The original property of colleges was in land, benefices, and plate. The portable property was laid by in a _chest_ kept in the muniment room: here title deeds, charters, rare books, college plate, and legacies _in specie_ were treasured; the last being drawn upon for the purpose for which they were bequeathed until exhausted. Benefactors to a college presented it with a “chest,” and hence the “University Chest” is still the name for its revenue. Queen Eleanor presented a “chest” of a hundred marks to the university in 1293 (“The Queen’s Chest”); and Elizabeth, Duchess of Norfolk, enriched the public treasury with a thousand marks in the reign of Henry VII. when the “chests” had been “embezzled to private men’s profit”; a gift “which put the university in stock again.”[256] The “Ely Chest” was given in 1320 by John sometime Prior of Ely and Bishop of Norwich, and the other principal givers were country parsons, university chancellors, a “citizen of London” in 1344, and Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter (“Exeter’s Chest”) in 1401. The wealth of the colleges differs greatly. Trinity college has a gross income of over £74,000 and the next richest college is S. John’s. The poorer colleges have gross incomes varying from 4 to £9000.[257] The proportion contributed at Cambridge and Oxford for the royal loan of 1522 is interesting. At Oxford, New College and Magdalen contributed most, more than eight times as much as Exeter and Queens’ (£40) which gave least.[258] At Cambridge, King’s College and King’s Hall were the richest corporations and contributed the same sums as New College and Magdalen Oxford. [Illustration: THE OLD COURT IN EMMANUEL COLLEGE The large stained-glass window of the Hall is seen on the right, and beyond that the window of the Combination Room. The Dormer window of Harvard’s room is seen on the extreme left.] CHAPTER III THE UNIVERSITY AS A DEGREE-GIVING BODY [pp. 157-164] Meaning of a degree--the kinds of degrees--the bachelor--the ancient exercises of the schools called acts, opponencies, and responsions--the sophister--questionist--determiner--master--regent master--the degree of _M.A._--introduction of written examinations--the tripos. [pp. 164-189] The subjects of study and examination: the _trivium_ and _quadrivium_--grammar--Aristotle’s logic--rhetoric--the three learned faculties--the doctorate--development in university studies--the development of the mathematical tripos--the senior wrangler--the classical tripos--Greek at Cambridge--the moral sciences tripos--philosophy at Cambridge--the natural sciences tripos--science at Cambridge--the language triposes--list of the triposes--changing value of the examination tests--the double tripos--present conditions for the _B.A._ degree--modern changes in the examinations--standard of the ordinary and honour degree, examples.