Introduction

With the De mora statute the Founder could regard his work as complete. There were no further additions or alterations to the statutes in his time. But matters of detail could of course be regulated by order of the Master and Fellows, and at the beginning of the first College orderbook (E.C.A., COL. 14.1) we find several pages of such regulations dated 10 December 1588. These are of much interest, both for the picture they give of daily life in the College, and for the detailed arrangements agreed upon for ‘mutuall conference or communication of gifts among students in Divinity’.

All these orders, printed below, were passed after experience of the first few years' running of the College. To the three Fellows initially appointed in 15 84 (Charles Chadwick from Christ's, William Jones and Laurence Pickering from Clare) four more had been added in 1585 (John Cock and Nathaniel Gilby from Christ's, William Branthwaite and John Richardson from Clare), another two (William Bright from Christ's and John Gray from Queens') in 1587, and a further three (John Duke, Richard Rolfe, and Robert Houghton) in 1588, thus bringing the total up to twelve as envisaged in chapter 39 (cf. notes on chapter 11 above). The last three, Duke, Rolfe, and Houghton, had been among the original Scholars at Emmanuel itself: the College had now duly proved itself viable as a self-perpetuating establishment. It was thus an appropriate time to review any regulations or practices that had developed. Whether their codification was carried out at the Founder's behest, we do not know; but it is possible.