CHAP. III. hope that the Catholic faith might yet regain the ascendency The 'popish to the subversion of their own Church'. Towards the close trumpery' in his keeping at of the year 1572, an order accordingly came down to the the seized and destroyed. the scene. vice-chancellor from Sandys, in his capacity as bishop of London, to enquire into the matter,-a measure which eventually resulted in the arbitrary destruction of the whole collection. According to Dr Caius' own statement, this wanton act was suggested by some of the disaffected fellows of the college at a convivial meeting,--they having, he adds, been at the trouble of keeping watch all night in order to prevent any of the properties in question being privately conveyed away out of the college. However this may have. been, it is beyond dispute that, on a certain dull December day, the monotony of college life at Caius was broken by an Singularity of extraordinary spectacle. A bon-fire was lighted in the first court, round which for the space of three hours were to be seen, toiling resolutely and perspiring, Dr Byng, the vicechancellor, Whitgift, and Roger Goad, the provost of King's College, as they brought forth the contraband properties and hurled them into the flames. The 'popish trumpery,' as Byng styles it, in his triumphant account of the proceedings to Burghley3—vestments, albs, tunics, and stoles, the pix and sindon and canopy, 'tables of idols' and mass-books, sufficient to furnish forth half-a-dozen distinct and contemporaneous celebrations of the Roman service, crackled on the blazing pyre. While brazen saints and cherubim, as offering too stubborn a resistance to a like process of destruction, were pommelled with pious zeal out of all resemblance to humanity*. 1 Sir Thomas White, the founder of St John's College, Oxford, had acted in a similar manner to Dr Caius, although he took the precaution of removing the articles in question to his own house. 'Englishmen,' observed Mr Green, 'had seen English religion change too often to believe that it would change no more.' See his History of the English People, 11 329. 2Nec hoc factum est, nisi instigantibus quibusdam male affectis sociis, quorum alii rem procura verunt convivio, alii, ne conserventur, aut noctu sustollantur, pervigiles extiterunt. Sed ex his alios Deus morte sustulit, alios aliis modis subduxit, non sine ignominia.' Annales Collegii, ann. 1572. The divine justice must have been singularly prompt if it thus displayed itself in the six months that intervened before Dr Caius' death. 3 Cooper, Annals, II 314. 4 malleio contuderunt.' Caius. 'defacid.' Byng. 29 July, 1573. There can be no doubt that the personal indignity to him- CHAP. III, self involved in this invasion of his property was keenly felt by Dr Caius, who records in plaintive terms the ingratitude thus shewn for his manifold services to the college and to learning'. In the following year we find him devoting his leisure to the compilation of his History of the University,— not improbably for the purpose of thereby gaining some distraction from his harassed feelings. It was his last service to letters. Blomefield, indeed, suggests that his life was shortened by the growing intolerance of the times, his His death: death, which took place in London, having occurred only seven months after the event above described. By his will, dated Provisions a few days before, Parker, with whom (notwithstanding the divergence of their views on religious questions) he seems always to have been on friendly terms, was named his literary executor; and, availing himself of powers conferred by a grant obtained from the society in the preceding September, he nominated Thomas Legge of Jesus College his successor in the mastership. He was interred in the His epitaph. college chapel; where the brief inscription on his monument arrests by its severe simplicity, far more effectively than any long and ornate eulogy could do, the attention of the observer. of his will. ments and science and learning enhigh place in title him to a the esteem of the univer With all his eccentricities and prejudices, the reputation His attainwhich he achieved,—a reputation almost unique of its kind, services to -may fairly be considered to surpass that of any other Cambridge Head of the sixteenth century. Fisher outshines him indeed as a benefactor. Parker rendered greater ser- sity. vices to literature. Gardiner and Whitgift both played a more conspicuous part in moulding the present and the future of the university. But as one who was at once a man of science and a man of letters, and unselfishly devoted to 1 'tantus erat illis fervor in religionem, ut nec beneficia personarum nec gratia in academiam, aedificio et editis libris, suadere potuit moderationem.' Annales Collegii, ann. 1572; Strype, Life of Parker, bk. iii, c. 4; Cooper, Athenae, 1 314. 2Disturbed as may be guessed, at the furious and rash zeal of those 4 Vivit post funera virtus. CHAP. III. both,-who, to a shrewd insight into the conditions essential to the advance of knowledge united a practical excellence which placed him at the head of his profession in England,and who, lastly, to quote the eulogy of Camden, ‘in the end gave all his wealth to learning','-Dr Caius presents us with a combination as interesting as it is rare and undoubtedly realises most fully the true conception of academic eminence. Death of His last troubles at Before another two years had passed away, the university was bereft of a yet more conspicuous patron. For some years past, Parker's health had been declining, and the 'rheumatic Tempsis,' as he styles it, had often proved an effectual barrier to his passage over from Lambeth to attend the meetings of the Privy Council. In March 1575, more alarming symptoms began to manifest themselves, and in the following May, he was removed by death alike from