This was good news, and things now moved rapidly. By the end of February the commissioners had drawn up a detailed report giving the information required. It is printed[9] at length in the Cambridge Documents, 1852, and occupies nearly 200 pages.
The commissioners in person presented to the king at Hampton Court a brief summary of this report. We do not know the date of this interview, but conjecturally it may be put as being early in March. Parker has left[10] in his own handwriting a full account of their reception as follows:
In the end, the said commissioners resorted up to Hampton Court to present to the King a brief summary written in a fair sheet of vellum (which very book is yet [8] ]reserved in the college of Corpus Christi) describing the revenues, the reprises, the allowances, and number and stipend of every College. Which book the King diligently perused; and in a certain admiration said to certain of his lords which stood by, that he thought he had not in his realm so many persons so honestly maintained in living by so little land and rent: and where he asked of us what it meant that the most part of Colleges should seem to expend yearly more than their revenues amounted to; we answered that it rose partly of fines for leases and indentures of the farmers renewing their leases, partly of wood sales: whereupon he said to the lords, that pity it were these lands should be altered to make them worse; (at which words some were grieved, for that they disappointed lupos quosdam hiantes). In fine, we sued to the King’s Majesty to be so gracious lord, that he would favour us in the continuance of our possessions such as they were, and that no man by his grace’s letters should require to permute with us to give us worse. He made answer and smiled, that he could not but write for his servants and others, doing the service for the realm in wars and other affairs, but he said he would put us to our choice whether we should gratify them or no, and bade us hold our own, for after his writing he would force us no further. With which words we were well armed, and so departed.
This important interview was followed by a rumour that it was Henry’s intention to found at Cambridge a new and magnificent college to serve as an enduring record of his interest in learning, and perhaps the University may have taken the queen’s letter as indicating what was coming. It is believed that Henry had long entertained vague [9] ]ideas of the kind, but that the definite suggestion, which was encouraged by the queen, originated with Redman, who, as royal chaplain, had constant access to the king and considerable influence with him.
The preparations for Henry’s proposed foundation were made with extreme speed: a wise course in view of his failing health and variable temper. It was decided to take advantage of the Act of 1544 and suppress King’s Hall and Michael-House, using their grounds and adjoining property as the site of the new college. We have no reference to the appointment of commissioners for the business, though there is an allusion, quoted later, to receivers: perhaps the matter was left in the hands of the officials of the Court of Augmentations. Redman was the chief authority at Cambridge in the arrangements that had to be made there, and it was intended that he should be the first master of the new college when it was founded.
The two Societies above mentioned were (save for Peterhouse) the oldest in the University. To Trinity men their history has, naturally, great interest, and I interpolate a few remarks on this and their position in 1546.
The King’s Scholars, normally thirty-two in number and of all ages from fourteen upwards, were established by Edward II under a warden in 1317 and incorporated in 1337. They had for their [10] ]original home a large house (King’s Hall) situated on the grass plot and walk in front of the present chapel, and rapidly acquired all the adjacent land between the High Street (now known as Trinity Street) and the river, extending their buildings in various directions. Popular writers sometimes assert or assume that all medieval colleges were founded for poor students. That is not universally true. No condition of poverty was imposed on the scholars of King’s Hall, nor was their life here penurious: they had a dining-hall, library, common room, chapel, kitchens, a brewery, a vineyard, a garden, and a staff of servants maintained by the Society, while a good many of them also kept their own private servants: they received a liberal allowance for daily commons, clothes and bedding were supplied from the royal wardrobe, and pocket-money was given to buy other things. They were appointed by the crown largely from among the families of court officials, nominations being restricted to those who knew Latin. After completing their course many of these students entered what we may call the higher civil service of the time in church or state.
In the report of the commissioners, the annual income of King’s Hall was returned as £214. 0s. 3d. and the expenses as £263. 16s. 7d.; and it was stated that at the time there were on its boards, a master, twenty-five graduate fellows, and seven [11] ]undergraduate fellows, besides servants. The Society owned the patronage of the livings of Arrington, Bottisham, St Mary’s Cambridge, Chesterton, Fakenham, Felmersham, and Grendon. According to the return, the normal annual expenditure of King’s Hall, if all the scholars resided, required £182. 18s. 4d. for the emoluments of the warden and fellows (namely, £8. 13s. 4d. for the warden, £5. 10s. 0d. for each of twenty-five graduate fellows, and £5. 5s. 0d. for each of seven undergraduate fellows); £32. 2s. 0d. for the college servants (namely, the butler, barber, baker, brewer, laundress, cook, under-cook, and the warden’s servant); £3. 1s. 4d. for the estate officers and quit-rents; £3. 19s. 4d. for the expenses of the chapel services and the bible-clerk; £5. 0s. 0d. for firing for the hall and kitchen; £5. 0s. 0d. for rushes for the hall; £5. 10s. 4d. for the exequies of the founder and the following refections; £29. 1s. 4d. for repairs and renewals; and £10 for extraordinary expenses.
The other College (Michael-House) whose buildings were transferred to Trinity was of a different type. It was founded by Hervey de Stanton in 1324 for a master and six secular clergy who wished to study in the University. Their original home was a large house on the site of the present combination room and the land round it; later they acquired all the property between Foul Lane and the river. At first the Society’s means were barely [12] s]ufficient for its needs, but in time it received many gifts, and the foundation was increased to a master and eight priests with chaplains and bible-clerks. It had an oratory in its House but did not need a chapel as it owned St Michael’s Church; traces of this ownership will be noticed in the arrangement for stalls (to be occupied by members of the Society) in the choir, which is sunk below the level of the nave and chancel.
In the report of the commissioners, the annual income of Michael-House was returned as £141. 13s. 1¾d. and its expenses as £143. 18s. 0d.; and it was stated that there were on its boards a master, eight fellows, and three chaplains, besides servants. Besides St Michael’s Cambridge, the Society owned the patronage of the livings of Barrington, Boxworth, Cheadle, Grundisburgh, and Orwell. According to the return, the normal annual expenditure of Michael-House required a sum of £91. 10s. 8d. for the emoluments of the Society (namely, £7. 6s. 8d. for the master, £47. 17s. 4d. for the six fellows on the original foundation, £11. 6s. 8d. for the two Illegh fellows, £15 for three chaplains, one of whom served Barrington, and £10 for four bible-clerks), £1 for the auditor, £6. 6s. 8d. for college servants (namely, the cook, butler, barber, and laundress), rather more than £17 for the exequies of benefactors, £1. 13s. 4d. for the commemoration [13] ]refection, £20 for repairs, and £6. 6s. 8d. for extraordinary expenses. A clerical society like Michael-House had no difficulty in providing for due celebration of the exequies of its friends, and in fact more than twenty benefactors are mentioned by name as being thus commemorated every year. In 1544, the House, presumably with the object of averting its destruction, began to admit students resident elsewhere in the University, and in a couple of years no less than forty-eight students matriculated from it; the number of admissions must have exceeded this, but what was involved in such cases by admission is uncertain.