27 AUGUST 1870, Page 21

HISTORY OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.* IT may be thought

that the history of a college cannot be par- ticularly attractive. The two volumes before us, however, have something more than a mere special interest for those who have been in any way connected with St. John's College, Cambridge ; they contain much which will be read with pleasure by a far wider circle. Many of the facts brought under our notice are of considerable value to the general historical student. The histories of our Universities and Colleges are closely intertwined with the history of our nation, and it has been the privilege of St. John's College to have been honourably associated for a period of more than three centuries with the cause of learning and education in England. Every member of that ancient foundation will recog- nize the worth of Mr. Mayor's labours, which, as it will appear, have been by no means confined to mere ordinary editorial work.

Thomas Baker, the author of this history, lived in an eventful time. He was a Fellow of St. John's College from 1680 to 1716, when he was ejected as anon-juror. Dr. Jenkin, then master of the College, could not prevail on him to take the oaths to King George I. Baker, it is clear, was a highly conscientious man. It seems to have been under a strong sense of duty, and with a full determination to do his work thoroughly and completely, that he collected the materials for this history. The task he set himself proved very laborious, involving, as it did, the examination of a multitude of scattered MSS , which were now for the first time critically sifted. He says in his preface that "he thinks he could have written a history of England with less trouble, and he is sure he could have done it with less difficulty, than this imperfect essay," as he terms his work. The growth of the college is traced from its earliest beginnings. Originally it was founded as a religious house either in the reign of Henry I. or Stephen, and its revenues were charged with the maintenance of sick and infirm people. The first step towards making it a seat of learning as well as of religion was taken by Hugh Balsham, Bishop of Ely, who to the religious brethren added secular scholars, and granted new revenues for their endowment. This appears to have been done in the reign of Edward I., and from that time, Baker remarks, St. John's became the first endowed college in the University of Cambridge. It was still, however, known as St. John's House or Hospital, and its regular admission to the privileges of the University was deferred to the reign of Edward IV. This would seem to imply that the brethren, whatever their merits in other respects, could hardly have been distinguished for learning. The house, however, con- tinued to flourish, and was moderately well endowed at the beginning of Henry VIL's reign. Soon afterwards, without apparently passing through a period of thorough corruption, it was suddenly brought to decay and ruin by the irregularities of a bad master ; its estates were sold or mortgaged, and the brethren were dispersed. It was now formally dissolved as a religions house, a fate which it no doubt deserved. The process of dissolu- tion could be accomplished only by the joint action of the King, the Pope, and the Bishop of Ely, and was consequently tedious. It was at length completed in 1510. St. John's House or Hospital ceased to exist, and the first chapter of the history is concluded.

The history of the College begins in the following year. Henry VIL's mother, the Countess of Richmond, was the actual foundress of the new society, which was to consist of a master and fifty fellows and scholars, who were to devote themselves to the study of the sciences and of theology. Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, however, whose firm and conscientious rejection of the Royal supremacy cost him his life under Henry VIII., was the chief instrument in the completion of her design. As her confessor, he had great personal influence over her, and it was by his persuasion that she also founded Christ's College. To Fisher, indeed, St. John's College owes everything. He framed its original statutes and enriched it with liberal benefactions. It appears to have started with a revenue of about £400 a year. Its first master, Robert Shorten, fortunately was a man with a capacity for business,

• History of the College of St. John the Evangelist, Cambridge. By Thomas Baker, BD., Ejected Fellow. Edited, for the Syndics of the University Press, by J. E. B. Mayor, MA., Fellow of St. John's College, and under him the wealth of the foundation increased. His own salary was £90 a year, small remuneration (even when full

