Cambridge (England) -- Pictorial works; University of Cambridge -- Pictorial works
The college was the chief sufferer in the peasant revolt of 1381
principally on account of the wealth which accrued to it from “candle
rents,” a tax chargeable on the tenants of all houses which had been
guild property.[157] On the festival of Corpus Christi--the
[Illustration: ST. BENEDICT’S CHURCH FROM FREE SCHOOL LANE
Its Saxon tower is the oldest building left in Cambridge, and close by
is the oldest piece of College building, the wall of Corpus Christi.]
Thursday in the Octave of Trinity--a great procession which included the
officers of the united guild, the civic dignitaries, and the university
authorities, perambulated the town from Benet Church to the bridge, the
Master bearing the pyx under a rich canopy. Even after the dissolution
of the guild the Master of Corpus continued the procession until it was
abolished by Henry VIII. in the 27th year of his reign (1535/6). The
ancient arms of the college consisted of the shields of the two
guilds--the emblems of the Passion for Corpus Christi; the triangle
symbol of the Trinity for the guild of the Blessed Virgin, above, Christ
crowning the Madonna and below, the guilds dedicating their college.
Exception was taken to them in Parker’s time as too papistical, and he
got the heralds to change them. The new arms still however recorded the
two guilds: quarterly, gules and azure, in the first and fourth a
pelican, with her young, vulning herself; in the second and third three
lilies proper
_Signat avis Christum, qui sanguine pascit alumnos;_
_Lilia, virgo parens, intemerata refert._
Among its great names Corpus counts Sir Nicholas Bacon the father of
Francis Lord Bacon, Matthew Parker who was Master of the college and its
great benefactor in later times, Christopher Marlowe and Fletcher,
Archbishop Tenison, Sir William Paston and a group of xvii century
antiquaries, and Boyle ‘the great earl’ of Cork. Roger Manners was a
considerable benefactor. In the time of Henry VII. Elizabeth Duchess of
Norfolk founded a bible clerkship and a fellowship, and placed the
buttresses of the college.[158]
The college soon maintained 8 fellows, 6 scholars, and 3 bible clerks.
All the inmates were destined by the founders for priests’ orders, this
being one of the four foundations in Cambridge due in whole or in part
to the dearth of clerks consequent on the black death.[159] In the time
of Caius Corpus held 93 persons and in Fuller’s time 126. In the xviii
century about 60. There are to-day 12 fellowships, about 15 scholarships
varying from £80 to £30 in value, 3 sizarships worth £25 each, and 6
exhibitions for students from S. Paul’s school, Canterbury, and the
Norwich Grammar school varying from £18 to double this sum.[160]
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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