six years were cancelled or materially modified. The mass was heard again in St Mary's and in the college chapels. Processions were again to be seen passing along the streets preceded by a new silver cross, the different foundations having been mulcted to replace the one which Parker had d. The old pronunciation of Greek was again prescribed and probably for a time more successfully enforced. Only in one instance do we find the university venturing to thwart the chancellor's purpose. The office of one of the bedells had fallen vacant by the death of John Adams, and Gardiner, anxious to increase the number of those at Cambridge on whom he could rely for trustworthy information, sought to bring about the election of William Muryell, his 'old servant and scholar,' to the post. The right of electing to the office was however vested in the whole body of regents and nonregents, and after a scrutiny had been thrice taken it was fund that Muryell had failed to obtain the requisite number of votes. It was rumoured that this was owing to the opposition of those who favoured Protestant doctrines, and GardiDer's resentment was not slow to manifest itself. He forthwith wrote to command that Muryell should be admitted to the office of bedell, until such time as he was himself able to visit the university. He attributed his servant's nonelection to religious jealousies, and in order effectually to prevent like opposition in future enjoined that none should vte at elections or upon graces or be admitted to degrees who had not openly in the congregation detested particu arly and bi articles the heresies lately spred in the realme, and professed bi articles the catholic doctryne nowe receyued, a. subscribed the same with their honds. In the place therefore of the rejected Forty-Two Articles, a syndicate appointed by the senate now proceeded to draw up a series of fifteen articles embodying the distinctive trets of Catholicism and the recognition of the papal supreLy, and condemning as pestiferous heresies' the dogmas | Cheper, Annals, 11 85 86, 113. *uments, 1 353. we reja, p. 157, in account of statutes of Cardinal Pole. himself while the conscientious Catholic found an explanation of CHAP this decline in the abandonment of the ancient faith and made by traditional discipline, to the zealous Protestant it appeared here. that the true cause was the endeavour forcibly to restore them. It is also to be observed that if we accept Ascham's indictment in its plain and literal sense, it convicts him, as well as Latimer and Lever, of no little exaggeration in their descriptions of both college and university during the reign of Edward'. If so many 'perfect scholars' remained to be dispersed from St John's at Mary's accession, the idle sons of the wealthy could hardly to any great extent have displaced meritorious students on that foundation, nor could its patronage have been exercised without some regard to desert. If the love of good learning then began, as he affirms, 'suddenly to wax cold, it must have previously retained some vigour and vitality. But, in fact, the unqualified assertions of Protestant writers with respect to the state of the universities during the Marian quinquennium' are at once in some measure disproved by the statistics of the Grace Book, which shew that there was a considerable increase in the number of those proceeding to the degrees of master and bachelor of arts. During the last five years of Edward's reign the ag- Increases gregate number had been only 90 and 167 respectively; prin during the five years 1554 to 1558, the corresponding num bers were 125 and 195. Here again, however, as in the preceding reign, it is of the highest importance to distinguish between a superficial appearance of prosperity, such as increased numbers might afford, and a genuine advance in knowledge and the growth of the studious spirit,-and in this latter respect it cannot be denied that the university seriously declined. Gardiner, finding himself in the posses. Reactionar sion of powers and opportunities such as he had never before Gardiner, enjoyed, pressed on his advantage without scruple. At his 'unereating word' nearly all the enactments of the preceding 1 See supra, pp. 88 92. * Degree Book 1 in Registrary: Baker MSS, x1 11 44. The omissions. in the Oxford Register prevent a com parison with the earlier period; for the years 1551 to 1558 the number of the num to degrees six years were cancelled or materially modified. The mass was heard again in St Mary's and in the college chapels. Processions were again to be seen passing along the streets preceded by a new silver cross,-the different foundations having been mulcted to replace the one which Parker had ld'. The old pronunciation of Greek was again prescribed and probably for a time more successfully enforced. Only in one instance do we find the university venturing to thwart the chancellor's purpose. The office of one of the bedells had fallen vacant by the death of John Adams, and Gardiner, anxious to increase the number of those at Cambridge on whom he could rely for trustworthy information, sought to bring about the election of William Muryell, his 'old servant and scholar,' to the post. The right of electing to the office was however vested in the whole body of regents and nonregents, and after a scrutiny had been thrice taken it was found that Muryell had failed to obtain the requisite number of votes. It was rumoured that this was owing to the opposition of those who favoured Protestant doctrines, and Gardiner's resentment was not slow