AN ACCOUNT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE Right Reverend Father in God JONATHAN Lord Bishop of Exeter in his late Visitation of Exeter College in Oxford OXFORD Printed at the THEATRE 1690. An account of the Proceedings c. THE Bishop of Exeter hath so tender a regard to the interest and reputation of all the Members of that College with the protection whereof his Lordship is entrusted that as he could not easily without repeated provocation be induc'd to pass Sentence against any of 'em so he was not without very great reluctancy perswaded to allow a publication of his proceedings since however it might vindicate his Lordship's Justice it must at the same time expose those things to the eye of the world which his Charity had much rather have conceal'd But finding that his late Visitation has occasion'd abundance of discourse and that reports have been generally made more according to the inclination of the Relator than the truth of the matter He is at length prevail'd upon both for his own and his Order's sake to allow a plain and impartial Narrative of matter of Fact wherein there are divers circumstances which might have been fairly represented with great advantage on his Lordship's side but he rather chooses to have a plain account with Copies of Authentick Vouchers to confirm it allowing no reflections but what they make and to leave the judgment upon the whole matter to the indifferent Reader I shall therefore endeavor in the following Report to imitate not only the Justice but the Moderation and Temper of his Lordship in his proceedings I shall touch the offences of no man any farther than they justify his sentence but confine my self to the evidence given before him and neglect the great advantage of a farther enquiry To try the merits of this Cause there need no niceties of Law the bare delating of such crimes as were complain'd of was a sufficient cause of a Visitation which had never been obstructed with such open hostility and so much unaccountable ill manners nor so wretched a Plea chosen as that to the Jurisdiction of an Ordinary had there been any other way to divert an enquiry into those actions which the Persons delated knew could neither be deny'd nor defended The Punishments have been so easy and moderate that no man besides the Rector has so much as a colour of complaint Many of those Gentlemen that abetted him are such as the Bishop could wish engag'd in a better Cause and such as I doubt not will lay hold on that opportunity which his Lordship has been pleas'd to afford 'em of uniting them-selves to the founder part of the Society and of owning that Visitatorial power to which after so favourable treatment they are in Gratitude as well as Justice obliged to submit As to the late Rector himself it is not much to be wonder'd at if he still retain a place in the good opinion of some few who mistake the merits of the cause having implicitly receiv'd an account of the Process from those very persons who were lyable to the Sentence But now when the charge and proofs are both made publick when so many and so great offences appear so plain and undenyable when the Visitor's enquiry has brought to light a secret practice upon which the whole University has thought fit to pass so Solemn and so Unanimous a Censure 't is reasonable to believe that those only will openly defend his Cause who secretly abett his opinions Having now said as much as I thought requisite by way of Introduction I should next proceed to the Visitation it self and recite the offences that went before it the opposition that was made to it the peaceable execution of it at last and the just and moderate sentences that were pass'd in it But since the exceptions of the Rector to the Visitor's Autority are chiefly grounded on some former procedures of his Lordship in Mr. Colmer's Appeal I think it necessary to take the rise of this discourse higher than I at first design'd and in the following method to give an impartial account 1. Of the Expulsion and Appeal of Mr. Colmer 2. Of the Proceedings of the Bishop and his Commissary upon the Appeal 3. Of the Crimes of the Rector and others that occasion'd the General Visitation 4. Of the General Visitation it self of the Evidence there given and of the Sentence there pronounc'd Upon the first head it will appear that whether Mr. Colmer be innocent or not the Bishop had such Presumptive proofes of his Innocence as must in justice oblige him to receive his appeal and to grant a re-hearing Upon the second it will be evident That the Bishop gave the Rector all imaginable advantage for the Conviction of Mr. Colmer and consequently That if he be guilty it is a new crime of the Rector and of him only that he is exempted from punishment Under the two last heads The Offences charged upon the Rector will be fully made out And throughout the