The memorandum concludes with a request that the College may have liberty to ask the opinion of the Judges on the questions raised, and thus obtain the benefit of the king's "most equal just and princely laws." The use of the personal pronoun in one or two cases and the reference in the thirteenth paragraph to Nevile suggest that the document was composed by him. I cannot find out anything about the result of the petition, but I conjecture that nothing came of it. Nevile however was not inclined to let the matter rest, and no doubt the esteem felt for him at court and his personal popularity were of great assistance to the Society in the negotiations that followed. It was a few months later, in May 1608, at the annual election of scholars at Westminster that Nevile took the next step in defence of the college position. The following account of the election is based on a paper preserved at Westminster: The Master of Trinity College (Nevile) refused to take the oath which was required, previously to the election, by the Law of the land as well as by the local Statutes. He also refused to elect to his College the three Scholars ordered by the Letters Patent of the Crown. The oath however was taken by the Dean of Westminster (Neile) and the Dean of Christ Church (King), as well as by their assistants, and by the Master of the School (Ireland). The Dean of Westminster then demanded, in writing, that the election should proceed; when the Master of Trinity College referred to some composition by which he stated he would be governed. To this the Dean of Westminster replied, that he knew of no such composition, and that, if it had existed, it was necessarily set aside by the Letters Patent of Queen Elizabeth and of His Majesty; whereon the Master of Trinity College observed, though with much protestation of his loyalty, that he did not allow the validity of the Letters Patent. The other Electors, however, having agreed to proceed, the nine Scholars who had been examined were called in to hear the Statute read for the election to the two Colleges. The Master of Trinity then said that he had not places enough vacant in his College. [In fact in April he and the Seniority had filled up all scholarships then vacant and pre-elected men to succeed to scholarships as vacancies occurred.] To this it was replied, that the want of vacancies had been occasioned by pre-elections of supernumerary Scholars, that the words of the Statute were disjunctive, and there was a clause commanding such Scholars to be received if they were fit. The Master of Trinity College did not deny the fitness of the candidates, but still refused to elect. In this wrangling the whole morning was wasted.