CHAP. II. where there is no fear of their doing mischief'. Attendance at bull-baitings or bear-baitings is forbidden, 'not only because of the danger when bulls and bears are loose, but also because these new objects of amusement extinguish the desire of study in youth which knows not its own interest, squander away its means, waste its precious time, and make them brutes instead of men"." Dress. The Gate of kept closed. Even the topics of discourse at the anniversary sermon are prescribed; while the instructions with respect to dress are drawn up with much minuteness and with the evident design of bringing about results exactly the reverse of those which, as we have already seen, gave occasion to the founder's severest strictures on his visit to the university in 1558*. Not less characteristic is the statute relating to the hours to be mostly of closing the college gates, in which it is directed that the 'Gate of Honour' shall be 'shut in the middle of the day, or the whole day, if it can be conveniently managed; but especially at hours of lecture, in order to prevent persons by passing through from breaking the seclusion of the student, disturbing study, spoiling the courts by disorderly traffic and making them dirty,' etc." Perjury, in its relation to defined. Infringement of the statutes, when it is the result of the statutes, impulse and inconsiderateness, is not to be looked upon and punished as perjury. On the other hand, when deliberate and grave, it is to be estimated as nothing less, and is to be punished by expulsion from the college and deprivation of all emoluments derived therefrom. Then follows a disquisition on perjury in the abstract, conceived somewhat after the manner of Seneca, the author finally concluding that though anger may be unnecessary, discipline is not, and that 1 Stat. 22; Documents, 11 254. 3 Stat. 26; Ibid. 11 258. 4 Stat. 27; Ibid. 11 258-260; see also supra, pp. 98-99. 5 The three gates of remark,' as Fuller terms them, are a characteristic feature of Caius College: 'the gate of humility,-low and little, opening into the street over against St Michael's Church. The gate of virtue (one of the best pieces of architecture in England);-in the midst of the college. Thirdly, the gate of honour leading to the schools. Thus the gates may read a good lecture of morality, to such who go in and out thereat.' Fuller-Prickett and Wright, p. 253. 6 Stat. 52; Ibid. 11 274--5. there are at the present time many whom, like the Spartans CHAP. II. described by Aristophanes, 'Nor religious rite, nor plighted faith, nor attestation before the Gods can bind1.' queen Mary Pole. Before the year 1558 had closed, queen Mary died. With Deaths of all her bigotry and harshness of character, she was not in- and cardinal different to the interests of learning as conceived after a certain narrow standard, and by her will she bequeathed to both universities the sum of £500 for the relief of poor scholars, while Trinity College was benefited yet more considerably by her munificence. Her death was succeeded within a few hours by that of cardinal Pole, and Cambridge again found itself under the necessity of finding another chancellor and protector. But with the acceptance of this office by Sir William Cecil it was felt that a new era had Sir William commenced and that the period of mere reaction was at an chancellor, end. 1 οἷσιν οὔτε βωμὸς, οὔτε πίστις, οὔθ ̓ Opкos μÉVEL (Acharn. 1. 307). Stat. 104; Ibid. 11 303-4 (the original Greek is quoted in the statute). 'Queen Mary, following her father's example, not only began to build it' [i.e. Trinity College] 'a most grand chapel, but added to it a revenue of £338 per annum arising from good Cecil elected 19 Feb. 1559. CHAPTER III. FROM THE ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH TO THE DEATH OF ARCH- CHAP. III. favoured than Cambridge during Mary. The ablest apologists of the Catholic cause have scarcely Oxford more been able to deny that the influences which prevailed at the two Universities during the reign of Mary were reactionary the reign of with respect to learning; but they have dwelt with emphasis on the royal regard for the material interest of the two communities and the scrupulous sense of justice which enforced the restitution of the alienated revenues of the Church'. Oxford, which undoubtedly enjoyed the larger share of Mary's favour, saw her public schools entirely rebuilt. Some valuable impropriations were also bestowed on the university, and the revenues of Christ Church received a substantial inFoundation crease. To the influence of the example thus set by the Crown, we may also refer the rise of the two colleges of Trinity and St John the Baptist-acts of beneficence which shine with additional lustre amid the surrounding gloom, and but for which, Heylin does not hesitate to declare 'there had been nothing in this reign to have made it memorable, but only the misfortunes and calamities of it. When compared, as regards their conception and constitution, with Trinity College, Cambridge, these two societies present how of Trinity College, in 1554, and of the College of St John the Baptist in 1555. 