me for Assistance according to the Proclamation and are now busie in calling their scatter'd Forces together again Oxford Wednesday the 15th of July 1640. A. Frewen At Whitehall the 22th of July 1640. PRESENT The KING's MAJESTY Lord Arch-Bishop of Cant. Lord Keeper Lord Treasurer Lord Privy Seal Lord Duke of Lenox Lord Marquis Hamilton Lord Admiral Earl of Berks Earl of Holland Earl of Traquare Lord Goring Lord Cottington Mr. Treasurer Mr. Secretary Windebanke Sir Tho. Rowe WHereas His Majesty being present at the Board did this day hear the Complaints of the Mayor Recorder and others of the City of Oxford expressed in two Letters the one of the 15th of June to the Board the other of the 4th of June to the Earl of Berks a Member of the Board concerning their Liberties in the Presence of the Vice-Chancellor and other Doctors of the University and Mr. Allibond one of the Proctors whom the said Complaint did concern After mature Debate it was ordered That the University of Oxford according to his Majesty's Gracious Letter shall have the sole Licensing of Victualling-Houses in that City and Suburbs in like manner as the University of Cambridge hath in the Town of Cambridge And for that purpose it is ordered by His Majesty with advice of the Board That the Commission for the Peace in Oxford shall be renewed and the Vice-Chancellor only made of the Quorum Secondly for the Complaint of the Building of Cottages it is ordered That the Vice-Chancellor and the Mayor shall make several Certificates of all the new Cottages built within Twenty Years and shall distinguish which of them have been built by Privileged Persons upon College Lands and which by Townsmen and which by Privileged Persons upon the Town Wast by their leave Upon return of which Cerficates their Lordships will give such farther Order therein as shall be fit Thirdly it was order'd That his Majesty's Attorney and Sollicitor-General shall examine how the Orders set down by Mr. Justice Jones for preventing of Disputes and Controversies between the University and City of Oxford have been observed and by whom there hath been any defailer therein admitted Upon Certificate whereof their Lordships will take such Order as shall be fit for the due Observance of the same Fourthly it was ordered That according to the Statute of Winchester those to whom it belongeth ought to set Watches at the Gates of the City according to the said Statute and that the said Watch continue there without walking of the Streets or moving from their Station except it be for the suppressing of any sudden Tumult or other Malefactors whereof there is not time to give notice to the Vice-Chancellor and the Proctors of the said University Lastly it is ordered That the Constable committed to Prison shall be delivered but not without paying of Fees After my hearty Commendations DR Frewen hath now born the troublesom Office of the Vice-Chancellorship of that University for the space of two whole Years which is the time now usually given to execute that Office And is certainly weight enough for any Man to bear so long In the discharge of this Office he hath through the whole course of his time carried himself with great Care Moderation and Prudence and that as well in all Businesses which relate to the Town as in those which look more immediately upon the University And among other great Services perform'd by him I cannot forbear to single out one and here publickly to give him Thanks for it even above the rest And that is the great Pains he hath taken and the singular Dexterity which he hath used in bringing the Statutes concerning the Examinations into Use and Settlement Which Statute I dare be bold to say being continued and kept up in the same Vigour to which it is now raised by his Care and Providence will be of such singular use as that for my part I cannot easily tell whether it will be greater Honour or Benefit to that University but sure I am it will be the one by the other if it be kept up to the Life as I hope it shall be Dr. Frewen's time being thus happily spent both for his own Honour and the University's Good the Care now lies upon me to name another to take up that Burthen which he lays down and to go in those steps which he hath trod out before him And I thank God for it there is such Choice of able Men in that Place for this Service that I cannot be to seek whom to name unto it But I have for the present thought upon Dr. Potter Dean of Worcester and Provost of Queen's-College as a Man whom I know to be of great Integrity and Sufficiency for that Place and of whose Care and Industry therein I am very confident To him together with the Office I do more especially recommend the Care of the Examinations in point of Learning and a most strict Watchfulness and Observance against all haunting of Taverns or any other Meetings private or publick which may any way help to suppress the base Sin of Drunkenness the Mother or the Nurse of almost all other Distempers which may bring Obloquy upon that Place These are therefore to let you know that I do hereby nominate and chuse Dr. Potter to be my Vice-Chancellor for this Year ensuing And do hereby pray and require you to allow of this my Choice and to give him all due Respect and Assistance in all things necessary for that Government and more especially in the two Particulars above-named that so Sobriety and good Manners as well as Learning may flourish in that Place And thus not doubting of your readiness and willing Obedience herein I leave both him and you to the Grace of God and rest Lambeth July 24. 1640. Your Loving Friend and Chancellor W. Cant. AND for the future I pray let not the Town so much as begin to lay the Foundation of any Cottage or any other House whatsoever in any Place but send me word of it presently that I may acquaint the Lords with it and command a stay August 3. 1640. W. Cant. UPON a late Warrant from the Deputy-Lieutenants the Mayor hath freshly pressed and set out ten new Soldiers Coat and Conduct-Money for these in their several Parishes was taxed upon all Privileged Persons not only Stationers Apothecaries that trade and use Merchandize who are more liable but upon Doctors Clayton Sanders Bambridge and all Physicians upon Mr. Crosse our Beadle on our Butlers Manciples Cooks who are our immediate Servants and deal not with any Trade All profess themselves very willing to advance His Majesty's Service especially in these base and broken Times Yet they hope by your Grace's Favour to enjoy the benefit of that Privilege which being anciently granted to our University was of late confirmed by His Majesty's Charter and is enjoy'd by the other University At my intreaty all of them in a manner have paid but their
it be denied And therefore our humble Suit to Your Lordship is That by Your good furtherance we may receive the Opinion of the Honourable Lords of His Majesty's Privy Council what shall be done in the Premisses And whether Mr. Mayor shall be freed of all Danger for not setting a Watch in these troublesom Times or not And so craving Pardon for our so often troubling You we remember our Humble Service to Your Lordship and render many Thanks always remaining Oxon June 24. 1640. Your Lordship 's to be commanded John Smith Mayor William Potter John Nixon Thomas Smith Leo. Bowman John Sare William Charles Humphrey Whistler Henry Southam Martin Wright Roger Griffin Walter Cave Bailiffs William Poole Bailiffs SIR THE Mayor of Oxford hath lately sent these two Letters above written one to the Lords of the Council and the other to the Earl of Berks to shew to the Lords And I here send you the Copies of them both The Letter to the Lords is most concerning Greene and his Inn in which I do desire you to make a clear and distinct Answer to these Particulars following As First Whether this Inn be the Inheritance of Lincoln-College and whether Greene is possessed of it by the Marriage of the Widow in the Right of his Son-in-Law And this the rather because your first Information said That the Town authorized him to keep this Inn. Secondly You may see by this how angry they are about their Victuallers where they directly charge you That amongst others you took a Recognizance of the said Greene but never certified the said Recognizance nor any other to the Sessions according to the Law To which also it will be fit you give Answer Thirdly They say they have only the Name of Mayor and Magistrates and speak in all the rest of their Letter as if all the Town Privileges were invaded by the University And here I would have you answer two things The one That they offer to invade the University Privileges which I conceive is true And the other Whether so many as they mention did refuse the Offices of Mayor and Bailiffs this last Year Their second Letter is only concerning their Night-Watch in which I think there is a manifest invading of the Vniversity Privilege And Proctor Allibond is challenged by Name But they have taken a very cunning rise for their Business for they put it all upon their Care for a Watch by reason of the Seditious Tumult at Farrington There is great reason that Mr. Mayor should be freed from all Danger about setting of a Watch save only such as is his Duty to set but the Lords will not give me their Opinion till they have an Answer from the University how the Mayor's Watch and the University Privileges stand together I pray therefore send a full Answer to this Particular especially But I pray send your whole Answer in such fair Terms as that I may shew it whole and entire to the Lords but let the matter be as full home as you can Lambeth July 3. 