regents shall meet to celebrate the services, and a mass on the next day, for the soul of William of Wykeham, formerly bishop of Winchester. Also, every year, on the 19th of March, the regents shall meet to celebrate the services, with a mass on the morrow, for the soul of master Richard Holm. Also, every year, on the 21st day of the month of October, the regents shall meet in the choir of St. Mary's church, to celebrate the services, with a mass on the morrow, for the souls of king Richard, doctor Thomas Barow, and of others, as declared in the register of the said services, where it is ordained that all the regents and non-regents, according to the form of the aforesaid statute, who have devoutly and fully attended the said services and mass, viz., at the services before the beginning of the psalm Magnificat, and in the mass before the beginning of the epistle, shall join in it, according to the purport of the aforesaid register.

(CLXXIX.) Of the University chests.

The chest of master Thomas de St. Botolph shall be in the custody of two masters, the one regent, the other nonregent; from which chest no one, having the annual income of ten pounds, may borrow anything; but any one else shall be able to borrow, for one year exactly, half a mark and no more, pledging a book or any other article of value, until the resources of the said chest increase. After the lapse of the year, and after notice shall have been made three times in the schools, such debtor shall redeem his pledge, or it shall be sold, and the excess above the sum shall remain in the chest till it be demanded by the debtor. Also, at the end of the year the guardians of the chest shall make an account of the money and pledges received, which having been duly done, they shall have an acquittance under the seal of the University. Also, no dispensation can in any wise be made, that the said money may be converted to any other use than to be lent to the scholars, as is premised.

The chest of master William de Blithe shall be in the custody of two masters in arts, one regent, the other nonregent, bound by oath to keep it, and no one having the annual income or worth of one hundred shillings, in temporals or spirituals, shall borrow anything from it, nor shall any one else borrow more than ten shillings, until the resources of the said chest increase; and this too can only be borrowed on the sufficient pledge of a book or other article of value. Also, no other guardian of the said chest ought to borrow more than ten shillings from it. Also they shall sell the unredeemed pledges, keep the accounts, and transact the other business.

The chest of Sir John de Bloundell shall (as was ordained in the preceding case) be in the custody of two masters in arts, the one regent, the other non-regent, bound by oath to this office; from which chest a master can receive ten shillings and no more, and this under a sufficient pledge; a bachelor half a mark and no more, under a pledge, &c. and after the lapse of a year, a proclamation having been three times made, the unredeemed pledges shall be sold. But vagabonds, whoremongers, disturbers of the peace, or scholars whose names are not in the matriculation list, shall borrow nothing at all from the aforesaid chest. But, as is aforesaid, no money from the increase of the aforesaid chest shall be invested in trade, secular affairs, or be dispersed in any way, but shall be applied solely to the use of poor scholars, who have not got ten marks per annum in rents or possessions.

The chest of Gilbert de Rondebyry shall be in the custody of two masters of arts, one regent, the other nonregent, and from it no one shall borrow anything if he has an annual income of the value of ten pounds in spirituals or temporals. But of those who have not such an income, a master may borrow one mark and no more, a bachelor eight shillings and no more, and an inferior scholar, of

whatever faculty he be, five shillings, and this under the pledge of a book or other article, known to exceed in value the sum borrowed. Also the guardians, after the lapse of a year, shall sell the pledges, make an account, &c. as above.

The chest of Walter de Nele shall be in the custody of three masters of arts, one of whom must be member of a hall, and neither of the other two must have had the custody of the said chest the year immediately preceding, and they shall be elected within eight days of the feast of St. Denis. And they shall corporally swear to observe the ordination enacted regarding the keeping of the said chest. From which chest nothing shall be lent except under a security exceeding in value the money lent by a fourth part of its value. And if the pledge be unredeemed, it shall be sold after a year, a proclamation having been thrice made. If there has been any excess from its sale, it shall be given to the person who gives the pledge. Any master student in the University may borrow sixty shillings from this chest, a bachelor twenty shillings, a scholar one mark and no more; and others who are not scholars shall not by any means borrow from thence. There are many other conditions in the statute concerning the aforesaid chest.

