The CHAPL three successive communications from the chancellor, the earl of Northampton, at length compelled the caput to recognise the undeniable fact that the original conditions of the privilege were incompatible with their design'. At the me election, the prevailing sentiments of the constituency found free expression, and as the consequent result, Sir Francis Bacon, the attorney-general, and Sir Miles Sandys, were Fretion of returned by a large majority, while the two Heads who ventured to appear as candidates.-Dr Barnaby Gooch, master of Return of Magdalene, and Dr Corbet (who had been especially active in and the attempt to deprive the majority of the voters of their Francis Bacon and Cambridge. rights),―obtained only seventy-four and sixty-four votes respectively. A formal objection was, however, taken to the return of Sir Miles, on the ground that he was not, as the terms of the charter might be held to require, really resident in the university; and Dr Gooch, amid loud outeries of a Sandys', 'a Sandys,' was declared elected in his stead'. But this objection would appear to have been subsequently overruled, for while Sir Miles took his seat in the house and served on no less than seven committees, we find no mention whatever of Dr Gooch in the journals of this parliament*. It would seem that there was some reason to apprehend that a like objection might possibly be taken to the return of Bacon, for the vice-chancellor, in declaring his election, described him as 'master of arts and of councel of and to the Universitie of Cambridge,—whereby he may seeme after a sort to live and breath among us. The great philosopher, indeed, had never ceased to look back with affection, and something even of regret, to the scenes of his studious youth. He had noted the influences there in course of developement 1 The 3 letters from our honorable chancellor unto the said Dr Duport......wherein his lordship advized us 1° principaly by all meanes to follow the expresse words of our charter [see supra, p. 459 n. 2] and of the writt as having noe power of ourselves otherwise either to choose or to make burgesses, and that being chosen any otherwise, our burgesses were no burgesses.' See 'Relation of Dr Duport (deputy V.C.) a MS. in Jesus Coll. Lib., Cooper, A. and C., time contem tiring perma Cambridge. with unflagging interest, and had criticised the prevailing CHAP. VI. defects with the freedom of a faithful friend. And years before the election of 1614,-when political opponents and He at one jealous rivals were seeking to obstruct his rise, and he was plated recalmly weighing the possibility of a complete and decisive nently to repulse in the arena of active life, it was to Cambridge that he contemplated retiring, there to pass the remainder of his days, devoted solely to scientific studies and forgetful of the world'. But now all apprehensions of defeat and humiliation were over, and Francis Bacon, when visiting Cambridge, represented, not the humble, pensive man of letters, but the influential and still aspiring politician. He was distinguished in the university by the sumptuousness of his entertainments and by his splendid style of living; to the different colleges he periodically forwarded presents of venison; while so anxious. was he to impress upon the community the disinterestedness of his motives and his zeal for their interests, that he even disclaimed all notion of receiving any fees for the services rendered in his official capacity". associated maintenance of the indea versity. pendence of the uni When compared with the benefits which he conferred on His name mankind, Bacon's services to his university dwindle, indeed, with the into insignificance; but it is gratifying to recall that the reminiscences thus connected with his memory are of such character, and that the name of Francis Bacon stands associated with the maintenance of the academic privileges as opposed to the encroachments of a narrow oligarchy. able results autocratic Heads in respective But though defeated in their endeavour practically to unfavor monopolise the privileges of the new constituency, it is a of the sufficiently significant fact that the Heads should ever have powers of contemplated such a design; and the failure, it is to be their noted, represents the only appreciable check on their self- colleges. aggrandising policy within the limits of our present period. In his own college, the powers of each head had become almost despotic; and his sense of irresponsibility was indi 1 I will, with God's assistance... ...retire myself with a couple of men to Cambridge, and there spend my life in my studies and contemplations, without looking back.' Letter M. II. to the Earl of Essex: Ibid. 1 291. 2 Letter from Chamberlain to CHAP. VI. cated, according to his disposition, either by supine neglect of the interests of the society or by the inquisitorial severity with which he sought to impress his own views on all beneath him. According as he was a north or south countryman, a Calvinist or an Arminian, a supporter of the Court and the royal prerogative or of the growing Puritan party, his predilections would be manifested with but little reserve. It was thus that each college too often became a narrow exclusive community, where local antipathies and religious or political animosities were fostered and developed, and that catholic interchange of thought and feeling which it is the first function of a university to promote was effectually checked. The history of the university, in fact, now began to resemble that of a number of powerful and uncontrolled feudatories in a great empire, each rendering little more than a formal allegiance to their common lord, and with but small concern for the general weal;-intent, for the most part, only on particular aims and dissociated interests, and rarely combining Increasing for concerted action. Such a history, it is obvious, involves much more frequent reference than heretofore to that of the different colleges, and before further seeking to investigate its more general features, we shall find it of considerable service to pay some attention to the condition and tendencies predominant in each