A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



remotivi, hired and removable, instead of holding 

 freehold offices, were and are called conducts, 

 10 chapel clerks instead of three, while 13 

 poor youths, scholars, and 13 almsmen had 

 no precursor at Winchester. The increase of 

 chaplains and clerks was to augment the splen- 

 dour of the services. Of the 10 clerks four 

 were to be honest men, of good conduct, skilled in 

 reading, psalming and singing, skilled also in part- 

 singing('etiam cantu organico 24 peritiam habentes') 

 with voices of equal power (' in vocibus similiter 

 bene dispositi '), one of whom at least was to know 

 how to improvise on the organ (jubilare in 

 organis), and he alone of all the clerks of the 

 college, if another could not be had, was allowed 

 to be a married man. The organist in Italy 

 is to this day often a layman, though a cleric 

 is preferred. There was also to be a parish 

 clerk who was able to teach the grammar 

 scholars, and a vestry clerk, each of whom were 

 to receive five marks extra. The tale of ten 

 was made up of four gentlemen clerks (clerici 

 generoii) who were to sit at the first dinner at a 

 gentlemen's table (' in primis refectionibus ad 

 aliquam mensam generosorum ') with the chap- 

 lains, and were to be taught part-singing, their 

 instructor having 6 and three others to have 

 six marks. There were also added 13 poor 

 youths, between 15 and 20 years old at the 

 time of their admission, who were to be taken 

 from the outside scholars (i.e. oppidans) of the 

 college, who were to act as chamber-servants to 

 the provost, fellows, and head master, and to ring 

 the bells, but were also by the instruction of 

 their masters and attendance in the grammar 

 school to render themselves fit in learning to 

 take holy orders, ' for which reason above all we 

 have thought good that they should be admitted 

 to our college royal.' 



The school, the grammar school as it was 

 called, though the main object of the college, 

 only occupies six whole statutes and small por- 

 tions of eight others, out of the total of sixty-two 

 statutes. The bulk of these statutes was occu- 

 pied with the duties of the warden, bursars, 

 fellows, chaplains, and others, the conduct of the 

 church services and the obits for the soul of the 

 founder. 



The provisions for the school differed little 

 from those at Winchester. As there the master 

 teacher (Magister Informator) was the second 

 person in the college, sitting at the upper table 

 in hall above the fellows (except the vice-provost, 



14 Not ' singing to the organ.' The organ was not 

 used with the singing, but between the singing parts, 

 till after the Reformation ; it was played with the foot, 

 and the great object was ' to make a joyful noise 

 before the Lord ' (Jubilare in organis). On the other 

 hand, the organum, still called in Spain canto de organo, 

 an organ being always in the plural organa, is part- 

 singing unaccompanied ; cf. f.C.H. Lines, ii. C. F. 

 Abdy Williams in Musical Times, Feb. 1 907. 



who changed every year), and sitting according 

 to his academical degree in the church ; whence 

 perhaps the custom of becoming D.D. or D.C.L., 

 the latter more common in old days. His 

 stipend was 24 marks or 16 a year, as against 

 10 for the fellows and 30 for the provost. 

 His commons (stat. 1 5) were at the same rate 

 as the fellows', viz., iQd. a week or ^4 6s. 8d. 

 a year ; there being also allowance to the whole 

 table of is. id. on twenty-five days for augmenta- 

 tion. His livery of cloth, which was to be 

 black or dark grey, was 6 yds. at 35. $d. a yd., 

 or i. He might have one of the youths 

 (juvenes) as servant (stat. 10), who was to be 

 found commons and livery by the college, and 

 to receive such wages as the master agreed on 

 with him. The qualifications of the master were 

 simply to be 'sufficiently learned in grammar, 

 having experience of teaching,' with an addition 

 not found in the Winchester statutes, a testi- 

 mony to the growth of the University, and the 

 increased supply of M.A.'s, that he shall be 'a 

 master in arts, if such can be conveniently 

 gotten, by no means married, or beneficed in any 

 college, chapel or church with cure of souls 

 within 7 miles of our college of Eton.' The 

 usher (kostiarius), who, as at Winchester, was 

 only to be 'sufficiently learned in grammar,' 

 without previous experience in teaching, was to 

 have the additional qualification of being un- 

 married, not in holy orders, ' a bachelor of arts if 

 such can be conveniently had.' Master and 

 usher were ' to assiduously instruct and teach the 

 scholars of the said college in grammar, and at- 

 tentively supervise their life and conduct ; 

 punishing the idlers and offenders without par- 

 tiality, with this caution that in chastisement 

 they no way exceed moderation ' a caution 

 which favourably distinguished Wykeham from 

 many previous and later school legislators, who 

 were more anxious to get the boys well flogged 

 than careful to prevent their being too much 

 flogged. As at Winchester, both master and 

 usher were strictly forbidden ' to presume to 

 exact, ask or claim in any way anything from 

 any of the scholars or their parents or friends for 

 their labour about the said scholars bestowed or 

 to be bestowed by reason or occasion of such 

 instruction." In other words, the school was a 

 free grammar school. 



The contemplated pay ot the masters was 

 decidedly on a higher scale than that laid down 

 at Winchester. The provost had ^30 instead 

 of j2o, the master 24 marks (ji6) as against 

 10, and the usher 10 marks as against 5 marks 

 (6 13*. 4-d. instead of 3 6s. 8d.). A similar 

 rise took place in the salary fixed for St. An- 

 thony's School, London, for which statutes were 

 made by Wayneflete and Say in 1447. However, 

 the loss of endowment under Edward IV pre- 

 vented these figures being realized, and the salary 

 of the head master of Eton was in practice only 



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