whole discourse the grounds upon which the Visitor proceeded will be occasionally given and the cavils of the Rector against his Authority will receive short clear and satisfactory answers 1 Concerning the Expulsion and Appeal of Mr. Colmer Mr. Colmer was a Gentleman whose demeanour in the College had formerly been such that it much recommended him to the favor of the Rector and his family The Rector in a printed paper openly professes that he held a greater familiarity with him than is usual between the Rector and a Junior Fellow of a College What were the secret springs either of this intimacy or of distast afterwards as things transacted in a family we think it not fit to publish but what appear'd above board was as follows About December then 1688 when Sir Kingston stood Candidate for a Chaplain-Fellowship the Rector vehemently espous'd his interest as knowing that he could afterwards command his Vote and by it as he himself profess'd make the division of the College so equal that the sole absolute power of determination in all causes should fall upon him-self And since Mr. Colmer being not ignorant of Mr. Kingstons manners and former demeanour in the College nor insensible of the Rector's design in promoting him thought it his duty to concurr with many of the Fellows in opposing this Election The Rector openly declar'd that he would upon that account compass Mr. Colmers Expulsion In order to this some moneths after he charges him privatly with incontinence and endeavours to frighten him into a resignation of his Fellowship When that project fail'd and Mr. Colmer insisted on his innocence and seemed not at all apprehensive of any danger on that account The Rector accused him before the Vice-Chancellor and procur'd his warrant to summon one Smith before him and to take his depositions The Testimony of Smith was so far from charging Mr. Colmer that it wholly justify'd his innocence and the other allegations of the Rector seem'd so trivial and incoherent
that the Vice-Chancellor thought fit to dismiss the cause When this design therefore met with no better success than the other the Rector desisted from the troublesom course of examining Witnesses before a Magistrate and resolv'd on a more compendious method of expelling him by bringing the Cause before himself Accordingly on Oct. 10 th 1689. The Rector call'd a meeting of the seven Senior Fellows and told them that the occasion of it was a business in which he was to act the part both of an Accuser and a Judge and he might have added of a Witness too For upon the Tryal he accus'd Mr. Colmer of lying with one Ann Sparrow who had lately been deliver'd of a Bastard and for evidence he took his voluntary Oath that Smith after much importunity us'd with him in his Closet to confess at whose expence he maintain'd the Woman desir'd time to speak with his Friend This Friend the Rector was resolv'd should be interpreted Mr. Colmer and thence inferr'd that he maintain'd the Woman and was Father of the Child tho' Smith who appeared at the meeting avow'd that he knew no such thing of him and that the Rector misrepresented his words and mistook his meaning Upon no other Oath than this founded upon a false surmise taken by him who was his Judge and professed himselfe his Accuser Mr. Colmer was declar'd legally convicted of incontinence There were indeed other Allegations in this Cause but those bare Allegations without proof and not sufficient to justify the Charge if they had been prov'd It was said that the Rector's wife said that a certain maid said to her That she had formerly said to another Woman That Mr. Colmer was uncivil to her But the Maid that was said to have said this though in Town was not produc'd and the Woman who was said to have receiv'd the complaint was there present and denied it Traditional stories Hear-says and Reports were urg'd against him but the authors of them tho' Servants of the Colledge and subject to the Rector's Summons were not call'd nor produc'd On the other side two Divines attested upon Oath That the party which was with Child not only acquitted Mr. Colmer before them but own'd that she had been dealt with to accuse him Against this plain and express evidence and against the Testimony of Smith who was said to be his Accuser The equivocal expressions general words and frivolous discourse of some talkative Women ill attested without Oath and at second hand were receiv'd and credited and upon these Proofs and upon this process only Mr. Colmer was expell'd and devested of his Free-hold It is natural for men that use such process as this to shun a re-hearing and therefore it is no wonder if now the Rector pretended That this his interlocutory sentence was conclusive and final and that Mr. Colmer was by Oath barr'd from any appeal to the Visitor If the Statutes and the Oath that was founded upon them had been