1640. W. Cant. Most Reverend IN the Name of the whole University as well as in my own I return Your Grace humble Thanks for the Notice which by Your last Letter You have been pleased to give me of a late Information preferred by this Town unto the Lords of the Council against us To the several Branches whereof I will make bold to return a brief Answer that it may the more fully appear unto Your Grace how false in some and groundless in all Particulars the Complaint is 'T is true That Green's House belongs to Lincoln-College and that he now enjoys it by the Right of his Wife But this makes it not to be an Inn that must be done by License which he must either have from the Town as all other Inns as yet have or else he hath none For confident I am that he hath not any from the Vniversity By Virtue of His Majesty's late gracious Grant unto us we License Ale-House-Keepers and Victuallers Above which Rank until better informed now by the Town we conceived Inn-holders to be and therefore meddled not with them If Greene came in the throng at the beginning of Lent to be bound by me from dressing of Flesh the which I remember not he came not called For by my Warrant I then Summoned none but Privileged Persons and such only of the Town as by the Power given the University by His Majesty had been allowed by us The Recognizance of those 〈◊〉 Licensed I confess I returned not to the Quarter-Sessions and that for this Reason His Majesty by the fore-mention'd Letter was pleased to grant us the same Authority over Ale-Houses and Victuallers which the University of Cambridge hath No Recognizances are returned there whereof I am certain for I sent thither purposely in November last to enquire And therefore none by us The University there keeps them in its own Power and so do we The Town-Clerk who Pen'd the Letter does I grant by this means lose some petty Fees which the Poor Men now save in their Purses he formerly had whilest the power of Licensing was in them But this is a very weak Plea in a Business of such Consequence Nor indeed are those Fees now considerable we having already reduced those Ale-Houses to Five Score which before were Three Hundred A great number And yet not to be marvelled at when one Man this Mayor's Father-in-Law Bosworth a Brewer and Justice of the Town was as I have credibly been informed in a very short time the means of Licensing an Hundred for his part upon Conditions which tied them faster than their Recognizance to the King that they should take all their Beer of him nor did he stand single Others they have who trod after him in the very same steps which makes me wonder with what Face they can complain of the Loss of a Power which they so grosly abused And yet more I marvel at their Complaint against us for invading their Liberties when themselves are so notoriously guilty of daily Attempts upon ours without any colour at all of Right for their so doing Witness their Intrusion into the Office of Clerk of the Market Their Enquiries at their Leets touching the Cleansing and Paving of the Streets Their refusing to be regulated by the Vice-Chancellor as heretofore touching the Price of their Candles Arresting and Suing of Privileged Persons in their City Court Taking of Felons Goods and interrupting our Proctors in their Night Walk Nor can I amongst these Grievances omit their present multiplying of Cottages and Inmates in all Parts of the Town in despight of the Inhibition to the contrary sent unto them by Letters from the Lords of the Council whereof they have in a friendly manner been put in mind by the University both at their Publick Sessions and at other times If the Mayors of Oxford have now as is pretended only the Title not the Authority of the Place they are
cannot desire more than your Lordship resolves upon In any thing that my Assistance may be useful to Mr. Vice-Chancellour or otherwise I trust my faithful endeavours shall make good how unfeignedly I desire to shew my self Exon. Coll. Novem. 24. 1630. Your Lordships Most ready at Command John Prideaux May it please your Lordship IF it be not too boldly done of us to interrupt your Lordship's greater Affairs we should hope that you would be pleas'd to accept with favour these few lines from us which are according to our humble Duty and Service to congratulate your Lordship's honourable Reformation of the University so well begun We cannot nor can any man else dissemble it The Corruption was gotten up high and come to stand almost in praecipiti Some medicinal hand was of necessity and that speedily to undertake the Cure Which God who well saw the weightiness of the work would should be no other than your Lordship's though your Lordship would not There were others more Powerful Your Lordship would have been our Friend however It would be envious you were sickly and the like But the Infallible Eye saw you and what it purposed to effect by you whilst you walked thus under the Fig-trees that we may so speak and Covert of your excuses Truly it was strange to see such backwardness at the Undertaking and yet now such Readiness and Skill in the Execution We see it and must with all gratefulness acknowledge amongst your manifold and great Occasions both for Church and State no pains spared no opportunity omitted either by Word or Letter that may any way advance the business in hand From this Zeal of your Lordship to Learning and the welfare of the University there is no ingenious breast amongst us but takes fire and would be glad to be seen though amidst the dependance of so worthy an Enterprize Our selves in an inferiour Distance are even angry with our selves that we have not hitherto signifi'd to your Lordship our forwardness in our Places But now we assure your Lordship as we have not been altogether negligent for the time past so from henceforward to be industrious in what belongs to us in taking notice of Formalities in laying hands upon the reigns and liberty of Dispensations and looking to the performance of other Duties As for the point of Dispensations and Proceeding of Bachelours which now draws on somewhat it may seem to be out of the way of the Proctours But it is so poor a thing to the Universal good that we would request your Lordship not to entertain so much as a thought that we make the least account of it And since we understand your Lordship's Desire we shall put on resolution to make stop of all manner of Dispensations we mean for defect of time or of that nature and this without any mincing of the matter or deriving the Cause or Envy farther than our selves Truly it would be a foul Shame for any more for us to be found either backward or luke-warm to Good Order when our Chancellour himself is seen to press so nobly for it Besides the reward that we may look for that when in after-ages your Lordship's Honours shall be recorded and this Reformation amongst the rest I and amongst the chiefest O it hath a Genius and must live we also may claim to have our Names read for those in the time and circuit of whose office so great a work was undertaken Thus humbly craving Pardon for our boldness we rest Oxford Nov. 29. 1630. At your Lordships Service To be commanded Ralph Austen Henry Stringer Proctors of the University About this time the Principality of St. Edmund's-Hall became void by the death of Dr. Rawlinson And the Provost of Queen's College and the Fellows there made choice of Mr. Ayrie to succeed him This Claim for the freedom of Election and a Queen's-College Man to be elected they had formerly made under the Chancellourship of the Lord Arch-Bishop Bancroft who promised them very fair for the next avoydance but prevailed with them to let his Nomination stand for Dr. Rawlinson Now they write their Letters to me and humbly besought me that their Choice of Mr. Ayrie who had been of their College might stand And withall they sent me up their Writings and Evidences which they had to shew that the Right of Election of a Principal to the Hall aforesaid was in the Provost and Fellows of Queen's College and not in the Chancellour of the University as the rest of the Halls are After much Debate and full Consideration taken I writ to the Vice-Chancellour as followeth S. in Christo. Sir I Have now at last with much ado got a little time to look over the Evidences which the Provost of Queen's College sent unto me concerning their Right of the Choosing of the Principal of St. Edmund's-Hall Upon view of the Deed from the University in which I find the Chancellour a Party and of the other Disputes raised concerning this business when the Right Honourable the Earl of Dorset was Chancellour all which concluded for the Right of the College to Choose I think their Right is unquestionable And the rather because I find that the Right Honourable my late Predecessour the Lord Steward upon view of these Writings declared in a Letter of his the Right to be in the College And for that the Provost and Fellows of Queen's College have not only made this Claim to their Right of Choice but have also from time to time made actual Choice of the several Principals successively whensoever That Place hath been void and have at this time made their humble suit unto me for Confirmation of their Right I am very willing to preserve this their Right unto them And do hereby Pray and Require you as my Deputy there to give Mr. Ayrie whom the Provost and Fellows have lately Chosen Admission into the Principality of the said Hall and all such Rights as are thereunto belonging And this I am content to do for the love of Justice without reflecting upon the suddenness of their late Choice which might have been done with more Respect to me and less Hazard to themselves So for this time I leave you to the Grace of God and rest LONDON House March 4. 1631. Your very Loving Friend GVIL London DIe Mercurii viz. vicesimo die Aprilis Anno Dom. 1631. habitâ deliberatione à Venerabili Viro Dr. Smith Vice-Cancellario un à cum aliis Collegiorum Aularum Praefectis de quibusdam negotiis ad Vniversitatem spectantibus per Collegia Aulas denunciandis Cùm innotesceret Commissionem Regiae Majestatis authoritate editam emissam fuisse quibusdam Viris Primariis ad inquirendum de Feodis Salariis in Curiis Justitiae ratione Officiorum debitis Nec constaret quantum haec Commissio ad Vniversitatem pertineret Placuit Vice-Cancellario cum consilio consensu reliquorum Collegiorum Aularum Praefectorum tunc praesentium Dom.
