CHAP. IV. the practice of admitting unfit persons to degrees without any regard to the statutory requirements with respect to acts and exercises and terms of residence',-the introduction of the wives and families of married members into the colleges, and finally the contempt for discipline exhibited by the great body of the scholars. Whitgift's unfavourable judgement is in some measure confirmed by that of a very different observer,-the illustrious and by that Giordano Bruno, who about the same time was engaged in visit of Giordano Bruno. ing in succession the chief universities of Europe. During a stay in England of about two years (1582-4) he visited Oxford, and he avers that the pedantry of its scholars, their ignorance and arrogance, conjoined with the rudeness of their demeanour, would have tried the patience of a Job3. Oxford, however, it is to be remembered, was then at its lowest ebb, and it may reasonably be questioned whether the general condition of any continental seat of learning at this time (Louvain and Padua perhaps excepted) would have appeared State of the preferable to that of Cambridge. At the German universiuniversities: ties, the period 1580-1600 is designated by Gustav Frank as that of the war of the confessions',' and von Raumer, in his outline of their history, is fain to pass in complete silence over years in which scholarship and learning were well nigh Wittenberg. in abeyance. At Wittenberg, the stronghold of Lutheran orthodoxy, Bruno's reverence for the memory of the great Continental 1-by reason whereof many, and the greatest part of proceeders in arts yearly, do not spend above a third part of the time limited in the statutes for hearing of public lectures in arts, etc. in the university, but rather in some gentleman's house or curate's place. And so the university giveth degrees and honours to the unlearned, and the Church is filled with ignorant ministers, being for the most part poor scholars.' Strype, Life of Whitgift, 1 610. 2 They are distracted with the cares of family and posterity, and so neglect learning and government. And thereby most esteem of such as are fittest for such purposes; and the Reformer won for him a cordial reception and he professes CHAP. IV. to have been struck by the liberal spirit which there prevailed'. He shrank however from the intolerant atmosphere of Geneva, where he experienced from Beza an exceptionally Geneva. chilling reception. The distress of the beleaguered city in 1583 had risen, moreover, to such a height that the English bishops were moved to appeal to their countrymen in its behalf, and the professors of the university, bereft of their stipends, were driven to abandon their claims and seek for other employment. At Strassburg, though John Sturm yet Strassburg. lived and the fruits of his honourable labours were visible all around in the increasing numbers and growing reputation of its rising school, he himself had just been deprived of his office of rector by the intolerance of the Lutheran preachers3. At Heidelberg, under the leadership of John Casimir, the Heidelberg. Reformers were preparing for a fresh and successful attack on the Lutherans,—a contest which resulted in the expulsion of nearly the whole professoriate, whose chairs were forthwith filled by supporters of Calvinistic doctrine. Round the newly-created university of Leyden there still rose up Leyden. the smoke of burning cities and the cry of battle, as the dread struggle which her schools memorialized yet awaited its final and still doubtful consummation. At Paris, where Paris. learning was silenced amid the furious strife between the Guises and the League, royalty itself, in 1584, could not refrain from a formal lament over the disorganization and pitiable condition of the university. 1 Maurice, Hist. of Philosophy, II 184-5. Pattison, Life of Casaubon, pp. 21, 64; Zürich Letters (2), p. 315. Bancroft, writing in 1593, speaks somewhat contemptuously of Geneva as 'beeing but as it were a Grammar Schoole in comparison of our universities,' while, comparing it with Heidelberg, he says it is but a hamlet to it.' Survey of the pretended Holy Discipline, pp. 317, 319. von Raumer, Gesch. d. Pädagogik, 1 236. 4 Hautz, Gesch. d. Univ. Heidel berg, 1 116-121. The struggle be- 5 Jourdain (C.), Histoire de l'Uni- CHAP. IV. a growing At Cambridge, on the other hand, we have not only the Evidences of kind of evidence of prosperity afforded by largely augmented spirit of inde- numbers', but the growing spirit of the academic body is Cambridge. attested by a series of efforts calculated to render the uni pendence at manifested sity at royal to master versity at once more independent and more widely useful. Of this spirit the increasing impatience of royal nominations to masterships and fellowships is a notable symptom. We have already seen that, on Howland's appointment to the mastership of St John's, he had been transferred thither Impatience from the humbler headship of Magdalene. It was on this by the univer- occasion that the royal authority was exerted to bring about nominations the appointment of Henry Copinger, a fellow of St John's, as his successor. The intrusion of the new head was however so successfully resented by the hereditary patron of the house, that Copinger was driven to resign; and