CHAP. V. abortive'; and whatever of the system still survived and continued to be of any validity in England had become absorbed into the code of the civilian, whose technical knowledge accordingly rendered him more efficient and necessary than ever in the ecclesiastical courts. He frequently acted as commissary for a bishop or a cathedral chapter, and even exercised jurisdiction in their behalf. He was, however, more frequently than not, a layman; and by many of the clergy the intrusion of such an element into the economy of a spiritual diocese was warmly resented3. The civilian, accordingly, became an object of dislike with the Hostility to clergy at large. In what light he was regarded at this time by the common lawyers is sufficiently well known. That Sir Edward powerful and rapidly growing body was now ably led by Coke, who had gone up in 1572 from Trinity College to London, to enter at Clifford's Inn. His services to his university in after life were neither few nor inconsiderable; but whatever withstanding slight bias he might have received at Cambridge in favour of ment to the the academic phase of legal culture, he soon shook off in his university, entirely with exclusive devotion to the popular and the practical branches; study on the part of the common lawyers. Coke : b. 1549. d. 1634. His sym pathies, not his attach the common lawyers. and his clear judgement, vast powers of application and endurance, and rude integrity, were henceforth enlisted in the services of a party whose views, it was evident, would, if they found effect, result in shutting up the ecclesiastical courts altogether and in reducing the study of the civil law to a mere harmless pursuit for a few isolated scholars whose antiquarian or historical tastes might lead them in that direction. Such a victory was not however to be gained Slight revival at Oxford. Gentilis. without yet another struggle; and, as the seventeenth century CHAP. V. dawned, it seemed not impossible that the civil law might even yet regain much of its ancient importance and its professors once more find themselves on the high road to office and emolument. At Oxford, a slight impetus was of the study given to the renewal of the study by the appearance, in 1587, of the celebrated Albericus Gentilis as Regius professor. Albericus A learned jurist subsequently asserted that 'by his great industrie he quickened the dead body of the civil law written by ancient civilians, and in his learned labours expressed the judgment of a great state, with the soundnesse of a deep phylosopher and the skill of a cunning civilian' At Cam- Similar bridge, we may note a slight increase in the number of those Cambridge. who proceeded to degrees in this faculty; that of bachelors in the period 1591 to 1601 being twenty-five, of doctors, Dre eleven,—a slight advance upon any previous decennium in civil law the same half-century. This improvement is probably to be attributed to the ability and learning of Cowell, who had Professor been appointed Regius professor in 1594, and in 1598 was b. 1554 elected to the mastership of Trinity Hall. Of the importance to which the whole question involved in the study was shortly after raised by the influence of the new sovereign and of Bancroft we shall have occasion to speak in the next chapter. revival at Degrees between 1591 and 1601. John Cowell: d. 1611. The fate of the civil law as an academic study was thus, it will be observed, really depending on the as yet undecided issue, whether the profession of the civilian was likely to afford any fair prospect as a career. In common, however, with those other studies which languished in an almost equal degree, it was evident that it was not a little prejudiced by the increasing tendency, already noted, of the collegian, to confine his attention as far as possible to the curriculum prescribed within his own college walls. If Greek, or Hebrew, Perilous or the civil law were not taught by one or other of the those studies college lecturers, the spontaneous desire for instruction in taught only 1 Fulbeck, A Direction or Preparative to the Study of the Law (1620), p. 266 [quoted by Phillimore, Commentaries upon International Law, 1 xxvi]. 'It is certain,' says Prof. Hol land, 'that from the time of Gentilis condition of which were by the professors. CHAP. V., those branches was as rare as was that for instruction in The professors' ever. Notable testimony of Gabriel Harvey. Oriental languages in the first half of the present century. It was only when some lecturer of more than ordinary repuattended as tation, like Albericus, appeared, that his fame, and perhaps the novelty of the subject, attracted more than one or two listeners. In the year 1577, when Gabriel Harvey undertook to deliver two lectures on the subject of rhetoric', he was surprised (or professed himself surprised) to find an overflowing audience. As he looked on the throng of 'gentle lads' (suavissimorum puerorum) before him, he declared that he imagined himself at Paris' rather than at Cambridge. As he proceeds with his discourse, we learn, on authority which can hardly be called in question, that the schools still usually presented the same deserted aspect as in the days when Walter Haddon and Dr Caius uttered their pathetic remonstrances and laments, and that to ignore the ordinary lectures of the professors had become, by this time, a tradition in the college*. It is evident that the tendency to forsake the university lecture-room would be likely to produce a corresponding laxity with respect to attendance in the schools, and there Formal cha- appears sufficient reason for concluding that the public acts proceedings and exercises of former times were now frequently unkept still required or had dwindled to a mere formality. Theoretically, indeed, the requirements of an arts course still necessitated assiduous racter of the in the schools before ad mission to degrees. 1 Gabrielis Harveii Rhetor: vel duorum dierum Oratio de Natura, Arte, et Exercitatione rhetorica. Londini, ex Officina Typographica Henrici Binneman. 