your Deputy-Governours in either University to VVill and Require them in Our Name to rectifie and reduce all Fees given to Officers Readers Bedels Registers or others for Degrees or any thing else to That quantity which they bore in the said Eleventh year of Queen Elizabeth For the Abuse is great and burdensome unto them which bring up their Sons in Learning And We will remedy it by Our Commission if you according to your Places do not see it remedy'd to our hands And We are the more Careful for Our Universities Because we have not forgotten that Our Royal Father of ever blessed Memory gave Bountiful Gifts to supply divers wants There which We assure Our self were not given but with an intent that when they were possessed the Fees should lessen at least return to that just proportion to which we have limited them in our Commission So We grant your Suit not to break the Liberties of our Universities by sending another Power upon them But withal We require you both to send to our several Universities rsepectively that VVe may have present Redress of this Abuse and that a Table may be made according to the elevene th of Queen Elizabeth and hung up in the Congregation and in some convenient place in every College and Hall that every man may know what Fees he is to pay and no man presume to take beyond the Allowance in that Table as he will answer it at his Peril And we shall look for an Accompt of this from you both respectively Given under our Signet at To Our Right trusty and Right Wellbeloved Cousin and Counsellour Henry Earl of Holland Chancellour of Our University of Cambridg And to the Right Reverend Father in God Our Right Trusty and Welbeloved Counsellour VVilliam Lord Bishop of London Chancellour of our University of OXFORD Reverendissime Cancellarie GRatias agimus periculis quae te reddunt nobis indies chariorem lumen pretiumque adjiciunt tam Vigilis Patroni merito Rem perdifficilem eluctabimur si operâ tuâ non simus foelicissimi In moderandis Academiae fraenis nunquid opus est oculatiori Providentiâ Tu quidem vix emicantia periculorum semina à longinquo praevides eaque aut prudenter caves aut fortiter evellis Nunquid opus est anxietate curâ ubi nusquam occurrit periculum sollicitè circumspicis indagare non desinis quod metuis invenire ac totus quieti nostrae insomnis incubas At nunquid suavi opus est in adducendo militiâ Non sinis imponi nobis vim necessitatis vel in iis etiam quae ad nostrum spectant emolumentum Sed aequè sanandi modo ac ipsi consulens sanitati aut ea imperas quae sponte volumus aut prius velle fias ea quae imperas Ac tum demum ubi voti ardor incaluit eundem Obsequii studio ingeminatum accendis non segniùs quam ventus secundo flamine proni impellit cursum fluenti Liberalium amici Artium sub Feodorum onere graduum venalium caritate jam diu suspirarunt diu tacuerunt Quibus aderat morbi eradicandi animus potestas defuit exequendi ansa donec Medicus Epidemicus hoc ulcus ubique recisurus utpote in Curiis universis grassatum nos itidem quamvis à saeculo seclusos communi tamen peste laborantes communis convolvisset asperitate remedii Exoticae Potestati tradidisset unâ corrigendos Vtilis fuit medicina invisa manus sanari optabile sanari verò à parùm benevolis fuit quaedam Foelicitatis miseria praesertimcum in Extraned Censurâ Exemplum lateret viamque sterneret usurpabili Laicorum tyrannidi Quid ergo dicemus Regi in mentem venisse ut nos dormiscentes solummodo expergefaceret Certè eâ mole fertur Majestas ut semel commota aegrè possit vel ipsa se sistere Expergesecit quidem sed quod nihil tentavit amplius Tui opus Patrocinii agnoscimus Benignitati Augustae Deo cum proximae tum simillimae tribuendum primò quòd nostri causâ excanduit tum posteà quòd nobis domesticam proprii sinûs animadversionem indulsit Sed quod Regem priùs pacatum invenimus quam iratum mente subito compositum quasi rugas ideo tantum induisset ut exueret hoc sagaci tuae Providentiae maturo tribuimus Intercessui O Aulae Academiae vinculum O qui Regem nobis per lenitatem Nos Regi per obsequium attemperas sive plus nostri affectûs sive gratitudinis sive obedientiae velis nequid unquam quod velis desit cape ad summum omnia Nobis dulce erit Prudentiae tuae animum summissè dedere in durissimis Sed levamini commodoque nostro aurem morigeram praebere jussu subire quae ultro expetimus quantâ hilaritatis ecstasi properemus Sub tali jugo incurvari lucnum est Crescit ex imperio libertas dominatur dum paret E. domo nostrae Congregationis July 25. 1631. Honori vestro devinctissima Oxonien Academia July 26 1631. The first Stone of my Building at St. John Baptist's College was laid NOW that this intended Good may come the fuller upon the University a great help must come from you and your Successors from time to time in That Office And first while the awe of this is upon them you must call for the present performance of those things which his Majesty enjoyned especially the present drawing up of the Statutes concerning Appeals and of the standing Delegacy of the Heads of Colledges and Halls to meet every week or every fortnight at least as well in Vacation as Term both to consider of the present businesses of the University and to prepare such things as are fit for Convocation Which Statutes of this Delegacy and the Appeals were they once settled would ease half of the business of the University and repay all the pains that is or can be taken about them Next I pray call the Heads together and give them warning concerning their several Companies That no man of what degree soever and therefore much less Youths be suffered to go in Boots and Spurs together with their Gowns And if any Head of a House permit it in his own College whither my Authority reaches not I shall complain where he will be unwilling to Answer And for your self I pray and require you that if any man be seen abroad with them in Town out of his College you presently proceed against him according to such 〈◊〉 as you have De 〈◊〉 Scholastico c. And the like for haunting of Inns or Taverns or other Drinking-Houses 〈◊〉 Masters of Arts that should give younger Youths better example And that all Bachelours of Arts as well 〈◊〉 as others receive a strict command by their several Governours that while 〈◊〉 any 〈◊〉 they pass along the 〈◊〉 or any publick place they uncover their heads and do that reverence which beseems them to any Doctor Bachelour of Divinity Master of
habentium ac non habentium longe munificentissimus Siste manum siste ne premat Te virtus nimia totum enim Te figis atque insumis emolumento nostro Nullus 〈◊〉 Filius sic Matrem sugendo exhausit ac Te Patrem filia Academia 〈◊〉 nunc dicas quae suit Mater cum eam ex ruinis regenitam lautiori Fronte perpoliveris Ore novo mox loqui docueris Nos itaque licet nondum Sermone Arabico Donum enim hoc vestrum est certe gentium omni genere pectore gratias conceptissime recumulamus semperque retinebimus sub linguis omnibus unam animi devotissimi Effigiem E Dome nostrae Congregat ionis Aug. 10 1636. Sanctitatis vestrae humillima Cultrix Oxon. Acad. THis year his Majesty and the Queen invited themselves to me to Oxford and brought with them Charles Prince Elector Palatine and his Brother Prince Rupert being both then in England They came into Oxford at the end of this Summer's Progress on Munday August 29. The Vice-Chancellour made a very good Speech unto them where my self and the University met them which was a mile before they entred the Town That Speech ended they passed along by St. John's where Mr. Tho. Atkinson made another Speech unto them very brief and very much approved of by his Majesty afterwards to me Within Christ-Church Gate Mr. William Strode the University Orator entertained them with another Speech which was well approved Thence the King accompanied his Queen to her Lodging and instantly returned and went with all the Lords to the Cathedral There after his Private Devotions ended at the West Door Dr. Morris one of the Prebendaries entertained him with another short Speech which was well liked And thence hisMajesty proceeded into the Quire and heard Service After Supper they were entertained with a Play at Christ-Church which was very well penn'd but yet did not take the Court so well The next day being Tuesday the King came to Service soon after 8 in the Morning It was at Christ-Church and Mr. Thomas Brown being then Proctor made an excellent Sermon which gave great Content The Sermon ended The Prince Elector and his Brother Prince Rupert attended by many of the Lords came to the Convocation-House where the Place was full of University-Men all in their Forms and Habits very orderly And the two Princes with divers Lords were pleased to be made Masters of Art and the two Princes Names were by his Majesty's leave entred in St. John's College to do that House that Honour for my sake In Convocation the Vice-Chancellour having first placed the Princes and briefly exprest the cause of that Convocation I made a short Speech which here follows in haec verba Florentes Academici hoc tempore florentissimi quibus Caroli Regis Pientissimi Prudentissimi simulque Mariae 〈◊〉 Heroinae Consortis suae charissimae praesentiâ frui datur Nec eâ solum sed praesentiâ eximiae spei Principum Nepotum M. Jacobi Sacratissimoe Memoriae Monarchae de Academia Literatisque omnibus optimè meriti Principes hi sunt hoc Titulo suo omni honoris genere dignissimi Vos eos omni quo 〈◊〉 prosequimini Quid expectatis ultrà Academici An ut ego Oraetorio in hoc Senatu fungar munere At illud memoria curis simul annis fracta lingua per se inculta desuetudine loquendi 〈◊〉 praesens 〈◊〉 quod ad alia festinat omnino Prohibent Nec Principes hi Preceresve illud à me expectant Cui aliud satis jam incumbit negotium qui illis 〈◊〉 in omnibus sum pollicitus Breviter itaq quod ad vos attinet Principes non Ortu magis quà m Virtutibus