stancy in mat ligious belief istic of the clergy of these times. amongst a majority of her members, on the most vital points CHAP. III. which can concern mankind'. A careful consideration of the history of these times, however, will probably incline us to conclude that it was comparatively but a select few in whom, in those days, religious conviction attained to the stern resoluteness of the later Puritanism. When, indeed, Inconwith the lapse of another century, the Protestant faith had ters of regathered to itself the reverence that waits on long tradition a characterand cherished usage, the facile compliance of the English clergy of the days of Cranmer and Parker seemed, to many of their more thoughtful successors, almost inexplicable. The dispassionate Locke, when composing his great plea for liberty of conscience and seeking for an example, wherewith to enforce his argument, of the evils attendant upon coercion, could find no apter modern illustration than the scandalous facility with which the English divine of this period professed or denied his allegiance to Rome in servile obedience to the Crown'. When such vacillation, to use no harsher term, was an only too common characteristic of the clergy at large, we can scarcely but infer that it must have been carried to somewhat scandalous lengths, in order to gain for any one individual a special notoriety. To this bad eminence,' however, one member of the university, with whose sanction and cooperation the foregoing measures had been carried out. and who, with the commencement of the academic year (1559-60), had now for the second time been elected vicechancellor, would seem to have already attained. Dr Andrew ANDREW Perne, from whose name the wits of the university coined b. 1519. a new Latin verb, perno, pernare, which meant, they said, 1 Ibid., p. 41. 2 Our modern English later history affords us fresher examples in the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth, how easily and smoothly the clergy changed their decrees, their articles of faith, their forms of worship, everything according to the inclination of their Kings and queens.' Letters on Toleration (ed. 1870), p. 18. How many Bb (sic) are there in England,' asks Martin Marprelate in 1590, which PERNE, d. 1586. stancy in his religious be CHAP. III to change often,' had formerly been a fellow of St John's. From St John's he had migrated to Queens', where he had been promoted to the office of vice-president. In the year 1554 he had been elected to the mastership of Peterhouse. His incon- To what extent a contemporary satirist was justified in affirmprofession of ing that Perne held that names of partialities, sects, and lief. divisions, either in civil or religious causes, were but foolish words or pelting terms',' we have hardly sufficient evidence to enable us to determine; but it must be admitted that the divine who had once warmly defended the adoration of pictured saints and the doctrine of transubstantiation, who officiated as chaplain to Edward VI, assented to the Catholic articles of the year 1555, and finally gave in his adhesion to the Thirty-Nine Articles of the English Church, must have been one to whom the disputed theological questions of the day could scarcely have assumed that primary importance claimed for them by the most learned and distinguished of his contemporaries. It may however safely be asserted that this apparent laxity of principle did not arise from a blunted moral sense, in which self-respect and regard for the esteem of the good and wise and for the nobler ends of life had Redeeming gradually become effaced. On the contrary, we have ample evidence that Andrew Perne was both himself a scholar and one to whom learning and his university were dear. During the reign of Edward, he had been one of the six chaplains appointed to preach the doctrines of the Reformation throughout the kingdom; and at a subsequent period he was among the number of those divines who prepared the revised version known as the Bishops' Bible. Parker, with whom he was intimately acquainted, sent his own son to Peterhouse that he might benefit by his friend's counsel and instruction. It may serve again in some measure to extenuate Perne's tergiversation that, if himself wanting in the martyr's spirit, he was at least equally unwilling to make martyrs of others; and to his humane tolerance we may probably attribute the traits in his character. 1 Gabriel Harvey, Pierce's Supererogation (ed. 1815), p. 201. * His special share in this work was the book of Ecclesiastes and the Cantica. Parker Corresp., p. 335. influence which, during the Marian persecution, shielded the CHAP. III. youthful promise of Whitgift'. Whatever again might be thought of the moral effect of his example, it could scarcely be denied that his subsequent efforts were directed to the welfare of his university. At Peterhouse, the fellows could mark the gradual formation of a library which might compare with any similar collection in England. The colleges at large were materially benefited by a measure of reform, concerning which we have hereafter to speak, of which he was the reputed author. And both the university and the town were indebted to his energy for a signal contribution to their comfort and well-being. On the whole, the impression we derive from the study of his career, is that of a tolerant and humane nature, wanting perhaps in elements of heroism or greatness, and aiming rather at the happiness of his species than at the assertion of any particular doctrine in theology, but gifted with a sense, rare indeed in those days, that even theological unanimity was a blessing that might be realised at too dear a price. offered by sity for the the remains Fagius. It must however have been a sore humiliation to Perne, Reparation when, before his year of office had expired, he found himself the univer called upon to take part in a measure which involved the treatment of strongest condemnation of an act to which he had himself of Bucer and given at least a formal sanction. In July, 1560, in pursuance of instructions received from the ecclesiastical commissioners, the university proceeded to make the only reparation in its power for the inhuman insult offered in Perne's first vice-chancellorship to the remains of Bucer and Fagius. A grace passed the Senate, without a dissentient vote, that the degrees and titles of honour which the deceased had 1 Paule (Sir G.), Life of Whitgift, pp. 5-6. In this respect, the master of Peterhouse signally differed from Dr Martial, the dean of Christchurch. The latter who, in the facility with which he changed his belief according to the times, almost rivalled Dr Perne, was distinguished as a persecutor. The one protected Whitgift, while the other persecuted Jewell. See Wood-Bliss, Fasti 1 136. 