your petitioners, having nothing to live upon the next year. Your petitioners therefore pray,that your excellency would 'make stay of the profits of the harvest, that those of us that are charged with any legal scandal may come to a just trial, and if we are found innocent may enjoy our rights, according to the known laws of the land."*

By this bold petition, it is evident these gentlemen were encouraged to hope, that the army would carry their resentments so far as to unravel all they had been doing for five years; that they would not only renounce the covenant, but disclaim the proceedings of their committees, and even countenance the clergy's adhering to the king; and no doubt, if his majesty had complied with the proposals of the army, he might have made good terms for them; for the general received them with respect, and having debated their address in council, proposed it to the parliament, that the estates of all sequestered persons, including the clergy, should remain in the hands of the tenants till a gen

eral peace. Upon which the old incumbents grew very troublesome, forbidding the parishioners to pay their tithes, and threatening the present possessors of their livings with legal prosecutions.

On the other hand the presbyterian clergy addressed the general Aug. 12, a few days after the parliament and army were united, wit nplaint, that divers delin'quent ministers, who had been put out of their livings, did now trouble and seek to turn out those ministers, whom the parliament had put in; and particularly, that Dr. Layfield, by a counterfeit warrant from the general, had endeavored to remove a minister from his benefice in 'Surry." The general and his council declared their dislike of these proceedings, and promised to write to the parliament, that such offenders may be brought to punishment, which he did accordingly. The difference between the parliament and army being now in a manner compromised, which cut off the expectations of the clergy, Aug. 19, the lords and commons acquainted the general, that they would take care for the punishment of those delinquent ministers and others, by whose practices ministers put into livings by the parliament had been disquieted and turned out;

*Sufferings of the Clergy, p. 145.

and on the 23d of the same month they passed an ordinance, setting forth that whereas divers ministers in the several counties had been displaced by authority of parliament, for notorious scandals and delinquency, and godly, learned, and orthodox ministers had been placed in their room; and whereas the said scandalous and delinquent ministers by force, or otherwise, had entered upon the churches, and gained possession of the tithes, &c. the lords and commons did therefore ordain, that all sheriffs, mayors, committees, &c. do forthwith apprehend such 'ministers, and all such persons as have been aiding, and abetting to them, and commit them to prison, there to remain, till those they had thus dispossessed, and molested, should receive satisfaction for their damages; and that the said sheriffs, &c. do restore those molested ministers 'to the quiet possession of their respective places, and do in case of need raise the trained bands to put this ordin'ance in execution; and do also take effectual course that the tithes, profits, &c. be for the future duly paid to those ministers put in by parliament, &c. And if any such disturbance should hereafter be given, the offender was to suffer for every such disturbance one month's imprisonment."

However, some small favor was shewn, about this time, to those bishops and others, who had lived peaceably, and been little more than spectators of the distracting miseries of their country; the committee was ordered to make payment of the eight hundred pounds per year granted to the bishop of Durham; the real estate of the pious bishop Hall, who had lately published his hard measure, was discharged; archbishop Usher had an allowance of four hundred pounds per annum, till he could be otherwise provided for; and was soon after allowed to be preacher at Lincoln's-Inn, only upon taking the negative oath. But the bishops were not much considered in these donations. The commissioners of the great seal were ordered to fill up the vacant livings in the gift of the crown, without obliging the incumbents to take the covenant; but the new disturbances which arose in favor of the captive king, brought down new severities upon the episcopal clergy, before the end of the following year.*

Rushworth, p. 831, 937, 948, 958.

CHAP. IX.

The Visitation of the University of OXFORD. State of Religion at the End of the Year 1647.

SAD and deplorable was the condition of the university of Oxford when it fell into the hands of the parliament; the colleges and balls were gone to ruin, five of them perfectly deserted, and the rest in a very shattered condition. The public acts had been discontinued for some years, the schools were turned into magazines for the king's army, and the chambers filled with officers and soldiers, or let out to townsmen: there was little or no instruction for youth, nor hardly the face of an university; poverty, desolation, and plunder, the sad effects of war, were to be seen in every corner; the bursaries were emptied of the public money, the plate melted down for the king's service, and the colleges involved in debts which they were not able to satisfy; there were few heads of colleges or scholars remaining, except such as were strongly prejudiced against the parliament, having employed their wits, during the course of the war, in writing weekly mercuries, and satyrical pamphlets, in which they aspersed the proceedings of the two houses, and treated their divines as the most infamous, ignorant, and hypocritical traitors, nor were their tempers in the least softened, though their lives and fortunes were in the hands of their adversaries. It was therefore thought necessary to put the education of youth into such hands as the parliament could confide in, a power being reserved for that purpose in the articles of surrender,