capable of such a sense it would have been a great hardship on Mr. Colmer who avow'd his own innocence to have been necessarily expos'd either to the scandal of Fornication or to the guilt of Perjury However he was resolv'd to consider his Oath to undergo his misfortune and to proceed no otherwise in his appeal than it was permitted and warranted by Statute But Upon the perusal of the Statutes and the consideration of the evidence given against him he was himself convinc'd and was confirm'd in his opinion by Dr. Bouchier Professor of the Civil-Law in Oxford that he had free liberty and just cause of appeal to the Visitor The Motives that prevail'd with him to think so were such as these 1. That the Oath being accessory to the Statute did only restrain those Persons from vexatious appeals who were expell'd according to the appointment and direction of the Statute and according to the form therein laid down and prescrib'd 2. That the Statute requiring a legal conviction and the Proofs in Mr. Colmer's Case being so far from making a legal conviction that they were not sufficient to make a man of any reputation suspected Mr. Colmer was not Statutably Expell'd and consequently not barr'd from appeal 3. That in the Oath it-self the word mea shows plainly that the Demerita must be in a true not in an imputed sense as must the alias probitatis merita which are oppos'd to them and therefore it follows either that a Person innocent of the crime objected may appeal or that he must be forc'd to own that by virtue of his Oath whereof he is not guilty which were great impiety 4. That it is the plain design of this Oath to secure the College from any action at Law or any other disturbance from abroad and that in the recital of the different appeals and remedies which are there prohibited That of appeal to the Visitor which was most obvious to be thought on is not expresly mention'd nor forbidden and therefore that those General words may in an equitable sense be intended to restrain the party from all appeals to an Extraneous not to a domestick Court to one that is a forraign Judge not to a Visitor who is a part and the first Member of the College 5. That these interpretations of the Oath ought to be receiv'd as being most consonant to Law and such as are least tending to establish arbitrary power and to exâ—lude legal remedies against wrong-doing Mr. Colmer therefore finding that he had liberty of appeal from grievances and knowing that none could receive his appeal but the Ordinary made his application to the Bishop of Exeter Successor of the Founder of that College Patron Ordinary and Visitor thereof He insisted much on his own innocence represented to his Lordship the injustice of the Rector's procedures the invalidity of the evidence against him and the credibility of the proofs offerr'd in his favor Among other things he shew'd to his Lordship the Affidavit made by Ann Sparrow the Mother of the Bastard Child who being put to her Oath before an Alderman of Oxford acquitted Mr. Colmer and nam'd the Person one Roberts who had tempted her to accuse him His Lordship was farther inform'd that a great part of the College were so sensible of the injuries done to him and so much at variance with his judges on that account that without the Ordinarie's interposition these differences could not probably be compos'd And lastly he beg'd of his Lordship to receive his appeal to grant him a new hearing only That so the proofs of his innocence and his guilt might equally be produc'd and according to the just weight of either of them the Sentence against him might be confirm'd or annull'd My Lord of Exeter had now a very difficult choice either of taking upon him a long expensive and withall an invidious trouble or of neglecting his duty and hazarding the rgihts of his Successors The contentious humour of the Rector which
in former instances had sufficiently discover'd it-self gave him prospect of opposition and his Lordship was not insensible that the Nature of the Cause which was brought before him was capable of misconstruction But these Prudential Dissuasives weigh'd not so much with him as the stronger motives of honour justice and conscience which induc'd him to receive the appeal He was sworn to preserve the rights of his See and this of receiving appeals and visiting Exeter-College was not only one of them but so much the more necessary to be preserv'd as his Lordship's Diocess hath a more than ordinary relation to that College He knew that these arbitrary and illegal Methods however now supported by specious pretences might easily on worse occasions be drawn into precedents and might give colour for the usurpation of such an uncontrolable power as neither was just nor fit for such a Rector to enjoy And as to this Case it-self the dismission of it by the Vice-Chan the hasty and unstatutable