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stitution and

capul

the whole history of the university, it becomes necessary to CHAP. IIL advert to a feature in the legislative organisation of the Ancient conacademic body to which we have hitherto been able to give ers of the only a passing recognition'. The caput, a body now represented by the Council of the university, had, up to this period, been possessed of comparatively limited powers, while its composition was liable to perpetual modification. It consisted of the vice-chancellor and five other members, one of whom, prior to the dissolution of the monasteries, was always the senior doctor religiosus,'-his place, after that time, being supplied by the public orator. The other members were generally heads of houses, and were nominated by the vice-chancellor, or, in his absence, by the proctors,-the regents and non-regents possessing however the power of rejecting those thus nominated. The power vested in each The capt member of the caput was considerable, for he was able by elected are his single veto to prevent any grace being submitted to the r senate; as however the caput was formally appointed afre-h at the commencement of each congregation', any member who was bold enough to thwart in any inarked manner the wishes of a majority of the regents was certain to be made sensible. of their displeasure by the rejection of his name when it was again submitted to them at the next congregation. The caput accordingly may fairly be regarded as originally simply a Council designed to assist the vice-chancellor in the somewhat invidious task of passing or rejecting the graces proposed to be submitted to the senate, and incapable by its constitution of offering any permanent obstruction to the wishes of that body.

When the congregation assembled on the 29th of June,

1 See Vol. 1 143; and supra, p. 157. The innovation made by Cardinal Pole's statutes (supra, p. 137) had been, as already observed, practically inoperative.

The accustomed choice of the head was in the election of the bodie every congregation, saving in two or three sett assemblies, for that sum men peradventure of preposterous

affection might staie such graces as
the wholl universitic knew worthie of
prefermente,' &c. Objections to the
Eliz. Statutes, Cooper, Annals, 11

289.

Peacock, Observations, p. 22: com. pare with his account the Objections raised to the new statutes: Cooper, Annals, 1 289; Lamb, Docu nents, P. 366.

originally

at every con

API as above stated, it had already transpired that it was the the design of the authorities to refuse Cartwright his degree of doctor of divinity, for which his supplicat was on that day to be presented to the senate. The public stigma that would thus be inflicted on him, by the withholding of the crowning honour of an academic career, was an indignity which his friends were determined to avert, and they accordingly proceeded to reject the names of the heads of houses as they were successively brought before them for the caput. Nearly all of the body were now objects of their dislike and suspicion; for Whitgift ruled where Beaumont had once been master, and Nicholas Shepherd, who had been brought in at St John's, in succession to Longworth, for the express purpose of securing an opponent to the Puritan party, was not yet recognised in his true colours'. When, accordingly, the names of Perne, Hawford, Ithell, Harvey, and others, were successively proposed as members of the caput, they were non-placeted, and those of others were ultimately brought forward and received the necessary number of votes in their favour. Chaderton, in his letter to Cecil, had intimated his misgivings with respect to the vice-chancellor's ability or willingness to cope with the malcontents'. On this occasion, however, Dr John Mey, emboldened by the consciousness that he could rely on his superior's support, acted with courage and resolution. He assumed the whole responsibility and by virtue of the power conferred by his office refused to admit Cartwright to his degree. His conduct exposed him to a burst of resentful feeling for which he was evidently not prepared. As a last resource, he appealed to the chancellor, who at the same time received a notable letter from Cartwright.

1 Baker-Mayor, pp. 164-5, 590; Cooper, Athenae, 11 15. It is remark. able that Luke Clayson, writing to Hudolph Gualter in 1573, styles

pherd subuleus noster;' I do rot know whether we are entitled to -fer from this that the Johnians had avaty acquired their time-honoured ⚫ quet. See Epist. Tigur. (2), p.

who although he be minded to call them to accompt, yet I think he ether will not or cannot minister suflicient punyshement to suppresse their errors: Satan will have the upper hande, and we shal be all in a hurlyeburlie and shameful broyle.' State Papers (Dom.) Eliz. LXXI, no. 11.

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supported by

necessary representations to Cecil respecting Cartwright's CAP. II.
conduct, the leading members of the party with which he
was in sympathy were seeking to influence the chancellor's
decision by counter-representations, and by forwarding highly
favourable testimonials to the new professor's picty, high
principles, and attainments'. Among this number was
Robert Some of Queens' College, afterwards master of Peter- t
house, who, while Cartwright's conduct was still under discus- Mary,
sion, undertook a general vindication of his views in a sermon
at Great St Mary's, at the same time strengthening the position
of their party by a forcible attack on the less defensible.
abuses of pluralities and non-residence'.