illustres Non expectat à vobis Academia ut possitis totam Entis prosunditatem exhaurire ut sic sitis Artium Magistri sed liceat dicere Freta aetatis vestrae nondum transiistis AEstus jam urgent juveniles Hos discite superare fluctus procellas has in auras redigere omnium insimul Artium Magistrieritis quid ni fortunoe Atque utinam nostrae potestatis esset coecoe illi Deoe oculos dare quibus virtutes vestras cerneret agnosceret jura Et vos etiam Proceres Principum horum Cultores convocata hac Academia exultat videre non solum conferre gradus suos in vos gestit quos omni honoris cultu veneratur sed potiùs eos conferendo honorem summum gradibus suis quaerit quod placeat Principibus hisce vobisq Pannis suis nam 〈◊〉 in purpura est inaugurari Floreat sic soepius Academia Nativis simul Adoptivis Filiis gaudeat Egregie Vice Cancellarie ad Creationem Admissionem simul pro Officio tuo descende AFter this the Vice-Chancellour proceeded made another short Speech and after Creation and Admission of the Princes and and other Honourable Persons ended the Convocation That finisht they all returned to Christ-Church to attend upon the King the Princes having formerly in the Morning seen some of the fair Colleges Then the Queen being not ready the King with the Princes and the Nobles my self also waiting upon him went to the Library where the King viewed the New Buildings and the Books and was entertained with a very neat Speech made by the Son of the Earl of Pembrook and Montgomery then Lord Chamberlain Then word was brought up that the Queen was come So the King went into the 〈◊〉 to her and they went away to St. John's to dinner the Princes and Nobles attending them When they were come to St. John's they first viewed the New-Building and that done I attended them up the Library Stairs where so soon as they began to ascend the Musick began and they had a fine short Song fitted for them as they ascended the Stairs In the Library they were Welcomed to the College with a short Speech made by one of the Fellows And Dinner being ready they passed from the old into the new Library built by my self where the King the Queen and the Prince Elector dined at one Table which stood cross at the upper end And Prince Rupert with all the Lords and Ladies present which were very many dined at a long Table in the same Room All other several Tables to the number of 13 besides these two were disposed in several Chambers of the College and had several Men appointed to attend them and I thank God I had that happiness that all things were in very good order and that no man went out at the Gates Courtier or other but content which was a Happiness quite beyond Expectation When Dinner was ended I attended the King and the Queen together with the Nobles into several withdrawing Chambers where they entertained themselves for the space of an hour And in the mean time I caused the Windows of the Hall to be shut the Candles lighted and all things made ready for the Play
taken you may have some of the best and choisest Tractats cut out of the Covers and purloin'd as hath been done in some other Libraries Lambeth Nov. 15. 1639. W. Cant. WHilst I was at the Examinations on Saturday Novem. 16. there came into the School a Stranger who seem'd to be of very good Quality for he had three or four Servants attending him There he sat a diligent Auditor for the space of an hour Then went forth and taking Horse at the Gate vanish'd without leaving any possibility of a discovery what he was for there was not any Scholar seen in his Company nor can I find that he did so much as stop at any Inn. What ever the ends of his coming were he cannot but speak well of the Exercise for 't was at that very time singularly well performed Out of his Letters of Novem. 18. 1639. A. Frewen My Judgment upon this was as follows SIR 'T IS a pretty Accident of the Gentleman 's coming to hear the Examinations upon Saturday last And I am heartily glad the Exercise was so good and worthy his Audience But as his coming was unexpected and his departure sudden so we must be contented to leave his Person unknown unless some accident discover it But what say you to this May it be some Jesuit attended with three or four Novices that came to see what this new Business is in the University For why any Gentleman in the Kingdom should come and go in that fashion without so much as saluting the Vice-Chancellor being present upon the place I for my part cannot tell nor do I believe any would so do Lambeth Novem. 20. 1639. W. Cant. IT is strongly presum'd that Mr. Bowden a Divine of Trinity-College hath drown'd himself His Discontent as their Vice-President informs me arose from Contemplation of his Debts to the College which he foresaw he should not be able to clear at their Audit On Thursday Seven-night in the Morning he was met very early going towards New-Parks and hath not been seen since that time A. Frewen The like Passage I had from Dr. Baylie concerning Mr. Bowden which follows ABout the beginning of the last Week one Mr. Bowden Fellow of Trinity-College whom they have suspected for craz'd heretofore after the exchange of some cross words with the President in the Gate betwixt 6 and 7 in the Morn went out of the College and cannot as yet though diligently sought be found It is fear'd that he hath drowned himself Decemb. 2. 1639. Ri. Baylie A Young Man lately Commoner of Wadham-College and expelled thence comes last Night to the Sign of the Greyhound there he puts on a false Name and under that disguise sends for two of the Fellows of that College to whom he bore a grudge to Sup with him They come he seconded by another whom he brought with him for that purpose and Vizarded meets them under our Grove-Wall there they assaulted the naked Scholars and shrewdly wounded them One of them is apprehended and in the Castle the other is fled but known Oxford Dec. 2. 1639. A. Frewen Whereupon I writ to the Vice-Chancellor that he would be careful to do what might be done by Law for the vindicating of the two Fellows and the great wrong done them And that he that was known and fled might be taken FOR your Court-Leet if it be so expenceful as you mention and of so little use since the Vice-Chancellor can do all in his private Chamber without contradiction which he can do in that Court I shall not advise any frequent keeping of it Yet since I writ last my Lord of Berkshire their Steward hath been earnest with me that the Articles of Agreement between the University and the Town might be settled according to Judge Jones his Order and truly I think that were not amiss to take the offer while they are willing For my now Lord of Berkshire presses me to move the Judge to 〈◊〉 it And as far as I remember the stop hath been in the Town it self and neither in the University nor the Judge And tho' their refusing of setting to their Hands were especially concerning the Court-Leet yet I do not think but that all Orders may be agreed to if they please and that yet you need keep that Court no oftner than you think fit your selves According as you write next to me so shall I speak to the Judge about it Lambeth Decemb. 6. 1639. W. Cant. I Am sorry to hear that the Lady Margaret's Reader is so subject to Infirmities And if he continue so weak and full of Relapses I think you shall do well to dispense at least with his diligence the next Term if he gather not strength in the Interim For I would be loth so able and careful a Man should lose himself by taking so much Pains before he enjoy a confirm'd Health which certainly is fit for you and the University to consider especially since you write that he hath been almost every Week this Term at Death's Door Lambeth Decemb. 6. 1639. W. Cant. ON Monday Nov. 18. the Vice-Chancellor sent his Majesty's concerning Ale-Houses to the Mayor and Aldermen Upon the Receipt of them they consulted very privately but yet it was easily known to be about the Contents of that Letter because they enquired how many Ale-Houses were in every Parish And this doubtless they did to see if they could disprove the Information given to his Majesty concerning the number of 300 Ale-Houses within the Town But Dr. Fell Dean of Christ-Church who by my direction looked very narrowly into the Business made his Information good by the Testimony of the Ale-Brewer's Clerk Servant to that College And though this number be extremely too great yet so long as Bakers and Brewers have the power of granting Licenses no Man is like to be denied that will take his Bread of the one and his Ale of the other The Vice-Chancellor presently gave me notice of all this least the Town should inform the Earl of Berkshire their Steward and perhaps untruly and so possess him against the University And it seems they did so For my Lord meeting me at Court spake with me about the business and acknowledged from them but 160 Ale-Houses and that most of these were Privileged Persons and Licensed by the University contrary to their own Promise and Undertaking at the open Sessions but spake nothing of the procuring of the Letter it self which I was very glad of and 〈◊〉 his Lordship that I verily believed he was misinform'd in all particulars as I doubted not but it would plainly appear In the mean time the Vice-Chancellor very discreetly went on to the Reformation of this Scandal to the University in which he proceeded thus First That it might appear he aim'd at the good of the University in the License which he drew up for the future he makes it a Forfeiture of his Recognizance for any Ale-House-keeper
