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The origins of the so-called regius professorships: an aspect of the renaissance in Oxford and Cambridge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

F. Donald Logan
F. Donald Logan*
Affiliation:
Emmanuel CollegeBoston, Massachusetts
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Extract

The universities at Oxford and Cambridge constituted two of the principal foci for the forces favouring renewal in sixteenth-century England. The towering personalities of John Fisher and Erasmus of Rotterdam set the goal of loosening the bonds of the traditional pedagogy and curriculum. The establishment of new foundations such as, at Cambridge, Christ College and, even more immediately, St John’s College and, at Oxford, Corpus Christi College and Cardinal College provided an institutional framework for the new learning. So, too, did the provisions for new ‘professorships’—the term will be used for the moment.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 14: Renaissance and Renewal in Christian History , 1977 , pp. 271 - 278
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1977

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References

1 The author would like to record here his gratitude to Dr A. B. Emden for his generous help at various stages in the preparation of this paper.

2 See generally Porter, [H. C.], [Reformation and Reaction in Tudor Cambridge] (Cambridge 1958) caps 1–3 Google Scholar; McConica, J. K., English Humanism and Reformation Politics tinder Henry VIII and Edward VI (Oxford 1965) cap 4 Google Scholar; also, Gibson, [S.], [‘The University of Oxford’,] VCH Oxon 3 (1954) pp 18–19 Google Scholar. For the Lady Margaret’s provisions see Dyer, George, The Privileges of the University of Cambridge, 2 vols (London 1824) 1, p 103 Google Scholar.

3 For the use of these terms see Rashdall, H., The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, new ed Powicke, F. M. and Emden, A.B., 3 vols (Oxford 1936) 1, pp 19–20 Google Scholar.

4 Cooper, C.H., Annals of Cambridge, 5 vols (Cambridge 1842-1908) 1, p 397 Google Scholar; Mullinger, [J.B.], [The University of Cambridge from the Royal Injunctions of 1535 to the Accession of Charles the First] (Cambridge 1884) p 52 Google Scholar; Roach, J. P.C., ‘The University of Cambridge,’ VCH Cambs 3 (1959) p 177 Google Scholar; Porter p 51.

5 Wood, [Anthony à], [The History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford], ed Gutch, J., 2 vols (Oxford 1792-6) 2, pp 840-61Google Scholar; Mallet, W.E., A History of the University of Oxford, 3 vols (London 1924-7) 2, p 71 Google Scholar; Gibson, p 19.

6 26 Hen VIII c 3, Statutes [of the Realm], ed Luders, A. et al., 10 vols (London 1810-28) 3, pp 493-9Google Scholar.

7 For Oxford see BL Cotton MS Faust C VIII, fols 196r/v, 202r; for Cambridge see ibid, fols 492r/v, Cambridge University Archives Lett. 1, fols 71r/v, 72v-74r, and Grace Book B, [ed Bateson, Mary], 2 pts (Cambridge 1903-5) 2, pp 194 Google Scholar, 208.

8 ‘Praeterea volumus et praecipimus quod haec universitas unam publicam lectionem sive graecam sive hebraicam ex libera optione eorum qui de gremio eiusdem universitatis sunt utram earum maluerint et conducere arbitrati fuerint suis impensis continue sustentet et suppeditet quodque tam in illius lecturae quam in aliarum lecturarum ubicunque infra hanc universitatem praelectoribus diligentissime suam operam adhibeant ut eos ad praelectiones huiusmodi delegant qui literarum scientia et morum integritate maxime florere noscantur ac qui pure, sincere, et pie legere velint omni affectu carnali aut quocumque alio respectu iniquo pemtus se moto et postposito: Cambridge, Peterhouse Archives Register, fol 169r, imperfectly printed in Statuta Academiae Cantabrigiensis (Cambridge 1785) p 140. This is found in Dr Thomas Leigh’s additional injunctions of 22 October 1535. The Oxford injunctions have not survived, although it is generally presumed that they were substantially the same as those to Cambridge. Whether a similar addition was made by the visitors to Oxford is not known.

