the College business or property ; many of the deeds
were lost, others were lying about in the fellows' rooms ;
the very chapel utensils had been turned to private use,
and vestments for service were used as bed -coverings.
When he left there was ^600 in the treasury ; at his
return he found but 4t or 5. He had to proceed at
law against Bacon's executors, and against some of the
fellows, to recover what was owing to the College. So
with the buildings : the courts were filthy, the gates in
decay. There is a significant note by him on the first
page of Sheriffe's volume of ' Evidences ' in our library :
' Johannes Caius hunc librum, vetustate dissolutum et
neglectum, colligari fecit cura sua ' atque refici, in
vetustatis memoriam et futuri temporis exempliim.'
We need not confine the application of this statement
to a book ; it applies equally to the entire College.



CHAPTER III

JOHN CAIUS

' Why should I think, lerned Cay, that thou art clearly lost ?
Syth that thy death excells our life, with stormy tempests
tost?

Thou, following the course which God and fortune did thee

send,
In buildings great for sacred Muse thy life and wealth didst

spend :

And with thy learned books the world adorned thou hast,
That fame thou wanst, as virtue's meed, before thy life was

past.'

Contemporary Memorial Sheet.

IN the year 1529, on September 12, a very small and
studious youth made his appearance in Gonville Hall.
He is found in our contemporary records under many
variations of name ; of the ten forms which have been
noticed, perhaps that of John Kees was the most
familiar at first. But once in college, Latin had to be
used, and he soon became known in Cambridge and in
the world outside as Cams.* He is almost as hard to

* It was only the spelling that was altered ; that is, the familiar
pronunciation, ' Keys,' is not, as often supposed, a peculiar rendering
of the Latin name Caius, but the retention unaltered of the sound by
which he had always been known when alluded to in English.



46 CAIUS COLLEGE

fit into human relationships as Melchizedec. We know
that he was born in Norwich, October 6, 1510, and
that his father's name was Robert and his mother's
Alice (Wodanell). So much he tells us himself. All
else that we know of his connections is that he had
a sister, married name unknown, who died in great
poverty shortly before his own death. There is also
strong reason to believe that, though born in Norwich,
he was of Yorkshire extraction. But his long and
minute will does not contain a hint at any human
relationship.

He was from the first a hard student; was soon
elected to one of the four scholarships then in existence
at Gonville Hall, and graduated in 1533 as B.A. It
would be an anachronism to call him Senior Wrangler
of his year; but his name certainly stands first in
that MS. list which in after-years gradually developed
into the famous Mathematical Tripos, and there can be
little doubt that the assignment of such a place already
denoted considerable distinction in the studies and
exercises then demanded. He was elected to a fellow-
ship December 6, 1533. He tells us that his main
interest, when a student, lay in the direction of
theology; not improbably he had looked forward to
the priesthood, and was diverted to medicine by his
want of sympathy with the new doctrines then so
strongly characteristic of the College. He remained,
so far as we know, a Roman Catholic, but a somewhat
liberal one, till his death. He was a diligent student
from the first in Greek and Hebrew, Erasmus, it
must be remembered, had been recently reviving the
study of Greek in Cambridge, and employed himself



JOHN CAIUS 47

in translating Chrysostom and other Fathers. In our
library is a Hebrew Testament with some notes at the
beginning, written by him, in which he says : ' Caius,
juvenis adhuc, et Hebraicae linguae studiosus, Canta-
brigiae scripsit." 1

But he seems to have made up his mind before long
that the career to which he was most fitted was that of
medicine, and in 1539 he started for Padua to pursue
his studies there. That University was already illus-
trious in science, and long continued so, as the remark-
able roll of foreign students clearly shows. The great
anatomist Vesalius was then one of the professors, and
with him young Caius soon formed acquaintance,
being for some months his fellow-lodger in the town.
Another teacher whom he highly praises was J. B.
Montanus. He graduated as M.D. May 13, 1541 : it
is an illustration of his care in the preservation of
records that he has left us his diploma for this degree,
which is now in our treasury. About the same time
he was appointed a Professor at Padua a rare thing
for a foreigner, and perhaps unique for an Englishman.
His professional subject has sometimes been called
Greek, but this is hardly correct. What he did was
to lecture on the philosophy and logic of Aristotle in
the original language.

