him, he eat them up very heartily, and cheerfully said to one who took notice of it, he must keep up that ruinous cottage till it fell "."

Mr. Thomas Bilney was fellow of this college, a graduate utriusq. legis, of civil and canon law, eminent for his study of the scripture: being once on a journey, he came to a poor cure, belonging to Trinity Hall, where the people, being without a regular preacher, desired him to give them a lecture. Bilney had been prohibited, yet he was so wrought on by honest zeal, that he ventured to preach and Fox says his contempt of church order disturbed his conscience, in his latter end b

:

We e see then that while Cranmer was reforming monasteries, and Lord Cromwell universities, persecution was encouraged both by church and state, and so continued during all Henry's reign. The person who sent the order to burn poor Bilney, was Sir Thomas More, who was that one sound counsellor (as Queen Catherine used to say) that the king had. But these blots (for he was a dreadful persecutor) cannot be wiped out of his escutcheon: he, in his turn, fell under the king's resentment, for denying his supremacy, and was executed on Tower Hill in 1535.

Thomas Thirlby, L. L. D. fellow, an eminent civilian, was the first and last bishop of Westminster, privy counsellor' to Henry VIII. and Edward VI. Mary, in 1554, translated him to Ely; but he was deprived by Elizabeth. He was a native of Cambridge, and assisted in composing the Liturgy.

* Burnet's History of the Reformation, Book 1. A. 1534.

Acts and Monuments, p. 1013.

• Bentham's Hist. of Ely, p. 191, 1st Ed. where the character given is very different from that of a dilapidator, given him by Carter.

Sir William Paget was employed by Henry VIII. Edward VI. and Queen Mary, and dismissed his attendance at court by Queen Elizabeth, merely on account of his age. He was secure in Henry's time by his foreign employments. He escaped Edward's reformation by his peaceableness and indifference: he complied with Queen Mary's measures from conscience, and to Queen Elizabeth's from allegiance; bejng, as Lloyd says, “one of those moderate men, that looked upon the Protestant foundation of faith," the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and Ten Commandments," as safe; on the Papists superstructures as not damnable; whose life was Grotius's and Cassander's wish, An accommodation to the Christian world a."

Heury, Earl of Northampton, knight of the garter, privy counsellor, and lord privy seal, in King James's reign. His speeches at Cambridge and the Star Chamber, says a certain writer, "argue him both witty and wise; to whom has been applied, (for the Earl of Northampton was both a bachelor and a student) Lord Bacon's observation: "he that hath wife and children, hath given hostages to fortune, for they are impediments to great enterprizes, either to virtue or mischief"." He was chancellor of the University in 1611: he was author of a Dispensative against the supposed Poison of Prophecies, which is said to bespeak him a good scholar.

Our next statesman is Sir Robert Naunton, first, fellow commoner of Trinity College, afterwards fellow of this, and of whom it was said, that his speeches, both while proctor and orator of Cambridge, discovered him more

2 Eng. Statesmen, p. 67.

b Ibid. p. 556,

inclined to public accomplishments, than private studies a ; he was made secretary of state to James I. in 1617, one of whom it was said, "he was of the same make in the state, as Archbishop Abbot was in the church;" but what is. most to my purpose is, he was author of a work entitled, Fragmenta Regalia," to which I have often referred. Dr. Cowell, L. L. D. master, 1598, was author of a work entitled, Institutiones Juris Anglicani ad Methodum Institutionum, and a learned work, called the Interpreter, upon which Jacob's Law Dictionary is founded; he was also professor of civil law here, and died in 1611, being buried in the chapel.

Sir Peter Wyche translated out of the Portuguese language, the Life of Don John de Castro, and a Relation of the River Nile, of its Source and Current, &c.

C

To these might be added John Harvey, L. L. D. Peter Calvert, L.L.D. and a few, who, in different periods have distinguished themselves among our judges.

In more modern times might be mentioned Samuel Hallifax, L. L. D. and professor of civil law. He edited Dr. Ogden's Sermons, with his life prefixed; Sermons of his own, on Prophecy; an Analysis of Butler's Analogy, with a Syllabus of Lectures on Civil Law. He was Bishop of Glocester, 1781, and of St. Asaph, 1788. He died 1790.

Samuel Horsley, eminent for his controversial writings with Dr. Priestley, and editor of the Works of Sir Isaac Newton; and author, also, of several other works. He

was first made Bishop of St. David's: he then became

b See an account of him prefixed to his INTerpreter,

c MS. List in the Master's Lodge. See Blomefield's Collect. Cant. p. 214.

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Bishop of Rochester, and in 1802 he was translated to be
Bishop of St. Asaph. He died 1806.

William Barlow, fellow, D. D. wrote a Vindication of King James's Apology for the Oath of Allegiance, in opposition to Mr. Parsons, the Jesuit. He also assisted in the Translation of the Bible, put forth in James's reign. He was Bishop of Rochester, and in 1608 was translated to Lincolna.

William Squire, scholar, afterwards fellow of University College, Oxford, was author of "The Unreasonableness of the Romanists requiring the Coinmunion with the present Church." He was rector of Rolleston, Derbyshire, and died in 1677 Þ.

Several of the professors of Gresham College were of this college, of which number the two following may be noticed, on account of their writings.

Thomas Eden, L. L. D. was chosen to succeed Dr. Corbet, as law professor, in Gresham College, in 1613. In 1625 he was chosen master of this college; and was three times elected burgess to the University of Cambridge. He was a great benefactor to the college, and dying in 1645, was buried in the college chapel, where, some years afterwards, a handsome monument, with a copious inscription, was erected over his grave by the master and fellows of this college.

It does not appear that Dr. Eden published; but various pieces of his on the civil law are in MS. of which, an' account may be seen in Dr. Ward's Lives of the Professors of Gresham College.

John Bond, L. L. D. was elected master of this college, on the famous John Selden's declining the offer,

a Godwin de Præsul. Ang. p. 302.

↳ Mr. R. Smyth's MS.

i

and professor of civil law in Gresham College, in 1649*. In 1654 he was made an assistant to the commissioners of Middlesex and Westminster, for the ejection of scandalous and ignorant ministers and schoolmasters, and in 1658 vice-chancellor of the University. At the Restoration he was ejected. Several Tracts and Sermons of his are noticed in Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, which were most of them preached before the House of Commons. According to Dr. Ward, he died in 1676, and Wood is wrong, in saying he died in 1680.

The Dr. Eden above-mentioned died during the Refor mation of the University; Dr. Bond was put in by the Parliament, to succeed him: and Mr. Walker says, not one of this house was afterwards turned out. ....

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Another eminent civilian, and professor of law in Gresham College (being chosen in 1672), was Roger Meredith, A. M. He was fellow, also, of this college. He was, it seems, an excellent scholar, but it does not appear he left any thing for the press. His Oratio habita in Collegio Greshamensi, A. 1672, may be seen in Ward's Lives of the Gresham Professors D.

Charles Reynolds, D. D. 1740, chancellor of Lincoln, and son of John Reynolds, Bishop of Lincoln, wrote a valuable Treatise on Convocations. He died in 1744.

Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, great politician and statesman, and as great a wit. His "Letters to his Son" are generally known, and have been greatly read. His "Miscellaneous Works," in two volumes 4to. were published in 1777. To these are pre

■ Ward's Lives of the Professors of Gresham College, p. 248. App. No. 13.