Present times had been often attempted and particulary by Cardinal Woolsey and other Great Men in their several times but was never brought to any perfection nor indeed to any thing at all But the business left where it was first undertaken I did ever foresee that it was not possible to make a Reformation or settle That Body unless the Statutes were first perfected And yet it was evident also what great difficulties attended That work For it had been twice undertaken during my own time in the University and both times it came to nothing At the Last time it was attempted I was Named in Convocation one of the Delegates my self By which means I had opportunity to see where the difficulties and impediments lay but was not then able to remove them Afterwards coming to be Bishop of London and finding my Lord the Earl of Pembrock much troubled at some unworthy proceedings There I told him he would never have remedy until the Statutes of the University were reduced into a Body and setled And withal acquainted his Lordship wherein the Difficulties lay Hereupon at his entreaty I set down what way was to be taken and followed for effecting That work And began at the naming of the Delegacy below in Convocation Which Delegacy was no sooner nam'd and my Directions sent unto them but my Lord of Pembroke died and I was chosen Chancellour after him and took up this work where it was then left and resolved to go on against all Difficulties which were like to oppose me in the Body of that University Which being very sick was desirous enough to be well but not pleased with the sourness of the Cure Besides such Bodies never want Factions and many There that were willing enough to have a Cure were not so well pleas'd it should be wrought by my hand But This and many other Difficulties I overcame with Care and Patience and went on with the work S. in Christo. AFter my hearty Commendations c. I am given to understand that on Sunday last I was wellcomed into my Chancellourship of Oxford with two very ill Accidents in either Sermon one The first I hear was committed by one of Exeter College who preach'd directly against all Reverence in Churches and all Obeysance or any devout gesture in or at the receiving of the Communion And if this be true belike we shall not kneel neither The other as I am informed was by one Mr. Tucker of your own College who was not content only to justifie the Five Articles commonly called Arminianism but he would needs lay an Aspersion upon the Synod of Dort In both which he hath directly gone against his Majesties both Proclamation and Instructions prohibiting all men of all sorts for a time to preach either way concerning them that so those unhappy Differences likely to rend this Church as well as others might sleep first and dye after I know not whether Mr. Vicechancellour did convent these men or no. If he did your labour is past If he did not then I pray do you and take two or three Doctors to you I would not be too sour at my first coming-in And yet I would not have Sermons of such ill example lead the way into my Government There I hope a strict Monition that they run no more into these Errours will serve the turn for this first time But if you find that it will not then I pray go so much farther as the carriage of the men and the merits of their cause shall require I know these Sermons were provided before I was Chancellour but yet I know too that the blame will fall on me more than upon another man if such things as these pass without Censure I pray as you shew'd your Love to choose me so be careful to maintain my honour in upholding the Peace and the Government of the Place For God knows what blustring may follow upon That unhappy accident of Mr. Tucker's Thus not doubting of your Care herein I leave you to the Grace of God And shall ever rest LONDON House May 7. 1630. Your very Loving Friend GVIL London S. in Christo. AFter my hearty Commendations c. your Deputy Dr. Tolsen hath done very well in some Business in your absence which I hope you will perfect Now I have a little more Business for you in which I must desire you to have a special Care I am given to understand that Formalities which are in a sort the outward and visible Face of the University are in a manner utterly decayed not only abroad in the Streets but also in the very Schools Convocation and Congregation-houses and at Latin Sermons In somuch that strangers which come thither have scarce any external Mark by which they may know they are in a University If this go on the University will lose ground every day both at home and abroad and especially with his Majesty who is a great Lover of Order and Decency in all Seminaries of good Learning And he hath already given 〈◊〉 strict charge to look both to this and other particulars in their several times I pray therefore call the Heads of Colleges and Halls together with the Proctors and read these Letters to them and with my Love remembr'd to them all let them know I am welcom'd into my Chancellourship with many complaints from very great men I hope all are not true And I hope such as are you and they will All in your several Houses joyn pains and hearty endeavous to see them rectifi'd as I shall in due time severally propose them At this time I think it necessary the Heads should fairly bespeak their several Companies to fit themselves with Formalities fitting their Degrees that when the Act comes God bless you with Health that it may hold with honour and safety the University may have Credit by looking like it self And then I doubt not but it will be it self too For it will not endure but to be as it seems And I desire you would bespeak your Companies fairly Both because I presume most men There in their generous and liberal Education will be such lovers of Order that they will run to the practice And because I heartily desire that as I am chosen Chancellour with a great deal of unexpected Love so I may be enabled ever to Govern with a like measure of it My heart ever was and I hope ever shall be set to do That Place all the good I can And I shall take it for one of God's greatest Temporal blessings upon me if I may have your joint Concurrence to perfect the good I wish And I will not doubt but that you do so love and honour That our Venerable Mother that you will cheerfully afford me This assistance When you have made this Entrance for Formalities at the Act for which I now give time and warning then the better to settle them and all other Points of Government I pray take care to go on with
come to the same thing for I presume you will not keep a Winter Act And for any thing that concerns your self in particular that 's not a matter considerable for 't is but a little Pains lost and not so much if you can tell how to lay a Speech in Pickle till the next Year June 30 1637. VV. Cant. SIR I Understand that Richard Bull one of the Yeomen Bedels is lately dead and that there are so many Suitors for the place as somewhat distract the University I should be sorry any such petty occasion should divide that Body and do hereby heartily pray you that while I leave all Men to their Liberty you will take care to keep them in Peace and to see that the Election pass orderly And yet truely tho' I leave all men that have suffrages free I cannot but marvel that there should not be a full concurrence of Voices for the choice of William Ball Servant to your late Predecessor Dr. Puike For to my knowledge he took a great deal of very good Pains in writing out the Leidger-Book of Statutes for the University In which respect I for my part cannot but recommend him to the care both of the Heads and of the Masters assuring my self that he will be a very serviceable man in that place both for his Pen and otherwise and therefore I do hereby pray you to do him the best Offices you can that he may be chosen So I leave you to God's blessed Protection and rest Croydon July 14 1637. Your very loving Friend VV. Cant. SIR MR. Greaves of C.C.C. began to read the Arabick Lecture upon Wednesday 19 July as Deputy to Mr. Pocock to whom I gave leave to Travel to Constantinople and the Eastern parts for the better perfecting himself in the Arabick and Eastern Languages and I allowed him the stipend of the Lecture towards his Travels Concerning Mr. Brown and your Stationers there is little more to be said For the truth is since Mr. Brown buying at the first hand may sell as cheap as the Merchant he will certainly draw all the Custom of the whole Town to himself And certain it is this would be a considerable benefit to the particular Students who are to buy but it must be the utter undoing of all the other Booksellers about the Town which again on the other side is more considerable and that as well in regard of the Honour and Justice of the University as of the Livelyhood of the men themselves and their Families The truth is for ought as yet appears to me Mr. Brown must not be suffered to sell by retail for the reason aforesaid And you were as good order it so your selves as have it ordered above to your Hands for I remember some two years since there was a great Complaint brought to the Councel-Table that some men in London would be both Merchants of Cloth and yet keep a Drapers-shop and sell by retail and it was over-ruled at the Board that they might use which they would but that they might not use both And I verily believe if your Stationers complain thither as fear of undoing may make them do any thing I shall be commanded to Order you in this Case of Mr. Brown after the same manner Besides this there is something considerable in the thing it self For tho' it be true that Mr. Brown in this way may and no doubt will undersel your other Stationers and so undo them and enrich himself Yet when they are all undone may not he then or any other that shall succeed him in that way raise the price of Books under some pretence or other and sell them as dear as the Stationers now do It is therefore certainly a business of great Consideration in it self and in the Justice of the University that so many Men and Families be not ruined after they have served there for their Freedom and Liberty for some Saving to particular Men. And for an Expedient in a middle way I do not yet see where it may be had and certainly one way or other the business must be settled and the sooner the better Croyden July 28. 1637. W. Cant. Most Reverend Father in God my very Honourable good Lord I Had long since in my former Letters acquainted your Grace according to your directions with the particular mischief that ariseth out of the multitude of Victualling-Houses in this place but that I was informed that by your Grace's care an Order was made that no Justices should License Ale-Houses but in open Sessions and that the Number should not exceed Three and Twenty But finding that this excellent remedy taketh no good effect I am once more bold to be troublesome to your Grace hoping that by your Assistance and Favour which is never wanting to us we may in some measure amongst our selves correct this spreading evil I know your Grace is very apprehensive of the Malignity of this desperate evil the occasion of many's ruine amongst us the Number of Victuallers being incredible and likely to grow continually The Cure I conceive is not by punishing the immediate Delinquents either by Imprisonment according to the Statute 5 to Edw. 6. or by whipping by the Statute Primo Reg. Caroli but as I have learned by serving two Apprentiships by Indicting the Brewer upon the Statute 4 to Reg. Jacobi who must pay 6 s. 8 d. for every Barrel he shall deliver into any Tap-House not Licenced These Men are Solvendi and if the Penalty be required they will be soon weary of trading this way and by this means we stop the Current at the very Head and Fountain I hope the Justices in the Town-Sessions will not hinder this good work they having much encreased the Number of the Burghers by renewing very lately their Commission wherein Five of them are added One being a Brewer who neither by Law or in Reason should be a Judge in this kind c. At this time Dr. Fell sent me a List of 94 Ale-Houses which were unlicenced within the City of Oxford Christ-Church Oxford August 15. 1637. Your Graces ever to be commanded in any service for the good of Church or State Sam. Fell. Salutem in Christo. SIR I Received your Letter concerning the great number and increase of Ale-house-keepers and Victuallers unlicenced in the University to the great dishonour of that place and as great mischief to many young Students there I thank you heartily for this care and pains and do hereby assure you that I will give you all the assistance I possibly can to cure this Malady And if you find that neither the Order which I caused to be made nor the other Remedies which your self mention will cure this business as it seems to do I pray acquaint Mr. Vice-chancellor with these my Letters and let him know I would have him your self and the other Justices to proceed upon the Statute 4 to Jacobi and make every Brewer pay 6 s. 8
