livings if a vacancy occurred. Many of the
Fellows also held benefices or curacies near Cambridge. In the
eighteenth century the business of holding ecclesiastical preferment in
plurality became almost a fine art; thus Sir Isaac Pennington, who was
President of the College and Regius Professor of Physic, left to the
College by his will a fund to provide the sum of L200 a year for the
Master "if he be rector of Freshwater and not otherwise," a direct and
curious incentive to holding in plurality. A Fellow was entitled to his
commons, and, in addition, to allowances of 13s. 4d. under each of the
three heads of "corn," "livery," and "stipend," or, as we may say, food,
clothes, and pocket-money. The College officers received but small
salaries, the most highly paid being the President and Senior Bursar,
who each received L2.

An effort was made by the Statutes of the Realm to improve the condition
of members of colleges. It seems to have been assumed that the rent of a
college farm, like its statutes, could not be altered; but by an Act of
Parliament passed in the eighteenth year of Elizabeth, known as Sir
Thomas Smith's Act, it was enacted that from thenceforth one-third of
the rents were to be paid in wheat and malt; the price of wheat for the
purposes of the Act being assumed to be 6s. 8d. a quarter, and of malt
5s. a quarter. Thus if before the Act the rent of a farm was L6 a year,
after it became law the tenant had to pay L4 in money, three-quarters of
wheat, and four quarters of malt, these two latter items coming to L1
each. But the tenant now paid a rent varying according to the prices of
the day--namely, the money rent plus the cash value of the wheat and
malt according to the best prices of these commodities in Cambridge on
the market-day preceding quarter-day. Thus as the prices of wheat and
malt rose the College benefited. By the Act this variable one-third, or
"corn-money," went to increase the allowance for commons. As time went
on the amount of the corn-money was more than sufficient to pay for the
commons, and a further modest allowance out of the surplus was made to
all who participated in the College revenues, whether as Master, Fellow,
scholar, or sizar, under the name of _praeter_.

In process of time another source of revenue arose. Leases of College
estates were usually granted for a term of forty years, and there was a
general custom that the tenant might surrender his lease at the end of
fourteen y