9 27 Hen VIII c 42,4 (Statutes III, p 600). Spelling and punctuation have been modernised.

10 Statuta Antiqua Universitatis Oxoniensis, ed Gibson, S. (Oxford 1931) pp 339-40Google Scholar.

11 Oxford University Archives Reg. I, 8, fol 14v, where he is described as ‘praelector thcologicae lectionis nuper a regia maiestate institutae.’ For Smith see Emden, [A.B.], [A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford A.D. 1501 to 1540 (Oxford 1974)] pp 524-6Google Scholar.

12 Grace Book Г [ed Searle, W. G.] (Cambridge 1908) pp 310, 315, 327Google Scholar.

13 He was the most distinguished hebraist at Cambridge; his name with Smith’s led the list of the 1540 appointments (sec below). See also [Venn, J. and Venn, J. A.,] Alumni Cantabrigienses 1 (1922-6) 4, p 312 Google Scholar.

14 There is no obvious reason why Westminster was drawn into this arrangement save, perhaps, for the fact that the abbey was experienced in such matters for in 1503 it had been endowed by the Lady Margaret with estates from whose income the abbey was to pay the Lady Margaret praelectors in divinity.

15 King Henry the Eighth’s Scheme of Bishopricks, ed Cole, H. (London 1838) pp 4–6 Google Scholar. It did contain arrangements, however, for the support of ten students in divinity at both Oxford and Cambridge.

16 Ibid p 34. For the Gardiner connection see ibid p 73. A similar draft providing for eight praelectorships is to be found in BL Add MS 40061, fol 2r.

17 PRO MS E. 315/24/81; also Westminster Abbey Muniments no 6478, fol 2r and A Supplementary Volume to the Record of old Westminsters, comp Whitmore, J. B. and Radcliffe, G.R.Y. (London 1938) p 9 Google Scholar; it is calendared in CalLP 16 (1898) no 333. For Bill, and Glynne, see Alumni Cantabrigienses 1, i, p 151 Google Scholar and 1, iv, p 312. In 1537-8 Glynne had received £1. 6s. 8d. and in 1538-9 an unspecified sum pro cathedra iuris civilis (Grace Book B II, pp 213, 220). Gardiner described Bill as one of the most learned men he knew, [The] Letters [of Stephen] Gardiner, [ed Muller, J. A.] (Cambridge 1933) p 431 Google Scholar.

18 The royal letter patent can be found in Foedera, 6, iii, p 61, and also in Endowments of the University of Cambridge, ed Clark, J. W. (Cambridge 1904) p 153 Google Scholar.

19 Ascham, Roger, The Whole Works, ed Giles, J., 3 vols (London 1864-5) 1 Google Scholar, i Letters no 12. For Blythe, , Cheke, , and Wiggin, see Alumni Cantabrigienses 1, i, pp 171 Google Scholar, 328, and 1, iv, p 402.

20 Westminster Abbey Muniments nos 12960, 18400, 32337.

21 Gibson p 19.

22 In early April 1546 a scheme was drawn up under the title Distribucio collegii, see Ball, W. W. Rouse, Cambridge Notes 2 ed (Cambridge 1921) p 14 Google Scholar. The earliest statutes date from 1552, see Bezodis, P. A., ‘Trinity College,’ VCH Cambs 3 (1959) p 463 Google Scholar.

23 PRO MSS E. 315/256 fols 69r, 70r, 71r; E. 315/257 fols 59v, 6or, 61v, 62r; E. 315/258 fols 48r, 53v, 55v.

24 See for Cambridge, Mullinger pp 133-7, and for Oxford, Wood p 98. For Gardiner’s view and Somerset’s reply see Letters Gardiner pp 493-6.

25 OED, ed Murray, J. A. H., 12 vols (Oxford 1933) 7, p 1429 Google Scholar.