futurus Sed quiescit Ille in suo omnium Domino Redeundum est nam dum doleo Clarissimum Virum oculis ereptum nostris paenè oblitus sum mei Sed memini dixisse me magnum esse quod in me contulistis Munus sine dubio magnum seipso tamen modum rei si perpendamus Majus Contulistis enim Cancellariatum Academiae vestrae ante hac saepius sed semper Magnum in Magnos contulistis Et Honor iste semper ascendebat descendebat nunquam usquedum nunc in me nec solùm in me Minorem sed immerentem sed prorsus nescientem addo etiam non ut beneficio quicquam detraham sed ut affectus vestros indicem Nolentem contra meipsum omni conatu Deum conscientias quorundam astantium testor molientem descendebat Amoris vestri impetus hic fuit cui nunquam par ero ut me in gremium Matris meae Vestraeque reduceretis Quod Vobis faustum precor sit 〈◊〉 mihi non potest non esse pergratissimum sic tam fervidis affectibus honorari Vnum tamen placuit vobis errorem eumque magnam sicu t solet errare quùm errat Amor Amori vestro immiscere Ipsam nempe mei Electionem Nisi enim me augurium fallat sim falsus animi meliùs multo consultum foret Vobis Academiae fortasse mihi si hunc honoris fateor sed invidiae cumulum in alivs fortiores humeros placuisset imponere Quippe poterat Munere isto quod hîc collocasse quid aliud paenè est quà m perdidisse Novus aliquis qui plus posset Patronus conciliari Ad me verò quod attinet non indigebam his stimulis qui etiam ante hunc collatum honorem reputabam me quasi unum è Vobis Nec erat quitquam intra sphoeram activitatis meae ad quod praestandum sponte non fuerim paratissimus Adeò ut hoc tam ingenti Beneficio actione quidem Amoris vinculo me vobis devinctum agnoscam promptiore verò ad benefaciendum animo non sentiam Videtis ut Amoris vestri sive error sive aestus Navem Academiae gubernandam tradidit homini cui benè Velle quidem adest caeterùm nec Ars suppetit nec Rudentes nec Anchora satis firma Quae spes itaque appellendi ad portum si qua fortè oboriatur Tempestas certe nulla nisi Rex pro innat â suâ erga Literas Literatos bonitate quam à Patre piissimae memorioe Regum dum vixit doctissimo hausit dignetur Ipse Maecenas 〈◊〉 audire me sibi constituere sequestrem in iis quoe ad Vos spectabunt Imò nisi pro misericordiâ illâ quoe est super omnia opera ejus plusquam aliquid descendat à Rege Regum Domino Dominantium Ille spero quà est Pater Luminum à quo omne datum quod bonum aperiet oculos meos ut videam diriget gressus meos ut sequar ea quae Academiae Matri meae semper honorandae Vobis Confratribus meis utilissima amplissima honoratissima futura sunt Reliquum est ut Vos Viri gravissimi Seniores Israëlis nostri nam 〈◊〉 Moses solus potuit omnia humeros vestros unà mecum supponatis oneri Et nisi it à faciatis Deus bone in quales quantas angustias me conjecistis Sed videtur vel ipse Aspectus hic Academicus nescic quid boni mihi polliceri eundem nempe Amorem majorem si fieri potest non ut anteà errantem in exhibendo mihi auxilium quod Vos deceat me sublevet Et certè ipsa Academia quâ nescio quid mihi charius esse potest doctrinâ simul moribus pietate simul sobrietate pace simul unitate sit in omne aevum florentissima in Vobis aequè ac in me situm erit Academia enim tot ditata Collegiis quot qualibus vix dotata est quaelibet per Europam alia non aliunde pejus audit quà m ex fractà jacente quasi Disciplinâ Eam de postliminio restituite reducite in gratiam vestram antiquam statim videbitis Academiae pulchritudinem Neque enim Anus haec canitie vener and a rugas novit contrahere nisi prae moerore anxietate ob collapsam Disciplinam Sunt quae hic plura dicerem Sed Dies serenus est talis opto sit Vobis mihi Nolo Diem hunc querelis obnubilare quae ne tunc quidem sunt gratae quùm forsan necessariae Opto omnibus singulis Vobis 〈◊〉 universo salutem serenitatem quam nulla unquam nubila tempeslas quae undique perflare humana solet aut abscondat aut 〈◊〉 Concludam cum Apostolo De caetero Fratres Quaecunque sunt vera quaecunque pudica quaecunque justa quaecunque Sancta quaecunque amabilia quaecunque bona sunt Addo Quaecunque ad aedificationem Ecclesiae Christi quacunque ad obedienl am erga Christium Domini quaecunque ad pietatem pacem populi Dei pertinent Si qua virtus si qua laus disciplinae haec cogitate haec agite ad unum Omnes Et pax Dei quae exuperat omnem sensum custodiat corda vestra intelligentias vestras in Christo Jesu ad vitam aeternam Amen So soon as I was admitted to the Chancellorship which God know's I little expected I thought it my Duty to reform the University which was extremely sunk from all Discipline and fallen into all Licentiousness Insomuch that divers of the Governours there complained to me that if remedy were not applied in time there would scarce any face be left of a University Hereupon I resolved within my self to set close to a Reformation And though I understood most of the Defects of the University as having lived there many years and for divers of them a Governour Yet the first thing I thought fit to do was to lay a Command upon the Vicechancellour for the time being that he should give me an account by Letters every week of all necessary Occurrences which happened in the University pertaining to Exercise or Manners with a Promise that he should weekly without fail receive a Letter from me expressing what I dislik'd or approv'd and with Directions what should further be done for the good of That Place This Course I constanly held and found so much good by it that I resolved as often as I made a New Vice-Chancellour to renew the like Charge and to pursue it with like diligence Which when time serv'd I did and shall God willing so continue to do as long as I shall live Chancellour of the University The Statutes of the University had lain in a confused heap for some Ages and extremely imperfect in all kinds The Reformation of the Abuses which grew thereby and the reducing of the Statutes into Order and Form with the Addition of some New for the necessity of the
Doctori Bancroft Dom. Doctori Zouch de aliis negotiis ut videbatur brevi Londinum profecturis commendare ut hujusmodi Commissionis copiam impetrarent quâ obtentâ meliùs consulere cum Honoratissimo Cancellario nostro valeamus ne quid gravius patiatur Vniversitas nostra Oxon. per Commissionem praedictam contra Consuetudines Privilegia antiquitùs indulta Vniversitati praedictae Acta habita gesta fuerunt suprascripta die anno praedictis in praesentiâ mei JOHANNIS FRENCH Registrarii Universitatis OXON EA est Beneficiorum tuorum amplitudo Honoratissime Cancellarie quibus Academiam nostram indies cumulare satagis ut conturbare nobis necesse sit ac ne verbis quidem quorum interim apud nos vilem parabilem esse oportet annonam paria cum meritis Tuis facere liceat Te tamen quae est Benificentiae tuae indolet ne ingrati quidem debitores nedum tarda vel cassa nomina deterrent quo minus beneficia tua beneficiis ne perpluant porro pertegere eaque ultrò auctum ire pertendas Veluti quod nuper Academiae nec huic tantùm sed saeculo imputasti cum Tuâ unius operâ habitus est Musis is honos ut honoratissimus Senatus Regius legem quam aliis dare consueverat à nobis acciperet Hancque 〈◊〉 sibi legem in posterum dixerit ut si quid in suis Edictis scriptum fuerit quod per Privilegia Academica jus non sit juberi ejus iis Edictis nihilum jubeatur Circumcisum scilicet abrasum est hac Cautione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quodcunque cujus obtentu antehà c Villani jura ac privilegia Vniversitatis invadere involare solebant Honoratissimi Senatùs jussa capessere simulantes reverà juris sui pomaeria ultrà quà m jus fas est proferentes Et hujus quidem Benesicii gratiam Tibi Honoratissime 〈◊〉 in solidum 〈◊〉 agnoscimus Quo adnitente factum est ut Honorissimus Senatus Jussa sua in antecessum simul ac semel interpretari consultiùs duxerit quam Villanis dubiam ancipitem eorum Syntaxin permittere qui ea interpretari quam exequi malunt Plus tamen est quod Honoratissimis Viris hoc nomine debetur quà m cui solvendo unquam pares esse possumus Quamvis igitur in tali obligationum genere nulla praestatio functionem recipiat aut in solutum imputetur nisi ab ipso reo siat numeratio Quia tamen Veneratio Honotarissimo Senatui debita majorem à nobis exigit reverentiam quam ut Scholasticis inanibus Literularum formulis ipsorum tempora morari audeamus de quibus nihil deliberari potest sine publico dispendio Nostri officii partes optimo quidem nomini sed tamen vicario Tibi Honoratissime Cancellarie delegamus Tu Illis pro nobis nos Tibi pro Te pro Illis gratias agemus Deus O. M. Te quam diutissime Ecclesiae Academiae huic nostrae sospitem incolumem praestet Sic vovent To the Right Honourable and Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bp. of London Chancellour of the University of OXFORD Honori Tuo addictissimi Clientes Magistri Scholares Universit Oxon. Mr. BRUCH è Coll. AEn Nas. Procurat Mr. DOUGHTY è Coll. Merton Procurat S. in Christo. Sir THese are to Pray and Require you in his Majesties name that a Book lately Printed at Oxford and made by Mr. Page of All Souls-College be presently put to sale and published It is as I am inform'd in defence of the Canon of the Church about Bowing at the name of JESUS and modestly and well written And his Majesty likes not that a Book boldly and ignorantly written by Mr. Prinne against the Church should take place as the Churches Opinion against her self or as unable to be answered by the Church If Mr. Page stick at your Commands shew this Letter for your Warrant and his So I leave you to the Grace of God and shall ever rest Fulham June 22. Your Loving Friend GVIL London The occasion of this Letter was that Mr. Baker Secretary to my Predecessour who no doubt was privy to the business had written to Mr. Page touching the contrary whose Letter here follows Good Mr. Page MY Lord of Canterbury is inform'd that you are publishing a Treatise touching the Question of Bowing at the Name of JESUS an Argument wherein Mr. Widdowes foolishly and Mr. Prinne scurrilously have already to the scandal and disquiet of the Church exercised their Pens His Grace hath formerly shew'd his dislike of them both and hearing that you take up the Bucklers in a Theme of so small necessity and of so great heat and distemper which will draw on new Replies for Prinne will not sit down as an idle Spectatour and beget bitterness and intestine contestations at home amongst our selves he is much offended that you do stickle and keep on foot such questions which may better be spoiled and silenced than maintain'd and draw into sideings and partakings And therefore I am wish'd to advise you to withdraw your self from these or the like domestick broils and if your Treatise be at the Press to give it a stop and check and by no means to suffer the same to be divulged For if you do notwithstanding this Admonition proceed in the same intention of publishing it you will repent you and perhaps draw more on your self of trouble and discontent than you will reap Credit or Advantage by the pursuance of so useless an Argument If you were out of your Cell and saw the World abroad you would not meddle with things of this nature wherein the Governours and chief Pilots of the Church discern more harm and tempest to the Church than you that are unacquainted with Ecclesiastical Estate and the well ordering of it can any way by Speculation attain unto no more than a Scholar that can read a Lecture of Theorical Musick is able to play on a Lute or a Viol by his Bookish Rules and proportions of Sounds which are there taught I pray you to look hereunto and say that a Friend advised you And put not your self on a Business whereof you see but the Beginning So with my Love remembred unto you I rest Lambeth May. 31. 1631. Your very loving Friend Will. Baker S. in Christo. AFter my hearty Commendations c. The year is now at an end of my Vice-Chancellour's Government And when I look back upon it I must needs acknowledge he hath taken a great deal of pains and shew'd himself a very discreet able and worthy Governour And in all the passages of this year I do not find but that he hath given you all great satisfaction especially in his Care for Order and Formalities which I hope you will so far like as that you will make it away to recover the Ancient Honour of that famous University in things of greater Consequence And though the University be full
