[208]
]The Tudor statutes generally remained in force till the middle of the nineteenth century, though in time the practices of the colleges came to differ materially from what was there directed. Briefly we may say that in the sixteenth century the standard of medieval discipline and study sank; but in the early years of the seventeenth century things improved until the civil disturbances threw academic work into confusion. With the establishment of the commonwealth the age of entry rose, and thus the use of corporal and puerile punishments died out, and with the disappearance of boys as members of the University, rules intended only for young lads became obsolete and inoperative. Most of the students henceforth were adolescent. The few who were younger were dealt with like school-boys, but the comparison is rather with school-boys of recent years than with those of their own period.
As far back as Sir Simon D’Ewes’s time—and he entered Cambridge in 1618—the majority of the students were regarded as responsible, and capable of conducting themselves rationally. They reflected the virtues and foibles of their time, but they were a select class, and compare favourably in manners and morals with their contemporaries elsewhere. Almost without exception they speak warmly of their development in college from lads to young men, of friendships formed with their elders as well as their [209] ]contemporaries, of the abiding influence of the place, and of their affection for it.
From the restoration to the regency was a period of stagnation. Discipline deteriorated, and if we may trust contemporary accounts drunkenness and immorality were far from uncommon. No doubt there were always some residents who maintained high traditions and ideals, but on the whole the records of the social life prevalent then at Cambridge and Oxford make but sorry reading.
The sixteenth century codes indicate lofty aims, but statutes and rules are not always observed literally, and it may be thought that those mentioned represented only old customs, perhaps already obsolete, or what was deemed desirable but was not enforced. It may be well then to turn to contemporary evidence, to regulations passed on specific occasions, and to records of definite punishments—though we can expect the latter to have been preserved only in grave cases, and cannot hope to learn from them much about discipline in petty matters.
Contemporary evidence would serve us best if we could get it, but the diarists and letter-writers are mostly silent on the subject. From this, however, I conclude that generally the disciplinary regulations were thought sensible. Life in the University may have been hard and probably was so, but I do [210] ]not believe that discipline was unreasonable. All the evidence is to the contrary. Thus the above-mentioned Tusser, a student of no special brilliancy, who entered at Trinity Hall in the early half of the sixteenth century speaks thankfully of leaving school, and says: “To Cambridge thence ... I got at last, There joy I felt, there trim I dwelt, There heaven from hell, I shifted well, With learned men, a number then, the time I passed.”
Coming now to definite punishments, I mention successively corporal punishments, such as birching, the use of the stocks, and stanging; fines, direct and indirect; deprivation of days or standing; gatings; impositions; declaratory confessions; and rustications and expulsions.
Birching, Flogging.
Birching remained a recognized punishment for the younger students in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but I think that in practice it was not often inflicted except on boys. One or two examples of orders directing it will suffice.
On 8 May 1572, the Vice-Chancellor, Whitgift, issued an order which is so detailed that I write it at length. Here it is:
If any scholar shall go into any river, pool, or other water in the county of Cambridge; by day or night, to swim or wash, he shall, if under the degree of bachelor of arts, for the first offence be sharply and severely whipped publicly [211] ]in the common hall of the College in which he dwells, in the presence of all the fellows, scholars, and others dwelling in the College, and on the next day shall be again openly whipped in the public school, where he was or ought to be an auditor, before all the auditors, by one of the proctors or some other assigned by the Vice-Chancellor, and for the second offence every such delinquent shall be expelled his College and the University for ever. But if he shall be a bachelor of arts, then for the first offence he shall be put in the stocks for a whole day, in the common hall of his College, and shall, before he is liberated, pay 10s towards the commons of the College, and for the second offence shall be expelled his College and the University. And if he shall be a master of arts, or bachelor of law, physic or music, or of superior degree, he shall be severely punished, at the judgment and discretion of the Master of his College.