1577. 2 At Paris, it is to be noted, where (unlike the English universities) the collegiate system had in no way superseded or overwhelmed the university system. 3 Supra, pp. 96 and 97. 4 'Quid enim tam novum, novum autem? imo quid tam prodigiosum in academia Cantabrigiensi, quam veterem non negligere cujusque disciplinae professorem, nisi novi is forte aliquid, et peregrini, et paene inauditi dicturus existimetur? Vidi ego vacua subsellia, vidi scholas desertas, partim praelegentibus, partim perorantibus iis, ex quorum linguis melle nectareque dulcior fluebat oratio. Etiam gemina ornamenta nostra, Bingus et Dodingtonus (pudet dicere, sed nimis id verum est, et quidem etiam nimis intolerandum est) verba non semel sed saepe ad parietes et subsellia facere sunt coacti. Tanta est Cantabrigiensium aurium atque animorum mollities et elegantia! Nihil hic antiquum, nihil usitatum placet: vestes, mores, verba, gestum, omnia affectamus nova: etiam eundem diu audire, tametsi politissime dicentem atque optime, nostratem praesertim et domesticum, religio est.' Rhetor. of these by the author Abstract. study, frequent appearances in public, and painful perform- CHAP. V. ance of numerous exercises. The author of The Abstract Account thus draws the outline of what, in 1582, was still required proceedings of candidates for any degree in schoole' at Oxford or Cam- ofthe bridge: He must firste set uppon the schoole doores, his questions where in he is to answere: he must publikely aunswere to euery one that will oppose him: he must afterwarde in the universitie church, submit himself priuately to the examination of euery one of that degree, whereunto he desireth to be promoted. He must afterwardes be brought by his presenter into the congregation house, to the judgement and tryall of the whole house, and if he shall there baue a sufficient number of his superiours voyces allowing his maners, and pleased with his learning, he is then presented by one of the house to the vicechancellour, and proctors, and by them as judges in the name of the whole house, admitted to his degree'.' Successive statutes, and other evidence of a less direct kind, fairly justify us in concluding that the elaborate method of procedure above described involved in the great majority of cases little more than a series of empty formalities; and it was only when some redoubtable dialectician, anxious to add to the reputation he had already acquired in the schools, was proceeding to his degree, that any real display of acquirement or ability was evoked. Another kind of ordeal, and one against which no scholastic attainments could fortify their possessor, was the prospect which confronted an unpopular candidate of having his degree non- Practice of placeted in congregation. Sometimes this annoyance was a degree. inflicted for what must appear very inadequate causes. If the candidate had offended his fellow-collegians by unsociableness or moroseness or by giving himself airs,' they would not always disdain to have recourse to this equivocal mode of manifesting their resentment. Among those who thus 1 An Abstract, etc. u. s. I must observe that Robert Beale shews little real familiarity with Cambridge, and his language would almost create a doubt whether he had been edu- non-placeting CHAP. V. suffered, was Gabriel Harvey, whose master-of-arts' degree Instance of was non-placeted by two other fellows of Pembroke, named Gabriel Harvey. Regulations with respect duties. Osborne and Neville; and we find him bitterly complaining to the Master, Dr John Young, of his consequent 'great defamation in the town.' At the same time, he indignantly repels the grave charges which had been brought against him of cutting his fellow-collegians in the street', of hurrying away from their company 'after dinner and supper,' and of absenting himself from the cheerful blaze of the fire in the combination room"." Of the general character of the theology taught at this to religious period in the college or in the schools some illustration has already been given in the preceding pages and more will be found in the concluding chapter, when we come to pass under review the most eminent Cambridge divines and preachers of the time. A formal attention to religious observances, it should however here be noted, was rigorously enforced, and this not merely in relation to the college chapel Attendance but also to St Mary's. The pulpit in the university received, at the university sermon strictly enforced. indeed, an official support which was not vouchsafed to the professorial chair, non-attendance at the Sunday sermon ad clerum being punished by a fine of sixpence. We can scarcely be surprised to find that the less well-disposed took occasion to manifest their impatience of such compulsion by inattention and levity. A manifesto on the part of the 1'For mi self, whitch indeed am an inch beneath him, as he ons made his vaunt he can not deni it, he hath confest so mutch to me himself, that I passing bi him, and mouing mi cap, and speking unto him, he hath lookd awri another wai, nether afording me a word nor a cap: purposing, as I take it, to make of his inch a good long el, and to shew a lusti contempt of so silli a frend.' Written 'from Pembroke hal this xxi Mar. A. 1573.' Letter Book in possession of Pembroke College. 2 M. Nevil laid against me mi commun behauiur, that I was not familiar like a fellow, and that I did disdain eueri mans cumpani. To this I made him answer that I was aferd les ouer mutch familiariti had mard al; and therefore where as I was wunt to be as familiar and as sociable and as gud a fellow too, as ani, seeing sum to be sum what far of, and other not to like so wel of it, as it was ment, I was constrained to withdrawe mi self, sumwhat the more, althouh not greatly nether, out of oftin and continual cumpani. Marri so, that at usual and conuenient times, as after dinner and supper, at commenti fiers, yea and at other times too, if the lest occasion were offrid, I continuid as long as ani, and was as fellowli as the best.' Ibid. |