Susanna GREGORY: A Masterly Murder

‘Kenyngham is a saint, putting up with students like that year after year,’ said William, returning to his place near the fire. ‘Disgraceful behaviour! Well, I want none of it.’

‘Is this your way of saying that you will not stand as Runham’s replacement?’ demanded Langelee with keen interest.

‘It is,’ said William firmly. ‘I do not want to become embroiled in plans to raise buildings we do not need, nor do I want to be smothered with cushions by discontented colleagues.’

‘That does not trouble me,’ said Langelee eagerly. ‘I will do it.’

‘Then you have my vote,’ said William in disgust.

‘Wait,’ began Michael in alarm.

‘And mine,’ said Kenyngham tiredly. ‘I am just grateful to pass the responsibility to someone else. I have no stomach for this kind of thing, either.’

‘No!’ cried Michael, struggling to heave his bulk out of his chair so that he could protest more vigorously.

‘I will vote for you, Langelee,’ said Clippesby shyly. ‘I do not like Franciscans, such as Father William, but I will vote for you.’

‘But …’ spluttered Michael, horror making him uncharacteristically inarticulate.

‘Good,’ said Langelee, rubbing his hands. ‘I am elected, then. We do not need the real Master Suttone, because technically he is not a Fellow yet, given that it was his impersonator who was admitted. Paul has resigned, so we cannot ask him. That only leaves Michael and Bartholomew – and since I have three votes already, what they think is irrelevant.’

‘Oh, my God!’ breathed Michael in horror. ‘He has done it! Langelee is our next Master.’

MICHAELHOUSE WAS FOUNDED BY A WEALTHY lawyer called Hervey de Stanton in 1324. After his death, Stanton’s will provided funds for his College to purchase a house that became known as Ovyng Hostel, among other properties, and he left the scholars a collection of church silver, including a thurible. He also drafted a set of statutes, which were read aloud to any prospective Fellow, who was then obliged to swear to abide by them and exchange a kiss of peace with his new colleagues. Some of these statutes, translated from the original Latin, are the ones Kenyngham read to Suttone and Clippesby.

By 1353 Thomas Kenyngham had stopped being Master of Michaelhouse, although the records do not say why. However, he is mentioned in documents dating to the foundation, so he was no longer a young man: it is likely that he either died or resigned. The next Master in the records is John Runham, who was succeeded in 1353 by a man called Ralph de Langelee. Again, the records do not say why Runham ceased to be Master.

In 1353 Michaelhouse was engaged in buying some land, and the eventual purchase was made in the names of Ralph de Langelee, Thomas Suttone and John Clippesby, all of whom were Michaelhouse Fellows.

Nothing remains of Bartholomew’s Michaelhouse today. The foundations of a later hall are buried under the handsome eighteenth-century block called the Essex Building in Trinity College’s Great Court. St Michael’s Church, rebuilt by Stanton when he founded Michaelhouse, still stands on what was once called the High Street, but is now Trinity Street. A scheme was launched in March 1999 to restore it as a community centre for the University and the people of Cambridge, and to call it Michaelhouse.

Michaelhouse, like many of the other Colleges, operated a system of ‘hutches’, whereby students were loaned cash in return for a pledge of equivalent value. Some of these were solely for the use of students, others for the use of Fellows. Their contents were sacrosanct, and for any master to borrow from them illegally would have been considered a dreadful breach of trust.

Bene’t College – or the College of St Mary and Corpus Christi, to give it its full official title – was founded in 1350 with generous donations from two town guilds: St Mary and Corpus Christi. For many years the institution was known as Bene’t College, because it was close to the Saxon church of St Benedict (usually abbreviated to Bene’t), although it is called Corpus Christi today. The first Master was a man named Thomas Heltisle (or Eltisley) and the first two Fellows to be admitted were Thomas Caumpes and John Raysoun. John Wymundham was appointed as the College chaplain.

Bene’t College had some powerful and wealthy patrons. Among those who appear in the benefactors’ list in the 1350s was the Duke of Lancaster. His squire, a man with the odd name of Simekyn Simeon, was also mentioned as helping the College in 1350, along with one Henry de Walton. College records tell that two of the carpenters employed to build Bene’t College were called Robert de Blaston and Adam de Newenham.

In the town, Henry de Tangmer was a wealthy merchant and a burgess, who was also in the Guild of Corpus Christi, while William Horwoode was a member of the Guild of St Mary, and town Mayor. The Tulyet (or Tuillet) family were a powerful force in the town and were burgesses and mayors throughout the fourteenth century.

Meanwhile, one of Oxford’s most famous thinkers in the fourteenth century was a nominalist called William Heytesbury, who was a member of Merton College. His texts on philosophy were well known in contemporary universities, and were still in use in the fifteenth century. Heytesbury’s best-known work was Regulae Solvendi Sophismata , in which he lent vague support to the controversial scholar William of Occam (of razor fame).