In July, 1543, he left Padua, and, after a short time
of study at Florence and at Pisa, proceeded to make a
tour through Italy. At every place which he visited
he diligently searched the libraries, being always on the
look-out for ancient MSS., especially those of Galen
and Hippocrates. He made a large collection of these,
most of which he bequeathed to our College. He re-



48 CAIUS COLLEGE

turned to England about 1545 by way of Switzerland,
Germany, and Holland. Wherever he went he seems
to have been cordially received in learned circles ; one
of the most intimate friendships of his life was that
of Conrad Gesner, the celebrated naturalist, of Basle,
whose acquaintance he made on this occasion.

On returning to England he devoted himself to
medical practice. His whole professional life, so far
as we know, was spent in London, with occasional visits
to important patients in the country. There are
traditions of his having practised at Norwich and at
Cambridge, but these reports are quite unsupported.
It is true that he was for some time at Shrewsbury
during a terrible outbreak of the sweating sickness, but
the terms he uses as to his presence there suggest a visit
rather than a residence in the town. In London his
principal sphere of activity was in connection with the
College of Physicians. To the interests of this society
he was heartily devoted ; he vigorously supported their
privileges against the Barber- surgeons, and in many
ways aided them with his advice and with various gifts.
He was chosen President in 1555, and on eight subse-
quent occasions.

Though in some respects old-fashioned in his views,
and filled with the profoundest reverence for whatever
Galen and Hippocrates had taught, he had evidently
learnt much from Vesalius. Though his name is not
identified with any discovery, he made one great con-
tribution to the cause of scientific progress. This was
by his lectures and demonstrations in anatomy at the
hall of the Barber-surgeons, which he seems to have
commenced soon after his return from Italy. These



JOHN CAIUS 49

lectures are thus referred to by a contemporary (Dr.
Bulleyn) : ' Whereas through the learned lectures and
the secret anathomies by and through the learned
doctor, M. John Kaius, revelling . . . the hidden jewels
and precious treasures of Galenus, showing himself to be
a second Linacre.' The lines on his portrait in our
hall * Qui lucem dedit et solatia magna chirurgis, ut
scirent partes Anatomia tuas ' doubtless refer to these
lectures.

During these years he lived in St. BartholomewV
the-Less, the whole parish has now been absorbed into
the Hospital, in a house which he retained until his
death. We get a queer glimpse into his recluse
habits in a letter from Parkhurst, afterwards Bishop
of Norwich, to Caius 1 great friend Gesner. At Gesner's
instigation Parkhurst had endeavoured to pay him a
visit, with the following result :

' As soon as I came to London I sought out your friend
Caius, that I might give him your letter, and as he was
from home I delivered it to his maid-servant, for he has
no wife nor ever had one. Not a week passes in which I
do not go to his house two or three times. I knock at
the door ; a girl answers the knock, but without opening
the door. Peeping through a crevice, she asks me what I
want. I ask in reply, Where is her master ? Whether
he is ever at home, or means to be ? She always denies
him to be in the house. He seems to be everywhere and
nowhere, and is now abroad, so that I do not know what
to write about him.'

It must have been during his years of busy activity
in London that he formed the design of enlarging what
he pathetically describes as ' that pore house now called

4



50 CAIUS COLLEGE

Gonville Halle/ We have several letters from him on
the subject, written to Mr. Bacon, the Master of the
College, in June, 1557. It is curious that at first he
gives no hint that it was he who was to be the bene-
factor. He speaks mysteriously of a friend who is
prepared largely to endow the old foundation. Of
course the truth soon came out, but the fellows at the
time, and particularly the Master, seem to have been so
selfish or sluggish as to make but a slight response to
his proposals. When he came to apply to the Queen
(Mary) for a license and charter, he made a rather
serious discovery. It turned out that the College had
never been legally incorporated, and that, therefore,
not being able to sue or be sued, all their corporate acts,
from the days of Bateman, were in strict law invalid.
This difficulty, however, was surmounted in time, and
on September 4, 1557, he duly obtained his charter of
foundation and confirmation. He took the deepest
personal interest in all the details of the transaction,
being careful, amongst other things, in superintending
the making of a new corporate seal, in place of the
ancient one of Gonville or of Bateman.