of able and discreet Governours to whom we shall God willing hereafter commit this Office of Trust yet because I have found Dr. Smith's great Care in this former year and because the First year doth but enable his Experience the better to manage the Second I am desirous to put him to this years pains also And do therefore make choice of him to be my Vice-Chancellour for this year following These are therefore to pray and require you to allow of this my Choice of Dr. Smith and to give him the best Counsel and Assistance in all businesses which may any way concern the Government and the Honour of that famous University And so I bid you very heartily farewel and rest To my Loving Friends the Vicechancellour the Doctors the Proctours and the rest of the Convocation of the Vniversity of Oxford Fulham July 4. 1631. Your very loving Friend and Chancellour GVIL London S. in Christo. AFter my hearty Commendations c. I have made all the convenient speed I can as you well know to have the Body of the Statutes of the University digested into Order and made fit for present use as occasions might be offer'd and still heartily pray you for the quickning of that work For by that Delay which hath been made a great inconvenience hath been like to arise to the prejudice of the Privileges of the University For whereas I thought the Moderation and ordering of Fees in the University if any thing be amiss therein might have staid till that Body of Statutes had been drawn up and then have been rectifi'd under the Head belonging to it it seem's now far otherwise For I find that a Friend of the University's gave intimation to some Heads of Colleges of some things which might be very prejudicial to your Privileges if they did proceed I knew his Majesty had given out a Commission to Examine Fees and that the Commissioners were quick and strict but I had never seen the Commission nor did I so much as dream that the Universities were included or that his Majesty had any purpose they should that way be look'd into And therefore when Dr. Bancroft came unto me directed by Mr. Vice-Chancellour and divers of the Heads of Houses upon the aforesaid information to make search after the Commission and privately to acquaint me with it and to desire my Endeavour with his Majesty that no foreign Commission might come in to the prejudice of the University Privilege I was much troubled at it And the more because I found things had been so privately carry'd from the knowledge of the Chancellours of both Universities But it fell out exceeding well that I had notice of this business For within few days after my Lord of Holland upon like Information had speech with me about it But his Majesties resolutions for proceeding put us both to seek what course to take till at last we resolved to go Both together to him and humbly to move him in the University's behalf that no Foreign Power might be sent to the prejudice of their Privileges And after much Debate his Majesty was at last very graciously pleass'd to grant our requests Provided that each University respectively would meet and by themselves reform whatsoever was found amiss in any Fees received and taken by any in the University of what Office or Condition soever And that this Reformation of Fees should be made according to the Letter and Tenour of his Commission Hereupon he presently called for Mr. Secretary Cook and commanded him to direct a Letter to the Chancellours of both the Universities to give them Order for this business Which Letters of his Majesty you shall find here inclosed And the like are already gone to Cambridge And I must and do pray and require you that they be published according to Course and Register'd and Obey'd in all Points as is fitting Assuring you that if this be not done his Majesties Commissioners will reform whatsoever you do not And And for my part I think 't is happy we came so timely to the knowledg of it For if the Commissioners had once entred upon it it would have been a matter of far greater difficulty to take them off than it was now to stay them And certainly if ever it be my hap to know That honourable Personage that gave the first Information I shall give him hearty Thanks for his Love to the Universities For this breach once made upon your Privileges might have laid open a wider gap in many other particulars of like nature When you have Register'd these Letters of his Majesty I must pray you to send the Original back to me And for the Business it self because his Majesty look's for a speedy reformation the best Counsel I can give you is this That the Delegates which have the consideration of the Statutes now before them may by your direction and command take the Head about Fees next into Consideration and settle that business presently that the other University may not outstrip us in Obedience to his Majesty Thus not doubting of your Care herein nor of the University's conformity and expecting as present remedy of this Abuse as may be made I leave you to the Grace of God and rest To my Loving Friends the Vice-Chancellour the Doctors the Proctours and the rest of the Convocation of the University of OXFORD Fulham July 4. 1631. Your Loving Friend and Chancellour GVIL London The Tenor of the King's Letters Follow 's CHARLES R. RIGHT trusty and Right well beloved Cousin and Counsellour and Right Reverend Father in God Right trusty and well-beloved Counsellour We greet you well We have long had a gracious Intendment for the good of our Subjects to rectifie the Proceedings of all Courts and other Places as well within Liberties as without in matter of their Fees and Duties which they Challenge To this purpose We have granted a Commission to some Lords of our Privy Council and others to Examine what they find amiss that a remedy may be found for the Abuse where and in whomsoever it is and the Fees of all Officers and Courts reduced to that which they were found to be allow'd in the Eleventh year of Queen Elizabeth of famous memory And this Commission we shall pursue till we have setled those things with Honour and Justice to the great ease of all our Loving Subjects Now whereas you taking notice of this our Intendment to reduce the Fees of both our Universities where you are our Chancellours as well as other places to the same Standard have made humble suit to Us that this Commission may not trench upon the Liberties granted to the Universities by our Royal Progenitors These are first to let you know that We will as carefully preserve the Rights and Privileges of our Vniversities as We or our Progenitors have given or confirmed them And then that our further VVill and Pleasure is that presently to prevent our Commission you write expresly to
Sacred Majesty Moreover I do likewise with hearty sorrow confess that I did let fall some passages that might be taken to the disparagement of the Government of the Church in making erroneous and heretical opinions the way to preferment All which with the main current of my discourse might sound to sedition in the Ears of the present assembly By this my great and inexcusable offence I do freely acknowledge that I have deserved the sharpest of Censures and severest of punishments and therefore that his Royal Majesty hath justly rewarded me for the same it being an offence of so high a nature And I have nothing at all to plead but the Royal Mercy of my gracious Sovereign for my restitution to this famous University This my Confession and Submission I do most humbly tender to the favourable acceptance of this Venerable House craving the Pardon of the University in general so more especially of our most Honorable Chancellour whom with all humility I beseech to present this my acknowledgement to his Majesties Sacred hand as the pledge and ingagement both in present and for the future of my readiest obedience William Hodges I Thomas Hill do freely and sincerely acknowledge before this Venerable Assembly of Convocation that in a Sermon lately by me preach't in St. Maries I did let fall divers scandalous Speeches partly in opposition to His Majesties Injunctions by odious Justling together the names of certain Factions in the Church and imputing Pelagianisme and Popery to the one side Partly in disparagement of the present Government of State and Church by making foul and erroneous Opinions the readiest steps now-a-days to Preferment As also in disparaging the whole Order of Bishops in point of Learning and Religion making them favourers of unsound and erroneous Doctrine and disfavourers of sound Doctrine As likewise in imputing to a great part of our Clergy only Politique and Lunatick Religion Besides private glances against particular Persons concerning some Speeches delivered in their late Sermons in all which passages in my Sermon I confess to have given just offence to the University and to deserve the sharpest of Censures Wherefore with all humble submission I beseech the whole University represented in this Venerable House to pass-by this my willful errour of undiscrect and misguided Zeal and do faithfully promise henceforward to abstain from all such scandalous aspersions and intimations as tending only to the disparagement of the Church and the Distraction and disquiet of the University And this my Submission I humbly crave may be accepted which I do here make willingly and from my heart with true sorrow for what is past Thomas Hill VVHEREAS Upon Information given to his Majesty concerning Misdemeanours of the Delegates in hearing and determining the Cause of Appeal set on foot by Mr. Forde against Mr. Vice-Chancellour his Majesty was pleased to give Order that as soon as I came unto the University notice should be given unto the Right Honourable and Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bp. of London our Chancellour that upon Examination of the business I might receive such Censure as the merits of the Cause should deserve and his Lordship upon my voluntary appearance acknowledgement of my Errours and humble submission to his Lordship has been pleased to remit me back to the University and hath ordered that in the presence of Mr. Vice-Chancellour and the Governours of Colleges and Halls I should make the like Recognition of my Errors and offensive Carriage in that business I with all humility and thankfulness acknowledge his Lordship's favour and do freely and ingenuously confess that in the hearing of that Cause I did declare my self in the maintenance of Mr. Ford's appeal with more Vehemency than did become an indifferent man not without disrespect to Mr Vice-Vhancellour and some other Misdemeanours For which inconsiderate Carriage I am very heartily sorry and do humbly crave pardon of Mr. Vice-Chancellour and the University and do seriously promise that from henceforth I will avoid all partakings or factious endeavours against the quiet and Government of the University and as much as shall be in my power will be assisting to the orderly proceedings of those who are in authority and set over me in this place Francis Hyde Right Honourable and Right Reverend Father in God VVIth all Humility let me beseech your Lordship amongst other faults of mine to pardon this one of Presumption And having sealed me a pardon for my boldness I must again beseech your Honourable favour to entertain this the necessary Testimony and tender of my heartiest thanks and most humble Service Let all the World forget me when I forget to be grateful having been bless'd with as great a favour from your fatherly hands as I could in reason or modestly sue for The re enlivening of dying hopes the seasonable refreshing of a whithering branch the happy recovery of a man as low in present being of his decayed fortunes as punishment and desert could set him the work your Lordships mine the benefit my expressions may come below the greatness both of the Benefit I enjoy and of the Favour I have received but my Prayers and continual Devotions shall not I shall make up in these the defects of the former and in these I shall pray God to bless me so through the course of my Studies and Endcavours as that I may be able to approve my self From Exon. Coll. in Oxon. Febr. 22. 〈◊〉 Your Lordships in all thankfulness and faithful Service to be commanded VVilliam Hodges S. in Christo. AFter my hearty Commendations c. I am very sorry that I have this Occasion to write to the University which I love so well that it cannot but trouble me to hear of any thing ill done in it I have divers ways heard what disorders and tumults have accompanied the publick Disputations toward the end of the last Lent to the great scandal of the University and tending to the breach of all Government there The noise of these great Disorders was like enough of it self to be heard far and to add to this Unhappiness these Misdemeanours were then committed when they might be seen by some which meant not to conceal them Insomuch that the report of them is come to his Majesties Ears who is highly displeased with this ill carriage and the more because he thought the care and the pains which he lately took to settle some breaches of Government there would not so soon have been forgotten as it seems to him they are Upon this his Majesty hath directed his Princely Letters to me and by them required me to look both to the punishment of these Distempers and the preventing of the like hereafter According to these his Majesties Royal Commands I do pray and require you Mr. Vice-Chancellour and the rest of the Governours to look carefully to your several Charges both publick and private not only for the Honour of the University which it seems by some
