one of the prettiest spots in the whole university is the tiny medieval court on the north side of corpus. you have only to turn your back on the ugly hall, and look at three sides of a venerable, low quadrangle clothed with ivy and stained with age, and you can imagine yourself back in the days of the edwards, when the pious members of the cambridge benefit societies founded the college. times have changed, and the court has been repaired fairly often; but the place retains its medieval flavour. there is still the gallery which communicated between the college and st bene’t’s church, while st bene’t’s was the college chapel; with the aid of a key, you may go straight from under the roof of corpus into church, without leaving cover. and, in one corner of the court, the kitchen, with its[86] great spit revolving in the draught, is a continual source of interest to all visitors. however, medieval corpus was never very conspicuous, and, like most things medieval, it grew incommodious. mr william wilkins, an architect of some knowledge, who had taken his degree at caius, was selected in 1823 to renew corpus in the gothic taste, then becoming fashionable. his design, which he executed between 1823 and 1827, was highly praised, and during the next ten years he left some notable marks of his hand in cambridge. the great court of corpus is a singular instance of the fluctuation of taste. what was then considered handsome—it was certainly audacious—is to-day an eye-sore. the proportions of the great court are noble, and everything is conceived on a grand scale. the hall and library are both fine apartments, and the chapel is commanding; but the whole building is shallow, and its detail is flimsy and jejune. all wilkins’ work, here, at king’s and at trinity, deserves careful study; for it shows how the architects of the first half of the century, with the experience of past ages at their command, failed even in the elementary matter of imitation.
corpus has the singular distinction of having been founded by a gild. the gild or benefit society was an important institution in medieval cambridge, and each church had one attached to it. somewhere towards the end of the thirteenth century, when the festival of corpus christi was become a recognised feast of the church, a society of this kind was founded in the parish of st bene’t, and took the title of corpus christi in honour of the blessed sacrament. what induced the corporation to found a college is unknown; its action is at all events a testimony to the love of learning which was spreading at this time among the middle classes. in 1352, it obtained a charter from edward iii. for the foundation of a college. the alderman of the gild at this date was henry, duke of lancaster, cousin to the king. one gild, however, was not sufficient to carry out the work of itself, and the gild of corpus christi achieved its desire by uniting itself with the gild of our lady, which was connected with st mary’s by the market, the present university church. to this union the college owes its coat of arms. in two out of the four quarters we see the “pelican in her piety,” the emblem of the blessed sacrament; in the other two are the lilies emblematic of the blessed virgin mary. another interesting person connected with the foundation is john goldcorne, an ex-alderman of the gild of corpus christi. he had generously given some of his property to bishop bateman when the bishop removed caius college to its present site. he[88] gave corpus the fine drinking-horn which still is the chief piece of plate in the rich collection belonging to the house. it was probably the horn used at feasts of the gild; it is one of the best specimens of the kind in existence.
thomas of eltisley, a village between cambridge and st neots, was the first master. like most other colleges, its medieval history is not very extraordinary. like most other colleges, too, its scholars “kept” their chapels in a parish church, the adjacent church of st bene’t. college and church have always been closely connected, and even to-day, when the college has ceased to bear its familiar name of bene’t college, the advowson of st bene’t’s is in its gift. in process of time, it built the south chancel aisle, which it reserved for itself. this was divided into two stories, an upper and an under, and was entered from the gallery which still exists between the church and the old court. finally, in the sixteenth century, sir nicholas bacon,* the famous lord keeper, who had been educated at corpus, gave the structure of a chapel. this was built almost on the site of the present one. it is characteristic of the age that, to build this chapel, stone was taken from the dissolved abbey of thorney and from barnwell priory.
matthew parker, master from 1544 to 1553, was the great ornament of the college at this period. he is more famous as archbishop of canterbury than as a don, but corpus holds his name in great honour. his great collection of[89] manuscripts is preserved in the library. the bequest was accompanied by one of those odd provisions by which benefactors ensured the jealous care of their possessions after their death. if twenty-five manuscripts are lost, the collection is to go to caius; if caius is guilty of neglect, it passes to trinity hall. the provision is rigidly attended to, and the inspection of the manuscripts is an affair of great circumstance, for which the presence of the librarian, a fellow and a scholar is necessary. perhaps the most historical document in the library is the original draft of the thirty-nine articles. parker also left some very valuable plate to the college, cups and apostle-spoons. there is a portrait of him in the hall, and another in the master’s lodge.