proceedings of the Rector the resentments of part of the College on that account the invalidity of the evidence against Mr. Colmer and the contradictory testimonies of credible witnesses then and since offer'd were sufficient pleas for a farther enquiry Since therefore the Appeal was neither frivolous nor vexatious his Lordship was convinc'd that the admission of it was not a matter of favor but justice and that he as superior judge ought of right and equity to receive it His Lordship was thus satisfy'd of the justice of the Appeal nor was he less convinc'd of his power of receiving it He had good reason to think that the Law and the College Statutes supported this his authority and the arguments on which he chiefly grounded his opinion are for the satisfaction of others here recited and made publick 1. Since as it is evident in this Case A Fellow may appeal there must be a competent Judge of the Appeal and not only no other immediate Judge than the Bishop can be assign'd but all other Judges are in causes relating to the College expresly by Statute excluded 2. The force of the word Ordinarius doth necessarily import universality of Jurisdiction and therefore where no intermedial Jurisdiction is plac'd any where else this to prevent the defect of justice must be let in 3. Altho' by the Statutes the Visitation of the whole College be restrain'd to requisition or five Years yet the words in the beginning of the Statute are general and apt for an universal provision and cannot be satisfyed by a Quinquennial Visitation of 3 days nor by one upon requisition For there may be a combination of the majority of the Seniors who only have power to desire it 4. The Visitor was upon like reasons limited to a Quinquennial as a Bishop to a Triennial Visitation It was the only design of the Canon in one Case and of the Statute in the other to prevent the Charge of Proxies and Sportulage and therefore as a Bishop when barr'd from Solemn and costly Visitations is not restrain'd from exercising the ordinary acts of Jurisdiction so neither during the Quinquennial Term doth a Visitor's power cease but upon Emergent occasions in any grievance or Appeal without any Charge of the College Exerts it self The General enquiry into matters undetected in both cases is limited but the Cognizance of matters delated to them is in neither restrained Upon the whole then the Bishop was sensible that Mr. Colmer having a presumptive greivance done him in a matter of a high nature had free liberty of making an Appeal that his Lordship as Ordinary was Judge of Appeals and therefore since the Appeal was lawfull and the matter of it just and equitable and the Cognizance of it lay before him the Visitor as in justice and prudence he ought receiv'd and admitted it 2 Concerning the Proceedings of the Bishop and his Commissary upon the Appeal There can be no greater Evidence of the calmness and deliberation which his Lordship us'd in his proceedings upon the Appeal than the great distance of the dates between the Appeal and the Commission the one presented on the 24 Oct. 1689. and the other was not granted before the 21 of Feb. following Indeed his Lordship being willing not to expose the authority of the Rector at first try'd the mildest and most private methods of enquiring into this Cause and adjusting it He by letter requir'd 2 of the Fellows and as many more as the College should think fit to attend him at London and to bring with them a Copy of the proceedings against Mr. Colmer and resolv'd if any Evidence could be offer'd by them to confirm the Sentence against him This was so just and so reasonable a demand from a Visitor that I doubt not the Reader will be surpriz'd to hear that it met with a denial A Letter or rather a Remonstrance was sent by the Rector and in it the Visitor was acquainted that no Appeal at all lay in this Case and if any should lye the matter would not fall under his but the V. Ch's Cognizance What slender grounds there were for these pretences will herafter appear at present I shall pursue the Relation of Matter of Fact and give you the success of this answer Upon this refusal which was a new presumption of guilt and upon the repeated instances of Mr. Colmer his Lordship being immediately after Parliament oblig'd to attend the care of his Diocess granted a Commission and intrusted this Cause to Dr. Masters his Commissary If there was no other proof of his Lordship's impartiality in this affair there never was a clearer instance of it given than in one circumstance of this Commission For tho' Mr. Colmer's Lawyers did not without colour of Law insist that such Commissions of rehearing ought to admitt of no more Evidence than what in the last instance had occasion'd the first Sentence yet because his Lordship had heard that the Rector had obtain'd some fresh proofs of Mr. Colmer's guilt he was