STATUS OF THE STUDENTS IN COLLEGE.

The division and classification of the students, so far as the University is concerned, is a three-fold one, viz. into fellow-commoners, pensioners, and sizars. This arrangement has prevailed from the commencement of the matriculations in 1544, and remains still nominally unaltered; though social changes, in the direction of equality, have latterly brought about the almost entire suppression of the fellow-commoners and sizars at most colleges. The only distinction recognized between these orders, from the University point of view, is in the respective fees paid for admission and for degrees: there has never, I believe, been any difference of privilege as regards residence, degrees, examination, or other academic conditions. Inside a college, of course, things may have been otherwise, especially in a college which was laxly conducted. Indeed, if traditions may be trusted, there was a tolerably wide-spread convention that the fellow-commoner had better not go in for an examination, and might attend chapel, or not, as he pleased. But he was certainly expected to present a piece of plate to the college.

At what time this three-fold arrangement of the students originated does not seem clear; but I should doubt if it is much older than 1544, when the regulations for matriculation were passed. What indeed we should now term sizars,—viz. poor students who paid their way by their personal services',-are provided for in the earliest of our statutes. But our oldest bursars' books give no indication of anything like a hard and fast separation into three orders, each with its own technical designation. The cook sometimes appears on the list amongst the fellows, and when scholars were introduced their names also appear on the same list; with no division line to separate them. When what we should now call fellow-commoners were introduced, they have no special designation but are termed pensionarii. Precedence there doubtless was, probably of a very minute kind; but of anything like separation into higher and lower orders, I have found no trace in those early times.

Coming down to the Elizabethan period, when the principal facts are easily accessible, we find that, inside the college, a rather more elaborate arrangement

1 It may sound strange to modern readers to hear that these students were not only termed "scholars on the foundation," but were the only students entitled to be so termed. The explanation however is simple. At the institution of the college, and for a century and a half afterwards, there were no scholarships in our sense of the term. These first began to be founded at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and in every case such foundations were the result of private beneficence. The college, as a corporation, had no spare funds for the purpose; and if any student was to be supported by it he had of course to work for his pay. The butler and steward had ancient offices of this kind established in the earliest statutes; and came in after days to be distinguished from the other scholars as "scholares ex fundatione."

By Bateman's statutes "Habeant etiam socii collegii duo officiarios, viz. pistorem et dispensatorem, quorum utrumque pro stipendiis et vobis xv recipere volumus."

prevailed. The classes of students were five in number, each marked by the table to which the student was assigned for his meals. First came the fellow-commoners (pensionarii majores). These were generally young men of family,-in early times often boys, or even children',-who dined at the fellows' table; though to this order were also naturally admitted any masters of arts who came into residence in college. The fellow-commoners probably associated very little with the other students in early times: they were generally younger, belonged to a different social class, and seldom stayed to take a degree. Their residence in college corresponded to a sort of private tuition, preliminary to travelling abroad or entering at an Inn of Court. In the last century it would seem that they were subject to very little discipline.

Next came the three tables of pensioners. They are frequently distinguished as "pensionarii primi, secundi, et tertii ordinis" respectively. The first of these divisions comprised those who were admitted to "the bachelors' table." This was not confined to those who had actually graduated, for many were admitted on their first entry at college. As the charges at this table were on a somewhat higher scale than at the other two tables, we may assume that a certain slight social superiority was implied. Next to this came the "scholars' table"; which, again, was not confined to those who were scholars in the strict sense, that is to those who had been already elected. It appears to have comprised all who were candidates for this position, though in fact many never attained to it. Thus, during the year 1600, twelve students were admitted to this table; but only seven of these eventually became actual scholars, and some of them had to wait three or four years for election. These scholars constituted what may be called the professional working element in the college, and are of course the class for whom colleges were mainly intended. They nearly always stayed on as bachelors, in order to pursue their studies, until they were of standing for M.A. As they generally entered at about the age of 16 (the age expressly prescribed by Dr Caius) they would have attained the canonical age for ordination at the end of their stay; and as a matter of fact a very large majority of them did take holy orders. The third table was that of 'pensioners' simple; viz. of those who paid for their rooms and commons, and enjoyed no endowment. They were relatively few at first, as the hostels rather than the colleges provided accommodation for them; but they now form the overwhelming majority at every college. A clear indication of the way in which these gradations were carried through college life is given in an order of 1672; "In consideration.. the bachelor commoners shall sit, as they desired, in the same seats in the chappell with the junior bachelors...and that they shall sit with the same at hall, and both in chapel and hall immediately follow the

