Almost immediately after James’s accession, in 1685, he obtained the appointment of one Massey, a Papist, as Dean of Christ Church, Oxford. He likewise secured for Obadiah Walker, master of University College, a concealed Papist, a licence for publishing popish books,—a licence of which Walker had the courage to avail himself, for he immediately established in his college both a printing press and a popish chapel. All this naturally created great excitement. Soon after, in January 1687, the noble family of Petre (of whom Father Edward Petre was one) claimed the right of nomination to seven fellowships in Exeter College, in which Samuel Wesley was a student. It was acknowledged on the part of the college that Sir William Petre, who had founded the fellowships, in the reign of Elizabeth, and likewise his son, had both exercised the power of nomination, though the latter, as they contended, had nominated only by sufferance. The Bishop of Exeter, the visitor of the college, had, in the reign of James I., pronounced an opinion against the founder’s descendants, and a judgment had been obtained against them in the Court of Common Pleas. Under the sanction of these authorities, the college had, for seventy years, nominated to these fellowships without disturbance from the family of Petre. Alibone, the popish lawyer, contended that this long usage, which would otherwise have been conclusive, deserved little consideration in a period of such iniquity towards Catholics, who had been deterred from asserting their civil rights. King James took up the matter, and demanded from the university that they should acknowledge a right in Father Petre to name seven fellows of Exeter College. This the university most firmly resisted, and the question was referred to the Courts of Westminster. All this added fuel to the fire already kindled.