although his character was unexceptionable he now found himself deprived alike of mastership and fellowship,—' a very hard fate,' observes Baker, upon so deserving a man, and might with Caseof Henry more justice have fallen upon Dr Kelke". The condition Magdalene into which Magdalene College had been brought by Dr ships and fellowships. Copinger at College. Kelke's administration was indeed unparalleled in the university. Several of the other societies, Peterhouse, Clare, and Corpus, for example, were labouring under difficulties resulting from inadequate revenues, but Magdalene was the only one of which we hear that its financial credit was so low that the tradesmen of the town refused to supply it with necessaries3. Its condition does not appear to have mended much under fait place aux sombres passions, aux his successor, Nichols. Copinger's successor, Degory Nichols', and it must be ad- CHAP. IV. mitted that the royal influence would appear to have some- Character of times been exerted in favour of the worthier candidate. Degory Nichols was a man of overbearing and unscrupulous nature, and had been distinguished by his uncompromising opposition to the new statutes2. It seems however that he was one of the not inconsiderable number who had recognised the expediency of abandoning a policy of obstruction, for we find that he was strongly recommended to Burghley for the mastership by Dr Perne3. As an administrator, he was Magdalene noted for his narrow-minded aversion to Welshmen and for under his cynical disregard of the interests of the society in com- administraparison with his own pleasure. There is still extant a querulous letter from some of the fellows to Burghley, narrating how the new master had ousted one Johns, their Greek lecturer, from his office, on account of his Celtic descent, and had driven out the college butler for no other reason; and how his cows were permitted to feed in the college court and even intruded into the hall; while the shrill voice of his shrewish wife was at times to be heard all over the college'. College Nichols' tion. Booth, a Within two months from the time of Nichols' appoint- Case of ment, we find a similar instance of resistance to external nominee of interference proceeding from a quarter where we should have at Corpus 1 In a letter to Burghley (20 July, 1579) Nichols states as a proof of their poverty that the college has only one scholarship. Ibid. cxL, no. 25. Cooper, Athenae, I 95-96. In a letter to Burghley, written in 1572, Nichols (at that time taxor), Beacon (the public orator), and Arthur Purefoy (a fellow of Peterhouse) are described by the Heads (Dr Perne among their number) as being of their own nature given to contention.' Lamb, Documents, p. 355; Cooper, Annals, II 280. 3 Lemon, Calendar of State Papers (A.D. 1547-80), p. 552. Dr Perne's letter is dated 22 July, 1577. 4 At his first coming it was reported he shuld say he wold roote out all the Welshmen in the colledge. How forward he was herein may ap- Burghley's, College. to Burghley: CHAP. IV. been little prepared to find it. The master of Corpus at this time was Robert Norgate, the successor, one removed, to Dr Pory. He had formerly been one of archbishop Parker's chaplains and was related to him by marriage'. We can hardly doubt that he was on friendly terms with Burghley and would willingly have conceded much in order to oblige one to whom the university was under so many obligations and whose favour was so material to its continued prosperity. When therefore the chancellor addressed a letter to the Dr Nergate Society of Corpus recommending one 'Sir Booth,' although not 13 Sept. 1577. a member of the society, to their favourable consideration on the occasion of the next election to a fellowship, it may be reasonably supposed that he looked for nothing but ready compliance with his wishes. The reply of Norgate, however, clearly indicated that such could not be the case. 'First,' says the writer, 'because our colledge statute bindeth us by our othe to preferr the schollers of our foundacion unto such fellowships as shall fall voyd, before all other students, so they be equall in learning and manners. Secondly, we stand bound to the city of Norwich in a bond of £200 to admitt no other unto that roome but a Norwich man borne. Thirdly, it is the roome of a minister, with which office and calling Sir Booth is not qualified. For which thre causes he cannot be chosen, even as I declared unto him when he delivered me your lordship's letters.' With the view, however, of taking Booth's claims into consideration on some future occasion, the writer adds that he has requested him to call again, with the design of making some triall of his learning,' 'but hitherto,' he adds, 'I have not heard of him?. Within a fortnight we find Dr Norgate writing again to Sept. 1577. Burghley on the subject. Booth had subsequently called; and Norgate states that he had thereupon promised him the next piece of preferment,—' if he, whose proficiency in learning is unknown to us and greatly suspected, would then make some declaration thereof unto us, by our examination. of him. We offering him, that for indifferency in judgment Same to same: 27 1 Masters, Hist. of the College of Corpus Christi, (ed. 1753), p. 113. 2 State Papers (Dom.) Eliz. cxv, no. 22. |