their youth, according to the ideas of the times and of the ruling party. Guarantees were now taken from the Heads and Fellows of the Colleges, for their attachment to the Reformation and to the political interests connected with it. Except in this one point, the chief effort of the ruling powers was, to maintain existing things, as a bequest from Catholic to Protestant England. This system was so generally recognized, that even a very essential principle of the Reformation was sacrificed to local exigencies, in upholding the compulsory celibacy of College Fellows.* Heads of Houses alone were allowed to marry. We need not remark how essential this principle was to the whole arrangement of the Colleges. Elizabeth declared herself so strenuously against the marriage of the Fellows and even of the Heads, that a satirical interpretation might be easily put upon her declarations. § 168. All power lodged with the Colleges. Under these circumstances, the responsibility for the well or ill-doing of the Academicians infallibly fell upon the Colleges and their Principals; and upon them consequently the decisive power was *See for instance an Ordinance of the year 1561 (Dyer's Privil: i. 189). The Cambridge Statutes expressly state, "We do not permit the marriage of Fellows; and immediately after any one shall have taken a wife, he shall cease to be a Fellow of the College." concentrated. We do not mean that this was a perfectly new arrangement: of course it was the culminating point of the system which we have seen rising from the middle of the fourteenth century. Anomalies however had occurred amid the storms of the first half of the sixteenth century; and it was necessary to do these away. Certain ancient forms also were now felt as mere vexatious abuses, incompatible with the responsibility of the Colleges. Moreover the Court saw the need of a strong check upon all democratic movement within the Universities, such as had reappeared during the excitement of the Reformation: and there was no method by which they could so securely attain their end, as by upholding the stable oligarchy of the Colleges. Thus every thing combined towards sanctioning in form, what had long been growing up in fact; namely, the change of the old democratic constitution into oligarchy. Of course this would be resisted by old interests; particularly as the Opposition-Party of the day selected this for their battle-field. An echo of this opposition may still be heard in our time; although without the justification, which the position of parties then gave; and at all events without any correct knowledge or impartial investigation. Voices are now lifted up, to declaim against the changes then introduced, as though they were the mere work of arbitrary violence, from without and from above.* This view of things is most unhistorical, and substantially untrue, although perfectly adapted to the times. § 169. Peculiarities of the Cambridge Reform. But in speaking of Academic Reforms, we must draw a difference between Cambridge and Oxford. In Cambridge the book of Statutes called Elizabethan was set forth in the year 1571. It does not contain a complete Academic Code; but forms rather a selection from the older statutes, and from the practices already customary. Two of these need to be made peculiarly prominent. The administrative powers of the University were lodged with the Heads of Houses; and the Colleges got into their hands the last fortress of democracy, the choice of the two Proctors.+ * As I intend to return to this subject in my account of the Academic Constitution, I shall here do no more than refer to a pamphlet lately published, entitled: "Historical Account of the University of Cambridge" by St. Dann Walsh, &c.: London, 1837 in which this representation is made with the utmost confidence. : + The Statuta Elizabethana are to be found in Dyer's Privi- § 170. Importance of the change in the mode of Electing the Proctors. The Cycle for the nomination of Proctors was introduced as early as 1557.* There is no question that this was the most important of all the new measures. To maintain beyond the College walls any academic discipline, there was little avail in the best institutions ;- even the highest University-Authorities, the Vice-Chancellor and the Board of Heads, could effect but little;- without the vigorous and sincere co-operation of the two Proctors, on whom exclusively fell the direct exercise of the Police. The original meaning of the Proctors, as Representatives and Heads of the Academic "Nations," had disappeared with the Nations themselves; and the whole office had become an uncertain and arbitrary one. The annual election of the Proctors, by and out of the mass of the Masters, led to violent disorders, by bringing into play so many individual interests, and youthful tumultuous dispositions: to say nothing of the ecclesiastical and political parties. How was it possible to expect any satisfactory co-operation from officers connected with these parties, against the instigators of tumult? By vesting the election of the Proctors in the Colleges, according to a certain cycle, not only were these disorders done away * Dyer's Privileges, &c., i. 184. with, but the choice was lodged in great measure with the Heads of Houses: who consequently were able thenceforward to count upon the concurrence of the Proctors in promoting the common interests. To complete the new system, the choice of several other academic authorities also was given over to the Colleges according to the same Cycle. Such a concentration of power might certainly lead to very many abuses; nevertheless it was most decidedly beneficial, not only at the moment to the dominant party, but permanently to the academic discipline. Nor did these regulations (which remain valid in all essential points down to the present moment) involve any technical infringement of the rights of individuals. And if the superiority in science and in discipline,* which Cambridge has ever since maintained over Qxford, cannot be explained as resulting from these ordinances; it is at least a consequence of the spirit which established them. Without this spirit to carry them into execution, they would have been of little or no importance. But as yet we have to deal, not with the results, but with the plans and measures. § 171. Evil spirit, or incapacity, retarding all improvement at Oxford. We now turn to Oxford; where also we discover * [Germ. Sowohl in wißenschaftlicher, als in disciplinarischer Hinsicht.] Y |