=Concerning Trinity College.= CHAPTER I. THE FOUNDATION OF TRINITY COLLEGE. Trinity College was founded by Henry VIII in 1546. To obtain a site for it, he suppressed King's Hall and Michael-House, two medieval colleges which were built on or owned most of the ground now occupied by the Great Court, and with their revenues, largely augmented by property of dissolved monasteries, he endowed it. The scheme of the College and his objects in founding it are stated in his letters patent of 19 December 1546, and particulars of the income assigned by him to the foundation are set out in his charter of dotation dated 24 December 1546. These documents have been printed[1] and are readily accessible, but the history of the events leading up to the foundation of the College is less generally known. I cannot promise that the story in itself is interesting but the material facts have never before been brought together[2] so its telling is justified. After the dissolution of the monastic houses, anxiety was felt in Cambridge and Oxford lest they should suffer a similar fate. The policy of the suppression of the two universities and the confiscation of their property was openly advocated by politicians at court, and naturally great alarm was felt when in 1544 an Act[3] was passed empowering the king to dissolve any college at either university, and appropriate its possessions. The universities were right in thinking that the danger was pressing, for Parker, who played a leading part in the affair, has put on record[4] the fact that after the passing of the Act certain courtiers importunately sued the king to have the possessions of both bodies surveyed, meaning afterwards to obtain the same on easy terms. In these circumstances the Cambridge authorities, says Strype, "looked about them and made all the friends they could at court to save themselves." In particular they urgently begged the aid of two of their professors, John Cheke, then acting as tutor to the prince of Wales, and Thomas Smith, then clerk to the queen's council. Here is the letter[5] of the senate to Smith on the subject: