Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 03.djvu/102



two hostels near St. Peters church. William de Kilkenny, ninth bishop, had little time for the concerns of his diocese, though he left two hundred marks to the priory at Barnwell for the maintenance of two chaplains, students of divinity in the university.

Among the charters of Peterhouse are letters patent of the 9th of Edward I (1280), attested at Burgh 24 Dec, which, after a preamble, conceived in the mediæval spirit, about King Solomon, grant to Bishop Hugh the royal approval (license) of his intention to introduce into his hospital of St.John at Cambridge, in lieu of the secular brethren there, 'studious scholars who shall in everything live together as students in the university of Cambridge according to the rule of the scholars at Oxford who are called of Merton' (Documents relating to the University and Colleges of Cambridge, ii. l1). This document at all events fixes the date of the royal license, on which there can be little doubt that action was immediately taken. It is clear that Hugh de Balsham's scholars were placed in St. John's Hospital in substitution for the secular brethren already residing there. Very possibly the designation of the Ely scholars as 'scholars of the bishops of Ely' may imply an acknowledgment of the anticipation by Bishop Northwold of Bishop Hugh de Balsham's intention to provide for secular students. For not more than four years afterwards, in 1284, it was found that a separation of the two elements would better meet the purpose which the bishop had at heart. By an instrument dated Doddington, 31 March 1284, which was confirmed by a charter of King Edward I, dated 28 May 1284, Bishop Hugh de Balsham separated his scholars from the brethren of the hospital. Dissensions had from various causes and on several occasions arisen between the brethren and the scholars, and finding a further continuance of their common life 'difficult if not intolerable,' they had on both sides proffered a humble supplication that the localities occupied as well as the possessions held by them in common might be divided between them. The bishop accordingly assigned to his scholars the two hostels (hospicia) adjoining the churchyard of St. Peter without Trumpington Gate, together with that church itself, and certain revenues thereto belonging, inclusive of the tithes of the two mills belonging to that church. The brethren were compensated by certain rents and some houses near to their hospital which had formerly been assigned to the scholars. By another instrument of the same date, and confirmed by the same royal charter, he assigned the church of Triplow, formerly allotted to his scholars and the brethren in common, to his scholars alone. (Both instruments are recited at length in the charter confirming them; seeDocuments,ii.1-4).

This account agrees with the statement in the second of the statutes afterwards given to Peterhouse by Simon Montague (seventeenth Bishop of Ely, 1337-1345) 9 April 1344, according to which his predecessor, Hugh de Balsham, 'desirous for the weal of his soul while he dwelt in this vale of tears, and to provide wholesomely so far as in him lay for poor persons wishing to make themselves proficient in the knowledge of letters by securing to them a proper maintenance, founded a house or college for the public good in our university of Cambridge, with the consent of King Edward and of his beloved sons the prior and chapter of our cathedral, all due requirements of law being observed; which house he desired to be called the House of St. Peter or the Hall {Aula) of the scholars of the bishops of Ely at Cambridge; and he endowed it, and made certain ordinances for it {in aliquibus ordinavit) so far as he was then able, but not as he intended and wished to do, as we hear, had not death frustrated his intention. In this house he willed that there should be one master and as many scholars as could be suitably maintained from the possessions of the house itself in a lawful manner.' Bishop Simon adds that the capabilities of the house had since proved barely sufficient for the support of fifteen persons, viz. a master and fourteen scholars (fellows), a number which has only in our own days been reduced to that of a master and eleven fellows {Documents ii. 7-8).

It would be useless to inquire to what precise extent the statutes of Simon Montague represent the wishes of the founder. There can, however, be no reasonable doubt but that in general they closely correspond to them, more especially as the second of Bishop Simon's statutes declares his intention of following the desire of Bishop Hugh to base the statutes of Peterhouse upon those of Merton (Documents, ii. 8). The Peterhouse statutes are actually modelled on the fourth of the codes of statutes given by Merton to his college, which bears date 1274. Accordingly, the formula 'ad instar Aulæ de Merton' constantly recurs in Simon Montague's statutes, e.g. in statutes 16, 22, 28, 30, 39, 40, 57, 58. Inasmuch as according to statute 43 a fellow who has entered into a monastic order is after a year of grace to vacate his fellowship, Hugh de Balsham may fairly be assumed to have, in the same spirit as that in which his successor legislated for his college, designed that it should provide assistance for students, 