Buyer and the Seller which said Office hath of late times been discontinued By reason whereof as we are certainly informed divers Citizens of the City of Oxon. inhabiting in or near the said Corn-Market have of their own will without any approbation of us or our Vice-Chancellour taken upon them to keep and set forth on Market days publick Bushels and Measures for the measuring of Corn and Grain and take Toll for the same without stint or Limitation sometimes a Pint sometimes a Pint and an half and sometimes a Quart for the measuring of a Bushel whereas the ancient and laudable due is but half a Wine Pint at the most for such measure And also that divers Maltsters Bakers and Brewers do keep in their Private Houses two Bushels a bigger wherewith to buy and a lesser to sell whereby the Country that bring in their Corn and Grain to the said University are deterred to furnish the said Market in regard the measure of Grain will not hold out fully with the said great Bushels We therefore for the future prevention of the said Inconveniences and for the better Government of the said Market that there be no fraud used Have given granted and confirmed and do by these presents give grant and confirm unto Christopher 〈◊〉 val Inhabitant within the said University of Oxon. Licence power and authority to keep and set forth every Market-Day in the place of the Corn-Market so many lawful Bushels and Measures by us or our Deputies to be allowed and sealed as shall be sufficient for the Measuring of the said Corn or Grain so brought to be sold in the said University and to take the due and lawful Toll for the same viz. the Quantity of half a Wine Pint at the most in every Bushel and not above To have and to hold the said Office of keeping the said Buthels and Measures and receiving the Toll as aforesaid to him the said Christopher Dival during his natural life without the lett trouble hindrance or denial of any the Inhabitants of the City and University of Oxon keeping Bushels as aforesaid or any other Person whatsoever And we do also by these presents straitly prohibit and discharge all the Inhabitants of the University or City of Oxon. from keeping and setting forth any publick Bushel or other measure and to receive any Toll or profit for the same And also all Malsters Bakers and Brewers for keeping in their Houses any more than a lawful and sealed Bushel by which they shall sell as well as buy Provided always that the said Christopher Dival demean himself honestly uprightly and indifferently in the Execution of the said Office or place as aforesaid and that he take a Corporal Oath yearly before us or our Deputy the Vice-Chancellour to that effect and purpose according to the Law and the Use Custom and Privilege of the said University And provided also that the said Christopher Dival in Consideration of the Premises do take diligent care to view the Pitching Paving and Cleansing of the Streets within the said University and to make known unto us or our Deputy by whose fault and negligence the same is left undone and also that twice every Week after the end of the said Market he cleanse and keep sweet or cause to be cleansed and kept sweet the said Corn-Market Place the Inhabitants there paying to the Scavinger as now they do for the same In witness whereof We have to these Presents put our Hand and Seal Dated the 2d day of May Anno Dom. 1634. And in the Tenth year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King Charles of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. WHereas John Oxenbridge Master of Arts and Commoner of Magdalen Hall in Oxford both by the Testimony of Witnesses upon Oath examined and by his own Confession hath been found guilty of a strange singular and superstitious way of Dealing with his Scholars by perswading and causing some of them to subscribe as Votaries to several Articles framed by himself as he pretends for their better Government as if the Statutes of the Place he livesin and the Authority of the present Governours were not sufficient These are to signifie that I Bryan Duppa Vicechancellor of the University for the time being duly weighing the Quality of the fact and the ill consequences which might follow upon the insnaring of young and tender Consciences with the Religion of a Vow do Order and Decree that the said John Oxenbridge shall no longer be trusted with the tuition of any Scholars or suffered to read to them publickly or privately or to receive any Stipend or Sallary in that behalf And to this end I require you that are the Principal of the said Hall to dispose of those Scholars that are now under his Tuition to such other Tutors who by their discreet and peaceable Carriage shew themselves freest from Faction and not to suffer the same or any other to live under his Charge or him to receive any Salary or Stipend from them And this Censure you are presently to put in execution by taking away his Scholars and to take care that no part of it hereafter be eluded Of the performance of which you are to stand accomptable to the Chancellor or his Vicechancellor whensoever you shall be called After I had received Letters from the University of the 12. of Sept. 1633. which gave me the whole power to order and settle the Statutes which had now hung long in the hands of the Delegates though before they had put me to much pains and the writing of many Letters both to call upon and direct the Delegates yet now I set my self to it with so much the greater alacrity because the University having in Convocation put the whole business into my Hands I thought my self sure against all practice by faction or otherwise To the end therefore that I might have no more Jealousie nor Crossing in the Business I put the Review of all that had been done formerly by the Delegates into the Hands of Mr. Peter Turner of Merton College reserving to my self the last Consideration of all By this means and God's Blessing upon my endeavours I did at last not without a great deal of pains get through this work and settled the Statutes as will after appear in its proper time and place In this Year the West-side of Vniversity College was new built from the Ground John Dunn of C. C. Mr. of Arts for the supposed killing of a Boy called Humphry Dunt And John Goffe of Magd. Coll. for the supposed killing of one Boys Mr. of Arts These two were legally tryed before the under-Steward of the University Mr. Vnton Crooke the 26. of August 1634. and acquitted AFter my very hearty Commendations c. I have laid the pains of tho Vicechancellorship now two years together upon Dr. Duppa who hath discharged that place with extraordinary Care as well for the good as
Chancellour of this University whereby it is manifest that these Laws and Ordinances are so established and ratified both by Sovereign and Subalternal Authority Temporal and Spiritual that nothing further can be required but your ready acceptance and obedience whereof I make no doubt For to do you right you have already shewed so effectual Conformity and at this present express such alacrity and forwardness that I rather see cause to commend and encourage you than to exhort and stir you up or any way to importune you by any further Speech yet because there is generally in Man's nature a secret curiosity and prejudice against all things that appear extraodinary and new especially when they impose any Duty and require obedience at their hands I must crave leave in discharge of my own Duty to satisfie those which hereafter may be inquisitive into these Proceedings to insist a little upon those principal Respects which demonstrate the full Authorization and absolute necessity of submission to these Laws That which Commands in chief and which no reason can withstand is his Majesty's Sovereign Power by which these Statutes as you see are both enacted and confirmed Him we all acknowlege to be our supream Governour both of Church and Commonwealth over all Causes and Persons and to his Supremacy and Allegiance we are all obliged by Oath This then we must build upon as an Axiom and fundamental Rule of Government That all our Laws and Statutes are the King's Laws and that none can be enacted changed or abrogated without him so all Courts of Law or Equity are properly the King's Courts all Justice therein administred be it Civil or Martial is the King's Justice and no Pardon or Grace proceeds from any but from the King And as of Justice so is he the Source of Honour all Dignities all Degrees all Titles Arms and Orders come orignally from the King as Branches from the Root And not only particular Men and Families but all Corporations Societies nay Counties Provinces and depending Kingdoms have all Corporations Societies nay Counties Provinces and depending Kingdoms have all their Jurisdictions and Governments established by him and by him for publick good to be changed or dissolved So his Power reacheth to Foreign Plantations where he may erect Principalities and make Laws for their good Government which no man may disobey And as in the temporal so in the State Ecclesiastical his Regal Power by ancient Right extendeth to the erection of Bishopricks Deanries and Cathedral Churches and to settle Orders for Government in all Churches by the advice of his own 〈◊〉 without any Concurrence of Forreign Usurping Power But for Universities and Colleges they are the Rights of Kings in a most peculiar manner For all their Establishments Endowments Priviledges and Orders by which they subsist and are maintained are derived from Regal Power And as it is your greatest Honour so it is your greatest Safety That now this Body of your Laws as well as your Priviledges and Immunities are established ratified and confirmed by the King And more I shall not need to say in this Point In the next place you may consider for your incouragement to receive this great Favour and Benefit from his Majesty with ready and thankful Minds that your Chancellor's worthy Care had a chief operation in advancing this great work whose nearness to his Majesty in a place of that Eminency and sincere Conformity to his Orders and Commands and most watchful Care over that part of the Government which is committed to his Trust inableth him to support and may give you confidence to obey that which his Majesty recommendeth by so good a Hand specially in Matters concerning the good Government of the Church or of the Schools In the Church whereof he is Primate and Metropolitan his Power is very large and his extraordinary endeavours in it deserve at least to be well understood In former times when Church-men 〈◊〉 Rule the greatest Prelates gave the first way to alienate Church Livings Whereas this worthy Prelate maketh it his chief work to recover to the Church for the furtherance of God's Service what may be now restored And what therein he hath effected under his Majesty's gracious and powerful Order not England alone but Scotland and Ireland can abundantly witness Again what help and relief he procureth dayly for Ministers oppressed by rich incroaching Neighbours or Patrons what Collections and Contributions he obtaineth to re-edify to repair and adorn Churches and what great Structures are now in Hand and much advanced by his Judgment Care and Zeal in our most famous Monuments dedicated to God's service we may behold with Joy and future Ages will 〈◊〉 to his Majesty's eternal Glory by whose Power and Order all is performed and to the Honour of our Country and for encouragement and example of those that shall succeed who will acknowledge with us that this Man is indeed as he is by his just stile a most Reverend and Beneficial Father of the Church And for this University what better Evidence can be desired of his singular Love and Beneficence than first that stately Building whereby he hath made himself another Founder of that College which bred him to this height of worth And secondly those many rare and exquisite Manuscripts and Authors wherewith he hath replenished your renowned publick Library And if you add hereunto his constant Care to maintain you in all your Rights and Priviledges and to assist you in your Preferments And finally in collecting this great Volume of Ordinances for the present and further Government of this famous University You have Monuments sufficient to eternize among you and all men his memory and desert And this work is that which now remaineth in the third place to be further stood upon For 't is not as some may think either a Rhapsody of overworn and unuseful Ordinances nor yet an imposition of Novel Constitutions to serve the present Times But our Royal Justinian by the Labour and Direction of this prudent person hath collected into a Pandect or Corpus juris Academici all the ancient approved Statutes which in former times were scattered and so neglected And tho many great Prelates have heretofore undertaken this Work yet it ever miscarried till the piercing Judgment and undefatigible Industry of this man took it in hand and happily as now you see hath put you into possession of it whereof the use can hardly be valued For by these Rules You that are Governors may know what to command and those that are under you may know how to obey and all may understand how to order their Behaviour and their Studies whereby they may become most profitable Members in the Church and Common-wealth which is the main cause why his Majesty requireth them so strictly to be obeyed For let me speak freely out of that true affection which I bear to you all Deceive not your selves with a vain opinion that Kings and Princes give great Donations Priviledges and