society, together with the characters of their more distinguished heads, as they come before us in the first quarter of the seventeenth century. importance of college history. THE COLLEGES AND THEIR HEADS: ROGER GOAD, Among the sixteen divines who exercised at this time such potent influence over the fortunes of Cambridge, Roger A.D. 1000-25. Goad, the provost of King's, must have appeared the Nestor of their number. Nearly half a century before king James ascended the throne, he had come up from Eton, a mere stripling of 17, to be admitted to his scholarship in that illustrious society. His life since then had not, however, been spent entirely in the university. For some years he had been absent from Cambridge, employed in gaining experience of that kind which all who are looking forward to becoming engaged in university instruction itself do well to acquire, by acting as a master in the grammar school at riot.' rule at Guildford, where among his pupils was George Abbot, after- CHAP. VI. wards archbishop of Canterbury'. Although, on the occasion of Goad's election to the provostship, in 1570, his special fitness for the post was attested by the joint recommendation of bishop Grindal, Walter Haddon, and Henry Knollys, his first experiences were of no good augury. He was unscrupulously assailed by some of the younger fellows who represented the extreme Puritan faction, and the struggle in which he thus became involved was long afterwards known as the 'Goad The 'Goad riot.' Goad fought the battle with an admirable combination of courage and discretion, triumphantly refuted the accusations brought against him, and brought his more reckless. accusers to bitter humiliation and shame. His subsequent Dr Goad's rule was attended with the utmost advantage and credit King's. to his college and to the university. He was three times. elected to the office of vice-chancellor; he re-established the college library and was a benefactor to the society in his will; and his six sons, educated like himself at Eton, were elected from thence to scholarships at King's. Of His secon these, Thomas, the second son, acquired considerable reputation as a scholar, and was one of the divines deputed to attend the Synod of Dort. Dr Goad's theological tendencies His character are to be inferred from the facts that he was elected to theologian. preach Whitaker's funeral sermon and was an active participant in the proceedings against Peter Baro. At King's, Character of however, perhaps more than in any other society in the at this university, theology was a comparatively subordinate element, and the designs of its pious founder were to a great extent ignored. The fellows cultivated music with much assiduity and success, but evinced little inclination either for polemics or for active work in the ministry. The historian of the college notes, as a somewhat remarkable fact, that at one time 1 Cooper, Athenae, ш 21. 2 See 'An Answere to Articles exhibited,' &c. 1576. Baker MSS., IV 9. 3 Cooper, Athenae, 111 22. 4 Allen, Lives of the Masters, Fellows, and Scholars of King's College, 11 1028. Supra, p. 347. 6 Ball, in his Life of Preston, says that when Preston entered at King's in 1584 he applied himself to that which was the genius of the colledge, and that was musick.' Clarke, Lives (ed. 1659), p. 76. son. Thou.AS. as a the society period. CHAP. VI. during Dr Goad's rule, only one of their number had undertaken clerical work'. No fellowships in the university were, however, more prized, whether for their value or their social advantages, and the society was at this period especially prosperous. When John Scot, in 1617, drew up his account of the university, the total number of residents was 2270, the number at King's being 120; fifty-five years later, when John Ivory compiled a similar account, these numbers were 2522 and 113 respectively. The heads of the two other societies, which, in conjunction with King's, must be regarded as the leading communities in the university at this time, were both men whose names are alike associated in a very Trinity and marked degree with the history of their colleges. Thomas Neville had succeeded in 1593 to the mastership of Trinity,— Richard Clayton (as already noted"), succeeded two years later, to that of St John's. Thomas Neville (or Nevin, as his name was more usually pronounced by his contemporaries),—' the 1593-1615. magnificent Neville,' as Fuller terms him,—was a member of St John's. THOMAS NEVILLE, master of Trinity, His early university career. that ancient house whose history, commencing with the time when its representatives ruled under the Plantagenets in Aquitaine, stands so long and intimately associated with the many vicissitudes of the great families of York and Lancaster. He had at one time been a fellow of Pembroke College, where, it will be remembered, his name has already come before us as that of one of those who combined to non-placet 1 'It so fell out, tho' this our foundation was established more especially for the breeding up of clergymen...Mr Turner [adm. 1571] was one while the only preacher in college.' Allen, u. 8. 11 900. 2 I could not haue wantid a fellowship in ani place, no not in King's College, if need had bene': such was the vaunt attributed to Gabriel Harvey, in 1573, by his enemies, although disclaimed by himself. Note Book, MS. in Pembroke College. 3 The Foundation of the Universitie of Cambridge. With a Catalogue of the principall Founders and speciall Benefactours of the Colledges, Publique Schooles, and Librarie, nowe in the same. And the names of all the present Maisters and Fellowes of euerie perticular Coll: Together with the number of Magistrats, Gouernours, and Officers, thereunto belonging and the totall number of Students nowe therein resyding. Collected A.D. 1617. Scot's account, a beautiful MS. in the British Museum (MS. Harl. 4017), is dedicated to the chancellor of the university, the Earl of Suffolk. It has furnished me with the statistics of the different colleges which I give in the following pages. Ivory's account is printed in Cooper, Annals, 111 553-4. The total number at Oxford in 1611 was 2420. 5 Supra, pp. 345-6. Supra, p. 428. |