of the ap pearance of another version of the Disciplina at Cambridge. Whitgift's CHAP. IV. terian elders at Antwerp', but when he returned to England, his right to be regarded as a duly qualified priest was challenged by the English primate, while Travers, on the other hand, made no secret of his desire to see the Genevan discipline established as the rule of the Protestant Church in his Significance native country. Of such a design, the publication of another version of the Disciplina could only be regarded as a still more distinct expression; and it is not surprising that the appearance of such a volume from the press of the chief school of education for the orthodox clergy should have been regarded by Whitgift as an event of portentous gravity and that the remonstrance which he now addressed to Burghley should have been couched in no measured terms. 'Ever sens I hard,' he writes, 'that they had a printer at Chambridg I did greatlie fear this and such like inconveniences wold followe,' and he goes on to advise that the whole impression should forthwith be committed to the flames, the book being 'verie factius and full of untruthes,' and 'the same which Travers ys supposed to have sett forth in Laten, without anie addition or retraction". As for the press itself, he suggests that, if allowed to continue to exist, it should be subjected to the same restrictions as her Majesty's printers, the printer being bound over to print no book which had not received the imprimatur of the constituted authorities. 'For if,' he urges, 'restrante be made here and libertie graunted there, what good can be done'?' letter to Burghley on the appearance of the volume: Sept. 1584. The Mastership of the Temple. So far as his own authority could be enforced, Whitgift's will prevailed. Rigorous search was made and all the copies of the Disciplina which could be found were destroyed. 1 Strype, Life of Whitgift, bk. iii, c. 16. 2 the said Travers hath been, and is one of the chief and principal authors of dissension in this Church, ⚫ a contemner of the Book of Prayers, and of other orders by authority established; an earnest seeker of innovation; and either in no degree of the ministry at all, or else ordered beyond the seas; not according to the form in this Church of England used.' Whitgift to Elizabeth: Aug. 1584. Life of Hooker, u.s., p. 22. 3 This statement is not altogether confirmed by Bancroft who notes certain important omissions in the translation, and also speaks of a 'Cambridge translator.' Survay of the pretended Holy Discipline (ed. 1593), pp. 225, 237. 4 Strype, Life of Whitgift, bk. iii. c. 6. ship of the Alvey. dissuades But the press itself went on as before; and Travers, whose CHAP. IV. authorship of the book was still unproven, seems to have retained his hold on Burghley's favour unimpaired. Of this, very decided proof was afforded, when, only a few months later, in August, 1584, Richard Alvey, the Master of the The MasterTemple, died, and it became necessary to appoint a successor. Temple. 'Father Alvey,' as he was styled,—another of the many good Richard and able men whom St John's College at this period was d. Aug. 1584. sending forth to leaven and invigorate the higher life of the nation',—had enjoyed a high reputation both for learning and austere virtues, and it speaks forcibly in Travers' behalf that he was deemed worthy by so discerning a judge as Burghley of succeeding to such a man and to so important a post. When however Whitgift learned that the lord trea- whitgift surer had actually recommended the author of the Disciplina Burghley to Elizabeth for the mastership of the Temple, his concern ing Travers was extreme, and he forthwith addressed both to the queen and to Burghley letters of serious remonstrance2. The latter, in his reply to the archbishop, still defended the claims of his former chaplain, as one 'well learned, very honest, and well allowed,' and 'loved of the generality' of the Templars3; but with his usual caution he forbore to press his recommendation further, and even went so far as to second Whitgift's recommendation of another candidate, one Dr Bond. It is perhaps scarcely necessary to add that, in the sequel, neither Travers nor Bond was appointed, and that the royal favour was happily directed to one of far more famous memory, a retiring parish-priest at that time meditating on the Appointment Fathers and the casuists amid the fields of Buckingham- Hooker. shire, the illustrious Richard Hooker". -- The increasing determination of both universities to protect their interests is shewn in their joint efforts in the same 1 He was presented in 1540 to the 3 Life of Hooker, u.s. p. 23. M. II. Hooker appears to have been ap- 20 from appoint to the post. of Richard Efforts of both Universities to obtain repre Parliament. Petition to parliament to ships at held for the purpose of more pro tracted study: CHAP. IV. year to obtain the privilege of returning members to Parliament'. There can be little doubt that this endeavour was mainly supported by the Puritan party in either universentatives in sity, in the hope that by thus directly gaining the ear of the Lower House they might be able more effectually to protect themselves against that ecclesiastical constraint which was yearly becoming more and more oppressive. Failing in their endeavours, they resolved to bring their views under the notice of the parliament which was to assemble in November, a parliament to whose decisions they were looking forward with intense interest and high expectations'-in