Er of the CHAP IV. gress, when suddenly the agents of the Stationers' Company appeared upon the scene and seized the press, the whole plant, and all the printed sheets on which they could lay hands. The humiliation and pecuniary loss inflicted by this summary proceeding roused the spirit of the university, and a formal demand was forthwith despatched by the vice-chancellor and Heads to the bishop of London (by whose authority the seizure had been sanctioned) for the restitution of the property, and at the same time an earnest appeal was addressed to Burghley imploring his good offices for the protection of the university in the exercise of its ancient privilege'. Their letter found the chancellor already, however, well informed respecting the whole transaction. John Aylmer, who at this time filled the see of London, had formerly been a fellow of Queens' College, and like many of that society at this period had once been distinguished by his sympathy with the extreme party of the Reformers and by the severity of his strictures on the members of the English episcopate. To most readers, his name is best known as that of the tutor who by his gentle allurements to learning instilled into the mind of the amiable lady Jane Grey her Greek scholarship and her love of Plato'. His subsequent career, however, is associated with less pleasing features. Like Sandys, his predecessor in the see of London, he had experienced the hardships of exile in the reign of Mary, and like him he seems to have sought on his return to retaliate on others the sufferings he had endured. With his accession to the episcopal office he renounced all connexion with the Puritan party and became an effective supporter of the Fect rigorous policy of Whitgift. On the Puritan press in his Para diocese he was at this time maintaining a specially vigilant watch. All the printers in London were required to report 》བ་ཐ 1 Sce vol. 1 626. But no See the story told by Harington open railing, and privy backbiting.' Ibid. Ascham, Scholemaster (ed. Mayor), pp. 33-34 and 213-4. * Cooper, Athenae, 11 170: see also Mr Hunt's sketch, Religious Thought in England, 1 74-76. with the Company the number of their presses', and no press was permitted to CHAP be erected beyond the liberties of the city. The commercial jealousy of the Stationers' Company was thus materially aided by the ecclesiastical jealousy of the Church, and immediately after the proceedings above narrated the Wardens of the Company drew up a statement, which they forwarded to Aylmer, of the manifold dangers that might ensue if the university of Cambridge were permitted to set up a printing press in its midst. This document Aylmer, in turn, for-n1- ennears warded to Burghley, together with a letter from himself f detailing the reasons for the recent seizure and justifying the step. The bishop and the Wardens alike represented Thomas as altogether ignorant of his craft and affirmed that his claimambridge to be the printer of the university was a piece of unauthorized assumption. They alike insisted on the perils to the commonwealth incident upon the activity of a press 'farre from ordinarie research' and managed by men unskilful in their trade. The Wardens speciously asserted that they were actuated by the most disinterested motives, but they maintained that the abundance of presses then existing in London 1 Of these (fifty-three in number) a complete list was furnishel on this occasion to Aylmer and by him transmitted to Burghley. State Papers (Dom.) Eliz. CLXI, no. 1. There was also found one presse and furniture whyche is saide to belonge to one Thomas, a man (as I heare) utterlie ignorant in printinge, and pretending that he entendeth to be the printer for the universitie of Cambrige. Aylmer to Burghley, 1 June, 1583. Ibid. a scholler, altogether unacquainted with that facultie.' Wardens of the Stationers' Company to the Bishop of Lon ion. Ibid. Nowe it is not my meaninge nor of any that I knowe to contend "against the universities privilege, but for the causes aforesail I made staie and yet doo, till I un lerstand your pleasure, for good assurance to be had bothe of tha. prynter and his my nisters for good and lawful u-age and workmanshippe of that presse, and speciallie for matters perillous to It me be thought we speake CAP IV. rendered it less necessary that there should be a press at Cambridge than it had ever been', while the danger there was far greater than in the metropolis where restrictions. were in force which did not exist at the university; and where a supervision was with difficulty maintained which it would be found impossible to put in operation at Cambridge". They concluded by offering to recompense Thomas for the loss he had sustained as defendant in the suit, at the same time making offer of their own services for the execution of any printing which the university might require". To this appeal, Burghley replied by advising that the university and the Stationers' Company should both select delegates who might hold a conference and arrive at some agreement on the subject. To this suggestion the viceBy chancellor and Heads rejoined by expressing themselves not unwilling, as desirous of peace and concord,' to hold the proposed conference, if the Stationers' Company would send to Cambridge certain men' with sufficient authority for the purpose; but they dwelt emphatically on the sinister motives of the Company, acting, as they affirm, 'rather in respect of their private gain and commodity and to bring the universities more antient privileges in this behalf than theirs under their jurisdiction at London, than for any other good consideration;' while the writers pledge themselves in behalf 1.Which at that tyme was thoughte verie necdeful and expedient, yet never accomplished hitherto, aud nowe lesse requisite than ever heretofore