have I been more conscious of the difficulties of my task than when endeavouring to discriminate (as I have continually been under the necessity of doing) between the incidents and features in college history which properly belong to such a treatment of the subject, and those which must be considered as appertaining rather to the special history of each separate foundation. For the encouragement and practical aid which I have received in every quarter, I here take the opportunity of expressing my sincere thanks. To the Masters of Magdalene, Trinity, Emmanuel, and Sidney Colleges, my acknowledgements are especially due for access to documents, and for advice and corrections in my accounts of those several foundations. To the Rev. John E. B. Mayor, M.A., professor of Latin and senior fellow of St John's College,—to J. E. Sandys, esquire, M.A., fellow and tutor of St John's College and public orator to the university,-and to the Rev. Christopher Wordsworth, M.A., formerly fellow of Peterhouse, I am, as in connexion with my former volume, under no small measure of obligation for continuous help in the revision of my proof-sheets and other valuable assistance. To no one, however, is my indebtedness in this respect greater than to the late E. R. Horton, esquire, M.A., fellow of Peterhouse and vicemaster of University College School, London, who, until within a few weeks of his lamented death, aided me with a careful and suggestive criticism which I shall always gratefully remember. To the Rev. H. R. Luard, D.D., senior fellow of Trinity College and registrar of the university, I am indebted for access to the original documents in the registry; to Henry Bradshaw, esquire, M.A., senior fellow of King's College and university librarian, for information relating to the history of the Library and other matters of literary interest; to J. Willis Clark, esquire, M.A., auditor and late fellow of Trinity College, for the loan of transcripts of the original statutes of the college and other help; to W. Aldis Wright, esquire, M.A., fellow of Trinity College, for information and valuable guidance on points connected with the history of the college; to the Rev. Robert Siuker, B.D., librarian of Trinity College, for like assistance and for access to the library of the foundation. I have also to thank E. J. L. Scott, esquire, of the manuscript department of the British Museum, for the loan of his transcript of Gabriel Harvey's Note Book, prior to its publication by the Camden Society; and Robert Bowes, esquire, of the firm of Macmillan and Bowes, for the loan of his copy of Cooper's Additions and Corrections to the Annals (a volume now of great rarity), and also for permission to consult the manuscript of his paper read before the Cambridge Antiquarian Society on the printers to the university. To the trustees of the Williams Library, Grafton Street, London, my thanks are due for frequent access to the library, a collection of special value for students of our seventeenth century history. For information and assistance on various points, I would venture to express my obligations to H. Maxwell Lyte, esquire, M.A., of Christchurch, Oxford; to T. W. Jackson, esquire, M.A., tutor and dean of Worcester College, Oxford; to the Rev. J. W. Hicks, M.A., fellow and librarian of Sidney College; to the Rev. W. A. Cox, M.A., fellow and junior dean, to W. F. Smith, esquire, M.A., fellow and lecturer, and to R. F. Scott, esquire, M.A., fellow and bursar,-of St John's College. Lastly my acknowledgements are due to the Syndics of the University Press, during the last seven years, for the assistance rendered me in the production of this volume and their kind consideration of the delay which has attended its publication. ST JOHN'S College, Sept. 1884. CONTENTS. Cromwell elected chancellor of the university His claims to this distinction, as compared with those of pre- ib. 75 ib. Remission to the university of first-fruits and tenths, 1536 Evidence of reactionary feeling in the university Election at St John's of a successor to Dr Metcalfe as master Ascham's testimony to Metcalfe's merits DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIES Latimer's invectives against the monasteries The royal commissioners and the monasteries The authorities of the latter petition the Crown for the Suppression of the priory at Barnwell The university petitions that the suppressed friaries at Evidence they supply of the impoverished state of the |