ment which the belief in pleasure of Whitgift. But in no way were his courage and CHAP. VI. superior discernment more clearly shewn than by the reso- Discouragelute opposition which he offered to the then prevailing and he offers to increasing belief in witchcraft,—that cruel superstition which witchcraft. constitutes so gloomy a feature in the history of the contemporary and later Puritanism, and to which James himself, with all his shrewdness, gave such unequivocal sanction. Towards the close of the century, a bachelor of arts named John Darrel, created considerable excitement among the population of Nottinghamshire by professing to have successfully performed the part of an exorcist. His reiterated assertions and perseverance gained over not a few reputable persons to give credence to his professed powers, among whom were such men as Hildersham. Harsnet, however, His detection was at the pains and expense of subjecting Darrel's more glaring impostures to a lengthy analysis which filled a small quarto volume of 300 pages, and the imposition altogether collapsed'. of Darrel. DUPORT, Respecting John Duport, who presided at Jesus College JOHN from 1590 to 1618 and was distinguished as one of the trans- master of lators of the Bible, there is little known that here calls for College, 1 See A Discovery of the fraudulent Practises of John Darrel, Bacheler of Artes, in his Proceedings concerning the pretended Possession and Dispossession of William Somers at Nottingham: etc., etc., London: imprinted by John Wolfe [n. d.]. Harsnet's name does not appear on the title-page, but the Preface is signed S. H. which, says a manuscript note to the copy in the University Library [Tracts, Dd. 3. 46], 'is Sam'. Harsnet as appears by Darrels Answer.' Harsnet takes up the position that the power of 'casting out devils, together with that of working miracles, was restricted to the Apostles' time and some fewe ages after the Apostles' (To the Reader, A. 4), thus implicitly rejecting the long array of mediaeval legends. The same volume contains another tractate by the same author entitled A Declaration of Popish Impostures in casting out of Devils, practised by Edmunds, alias Weston, a Jesuit, etc. London, 1604, which is designed to expose similar Jesus 1590-1618. CHAP. VI. record. The general efficiency of the administration during his mastership may be inferred from the fact that in 1617 the numbers were larger than in 1672, being 118 and 112 respectively. A certain share of this prosperity may probably be attributed to the patronage of Bancroft, who always regarded with special favour the society where he had studied and taught with like success'. Duport's successor, Roger Andrewes, the brother of the bishop, was notorious for his misrule; but the historian of the society notes, however, that he was the first master who caused a regular journal of the proceedings of the college to be kept3. ROGER ANDREWES, master 1618-1632. SAMUEL master of 1609-1643. able powers of acquisition. When we turn to the college which comes next in numbers, that of Sidney Sussex, with a total of 117, the contrast presented in the character of Samuel Ward to the enlightened faith of an Andrewes and the robust intellect of a Harsnet, is such that it seems difficult to understand how they could have been, not merely contemporaries in the same university, but probably well known to each other and His remark- occasionally holding intercourse. That, in one sense, Ward was a man of considerable mental power is proved by his remarkable attainments. The son of an able and popular minister in Suffolk, his great capacity for acquiring knowledge brought him very early into notice, and when, in 1619, he was elected one of the delegates to the Synod of Dort, His general his reputation for learning was probably unequalled in the university. His subsequent election to the lady Margaret chair and lengthened tenure of the office served only still further to enhance that reputation. But although his receptivity was altogether abnormal, it must be admitted that his judgement was singularly feeble; and while his disposition was forgiving and his heart kindly, his estimate of those who differed from him in matters of religious belief was morose and intolerant in the extreme. His Diary, his Ad character. 1 '-nunquam socius, verum tutor nominatissimus et potestate plane magistrali pollens, pupillos bene multos in sociorum numerum promovebat.' Shermanni Hist. (original MS.), p. 64. 2 He was notwithstanding appoint ed to valuable preferments by his brother: see Russell (A. T.) Memoirs of Bishop Andrewes, p. 396. 3 'omnium primus a collegio primitus fundato ephemeridem sive registrum conscribi curavit.' Shermanni Hist., p. 38. Adversaria, more versaria, and his admirable portrait-all still preserved in CHAP. VI. the college,—seem, in a manner, to supplement each other, His Diary, and combine to indicate a character that cannot be mis- and portrait. taken. The amiable but irresolute face looking dubiously, half timidly forth upon us from the canvas, is in perfect keeping with the man who, in pages meant for no eye save his own, appears self-depicted, at once morbidly introspective and morbidly distrustful of the world. Neither Augustine nor Rousseau ever subjected himself to a more pitiless selfdissection, or estimated with sterner impartiality the mainsprings of his own action; but while the African father and the French sceptic often excite our wonder, they seldom suggest the ludicrous. To Samuel Ward, as he summed His Diary up each day's experience nothing appeared too trivial to especially. form an indictment against himself, nothing in the course of events so ordinary as not to furnish a theme for wonder, or to constitute a mystery. If an Arminian had succeeded to the headship of a neighbouring college', if a 'problem' in chapel indicated 'a carnal curiosity' on the part of the propounder, or a commonplace' savoured of views which Ward himself held heterodox, such occurrences to him were 'judgements.' The category of his own shortcomings is such as to suggest that something of spiritual pride must have entered into their record, for when it became necessary to recall such trifles in order to formulate his own self-condemnation, it is evident that his life must have been really singularly blameless. If he had incautiously eaten too freely His habit of at supper, if he had been conscious of feeling but inade- tion." quate compassion for some culprit flogged in the college hall, if he had felt some natural elation at being appointed to lecture in Greek, if his thoughts had wandered at 1 'Wo is me for Christ's College, now is one imposed upon, who will be the utter ruin and destruction of that college. O Lord, thou hast some judgements in store for this land, of which this is no doubt a forerunner.' Adversaria, Baker MSS. XI 344. 