CHAP. APIL year, an earnest, almost passionate, appeal on his behalf was de addressed to Cecil by one of his warmest admirers, who implored that he might be permitted to return to Cambridge. and to fill the vacant Hebrew lectureship in the university'. But whatever influence Edward Dering might have once possessed with Cecil he had by that time forfeited, and his letter only drew from the chancellor a cold intimation of his inability to interfere in Cartwright's behalf. From this point, accordingly, Cartwright,-'forced,' to quote the expression of Fuller, 'to forsake the spring,'-'betook himself to the stream' and his subsequent career, and even his memorable controversy with Whitgift which riveted the attention. of all sections of the Protestant church and gave birth to the great work of Hooker, must be considered to belong rather to our national religious history than to that of the university. One incident, however, in his life, is too closely associated with the latter to be passed by unnoticed. It was nearly a quarter of a century after the events above narrated, that it was known that he was again to visit the community which he had once so powerfully agitated and influenced, and was to preach a week-day sermon at Great St Mary's. His experiences during the intervening years,-persecution, imprisonment, and wide-famed controversy, with the Brownists on the one hand and the Anglican clergy on the other, -had by that time given a singular and almost romantic interest to his career; while, as mostly happens with natures of sterling worth, their effect on himself had been chiefly to bring out into stronger relief the finer traits of a really noble character. The whole university, we are told, was stirred by the announcement of his arrival. Grey-healed seniors, who as youths had kindled as they listened to his eloquence in Curt. 1 Cevallerinus revocatus ad patrios coctus, quibus ita statuit inservire, nt nostram Cantabrigiensem aendemiam aliquando relinquat. wrichtum ejus loco Hebraica praeloquentem si tu dederis academine, Vetam no-trum expleveris, patroei tui alumnos bearis, omnium in te amorem amplicaveris, etc.' State Papers (Dom.) Eliz, Lxxxv, no. 75. Dering however appears to have been an extremely injudicions advoente, for he inserts in the conclusion of his letter a series of invectives n minst the episcopal order in England which fairly justify Strypo in describing this communcation as indecently writ.' See Annals, 11 i, c. 20. See infra, pp. 231-5. the lecture-room or in the pulpit,-young men, to whom CHAP. IIL that eloquence was but a tradition, and he himself but a name,-alike ran, 'like boys,' to gain a place where they could hear him. He was hospitably entertained by the distinguished head of that new college which had risen up since his departure,-a foundation designed as a school of doctrine in harmony, to no small extent, with the principles which he avowed. Old acquaintance pressed in, to grasp his hand, and exchange a few words of greeting; and expressions of courtesy and mutual reconciliation imparted to this, his final visit, an interest which it was afterwards grateful to recall. from his pro not open to special harshi But while there is much in Cartwright's genius and heroic His removal disregard of consequences which wins for him the sympathy for ip of modern readers, it does not appear, when we consider the the charge of whole circumstances of the case and the prevailing tone of the age, that Whitgift and his coadjutors can fairly be accused of any exceptional harshness in removing him from his professorship. Cartwright's teaching was manifestly an element of disquiet in the university; his views were believed to threaten the stability of the Crown'. In no Protestant seat of learning, in those days, was any creed recognised as lawful save that of the dominant majority. Had any professor of theology ventured to maintain the Lutheran creed at Königs berg, he would have been expelled like George Sabinus by the Osiandrians. Had he ventured to assail the Genevan doctrines at Wittenberg, he might have been excommunicated, 1 Clarke (Sam.), Lives of thirty point the language of Whitgift, so tico Puritans, p. 19. It must however be observed that Cartwright and his party appear to have been careful at this period to say nothing which could be construed into a repudiation of the Royal Supremacy. This observation is all the more necessary in that we find even so well-informed a writer as the Inte Professor Brewer apparently under the impression that the Royal Supremacy in matters ecclesiastical was from the first the great stumbling. block with the early Puritans. (Sca his English Studies, p. 303.) On this late as 1571, must be taken as de TAP. II like Schlüsselberg, by the Calvinists,―at Heidelberg he might have been beheaded, like Sylvanus. A defence of Calvinistic dogmas at Jena would scarcely have been more tenderly dealt with by the ascendant Lutheran party in that university; resistance to the same doctrine at Geneva' might have brought upon him the fate of Servetus. That however which most effectually contributed to enlist the sympathies of the great majority in the university in Cartwright's favour, was the fact that the measures put in force against him were associated with an arbitrary and fundamental change in the constitution of the academic body y itself. The new statutes were eminently unpopular. Nor was it indeed to be expected that a series of innovations. whereby a system of a fairly representative character was set aside for one more nearly resembling an oligarchy, should prove acceptable to those who found themselves thereby reduced to a state of comparative powerlessness in the direction. of affairs. The largely increased authority vested in the Heads and in the caput was not the only innovation which tended to such a result. Formerly the election of the