Something from the Incunabula Chest

.

A plaintive call this morning from the Tottette of Revels at the University.

“Auntie Audrey” she cries (it’s a hereditary position of course) “2009 is just around the corner and I can’t think of anything at all that happened in 1209 for our 800th Anniversary celebrations! I’m at an absolute loss! Can you advise?”

“Calm down dear heart.” I soothe “For any historian of the period, the answer is obvious – the Excommunication of King John”.

“But that’s not a Cambridge story” wails Tottie “I have a PhD in History and a First-Rate Mind and I see no connection whatsoever.” Without my inside information she might have been right.

Well, as I expect you know, in 1208 Pope Innocent III issued his Interdict against King John for failing to allow Innocent’s old student friend from Paris, Cardinal Stephen Langton, to take up the See of Canterbury. In response, John, ever short of cash, confiscated some church property and he was consequently excommunicated in 1209 by Innocent, (who wasn’t, being a dark and diminutive figure rather like Silvio Berlusconi). Langton landed at Dover to take up his new job and went on to lead the motley crew behind the Magna Carta.

A good story but not, apparently one with a specifically Cambridge connection. However, I feel that with a little imagination we can appropriate it.

Cambridge at that time was favoured by King John. The city had received his blessing and a charter two years earlier and was, by all accounts, a lively spot commercially with good river traffic and trade fairs. The Jews , having been removed from their cosy nook in Bury St Edmunds, had established a commercial centre and maintained their archa in the vicinity of All Saints. East Anglian Jews such as Aaron of Lincoln were extremely influential under the Normans - funding the building of abbeys, financing crusades and generally oiling the wheels of government.

Cambridge must have been a lively spot intellectually, even before the arrival, in 1209, of that famous band of refugee students from Oxford. All along the High Street, stretching from William the Conqueror’s Castle to the water meadows of Newnham with their small bridges, was a string of churches – one for every forty houses. All Saints by the Castle, (perhaps in a poor state of repair), St Giles, St Clement, the Holy Sepulchre (formerly St George), All Saints in the Jewry, St Michael, St Benedict, St Edward King and Martyr, St Botolph and St Peter beyond the King’s Ditch (later renamed Little St Mary's). There was certainly plenty of church property for John to confiscate.

The city also hosted monastic foundations and the beginnings of a Health Service. The Augustinians, having moved from their old home near St Giles had been established for almost a hundred years in their extensive home at Barnwell and had already constructed their Leper Hospital . The Hospital of St John was emerging from the fen whilst the Benedictine nuns of St Radegund were ensconced on the slightly drier land in the Greencroft. The Confraternity of the Holy Sepulchre had a new round church and the Knight’s Templar built their own little hospital at Denny just down the river.

The foundation of Cambridge University actually grew out of John’ desire to set up, like Henry VIII in later times, an alternative intellectual and legal power base loyal only the crown. He consulted his friend and secretary, the disappointed candidate for the Archbishopric, John de Grey and they met in Cambridge in 1209 to discuss how best to proceed. De Grey, who was very well connected financially, invited some of his friends.

“I have never heard this story” says Tottie, sternly, for she suspects me of fabrication. And so I rummage through my incunabula and manuscript chest for proof. It’s rather a nice old chest which I bought at a house clearance in Cherry Hinton many years ago, and amongst the clutter I found this scrap of parchment. It appears to be the minutes of a meeting. I transcribe:

Those Present
His Majestie ye Kinge
My lord ye Bishop of Norwiche, Registry
Benjamin and Jonas ye Jewes
Ye Commissionary of ye Knightes Templar
Herbert ye Chapelyne and Robert ye Surgeon - Hospital of St John
Fr. Bidwell – Fraternity of Free Masons
Fr. Januarie – Gild of St Katherine
Fr. Hobson – Gild of Sankti Botolfi
Ye Prioress of St Radegund

Venue
Priory of St Radegund

Agreed
That all present should contribute their skilles to ye founding and supportinge of a Universitie of Newe and Useful Lernynge.

Subjects of Lernynge
1. Usuary, ye minting of monies and ye financing of governments.
2. Physik, ye use of plantes, herbes and elixirs for prolongation of life.
3. Wisdom of Hermes, alchemie, cabbala and ye forces of Goddes Universe
4. Such aspects only of divinity and logic as shall be useful to ye Kinge and ye true Church in Engeland.

Governance
Universitie to be managed by ye Knightes Templar through all time

Relations with ye Citie
Ye University to exist only for as long as ye Burgesses and Gilds of Grantebrygge shall be compensated for the loss of their normal powers and liberties which shall be in this wise:

Item: All buildings and developments of ye Universitie, which shall be numerous, to be managed by ye Free Masons of Grantbrygge and Roystone

Item: All supplies and services to ye Universitie be made by the Gild of St Katherine which will be known by the sign of the Rotary wheel

Item: All haulage and cartage and ye transporting of burgesses and students to be carried out by the Gild of Sankti Budolfi for all time (Fr. Hobson warned of congestion in ye High Street and proposed a charge to be levied on traffic not of ye Gild)

Should such agreement be violated, ye Burgesses may enter into ye Universitie with cries of “away with the skilles of ye clerkes” and do rampage.

External Affairs
In the name of ye Kinge, all barons from ye County beyond and all influence of European potentates are to be kept at baie for all time by ye Universitie and Burgesses of ye Citie.

Initial Funding
Property of ye Church of Rome to be confiscated. Item: Propertie of the churches of All Saint’s and St Michael (Benjamin ye Jewe to foreclose on mortgages in archa) and Universitie to be set up in their curtiledges.

Ye Role of Wimmin
All such wimmin as will take the veil of St Radegund, or similar obscure saint, to be allowed to study unmolested and advise ye Knightes Templar in Governance

Ye Companie thanked ye Prioresse of St Radegund for her hospitalitie and ye Gild of St Katherine for the excelling good vittals.

Sealed by
Ye Kinges Registry
This First day of April in the year of our Lord 1209

For a suitable fee I shall provide this document to the Office of Revels and I would suggest a public reprise of this meeting as the most suitable celebratory event.

The subsequent history of the University is better known, though a relatively unexplored area is how its early growth sadly coincided with the decline, impoverishment and expulsion of the Jews from Cambridge.