II I
EXETER COLLEGE.
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very many documents connected with the management
of the West of England addressed to him by the
King. He accompanied Prince Edward to France,
9th Sept., 1325, when the Prince went to do homage
for Guienne, and he probably saw enough to con-
vince him that Queen Isabella was subtly plotting
against her husband. When the Revolution broke
out against Edward II., the bishop was left by the
King, 2 Oct., 1326, in charge of London, but was
murdered in Cheapside on the 15th of the same month.
The Hishop of Exeter, riding towards his inn or hotel
in Eldedeanes-Lane for dinner, encountered the mob,
and hearing them shout ' traitor ' he rode rapidly to
S. Paul's for sanctuary, but was unhorsed and taken
to Cheapside, stript and beheaded. William Walle
(his nephew) and John Padyngton the bishop's steward,
met with the same fate. About the hour of vespers
the same day, 15th October, the choir of S. Paul's
took up the headless body of the prelate and conveyed
it to S. Paul's but, on being informed that he died
under sentence, the body was brought to S. Clement
beyond the Temple, but was ejected, so that the
naked corpse, with a rag given by the charity of a
woman, was laid on a spot called ' Le Lawles Chirche '
and, without any grave, lay there with those of his
two esquires, without office of priest or clerk. " Such
is the account given by the French ' chronicle ' of
London (Camden Society, 1844, p. 52) ....
His remains were buried in S. Clement Danes ; one
account, however, adds that they were transferred to
Exeter cathedral, 28th March, 1327. The present
epitaph on his monument was composed by John
Hoker in Elizabeth's reign, 1568, and put up at the
expense of bishop Alley ; it has been repaired several
times. His house, Exeter Inn, near Temple Bar,
was sacked by the mob, his books — including his
' Libri Pontificates ' — destroyed . . His inventory
shows that he possessed books valued at ^201 ioj. 61/.
which treated chiefly of scripture and canon law,
with a few historical works such as the letters of
Frederick II. and Peter de Vineis. He had pre-
viously given to the cathedral library a ' Calholicoii,'
beginning with the words ' Temporum summa ' valued
at £$, and the Chronicles of Westminster, ' De gestis
Anglorum,' valued at ^1 6s. 8rf.
Stapeldon's Statutes bear date 24th April, 1316, when they were accepted by the Rector and Scholars, who were then in possession of Stapeldon Hall. By these statutes there were to be thirteen Scholars {i.e. Fellows), twelve studying philosophy and the thir- teenth, a priest and chaplain, studying scripture or canon Law. Eight of the twelve were to be from Devon, four from the Archdeaconry of Cornwall, either born in the diocese or settled there. The chaplain was to be appointed by the Chapter of Exeter and, if he should be declared unfit by two-thirds of the fellows, the Chapter was to appoint another. He was to celebrate and say the services, and manage the choir. Candidates for fellowships were to be at least sophists, i.e. students in arts. They were to 'determine as B. .4. 'within six years; to determine meant disputing in the schools the Lent following the degree of Bachelor. Within four years of that time, or at least in the summer term next after the end of four years, they had to ' incept ' as M.A. Then they were to 'read' i.e. lecture two years, and after one year more vacate the fellowship within fifteen days. The fellowships were, therefore, at the outside only tenable for rather less than fourteen years. They also ceased as soon as a fellow inherited or obtained sixty
shillings a year or any ecclesiastical benefice ; and any
one absenting himself five months in the year, or
refusing to take the office of Rector, also lost his
fellowship. The Rector was elected annually at the
beginning of October, after the annual audit had taken
place ; the previous Rector was re-eligible, and was
not unfrequently re-elected once Or twice. He looked
after the money, rooms, and servants, but if any two
fellows demanded the removal of a servant, the Rector
was to appoint another in his place. Fellows were
to be elected ' without any regard to favour, fear, re-
lationship or love, the electors naming those whom
they believed to be the apter to learn, better in cha-
racter, and poorer in means, or at least those who
best come up to these three conditions. ' The fellows
were bound to dispute twice a week, but questions of
natural science were to take the place of logic every
third time. While sophists or bachelors the fellows
were also to read ' abstracciones, obligationes, cyntha-
tegumeta, circa signa ' (?). The statutes of Exeter
College do not go into such minute detail as those of
many other colleges, e.g., at Queen's, in 1340, the use
of musical instruments is forbidden because they lead
to levity and distract men from their studies.
The regard paid to comparative poverty brought forward some valuable men. Such, for instance, was Walter Lihert, the miller's son from Lanteglos-by- Fowey in Cornwall, who, after being fellow of Exeter, became Bishop of Norwich and built the sculptured roof of the cathedral ; he supported in his troubles Reginald Pecock, Bishop of Chichester, the author of ' The Repressor of over much blaming of the Clergy,' whom he had probably known when Reginald taught in one of the schools in School-street belonging to Exeter College. Similarly, long afterwards, John Prideaux, fellow in 1601, Rector 1612, used to say, 1 If I could have been parish clerk of Ugborough, I should never have been Bishop of Worcester ; ' on his failing to become parish clerk, he had been advised to come as a poor scholar to the University. Benjamin Kennicott was master of a charity school at Totnes till, by the assistance of some friends, he was able to enter the University, where he became a distinguished Hebrew scholar. Still later, William Gifford, after being first a cabin-boy and then an apprentice to a shoemaker at Ashburton, was helped to go to Exeter College by a local surgeon, and gained a bible clerk- ship. This assisted him to complete the education which enabled him to take a leading position in the literary and political world. He remembered his own rise in life, and founded the Gifford exhibition at Exeter College for poor boys from Ashburton school.
T he fellows had their rooms free, and the rent of Hart Hall, about £2 a year, was devoted to keeping their rooms in repair. They had also an annual payment of ten shillings a year each, the Rector and Chaplain receiving double. Each fellow was also allowed ten pence a week for his 'commons,' but a proportion was deducted for each day that a fellow was absent, and so of his yearly allowance if he was absent for more than four weeks in the year. We also find a sum of 3-r. \d. allowed for ' visiting friends ' ; and some clothes (liveries) were supplied apparently once in three years. In 1544 the arrangement about liveries is as follows : on the feast of All Saints every third year each fellow who is M.A. is to receive 20r., each B.A. \6s. 8d. , others 13.C 4//., subject, how- ever, to the rule that ^20 at least shall always be reserved in the college chest ; at the same time an improvement was made in the commons, especially in what were called ' thirteen penny commons,' i.e. on