it was, by reason of the aboundaunce of prynters in London at this present. Wardens of the Stationers' Company to the Bishop of Lond.n. State Papers (Dom.) Eliz. CLXI, nɔ. 1. Notwithstanding all which, yet is yt an endles toile to withstande the lewde attempts of manie of our profession being even within our catie and at our elbowes and daillie looked unto, howe muche more troublesome and daungerous both for matters of the state and religion and other inconvenyence it wilbe to have a printinge house erected so farre off, >peciallie the M'. beinge unskilfull, the workemen such as will obey noe authoritie heere, your lordship canne better consider than we declare.' Same to Same. Ibid. And we will recompense the said scholler for all his charge that he hath been in the suite aforesaide, and also paie him to the full for all such instrumentes as he hathe alreadye provided, and withal be most readye to doe to the saide universy. tie or annye there such acceptable service in printinge as anye waie he or his mighte be able. And herein we proteste and think in our conscience we doe the said scholler a greate good turne and are a meane that he doe not undoe himself." Same to Same. Ibid. of Thomas, ('whom,' says the letter, we know to be a very CHAP. IV. godly and honest man'), that the press should not be 'abused, either in publishing things prohibited, or otherwise inconvenient for the Church and State of this realm'.' are the fo finally sane esta? fish of the university It is not until the following March that we find evidence of any further action in the matter, but on the twelfth of that month the vice-chancellor and Heads addressed another letter to Burghley in behalf of Thomas, who was himself the press bearer of the missive. In less than a week Burghley's reply was forwarded. He had conferred in the meantime with the Master of the Rolls (Sir Gilbert Gerrard, another old Cambridge man) as to the validity of the charter of Henry VIII, and that high authority had pronounced a favourable opinion. The chancellor accordingly saw no sufficient reason for any longer withholding his assent to the re-establishment of Thomas in the functions of his office,-'having regard, that he be seen to be furnished with all things fit and requisite for that purpose; and that his letters' (meaning type) and paper were answerable with any the foreign prints and the prices likewise agreeable.' He further intimated his readiness to sanction 'some instrument by way of articles or decree' which might invest the press with due official dignity. The letter might well seem an indication of more than usual boldness on the part of Burghley, but his habitual caution crept out in a postscript. I think it good,' he adds, 'that the parties that shall be licensed or authorised to print, may have their authority with condition, or otherwise bound to stand to the order of the chancellor and the Heads, in case of any cause of misliking of the use of the said authority"! spirit of the party at The contingency which the prudent chancellor contem- Reviving plated occurred sooner than he had anticipated. No feature in the condition of the university at this time is more un- Cambridge mistakeably apparent than that, notwithstanding the defeat which Whitgift had inflicted on the Puritan party, its spirit 1 Strype, Annals, vol. 111, bk. i, Ap. pend, no, 35, Ibid. vol. 11, bk. i, c. 17. CHAP. IV and determination were still unbroken. If, as Gabriel Harvey had asserted, the disputes about caps and surplices were over, it was because men's minds were now gravitating Inering to deeper matters than mere externals. Every undergraduate, however ignorant, could lend his aid to fan the tumult when party the question at issue had been chiefly that of academic etiquette and attire. But as the contest deepened and the great protomachists appeared,-as Hooker answered the challenge of Cartwright, and Whitaker repelled the onslaught of Bellarmine, while Whitgift entered on his deadly struggle with the Martinists,-it was felt that issues of no ordinary moment were impending, and even the mocking laughter of the pasquinade only betrayed the fierce spirit of the satirist. As yet, however, so late, indeed, as the year 1588,-the leaders of the Puritan party seem to have not altogether despaired of effecting within the Church itself the changes which they afterwards embodied in their own organizations as Separatists'. At Cambridge, their followers, although #. exercised unquestionably in the minority, still inspired respect by their talents and their numerical strength. If Cartwright had been banished from their midst, his voice was still heard from Geneva. If Travers, Dering, and Aldrich had disappeared, their places were filled by others who avowed with equal boldness doctrines far more schismatical. Another college was rising up which was notoriously designed as a school of Puritan teaching. The standard theological textbook of the university, the Commonplaces of Musculus', which had supplanted the discarded Sentences, was an armoury from which the Puritan would have found it far easier than the Anglican to equip himself for the battle of contro 1 Mr Dexter assigns the earliest references to little gatherings of Separatists in and round London' to 1587 or 1588. See his Congregationalism of the last Three Hundred Years, p. 256. * Wolfgang Musenlus was profes.. Ror of divinity at the university of Berne in Switzerland and his Commonplaces were designed as a body of Protestant divinity free from all Papistical error. The English trans lation, executed by Man, head of Merton College, Oxford, at the sug gestion of archbishop Parker, ap peared in 1563. See Strype, Life of Parker (Oxford ed.) 1 298, 460; Zürich Letters (2) p. 119 ; also Life by Samuel Clarke, in his Marrow of Ecclesiastical History, pt. i, pp. 276 -2×1. |