1 William Mannock was admitted, Oct. 20, 1564, at the age of nine.

2 A college order of Ap. 23, 1608, gave permission to an M.A. to dine at the fellows' table, on approval of the fellows, and payment of 20 shillings. This was probably only the formal sanction of what had long been a custom.

3 Even so late as 1733 it was attempted to retain or revive this custom. "All bachelors shall reside at least four months in every year, or be excluded from all prospect of further college preferment" (Gesta, Jan. 23, 1733—4).

bachelors"- —an indication that in those days the students, like the fellows, all stayed to the end of the dinner, and marched out in order.

Lastly came the sizars. They are described by various names: sizatores, mediastini, pauperes scholares, servi. From the nature of their duty, that of waiting' on the fellows, they had no 'table' of their own; and it will be found that a student is never said to be admitted "in commeatum sizatorum.”

They dined on what the fellows left; and their share of the Commencement Money, as intimated already (p. 182), was paid to them individually and not as members of a mess. They were a rather numerous body; some of them being on the foundation, others acting as servants to the fellows. The latter were called private, or 'proper' sizars, -a term which lingered in use in some colleges till quite recently,-as they attended to individual fellows. In the Admission Register it will be seen that they are usually described as being sizars to the master or to such and such a fellow, the relation being a personal one. The former were appointed for the service of the college, and comprised, as I have said (p. 271), the butler and the steward.

A college order of March 29, 1670, throws some light on the status of the sizars at that time. It is agreed "that all the sizars in college, whether they be scholars or not (except those that be proper sizars to the fellows, and keep under them or nigh, for their convenience) do, upon notice given them, leave their chambers for the accommodation of pensioners, and that pensioners and B.A.'s do the same to fellows and fellow-commoners." This gives a good illustration of the subordination of the various ranks. It shows also that, by way of affording aid to poor students, the number of sizars must have been considerably added to, beyond what was needed for actual service; and that a certain number of these had been elected to scholarships, which was an innovation on the ancient practice. I may add that at this time, owing to diminishing numbers and increase of the buildings, most students, perhaps nearly all, had rooms to themselves, instead of living several together.

All this is now a thing of the past, and far removed from modern conventions. It is easy, on the one hand, to say that such a system degraded the student into a servant, and to picture some poor youth burning with indignation at the injustice of his lot. And it is as easy, on the other, to say that it elevated the servant into a student, and to recall the names of some of the famous men to whom such an opening was the first stepping-stone in life. It comes to much the same thing whether we call this treating a fellow-student as a servant, or treating a servant as a fellow-student. And if we lay aside words and look at the facts of the case, no one surely will maintain that the men who do the rough and dirty work to-day are treated with more of the friendliness expected towards an equal than was formerly the case.

1 It appears that by ancient custom, only the three senior of the fellows had this private service allotted to them. By a college order of 1618 (Annals, p. 224) it was decided that, owing to the increased number of fellows, the fourth in seniority should have such a sizar at table; “ut ministrum habeat in mensa communi in adjumentum reliquorum ministrorum."

2 The earliest use I have seen of the word keep, which, as every Cambridge man knows, is still current in the sense of lodge' or 'reside.'