1639. A. Frewen IN the interim hearing that Wilkinson had under-hand gotten a Recommendation from my Lord the Earl of Holland Chancellor of Cambridge and having occasion one day to meet with my Lord I spake to his Lordship about it but my Lord remembred no such thing Yet told me he would speak to his Secretary about the Business and then give me a farther Account Which the very next day he did and confessed unto me that he had given him a Recommendation but thought Wilkinson had come attested from the University And withal his Lordship said that the Reason which he gave him why he went to Cambridge for his Degree was because the Fees were greater in Oxford Upon this his Lordship promised me that he would write to Cambridge that the University should be very careful to keep the Agreement made with Oxford concorning Degrees Lambeth Dec. 26. 1639. W. Cant. CHristmas-day falling upon a Wednesday this Year the Mayor of Oxford stept in before the University Clerks and proclaim'd no Market This he did grounding himself as 't is conceived upon the strength of Justice Jones his Arbitration In the which tho' altogether beside the Question he told the Vice-Chancellor That he thought the Market belong'd to the City tho' the Government of it to the University The Vice-Chancellor doubted not but that he should be able to right the University in this particular Dec. 23. 1639. A. Frewen THE Violence of the Storm on St. John's Night threw down the Battlements over the Room where Your Grace's Manuscripts are billited but did no more hurt Fearing that the Leads might be bruised and a passage through them for the Rain made by the fall I caused it to be throughly search'd and presently repair'd so that now the Books are out of all danger Oxford Jan. 6. 〈◊〉 A. Frewen One John George Deputy-Register to old Mr. Jones petitioned me for a Reversion of the Registership it self of the Vice-Chancellor's Court But I refused him and writ to the Vice-Chancellor to know the Conditions of the Man who sent me word as follows HEartily glad I am that your Grace hath refused this John George for having a Reversion of Mr. Jones's Office For he is a sawcy insolent Companion And should he once come to enjoy the Place in his own Right 't is likely would prove insufferable What yearly Rent he pays for his Deputation or what he is to give for the Resignation I cannot tell Yet thus much I know through the greediness of the Register and Proctors the Court begins to hear ill nor am I able to redress it so fully as I would there being no Table of Fees whereby to regulate them Oxford Jan. 13. 〈◊〉 A. Frewen UPON the Vice-Chancellor's mentioning to me the having no Table of Fees for the regulating of that Court I writ to him to draw me up one and send it me And that then I would consult with the Doctors of the Arches and some well experienced Proctors what Fees might be fittest for such a Court and send it him back perfected to be confirmed in Convocation if it be thought fit Lambeth Jan. 17. 〈◊〉 W. Cant. ON Saturday Jan. 25. died Mr. Robert Burton of Christ-Church who hath given 5 l. per Annum for ever to the University-Library besides a considerable Number of Books to be taken out of his Study And because a Benefactor to the University I was present at his Funeral At our last Examinations we repulsed a Dunce of New-Inn who was not able so much as to give us a difference betwixt Quisquis and Quisque though a Candidate to be Master of Arts. To put an end to the Town 's snarling at us for taking from them the power of Licensing Ale-Houses I last Week cast them out a Bone which hath set them at odds amongst themselves Understanding that some sold Ale without my leave I sent out a Warrant to the Officers in every Parish They finding by it that their Poor should reap the Fruit of their Pains readily obey make a strict search inform and press to have the Penalty exacted which hath bred a strange Distemper amongst them and a strange one it must be that can disjoin them as this hath done in their feud against the University Here follows the Copy of the Vice-Chancellor's Warrant THESE are to require you and every of you immediately upon Receipt hereof to make diligent Inquiry in your Parish after all and every Person and Persons that do take upon them to sell Ale or Beer within your said Parish besides them whose Names are under-written And that you do certifie me who they are and he ready to prove and justifie their selling without License that I may exact thereupon the Penalty of 20s for the use of the Poor of your Parish from each of them so offending Also I require you to make diligent search taking with you a Constable what quantity of Ale or Beer the said Persons have in their several Houses and to inform me what Brewer or Brewers have served the same That I may punish them according to the Law Hereof fail you not as you will answer the contrary at your Perils Given c. Our University Coroner being last Week to sit upon the Body of a Privileged Person drowned near Christ-Church sends his Warrant according as the Statute directs him to the Constable of St. Olave's to warn a Jury He presently consults the Mayor and the Mayor the Town-Clerk the City Oracle and both instruct him to disobey because by their Charter they are exempted from all Service without their Liberties as this Place was though yet within the Parish of St. Olave's which forced us for the present to send into the Country for a Jury which lost time and cost trouble Of the Legality of this their Plea we here are not able to judge yet much suspect that no Exemption in any Charter reaches to Service of this Nature But admit it to be legal yet was it withal uncivil and were not the Times as they are I should e'er long make some of them smart for it And on Friday last I brought one of their Bailists almost upon his Knees for furnishing an unlicensed Tippling-House with Beer And easie 't will be for a Vice-Chancellor if he intend to correct them at any time invenire baculum Oxford Jan. 27. 〈◊〉 A. Frewen AT this time I writ to the Vice-Chancellor to speak to the Heads before Lent begin and to desire them that they would be very careful of their several Companies that the publick Disputations then may be quick and Scholar-like and yet without Tumult And this I left principally upon his Care to look to calling the Proctors to his Assistance I received a Letter this last Week from a Reverend Bishop in this Kingdom in which he complains that Amesius and Festus Hommius though I think before your time have been Reprinted in the University They
Remedy by their Care I will my self 〈◊〉 the King and the State with these foul Sufferances and not stay till Great Men who of late begin to open their Mouths apace complain first of these great Enormities For my own part I have done my utmost And I do very well understand what hurt this may bring to the University in such Times as these But better some hurt than that they should be quite undone And I pray let the Heads know how sensible I am of these foul Disorders in private and how the Publick comes to suffer by them I thank you heartily for making the disorderly Fellow of Trinity-College an Example And for Hull if my Kisman miscarry I shall then expect what the Law will do to him but if he escape yet I hope the Fact being so barbarous and for ought I yet hear without Provocation you will take order when he comes out of the Castle to send him out of the University too by Bannition As for those which you say are suspected to have a hand in this foul Business and are now under Bail I leave you to do to them as proof shall rise against them But I confess I never heard of more than Hull in the Business till I read it in your Letters And the more were in it the worse the Business for then it seems the Outrage was plotted I perceive that the Complaint which I received concerning the Young Earl of Downe was not causless And how strangely soever Dr. Fulham look upon the Business I think it had been well some restraint had been put upon all the Quarrellers so far forth as they had appeared Guilty For Young Noblemen when they are in the University must be kept to a Vniversity Life in some measure or else their Example will spoil the rest Lambeth March 6. 〈◊〉 W. Cant. MR. Justice Jones gave the Vice-Chancellor Thanks openly on the Bench at the last Assizes for his Care and Pains in Reforming the Ale-Houses Sir Francis Windebanke and Sir John Danvers were on Monday March 9th Sworn Burgesses of the Parliament for the University with an unanimous Consent of the whole House Our Nobility here are not kept in such awe the more is the pity as those bred up at Cambridge And here is one Causield an Irish Lord's Son who both Disorders himself and misleads others I think it would be a good Office done to the University to have him removed hence Oxford March 9. 〈◊〉 A. Frewen I Am sorry to hear that the Noblemens Sons which are with you are not kept in so good Order as they should be And more that it should be confessed by you that they are not kept in so good awe as they are at Cambridge for I am sure your Statutes are perfecter than theirs and I dare say you have as much careful Assistance from me in all things as Cambridge hath from their Chancellor And this being undeniably true the fault must needs be among your selves And I protest unto you I knew nothing of any of their Liberty misgiven or misused till about a Fortnight since that I writ to you about the Young Earl of Downe and that now you write to me about Caufield the Son of an Irish Lord. These are therefore to pray and require you at your next meeting with the Heads to let them know that I am very much scandalized at the Liberty which is given to these Young Men and to require of them in whose Colleges or Halls any Noblemens Sons are First That they be as carefully held to all manner of Exercise which they are able to perform as any other whatsoever And Secondly That they be kept in Obedience to all the Statutes within the several Houses respectively as I hope your self will take care for their Observation of the Statutes of the University 'T is true I would have a difference put between Noblemens Sons and others of meaner Condition but that should be in an Honourable Usage of them not in giving them any Liberty at their own hurt and the Dishonour of the University Now whether you will send for all these Young Men to the meeting of the Heads that they may know what Charge I have given concerning them I leave to your self and that which you shall judge fittest upon the place But I would have Young Caufield called and his Tutour and there let it be told unto them and the Head of the House in which he is that if he mend not his Manners he shall not stay there to corrupt others And I do hereby require of you and them That either they keep him in better Order or presently send him away to his Friends And if they do not do the one or the other either you shall banish him the University or I will And to this end I pray send me up the Form of a Bannition to lie by me and Caufield's Christian Name that I may begin with him if there be cause And for the Young Earl of Downe I have written to Dr. Fell to look better to him or I will make him an Example also let his Friends take it as they please Lambeth March 13. 