On Gwyn's death in 1633 there was a disputed election to the mastership, which Charles I. settled by nominating William Beale. Beale was originally a Trinity man, but had been for about a year Master of Jesus. He was a supporter of Laud; he embellished the Chapel, and introduced a more ornate ritual; under his influence St. John's seems to have been the only College at Cambridge which fully complied with Laud's instructions. Thus when the Puritans got the upper hand, Beale and his College were the subject of their displeasure. In 1642 King Charles applied to the University for supplies. The contribution of St. John's was L150 in money and 2065 ounces "grocers weight" of silver plate. The list of the pieces of plate and of the donors' names is but melancholy reading; suffice it to say that among those sent were pieces bearing the names of Thomas Wentworth, Lord Strafford, and of Thomas Fairfax. The fact that this plate actually reached the King did not endear the College to the parliamentary party. Oliver Cromwell surrounded the College, took Dr. Beale a prisoner, and, to equalise matters, confiscated the communion plate and other valuables. Beale, after some imprisonment and wandering, escaped from England and became chaplain to Lord Cottington and Sir Edward Hyde (afterwards Lord Clarendon) in their embassy to Spain; he died at Madrid, and was there secretly buried. A number of the Fellows were also ejected, and for some time the College was used as a prison. The Chapel was stripped of the obnoxious ornaments, and other damage done. A little bundle of papers labelled "Receipts for Army taxes during the Commonwealth" still reposes, as a memento of these days, in the Muniment Room. St. John's, which dabbled in Presbyterian doctrines during the days of Elizabeth, now had these imposed upon it by superior authority. The two Commonwealth Masters, John Arrowsmith (1644-1653) and Anthony Tuckney (1653-1661), were able men of Puritan austerity, the rule of the latter being the more strict; judging from the after careers of its members, the College was certainly capably directed. A well-authenticated College tradition relates that when, at an election, the President called upon the Master to have regard to the "godly," Tuckney replied that no one showed greater regard for the truly godly than himself, but that he was determined to choose none but scholars; adding, with practical wisdom, "They may deceive me in their godliness; they cannot in their scholarship." On the Restoration, Dr. Peter Gunning, afterwards Bishop of Ely, was made Master; and the Earl of Manchester, who, as an officer of the Parliament, was the means of ejecting many of the Fellows, now directed that some of them should be restored to their places. An interesting College custom dates from this period: on the 29th of May in each year the College butler decorates the Hall and Kitchen with fresh oak boughs; there is no order to that effect, but--"it has always been done."