Honours to their Schools and Universities for a popular Applause or out of meer Bounty or for honour or for opinion of merit by which the Art of Clergy-men transported them heretofore But the very truth is that all wise Princes respect the welfare of their Estates and consider that Schools and Universities are as in the Body the noble and vital parts which being vigorous and sound send good Blood and active Spirits into the Veins and Arteries which cause health and strength Or if feeble or ill affected corrupt all the Vital Powers whereupon grow Diseases and in the end death it self What inconveniencies have grown in all Ages by the ill Government and Disorders of Schools your Books can inform you And to come home to your selves have not our late Parliaments complained Nay hath not the Land exclaimed that our great Schools of Virtue were become Schools of Vice This I mention unwillingly but withal do most willingly tell you to your eternal praise That fince it pleased his Majesty to take to heart a Reformation and by advice of your never too often named Chancellor sent you down some temporary Orders whereby to reduce you to some reasonable moderation thereupon by the Wisdom and Resolution of you the worthy Governours and by the inclinable conformity of all the Students in general it is now come to pass that Scholars are no more found in Taverns or Houses of Disorder nor seen loytering in the Streets or other places of Idleness or ill Example but all contain themselves within the Walls of their Colleges and in the Schools or publick Libraries Wherein I must confess you have at length gotten the start and by your Virtue and Merit have made this University which before had no Paragon in any forreign Country now to go beyond it self and give a glorious Example to others not to stay behind And if those temporary and unperfect Orders produced so good effect what may now be expected from this Body of Laws and Statutes so compleat and so digested that no former Age did ever enjoy the like Thus you have understood how the Goodness of our great King how the Care and respect of your Chancellor and how the worth and substance of the work it self may forcibly induce you to congratulate your own Happiness And therefore I might here forbear to trouble you any longer with a harsh interrupted Speech but that I cannot omit to put you in mind of one thing which I know you will hear with willingness and attention because it tendeth chiefly to the honour of our God and then by his power to the honour of our King and thence to the comfort of every true hearted Subject who will readily acknowledg with Reverence and thankfulness the great blessings we now enjoy above all other Nations I will tell you but what I know for I speak within my Element I have seen our neighbouring Countries in great Prosperity and Renown their Cities stately built and strongly fortified with Walls raised up to Heaven full of People full of Trade so full of peace and plenty that they surfeited in all excess but from hence they are since fallen partly by the boundless Ambition of great Princes partly by the Factions and Divisions in Religion and generally by their Disorders into such condition that men of great Honour sent in remote Employment found whole Provinces so sack'd and depopulated that in divers Journeys they incountred scarce a Man and of those they found dead some had Grass in their Mouths and Stomachs and some were torn in pieces by Beasts and ravenous Fowls and those that were alive had no other Care or Study than how to save themselves from Fire and Sword In general there is such Desolation that without a kind of Horror the Horror thereof cannot be express'd Now we by God's Blessing are in a better Case we sit here in God's House thankful in true Devotion for this wonderful Favour towards us We enjoy Peace and Plenty we are like to those who resting in a Calm Haven behold the Shipwrack of others wherein we have no part save only in compassion to help them with our Prayers which we all ought to do as interested in their sufferings lest the like may fall on us What then remaineth but seriously to consider how all these great Blessings are conferred upon us not for our Merits or for our more virtuous and Holy Lives but only by God's favour to his true Religion and under him by the happy Government of our Gracious King which should confirm us all to a Constancy in our Obedience and to a ready subjection to all those Rules and Orders which his Majesty shall prescribe for the Publick good Wherein this general Admonition may fruitfully be applied to the Business now in hand whereof I make no doubt So I crave your pardon and your good acceptance of that which I have rudely spoken but with a true affection to this whole Body whereof though I had my Education from another-Nurse yet I had the Honour to be an Adopted Son and as I suppose one of the ancientest that lives amongst you at this day It remaineth that Mr Vice-Chancellour perform his part and proceed to the Subscriptions and Depositions of you the Heads John Coke DIE Mercurii inter horas secundam tertiam post Meridem viz. vicessimo secundo die Junii Anno Dom. 1636. unà fuerunt in Hospitio venerabilis Viri Doctoris Pink S. Theologiae Professoris Vicecancellarii Vniversitatis Oxon. notoriè sito situato in Collegio Sanctae Mariae Winton in Oxon. vulgo voca't Collegio Novo Reverendus in Christo Pater Dominus Johannes Episcopus Oxon. honoratissimi dignissimi venerabiles Viri Dominus Johannes Cook Eques auratus Serenissimae Regis Majestati Secretarius Principalis Dominus Henricus Martyn Eques auratus Judex Admiralitatis Curiae Praerogativae Thomas Rives Legum Doctor Regis Advocatus Commissionarii Domini Regis specialiter missi ad exhibendum Librum Statutorum Vniversitatis eorum confirmationem sub magno Sigillo Angliae Coram quibus comparuerunt venerabilis Vir Christopherus Potter Collegiae Reginae Praepositus Mr. Loughe Mr. Stannix Socii Collegii praedicti qui ante Convocationem eodem die habendam pro Statutorum Confirmatione Protestationem suam in scriptis Communi Sigillo Collegii sui munitam exhibuerunt eamque in Personâ suâ legit Mr. Stannix coram Commissionariis praedictis Doctore Pink Vice-Cancellario tum praesente sub hâc verborum formulâ Protestatio Declaratio Praepositi Scholarium Collegii Reginae in Vniversitate Oxon. de Jure Titulo Interesse suis in Electione Nominatione Principalis Aulae Sancti Edmundi in Vniversitate Oxon. per quam palà m publicè in quocunque celebri dictae Vniversitatis Coetu vel alibi intimari notum fieri in perpetuam rei memoriam obnixe rogant se solos in solidum habuisse habere debere
d. for every Barrel he shall deliver into any Tap-house not Licenced It seems by your Letter that this Statute well followed is a probable Remedy and indeed I think it will go far if it be well followed I perceive you have but one doubt against it and that is least you should find opposition from the Town-Justices who you say have of late both renewed and enlarged their Commission by the Addition of Five one of them being a Brewer Will the University still sleep while the Town slips these things upon them I am sure I once took order that the Number of Town-Justices should not exceed those of the Vniversity that so things might be carried with indifferency And if they shall now oppose in this business of the Ale-houses it will be a good occasion for me to move My Lord Keeper again to dissolve their Commission which I will not fail to do if they give me cause So I pray proceed and God's Blessing be upon your Endeavours while I rest I trouble you with these Letters because Mr. Vice-chancellor was newly gone away from me with a whole Bundle of Instructions just as your Letter came to me W. 〈◊〉 Croydon August 26. 1637. Your very loving Friend W. Cant. SIR THough unknown I have presumed to be so bold as to solicite you in a Business viz. to know whether you could send over one or two who for Religion sake are desirous to be entered into some Order beyond the Seas especially that of the Fratrum Minorum or Jesuites So expecting your Answer and unwilling to disclose my self till I have it I rest Direct your Answer as soon as you can to one Richard Pully in St. John's College in Oxon. Yours August 23. Superscribed thus To his very Loving Friend Mr. John Fish in Clarkenwell give These Leave this at one Mr. Fish's at Doctors-Commons to be delivered unto him LONDON Salutem in Christo. SIR I Have yet received no Letter from you this Week if I do you shall have an Answer on Friday if I have so much leisure In the mean time I send you this inclosed which came to my Hands this present Afternoon I pray examine the business with all the Care and Industry you possibly can as well for the discharge of your own Duty and Credit as mine in the Government of that place And if there be such a Man as Pully here mentioned be sure to make him fast and examine him throughly touching all Particulars that you shall think material for the Discovery of these unworthy Practices for the seducing of Youths in that University or elsewhere especially concerning the Author of this Letter and what Youths have been dealt withal after this sort either in that House or any other of the Town And whether any Jesuits or others have lain hankering up and down thereabouts or be there at this present to that purpose or any other as bad In all which I desire you to use the utmost diligence and discretion that you can and let me have an Account with all convenient speed So I leave you to God's Grace and rest This falls out very unhappily not only for the thing it self which ought by all means to be prevented but also for the Clamors which the late Libellers have made that there are great endeavours for reintroducing of Popery Croydon August 29. 1637. Your very loving Friend W. Cant. SIR I Am glad you found all in Health and all things else so well at your return and yet I cannot but see that both Factions would be busie there Concerning the Popish Faction I writ hastily to you to prevent a Danger which I thought was Imminent and God grant you may secure it but in any case name not Fish if you can possibly avoid it but carry it as if the Letter were Intercepted and be as careful as possibly you can And concerning the Puritan I see plainly that Brazen-Nose hath some as bad or worse than Cook was about four Years since And that Greenwood who Preach'd on Sunday last is like to prove a peevish Man which I am the more sorry for because you write he is a good Master of his Pen and therefore like to do the more harm But since he hath so cunningly carried it for the Fashion is now to turn the Libellous part into a Prayer I think the best way is to take no notice of it at all but the more carefully to observe what the Man doth in the University For I would have no Man publickly call'd in Question where a fair Answer may be given and taken that the Peace both of the Church and of that place may be preserved as much as may be And yet to confess my thoughts to you I think Mr. Greenwood had in this business a very Factious and a Rancorous meaning When you have made all the use you can of the Letter I sent you on Wednesday take a Copy of it and send me back the Original safe September 1. 1637. W. Cant. SIR UPon the receipt of your Grace's Letters on Wednesday I instantly set a Spy upon Pullin one of our Scholars of the House of two Years standing sent to the Carrier for a view of all the Letters sent to St. Johns none were directed to Pullin either on Thursday or Saturday Neither did Pullin on Thursday or ever since look towards the Carrier On Friday morning I took him coming from Prayers in the Quadrangle where I might see how he behaved himself at Citation I instantly searched his Pockets took his Keys of Study and Trunk from him searched them he staying in my Lodging I looked over every Book and Paper I found nothing that might give the least suspicion that he is inclined towards Popery I examined his Chamber-fellows what Company resorted to him They protested they never saw any besides those of our own House one or other to come unto him I returned to him demanded what acquaintance he had in Town he professed he knew none but one Isam of Christ-Church who went Six Weeks hence to his Friends in Ireland and him he knew at Westminster-School I cannot learn that Isam is inclined that way I further questioned whether he ever received Letters for any other since his coming to us he vowed no I shewed him the Letter directed to Fish enquired whether he knew the Man or the Hand-writing he vowed no. Divers other Interrogatories I put him but could not gather either from the matter or manner of his Answer the least ground of suspicion I have diligently enquired of others who might know him but have not for which I might suspect him Under charge he is not to stir out of the College nor to speak with any Stranger without my leave upon pain of Expulsion and thus he shall rest till your Grace shall free him September 4. 1637. SIR SInce the finishing of your new Library will cost you a Thousand Pounds I am heartily glad you have