〈◊〉 W. Cant. MR. Sympson a Senior Fellow of Trinity College is by the Statutes of that House urged to proceed Doctor or to resign Their Visitor as Doctor Potter tells me hath herein been consulted who finds only this way to relieve him by having his Grace denied him in the University their being a Clause in their Statute to that purpurpose which I have seen Hereupon they beg a Repulse of me and shall grant it if Your Grace think well of it The Party is poor and so likely to draw more Disrepute on the Degree than it can bring Honour to him March 23. 〈◊〉 A. Frewen SIR I Am inform'd there is an express Mulct set down in the Statute for each Regent to pay that hath forfeited his Cautions in not fulfilling the Duties belonging to his Regency which are creating Generals moderating Quodlibets examining of Candidates and the like These Mulcts as far as I remember are to be gathered by the Proctors and all or some part of them to be accounted for by them to your self and the Delegates at the end of their Office I do not remember that these Duties have been so well accounted for to the University as they ought to be which as it is some Loss to that Body so it is a great Encouragement to the Regents to be slack and careless in the Performance of all those Duties which belong unto them Whereas were they strictly called to an Account for them you should have a far greater performance of all Duties than now there is These are therefore to pray and require you forthwith to acquaint the Proctors with what I have here written and to require them in my Name That at their Accompts they present unto you before the Delegates
by Consequence Six of the Tribe of Levi and so the High Priest might be always one and a chief in that great Court which had Cognizance of all things in that Government And their Functions as they are Ministers of the Gospel is no more inconsistent with these things than the Levitical Preisthood was For beside their Sacrificing they were to read and expound the Law as well as we the Gospel For so it is expresly set down Deut. 33. 10. They that is the Tribe of Levi shall teach Jacob thy Judgments and Israel thy Laws So that medling with Temporal Affairs was as great a Distraction to them from their Calling as from ours and as inconsistent with it and so as hurtful to their Consciences and their Credits And would God put all this upon them which this Lord thinks so unlawful for us if it were so indeed But this Lord goes yet farther and tells us that these things are such as have ever been and will ever be hurtful to themselves and make them hurtful to others in the times and places where they are continued Good God! what fools we poor Bishops are as were also our Predecessours for many hundred years together that neither they nor we could see and discern what was and is hurtful to our selves nor what then did or yet doth make us hurtful to others in times and places where they are continued to us And surely if my Lord means by this our medling in Civil Affairs when our Prince calls us to it as I believe he doth I doubt his Lordship is much deceived For certainly if herein the Bishops do their Duties as very many of them in several Kingdoms have plentifully done they cannot hurt themselves by it and to others and the very Publick it self it hath occasioned much good both in Church and State But now my Lord will not only tell us what these things are but he will prove it also that they are hurtful to us And these things alone says my Lord this Bill takes away that is their Offices and Places in Courts of Judicature and their Employment by Obligation of Office in Civil Affairs I shall insist upon this to shew First how these things hurt themselves and Secondly how they have made and ever will make them hurtful to others These things then you see which are so hurtful and dangerous to Bishops themselves and make them as hurtful to others are their Offices and Places in Courts of Judicature and their Employment by Obligation of Office in Civil Affairs Where First for Offices I know no Bishop since the Reformation that hath been troubled with any but only Dr. Juxon when Bishop of London was Lord High Treasurer of England for about Five Years And he was made when the King's Affairs were in a great strait and to my knowledge he carried so that if he might have been left to himself the King might have been preserved from most of those Difficulties into which he after fell for want of Money As all Kings shall be hazarded more or less in some time or other of their Reign and much the more if their Purses be empty and they forced to seek Aid from their Subjects And this as 't is every where true yet 't is most true in England As for Places in Courts of Judicature the Bishops of England have ever sat all of them in Parliament the highest Court ever since Parliaments were in England And whatsoever is now thought of them they have in their several Generations done great Services there And as I conceive it is not only fit but necessary they should have Votes in that great Court howsoever the late Act hath shut them out and that Act must in time be repealed or it shall undoubtedly be worse for this Kingdom than yet it is The Bishops sat in no other Courts but the Star Chamber and the High Commission And of these the High Commission was most proper for them to sit and see Sin punish'd For no Causes were handled there but Ecclesiastical and those such as were very heinous either for the Crime it self or the Persons which committed it being too great or too wilful to be ruled by the inferiour Jurisdictions As for the Star Chamber there were ordinarily but two Bishops present and it was fit some should be there For that Court was a mix'd Court of Law Equity Honour and Conscience and was compos'd of Persons accordingly from the very Original of that Court. For there were to be there two Judges to take care of the Laws and two Bishops to look to the Conscience and the rest Men of great Offices or Birth or both to preserve the Honour and all of them together to maintain the Equity of the Court. So here were but two Bishops employ'd and those only twice a Week in Term time As for the Council Table that was never accounted a Court yet as Matters Civil were heard and often ended there so were some Ecclesiastical too But the Bishops were little honoured with this Trouble since the Reformation For many times no Bishop was of the Council-Table and usually not above two Once in King James's time I knew Three and once Four and that was was the highest and but for a short time And certainly the fewer the better if this Lord can prove that which he says he will insist upon that those things are hurtful to themselves and make them hurtful to others And to do this he proceeds They themselves art hurt thereby in their Conscience and in their Credits In their Conscience by seeking and admitting things which are inconsistent with that Function and Office which God hath set them apart unto His Lordship begins with this That the Bishops are hereby hurt both in their Consciences and their Credits Two great hurts indeed if by these things they be wounded in their Consciences towards God and in their Credits before Men. But I am willing to hope these are not real but imaginary hurts and that this Lord shall not be able to prove it otherwise Yet I see he is resolved to labour it as much as he can And first he would prove that these things and not the ambitious seeking of them only but the very admitting of them though offer'd or in a manner laid upon some of them by the Supream Power are hurtful to their Consciences because they are inconsistent with the Function to which God hath set them apart But I have proved already that they are not inconsistent with that Function and so there 's an end of this Argument For Bishops without neglect of their Calling may spend those few Hours required of them in giving their assistance in and to the forenamed Civil Affairs And 't is well known that S. Augustin did both in great Perfection so high up in the Primitive Church and in that Great and Learned Age For he complains that he had nor Fore-noon nor After-noon free he was so held to it Occupationibus
