Three re ligious university. CHAP. III. pelled to submit to no small measure of disappointment. Elizabeth, at this juncture, was resorting to a temporizing policy, and her preference for a certain splendour and elaborateness of ritual was genuine. Cecil was no friend to parties in the sweeping reforms. In common with a numerous and influential body in the nation, of whom together with men like. Parker and Sir Thomas Smith, he might be regarded as representative, he firmly upheld the theory of the royal supremacy and looked with plainly avowed disfavour on the democratic tendencies of the Swiss divines'. If to these opposed elements, now especially conspicuous in the university, we add the presence of a third party, who either openly avowed or secretly cherished their attachment to the Catholic faith and looked forward to some fresh revolution. of State which should restore to them their former privileges and predominance, it must be owned that between the Act of Uniformity and the Act of Supremacy there seemed but faint promise of a long continuance of order and tranquillity in the academic community at Cambridge. Appointment of another Commission; The earliest measures resulting from the changes in the university government were decisive with respect to the Roman party. June, 1559. The oath renunciatory of the papal supremacy was reimposed on all persons proceeding to degrees; and another Commission was appointed, whereby Cecil, Anthony Cooke', Parker, Bill, Walter Haddon, William Mey, Thomas Wendy, 1 Burnet seems very fairly to represent the views and influence of this party when he says that they pointed out to the queen, 'that these new models would certainly bring with them a great abatement of her prerogative; since, if the concerns of religion came into popular hands, these would be a power set up distinct from hers, over which she could have no authority.' Burnet-Pocock, vol. II., preface p. 25. Sander directly accuses the exiles of want of fidelity to the principles which they had professed at Geneva, de Origine, fol. 164. See also Zürich Letters (1), nos. 62, 73, 110. Hallam's assertion that Parker stood almost alone' among the moderate party on the episcopal bench is certainly nearer the truth. (Const. Hist. 1 179.) 2 A warm friend of the Reform party, and one who attended Peter Martyr's lectures at Strassburg. Cooke was compared by his admirers to Sir Thomas More, whom he resembled both in his virtues and varied accomplishments. The edition of Cheke and Gardiner's correspondence de Pronuntiatione, by Coelius Secundus Curio, quoted above, (pp. 57-62) is dedicated to Cooke. See Wordsworth, University Studies, p. 109; Cooper, Athenae, 1353; Zürich Letters (2), pp. 1 and 13. 3 Parker, who was consecrated to the archbishopric of Canterbury on the first of the following August, seems structions Robert Horne, and James Pilkington were constituted visit- CHAP. III. ors, with full powers for the reorganization and reformation of the university. Their written instructions, however, were Their inlittle more than a transcript of those of the Commission of compared 1549, excepting that the clauses for the foundation of a college of medicine and a college of civil law were omitted, together with that for the dissolution and amalgamation of 'two or more' of the colleges. with those of the Commis the Heads of being re take the oath macy. Cecil of their The oath of supremacy was necessarily a test which no conduct of evasion or refinements of casuistry could enable a con- Houses on scientious ultramontanist to accept, and the men who had quired to been appointed to the headships of colleges during the late of prereign were chiefly of this school. Like most of the members of the episcopal bench, they now confronted the inevitable with a courage which did honour to their cause, and no less than fifteen heads of colleges at the two universities either gave in their resignations or were expelled. At first, indeed, Parker warns a less creditable policy was, in some instances, adopted; and intentions. an endeavour was made by some of the heads to turn the impending changes to their private advantage,—a line of conduct in which they were forestalled, happily, by the vigilance of Parker'. At Queens' College, Dr Peacock, the Evasive president, in conjunction with a majority of the fellows, majority at pressed on the election of three bachelors of arts (all members of other foundations) to fellowships, with the design, apparently, of filling the vacancies with men favourable to the Catholic cause. Against these elections, the vice-president, along with a minority of the fellows, addressed to Cecil an appeal couched in the strongest terms. The elections, they represented, had been carried by the president and his supporters (whom they do not hesitate to describe as gamblers and spendthrifts) from most corrupt motives,—the dread of anticipated reforms and the consciousness of bad administration. The conduct and character of the newly to have been absent from Cambridge during this visitation. See Parker Correspondence, pp. 69–73. 1 See Parker's letter to Cecil, 1 Mar. 155 'Some masters,' he : writes, be about to resign to their P. 41. policy of the Queens' Col lege. Ultimate resignation of the Presi dent, Dr Peacock. Changes at CHAP. III. elected fellows themselves are at the same time set forth in no sparing language. It might well be supposed that such representations would have been productive of energetic action on the part of the chancellor, but the sequel throws little light on the merits of the question. Cecil referred the dispute to the decision of three arbitrators,-Parker, Dr Pory (the vice-chancellor and master of Corpus), and Leedes, afterwards master of Clare Hall,-by whom two of the elections were confirmed'. In the following May, however, Peacock deemed it necessary to tender his resignation and retired into private life; and Dr Mey, who had recently been restored to the deanery of St Paul's, was now reinstated in the office which he had already filled with no little advantage to the society. At Trinity College, a similar change had already taken place, and Dr William Bill found himself again master of the society and restored to the chapel stall from which he had been so rudely dragged. About the same time, Cosyn, the master of St Catherine's, anticipated the action of the commissioners by voluntarily retiring at once from the vice-chancellorship and the mastership of his college. He took refuge with the society at Caius, under the kindly protection of its newly-elected master; and his post at St Catherine's was filled by Dr John Mey. At Christ's College, Dr William Taylor, after an impotent and childish display of vexation, disappeared abruptly from Cambridge, and betaking himself to the Continent is thenceforth lost to our view. At the suggestion of Pory, Cecil recomHawford ap- mended Hawford, a fellow of the college, to the society, by whom the latter was accordingly elected. Trinity Disappear ance of Dr Taylor from Christ's. pointed his successor. 