Note 63 — Chapter I · THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

Clerk and scholar were used interchangeably in the xiii c. as they are in these two rescripts, clericus being employed in the rescript of 1218 and in that addressed to the sheriff (vicecomes) of the county cited above: Quoniam ut audivimus plures nominantur clerici apud Cantabr. qui sub nullius magistri scholarum sunt disciplina et tuitione, sed potius mentiuntur se esse scholares cum non sint.... In a further rescript of the king’s the meaning is no less clear: Ita tamen quod ad suspensionem vel mutilationem clericorum non procedatis, sed eos alio modo per consilium universitatis Cantabr. castigetis. (Referring to “insults recently offered to certain northern scholars of the university of Cambridge,” 1261.) In the Hundred Rolls, at the same period, we have clerici de Merton and scholares de Merton; and clerici in scholis degentes is W. de Merton’s own description of his scholars.