III. And if ye shal thynk mete, that any other shal come upp BOOK and appeare here before me to this end, I require you to enjoyne them in my name so to do. For besyde the attestation of myne own conscience, moving me to take upp this audacite in the begynnying; I am straitly commanded by the Quenes Majesty, in no wise to permitt hir authorite to be in this sort violated. Which the Cyvilians wold term, in ther usual words, Crimen læsæ Majestatis. Number XLII. A copy of a writing from Sir William Cecyl, Chancellor of the University, for the Master of St. John's college to transcribe and subscribe. me. I, Rychard Longworth, Master of the college of S. John's MSS. penes in the University of Cambridg, being called before Sir William Cecyl, Knight, Chancellor of the same University, and one of the Quenes Majesties Privy Councel, and charged by him, in hir Majesties name, with the breaking of certen ordonances and injunctions, given by hir Majesty to the said 73 University and college, amongst other things for certen external rites and customes to be reteyned in certen ecclesiastical actions, for prayers and ministration of sacraments; and with the maintenance and sufferance of the Fellows and Scholars of the said college of St. John's, in the manifest breaking of the same; do deny for mine own part, to have wilfully, or of set purpose broken any like ordonance or injunction. But I do confess, that where in my absence from the said college, diverse, and the more part, of the company of the said college, had broken and changed certen ordonances and usages of coming into the chapel on festival dayes, with their surpleses and hoodes, according to their several degrees in scholes; and had also used some diversity and innovation in the manner of the administration of the Communion; I did therin, though not of any evil intent, suffer them to continue, III. ity so to do.) Fellow nor с BOOK without ether compelling a of themb to returne to the ancient usage, commanded and established by the Quenes MaOr repre- jesties laws and injunctions, or without complaining to any hending. b (for I had superior magistrate, for the reformation therof, as in duty I not author- now know I ought. And therefore I do acknowledge my self in that behalf the more faulty. And being hereupon, after my answer made, charged, and straitly commanded, in her Majesties name, by the said Sir William Cecyl, as Chancellor of the said University, and one of her Majesties Privy Council, to do my duty for reformation of the foresaid disNeither orders, and to permit none within the said college, either to continue in the former offence of breach of the ordonances and injunctions, or to attempt any innovation contrary to the laws of the realme, injunctions of her Majesty, or the statutes or orders of the University, or the foresaid college: I do faithfully and voluntarily promise, that I wil from henceforth, in al mine own actions publick and private, do my uttermost to observe and kepe, within the said college and University, al manner of laws, statutes, and ordonances, to the which I am by any means bound, as Master of that college, or Graduate in the University, as other Masters and Graduates have usually done since the last visitation of the said University, in the first yere of the reign of the Quenes Majesty. And furdermore I will do my uttermost to compeld al manner of Fellowes, Scholars, and Students, within the said college, to observe and kepe such ordonances, injunctions, and usages, in the same college, without alteration or innovation, as of late time, before the violation of the same, (wherewith I have been charged,) they have and were bound to do; until by publick authority other order shal be given. Or ells I wil and promise to do myne uttermost to punish them according as shalbe appointed; and if ther desert shal so require, to expel them out of the said house. All which things I do voluntarily determine and promise to do and perform, and wil sincerely and directly make declaration of the premisses, immediately upon my return to the college, in the open presence of the whole & cause e and III. company of the said college. In witnes wherof I have writ- BOOK ten al this, and