rest For out of all doubt their Votes do hurt sometimes and it may be more often and more dangerously than the Bishops Votes And when this Lord shall be pleased to tell us what those other Irregularities are which are as antient and yet redressed I will consider of them and then either grant or deny In the mean time I think it hath been proved that it is no Irregularity for a Bishop that is called to it by Supreme Authority to give Counsel or otherwise to meddle in Civil Affairs so as it take him not quite off from his Calling And for his Lordship 's Close That this is not so antient but that it may be truly said Non fuit sic ab initio his Lordship is much deceived For that Speech of our Saviour's St. Matthew 19. 8. is spoken of Marriage which was instituted in Paradise and therefore ab initio from the beginning must there be taken from the Creation or from the Institution of Marriage soon after it But I hope his Lordship means it not so here to put it off that Bishops had not Votes in the Parliaments of England from the Creation For then no question but it may be truly said Non fuit sic ab initio But if his Lordship or any other will apply this Speech to any thing else which hath not its beginning so high he must then refer his Words and meaning to that time in which that thing he speaks of took its beginning as is this particular to the beginning of Parliaments in this Kingdom And then under Favour of this Lord the voting of Bishops in Parliament is so antient that it cannot be truly said Non fuit sic ab initio For so far as this Kingdom hath any Records to shew Clergy-Men both Bishops and Abbots had free and full Votes in Parliament so full as that in the first Parliament of which we have any certain Records which was in the Forty and ninth Year of Henry the Third there was Summoned by the King to Vote in Parliament One hundred and twenty Bishops Abbots and Priors and but Twenty three Lay-Lords Now there were but Twenty six Bishops in all and the Lords being multiplied to the unspeakable Prejudice of the Crown into above One hundred besides many of their young Sons called by Writ in their Father's Life-time have either found or made a troubled time to cast the Bishops and their Votes out of the House 2. To the Objection for being Established by Law his Lordship says The Law-makers have the same Power and the same Charge to alter old Laws inconvenient as to make new that are necessary The Law-makers have indeed the same Power in them and the same Charge upon them that their Predecessors in former Times had and there 's no question but old Laws may be Abrogated and new ones made But this Lord who seems to be well versed in the Rules and Laws of Government which the poor Bishops understand not cannot but know that it 's a dangerous thing to be often changing of the Laws especially such as have been antient and where the old is not inconvenient nor the new necessary which is the true State of this Business whatever this Lord thinks 3. And for the Third Objection the Privileges of the House this Lord says it can be no Breach of them For either Estate may propose to the other by way of Bill what they conceive to be for publick Good and they have Power respectively of accepting or refusing This is an easie Answer indeed and very true For either Estate in Parliament may propose to the other by way of Bill and they have Power respectively of accepting or refusing and there is no Breach of Privilege in all this But this easie Answer comes not home For how my Lord understands this Objection I know not it seems as if it did reach only to the external Breach of some Privilege but I conceive they which made the Objection meant much more As namely that by this Bill there was an aim in the Commons to weaken the Lords House and by making their Votes fewer to be the better able to work them to their own Ends in future Businesses So the Argument is of equal if not greater strength against the Lord's yielding to the Bill to the Iufringement of their own strength than to the Commons proposing it and there is no doubt but that the Commons might propose their Bill without Breach of Privilege but whether the Lords might grant it without impairing their own strength I leave the future Times which shall see the Success of this Act of Parliament to judge of the Wisdom of it which I shall not presume to do I thought his Lordship had now done but he tells us 4. There are two other Objections which may seem to have more force but they will receive satisfactory Answers The one is that if they may remove Bishops they may as well next time remove Barons and Earls This Lord confesses the two Arguments following are of more force but he says they will receive satisfactory Answers And it may be so But what Answers soever they may receive yet I doubt whether those which that Lord gives be such For to this of taking away of Barons and Earls next his Lordship Answers two things First he says The Reason is not the same the one sitting by an Honour invested in their Blood and Hereditary which though it be in the King alone to grant yet being once granted he cannot take away The other sitting by a Barony depending upon an Office which may be taken away for if they be deprived of their Office they sit not To this there have been enough said before yet that it may fully appear this Reason is not Satisfactory this Lord should do well to know or rather to remember for I think he knows it already that though these great Lords have and hold their Places in Parliament by Blood and Inheritance and the Bishops by Baronies depending upon their Office yet the King which gives alone can no more justly or lawfully alone away their Office without their Demerit and that in a legal way than he can take away Noblemens Honours And therefore for ought is yet said their Cases are not so much alike as his Lordship would have them seem In this indeed they differ somewhat that Bishops may be deprived upon more Crimes than those are for which Earls and Barons may lose their Honours but neither of them can be justly done by the King's Will and Pleasure only But Secondly for farther Answer this Lord tells us The Bishops sitting there is not so essential For Laws have been and may be made they being all excluded but it can never be shewed that ever there were Laws made by the King and them the Lords and Earls excluded This Reason is as little satisfactory to me as the former For certainly according to Law and Prescription of Hundreds of Years the Bishops sitting
in that House is as essential as the Lords And this about the Laws made without them is built only upon some difficult emergent Cases from which they desired to be exempt and free themselves Not from any constraint of the State nor from any Opinion of the King Peers or People that it was fit to make Laws without them But to this we have given an Answer before But this Objection of taking away the Earls and Barons next strikes as I conceive another way at the Lord's House than either of those Answers or Reasons seem to meet with And perhaps this Lord himself is willing to pass it by if he does see it and 't is thus The House of Commons sees and knows well enough that should they bring up a Bill open and with a bare edge to take away the Votes from the Lords it could not possibly be endured by either King or Peers Therefore the Bill which may come to take them away next and which may be meant in this Objection may be a Bill to make one House of both and set them altogether under the pretence of greater Unity and more free and quick dispatch of all Business all Messages and Conferences and breach of Correspondencies and Differences happening between the Two Houses while they are Two being by this means taken away And this I am sure hath been much spoken of since this Parliament began and may with far more ease be next compassed now the Bishops are thrust out both because there are fewer in the Lord's House to help to cast out such a Bill and because the Commons House which would willingly receive the Lords in among them would never admit the Bishops into their House So that both ways this is made far more easie to Pass And should this happen I would fain know of this Lord wherein this Objection would fail that they might the next time remove the Barons and the Earls Not remove them from making Laws as his Lordship speaks of it but remove them into the House of Commons where their Votes shall be swallow'd up among the many and might be quite overmaster'd though they should not all Agree and Vote one way For then the meanest Commoner in that House would have his Vote as great as the greatest Earls Whereas now in their own House being distinct though all the House of Commons agree upon a Bill or any thing else the Lords may if they see Reason alter or reject it So that if hereafter they be reduced to one House I make no question but their Votes are gone next after the Bishops And if his Lordship shall think this an impossible Supposition let him know it is not half so impossible as that which he made before of the Heavenly Bodies breaking out of their own Spheres But we are now come to the last Objection the other of the two which his Lordship says are stronger And 5. The other Objection is this That this Bill alters the Foundation of this House and Innovations which shake Foundations are dangerous And truly this Objection seems to me very strong but perhaps that is by reason of my Weakness for my Lord tells us before that it is capable of a satisfactory Answer and here his Lordship gives two for failing I Answer First That if there should be an Errour in the Foundation when it shall be found and the Master-Builders be met together they may nay they ought rather to amend it than to suffer it to run on still to the prejudice and danger of the whole Structure This Answer whatever this Lord thinks of it is not satisfactory and the thing will be full of danger whensoever it shall be put to trial For Foundations are seldom meddled withal but with great hazard and a Fundamental Errour in a Kingdom is born with more Safety to the whole than it can be taken away And this happens partly because among the many Subjects of a Kingdom there are different Judgments and as different Affections whence it follows that all Men are not of Opinion that that