2 The university,' says one of his defenders, had not a more careful father this hundred years.' Strype, Life of Whitgift, 19. 3 The bringing the waters of Shelford to Cambridge, designated by Cooper (Ath. II. 48) as that useful and necessary work.' CHAP. III enjoyed should be restored and all acts and proceedings against them and their doctrines be rescinded'. On the thirtieth of the month, the members of the university assembled in Great St Mary's, where once again there rustled on the walls verses in honour of the illustrious dead. Ackworth, the public orator, delivered an address, and James Pilkington, now regius professor of divinity, preached a sermon,— both alike descanting on the virtues of the late professors. Pilkington, who had been one of Bucer's most intimate friends, dwelt with severity on the sacrilegious cruelty of the act which they were now assembled as far as possible to efface, comparing it to the savage animosity with which pope Stephen VI had wreaked his hatred on the corpse of Formosus, and, more aptly perhaps, to that conciliar edict which consigned the ashes of Wyclif to the river. Then, after prayer and praise, and thanksgivings offered up for many blessings, but especially for the restoration of the true and sincere religion, the congregation dispersed. As regarded Bucer, it is gratifying to note that many years later an opportunity presented itself of offering more substantial reparation. In 1593, his grandson, Wolfgang Meier, arrived in England from Basel with the design of studying at Cambridge. He received from the Crown a grant sufficient for his maintenance, and on arriving in the university was elected to the benefit of a fellow's commons at Trinity. After passing through his course with distinction he returned to Basel, and was there appointed pastor of the church where his grandfather had once taught. Generous treatment of Bucer's grandson. Low ebb of education among the clergy. Four years passed away during which no event of primary importance disturbed the quiet of either Oxford or Cambridge. It appears to have been generally admitted that the national want which the two universities were especially designed to supply,-that of maintaining and educating those who were destined to be the religious in 1 Cooper, Annalз, г 161. 2 Concio D. Jacobi Pylkintoni in Restitutione D. Martini Buceri et Pauli Fagii: see Historia vera, etc. (1562), pp. 160-2. 3 See lord Stafford's interesting letter to Wolfgang Meier: Zürich Letters (2), pp. 322-3. Ibid., n 1; Hoffmann, Lex. Univ. the gift of etc. promised theological students. structors of the laity,-was great and urgent', and to meet- CHAP. III. ing this the injunctions of the Crown and the chief efforts of the academic authorities were now directed. A royal Livings in letter, dated the 26th of March, 1560, refers to the fact that the Crown, 'the study of divinity and the Scriptures are at this present to deserving much decayed within the university of Cambridge,' and further announces that both the prebends in the royal gift and those in the gift of the Keeper of the Great Seal are henceforth to be bestowed on the most promising students of theology. Amid the dissatisfaction of the clergy at the rapacity which Elizabeth and her courtiers had already begun to display in relation to the revenues of the Church, this intimation was probably as politic as it was well-timed. Another concession conciliated all parties except the most advanced section of the Reformers. This was the permission The use of a accorded to use a Latin version of the authorized Prayer- of the Prayer Book in the chapels of the colleges of both universities as mitted in the well as in those of the colleges of Winchester and Eton, chapels. a favour granted in direct response to a petition representing that familiarity with the Latin tongue would be thereby promoted, and that this in turn would result in a richer growth of theology3. A third measure, enacted at nearly the same time, could not fail to be gratifying to all parties in the university. 1 See the remarkable evidence on this point contained in the Report respecting the Archdeaconry of London, sent in at the requisition of Parker in 1562. From this it appears that some of the beneficed clergy held three or four, and one, five livings together; that 'few or none of the curates were graduates; that many of the vicars, nay, and parsons, were non-graduates; that not above a third part of them were preachers; that as for their learning, it was commonly set down, Latine aliquod (sic) verba intelligit. Latine utcunque intelligit. Latine pauca intelligit.' Strype, Life of Parker, p. 95: bk. II c. 5. Robert Stokes, B.D. of Queens' College, vicar of Hackney, a pious and good scholar, is singled out by Strype as a rare and pleasing 2 Cooper, Annals, 11 159. 3'-quoniam intelligimus collegia utriusque academiae, Cantabrigiensis et Oxoniensis, collegium item novum prope Wintoniam, et Etonense, bonis litteris dedicata, supplicibus votis petere, ut quo sacrarum litterarum monumenta Latina ad uberiorem theologiae fructum eis reddantur magis familiaria, eis liceat eadem forma precum Latine uti,' etc. Cardwell, Documentary Annals, 1 248. I Latin version Book per college |