ligious faith? Elizabeth herself, as every body knows, occasionally, used the name of God very irreverently, not to say, blasphemously. In addition to this royal proceeding, the University, from time to time, had passed various senatus consulta, or graces, tending towards the same point, and, also, relating to the office and appointment of a public orator, the election of scrutators, the time and order for disputations in the public schools, together with the duties of proctors and moderators, and that no graces for any alienations were to pass before they had been read in three congregations, (1612.) Fees for examination to order and rules agreed upon by the Syndics for securing the public library (this was in 1684) and other matters too numerous to be specified here: but one, as more particularly comporting with the object of Queen Elizabeth's statutes, and James's Regiæ Literæ, should not be passed by, namely, the grace de oppugnatoribus ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, concerning oppugners of the church. Another passed July 16, 1603,a and a third, relating to subscription, passed A. 1613, in confirmation of James's orders, &c. Such powers the chancellor has cum consensu totius academia. (Stat. Eliz. cap. 42. sub fin.) grate deall too bold with God in his passion, both in cursing and swearing, and one straine higher, verging one blasphemie: bot wold in his better temper say, he hopped God would not impute them as sins, and lay them to his charge, seeing they proceeded from passione." Fragments of Scottish History, p. 87. That he abated not the practice when in this country, his countryman Hume bears testimony, in his History of England, a As Hare's dates are often a good guide to me, as far as they go, so from that period down to 1735, are Dr. Parris's, being taken from the vice-chancellors' and proctors' books, and from the grace-books, and other records of the University, and revised and corrected by him with care. Our readers have heard, in the progress of our little history, of the various disputes between the University and town, as also of the memorable award made, at the instance of Lady Margaret. After mentioning the many regulations in the University under Henry the VIIIth. to James the Ist.'s reign, it may not be amiss to make a summary of sundry articles, and the manner in which they were settled, between the University and town. For in 1524 articles of complaint had been made by the town against the University. The vice-chancellor's deputy had punished the mayor, by enjoining him to hold a taper of wax in his hand, while kneeling openly before an image of our Lady as a penitent. His offence was, maintaining the jurisdiction of his mayoralty against the liberties of the University. In 1534 it was decreed by the Lord Chancellor, Archbishop of Canterbury, and other lords commissioners, who met at Lambeth for the purpose, that Sturbridge fair was in the precincts of the university, and that the vice-chancellor might hold a civil court there, for pleas, where a member of the university, or a privileged person, was one of the parties, and that the university should have the inspection of weights and measures, &c. together with the right of punishing forestallers, &c. In the year 1547 a letter was sent from the privy council, ordering, that the mayor and sheriff should acknowledge their offences committed against the proctors in Sturbridge fair, in consequence of not suffering malefactors to be taken to prison, who had been committed by the vice-chancellor. The precedency of the vice-chancellor before the mayor, in all commissions of the peace, and other cases where public shew of degrees was to be made, was also determined, according to the judgment of the Earl Marshal of England; and in James the First's reign there were the king's letters patent, and an order of the lords of the privy council, settling and confirming that precedency, with other matters, that were deemed of importance. James, having in his own judgment done so much for the University, thought, probably, he should not have done justice to himself, had he not left them a memento of his literature. Among the curious books of the public library is a copy of the Latin Edition of King James's Works; it is bound in velvet and gold, with the king's arms; and was presented by the king himself to the university. On the binding James has written, Jacobus R. D. D. This Latin edition was published in 1616 by Henry Montague, Bishop of Winchester, as before observed. Both the English and Latin Editions have portraits of the monarch, from the same painting, but the inscriptions are different. a Hare, vol. 2, p. 149. Vice-chancellor's copy. The precedency of the vice-chancellor, after some other disturbances, was, at length determined, in the highest court of Appeal, the House of Lords, May 12, 1647. CHAP. VII. CHARLES I. THE PARLIAMENT. THEIR NEW ARRANGEMENTS IN THE UNIVERSITY, AND EJECTION OF THE ROYALISTS, JAMES left his dying injunctions to his son, Charles I. to pursue his course in all ecclesiastical and disciplinarian matters. True to this injunction, in favour of the University, Charles, on the 4th of March, 1629, sent from Newmarket, where he then resided, injunctions, orders, and directions, which contained, among some other regulations, that all his father's orders at any time sent to the University should be duly observeda, and put in execution; but he invested the University with no. new powers. These injunctions were sent to Cambridge at a time when Charles was engaged in the most serious disputes with his Parliament, which, at length, breaking out into civil war, overspread, like a storm, the whole country. The storm reached Cambridge; the University sided with the King; several of the colleges sent him their plate and money; and when the King's party was overpowered, his University friends shared in the defeat. In 1641, when the Parliament had shewn a design of abolishing episcopacy, the University addressed them in Dr. Parris's MS. Extracts. |