But before they proceeded to extremes, the two houses, about the beginning of September 1646, appointed seven of their most popular divines to repair to Oxford, with authority to preach in any pulpits of the university for six months, in order to soften the spirits of the people,* and * Suff. Cler. p. 1.25.

give them a better opinion of their cause, viz. the reverend Mr. Robert Harris, of Hanwell, Oxfordshire; Mr. Edward Reynolds, afterwards bishop of Norwich; Mr. Henry Wilkinson, of Magdalen-college; Mr. Francis Cheynel, Mr. Edward Corbet, of Merton-college; Mr. Henry Cornish, of New-inn, and Mr. Henry Langley, of Pembroke-college; men of reputation and character,* sober divines, and popular preachers, though A. Wood, the Oxford historian, is pleased to say, "Their sermons were the contempt and scorn of the university, because they 'were too long and had too little learning; because they 'prayed very coldly for the king, but were very earnest for a blessing upon the councils and arms of the parliament, and did not always conclude with the Lord's "prayer; because they reflected on some of the heads of 'the university, calling them dumb dogs, having a form of 'religion without the power; and, because their manner of 'delivery was rather theatrical than serious; nevertheless, their auditories were crowded, though none of the heads ' of colleges, or senior scholars attended."

The ministers were very diligent in the discharge of their trust, preaching twice every Lord's-day; and that they might gain the affections of the people, set up a weekly conference every Thursday, in which they proposed to solve such objections as should be raised against their new confession of faith and discipline, and to answer any other important cases in divinity: the question or case was to be propounded the week before, that it might be well considered; a moderator also was appointed to keep order, who began and concluded with a short prayer, and the whole was conducted with decency and gravity. But several of the scholars ridiculed their proceedings, and by way of contempt called their place of meeting, the scruple shop; however, it was frequented by great numbers of people,

* Dr. Grey would impeach the truth of this eulogium, and refers to Anthony Wood to support his invidious reflections on these men. The names and characters of Mr. Robert Harris, Dr. Reynolds, Mr. F. Cheynel, and Mr. Corbet, will again come before the reader in Mr. Neal's next volume: and we would refer him to Dr. Calamy, or Mr. Palmer's Nonconformist's Memorial, for Biography. Ed.

↑ Suff. Cler. p. 125. Minist. Account, p. 5. Vol. Pamph. No. 282.

some of whom were prevailed with to renounce the Oxford eath; and others to take the solemn league and covenant. They met with some little disturbance from one Erbury, a turbulent Antinomian, and chaplain in the garrison; but upon the whole, when the ministers returned to London they declared, that the citizens shewed them a great deal of respect, although the university poured all the contempt upon them imaginable, so that they apprehended themselves to have the same lot as Saint Paul had at Athens, Acts xvii. 32, 34. Some mocked them, others slighted them, but certain clave to them, and believed.*

There being no prospect of reforming the university by these methods, the two houses resolved to proceed upon a visitation, which they apprehended they might undertake without the king, by virtue of the fourteenth article of their recapitulation, which says, "That the chancellor, masters and scholars of the university, and all heads, governors, "masters, fellows, and scholars of the colleges, halls, bod'ies corporate, and societies of the said university, and the 'public professors, readers, and orators thereof, and all other persons belonging to the said university, shall and may, according to their statutes, charters, and customs, 'enjoy their ancient form of government, subordinate to the 'immediate authority and power of parliament, and that all 'the rights, privileges, franchises, lands, tenements, hous'es, rents, revenues, libraries, debts, goods and chattels, * &c. belonging to the said university, shall be enjoyed by them respectively as aforesaid, free from sequestrations, 'fines, taxes, and all other molestations whatsoever, under 'color of any thing relating to the present war. And if any removal shall be made by the parliament of any head, or ' other members of the university, that they shall enjoy their profits for six months after the surrendering of Oxon, and shall have convenient time allowed them for the removal "of themselves and their goods; provided that this shall not extend to retard any reformation there intended by the 'parliament, or give them any liberty to intermeddle with the government.+" But the heads of colleges did not think themselves obliged by this capitulation, nor any thing contained in it, because they were not made parties, nor * Minist. Account, p. 52. † Rushworth, p. 283.