C. III.

18

The fact is that our modern conception of Equality, so far as it applies here, is rather superficial. What is now demanded is, not that there shall be no very poor students in the land but that they shall keep to themselves somewhere else: that all who are ranked as members of the same society, the school or college,―shall freely associate together on tolerably even terms. The whole body of students is regarded as a sort of family or society, in a sense which cannot be predicated of a village, parish, or town; and therefore social distinctions which are right enough in the latter must be avoided in the former. Our forefathers held, with some reason, that the social distinction between the gentleman and the small tradesman was an unquestionable fact of life, manifest from birth to death; why then make such a point of ignoring it in college?

How this difference of feeling has arisen is hard to say; but it is largely due, I suspect, to the growing love of athletics and the increased freedom of the students. These causes tend to throw the members of one college together into a much more coherent body than was formerly the case. In ancient days there was very little of what we now understand when we talk of "college life." There was no boat or cricket club, no musical or debating society, from which the poor butler or steward would find himself excluded by having to stop in the kitchen or buttery in order to examine the joints or weigh out the butter. There is no reason to suppose that the sizar felt especially aggrieved at the inferiority of his own position, when compared with that of the fellow-commoner, simply because they both happened to be living within the same college walls. The difference of rank and wealth was a fact of life which was left unaltered by this temporary proximity. When we try to look at the matter from the point of view of our ancestors, another consideration must be borne in mind. The position of "menial dependence on the part of a youth of the age of a student was not considered as in any way necessarily degrading. Everyone acquainted with the habits of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is aware that it was a common practice for poor relations to be employed in domestic service. And, to take a closer case in point, plenty of the younger sons of the gentry, gentry in the strictest sense of the term, as being included in the Heralds' Visitations, were apprenticed to city merchants. The duties demanded of a young apprentice were, to say the least, as menial as those demanded of a college sizar.

Of course as college life now is, the system stands condemned; and no one would venture to propose its restoration. All that is here maintained is that such condemnation must not be taken as implying that the system was not an excellent one in its day, or that we have any cause to plume ourselves upon our delicate courtesy and refinement in having done away with it.

Some of the steps by which the old order yielded to the new can be traced in the college Gesta: others occurred insensibly. Thus the sizars who held the offices of steward and butler had once personally to inspect the food in the kitchen, and were fined if a bad joint appeared at table. They were exempted from this service in' 1634. All the sizars used at one time to sit down at the fellows' table, where

1 Coll. order, Ap. 29, 1634. It was ordered that some "non-scholaris" should perform the duties "tanquam servus."

they had served, and help themselves to the remains. In 1703 it was agreed "that the sizars do eat their commons in the Hall at a table by themselves, and that they do allow the scholars' servitor twopence a week each for serving them." This does not mark their dispensal from waiting on the fellows. As late as 1728 a stipend of £5 a year was left by Dr Moss, dean of Ely, "for the Master's sizar." In 1745 (Gesta, June 4) their inferior position is marked by their being forbidden to wear the pensioners' gown. By 1767 it is clear that matters had come to a crisis, for a college order was passed (Gesta, July 7) "that the scholars having declined waiting in the Hall; it was agreed to allow the butler £20 per annum, and the remainder of the commons, to provide two servants to wait at the fellows' table at dinner and supper." Again, as regards the sacrista or chapel clerk, though he was not called a sizar he occupied exactly the same position. One of his original duties was to light the candles and ring the bell for the service. In 1797 he was allowed to depute this duty to one of the college servants. He still had, however, to 'mark' the attendance of his fellow-students at the service. In 1820 this obligation also was transferred to the porter.

In the case of our own college the sizars disappeared comparatively early, the latest admission of one being in 1807. They still survive in several other colleges; though, as every trace of the old duties has long been abolished, and they are chosen by competition, they are to all intents and purposes ordinary scholars. The only difference is that the qualification of poverty, once a nearly universal condition for all scholars, is now made an exceptional condition in their case.