subscribed the same with my own hand, the xiiii. of December, 1565. Ri. Longworth. [This form was drawn up by Sir William Cecyl, to be transcribed and subscribed by Mr. Longworth. But in his own transcription some words and sentences are added, and some wholly omitted. Those added are in the margin; those omitted are in Italic in the text.] me. Clerk's letter to the Chancellor of Cambridge; concerning such as disturbed the University for matters of apparel. DEDI ad te literas, (honoratissime Ciceli,) in quibus, quæ MSS. penes fuerit Academiæ nostræ conditio, quis tuorum curialium sensus, quæ sententia in novissimis procuratorum comitiis, ostendi; ut et nostros in te animos perspiceres, et quorundam hominum ingenia, (qui tua forsan humanitate authoritateque ad aliorum præjudicium abuti sperabant) ex paucis illis, tanquam ex unguibus leones, cognosceres. Idem quoque nuper fecissem de fanaticis nostris Superpellicianis et Galerianis, nisi is esset rerum status, ut apud summum Mæcenatem (quod nollem) delatorio potius nomine, quam pio et officioso, agere viderer. Illi mehercule homines, non ita meo judicio sapientes, (quorum ineptias, aut potius iλauríav, gaudeo tibi ab aliis nunciata,) adeo suis consiliis omnia perturbarunt; ut quod temporis antehac artibus et scientiis solet attribui, id nunc futilissimis de lana caprina altercationibus fallitur et consumitur. Qui prima istorum seminaria ad nos invexerunt, licet alioqui sint homines boni et religiosi, in hoc tamen sunt partim obscurius iniqui, partim non dissimulanter ingrati. Nam et Cancellarii nobilissimi temere voluntati resistunt, et inauditas conscientiæ leges ipsi sibi affingunt, et multos suo veneno, non dicam anabaptismate, inficiunt. Difficile enim est in tanta adolescentium III. BOOK turba (qui in errorem cærei et flexiles sunt) delirare aliquos, ut non plures in idem secum delirium trahant. Certè quàm gravem reip. nostræ notam inusserint, pluribus dicerem, nisi urgere jacentes, aut præcipitantes impellere, nimis esset inhumanum. Unum illud, (licet honori tuo indignum est, tamen quoniam ridiculum,) præterire non possum. Venit forte fortuna in cujusdam collegii chorum homunculus quidam, vix adhuc sophista, et cum reliqui superpelliceis induti essent, is ex omnibus unus (si diis placet) exutus esse vult; assidet sociis, ingerit se confertissimis, summa confidentia, summa inverecundia: mirati omnes, nonnulli indignati. Res ad censores delata: habita quæstio est; interrogatur an hasta posita (ut quidam) proscripsisset: respondet modestè, negat demissè. Conscientiam deinde criminatur, quæ liberas illi his rebus utendi habenas non concessisset. Comperta demum veritate, exploratum fit, religiosum adolescentem hunc superpellicium suum coco cuidam propter magnam farciminum vim oppignorasse. Ridere tum alii, alii risum dissimulare. Hic tu, ornatissime Ciceli, quem Academiæ nostræ tanquam divinitus illapsum suspicimus, quod te diligenter parare audivimus, quodque in cæteris soles, crassissimis nostris ineptiis medere: effice, ut quæ jam diu inanissimis paradoxis, obstrepuerint rostra et theatra, eadem vicissim, purissimis Evangelii fontibus abundent: controversiis denique nostris, aut potius insanis hallucinationibus, manum impone, et, si fieri possit, etiam extremam. Neque vero magnopere te commoveat, quod quidam sint tam insigniter ingrati, nec voluntatem in universos tuam comminuat, quod horum singularis amentia tuum consilium, patrocinium, humanitatem non agnoscat. Qui et numero multo plures sumus, et forsitan mente saniores, te reipub. nostræ natum credimus, et non esse Academicos malumus, quàm te non esse Cancellarium. Sed desinam honori tuo pluribus molestus esse, teque Deo Opt. Max. relinquo. De rebus deinceps nostris Anno 1565. certiorem te faciam, si tibi quoque gratum fore intellexero. Cantabrigiæ, pridie idus Decemb. Honori tuo devinctissimus, Bartholomeus Clercke. Concionatores, coram Regia Majestate, in Quadragesima, 75 anno 1565. III. Herle, Warden of Manchester, to the Lord Treasurer; concerning some injuries offered some of the college there, by Papists. Almyghty God preserve your good Lordschyp in myche PLESYTH your felycyte. honorable Lordeschyp to understand, MSS. penes K 4 me. |