By the new charter the College was not only put on
a secure legal footing, but its revenues were largely in-
creased approximately doubled. The ancient name of
Gonville Hall was changed to that of Gonville and
Caius College, and a license in mortmain secured. He
also undertook to found new fellowships and scholar-
ships, three of the former and twenty of the latter
being due to him. In order to provide funds for this
purpose he forthwith, during his life, we must re-
member, and whilst in hard practice, endowed the



JOHN CAIUS 51

College with three valuable manors : those of Croxley,
near Rickmansworth, and of Runcton Holme and Burn-
ham Wyndhams in Norfolk. These, it may be re-
marked, had all been monastic property, belonging
respectively to St. Albans, to Bury, and to Wymond-
ham. They were bought of the Queen.

Dr. Caius now came down to Cambridge, to pay what
was probably his first visit since he had started as a
young man on his journey to Italy. He came, as we
should now say, to 'open' his new College. But the
visit must have been somewhat of a disappointment.
He has left it on record how he found everything
changed, and changed for the worse, since his day.
He missed the stately dignity which he remembered,
or thought he remembered, on the part of the seniors,
and the deference to age and authority which once
marked the attitude of the juniors. In old days the
disputations in the schools were carried on with the
ceremony of a court : from Doctors downwards the
attendants went in solemn procession, headed by the
bedells, each clothed in his appropriate robes. But
now the ancient state and pomp were gone. He knew
no one, he tells us, and no one knew him. Evidently
he felt that the President of the College in London, the
physician to the Queen, the founder of what was almost
a new college, was not received as he ought to have
been.

So far, however, as Caius himself was concerned on
this occasion there was no lack of ceremonial. As a
pious man he duly celebrated his new foundation with
a solemn religious service; and as an Englishman he
added to this a sumptuous feast. He has given an

42



52 CAIUS COLLEGE

account of the whole proceedings in his Annals. On
the Feast of the Virgin (March 25, 1558) he marched
in solemn state from his room to the chapel, preceded
by four servitors and followed by the Fellows and
scholars, walking two and two. There they placed
before him a cushion to kneel upon; a caduceus, or
silver rod (preserved with our plate) ; a desk ; and a
large silver salver. Kneeling before the high altar,
it was still under the reign of Mary, Mass was per-
formed with full musical ritual. Caius then handed
what he called the emblems namely, the caduceus,
cushion, salver, and a book of statutes to the cele-
brating priest, with the words, ' We offer these to God,
to the Blessed Virgin, and to our Society." The priest
received them, and placed them on the altar. The
service over, they returned in like solemn state to
Caius 1 room, four servitors marching first, each carrying
one of the articles which had just been dedicated.

Later in the day followed the feast, which Caius
provided at his own cost. Of all the many functions
of which our ancient Hall was the scene, surely this
must have been the most impressive. The Vice-
Chancellor attended, together with all the most
prominent members of the University, and two repre-
sentatives from each of the colleges then existent. The
repast being over, the four servitors again made their
appearance, bearing the emblems which had been
dedicated, and set them on the table. Then Caius
arose, and briefly expounded the nature of his founda-
tion, and announced to the Master, Mr. Bacon, who sat
opposite, that the charter appointed him Head of the
newly-enlarged College. Then he handed over to the



JOHN CAIUS 53

Master the several symbols or emblems. First the
cushion, with the words, ' We give thee the Cushion
of Reverence ' ; then the wand, or caduceus, with the
words, 'We give thee the Rod of Prudent Governance';
then the book of statutes, saying, * We give thee the
Book of Knowledge, that thou and those who follow
after thee may understand that it is by knowledge and
prudent counsel that this College stands, and shall
stand. 1 Finally he handed over the salver, as he said,
' We give to the College and the Society this silver
vessel, with thereon the Letters Patent and Charter of
Foundation. . . . And thus we create and appoint thee
perpetual Master or keeper of this College, for the
furtherance of virtue, letters, and honest and gentle
manners.' The symbols being removed, he solemnly
invoked all happiness for the College, and so finished
his discourse. Then merriment ensued, and spiced wine,
spikenard, and various after-dinner dainties made their
appearance ; and so the feast came to a close. Before
they parted, however, the Vice-Chancellor, very suitably,
in the name of the whole University, offered Caius the
degree of M.D. in gratitude for his beneficent founda-
tion. This was conferred on the following Friday,
April 1, 1558.

