of one thousand two hundred and sixty-seven in the University, while last October [1905], it had five hundred and sixty-eight undergraduates out of a total of two thousand eight hundred and thirty-five in the University, and two hundred resident graduates out of one thousand and five in the University: we now confine our normal entry to under two hundred a year, and as long as this is so, our numbers cannot exceed a certain limit which we [164] ]have long reached, so, as the University grows, the percentage of students on our boards decreases. The College has always recognized that it was its duty to be a centre of learning as well as one of higher education, and thanks to its traditions and the large number of resident fellows, it has been able to fulfil this double duty.

5. For the first few years after its foundation, Trinity was occupied in settling the many problems which arise in a new foundation. As far as accommodation went, the buildings of King’s Hall and Michael-House were connected, and sufficed for immediate needs. Naturally the protestant character of the foundation given by Henry was emphasized by the advisers of Edward VI, the altar in the chapel being removed and a communion table set up in Huguenot fashion in the middle of the building. Queen Mary increased the foundation, and took a warm interest in its affairs; of course the Roman service was then restored. Under Elizabeth the Anglican services were resumed, and she completed the erection of the present chapel which had been begun by her sister: it stands to-day externally much in its original form, though the interior scheme of decoration is different. We may leave till to-morrow the description of it and college doings connected therewith. This first chapter of our history ends in 1560 when the constitution of the [165] ]College was definitely established in a form which remained practically unaltered till 1861.

6. The next decade was critical. Many of those who had adopted the reformed religion desired further changes on presbyterian lines, and Cambridge, which had taken so prominent a part in the reformation, was their chief intellectual stronghold. Their leader was Cartwright, a fellow of Trinity, and their chief opponent was Whitgift, the master of the College: thus a contest of national importance was mixed up with college politics and carried on partly within the college walls. Whitgift’s powers as master were large, and he strained them to the utmost to remove from the House those who opposed him; times, however, were revolutionary and public opinion condoned and even approved his actions. At any rate victory remained with him and his party in the College, the University, and the State, and the position of the Church of England between Rome and Geneva is that for which he fought.

7. Whitgift acted as tutor to some of the students, among whom were Francis Bacon and his brother Anthony: you will see the portrait of the former (as also that of Whitgift) to-morrow, together with those of his contemporaries, Edward Coke subsequently the great lawyer, and Robert Devereux earl of Essex the ill-fated favourite of Elizabeth. [166] ]By a happy accident some of Whitgift’s tutorial ledgers have been preserved, and we have in them details of the expenditure of his pupils, which, combined with information from other sources, enables us to give a fairly complete account of their daily work, prayers, meals, and amusements[30]. A usual age for commencing residence was fifteen or sixteen, and it would seem that students then (though of course subject in many things to reasonable restraints) were allowed that liberty of action which in my opinion is, even though sometimes misused, an essential feature of university education as opposed to the control of the pupil’s doings in every hour of the day which is common in many schools. In 1577 Whitgift accepted a bishopric: an eloquent farewell sermon preached in College from 2 Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 2, revealed sincere affection for the place and moved his audience, “insomuch that there were scarce any drie eyes to be found amongst the whole number.” He left the House prosperous and of high repute.