Oxford (England) -- History; University of Oxford -- History
The fellows of Magdalen were summoned to the royal presence in Christ
Church Hall, where they were rudely reprimanded and bidden to go to
their chapel and elect the bishop forthwith or they should know what it
was to feel the weight of a king's hand. "Is this your Church of England
loyalty?" James cried. "Get you gone. I am King. I will be obeyed!"
Curious to think that William Penn, who had formerly been sent down from
Christ Church for Nonconformity, was present at this scene; and a
servitor of Exeter, the father of the Wesleys, quitted it, "resolved to
give the tyrant no kind of support." The fellows protested their
loyalty, but declared that it was not in their power to do what the King
required. Penn, the courtly Quaker, endeavoured to bring about a
compromise, but seems to have been convinced at last that an agreement
was impossible. Hough's comment on these negotiations was, "It is
resolved that the Papists must have our College. All that we can do is,
to let the world see that they take it from us, and that we do not give
it up." A commission was appointed. Hough, who refused to surrender his
lodgings, was declared contumacious, and his name was struck off the
books. His lodgings were broken open; Parker was introduced. Twenty-five
of the fellows were expelled, and were declared incapable of
ecclesiastical preferment. The demies, who refused to recognise Parker,
were not interfered with by the commission; they remained in the college
holding chapel services and disputations among themselves and ignoring
the Papist fellows who were being introduced. When they refused to obey
the officers nominated by the King, eighteen of them were expelled.
Parker died, and Gifford, a Papist of the Sorbonne, was appointed. All
but two of the original fellows were now ejected, and their places were
being filled up with Roman Catholics when it was brought home to James
that he had been going too fast. He began to bid desperately for the
support he had alienated. He restored the ejected fellows, but they had
scarcely returned when William's supporters, under Lord Lovelace,
entered Oxford in force. They were received at the East Gate by the
mayor and magistrates in their black gowns, who went with them up the
High Street amid the shouts and congratulations of the people.
Meantime the Master of University had fled to London with his nominee,
the Dean of Christ. He was captured by the mob and thrown into the Tower
on a charge of high treason. And at Oxford "trade," to use the judicious
metaphor of an Oxford priest, "declined." The Jesuits, who had been "in
a very hopeful way and had three public shops (chapels) open" there,
found all their schemes frustrated. The intrigue and plotting of years
were brought to nought.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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