1 Sander, de Schism. Anglic. (ed. 1610), pp. 307-9; Lingard, Hist. of England, v 529; see also Warton, Life of Sir Thomas Pope, p. 152. ever an almost humiliating contrast. St John's, founded by CHAP. III. Sir Thomas White, a benevolent but somewhat weak and superstitious citizen of London', was left subject to a certain extent to Christ Church and narrowly escaped the fate of becoming a mere appanage to that society. The modest foundation of Trinity, with its twelve fellows and twelve scholars, owed its origin to Sir Thomas Pope, and presents a certain resemblance to Magdalene College at the sister university. The only man of mark among its first members was Yeldart, Arthur Yelthe philosophy lecturer, who when a sizar at Clare Hall, Cam- of Pembroke bridge, had been one of Mary's pensioners. He had subse- bridge, quently been elected a fellow of Pembroke College, and from thence he was invited to Oxford. At Oxford, he was before He is aplong promoted to the presidentship of Trinity, a post which he continued to fill with credit to himself and to the great advantage of the university until nearly the close of the lege, Oxford. century. dart, a fellow College, Cam pointed the first philo sophy lec turer at Trinity Col more favour Catholicism bridge. That the larger share of patronage bestowed on Oxford during Mary's reign was the result of the greater degree of favour with which Catholic doctrines were there regarded, admits of no question. The special reputations of the two Oxford far universities had greatly changed since the time when Lyd- able to gate boasted that of heresie Cambridge bare never blame.' than CamThe fame of Oxford, as a great centre of theological science and speculation, had long ago departed; while Cambridge, as a home of Reformation doctrine, might rival Wittenberg or Marburg. John Burcher, writing to Bullinger a few months after Bucer's death, and recommending Musculus as his successor, intimates that 'the Cambridge men will not be found so perversely learned as master Peter found those at Oxford."' 'For the scholars,' he goes on to say, 'have been always suspected of heresy, as they call it, by the ancient members, learned and 1 See the singular story told by Wood, that Sir Thomas, having conceived the notion of founding a college on the spot where he might be able to discover two elms growing out of one root,' first paid a visit to Cambridge, but not being able to meet with this phenomenon there, next resorted to Oxford where his 2 Cooper, Athenae, 1 267. CHAP. III. unlearned: by which you may easily perceive that their studies have always been of a purer character than those at Comparative Oxford'.' At Oxford, accordingly, during the last five years, students at the numbers of the students had increased in much larger number of the two uni versities. Career of proportion than at Cambridge'. But neither learning, nor religion, nor morality prospered there. Ascham implies that in the study of the classics, its scholars appeared to prefer the writers of the Silver Age or of a yet later period to the best examples of the Latin genius3. Peter Martyr, whose last utterances had been an honest and courageous denunciation of the immoral conduct of the Oxford clergy, had quitted the scene of his labours within a few days after Edward's death" and his eloquent and learned expositions were succeeded by the reactionary teaching of a Soto, a John à Garcia and a Nicholas Sander. To the eye of the Reformer, the Gospel light at Oxford seemed almost quenched. If we may credit the testimony of John Jewell, Peter's most distinguished disciple in the university, the lives of not a few, even of the professorial body, were flagitious in the extreme®. No martyrdom in that dark and cruel reign so deeply stirred the nation's heart, as that, when under the walls of Balliol, the ablest divine and the most eloquent preacher that Cambridge could then reckon among her sons, amid the crackling flames, for conscience sake, yielded up their souls to God. Cecil, as we have already noted, had succeeded to the quitting the chancellorship at Cambridge, on the death of cardinal Pole. He had now, for some years, been withdrawn alike from St university. 1 Zürich Letters (3), p. 60. 2 The number of those admitted B.A. at Oxford during the years 1555-9 (which is the period when the effects of the Marian influences were most perceptible) was 216; at Cambridge it was only 175. 8 Ascham to Sturm (4 Apr. 1550), Epist. p. 20. 4 See Schmidt (C.) Peter Martyr Vermigli, pp. 130-3, where the circumstances are given much more fully than in Wood. Peter received his safe-conduct from Gardiner, a circumstance honourable to that pre late and somewhat unfairly characterised by Schmidt as ein letzter Rest von Achtung vor der gesetzlichen Ordnung.' 5 Omnia ea quae D. Petrus Martyr pulcherrime plantaverat, everterunt e radicibus, et vineam Domini redegerunt in solitudinem. Vix credas tantam vastitatem afferri potuisse tam parvo tempore.' Jewell to Bullinger (22 May, 1559); Jewell-Jelf, VIII 124. 6 Jewell to Peter Martyr (20 Mar. 1559); Zürich Letters (1) pp. 11-12. |