so kind to D r. Bury and so little favourable to the Appellant that he gave the Rector leave to bring in what fresh matter he could to justify his former judgement So that tho' the former Evidence had been defective and the process upon it illegal and arbitrary yet was the Bishop resolv'd to expose the Appellant to any fresh charge and not to suffer him if guilty to take any advantage of the Rector's hasty and Exorbitant proceeding This single consideration would acquit My Lord of Exeter from any partiality to Mr Colmer and yet since this sometimes hath been without any ground objected to his Lordship I shall take leave to anticipate one passage of the like nature in his General Visitation and to give it place here When the Bishop had by Letter and Commission endeavour'd to Convict Mr. Colmer and found at last that the Rector and his party would not be brought to accuse him His Lordship in his Visitation among
the Articles exhibited to those Fellows who own'd his Authority made this One to discover to him any Person in the College who was guilty or suspected of Incontinence When in their answers no body was return'd suspected of that Crime But the Rector himself When no proofs against Mr. Colmer were produced and two Material Affidavits which are here annex'd were offer'd and taken in his favor His Lordship according to the Method of legal Process was oblig'd to acquit and restore him But at the same time the Bishop openly said to him I was resolv'd to have Expell'd you my self at this Visitation If I could have by any means obtain'd legal proof of the crime alleg'd against You And I do now admonish You to prostrate Your self before God with Prayers and the sharpest repentance If Your Conscience upbraids You with the guilt of this Lewdness After this short digression which is a full answer to the Charge of partiality in his Lordship it is necessary to return to the Commission it self and to give an account of the Acts done by Dr. Masters in pursuance of it The Commission it self being granted on Mr. Colmer's request was wholly restrain'd to his Cause the Pow'rs given were of no farther Extent than to the Matter of the Appeal and the Process upon it was suitable to the Commission Whether we look on the Citations that were serv'd or the Judicial Acts that were Executed these limitations are every where strictly observ'd And more remarkably when the Sportulage which is due to the Visitor's Commissary upon a Visitation was offer'd to Dr. Masters he refus'd the present and disavow'd his coming upon a Visitation as he had before done in Court So groundless altogether are their arguments who maintain that this particular enquiry into Mr. Colmer's Case only and that Civiliter can be intended or taken for the Visitor's General and Solemn Visitation which is alwayes Criminally When Dr. Masters came into the Chappel he read his Commission and acquainted the Rector with the liberty there given him not only to justify his former proceedings against Mr. Colmer but to give in any other fresh Evidence against the Party Expell'd The Rector was so far from complying with these just and equitable demands that he openly denyed the jurisdiction of that Court and set out the bounds or rather the infinity of his own uncontroulable power He said That he might Expell all his Fellows if he pleas'd that he was absolute and accountable to None and that however arbitrary his Government might be there was no remedy to be obtain'd against it At last having 3 days given him to make out his Charge against the Appellant he made no other use of it than to draw up two protestations against the Visitor with a postscript of Allegations against Mr. Colmer In the first it was alleged not only that no Appeal in General could lye in this Case but that if any lay the Visitor was not the Competent Judge of it but the Vice-Chancellor The Commissary was abundantly satisfi'd as of the Lawfulness of the Appeal so of the Jurisdiction of the Visitor in Cases of Appeal and pronounced for the validitie of the same He knew that the Vice-Chancellour whose right he would have been very tender of neither had any title to the Cognizance of this Case nor laid claim to any 'T is true indeed that by the Rector's Oath if there be any strife or discord between him and his Fellows he is oblig'd to stand to the Arbitrement of the Chancellor or in his absence of the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford But I Since no Jurisdiction is given to the Vice-Chancellor in the Statutes over the Fellows they are not oblig'd to own him as Judge But the Rector only is bound to submit to him as Arbitrator The Fellows therefore must not necessarily have recourse to him but upon recourse had the Rector is sworn not to decline his decision 2 That Part of the Oath extends to those private Contests which the Rector shall have with the