Monie in a
Bermon at

1570

WHITOIPT:

d love

To whichever side in this controversy our sympathies Jo may incline, it must, we think, be admitted that it was well & 152 for the university that in such a crisis a man of stronger will and more conspicuous ability was forthcoming among the heads of houses. It must also be allowed that the associations and experiences of John Whitgift's previous carcer were of a character likely to dispose him to form a more impartial estimate of these controversies than the great majority of his contemporaries. His earliest religious views appear to have been derived from an uncle, who, although an abbat of one of the English monasteries, had the candour and discernment to recognise the substantial justice of the nemesis which attended the degeneracy of the whole monastic order. On first entering at Cambridge, Whitgift earlier had been a member of Queens' College, at that time under the rule of Dr William Mey, and as we have already seen a centre of the ultra-Protestant feeling in the university. From Queens' he had migrated to Pembroke, where his college tutor was the eminent John Bradford. As a fellow of Peterhouse, under the kindly protection of Dr Perne, his conscientious objection to Romanisin had been confirmed by study, his dislike to it by the sinister features of the Marian persecution; while, at the same time, preserved from the embittering experiences of exile, his habits of thought and

1 Lemon, Calendar of State Papers (1547-80), p. 3×8.

M. II.

c. 1.

Strype, Life of Grindal, bk. ii,

14

experiences,

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CHAP whole temper remained more catholic and less vehement than those of the great majority of bis countrymen who afterwards came back from Zürich and Geneva. Ever since the restoration of Protestantisın, he had been rising steadily in the good opinion of the university and in favour with its all-potent chancellor. A sermon which he preached at St. Mary's, in 1560, seems first to have brought him into general notice, and attracted no little admiration. In 1563 he was appointed to the lady Margaret professorship; and after a Meeceeds brief tenure of the mastership of Pembroke, he was promap of moted in 1567 to that of Trinity, on the death of Robert Beaumont. In the same year he vacated the chair of the lady Margaret professorship for that of the Regius professor of divinity. A sermon which he subsequently preached at court so effectually won the queen's approval that he was forthwith sworn in as one of the royal chaplains'.

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Of the general moderation of Whitgift's views at this atto time, inclining however somewhat to those of the Calvinistic party, there can be no reasonable doubt. We have already seen that he was one of those who subscribed the remonstrance forwarded from the university, in 1565, against the injunctions, then impending, which prescribed uniformity in ecclesiastical dress'. On his election to the mastership of Pembroke, he had been hailed by the fellows of that society. as one on whom they could rely to sustain the honoured. traditions of Nicholas Ridley, and, had he not been actuated by a genuine aversion from Romanism, he would hardly have supported in his thesis for his doctor's degree the view

1 Strype, Life of Whitgift, chapters i and ii.

Supra, p. 198.

In their letter to Grindal, by whom Whitgift had been recommended as successor to Dr Hutton in the mastership, the fellows of Pembroke thus write: vehementer ergo nobis nostrisque studiis gratulamur, Deoque praepotenti imprimis gratias aimus, quod non ita Ridleios stirPatus e nobis eradicaverit ut unicam Abram Grindellum (quem honoris

causa nominamus) una etiam tollat. Hinc enim Huttonus nobis ortus, qui vires nostras non mediocriter auxit. Hine tandem Whitgiftus, quein unum in optatis et habemus et voluinus maxime.' Strype, Ibid., Ap. pend. no. ii. Cartwright, when the high example of Ridley was on one occasion brought forward in argument against him as a precedent for compliance with the discipline prescribed in the liturgy, said that he preferred to follow bishop Hooper.

Aupported by

necessary representations to Cecil respecting Cartwright's CHAP. I. conduct, the leading members of the party with which he was in sympathy were seeking to influence the chancellor's decision by counter-representations, and by forwarding highly favourable testimonials to the new professor's piety, high principles, and attainments'. Among this number was a views Robert Some of Queens' College, afterwards master of Peterhouse, who, while Cartwright's conduct was still under discus- Mary, sion, undertook a general vindication of his views in a sermon at Great St Mary's, at the same time strengthening the position of their party by a forcible attack on the less defensible abuses of pluralities and non-residence'.

Kirt

Mune in a
Bermon at 84

13:0

WHITOLET:

To whichever side in this controversy our sympathies J may incline, it must, we think, be admitted that it was well & 15 for the university that in such a crisis a man of stronger will and more conspicuous ability was forthcoming among the heads of houses. It must also be allowed that the associations and experiences of John Whitgift's previous career were of a character likely to dispose him to form a more impartial estimate of these controversies than the great majority of his contemporaries. His earliest religious views. appear to have been derived from an uncle, who, although an abbat of one of the English monasteries, had the candour and discernment to recognise the substantial justice of the nemesis which attended the degeneracy of the whole monastic order. On first entering at Cambridge, Whitgift earlier had been a member of Queens' College, at that time under the rule of Dr William Mey, and as we have already seen a centre of the ultra-Protestant feeling in the university. From Queens' he had migrated to Pembroke, where his college tutor was the eminent John Bradford. As a fellow of Peterhouse, under the kindly protection of Dr Perne, his conscientious objection to Romanism had been confirmed by study, his dislike to it by the sinister features of the Marian persecution; while, at the same time, preserved from the embittering experiences of exile, his habits of thought and Strype, Life of Grindal, bk. ii,

1 Lemon, Calendar of State Papers (1547-80), p. 348.

M. II.

c. 1.

14

experiences

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