Meanwhile the College had educated its fair share of prominent men: Wolsey; Colet, afterwards Dean of St. Paul's; Cardinal Pole; William Tyndale, translator of the Bible; Lyly, whose Euphues gave a name to a certain style of writing; and John Hampden. A notable President (1561) was Dr. Laurence Humphrey, who was among the Genevan exiles in Queen Mary's time. On his return he retained the Genevan dislike for ecclesiastical vestments, but was persuaded to wear them on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth's visit to Oxford. "Mr. Doctor," said the queen, who was aware of his usual practice, "that loose gown becomes you mighty well. I wonder your notions should be so narrow." [Illustration: 0185] [Illustration: 0186] The life of a College is in general self-contained, but in the last year of James II.'s reign Magdalen becomes for a time the centre of a constitutional struggle. There is no more glorious page in her annals. James II. had done his best to turn University College into a Roman Catholic seminary, and had made a professor of that religion Dean of Christ Church. He now sought to impose upon the Fellows of Magdalen a President of his own choosing, one Farmer, a papist, and a man of known bad character. The Fellows replied by electing one of their own number, John Hough, upon which they were cited before the Court of High Commission and bullied by Judge Jeffreys, while Houghs election was declared invalid. Farmer was so generally discredited that the king did not press his claims, but shortly afterwards nominated in his stead Dr. Parker, Bishop of Oxford. When the Fellows respectfully refused to accept him, Hough and twenty-six Fellows were forcibly ejected, as well as many of the "demies" (or scholars) who sympathised with their action. Parker died after a few months' tenure of office, when James named Gifford, a Roman Catholic, as his successor. It was only in October 1688, when moved to terror by the Declaration of William of Orange, that the king, among other concessions, cancelled Gifford's appointment and restored Dr. Hough and the ejected Fellows. But then, as we know, all concessions were too late. Hough remained President until 1701. During the eighteenth century Magdalen was not exempt from the general somnolence which pervaded the University. Gibbon's residence there was cut short by his becoming a Roman Catholic. His harsh judgment of the College, warped as it was, cannot be entirely refuted. Famous nineteenth-century members of Magdalen were Robert Lowe, Lord Selborne, Charles Reade, and Professor Mozley. At present it does not look as if the charge of inactivity could ever again be preferred against Waynflete's Foundation. BRASENOSE COLLEGE [Illustration: 0192]