which is called an Errour in the Foundation is so indeed Nor do the Affections of all Men dislike it nay perhaps the greater perhaps the better part will approve it In this Case if the Master-Builders fall to mending of this somewhat boisterously may they not rend all in pieces to fall about their own Ears and other Mens And partly because the Master-Builders which are to meet to repair the decays of the State though in all Ages they have the same Authority to make Laws yet they have not in all Ages the same Skill and Wisdom for the making or the mending of them Whence it follows that even the Master-Builders themselves may mistake and call that the Errour which is indeed a great part of the Strength of the Foundation And so by tampering to mend that which is better already endanger the shaking if not the fall of the whole Structure which they would labour to preserve And I pray God Posterity do not find it that even the Master-Builders which are now met be not so deceived and with as ill Success in casting the Bishops Votes out of the House under the Name of an Errour in the Foundation But if this Answer satisfie not his Lordship may hope his next will For Secondly he says This is not Fundamental to this House For it hath stood without them and done all that appertains to the Power thereof without them yea they being wholly 〈◊〉 and that which hath been done for a time at the King's pleasure may be done with as little danger for a longer time and when it appears to the fit and for publick good not only mahy but ought to be done altogether by the Supreme Power It seems this Lord distrusts his former Answer about mending Fun damental Errours in a State and therefore here he denies that Bishops and their Votes are Fundamental to the Lords House But I doubt his Lordship is mistaken in this For that is Fundamental in any Court which in that Court is first laid and settled upon which all the future Structure is raised Now in the Lords House of Parliament the Bishops Votes were laid at the very first as well as the Votes of the Lords Temporal Nay with a Precedency both in Place and Number and all the Ordinances and Powers of that great Court have equally proceeded from the Votes of the Bishops and the Lords and therefore for ought which yet appears to me either the Lords Vote are not Fundamental to that House or the Bishops are But his Lordship proves they are not Fundamental to that House because that House hath stood without them But weakly enough God knows like a House whose Foundations are shaken upon one side and because that House hath done all that appertains to the Power of it without them It may be so But I doubt whether it did all that appertains to the Wisdom of it without them For this
〈◊〉 of C. C. C. concerning my 〈◊〉 Lecture Mr. Greaves was at this time Deputy-Reader to Mr. 〈◊〉 who The State of the Title of the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford for Licensing and Suppressing of 〈◊〉 c. And this against the Mayor and Justices of the Town This was drawn up by Council out of that which was shewed them by the University His Majesty's 〈◊〉 to confirm this Right for appointing of 〈◊〉 c. in the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor From the Vice-Chancellor The Submission of the Chandlers to the University From the Vice-Chancellor concerning my 〈◊〉 of Danby's gift of an 100 l. for the Physick-Garden My Answer to the foresaid Passage To the Vice-Chancellor for some of the Heads to be now and then at the Examinations Charge given to the Library-keepers by the Vice-Chancellor and Visitors to look well to my Manuscripts and Coins My Answer to the Vice-Chancellor's foresaid Passage touching the care to be 〈◊〉 to my Manuscripts and Coins A Gent. unknown came to hear the Examinations Nov. 16. 1639. My Answer to the foresaid Passage The Vice-Chancellor sent me word that now the Heads were of the same Opinion A Passage out of the Vice-Chancellor's Letter Dec. 2. concerning Mr. Bowden of Trinity-College Mr. Baylie concerning Mr. Bowden He was found drown'd on Thurs. Dec. 12. 1639. at Kings Mills by Holywell And the Coroners Inquest found him a distractedMan and so indeed he was An Information from the Vice-Chancellor touching two Fellows of Wadham-Coll assaulted and wounded by a Commoner lately expell'd that House To the Vice-chancellor about settling Judge Jones's Order between the University and the City concerning their Court-Leets c. Dr. Lawrence La. Margaret's Reader to be dispens'd with for not Reading by reason of his Sickness and often Relapses Concerning 300 Alehouses in Oxford and the ordering of them according to his Majesty's Letters The Order by which the Vice-Chancellor proceeded in the 〈◊〉 That almost all this vast number of Ale-houses were Licens'd by the Mayor and the Town-Justices Vid. Dalton p. 376 377. Alderman Bosworth as I have been since inform'd by very good hands Licensed 100 for his part and tied them all to take their Beer of him All these Passages are collected out of the Vice-Chancellor's Letters to me of Novemb 20. of Nov. 25. and of Decemb. 2. From the Vice-Chancellor concerning an old Composition 23 Eliz. which gives the University half the Amercements of the Court Leets Outlandish Workmen sent by the Earl of Danby for the Physick-Garden Warning given for the Oxford Men to use the Prayer which the Canon requires before the 〈◊〉 at St. 〈◊〉 Cross. The Vice-Chancellor hath undertaken this by his Letters of Dec. 16. 39. An Accumulation desired at Cambridge by Mr. S. Wilkinson once of Madg. Hall Oxon. Dec. 20. Out of the Vice-Chancellor's Letter Frenche's Answer concerning the aforesaid Passage My Lord Holland's Recommendations of Wilkinson to Cambridge and his Lordship's promise that 〈◊〉 should keep the Agreement made with Oxford about Proceeders Out of the Vice-Chancellor's Letter The Mayor's proclaiming that there should be no Market for Christmas-day The Battlements of the School thrown down by the Wind. From the Vice-Chancellor Jan. 6. The Registership of the Vice-Chancellor's Court 〈◊〉 for by John George The Vice-Chancellor's Information concerning Jo George and the having of ne'er a Table of Fees to regulate that Court Jan. 13. Certain Passages out of the Vice-Chancellor's Letters of Jan. 27. Mr. Burton's Legacy A Dunce of New-Inn A Division in the Town about the Ale-Houses The Vice-Chancellor's Warrant A Privileged Person drowned The Town not warning a Jury at the command of the Coroner to warn one Warning given for orderly Disputations this Lent Amesius and F. Hommius Patrons for Presbyterial Government reprinted at Oxford A Fire in Jesus College-Lane St. Mary's Bell and Steeple A Scholar of Trinity College robbed and wounded Ostendorpfe a Dutch-Man not to be incorporated Doctor The Examinations again approved The Examinations and the Effect of them upon Proceeders Tavern haunting and overmuch Drinking again complained of To the Vice-Chancel 〈◊〉 the Care to be taken of the well Ordering and Educating Young Noblemen To Dr. Baylie about the Abuse and Letter aforesaid The Vice-Chancellor's Reply concerning the Abuse One of Trinity College committed That their drunken good Fellowship beaten by the Vice-Chancellor out of Taverns and Ale-Houses is crept into private Colleges A young Kinsman of mine Mr. 〈◊〉 Webbe serving the Bishop of Oxon was the Week before-barbarously abused by this Hull upon little or no Provocation to the endangering of his Life The other Disaster was the Young Earl of Downe's Quarrel with Dr. 〈◊〉 his Son and other Captains What Course to be held for present Remedy of this Abuse in Colleges Hull to be Punish'd Care to be taken of the Young Earl of Downe and other Young Noblemen Judge Jones's approbation of the Reformation of the Ale-houses Burgesses for the Parliament The Misgovernment of Noblemens 〈◊〉 in Oxford Young Caufield of Exeter College My Charge concerning this This Message of mine was delivered by the Vice-Chancellor I have written to the Dean by this days Carrier The Young Earl hath left the University The Degree of Doctorship denied to Mr. Sympson of Trinity Colleges I gave way to the 〈◊〉 The Proctors yearly to Accompt for the 〈◊〉 due to the University from such Regents as neglect the Duties of their Regency The 〈◊〉 were startled at this Message not looking for such an after-Reckoning Dr. Frewen March 30. Lent-Dispntations passed quietly The Examinations the cause of it No Scholars found stirring in the Night or at Taverns Procuratores Mr. Allibond è 〈◊〉 Lincoln Mr. Greaves è Coll. Om. Animarum The Examinations at a dead stand revived Concerning the Examinations Dr. Jackson's Sermons if they offend against his Majesty's Declaration c Greene a 〈◊〉 Inn-Keeper at the Miter in Oxford My Answer to the foresaid Passage Hull expelled Disputations in Quodlibets The Oxford Carriers not to Travel with above six Horses c. Soldiers passing through the Town and mutinying in their Drink The Scholars were free in this also Mr. Davis of Magdalen-Hall found drowned by New-Parks The Arabick-Lecture settled for ever The Mayor of Oxford's Letter to the Lords about Greene's Inn with a Complaint against the University for invading the Town Privileges The Mayor of Oxford's Letter to the Earl of Berks their Steward to shew to the Lords touching their Night Watch. My Letters to the Vice-Chancellor touching these two Letters of the Mayor The Vice-Chancellor's Answer to the two Letters of the Mayor of Oxford Proctor Allibond's Answer to that which concerns him in the Mayor of Oxon's Letter Thanks from the University for settling my Arabick Lecture for perpetuity The Council's Warrant for the Vice-Chancellor and the Mayor Berkshire Soldiers The Order of the Council concerning the difference between the Vice-Chancellor and the Mayor Dr. Potter chosen my Vice-Chancellor Concerning Cottages Another