102

HISTOKY OP ENGLAND.

chap. It may well be believed, that the law, so grossly insulted■ 163 ; ~ by courts which derived from it all their authority, and whichProceed- were the habit of looking to it as their guide, would bein g s of little respected by a tribunal which had originated in tyran-commis- nical caprice. The new High Commission had, during thesion. ti rs t months of its existence, merely inhibited clergymenfrom exercising spiritual functions. The rights of propertyhad remained untouched. But, early in the year lGi>7, itwas determined to strike at freehold interests, and to impresson every Anglican priest and prelate the conviction that, if herefused to lend his aid for the purpose of destroying theChurch of which he was a minister, he would in an hour bereduced to beggary.

The uni- It would have been prudent to try the first experiment onversi les. some 0 tj SCure individual. But the government was under aninfatuation such as, in a more simple age, would have beencalled judicial. War was therefore at once declared againstthe two most venerable corporations of the realm, the Uni-versities of Oxford and Cambridge.

The power of those bodies has during many ages beengreat; but it was at the height during the latter part of theseventeenth century. None of the neighbouring countriescould boast of such splendid and opulent seats of learning.The schools of Edinburgh and Glasgow, of Leyden andUtrecht, of Louvain and Leipsic, of Padua and Bologna,seemed mean to scholars who had been educated in themagnificent foundations of Wykeham and Wolsey, of Henrythe Sixth and Henry the Eighth. Literature and sciencewere, in the academical system of England, surrounded withpomp, armed with magistracy, and closely allied with all themost august institutions of the state. To be the Chancellorof an University was a distinction eagerly sought by themagnates of the realm. To represent an University in Par-liament was a favourite object of the ambition of statesmen.Nobles and even princes were proud to receive from an Uni-versity the privilege of wearing the doctoral scarlet. Thecurious were attracted to the Universities by ancient buildingsrich with the tracery of the middle ages, by modern buildings