The royal scheme for Trinity College comprised a master, fifteen senior fellows, twenty-five middle fellows, twenty junior fellows (of whom, in 1546, thirteen were undergraduates), and forty grammarian school-boys. In addition to these, there were servant-students (known as sizars or subsizars), each being attached as gyp to a particular fellow, and receiving education, board, and lodging in lieu of money wages. There is nothing to show whether or not the presence of pensioners was contemplated.
We have a list, apparently complete, of all the intended officers; tutors do not appear among them, though a schoolmaster and usher were provided for the grammarians. Hence it would seem that the relation between an apprenticed undergraduate and his master was regarded as personal, and that the latter was selected and paid by his pupil or pupil's guardian, and not by or through the College--I conjecture that this was the usual medieval practice. The deans are mentioned as officers of the College, and the discipline of the younger members was part of their business, though no doubt a lad's master or tutor assisted in enforcing it. The formal charter of foundation was given by Henry in December 1546, but the grammarians are not mentioned therein.
During the next six years, 1546-1552, three important developments took place. First, the grammar-school side of the College was abandoned, and all boys then in the school were entered as scholars of the House; next, and perhaps consequent on the abolition of the school, a distinction between fellows and scholars was drawn; and finally, following the growing custom of other colleges, the admission of pensioners was definitely recognized as desirable, thus introducing a class of students below the standing of scholars. Before coming to the subject of tutors it will be well to add a word or two about the pensioners and scholars of these early days.
With the upset of the medieval scheme of education the number of pensioners and fellow-commoners seeking admission to the University greatly decreased, and the reception of a limited number of them in the colleges fairly met the needs of the University. The private hostels were then no longer wanted and being unendowed disappeared. Thus when again, as soon happened, the number of would-be pensioners increased, it was necessary (unless new non-collegiate arrangements were made for their reception in the University) to admit them in larger numbers to the colleges. At Trinity a limit was, in theory, placed on the number of pensioners admissible, but not on that of fellow-commoners. A pensioner at Trinity, and I suppose also at other colleges, had to be qualified by learning and morals for admission, and I conceive further that his entry was conditional on his finding a fellow who would receive him. A pensioner or fellow-commoner had no rights, and resided only on such terms and as long as the College or the fellow receiving him willed. I believe that students of this class did not often stay here for more than three or four years unless in due course they became scholars.