Cambridge PapersBall, W. W. Rouse (Walter William Rouse)
History
Cambridge Papers
Ball, W. W. Rouse (Walter William Rouse)
Trinity College (University of Cambridge); University of Cambridge -- History
With the upset of the medieval scheme of education the number of
pensioners and fellow-commoners seeking admission to the University
greatly decreased, and the reception of a limited number of them in
the colleges fairly met the needs of the University. The private
hostels were then no longer wanted and being unendowed disappeared.
Thus when again, as soon happened, the number of would-be pensioners
increased, it was necessary (unless new non-collegiate arrangements
were made for their reception in the University) to admit them in
larger numbers to the colleges. At Trinity a limit was, in theory,
placed on the number of pensioners admissible, but not on that of
fellow-commoners. A pensioner at Trinity, and I suppose also at other
colleges, had to be qualified by learning and morals for admission,
and I conceive further that his entry was conditional on his finding a
fellow who would receive him. A pensioner or fellow-commoner had no
rights, and resided only on such terms and as long as the College or
the fellow receiving him willed. I believe that students of this class
did not often stay here for more than three or four years unless in
due course they became scholars.
A most important question for the new College was how the supply of
scholars and fellows should be provided. In King's Hall vacancies
were filled by royal nomination, and boys came into residence as
scholars-elect. We do not know what was proposed in 1546, but I think
that, as far as entry to the grammar-school was concerned, nomination
by the senior fellows was the most likely method to have been
contemplated. The abandonment of the school and the enrolment of all
its members as scholars of the House must however have raised the
question in an acute form, and it was settled in or before 1552 by the
establishment of an annual examination for the election of scholars.
Probably from the first it was intended that the new fellows should be
formally elected and admitted.
The charter of 1546 contains a reference to statutes to be given later
by the king. There was considerable delay in preparing these, and the
liberty of action thus left to the Society seems to have been used
unwisely, for the commissioners of 1549 reported that its state was
"much out of order, governed at large and pleasure for want of
statutes ... the fellows for the most part too bad."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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