An Unholy Alliance (45 page)

Bartholomew stopped to buy some over-ripe pears from a scruffy child, and shared them with Michael as they walked. As they turned down St Michael’s Lane, they met Master Kenyngham going in the opposite direction.

‘The Chancellor told me he is very grateful for your help over these last few days,’ he said, beaming benignly at them. ‘He has asked me to read over his account of it to ensure that it is accurate.’

‘His account? Why would he write an account?’ said Bartholomew.

‘For the book of the University history,’ said the Master, surprised at his question.

‘But de Wetherset burned the book,’ said Michael.

‘He showed us.’

‘He burned the one in the University chest,’ said Kenyngham, ‘but there is a complete copy in the chest at the Carmelite Friary - one that is not missing the pages that Gilbert stole. Of course, there are duplicates of most documents there.’

‘And he is keeping that book up to date?’ asked

Michael incredulously.

‘Well, of course,’ said Kenyngham. “It would be of no use to anyone incomplete.’ He suddenly stood back, putting his hands over his mouth like a child. “I do hope I have not been indiscreet. The Chancellor told me to keep its presence secret, but I assumed you would know, since you have been involved with the affair during the last two weeks. Oh, dear!’

‘The Bishop told me there was a second chest,’ said Michael. ‘You have not told us anything we did not already guess.’

Kenyngham looked relieved, and his habitual gentle smile returned. He patted Michael on the arm and went on his way. When he had turned the corner, Bartholomew started to laugh.

‘What is so funny?’ said Michael. ‘We have just learned that the Chancellor has deceived us yet again. He withheld important facts from us about members of the University; he hid vital pages when I was trying to discover a motive for the friar’s death; and now he has claimed to have burned the book while all the time there is another!’

‘Yes,’ said Bartholomew. ‘But how can you fail to admire his guile? He not only misleads us into believing that he had burned the only copy of the book, but he is using our own Master to check his facts!’

Michael laughed too, and took his arm. ‘Come on, Matt. Let’s go home.’

Historical wore

In 1350 Cambridge, like the rest of England, was still reeling under the impact of the Black Death. It is not known how many people died: social historians estimate that between one third and one half of the population of Europe perished between 1348 and 1350.

The consequences of this high mortality rate have been argued for many years - some historians have suggested that the full impact of the massive population drop was notfully felt until the subsequentplagues in the 1360s and 130s, while others argue that the effect was devastating and immediate.

Neither the University of Oxford nor the University of Cambridge left contemporary accounts of the

Black Death, and so we cannot be certain how the academic communities dealt with the catastrophe and its aftermath.

Contemporary records tell that in Cambridge all

members of the Dominican Friary died, while the monks at Barnwell Priory lost half their number. This abrupt decline in the number of clergy meant that there was a serious shortage of priests willing and able to work in the community. In 1349 the Bishop of Bath and Wells wrote to the clergy of his diocese to instruct them that confessions might be made to a layman if a priest was unavailable. In the same year the Archbishop of York wrote to his brother and bemoaned a lack of secular priests. Churches fell into disuse and were decommissioned, or closed up to await the time when they had a congregation again. And a few people, bereft of clergy, began to turn to other forms of worship.

In 1350 Thomas Kenyngham was the Master of

Michaelhouse; Richard de Wetherset was Chancellor of the University of Cambridge (Richard Harling

succeeded him in 1351); and Richard Tulyet was

Mayor of Cambridge six times between 133 and

1346. Guilds were an important part of medieval life, some taking the form of trade associations, while others were predominantly religious. The Guild of the Holy Trinity and the Guild of Purification existed in medieval Cambridge.

Important documents were kept in the tower of St Mary’s Church until 1400. After 1400 Colleges began to build their own towers, and took responsibility for their own muniments. Some of these can still be seen today in Christ’s College, where a narrow staircase leads to a chamber in the gate tower, where precious documents are still stored in heavy oak, iron-bound chests. The great chest at St Mary’s was seized by rioting townspeople in 1381, and all the documents burned. A similar chest at the Carmelite Friary was also destroyed. Today, general University funding is still referred to as ‘the University Chest’, recalling a time when valuables really were kept in a strong-box.

Michaelhouse was founded in 1324 by Hervey de

Stanton, who was Edward IFs Chancellor of the Exchequer.

King’s Hall was endowed in 133, and was a

powerful institution with 32 Fellows. Physwick Hostel was a small institution which was a dependency of Gonville Hall. In 1546, Henry VIII founded Trinity College, and the buildings and lands of Michaelhouse, King’s Hall, and Physwick Hostel went to make up the new institution. No parts of Michaelhouse survive, but Trinity’s Great Gate dates from 1520, and was part of King’s Hall.

Finally, the Stourbridge Fair was one of the most important trade gatherings in medieval England, taking place each year between August and September. The licence to hold the Fair was granted by King John to the leper hospital of St Mary Magdalene. Although the hospital ceased to exist in 129, the Fair continued to grow and is Bunyon’s ‘Vanity Fair’ in Pilgrim’s Progress. It began to decline at the end of the 19th century, and finally died away in the early 1930s.

The End.