Fellows in his Personal Capacity agreeable to the Law of the Vniversity but not to those that shall arise when he acts Collegiately in Concurrence with the Majority of the Seniors In the one Case this intermedial arbitrement for the ease of the Visitor and of the Fellows is allow'd and the Fellows have the Security of the Rector's Oath for his acquiescence In the other the Cause is immediately devolv'd to the Ordinary 3 At the hearing of this Cause the Rector expresly deny'd that the Vice-Chancellor or any other ought to intermeddle in it This and this only was the Exception taken to the Jurisdiction nor were the Allegations against the Appellant more Weighty or Material The crime of Incontinence in General was objected to him and some Collateral circumstances which should make out the Charge were recited and tender'd to the Commissary But when Proof of them was requir'd from the Rector it was answer'd that he was not oblig'd to give it When a Lawful Cause of Expulsion was insisted on it was pretended that a reasonable Cause was sufficient and when a reasonable Cause was to be desined it was such as the Rector and the majority of the 7 seniors should think to be reasonable The Commissary was sensible That a legal conviction must be founded on such evidence as is agreeable to the rules of law and justice and that an uncontrolable power of judging that to be evidence which is not so is equivalent to an arbitrary power of expelling men without evidence And therefore since there was no other evidence of the Rector's despotick and absolute power but his own allegation since there was no cause of the Appellant's expulsion given and no proof of any crime so much as offer'd The Commissary as he was oblig'd by Law and Justice reversed the Rector's interlocutory decree and by a desinitive sentence restored Mr. Colmer It is evident now that the Rector had all advantages allow'd him of justifying or of corroborating his sentence That more than usual time was granted to him for the obtaining fresh proofs and an Extraordinary liberty was afforded him of producing them and that in short if Mr. Colmer be guilty he ows his impunity not to the Favour of the Bishop but to the obstinacy of the Rector 3. Concerning the Offences of the Rector and Others which oblig'd the Visitor to make his solemn and General Visitation Nothing but the concurrence of so many exorbitant crimes as at this time appear'd in the College could have perswaded the Bishop to Visit the College in person and to wave those just excuses which his business and indisposition of body now afforded him It will be necessary therefore before we enter upon the Visitation itself to give a previous account of those offences which occasion'd it and to begin with that which we cannot name the first nor the greatest but which hath nearest relation to the former discourse and may therefore not improperly be plac'd
repos'd in him and so far to imitate his Noble Predecessor who had at great expences founded that College as to exempt him-self from no trouble or charge in reforming and preserving it 4. Concerning the Visitation it self the Evidence there given and the Sentence there pronounc'd HItherto in all the former proceedings no other power was allow'd to his Lordship by the Rector but a General Visitation The Universal autority which the Statutes repose in him was according to his interpretation wholly resolv'd into a Quinquennial Enquiry and all the General words which give Latitude and full Extent to his power were pretended to have reference to no other than this Jurisdiction His Lordship therfore being willing to reform the College not only by Legal but Unexceptionable methods appointed the 16 of June 1690. for the day of his Solemn and General Visitation to be held in the Chappel and serv'd the College with a previous Citation in order to it Now was it hardly to be expected that the exercise of this unquestionable power which had always been own'd and confess'd could afford any colour of dispute even to those who always thought it more wisdom to put of their own Tryal than to make their Defence And yet when the Bishop went in Person to the Chappel where the Rector and Fellows had been cited to appear he found the doores designedly shut against him Nine of the Fellows indeed who were sensible of the Rector's Arbitrary proceedings and of the Bishop's undoubted Autority attended his Lordship and own'd his Visitatorial power But the Rector and some Fellows with him appear'd and in a very tumultuous manner in the open Quadrangle offer'd a Protestation against his Autority and would not permit him to have any entrance into the Chappel which was the proper place for them to tender the Protestation and for him to receive it Other indignities and disrespects were then offer'd to his Lordship which by his order I forbeare to report even the