Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	act_v	enforce_v	great_a	17	3	2.0871	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86588	A true state of the case of Mr. Hotham, late Fellow of Peter-House; declaring the grounds and reasons of his appeal to the Parliament, against the sentence of those members of the committee for reformation of the universities; who on May 22. last, resolv'd the writing and publishing of his book intitled The petition and argument, &c. to be scandalous and against the priviledge of Parliament; and himself to be depriv'd of his fellowship in that colledge.	Hotham, Charles, 1615-1672?	1651 (1651)	Wing H2901; Thomason E636_4; ESTC R206575	32,556	48

charg'd us with acting herein only upon money considerations well have reserv'd that charge for those whose fingers have reason to stick closer to such dross I am sure all I should be a gainer by your grant of our Petition would not counterfeit half my expence The truth is we that are the Petitioners are through the Masters neglect to do his duty enforc'd at our own great hazard and charge to pursue the Colledge rights but 't is they that either sit still or act against us that wil be the only clear gainers if the cause be cast on our side so that had it not been more a common good then private advantage we aimd at we had been worse then mad men to have stirr'd in this cause but that which they alleadg'd of our depriving them of bread to enrich our selves was a vile scandal for they are not denyed to have according to Statute and Custome their commons allowed them freely even throughout the whole year of their Probationership and the remaining profits though our right to dispose of as we see cause is not determin'd to be divided amongst our selves but would I think rather be thought fit to be seposited to exonerate our Colledge stock of some debts 't is encumbred with 4. A fourth and very great inconvenience of this exemption is that if these men have this great priviledge above those that come in by election of being admitted a year before the Statutable time into present power and profit 't will much slacken the endeavours of younger Students to approve themselves to us under whose charge they live in that eminency of piety and learning which may recommend them before others to promotion when they see before them hopes upon these or the like vacancies to procure preferment with more advantage from a higher power And for this allegation this mans carriage when he brought his Order to the Colledge gives a just ground for being told by the Fellows assembled in meeting that he must not expect to be admitted Fellow in other quality then of Probationer he returned this scornful answer that then he had as good have come in by Election 5. The fifth and last inconvenience is That this sudden ascent of young Scholers from a state of minority to the highest power of command and equality with their Superiours is both a strong temptation to pride and self-conceitedness and of great danger to procure disorder and misgovernment in Colledge affairs And lastly to make the Colledge government contemptible to the younger Students and so uneffectual to those good ends to which 't was ordained And if any object that all these reasons notwithstanding those put in everywhere in other Colledges both of Cambridge and Oxford by this Honourable Committee are not Probationers but compleat Fellows I Answer That the Statutes of some Colledges require no Probationership at all in others the junior Fellows are by their constitution little better then Subordinates to a set number of Seniors intrusted with the sole power of the Colledge and so the like inconveniencies would not ensue there as with us where all are equal I have now onely one thing more to add If these of whom the Question is were either men of eminent worth or great standing or men that had in their spheres done any considerable service for the State or were but remarkable for their good affection to the Common-wealth We could well have been content our priviledges should have slept a while for their sakes we should have appeared here with thanks rather then complaints about any indulgence you should have granted them But no such eminency of any sort appearing in them to diminish the whole Society to make way for these mens greatness I hope you will think it small justice The first of them you have heard prov'd to be scarce free of malignancy and therefore a years time would do well to be given him for the working out that distemper Of the second I think I could alledge something very material but all I will say at present that he is for his person a diminutive wretch I think scarce two foot high a child or dwarfe I know not whether one that durst never that I hear of appear in person with his Petition before you Nor ought this to be esteem'd an unserious argument God in old times willing to make his ministry honorable amongst men would not admit of any that were in their outward persons notoriously defective but would have them left to some meaner employment I hope 't is not your desire to make the Society of Peter House contemptible If he must needs be Fellow yet one years growth if he be capable of it would do well to make him Complete-man before he were made Complete-fellow As for the third viz. The Masters man against whom we have formerly petitioned I must beg leave seeing his ambition to live above his Last hath forc't me here again upon the Stage humbly to represent That as I have it from those that knew him from the beginning he was at first being then judg'd insufficient permitted to have his name entered into the Colledge at the instance of a Minister upon Apology for him that he was poor and willing to take pains to amend his defects and that mean-while to let him have his time running on would be a deed of charity That from this first time of his admission till the Midsommer before his Commencement he resided not at all as Student in the Colledge All that while which was about three years never appeared to us in any other habit then of the Masters man waited upon him in a cloke whithersoever he went After that all the time he continued member of the Colledge was only one year in which time he was made by the Masters nomination first poor scholar then under-Butler and from thence we know not whether by his own or Masters merit is now promoted into a fellowship and not content with that will be aut Caesar aut nullus There are only four things can be alledg'd as a seeming plea for his capableness of this preferment 1. That being a Schoolmaster at a private house in the Country he hath train'd up a scholar or two for the University 2. That he had taken his degree of Batchelor of Arts in the University 3. That for a while he was made a Logick Lecturer in the Colledge 4. That he was by our selves recommended to a fellowship in S. Johns Colledge To the first I answer That to teach children the rudiments of Latine and to be a fellow of a Colledge i. e. one able to train up the riper youth in all the varieties of the best learning of all sorts are two vastly different employments yet in that learning of his proper sphere he pretends to some sufficiency in 't is generally believed he will upon due examination be found notoriously defective To the second that to be stopt of a mans degree in the University is accounted