211 May, 1595. Also thy gluttony the night before.' Diary. 24 Dec. 1597. 'My gluttony in eating 311 May 1595. My little pity 4 '15 June 1595. My thought of prid att reading of Greek, commenc self-inculpa CHAP. VI. prayers', if he had been guilty of ostentation in the presence of strangers, had listened with too little interest to the catechist, or had misinterpreted and suspected another's remarks, these and such like peccadillos were regularly noted down at the end of the day to be a theme of sad and humiliating reflexion ere he sought the night's repose. It seems difficult to believe that such minute and incessant self-introspection can have conduced either to a healthy tone of mind or to a sound judgement. Better, surely, the moral strength and the joy which comes with the genuinely progressive life, which, conscious of honorable aims and integrity of purpose, 'forgets, as nature forgets,' and each morning rises to its task as 'a babe new-born'! It is almost a relief to turn from the perusal of entries like the foregoing, to those which relate to the illness of a favorite pupil, and if here, again, we recognise something of the same morbidness of sentiment, to note at the same time the of his pupils. feelings which do honour to our common human nature: as we mark the poor college tutor full of self-reproach at imaginary neglect of those committed to his charge,watching, in alternate hope and fear, by the couch where youth lies struggling in the grasp of death, and then, when at last the end comes, in the early hours of a dark November morn, recording, in a few simple sorrowful words, the happy departure, and the bright promise of a life well taken from the sin and suffering here". the loss of one ing the teaching of my auditors the 117 May 1595. Thy wandering 221 July 1597.... Also my pride in walking in the middest of the orchard when St John's men were there.' Ib. 32 June 1595. My careless hearing at Mr. Wm. Gouge catechising.' Ib. 4 '19 May 1595. And of thy surmisings of M. N. that day, when he were speaking against them that saught prayse, as we were comming downe Gogmagog.' Ib. 5 10 and 11 Nov. 1599. Remember the great agony thou wast in for Luck...... thy greef thou hadst, in part for that thou hadst bene so negligent in looking to thy puples...' '14 being tuesday, att night, 1599, about 4 o'clock, before day, it pleased God to take away my puple Luck. God make me thankful for his happy departure! Remember how willing he was to dye from the beginning. Remember God's providence in bringing his brother out of Sussex to Cambridge the Satturday before his death. He confessed his sin before his death, prayed heartily, was very desirous to be informed in his duty towards God, desired that he might leave behind him a good example of his death unto others.' Ib. RICHARDSON, Peterhouse, visit to in 1611. tions to At Peterhouse, where the total was 110, the puritanical CHAP. VI, rule of Robert Some was exchanged in 1609 for that of one of wider views and more liberal culture. John Richard- JOHN son's tenure of the post, which lasted to 1615, is associated master of with a reminiscence which stands in pleasant contrast to the 1609-1615. prevailing academic activity,—the visit of Isaac Casaubon Casaubon's to Cambridge. During the months of August and September Cambridge in 1611, the great scholar was the guest of bishop Andrewes at Downham near Ely. He seems to have greatly enjoyed the quiet and repose of his summer sojourn in the fen country, the aspects of which he describes in terms of admiration which almost excite our surprise'. But to Casaubon, His obligaeven during this brief interval of rest, not to study would Richardson's have been to seem not to live, and access to a good library was indispensable to his happiness. Andrewes, it is hardly necessary to say, had an excellent library, but it was far away in London; and in his perplexity, Casaubon had recourse to the master of Peterhouse. Dr Richardson was a genuine student, and he had at one time taken to a line of reading of which traces are singularly rare in the Cambridge of those days, the pages of the imperialist chroniclers. Casaubon, who happened to be then engaged in examining for himself the details of the great struggle between the Empire and the Papacy in the days of Hildebrand, was not a little aided by Richardson's library. library. rule at College. Prior to his election to the mastership of Peterhouse, Richardson's Richardson had been a member of Clare College and then Trinity a fellow of Emmanuel, and from Peterhouse he was promoted in 1615 to the mastership of Trinity. From the year 1607 to 1617 he was also Regius professor of divinity. The compiler of the Memoriale, the splendid volume which adorns the library of the last-named society, notes it as a very exceptional mark of respect that, on Richardson's first entrance upon his new office, his arms were emblazoned on the pages of that record,-an honour that had been paid only to one master before, namely to Dr Neville. The new 1 Pattison, Isaac Casaubon, p. 391. 2 Ibid. p. 390. 3 Sic ad nos accedit Richardsonus summa cum exspectatione, et |