126

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

VIII.

1687 .

Ejectionof theFellows.

the public esteem. With one voice they declared that theywould never ask pardon for being in the right, or admit thatthe visitation of their college and the deprivation of their Pre-sident had been legal.

Then the King, as he had threatened, laid on them thewhole weight of his hand. They were by one sweeping edictcondemned to expulsion. Yet this punishment was notdeemed sufficient. It was known that many noblemen andgentlemen who possessed church patronage would be dis-posed to provide for men who had suffered so much for thelaws of England and for the Protestant religion. The HighCommission therefore pronounced the ejected Fellows in-capable of ever holding any church preferment. Such ofthem as were not yet in holy orders were pronounced in-capable of receiving the clerical character. James mightenjoy the thought that he had reduced many of them from asituation in which they were surrounded by comforts, and hadbefore them the fairest professional prospects, to hopelessindigence.

But all these severities produced an effect directly theopposite of that which he had anticipated. The spirit of Eng-lishmen, that sturdy spirit which no King of the House ofStuart could ever be taught by experience to understand,swelled up high and strong against injustice. Oxford, thequiet seat of learning and loyalty, was in a state resemblingthat of the City of London on the morning after the attemptof Charles the First to seize the five members. The Vice-chancellor had been asked to dine with the Commissioners onthe day of the expulsion. He refused. “My taste,” he said,“differs from tha't of Colonel Kirke. I cannot eat my mealswith appetite under a gallows.” The scholars refused to pulloff their caps to the new rulers of Magdalene College. Smithwas nicknamed Doctor Roguery, and was publicly insulted ina coffee-house. When Charnock summoned the Demies toperform their academical exercises before him, they answeredthat they were deprived of their lawful governors and wouldsubmit to no usurped authority. They assembled apart bothfor study and for divine service. Attempts were made to