Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/95

* CAMBRIDGE. changes, and the replacing of the clerical element in the university by lay students, the nicdia>val history of Cambridge may be said to close and its modern historj- to begin. For the moment, however, here, as in all uni- versities which took a leading part in the Reformation, the immediate effect of that move- ment was disastrous. It was not until the reign of Elizabetli that Cambridge began to recover from the shock. Then it became the sti-onghold of advanced Puritanism, as it had earlier been of advanced Protestantism, particularly under the influence of Cart-vvright, who was finally de[)rived of his official position in the university on this account. Largely owing to the disturbances arising from this, new statutes were enacted in 1570. which lasted till the middle of the Nine- teenth Century. By these the government of the university was practically vested in the heads of tlic colleges, who alone elected the vice- chancellor and the Caput, or supervising board. This turned Cambridge into a close corporation. a misfortune not bettered by the fact that with it went a tendency to turn the university into a school of divinity. The reign of James I. is memorable as the period when the university was granted the privilege of returning two members to Parliament, which it still enjoys. The later Seventeenth Centun' saw the rise of the school of Cambridge Platonists. and, chielly by the influence of Isaac Xewton and Isaac Bar- row, the beginnings of that tendency toward the cultivation of mathematics and the natural sciences, which is still one of the chief dis- tinctions between Cambridge and Oxford. Dur- ing the Eighteenth Century, until the rise of the Evangelical School, the same mediocrity and apathy in religious matters prevailed here as elsewhere, but scholarship was improved by the evolution of the tripos into something like its present position. The Nineteenth Century saw- sweeping changes, the reorganization of colleges and university, greater freedom in academic matters, the abolition of religious tests, and a more liberal idea of the importance of certain studies as well as of the relations between cer- tain lines of work. Between 1840 and 1850 sev- eral colleges secured new charters from the Crown, an<l in the latter year a commission began a revision of the statutes, which led to the re- placing of the Elizabethan statutes by those of the new conuuission in 1858. These were in turn altered in 1809 and 1871-72, and in the latter year another commission was appointed, on the strengtli of whose report ( 1874), and of a memo- rial issued by an influential body in the uni- versity, the Universities of Oxford and Cam- bridge Act was passed in 1877, and approved by the Crown in 188'2. This effected a reorganiza- tion of the entire university system. Meanwhile, various internal changes had been taking place. To the older triposes of classics and mathematics, were added the law tripos in 1S5S. divided into law and history in 18i2, the Semitic language tripos in 1878, the Indian language trij)os in 1870, the mediaeval and modern language tripos in 1880. The university at present is a self-governing corporation, administered by a senate, consisting of all doctors and masters, of whom only those in Cambridge have electoral rights. The Council of the Senate, consisting of the chancellor, the vice-chancellor, four heads of colleges, four uni- 73 CAMBRIDGE. vcrsity professors, and eight associates from the senate, prepares agenda for the senate, chooses the vice-chancellor, and in general carries on the ordinary administration of the university. The funds are managed by a financial board, the cur- riculum is ananged by a general board of stud- ies, separate departments being in the hands of sub-committees, or special boards. The chan- cellor is an honorary official, as at O.ford. usu- ally some dignitary of the realm, as are also the steward and the deputy steward. The vice- chancellor is the real lieail of the university, and is assisted by deputies and by two proctors', who, besides their duties in the senate, have charge of university discipline. There are. moreover, two esquire bedells, the public orator, a com- missary, an assessor, and the registrar, who has charge of records. There are at present seven- teen colleges besides the two foundations for women, several special semi-collegiate institu- tions not a part of the university, and a body of non-collegiate students. The university proper, as distinguished from the colleges, is possessed of several important institutions. The Fitzwilliam JIuseum, founded by Viscount Fitz- william in 1816, is one of the largest and finest institutions of its kind in England. The uni- versity library contains some 200,000 volumes, and a considerable collection of MSS. There are also fine geological and anatomical museums*, an excellent observatory, and the tiniversity prac- tically controls the extensive printing and pub- lishing establishment of the Pitt Press, as well as Addenbrooke Hospital. Examinations are held and degrees are conferred in the Senate House, which contains also the public offices of the university, and is the meeting-place of the senate. The existence of the colleges in connection with the university forms a peculiar, and, save for Oxford, a unique educational organization, not easy for an outsider to understand. Briefly, it may be said that the college and the university are separate corporations, in large measure in- dependent of each other, but connected very close- ly by the fact that they form interacting parts of an educational system, and that they are composed of, and managed by, the same indi- viduals. The university is essentially an exam- ining and degree-conferring body, which examines the candidate at entrance, during his residence, and at the conclusion of his work, and confers degrees on those men who meet its requirements. It regulates the system of education, with re- spect not only to subjects, but also to qualit}', and quantity of preparation, it enforces general dis- cipline, and it offers certain educational advan- tages in its lectures, its libraries, its collections, and similar provisions. The college, on the other hand, receives the entering student, pro- vides him with lodgings and meals, service, and the like, prepares him, by its tutors, for the university examinations, affords him society and recreation, and exercises somewhat more than paternal oversight of his actions. The adminis- tration of the colleges is in the hands of a mas- ter and fellows, from among whom are chosen the college oflicials, dean, bursar, and the like, as well as the teaching or tutorial force of the college. These men, as masters of arts of the university, form a great part of the senate, and so virtually govern it as well as the colleges.