proctors had been, like that of the caput, entirely in the power of the regents. It was now enacted that they should be nominated according to a cycle of colleges, the regents retaining only the right of approving the candidates thus brought forward. At the same time, the functions of the proctors themselves were 80 materially circumscribed that their oflice lost much of its ancient importance. They still indeed retained that special authority in the act of creation and admission to the regency which represented the peculiar prerogative of their office throughout the universities of Christendom; and it still devolved upon them to regulate the disputations of the stu dents of law and of medicine and of the masters of arts'. The In the year 1576, however, Geneva, partially from motives of expediency, abolished the subscription to Calvinistie doctrine, the authorities declaring that it does not seem right to press a young conscience to sign whit it doth not as yet understan 1; and further that they of Saxony have taken occasion herefrom to compel those who go from hence to them to sign the Confession of Augsburg.' Pattison, Life of Casaubon, p. 13. * See Statutes vii, xix, xxxv, xliii; and Peacock, Observations, Append. A. p. xxviii. power of inflicting fines and punishments, however, was given CHAP. I to the vice-chancellor; while 'whatever authority was given them, by the ancient statutes, of regulating the times and subjects of the public readings and disputations, of imprisoning scholars, of suspending gremials from their votes in the congregations, or from degrees taken or to be taken, and even in extreme cases, of acting in defiance of the chancellor himself, was now either abrogated or transferred to the chancellor and his assessors. The custody of the public and of the private chests, and the administration of the finances of the university, were given to the chancellor and the proper custodes. The proctors, in fine, no longer continued to be the chief administrative officers of the university, as the organs of the house of regents, but were made, in all their functions, that of creation excepted, subordinate to the authority of the chancellor' studies and graduation tions with to de The order of studies, and the succession of lectures and Order of exercises for different classes of students and graduates, were conditions of left in nearly the same state, though somewhat more strictly defined, as in the statutes already in force. But the conditions of graduation, at least for the superior degrees, were made generally more severe, both with respect to time and exercise. All graces for dispensations with respect to these mensa latter points were not only forbidden, but declared to be null and void if passed; and should the caput, at any time, venture to pass a grace, authorising the vice-chancellor to admit any one, except noblemen and quasi nobiles, to a degree without the completion of the ordinary requirements, such a proceeding, it was declared, would render every member of the caput subject to the imputation of perjury. This rigorous and absolute prohibition of dispensations,' is described by dean Peacock, as 'most seriously affecting the privileges and Dean Pes administration of the university inasmuch as it totally de-a prived the university of the power (which it formerly possess ed in common with every other university in Europe) of conferring degrees upon distinguished men'.' It is, however, APIII deserving of note that in the 'Objections' subsequently brought forward against the new statutes', this view of the effects of the above prohibition does not appear to have occurred to the objectors, the special objection urged being limited to the practical injustice that might result in the case of illuess on the part of any graduate at the time when he was required to keep his acts. Five years later, the statute was further interpreted by the chancellor and the Heads, by whom it was declared that the prohibition applied only to those who were resident in the university: 'but that to those who lived elsewhere, and had at any time given themselves. to learning and other scholastic exercises in the university, and were adorned with the degree of master of arts, or bachelor of law or physic, whose learning and probity of life were known to the university,-some of whom,' the interpretation goes on to say, 'are promoted to dignities and functions ecclesiastical or civil in the commonwealth, and, for the most part, being hindered by their various employments, cannot Le present at the examinations required by statute,-dispensations might be granted after the expiration of the statutable time required for their degrees. In other cases, prior to the recent modification of this statute, the want pointed out by dean Peacock was met by the expedient of mandate degrees, or degrees conferred by royal command in response to the petition of the university that the requisite dispensation might be granted, 'any statute to the contrary notwithstanding".' 'The university,' continues dean Peacock in concluding his careful outline, 'continued to retain the power of making new statutes "for the increase of learning, and the preserva 1 Infra, pp. 236-7. * Lamb, Documents, p. 375; Cooper, Annals, 11 302. Cooper, Annals, 11 328. The interpretation, or rather statute which 19 founded upon this petition, and which was sanctioned by lord Burich, forms the only considerable teration which the statutes have undergone since the time that they were first given; and if the spirit of its provisions had been more strictly adhered to, its operation would have tended to increase, and not to lower, as it has done, the credit of our superior degrees, and to cement, instead of dissolving, the connection of the university with its most distinguished and influential members.' Peacock, Observations, p. 57. • Ibid., p. 50, n. 1. |