corpus has a distinguished roll of elizabethan worthies. besides sir nicholas bacon and parker, we find the names of two dramatists, christopher marlowe, one of the greatest of all, and giles fletcher, the collaborator of beaumont. the father of the latter was also a member of the college, and became bishop, first of bristol, then of london. george wishart, the scottish martyr, was here at some time early in the sixteenth century. in 1590 john jegon* became master. afterwards, as bishop of norwich, jegon was not a great success: as master of corpus his strictness made him unpopular. there is a story that he fined some of the scholars for a breach of rules, and applied the proceeds to the repair of the college. one of the delinquents[90] afterwards wrote on a wall of the college this couplet,
dr jegon, bene’t college master,
broke the scholars’ heads and gave the wall a plaster.
beneath this elegant conceit jegon wrote a distich of his own.
knew i but the wag that wrote this verse in bravery,
i’d commend him for his wit, but whip him for his knavery.
jegon was vice-chancellor from 1596 to 1601, and his arms appear on the plaster ceiling of the old senate house, now incorporated in the university library. his brother thomas succeeded him at corpus and was also vice-chancellor in 1609. both brothers died in 1618.
during the commonwealth richard love* was master, and was also dean of ely as long as deaneries were suffered to exist. at the restoration, peter gunning became master for a year, and then passed to st john’s. gunning’s part in church history is well known, and his short residence may be esteemed an honourable item in the history of the college. seven years after his time, another scholar of repute became master, john spencer (* van der myn), dean of ely, and author of a book de legibus hebraeorum. corpus has always been rich in ecclesiastics. it produced a second archbishop of canterbury in thomas tenison* who is famous for his interest in education and his benefactions to schools. in the next generation another primate,[91] thomas herring,* came from corpus. an archbishop of york belonging to the foundation was richard sterne, afterwards master of jesus and grandfather of the great sentimentalist. matthias mawson,* master from 1724 to 1744, was elevated in 1740 to the bishoprick of chichester and translated in 1754 to ely. on the other hand, samuel wesley was also at corpus, so that modern methodism, the creation of his famous sons, may look with reverence upon the college.
the master’s lodge contains a very complete series of portraits, but the later masters are none of them very noticeable. it cannot be said that the heads of houses during the early part of the present century were interesting beings, although they themselves were not without positive convictions on the point. dr john lamb (* sir w. beechey), was master from 1822 to 1850, and supplemented his office with the deanery of bristol. his mastership was signalised by the entire rebuilding of the college under william wilkins. whether the copy of raffaelle’s school of athens (attributed to poussin) which this radical builder presented to the college is sufficient compensation for the damage inflicted in a matter of doubt. the present buildings have nourished some excellent scholars. of living celebrities the three brothers perowne may be mentioned—bishop, master, and archdeacon. the portrait of dr e. h. perowne in the hall is by rudolph lehmann; that of his brother, the bishop of worcester, is by the hon. john[92] collier. the late librarian, samuel s. lewis (* brock) was a world-wide authority on gems. his collection, containing many of the finest engraved gems existing, now belongs to the college, forming a treasure little inferior to archbishop parker’s manuscripts. and, turning to the religious memories of corpus, no one who appreciates a life of entire self-sacrifice and devotion will fail to pay a tribute to the portrait of thomas ragland, fellow of the college, and missionary to tinnevelly. it will be seen that the history of corpus is throughout almost entirely ecclesiastical, and it is still a favourite college for undergraduates who wish to proceed to holy orders. among its latest honours has been the elevation of its librarian, dr harmer, to the bishoprick of adelaide. although one of the smaller foundations, its priceless collections give corpus an importance second to that of very few colleges, while the unique history of its foundation singles it out from the rest.