to manifest itself. He forthwith wrote to command that Muryell should be admitted to the office of bedell, until such time as he was himself able to visit the university. He attributed his servant's nonelection to religious jealousies, and in order effectually to prevent like opposition in future enjoined that none should vote at elections or upon graces or be admitted to degrees who had not openly in the congregation detested particu larly and bi articles the heresies lately spred in the realme, and professed bi articles the catholic doctryne nowe receyued, and subscribed the same with their honds"," In the place therefore of the rejected Forty-Two Articles, syndicate appointed by the senate now proceeded to draw up a series of fifteen articles embodying the distinctive tenets of Catholicism and the recognition of the papal supre macy, and condemning as 'pestiferous heresies' the dogmas 1 Cooper, Annals, 11 85 86, 113. * Ivesments, 1 3.53. * Sce injra, p. 157, in account of statutes of Cardinal Pole. • Lamb, Documents, p. 170. of Luther, Oecolampadius, Zwinglius, and Bucer'. The new CHAP articles were forthwith subscribed by the great majority of the resident electors in the university and during the reign of Mary a like subscription was an indispensable condition of admission to degrees. rath of Gantines Nov. creded b Reginal chancell Universit Such was Gardiner's last important measure in his capacity as chancellor of the university. He died in the following November; and in that community where he had been educated and had taught, and in which he had alternately acted the part of persecutor and protector, his name, that for thirty years had rarely been absent from men's minds, soon sank into contempt and was seldom mentioned but with aversion. He was succeeded by Reginald Pole, cardinal priest of St Heissa Mary in Cosmedin and Papal legate, who in the following year was also elected to the chancellorship of the university of of Oxford. It does not appear that Pole ever visited Cambridge, and his interest was naturally more active in Oxford, where, as a student of Magdalen, he had passed some years with credit in his boyhood. Both universities were, in the following year, subjected by him to another visitation, having for its express object the more complete establishment of the Catholic religion. In the mean time the burning of Martem Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley at Oxford, and that of John - F Hullier, a Protestant scholar and conduct of King's College, Jo on Jesus Green at Cambridge, had brought home to both communities with terrible vividness the stern realities of the religious crisis. The Cambridge martyrs, one and all, died with a patience and fortitude worthy of their cause; and many as have been the passages notable for their touching pathos which men of lofty nature have penned in the antici pation of death, the farewell to which Ridley gave expression, as his university and his ancient college of Pembroke with ↑ Ibid, xlvi, 173; Cooper, Annals, 11 97. The articles are translated in Heywood's Cambridge Sixteenth Contury Statutes, pp. 219–223. The recog nition of the papalsupremacy had been rendered lawful by the parliamentary legislation of the preceding January. See Froude, Hist, of England, v 170 4. See also Cooper, Junale, 1 111. 2 where I have dwelt longer, found more faithful and hearty friends, received more benefits (the benefits of my natural parents only exceptesl), than ever I did in mine own native country wherein I was born." Foxe. Townsend, vii 557 8. of Crann its orchard walk came back to his memory', is unsurpassed in its kind, In melancholy contrast to these heroic deaths, was Cheke's end some two years later. Overcome by persuasion and menaces, he renounced his Protestantism and made a public recantation. But remorse and shame soon did their work on a very sensitive, high-spirited, and noble nature, and he died broken-hearted in London, at the house of his friend Peter Osborn, a former scholar of the university and afterwards Remembrancer of the Exchequer. The details of the visitation of Cambridge, which occupied the greater part of the month of January, 1557, have been preserved to us in a quaint and interesting account by John More, the registrary and one of the esquire bedells of the university, who died in 1558. They are chiefly notable as illustrations of the ceremonial and procedure observed by the visitors in carrying out their main object. One act, however, conspicuous from its wanton indecency and barbarity, cannot be altogether passed by: the remains of Bucer and Fius were exhumed, chained like the bodies of living buretics to the stake, and publicly burnt on Market Hill'. The chief result of the visitation was a new body of Statutes, generally known as those of Cardinal Pole. But as these enactments were designed to be only temporary and proved in the result almost inoperative, the brief summary of their general scope and main provisions given by Dean Peacock will be suflicient for our purpose. They are,' he 1 Farewel, Pembroke Hall, of late P.-e own colledge, my cure, and my einge; what case thou art in now, Changweth, I know not well. Thou est ever named since I knew theo is now a thirty years ago), to , well learned, and a good forth of Christ's Gospel, and of * true word, so I found thee, ant ---l be Gol so I left theo indeed. me for thee mine own dear g", if ever thou suffer thyself by as to be brought from that tà evident reference to the taw deson to make Clare a college hervil law. See supra, pp. 136 |