the form of a petition. This petition was digested into a series allow fellow of articles wherein the necessity of numerous reforms is colleges to be strongly insisted upon and enforced by arguments of no little cogency. The reforms are mostly concerned with 'ecclesiastical causes' of a general nature; but foremost among them is one directly relating to the universities, and more especially noteworthy as embodying, though in somewhat different form, the suggestion thrown out by Ascham, a quarter of a century before3, for what was practically the principle A proposal of the endowment of research. The aim of the petitioners endowment would seem to have been to encourage the study of divinity as a recognised pursuit among the senior members of the university, and thus to form within its precincts a body of sound and well-read divines whose studious leisure should be unbroken by duties either of the pulpit or the cure. Men, in short, who, as the result of lengthened research and profound meditation, might be expected to bring forth arguments and conclusions which should serve to set at rest for ever questions such as those which Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, and Albertus Pighius, or Ratramnus, Lanfranc and Zwinglius, had sounded, with commendable zeal and admirable power, it was true, but still without producing implying the of research. 1 Cooper, Annals, II 269, 401; Wood-Gutch, II 223. The desired privilege was not granted to either university until the accession of James I. See Cooper, Ibid. 111 3-4. 2 On the predominance of Puritan sentiments in the House of Commons at this time, see the observations and quotations in Hallam, Const. Hist. of England (ed. 1869), i 189-91, 3 See supra, p. 115. general consent and conviction. It was accordingly proposed, in the fourth of the above articles, that 'where in certain colleges and cathedral and collegiate churches, the foundation or statute required such as are there placed to be ministers'; it shall be lawful for such as are known to profess the study of divinity, or otherwise be lawfully dispensed withal, to retain, as before this act they might3, any fellowship or prebend within the said colleges, notwithstanding they be no ministers"." CHAP. IV. scope of the the peti It is perhaps hardly to be wondered at that the bishops Apparent at once recognised in this proposition a design which they proposal of roundly stigmatised as 'a piece of T. C. his platform' and tioners. proceeded forthwith to represent as destructive of the main purposes of the universities, namely, the education of the clergy. The aim of the petitioners, so far as it can be inferred, was to secure for those who still called in question the scriptural character of the organization of the English Church the requisite leisure and opportunities for more completely demonstrating the justice of their views,—for composing laborious treatises, in the form of huge folios, which by their learning and convincing arguments might serve eventually to bring about those further modifications of the Church at home which would assimilate it to the Reformed Churches on the Continent. The bishops, on the other hand, were Counter anxious to see all controversy suspended, if not altogether bishops. put an end to, in order that no further hindrance might be presented to the practical work of their dioceses. It was their desire to see the universities become, not the haunts of speculative theorists, but the training schools of active and competent parish priests,-not seminaries of controversies which would serve only to unsettle belief and shake once 1 The customary term at this period for priests with definite clerical duties either as chaplains or in connexion with a cure. See in relation to the time for assuming clerical orders the 19th statute of Trinity College Statutes in Appendix (A). 2 As for example when holding a fellowship assigned to students of civil law or medicine. See in same 3 I.e. as they had been permitted 4 Strype, Annals, vol. 1, bk. i, Append. no. 40. views of the Their un the proposals. CHAP. IV. more the newly-erected fabric of the national faith, but efficient schools from whence should issue in quick succession bands of zealous and pious labourers adequately instructed in sacred learning to teach, convince, and edify their less favoured countrymen, still for the most part sunk in ignorance and superstition, throughout the numerous parishes of the realm. The unqualified language in which the bishops qualified condemnation of denounced the above proposition is, however, somewhat startling. In a lengthy series of objections, they urged that it struck at the very root of the design which presided at the foundation and pervaded the statutes of almost every Oxford or Cambridge college, to wit, the encouragement of the study of divinity and the increase of the number of learned Their chief preachers and ministers.' The supply of preachers would be that it would cut off and the study of divinity decay. There are,' they go on to say, 'at this day in the university of Cambridge an hundred preachers at the least, very worthy men, and not many less in the university of Oxford;' but if the proposed innovation were to take effect, they do not scruple to predict that within seven years there would not be five ministers in either of them.' Besides 'it would cause men all their lifetime to remain in the universities. So that there should be shewn by the episcopal reason being be fatal to the study of divinity. no succession.' The anxiety thus |