The chest of the Holy Trinity shall be in the custody of three masters of arts, one of whom must be of the college of the said Trinity, being sworn and elected as in the former case. A master student may borrow altogether four pounds from this chest, and similarly every fellow of the said college; a bachelor may borrow thirty shillings. A scholar or bedell twenty shillings, &c., as in the case next preceding.

It is enacted and ordained by the more numerous and discreet part of the regents and non-regents of the University of Cambridge, on the 6th of November, A. D., 1480, that henceforth no keeper of any chest founded, or about to be founded hereafter, in the aforesaid University, shall

in any way receive any book either written or printed on paper, as a caution or part of a caution, under penalty of one mark to be applied to the purposes of the University. And we will that every keeper on his admission take a corporal oath to observe this.

We have heard the cry of justice complaining that the chests founded by our ancestors are all suffering no small damage and ruin, owing to the indolence of our superiors, the negligence of the keepers, and the knavery, craftiness, fraud, and unfaithfulness of the stationarii. In the year of our Lord 1489, on the 2nd of June, mistress Elizabeth Clerc, amongst the manifold works of her charity, by divine interposition, as is believed, wisely and fortunately observing before all others this damage and ruin, gave in her liberality two hundred marks for the repair of the chests, with which sum eight chests, viz., Nele's, the Holy Trinity's, Darlington's, Billingforth's, Exeter's, Lyng's, St. John's, and Fenne's, have been perfectly renewed and restored to the state they were in at the time of their foundation. Lest, therefore, a similar occasion of damage and ruin should happen (which God forbid), in future to the aforesaid chests, we Thomas Rotheram, chancellor of the University of Cambridge, and the assembly of regents and non-regents, unanimously enact and ordain, that the statute regarding the auditors and keepers of the chests be strictly observed, and be read in the oath administered to the auditors and keepers in a full congregation, and be listened to throughout in silence. Also, that any book placed or about to be placed as security, although it be called a supplement, shall of itself be a caution, and must exceed the sum lent by double its value. Also, that the keepers shall write the name and surname of the person who gives the pledge, together with the place of his habitation. Also, that one at least of the keepers of every chest shall be a member of a hall. Also, that no monk of any profession or order shall borrow money

from the University chest, without first showing that he has the power of depositing the caution, and of taking an oath under the seal of the convent, the prior, or the warden, which we wish to remain in the hands of the keepers until its final redemption, i. e., as long as the pledge remains in the chest. Also, that the keepers of the chest be stationarii. We will also that all these statutes be written together in some chest with the statutes of the same chest. The keepers of the chest shall swear that they will not lend. to any one from the chest to the custody of which they are admitted, unless the borrower shall give security and shall swear that he will receive that money for his own sole use, and that the pledge to be given is his own, or that he has leave from the real possessor to pledge it; nor shall the name of any one else be inserted, unless his will to that effect be made known both to the said keepers and to the person borrowing the money, except the names of those persons who have been legitimately hindered by infirmity or imprisonment, who are present in the town and who shall take the aforesaid oath, both upon their own. souls and those of their employers, by means of the proctors, who have sufficient authority on this point.

To all the faithful in Christ who shall see the present letter, we, Eudo La Zouche, doctor of laws, and chancellor of the University of Cambridge, for the perpetual commemoration of the act. We make known by these presents, that since Sir James de Roos, knight, John Pechel, rector of the church of St. Andrew of Histon, and Henry Hammond, executors of the will of Sir William de Thorpe, knight, of good memory, have in behalf of the souls of the said William, and Lady Grace, his wife, caused solemnly to be built the schools of the divines, with the chapel, to the honor of God, the promotion of study, and the profit of the University; and since it suits ecclesiastical distribution, to give spiritual gifts in return for terrestrial, things firm for things unstable, and things