never move His Majesty directly or indirectly for that Honour and was surprized with it as altogether unlooked for when His Majesty's Resolution therein was made known unto him Nor ever did that Bishop take so much upon him as a Justiceship of the Peace or meddle with any Lay-Employment save what the Laws and Customs of this Realm laid upon him in the High Commission and the Star-Chamber while those Courts were in being and continued Preaching till he was Threescore and four and then was taken off by Writing of his Book against Fisher the Jesuit being then not able at those Years to continue both And soon after the World knows what trouble befel him and in time they will know why too I hope Besides the Care of Government which is another part of a Bishop's Office and a necessary one too lay heavy upon him in these Factious and broken Times especially And whatsoever this Lord thinks of it certainly though Preaching may be more necessary for the first planting of a Church yet Government is more noble and necessary too where a Church is planted as being that which must keep Preaching and all things else in order And Preaching as 't is now used hath as much need to be kept in order as any even the greatest Extravagance that I know Nor is this out of Christ's Commission Pasce Oves John 21. 15. for the feeding of his Sheep For a Shepherd must guide govern and defend his Sheep in the Pasture as well as drive them to it And he must see that their Pasture be not tainted too or else they will not thrive upon it And then he may be answerable for the Rot that falls among them The Rhetorick goes farther yet To contend for sitting at Council Tables to govern States No but yet to assist them being called by them To have States-Men instead of Church-Men No but doing the Duty of Church-Men to mingle pious Counsels with States-Mens Wisdom To sit in the highest Courts of Judicature And why not in a Kingdom where the Laws and Customs require it Not to be employed in making Laws for Civil Polities and Government And I conceive there is great Reason for this in the Kingdom of England and greater since the Reformation than before Great Reason because the Bishops of England have been accounted and truly been grave and experienced Men and far fitter to have Votes in Parliaments for the making of Laws than many young Youths which are in either House And because it is most fit in the making of Laws for a Kingdom that some Divines should have Vote and Interest to see as much as in them lies that no Law pass which may perhaps though unseen to others intrench upon Religion it self or the Church And I make no doubt but that these and the like Considerations settled it so in England where Bishops have had their Votes in Parliaments and in making Laws ever since there were Parliaments yea or any thing that resembled them in this Kingdom And for my part were I able to give no Reason at all why Bishops should have Votes in Parliament yet I should in all Humility think that there was and is still some great Reason for it since the Wisdom of the State hath successively in so many Ages thought it fit And as there is great Reason they should have Votes in making Laws so is there greater Reason for it since the Reformation than before For before that time Clergy-Men were governed by the Church Canons and Constitutions and the Common Laws of England had but little Power over them Then in the Year 1532. the Clergy submitted and an Act of Parliament was made upon it So that ever since the Clergy of England from the Highest to the Lowest are as much subject to the Temporal Laws as any other Men and therefore ought to have as free a Vote and Consent to the Laws which bind them as other Subjects have Yet so it is that all Clergy-Men are and have long since been excluded from being Members of the House of Commons and now the Bishops and their Votes by this last Act are cast out of the Lord's House By which it is at this Day come to pass that by the Justice of England as now it stands no Clergy-Man hath a Consent by himself or his Proxy to those Laws to which all of them are bound In the mean time before I pass from this Point this Lord must give me leave to put him in mind of that which was openly spoken in both Houses that the Reason why there was such a Clamour against the Bishops Votes was because all or most of them Voted for the King so that the potent Faction could not carry what they pleased especially in the Vpper House And when some saw they could not have their Will to cast out their Votes fairly the Rabble must come down again and Clamour against their Votes not without danger to some of their Persons And come they did in Multitudes But who procured their coming I know not unless it were this Lord and his Followers And notwithstanding this is as clear as the Sun and was openly spoken in the House that this was the true Cause only why they were so angry with the Bishops Votes yet this most Godly and Religious Lord pretends here a far better Cause than this namely that they may as they ought carefully attend to the Preaching of the Word and not be distracted from that great Work by being troubled with these Worldly Affairs And I make no doubt but that the same Zeal will carry the same Men to the devout taking away the Bishops and the Church Lands and perhaps the Parsons Tythes too and put them to such Stipends as they shall think fit that so they may Preach the Gospel freely and not be drawn away with these Worldly Affairs from the principal Work of that Function Well! my Lord must give me leave here to Prophesie a little and 't is but this in short Either the Bishops shall in few Years recover of this Hoarseness and have their Honour and their Votes in Parliament again or before many Years be past all Baseness Barbarity and Confusion will go near to possess both this Church and Kingdom But this Lord hath yet somewhat more to say namely that If they shall be thought fit to sit in such Places and will undertake such Employments they must not be there as ignorant Men but must be knowing in Business of State and understand the Rules and Laws of Government and thereby both their Time and Studies must be necessarily diverted from that which God hath called them unto And this surely is much more Vnlawful for them to admit of than that which the Apostles rejected as a distraction unreasonable for them to be interrupted by Why but yet if they shall be thought fit to sit in such Places and will undertake such Employments what then Why then they must not sit there as ignorant Men
very much of this and Ambition sticks so close to Humane Nature as that it follows it into all Professions and Estates of Men And I would to God Clergy-Men had been freer from this Fault than Histories testifie they have But this hath been but the fault of some many Reverend Bishops in all Ages have been clear of it and 't is a personal Corruption in whomsoever it is and cannot justly be charged upon the Calling as this Lord lays it Neither have the worst of them some Popes of Rome excepted been the common Incendiaries of the Christian World But Incendiaries is grown a great word of late with this Lord and some of the poor Bishops of England have been made Incendiaries too by him and his Party But might it please God to shew some token upon us for good that they which hate us may see it and be ashamed Psalm 86. 17. there would be a full discovery who have been the Incendiaries indeed in these Troubles of England and then I make no question but it will appear that this Lord flames as high and as dangerously as any Man living But behold saith God all ye that kindle a Fire that compass your selves about with Sparks walk in the light of your own Fire and in the Sparks which your selves have kindled This shall ye have of my hand ye shall lie down in Sorrow Isai. 50. 11. Next I pray be pleased to consider how unworthily and fallaciously withal this Lord manages this Proof For all this Discourse tends to prove it unlawful for Bishops to intermeddle in Secular Affairs that so to do is hurtful to themselves in Conscience and in Credit and to others also by this their irregular Motion And this he proves by their never ceasing from Contention one with another either about the Precedency of their Sees or Churches They have indeed some and sometimes contended too eagerly for their Sees and Churches but neither all nor any that I know with a never-ceasing but the Bishop of Rome for his Supremacy And say this were so yet these Contentions were about their own proper Places not about Civil Affairs which now should lie before his Lordship in Proof and therefore was no irregular Motion of theirs in regard of the Object but only in regard of the manner Nor were they out of their Orb for this though faulty enough The like is to be said for that which follows their Excommunicating one another upon these Quarrels As for their drawing of Princes to be Parties with them thereby casting them into bloody Wars this hath seldom happened and whenever it hath happened some Church business or other hath unhappily set it on not their meddling in Temporal Affairs But whatever caused it the Crime of such misleading of Princes is very odious and as hateful to me as it can be to his Lordship But the Persons must bear their own Faults and not the Calling and sure I am this Lord would think me very wild if I should charge the antient Barons Wars in England upon his Lordship and the Honourable Barons now living But howsoever by this 't is plain that this Lord would not only have the Bishops turned out of all Civil Employments but out of their Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions also They must have no Power nor Superiority there neither their Sees must be laid as level as Parity can make them For all these Mischiefs came on saith he as soon as they were once advanced above their Brethren And one thing more I shall take occasion to say Here 's great Clamour made against the Bishops and their meddling in Civil Affairs but what if the Presbytery do as much or more Do they Sin too by breaking out of their Orb and neglecting the Work of the Ministery No by no means Only the Bishops are faulty For do you think that Calvin would have taken on him the Umpirage and composing of so many Civil Causes as he did order between Neighbours if so great Sin had accompanied it For he dealt in Civil Causes and had Power to inflict Civil Punishments in his Consistory For he committed divers to Prison for Dancing and those not mean ones neither and he arbitrated divers Causes and in a great Controversie between the Senate of Geneva and a Gentleman he tells one Frumentius who laboured for a Reconciliation that the Church of Geneva was not so destitute but that Fratres mei saith he huic Provinciae subeundae pares futuri essent some of his Brethren might have been fit for that Work Belike he took it ill that in such a Business though meerly Civil he and his Fellow-Ministers should be left out And for matters in the Common-wealth he had so great Power in the Senate and with the People that all things were carried as he pleased And himself brags of it that the Senate was his and the People his And to encrease his Strength and make it more formidable he brought in Fifty or more of the French his Country-men and Friends and by his solicitation made them Free Denizons of the City of which and the Troubles thence arising he gave an account to Bullinger Anno 1555. Or can you think that Beza would have taken upon him so much Secular Employment had he thought it unlawful so to do For whereas in the Form of the Civil Government of that City out of the Two hundred prime Men there was a perpetual Senate chosen of Sixty as Bodin tells us my worthy Predecessour Arch-Bishop Bancroft assures me Beza was one of these Threescore And yet what a crying Sin is it grown in a Bishop to be honoured with a Seat at the Council-Table Besides this when Geneva sent a solemn Embassie to Henry IV. of France about the razing of a Fort which was built near their City by the Duke of Savoy Beza would needs go along to commend that Spiritual Cause unto the King and how far he dealt and laid Grounds for others to deal in all such Civil Causes as were but in Ordine ad Spiritualia is manifest by himself And I am sure Laesus proximus may reach into the Cognizance of almost all Civil Causes Or can any Man imagine that so Religious a Man as Mr. Damport the late Parson of St. Stephen's in Coleman-street would have done the like to no small hindrance to Westminster-Hall had he thought that by this meddling he had hurt both his Conscience and his Credit whereas good Man he fled into New-England to preserve both Or if Mr. Alexander Henderson would have come along with the Scottish Army into England and been a Commissioner as he was in that whole Treaty wherein many of their Acts of Parliament concerning the Civil Government of that Kingdom were deliberated upon and confirm'd if he had thought his so doing inconsistent with his Calling Or that the Scots being so Religious as they then were even to the taking up of Arms against their King for Religion