the rule of the Church which he had so ably governed and invigorated and from his watchful protectorate of that university which he had loved so well and so faithfully served. The last Cambridge, matter that called for his interference at Cambridge had been one which occasioned him no little pain. Robert Aldrich, who had been promoted to the headship of Corpus College mainly through Parker's interest exerted on his behalf, had gone over to the Puritan party and had given notable proof of his change of sentiments by a persistent refusal to proceed, as required by the college statutes, to his degree of B.D. He was ultimately summoned to London by Burghley and formally censured, -a proceeding which was His forbear followed by his resignation of the mastership. The extant taxed by the letters written by Parker in his declining years indicate very party. plainly that his temper was sorely tried by 'these irritable precisions at Cambridge3,' as he terms them, and by whom His benefac- he in turn was styled 'the pope of Lambeth.' His undiuniversity: minished care for the university in his latter years was proved (if proof could be required) by the altered aspect of ance much Puritan tions to the 1 Life of Elizabeth, p. 200. 2 Strype, Life of Parker, bk. iv, c. 27; Life of Whitgift, bk. i, c. 8; Append. no. xv; Cooper, Annals, II 317-8. 3 See Parker Corresp. 418, 419, 426, 434, 437. Street. one of the principal academic thoroughfares and by a noble CHAP. III. benefaction to the university library. On the site now occupied by the senate-house and the open space in front, there stood at that time a number of humble tenements, the residences of townsmen, which altogether intercepted the view of the Schools from Great St Mary's. Of these the greater proportion remained standing until the erection of the senate-house in 1722. By Parker's generosity, however, a sufficient number were now purchased from the authorities of King's College and Corpus, to admit of the opening up of a new street, known as University Street, and also as the University Regent walk, which from that time until 1722, formed the main approach to the Schools. This way to the Schools,' says the chronicler, 'he also paved, and built a brick wall on each side against the Schools and half way of the street, and topped the walls with square stone; and then gave this way and these walls to the university.' In addition to this, says Strype, he repaired the Common Schools, 'greatly fallen Repair of the then into decay and wanting both lead, timber, and roofing'.' Dissatisfied with what his own resources enabled him to His influence productive of do, Parker had successfully exerted his influence to excite benefactions a like generosity in others. Sir Nicholas Bacon, his brotherin-law, who had been his fellow-student at Corpus, stimulated by his persuasion and example, became a distinguished benefactor both to their common college and to the university library. In pleasing contrast to the prevailing strife of His efforts in parties which demands so large a share of our attention at with Perne on this period, we may turn aside to note Dr Perne going up to stay with the archbishop at Lambeth the year before the latter's death, there to concert measures for augmenting the stores of the university library3; and, backed by his strong 1 See in Strype, Life of Parker, Append. no. XCVII, 'An Indenture of the University Street and for Repairing the Books in the University Library, which were of the Archbishop's Gift.' Ibid. bk. iv, c. 42. 2 Ibid. 3 While at Lambeth, Dr Perne applied to the registrary for a catalogue of the books which the university library then contained. From a Schools. from others. conjunction behalf of the university library. taneous testi great services to Cam CHAP. III support, proceeding to plead personally and not unsuccessfully for donations of books with Burghley, with my lord of Winchester, Robert Horne, and with my lord of Durham, Perne's spon- James Pilkington. On his return to Cambridge, Perne mony to his could not refrain from giving emphatic expression to his bridge. gratitude for Parker's 'great charges divers ways bestowed upon the university,' which he declares had resulted in 'a singular and perpetual commodity to the same' and had also 'brought no less beauty and ornament in the setting forth of all those places where his grace had bestowed any cost.' 'The which,' he goes on to say, 'doth appear in your grace's college, in St Mary's Church, in the houses and street between St Mary's Church and the Schools, in the School gates; and now last of all, in the singular beauty that the comely order of your grace's books doth bring to the university library, to the great delectation of the eye of every man that shall enter into the said library.' 'I do judge,' adds Perne, 'the mind of other that loveth learning and the university by my own great delectation, that I do conceive of that comely placing of the said books, the which shall be a perpetual testimony of your grace's singular goodness and great kindness to the university'.' Parker's bequests to Corpus Christi, to Caius Col lege, and to The archbishop's noble benefactions to his own college almost entitle him, as Strype observes, to be regarded as its second founder. The great collection of manuscripts which Trinity Hall. he bequeathed to the society, to be guarded by restrictions which though they now appear illiberal were largely justified by the unscrupulous practices of that time, is one of European reputation. New fellowships and scholarships and costly plate served still further to perpetuate his memory on that foundation. At Caius, his intervention in the disputes between master and fellows had in no way alienated his good will towards the society, where he was again the donor of plate and of books, and also the founder of a physical scholar |