with full powers, re-established this latter side of the academic existence, as well as all points of the old Statutes which regarded the Catholic Church Service; and in many respects honorably distinguished itself from the preceding Visitation of the Reformers. The personal merits of Pole might have put honor on a good cause, or a fair face on a bad one; and the form selected for carrying out their projects was certainly judicious.* The main principles were laid down by the national Church, from without; (chiefly by a decision of the Convocation;) while the arrangement of detail was committed to Academic commissioners. We may be allowed to quote the "Articles concerning the Universities," from the proceedings of Convocation in the year 1557: (Wilkins iv. 158.)

"I. That in each University one and the same Introduction to Sophistry and Logic be read— then the Predicables and Predicaments of Porphyry; next, the Logic of Aristotle, and also, Rudolph Agricola on the Discovery of Arguments. Let all other Logic be rejected.

"II. In Moral Philosophy let none but Aristotle be read.

"III. In Theology; some parts of the Bible: the Magister sententiarum, or another author of the Scholastic Theology; to the intent that the scholastic doctrine may be cultivated anew.

* As to Cardinal Pole's Visitation, I refer to Wood and Fuller. ↑ [Academiis is the Latin word.]

U

"IV. Since the study of Arts is entirely deserted, and from some fastidiousness of criticism very few attend the lectures of the public professors, let it be provided that a certain number, &c... be compelled,.. &c.

"V. Let no one be made Fellow of a College, except one who is poor and destined by his parents to the clerical order." (Ordinances respecting the dress of the Scholars then follow: it is ordered to be exclusively ecclesiastical. Nor is any one to receive any ecclesiastical emolument exceeding £20, before completing his third year of study.)

§ 153. The Universities continue to droop, in spite of Royal Patronage: the cause, Want of FREEDOM.

That poverty might not thwart these measures, and especially, might not hinder the regaining of the public Lecture Rooms; the Queen bestowed on the Universities many estates which had been ecclesiastical, and many Church benefices. Of good teachers there could have been no lack among the Catholics of England; and besides, foreigners were invited over, such as the Spanish Dominicans, Soto and Villagarcia. The Star Chamber established with a high hand the privileges of the University against the Town. But with all these advantages, the state of things continued to be

upon the whole as lamentable* as in the previous period. The number of Doctor's Degrees in the six years of this reign were, in Divinity three, in Laws eleven, in Medicine six; while the Masters of Arts in each year varied from fifteen to twenty-seven.

The cause of the failure is easy to discover. The Universities had everything except the most necessary element of all, FREEDOM: which, by the immutable laws of nature, is always an indispensable condition of real and permanent prosperity in the higher intellectual cultivation and its organs. In vain has brute force at every time sought, for the sake of some political aim, to thwart this law of nature: those shadowy beings, scientific officers and corporations, can never become a substitute for the genuine and wholesome energy of life. If we can do without this energy, it were better not to lose time and trouble in expensive experiments for infusing a galvanic existence. But if the true and natural life be needed, then let its prerequisite be granted,-Mental Freedom.

154. Ejection, and then fierce persecution, of Protestants.

The supreme powers paused a little while, before announcing their determination to restore the

* Wood's testimony is quite sufficient upon this point. It appears to me superfluous to enter into details.

ancient Church and repress the heresies of the Reformation. The interval was one of painful suspense and of numerous party-manoeuvres, in which both sides took very violent steps; the Protestants seeking to stir up the town-population, and the Catholics the academic masses.* * After the well-known Acts of Parliament and the government-measures connected with them, the Protestants had nothing to do, but leave the field clear for their opponents. Peter Martyr, who was most threatened, set the example by returning to Germany; in which he was aided by Gardiner, one of the Visitors, and among the oldest enemies of the Reformation. Many of his friends and scholars followed him. If any were more dilatory, the reenacted Catholic statutes soon compelled them either to renounce their Church, at least outwardly, or to give up their places in the Colleges and their stipends. According to Fuller, as many as eleven Heads of Colleges were expelled from Cambridge.

The reaction however soon assumed a more threatening form throughout the whole country. Spanish Dominicans appearing in Oxford were a presage that the noblest sacrifices were soon to be offered up to the conquering Church: and the martyr-death of three Protestant Bishops,-Ridley,

* Details of these facts may be found in Wood. Fuller, who speaks as contemporary witness, relates a violent scene in the Cambridge Senate-house. The Chancellor, who was inclined to

the Protestant side, being hard beset and threatened by the Catholic majority, drew his sword; and bloodshed was with difficulty prevented.

Latimer and the head-Reformer Cranmer,-proclaimed the course which the party had determined upon. It was certainly not without design, that Oxford was selected as the place of fiery execution. To implicate the Universities corporately in these wretched deeds, the revolting farce of a solemn academic disputation was held, that these devoted men might be convicted of heresy by the Catholic disputants of Oxford and Cambridge.

Thus participating in guilt, the Universities of course could have no thriving intellectual life, nor even any scientific Catholic Theology. With what feelings would able and excellent men return to their solitary study or mount the academic chair, after quitting the reeking spots where their intellectual opponents lay martyred ?* It can hardly be thought, that even in the long run any gratifying results could have been wrought out: nothing could be expected to follow but a yet deeper bitterness of enmity and fear. At all events, the death of Queen Mary, after a reign of scarcely six

* Among the many remarkable events of these sad times was the violation of the tomb of the wife of Peter Martyr and the digging up of her body. These remains had afterwards the peculiar fate of being mixed with those of St. Frideswide, each party thinking by this means to save their relics from further desecration. I have not considered it necessary to enter into any further details respect

ing the proceedings against the Protestant Bishops, as this matter does not, properly speaking, belong to the history of the Universities. I trust the reasonable reader will give me credit for my self-denial in giving up such an opportunity of imparting a flavor to my dry materials. I should think that the correctest account of these events might be found in Lingard.