This love of symbolism was a very marked charac-
teristic in Caius, and displays itself on many occasions.
For instance, in his coat of arms, evidently designed by
himself, the above emblems are again referred to. He
thus explains the well-known design of the serpents,
book, etc. :

' All these marks or signs of virtue are so inscribed on a
shield that the two serpents with their tails entwined stand



54 CAIUS COLLEGE

erect amongst the amaranths, and, leaning against the
square stone of virtue, with their breasts sustain the book
and with their heads the sempervivum. To the shield
succeeds a helmet, and to the helmet a dove, supporting
a flower of amaranth, by which it may be known that
knowledge is rendered acceptable by simple-hearted
wisdom. By these symbols he desired to intimate to the
members of his College that Letters and Prudence being
strengthened by the stone of virtue, they might thus arrive
at immortality. In order that they might always have
these symbols before their eyes, he was careful to have
them portrayed by pencil, and called them the symbols of
virtue.'

After this brief visit, lasting only a few days at most,
Caius took his departure, and returned to his London
home. Acts of beneficence such as his are rare at any
time, but a gift like this, made in the midst of active
professional work, and by a man still in the prime of
life, must be almost unique. Apparently he had no
other view at this time than to continue his toil as a
medical man to the end of his life. Fortunately,
however, events were otherwise disposed. Bacon, the
negligent and incompetent master, only lived for a
few months after this, dying at Chelsfield in Kent,
January 1, 1558-9. The thoughts of the fellows not
unnaturally turned towards their new benefactor, who
alone seemed likely to be able to extricate them from
their difficulties. He was accordingly elected Master,
January 24, 1558-9. What was the condition, materially
and financially, of the College at this time we have
already seen. He was himself very unwilling to accept
the post, partly because he considered that the Master



JOHN CAIUS 55

should by preference be a theologian, and partly be-
cause his own professional work would entail long
absence from college.

Now began a very troubled and not very dignified
phase of his career. Splendid as were his services to
education, and keenly as he interested himself in every
direction in the past history and future fortunes of his
College, his domestic rule there was far from being
successful. Several causes contributed to this result.
The Master, though not old, as we should now reckon,
he was only forty-seven when he accepted the post,
was prematurely aged, of somewhat feeble health, and
apparently of gloomy and irritable constitution. He
was a fervent admirer of the past, and had little sym-
pathy for new views, whether religious, political, or
educational. There is reason to believe that he never
ceased to be at heart a decided Roman Catholic. On
the other hand, the fellows were mostly of the new way
of thinking, not only Puritans, but apparently narrow-
minded and bitter in spirit. Not one of them achieved
any distinction in after-life. They were also very
young ; it is often overlooked how youthful the resi-
dents in college generally were in those days. Not one
of the Fellows seems to have been over twenty-four at
the time when the quarrel was at its height, and several
of them were considerably younger. Between two such
parties disputes were bound to spring up, and there
were many influences outside which tended to aggravate
and embitter their differences.

What were the particular offences of the fellows
during the quarrel does not appear. It was probably
their general way of thinking, their indisposition to



56 CAIUS COLLEGE

study on the old lines, and their refractory disposition
towards himself, that so irritated their Head. He, on
his side, was prompt and active enough in his dealings
with his subordinates. He just expelled them one
after another, and some of them he seems to have
placed in the stocks. The reader need not be startled
by this last act, as if an arbitrary outrage had neces-
sarily been committed. The stocks were a part of the
furniture of a college hall in those days, and to be set
in them for a time was the appropriate punishment for
the graver offences of the ' adult,' whether student,
bachelor, or Fellow, just as flogging was resorted to for
the boys. After the dispute had raged for some time,
the Chancellor was appealed to by the Fellows. They
conclude their petition by the request that

'our master may be ruled by sume good mans councell
herafter, and not to dryve the fellows to such chargable
suts and troubles wherein he delyteth to undoe pore men ;
he never beyng quiet since he came to the colledge, as
maye appeare in the number of his expulsions which have
ben above twentie, with an infinite number of injuries to
the old founders and benefactors and their fellowes, which
is well knowen to the hole Universitie.'

