Page:The religious life of King Henry VI.djvu/66

44 they had not to be present at Mattins, they rose an hour later and recited amongst themselves the Office of Our Lady. At six o'clock they had their morning prayers and the study work of the day began. There was an interruption between nine and ten to allow the boys to go across to the church and be present at the Elevation of the High Mass. They knelt down at the entrance, adored the Blessed Sacrament, and having said the verse Adoremus Te Christe, went back to their studies. During the dinner one of the scholars read aloud the Holy Scripture, the lives of the saints, or passages chosen from some doctor of the Church.

Speaking of the two colleges of Eton and Cambridge, the historian Stowe writes: "This year [1443] King Henry being of himself alwaies naturally inclined to do good, and fearing least he might seem unthankful to Almighty God for the great benefits bestowed upon him since the time he first took upon him the regiment of his realme, determined for his primer notable worke, to erect and found two famous colleges in honour and worship of His holy name, and for the increase of virtue, the dilation of cunning and establishment of