into our Fellowships Flagrante bello when the warr 'twixt the late King and Parliament hung in suspence ran great hazards and the town being not fortified we oft upon Alarums from the enemy forc'd to our great charge to relinquish our homes Therefore 't was but reasonable that in compensation to our hazard and charge extraordinary an unusual exemption should be then allowed to us though now denied to others not having the like reason to claim it yet we did live a great time as to profit in little better condition then of Probationers having receiv'd till neer about a twelve moneth after our admission not five pound a man above our Commons in the Hall Thirdly At those times the Harvest was great and the Labourers but few 't was neer the whole body of the University that was pull'd up by the roots but there was great penury of fit men for a new Plantation I remember very well that when my self came out from being pos'd in the Assembly Mr. Palmer the new made Master of Queens Colledge told me that he wanted men for a supply of some places there and ask'd me whether I could recommend to him any fit persons to make choice of Now if in the midst of all those vast hazards and charges incumbent there had not been allow'd some unusual indulgences to allure men thither no body of tolerable parts and any way considerable to those ejected would have accepted the places but now the case is quite otherwise we have divers of our Colledge hopeful youths of greater eminence for Learning Piety good affection to the State that would be glad to accept of these Fellowships with that statutable limitation of Probationership which these men stumble at Fourthly To this I might add that four or five of us were at our admission Masters of Arts some of us of great standing now our Petition desir'd the probationership only of those under the degree of Master of Arts no others for our Founder having in Elections confin'd us to Bachelors we conceiv'd his statute of probationership ought in equity to reach no higher the putting in of Masters of Arts being a case beyond his thoughts though at our coming in the necessity of state and penury of men to supply those vacancies did enforce a temporary disregard of both those statutes of election and probation But these reasons being now ceas'd we hope an Argument drawn from them to a present infringement will be judg'd of no force Therefore that great objection now taken away I desire leave to tender to your Wisdoms a few of those remarkable inconveniences that will ensue from the exemption of these men from this statute and those not imaginary but grounded upon fresh experience of the effects of this mans promotion who was the beginner of these troubles First Those good ends aim'd at by the Founder viz. 1. The better fitting men for government by a gradual and leasurely ascent to it 2. The prevention of those distempers occasion'd in the spirits of young men by a too hasty promotion 3. The triall of mens spirits and securing of the Colledge from being prejudic'd by such as upon sufficient discovery should shew themselves unworthy of trust All these and many more good evils are frustrated by this exception Secondly the State is no less hinder'd thereby from that excellent advantage they might make by the observance of this Statute to try whether these they advance be true genuine sons of the Common-wealth or only compliers for preferment before they settle them too fast in their trust Durius egeritur quam non admittitur It must be some high crime only can prevail to ejection but for non-admission a strong suspition may serve It hath been the wisdom of our fore-fathers to make Laws Probationers for a time much more ought men to be so surely if you saw how men of all principles even those most disaffected to the Common-wealth flock in to the Engagement as to a common Asylum and yet hold to their malignant principles as firm as ever though perhaps you may deem him an enemy that refuses it yet would you not esteem every one a friend and worthy of trust that takes it nor would you presently give every man admission into your guards that had learn'd this watch word Therefore I hope you will think it wisdom rather to enlarge the practise of this Statute to all those Novices you put in except such few as you have special assurances of then to take it away in those places where the Founders providence hath prepar'd it to your hands And of all men there 's the greatest need of that caution with this man who first began this dispute for he was once no longer agone then last year November the 5th 1649. so virulent an enemy to the Parliament that in a publike Oration in the Colledge Hall he parallel'd their proceedings against the late King with the Powder-plot contriv'd by the Papists and Jesuits affirming to this effect that both pretended Religion for what they did but Religion disclaim'd both as an adulterine brood with much more to this effect for 't was the chief subject of his Oration Nor hath he further then by his meer taking the Engagement given us any probable demonstration that he is chang'd in his principles And therefore seeing he goes about with others before sufficient time of triall to fix himself into an immoveable station I thought it my duty to give this Honourable Committee warning to take heed whom they trust for 't is not to be imagin'd he will make any great scruple of breaking when time serves that promise he made in the Engagement who the Master will tell you hath as he believes in some of his carriages about the acquisition of this Fellowship made shipwrack of his oath for he affirm'd in my own and others hearing that he had told him as much 3. A third inconvenience of this exemption is that the present Society is very much wrong'd by it This profit accrewing from Probationers is one of the rightful appurtenances of our Fellowships and the Parliament hath been hitherto so far from impairing ought of the rights of the University that they have in the Headships thought fit rather to make augmentation Our Fellowships I assure you are poor enough and this year by reason of the Taxes like to be much impair'd We Fellows of Colledges having been so modest as to desire no augementation of the state I hope therefore you will not think it equal those casual augmentations allowed us by our Founder should be taken from us Nor I hope will this Argument diminish ought from the strength of what hath been or shall be further produc'd for if a man will will cut a slice out of my Coat to mend a hole in his own and I implead him for it his alledging that I have self ends in my accusation is no just bar to my plea for the recovery of my right Yet might those that