allowance is made for the changed value of money) for the duties of a position which then must really have been a difficult as well as a dignified one. Buildings on, as we should suppose, a great scale were provided, at a cost of from £4,009 to £5,000. This strikes us as being in those days a vast amount, as the allowance for maintenance to a fellow was but 12d. per week, and to a scholar 7d , and £120 was a sufficient sum to found a fellowship, £6 a year being enough to maintain a fellow, and 13 a scholar. Evidently the presence of a numerous body of students was dis- tinctly contemplated. St. John's was from its beginning a large college. In 1565 it must have numbered more than 300 students ; such at least may be inferred from the fact that nearly 300 agreed in the rejection of the surplice. Mary's reign seems to have been a disastrous time for the college. 11Iany of the fellows were ejected and unworthy men admitted. We have the testimony of Ascham, who was at one time president of the College, to the effect that classical studies were almost banished, that lectures on divinity were seldom delivered, sermons rarely preached, and the Greek tongue scarcely professed in public or private by anybody. In Elizabeth's reign the religious distractions of the nation found their way into the society, and produced much disorder and con- fusion. The election of fellows was made a perpetual bone of contention. There were sharp and frequent feuds about the sur- plice and other ecclesiastical vestments. The college discipline was set at naught by students who pleaded conscientious scruples. One of these once entered the chapel and placed himself among the students, who all had their surplices on, while he alone was without a surplice. Being reproved by the censor, he laid the cause on his conscience. It turned out, however, that he had pawned his surplice to the cook, with whom he had run into debt. There was, it is clear, during this period a strong Puritan leaven in the college, and the minds of the fellows and scholars were much more occupied with religious and ecclesiastical controversies than with classical or scientific pursuits. In 1589 a Puritan synod was held at St. John's, at which Cartwright was present. This seems to have taken place with the indirect countenance of the master, Dr. Whitaker, who, though a man of real learning, had decided sym- pathies with the Puritan party. His successor, Dr. Clayton, set his face against them, and Puritanism was now in great measure, according to Baker, rooted out of the college. Its tone during James I.'s reign was High-Church, and favourable to the doctrine of passive obedience. In the Civil War it stood by the King against the Parliament, and suffered accordingly, the master and twenty-nine fellows being deprived of their preferments, and the college itself being insulted and broken into by Cromwell's soldiers. It received, however, under the Commonwealth masters of whom even Baker, High Churchman and non-juror as he was, speaks with respect. "They may not," he says, "have been so learned as some of their predecessors, yet their government was so good, and the discipline under them was so strict and regular, that learning then flourished." Indeed, Anthony Tuckney, who was master from 1653 to 1661, could not have been a thorough Puritan, if there is any truth in a college tradition about him which Baker records. According to this, he told the president of the college, who on the election of fellows urged him to have regard to the "godly," that no one should have greater regard to the truly godly than himself, but that he was determined to choose none but scholars, because (as he added) "they may deceive me in their godliness, but they cannot in their scholarship."

Baker's MS. ends with his account of Dr. Gunning, the twenty- second master of the college. This brings his history down to the year 1670. Mr. Mayor in his second volume gives us Cole's MS., a continuation of Baker's history to the latter part of the last century. He himself, with the aid of various biographical collec- tions, completes the work, which closes with a notice of Dr. Tatham, the late master of the college. His predecessor, Dr. Wood, of whom it is recorded that as an undergraduate he was so poor that he studied by the light of the rush candle on his stair- case with his feet wrapped in straw, not being able to afford a fire, was a most liberal benefactor to St. John's. He left it nearly all his property. Without this bequest, the new chapel, which was completed and opened last year, could hardly have been built. Mr. Mayor's brief outline of Dr. Wood's life will be read with interest by all members of the college. But his full and copious accounts of Bishop Marsh, Dr. Parr, and Bishop Butler, the eminent head master of Shrewsbury School, will, we think, be the most generally attractive portions of his work. The various theological and political controversies in which these distinguished men were engaged cannot fail to be iuteresting to very many readers. Marsh, as the introducer of critical theology, as a man of extensive learning and wide sympathies, well deserves the space Mr. Mayor has allotted to him.

Several significant facts meet us in these volumes. The neces- sary expenses of college life, due regard being had to the altered value of money, must, we should suppose, have been considerably less in the last century than at present. Meat was from 3i-d. to. -W. a pound, and the rent of rooms in college was from £6 to 17 a year, whereas now it is more than twice that amount. A junior fellow's dividend in 1781 was fixed at £56; it is now four times as large. Going back to the year 1633, we find that the bad management of a bursar had necessitated the suspension of the payment of any dividends to fellows for nine years, and that after that period the juniors received but £4 and the seniors £24. We- may reasonably infer from this latter fact that there was something like actually corrupt administration of the college revenues on the- part of the seniors, and the circumstance that they wished to elect into the mastership this very bursar, who seems in all respects to have been an exceedingly discreditable person, leaves hardly a doubt about the matter. Fellowships appear formerly to have had the condition of residence attached to them. This we gather from a statement that an allowance and leave of absence were- granted in 1623 by the senior fellows to one of their body, employed on State affairs in France. A fellow might have leave of absence for three years for study in a foreign university, but he was entitled to no allowance. It would seem that nothing short of an engagement in the service of the State was held to justify non-residence.

The index with which Mr. Mayor has furnished this useful work leaves nothing to be desired. We congratulate him on the completion of his labours, and sincerely echo the wish expressed by him that in return for the benefactions they enjoy, other fellows Of colleges will explore their hidden treasures and bring them into the light of day.