1 State Papers (Dom.), Eliz., III. nos. 29-31, 36, 37; Searle, Hist. of Queens' College, pp. 266-284. 2 Mr Searle (Ibid. pp. 285-6) has clearly shewn that Dr Mey was not in exile during Mary's reign. He appears to have belonged to the less advanced school of the Reform party. See Cooper, Athenae, 1 107. 3 Strype's Parker, p. 89 (with Baker's MS. note); Cooper, Ibid. 1 204. 4 The language in which Pory in his letter to Cecil, describes Dr Taylor's departure deserves quotation, if simply on account of the glimpse it affords of the domestic economy of a college in those days,'he standeth,' says the reporter, 'not clear in respect to the said college, departing from thence somewhat strangely, leaving his chamber much disordered, his garments cast in corners, and the rushes tumbled or heaped, and the college writings scattered here and there.' State Papers (Dom.), Eliz. iv, no. 66. Commission 1559. forced in the St John's, Trinity Hall, Jesus Col 2 Hall. The other Heads preferred to await the arrival of the CHAP. III. Commissioners, which took place on the seventeenth of Arrival of the September and was soon followed by further important ers: 17 Sept. changes. The oath of supremacy was tendered to all the academic authorities and functionaries, and its refusal was followed, in most instances, by immediate expulsion from office. At St John's, one genuine scholar was compelled to Changes engive place to another. George Bullock was removed from headships of the mastership' and his place filled by one of the commis- Pembroke, sioners,―James Pilkington, who, in his new office, appears lege, Clare to have been invested with more than the usual authority'. The change was effected, however, in a manner calculated to disarm opposition, and for a brief period the society appears to have remained comparatively free from the strife of parties. At Pembroke, Dr John Young was succeeded by Grindal, the future archbishop. Dr William Mowse, at Trinity Hall, gave place to Dr Henry Harvey, who in the following year was also elected vice-chancellor. His acceptance of the new tests tests was regarded with considerable mistrust; and a like suspicion would appear to have attached to Edward Gascoigne, who supplanted John Redman in the mastership of Jesus College. By the expulsion of Dr Thomas Bailey from Clare Hall, a really able man was lost to the university. He repaired to Louvain, and long after was often heard of in England as an energetic coadjutor to the celebrated Dr Allen at Douay. Pory, although he had Dr Pory, Dr succeeded to the mastership of Corpus in the reign of Mary, Dr Perne appears to have satisfied the requirements of the commis- retain their sioners, and not only retained his office but became actively participant in university business. Dr Caius was suffered to remain unmolested at the head of the society which he had himself reconstituted. At Peterhouse, Dr Perne, whose 1 Retiring to the Continent, he finally settled at Antwerp, 'where he composed a large concordance printed there in 1572, and after twenty years spent in devotion and study he died about the year 1580, and was buried in the monastery of St Michael there; having left behind M. II. him amongst his own party the 2 According to Baker (ibid. p. 147), 3 Cooper, Athenae, 11 42; 1 22. 12 L Caius, and manage to posts. CHAP. III. readiness of tergiversation gained for him a notoriety in which his real merits seem to have been forgotten, once more complied with the prescribed tests of orthodoxy and avowed himself a supporter alike of the royal supremacy and of the Protestant faith. At Magdalene College, Richard and King's Carr was succeeded by Roger Kelke. At King's College, the death of the provost, Robert Brassie, in the preceding November, had created a vacancy which was forthwith filled up by the appointment of Philip Baker1. Changes at College. Further proceedings of sion. The further action of the commissioners was productive the Commis of no very important changes. The 'laws, injunctions, and resolutions' enacted during the reign of Edward were again put in force, both with respect to the university and to the colleges, a few unimportant modifications only being introduced. The statutes of Peterhouse, Clare, Queens', Jesus, and King's College were either confirmed or subjected to a slight revision. By some of the other foundations, however, an opposition was offered which effectually deterred the commissioners from proceeding with the task of reform; and the several codes of these societies, except where they were found to be at variance with the general injunctions, continued to remain in force, still preserving not a few features characteristic of the ancient discipline3. The experi ences of ten years, as summarized cock. up The terms in which, at this juncture, dean Peacock sums the baneful and demoralizing influences which had preby Dean Pea vailed in the university during the preceding ten years, are such that it is impossible not to feel their force: the university itself, in that short lapse of time, 'under the government of four different constitutions,'-compelled to witness, within the same brief period, 'the banishment and death of some of her most distinguished ornaments,' and 'exposed to the still more bitter trial and humiliation of witnessing the most rapid and fundamental revolutions of opinion and profession, 1 Cooper, Annals, II 153-4. Among these the most important was that whereby the first year of a student's course of study was to be given to rhetoric, instead of to arithmetic, as enjoined by the Edwardian Statutes. Heywood, Sixteenth Cen tury Statutes, etc. pp. 7 and 280; Lamb, Documents, p. 281. 3 Peacock, Observations, etc. p. 41, n. 2. Both Peacock and Cooper (Annals, 11 158) are in error in asserting that the statutes of Peterhouse were 'revised' on this occasion. |