indecent behaviour of Sir Kingston which deserves a particular mention but that it would force such reflections as I make it my business to avoyd The substance of their Protestation was this that the Bishop's power of Visitation is not general but limited and restrain'd to once in 5 Years that Dr. Masters by a Commission from the Bishop lately exercis'd acts of Jurisdiction and Visitation in the College in restoring an expelled Fellow and that therefore within the term of 5 Years which was not yet expir'd his Lordship was barr'd from any other Visitation This Argument or rather Cavil is so very weak in it self and supported by so little colour of reason that it is necessary to beg the Reader 's pardon for troubling him with a solid confutation of it For it is evident beyond dispute That 1. The Nature and being of a Court can be no other than what is granted in the Commission on which it depends and therefore since the Commission which is here annex'd is restrain'd to the Cause of Appeal only the acts of the Commissary were and must be agreeable to it and are null in themselves if they exceed those restrictions 2 The nature of a Visitation is a voluntary enquiry into matters criminal and correction therupon But the Matter transacted by Dr. Masters was a nude Cognition of a grievance done to a certain Person at his instance and ended in Restitution only 3 The nature of a Visitation of a College requires it to be general both as to Crimes and Persons But to this Court were call'd those Persons alone who had been partakers in the personal wrong 4 The Commissioner openly declar'd that he did not then come upon a Visitation and therefore refused the Sportulage in that Case appointed by the Founder 5. The Rector who gives a new autority to the Commissary when gone Protested against him when present The Judicial Acts that he did were neither own'd nor observ'd and the Process upon the Appeal which is now say'd to be a Visitation was then pretended by the same Man to have been invalid and null The Visitor therefore esteeming the injury and violences offered to him as an invasion of the Prerogative the Visitatorial power being first deriv'd from and confirm'd by the Crown apply'd himself by Petition to their Majesties in Council The application to Council in things of this Nature hath allways been warranted by Custom the Precedents of their final decision or arbitration are not few and their orders have usually by mutual consent of both Parties been obey'd But now the Rector openly declar'd that he would not acquiesce in their determination of the affair nor be concluded by it whether upon notice of this or whether their Lordships did not take this Cause to fall under their Cognizance or upon any other motives which being things secret and uncertain it is not proper to enquire into Their Lordships thought fit wholly to dismiss this Cause from that Board and to refer the Visitor to the usual course of Law The Bishop finding himself left to the methods of Law again took the advice of the most learned Council in the Laws both Common and Civil and was by them satisfy'd in these three points which in the precedent discourse have been stated and setled 1. That he as Ordinary had power of receiving and determining Appeals 2. That the Commission made to his Commissary was only a Commission of Appeal restrain'd to the hearing and determining of the cause of that appellant only 3. That being constituted by the Statutes Visitor and empowr'd without requisition to visit once in five Years and the execution of that Commission not being a Visitation the Bishop might Visit assoon as he thought fit His Lorship being thus confirm'd in his opinion went down to Oxford in his way to his Diocess with a resolution to Visit but to deferr his Visitation till the meeting of the Parliament should oblige him to return to London During his stay the Rector convening all the Fellows in an insulting manner told them that he had defeated the Bishop's design of Visitation and had thrown him flat on his back farther adding to that part of them who had submitted to the Visitor that tho' he had power to expell them yet now he would only Register them But they were not to look on this as a Pardon but as a Reprieve For that they should continue at his Mercy and removable at his Will Whereupon Complaint of these Arbitrary proceedings being made to his Lordship then at Christ-Church He being sensible that inevitable ruin to the College must follow if some speedy stop was not put to the Rector's Exorbitant designs resolv'd immediately to proceed to a Visitation and serv'd a Citation on the Rector and Fellows being then in Town to appear after some few days in the College Hall At the day appointed two hours earlier than usual the Rector order'd the College prayers to be said and after the end of them instead of opening the gates