This is dated January 7, 1566, just eight years after
Caius 1 return to college.

The matter seems to have been referred to Arch-
bishop Parker, who gives a very reasonable judgment,
holding that neither party was free from blame : ' The
truth is both parties are not excusable from folye." In
the Master he finds ' overmoche rashness for expelling
felowes so sodenly. 1 As to the Fellows he speaks out
his mind more fully :



JOHN CAIUS 57

'Suerly the contemptuouse behaviour of these felowes
hath moch provoked hym. The truth is I do rather beare
with the oversight of the Master in respect of his good
done, and like to be done in the College by him, than
with the brag of a fond sort of troublouse factiouse bodyes.
Founders and benefactors be very rare in these dayes. . . .
Scholars controversies be nowe many and troublouse, and
their delite is to come before men of authoritye to shewe
their witts. . . . My olde experyence hath taught me to
spye daye light at a smal hole.'

The general conclusion of the Chancellor was to the
effect that the expulsions should be confirmed, but a
hint was given to the Master to be more cautious and
gentle in future.

There seems little doubt that the dispute was at
bottom mainly a religious one, the Fellows having the
support of the Puritan leaders outside. This is con-
firmed by a long catalogue of complaints in a MS. at
Lambeth Library, headed ' Articles concerning the
preposterous government of Dr. Caius, and his wicked
abuses in Gonevill and Caius Col ledge ' It is not
signed or dated, but is evidently written or inspired by
the hostile party amongst the Fellows. The complaints,
which are numerous, deal almost exclusively with re-
ligious matters. For instance,

' He mainteyneth wythin his colledge copes, vestments,
albes, crosses, tapers, . . . with all massinge abominations,
and termeth them the colledge treasure. He hath erected
and sett up of late a crucifix and other idoles with the
image of a doctor kneeling before them/

with much more to the same effect. We shall see what
the Fellows, after biding their time, did with these



58 CAIUS COLLEGE

4 massing abominations^ when they got their oppor-
tunity a few years later.

It is a relief to turn from the details of this bitter
and undignified quarrel, and to see the great doctor
under another aspect. During all this time he was
busily at work designing and carrying out those archi-
tectural additions which, though some of them have
been unfortunately destroyed, now give to our buildings
their principal interest. He must have seen from the
first that the best direction for immediate expansion
was towards the south, over what is now the Caius
Court ; one advantage of this was that access would be
secured directly to the schools instead of by a circuitous
route from Trinity Lane. Part of this area had long
belonged to the College, but was only treated as garden
ground. What Caius now did was to purchase from
Trinity College nearly the whole area of our existent
Tree Court, so that the College came into possession of
its present area, with the exception of a small plot
at the south-east corner, where the Gate Tower now
stands. This last they did not acquire until 1782.
There were a number of town houses on the new
ground, facing Trinity Lane; these he left standing,
pending still further additions to the College buildings.

These purchases were made in 1563. He then pro-
ceeded at once to set about his own new buildings,
which introduced so new and distinctive a style into
Cambridge, and, we might almost say, into England. It
may be mentioned here as a curious fact that, utterly
distinct as was the collegiate ideal from the monastic,
almost every college is somehow connected with a
previous monastery. Either it is a converted monastic



JOHN CAIUS 59

building, like Jesus, or built on the ground where one
had previously stood, like Sidney or Emmanuel ; or
constructed out of the materials of one, or in some
other way connected with such a foundation. Our
College is no exception. Not only, as we have already
seen, was Anglesey Abbey the original landlord of our
ground, but our Caius Court is built out of the ruined
materials of Ramsey Abbey. As is well known, there
are no stone quarries near Cambridge. The ruins of
the great Priory of Barnwell had already been largely
used in the building of Trinity, but at Ramsey, in
Huntingdonshire, with easy access by water, Caius
found what he wanted. He bought of Henry Crom-
well, grandfather of the Protector, ' all that his heap of
stone which lyeth in the cross aisle of the Church of the