Tabernacle Numb 20. 6. Hezekiah and all that were present with him when they had made an end of offering bowed and worshipped 2 Chron. 29. 29. David calls the People to it with a Venite O come let us Worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker Psal. 95. 6. And in all these Places I pray mark it 't is bodily Worship Nor can they say That this was Judaical Worship and now not to be 〈◊〉 For long before Judaism began Bethel the House of GOD was a place of Reverence Gen. 28. 17 c. Therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of and To GOD. And after Judaical Worship ended Venite Adoremus as far up wards as there is any track of a Liturgy was the Introitus of the Priest all the Latine Church over And in the daily Prayers of the Church of England this was retain'd at the Reformation and that Psalm in which is Venite Adoremus is commanded to begin the Morning Service every Day And for ought I know the Priest may as well leave out the Venite as the Adoremus the calling the People to their Duty as the Duty it self when they are come Therefore even according to the Service-Book of the Church of England the Priest and the People both are call'd upon for external and bodily Reverence and Worship of GOD in his Church Therefore they which do it do not Innovate And yet the Government is so moderate God grant it be not too loose therewhile that no Man is constrained no Man questioned only religiously called upon Venite Adoremus Come let us Worship For my own part I take my self bound to Worship with Body as well as in Soul when ever I come where God is Worshipped And were this Kingdom such as would allow no Holy Table standing in its proper place and such places some there are yet I would Worship God when I came into His House And were the times such as should beat down Churches and all the curious carved Work thereof with Axes and Hammers as in Psal. 74. 6. and such Times have been yet would I Worship in what place soever I came to Pray tho there were not so much as a Stone laid for Bethel But this is the misery 't is Superstition now adays for any Man to come with more Reverence into a Church than a Tinker and his Bitch come into an Ale-house the Comparison is too homely but my just Indignation at the Prophaneness of the Times makes me speak it And you my Honourable Lords of the Garter in your great Solemnities you do your Reverence and to Almighty God I doubt not but yet it is versus Altare towards his Altar as the greatest place of God's Residence upon Earth I say the greatest yea greater than the Pulpit For there 't is Hoc est Corpus meum This is my Body But in the Pulpit 't is at most but Hoc est Verbum meum This is my Word And a greater Reverence no doubt is due to the Body than to the Word of our Lord. And so in Relation answerably to the Throne where his Body is usually present than to the Seat whence his Word useth to be proclainted And God hold it there at His Word for as too many Men use the matter 't is Hoc est Verbum Diaboli This is the Word of the Devil in too many places Witness Sedition and the like to it And this Reverence ye do when ye enter the Chapel and when you approach nearer to Offer And this is no Innovation for you are bound to it by your Order and that 's not New And Idolatry it is not to Worship God towards His Holy Table For if it had been Idolatry I presume Queen Elizabeth and King James would not have practised it no not in those Solemnities And being not Idolatry but true Divine Worship You will I hope give a poor Priest leave to Worship God as Your selves do For if it be God's Worship I ought to do it as well as You And if it be Idolatry You ought not to do it more than I. I say again I hope a poor Priest may Worship God with as lowly Reverence as you do since you are bound by your Order and by your Oath according to a Constitution of Henry the Fifth as appears to give due Honour and Reverence Domino Deo Altari ejus in modum Virorum Ecclesiasticorum That is to the Lord your God and to his Altar for there is a Reverence due to that too though such as comes far short of Divine Worship and this in the manner as Ecclesiastical Persons both Worship and do Reverence The Story which led in this Decree is this King Henry the Fifth that Noble and Victorious Prince returning gloriously out of France sat at this Solemnity and finding the Knights of the Order scarce bow to God or but slightly and then bow towards Him and His Seat startled at it being a Prince then grown as Religious as he was before Victorious and after asking the Reason for till then the Knights of the Order never bowed toward the King or his Seat the Duke of Bedford answer'd it was setled by a Chapter Act three Years before Hereupon that Great King replied No I 'll none of this till you the Knights do it satis bene well enough and with due performance to Almighty GOD. And hereupon the forenamed Act proceeded that they should do this Duty to Almighty GOD not slightly but ad modum Virorum Ecclesiasticorum as low as well as decently as Clergy-Men use to do it Now if you will turn this off and say it was the Superstition of that Age so to do Bishop Jewell will come in to help me there For where Harding names divers Ceremonies and particularly howing themselves and adoring at the Sacrament I say adoring At the Sacrament not adoring the Sacrament there Bishop Jewell that Learned Painful and Reverend Prelate approves all both the Kneeling and the Bowing and the Standing up at the Gospel which as antient as it is in the Church and a common Custom is yet fondly made another of their Innovations And farther the Bishop adds That they are all commendable Gestures and tokens of Devotion so long as the People understand what they mean and apply them unto GOD. Now with us the People did ever understand them fully and apply them to GOD and to none but GOD till these Factious Spirits and their like to the great disservice of GOD and His Church went about to persuade them that they are Superstitious if not Idolatrous Gestures As they make every thing else to be where GOD is not served slovenly 13. The Thirteenth Innovation is The placing of the Holy Table Altar-wise at the upper end of the Chancel that is the setting of it North and South and placing a Rail before it to keep it from Prophanation which Mr. Burton says is done to advance and usher in Popery To this I Answer That 't is no
about the 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 Thanks from the University about their Fees My Building at S. John's A 〈◊〉 of my Letters to the Vice-chancellour concerning Boots Taverns and the Kings Declaration c. Sept. 23. 1631. This Letter was here placed out of order to the end there might come nothing between the great Business which follows Bachelors of 〈◊〉 to uncover their heads when they meet their Superiours in Degree or be in presence with them Dr. Prideaux and Dr. Fell to read their Lectures according to the Statutes The keeping of his Majestys Declaration urged And to punish Offenders against it The troublesome 〈◊〉 arising in the 〈◊〉 against Government Dr. Duppa's Letters to me concerning the late Disorders in Oxford Dr. Smith Vicechancellor his Petition to the King against Ford's Sermon The Viceehancellors Appeal to his Majesty 〈◊〉 Ford's Case 8. Aug. The great Hearing at Woodstock His Majesties Letter sent to the University after the great Hearing at Woodstock Aug. 24. 1631. Forde Thorne and Hodges banish'd the 〈◊〉 The Proctours Bruche and Doughty to resign their Office Hyde and Hill to be warned at their Return to be in a readiness to answer to their several Charges Every man to give in a true Copy of his Sermon at the Demand of the Vicechancellor and that upon Oath Any man commanded to Prison by the Vicechancellour to submit The Delegates commanded to draw up the first two Statutes concerning Appeals before they Proceed A weekly Meeting every Monday of the Heads of Colleges and Halls Convocatio habita circa Edicta Regis The Proctours Obey and lay down their Offices Procuratores Mag. Erles 〈◊〉 Coll. Merton Mag. Washington Nas. 〈◊〉 Coll. AEn Bannitio Magistrorum praemissorum secundum Edicta Regis The Chappel of Queen's-Coll Wainscotted Mr. Hill's Letter to me how he was mislead by Dr. Prideaux in this business Another Letter of Mr. Hill's to me about Dr. Prideaux Mr. Loyde's Letter to the Vice-Chancel lour Convocatio habita 15 Decemb 1631. circa Statuta quaedam de appellat convent praefectotum De Appellationibus Mr. Hodges his submission Decemb 15. 1631. in Convocation Mr. Hill's submission Decem. 15. 1631. in Convocation Mr. 〈◊〉 submission Mr. Hodges his Letters os Thanks My Letters to the Convocation about the disorders in the Schools the last Lent Procuratores Mr. Chaworth ex AEn Christ. Mr. Meridith e Coll. Omni. Anim. His Majestie 's Letters to me about the Tumults in Lent Disputations Bannitio Mr. Masters 1632. see p. 156. Dr. Duppa Dean of Christ-Church chosen Vice-Chancellour An Order conceived in Oxford touching the Kings Declaration about the five Articles Feb. 9. 1631 2. A passage of my Letters touching the Order the Heads had conceived about the Five Articles My Letters to the Convocation about the Patent for Printing A second Patent procured The Printer not to be confirmed in their places till 〈◊〉 some orders concerning them be 〈◊〉 led Letters of Thanks from the University for getting their Patents of Printing Procuratores Mr. White 〈◊〉 C. C. C. Mr. Page 〈◊〉 Coll. Exon A passage of my Letters to the Vice-Chancellour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Concerning Noble Mens 〈◊〉 their conforming themselves to the Discipline of the University An Order about hastning the New Statutes Phisick Garden Queen's-College Chappel Dr. Duppa continued Vice-Chancellour a second year A Letter to me from the Lords Commissioners for the Navy about the University Privileges for Carriages Certain passages utterd by Dr. 〈◊〉 upon Dr. Heylins Questions at the Vespers on July 6. 1633. Dr. Prideaun's answer to these particulars received August 22 Ex. Act. 20. Dr. 〈◊〉 his Protestation The University submit their Statutes to me and my ordering of them Letters of Thanks concerning their Privileges Thanks from Oxon. for their Mortmain and the Letters from the Counsel about Cottages Procuratores Mr. Pellam e Coll. Magd. Mr. Warren e Coll Wadh. My Proclamation for a Toll-gatherer in Oxford c. May 2. 1634. Christopher Dival chosen Tol-gatherer The Sentence for distutoring of Mr. Oxenbridge of Magd. Hall May 27. An Order about the setling of the Statutes 12. Sep. 1633. University College Dr. Pink appointed Vice-chancellor My Letters to the Convocation about publishing 〈◊〉 Statutes c. The Statutes to be publish'd for a years probation Thanks from the University about their Statutes then sent down and published in Print for a years probation My Letters to the Convocati on concerning the Book of the Statutes delivered to the King and Sir Kenelm Digby's Manuscrspts c. Manuscripts given by Sir 〈◊〉 Digby to the University Two Advertisements of Sir Ken. Digby concerning his Manuscripts to be observed Thanks from the University for the Delivery of their Statutes to the King and for Sir 〈◊〉 Digby's Manuscripts procured by me A Project to set the Poor of Oxford on work Decemb. 28. 1634. Mr. Escots answer to certain of mine concerning the Poor of Oxford Recep March the 10. 1635. My Letters to the University wherein I then gave them certain Manuscripts A Condition to be kept concerning the Manuscripts Thanks from the University for my Manuscripts I gave them Magdalane College Smith-gate Thames brought up to Oxford Henry Birkhead of Trinity Col. seduced by 〈◊〉 Jesuite Dr. Pink continued 〈◊〉 another year A Branch of my Letters to my Lord of Winchester concerning New Coll. in Oxon. Feb. 2. 1635. Concerning the Probationers of New Coll. their reading of Calvin's Institutions too soon My Letters to the University concerning their large Patent procured from his Majesty Letters of Thanks to be sent to his Majesty for their large Patent The Decree of the Lords sent Thanks from the University for their large Patent procnted by 〈◊〉 Thanks for a Prebend procured for the University Orator and his Successors Vniversity Coll. The Agreement between the University and town of Oxford to stand to a final Order upon the hearing of the difference about Felons Goods c. vid. page 199. Procuratores Mr. Brown ex AEd. Chri. Mr. Good e Coll. Novo My Letters to the Convocation when the new Statutes were to be published Commissioners sent by his Majesty about the publishing of the Statutes A Convocation on the 22 of June for the publishing of the new Statutes Mr. Secretary 〈◊〉 Speech in Convocation at the Publication of the new Statutes A Meeting at Dr. Pink's Lodgings about the Protestation of the Provost and Fellows of Queen's Coll. June 22. 1636. A Protestation of the Provost and Fellowes of Queen's-Col about their right of the choice of the Principal of St. Edmund's Hall A Convocation on the 9th of July 1636. wherein my Letters sent to the University were read My Letters to the University when I sent them my second Manuscripts and Coyns The Effigles of King Charles sent to the University Coyns sent Two Idols 〈◊〉 Thanks from the University for perfecting and confirming the Statutes Three Fellowships in Oxford given by King Charles to Scholars of the Isles Jarsey and Garnsey Thanks from the
