1

the most humble manner, in favour of their privileges and possessions, in April 1641, in Latin, and in the May following, in English.

The House gave the subject an hearing, and Dr. Hacket, formerly Fellow of Trinity College, and then Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry, made an elaborate defence of those ancient foundations; but it did not produce the desired effect.

The following is the English address * :

To the Honourable the Knights, Citizens, and Bur gesses of the House of Commons in Parliament assembled,

The humble Petition of the University of Cambridge,

Sheweth,

"That your Petitioners having heard of divers suggestions offered to this Honourable House, by way of remonstrance, tending to the subversion of cathedral churches, and alienation of those lands, by which they are supported, being the ancient inheritance of the church, founded and bestowed by the religious bounty of many famous and renowned kings and princes of this land, and other benefactors, both of the clergy and laity, and established and confirmed unto them by the laws of this kingdom, and so accordingly have been employed, to the advancement of learning, the encourage

From Mr. Robert Smyth's MS.

ment of students, and preferment of learned men, besides many other very charitable uses. -

"May it please this Honourable Court, out of their great wisdom and tender care for the cherishing of learning and furthering of the studies and pains of those who have and do devote themselves to the service of the church, graciously to protect and secure those religious foundations from ruin and alienation; and withal to take order that they may be reduced to the due observance of their statutes, and that all innovations and abuses, which have, by some miscarriages, crept in, may be reformed; that so the students of our University, which, by the present fears, both are and will be much sadded and dejected, may be the better invited to pursue their studies; and the places themselves disposed to the most serviceable and deserving men, according to their first institution; and your Petitioners, as in duty bound, shall ever pray."

March 4, 1642, The Earl of Holland, Chancellor of the University, represented further, in the House of Lords, the alarms and apprehensions of the University, when the Lords in Parliament ordered, that the colleges, chapels, libraries, schools, and other buildings of the said University, should experience no outrage or violence; and the Earl of Essex, in March 7, 1642, had given order, to the same effect, to all colonels, lieutenant-colonels, captains, and all other officers under his commanda. But the storm soon took a most violent direction.

The University had, as already observed, sent their