that time there proved a happy Error in it which occasioned the sending of it back to have it amended That Slip was but in the miswriting of one word which escaped them whom for want of Leisure my self I set to compare it The necessity to have this word mended begat a desire to have a whole Clause added containing a privilege of sole Printing such M. S. as you should set forth for a certain number of years The more I thought of this Clause the more I found it necessary and therefore moved his Majesty again for this But when it was granted Mr. Attorney to whose care and love not only in this but in divers other things the University is very much beholden did not think it fit to have the former Patent recalled that this might be added for that would have been the same in charge with a new Patent being again to pass the King's hand and all the Seals but not in profit to you Therefore after a great deal of debate I resolved by advice to move his Majesty for a second Patent which may recite the former and be in the nature of a Confirmation of it and then add all those many Clauses which concern the sole Printing not only of M. SS but of any other Books made and Printed there and against the importation of all such as shall be reprinted beyond the Seas as you will see more perfectly by the ampleness of the Patent it self This being now finished I here send you down both the Patents together but with this proviso of which you must be very careful The Priviledge is given to you to name your three Printers but after they are named and settled by Convocation they may perchance forget themselves and you and do some things prejudicial to the Honour or Profit of the University the Right being then as in themselves tho from you For prevention of which Inconveniences and divers others yet unseen and that both for the present and for the time to come I think it will be very requisite First that you confirm not either of the two Printers which you now have in any of the Rights of these Patents till all Orders concerning them be setled Secondly that you name as yet no third Printer but keep the place empty that you may get an able man if it be possible for the Printing of Greek when you shall be ready for it Thirdly that you settle some Orders of Agreement beforehand between your Printers and your other Stationers there which print not Fourthly that though your Patents be large yet coming over the Heads of the King's Printers and other Stationers here in London I shall advise you not to suffer any of your Printers as yet to print Bibles Service-Books Grammars Primers c. which caused the late and chargable Controversy betwixt Cambridge and them but let your Privilege settle a while and gather strength quietly Lastly such Orders as shall be thought fit to be made for the limiting of your Printers and keeping them in due obedience to the University upon all occasions which may be 〈◊〉 advised on by you that are upon the place I think may now very fitly be inserted into a Chapter by themselves among the Statutes that so they may have the more binding Authority over them And what else you may fittingly think of I leave to your selves Mr. Mottershed according to your direction hath paid the Fees of this second Patent as Mr. Philip King did of the first but being a far larger Patent the Charge must needs rise higher Yet I have gone the nearest way I could As for the Bill of Charges Mr. Mottershed will send it you down I hope I shall not need to put you in mind of writing a very good Letter of Thanks to his Majesty and I leave it to your Consideration whether you will not think it fit to write to Mr. Attorney who for the first Patent would take no Fees and to Mr. Secretary Windebank who put them to the King's hand and ordered them to the Seals and would take no Fee for either which hath not a little lessened your Charges So wishing that these Patents may turn to the Honour and Happiness of that place I leave you to the Grace of God and rest To my very loving Friends the Vice Chancellour the Doctors the Proctours and the rest of the Convocation of the University of OXFORD March 22 〈◊〉 Your very loving Friend and Chancellour GVIL London Reverende in Christo Pater Academiae nostrae Antistes Honoratissime GRatulamur Providentiae vestrae quae tota invigilat Athenis suis quod siquid illustrius siquid gloriosius excogitetur licet tanti Viri patrocinium in minoribus etiam rebus conscqui pulchrum est vester tam perspicax sit oculus ut illud exquirat tam agilis benevolentia ut nobis incautis imò uti novum aliquod inexpectatum stupentibus ultro obtrudat Omnia Privilegia nostra delectant sanè sed hoc Praeli maximè quod prius Cantabrigiae fuerit Loetamur enim quòd honoribus ejus tandem pares 〈◊〉 mus cui Antiquitate ne dicam Eruditione praeluximus Fatemur ingenuè nobis anteà non defuit Praelum defuit tamen Autoritas quam vos piè quidem impetrastis ut libri legitimi innocentes exeant absque erratis suis. Etenim credidistis Lectores parùm candidos si Codices violatae legis conscii lucem erubescerent Credidistis etiam hoc incitamentum forè Bodleiana Manuscripta imprimendi quae diutius neglect a'jacuerunt imò excepto uno vel altero saltem Critico illo forsan invido omnibus sepulta Invida animalia Criticos dicimus qui è pulvere cineribus suis nescio quot sopita ingenia erui malunt quamvis quid divinius cogitare possumus quà m mortuos resuscitari nolunt tamen hoc solum magni oestimantes quod aliis non prodest In hoc sane Te egregium Benefactorem agnoscimus quòd Bodeleianos libros volueris iterum publicos parum curans quà m multi invideant modò plures erudiantur Has tibi pro temporis ratione praecipites minus eruditas mittimus Gratias digniores expectes quando Praelum Te loquetur Dat. in Domo Congregationis Apr. 8. 1633. Academia tua Oxon. vestrae Amplitudini devinctissima THis ensuing passage of my Letters I desire may be read to the Heads at the next meeting the rather because I know and am sorry for it that divers things concerning Form especially in the younger sort are not in so good order as some men would make me believe they are and tho' you complain not much your self yet I can hear by strangers how the Market goes For I am told by divers that tho' the Masters come very duly in Caps which I am right glad to hear of yet the younger sort which should be most in awe are least in order and came not divers of them to
St. Mary's in that Form which they ought to do Which Disorder of theirs cannot possibly be remedied by the Care of the Vice-Chancellour only be it never so great But it must be done by the Heads in their several Colleges who must either punish such as they find faulty or put up their Names to the Vice-Chancellour that he may I thought fit therefore now before my entrance upon this my long and tedious Journey to desire you for the publick and every Head of College and Hall in their several Houses respectively to see that the Youth conform themselves to the publick Discipline of the University that his Majesty who is graciously sensible of all the defects of that Place may at his return hear a good and true Report of things amended there which as it will much advantage the place it self so will it also much advance the Reputation of the several Governours in his Majesty's good Opinion And particularly I pray see that none Youth or other be suffered to go in Boots and Spurrs or to wear their Hair undecently long or with a Lock in the present fashion or with flasht Dublets or in any light or garish Colours And if Noblemen will have their Sons court it too soon and be more in that is out of fashion than the rest the fault shall be their own not mine But under that Degree I will have no Dispensation for any thing in this kind And it were very well if they to whose Trust they are committed would fairly and seasonably take some occasion especially hereafter at their first coming to acquaint the Lords their Fathers with the course of Discipline in the University that their Sons may conform in every thing as others do during the time of their aboad there which will teach them to know differences of places and orders betimes and when they grow up to be Men it will make them look back upon that place with Honour to it and Reputation to you And of this and all other Particulars of like nature I shall look for an Account from you if God bless me with a safe Return In the mean time I commend my Love heartily both to your self and to all the Heads and desire mutual Return of your Prayers as you have mine daily May 10. 1633. GVIL London In this first year of Dr. Duppa's Vice-Chancellourship the Delegates were often called upon both my self and him to hasten the Statutes But that Business went on very slowly Hereupon I writ very often down to quicken them and laid before them the necessity of that work But little would be done till I entreated two or three of the Delegates of whom Mr. Peter Turner of Merton-Coll was one to set themselves more closely to the work In this year the Wall about the Phisick Garden which was divers years in doing was compleatly finish't In this year the upper end of the Queens-College Chappel was floored with Marble AFter my hearty Commendations c. I have put my Vice-Chancellour to a great deal of Care and pains in this year of his Government which is now drawing to a happy end And the more I consider how discreetly and worthily he hath carried himself both towards me and towards the whole Body of the University the more I am made doubtful whether I or you be most beholden to him For my part as I give him thanks for his pains past and his vigilance in that laborious Office So at this time being my self absent in remoter parts to do his Majesty such service as I am commanded I must needs think it very fit to leave the Government in his hands for the year ensuing who hath managed it so exceeding well in the year that is past And I doubt not but herein I give both the Heads of Houses and that whole Body very great satisfaction Because I assure my self the experience which he hath had will make him the better able for the year to come And upon this Ground I do make choice of him to be my Vice-Chancellour for this year following These are therefore to pray and require you to allow of this my Choice of Dr. Duppa and to give him your best Counsel and assistance in all Business which may any way concern the Government and the Honour of that famous University And so I bid you very heartily Farewel and rest To my very loving Friends the Vice-Chancellour the Doctors the Proctours and the rest of the Convocation of the University of OXFORD July 2. 1633. Your very loving Friend and Chancellour GVIL London AFter our hearty Commendations to your Lordship There being a great quantity of Timber to be carried out of his Majesty's Forrests of Shotover and Stowood for the use of his Majesty's Navy It pleased the Lords of his Majesty's Privy Counsel to appoint the Counties of Berks Buckingham and Oxon. to join in performance of those Carriages for the better ease of that service being more than hitherto hath been known And understanding that it will be a great Delay and prejudice to this so important a service if any persons shall be exempted and yet being unwilling to press any thing that may be misinterpreted or trench on the Privileges of the University of Oxon. which divers otherwise liable to this work resort unto to avoid this his Majesty's service We pray your Lordship to take some course by such way as you shall think fairest and without prejudice to the Privileges of that University that a Business of so much consequence tending only to the publick and general good and strengthning of the whole Kingdom may for the encouraging of other places neighbouring be cheerfully performed by those who live within the parts claiming to be exempt from any such Carriages And we shall have a care that they shall not henceforth be troubled on any particular or less important occasion as tendering the good and advancement of the Vniversity and the Privileges thereof above any particular or private Respects And so we bid your Lordship heartily farewel From White-Hall this 15 day of August 1633. To the Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of London Your Lordship's very loving Friends Portland Lindsey Fran. Cottington Fran. Windebank At the Vespers upon the 6 of July Dr. Heylin 〈◊〉 of the Proceders had these Questions following out of the 20th Article of the Church of England Ecclesia authoritatem habet in fidei controversiis deter minandis Ecclesia authoritatem habet interpretandi Sacras Scripturas Ecclesia potestatem habet decernendi Ritus Ceremonias Upon these Questions Dr. Prideaux then Professour had these passages following and were then offered to be avowed against him upon Oath if need were and it happened that the Queens-Almoner was present The passages were these Ecclesia est mera Chimaera Ecclesia nihil docet nec determinat Controversiae omnes meliùs ad Academiam referri possunt quam ad Ecclesiam Docti homines in