ORdered, that the Petition of M. Charles Hotham Fellow of Pe­ter-House in the Ʋniversity of Cambridge, this day presented to this Committee, be taken into consideration on this day fortnight, & that Dr. Francius, M. Clerk, M. Brock, and M. Sams senior, Fel­lowes of the said House, do in person attend this Committee, to in­form this Committee of what they know concerning the matter of the said Petition, and that in the mean time the Master and Fellowes of the said House have a copie of the said Petition if they think sit.

I acknowledg it may to this grave Assembly seem strange, & per­haps something smelling of presumption, that in a business wherein the good of the whole Colledg is pretended to, one man onely should appear to own it, & he neither the first nor second Senior of the Colledge, nor yet publickly employed by the So­ciety for the making of such attempt: But I hope if the high consequence of the matter presented, and greatness of the per­son, or rather interest to be opposed, and how unwilling men of prudent and suffering spirits have always been to engage them­selves in high contests, and how loath modest men are to ask that which they think may probably be denied them, be well conside­red, this wonder will soon cease. And to take away the impu­tation of presumption, I have onely this to say, that had I known of any man that would have taken upon him this task, I should most willingly, according to that mans directions, either have sit­ten still, or seconded him in the meanest of services tending to the advancement of this cause. But I knew of none, and besides, had, above the rest of the Society, these speciall engagements ob­liging me to this endeavour.

1. First at the time of my presenting the Petition, I was one of the Deans of the Colledge, an Officer intrusted by the Found­er, not onely as an assistant to the Master in the Colledge-Go­vernment, but likewise as one of the Ephori of Sparta, a Supervisor and Censor of his actions in some cases, to admonish him, if need were, and in case of his obstinate standing out against admoniti­ons, to complain of him to a Superiour Justice.

Secondly, our Colledge-statute requires every member of the Colledge, even after his departure, (much more during his abode) that in way of a grateful acknowledgment of that much good he hath received there, he should endeavour the preservation of the Colledge-rights to the utmost of his power.

Now there having been one of my own name, and Family, the third, or fourth successour to the Bishop of Ely that founded the Colledge, a great Benefactor to it (though the particulas where­in, appear not) and my self coming now in a more peculiar man­ner, and by a strange cast of providence, to partake of the good fruits of his bounty; I held it a double obligation upon me to a performance of this clause of our Statute, by endeavouring some­what which posterity might reap the benefit of; which being at present not in a capacity to do, by gift of Lands, or any consider­able sum of Money, all I had left within my power, was [...]ly to appear here as the Colledges servant, in the vindication of our common-liberties, then which, ingenuous spirits know not a more precious treasure upon Earth.

Thirdly, 'Tis a thing well known to all I have ever converst with, that I have ever since the first beginning of these civill wars, and that in the most hazardous times, when the generality even of the Parliaments party stood inclinable to a defection, been to my poor ability, and in my narrow sphere, a zealous assertor of the Nations liberty, against the prerogative of the supreme Offi­cer of State, then in War against us: And therefore, if upon the same principle I now shew my self more then ordinarily forward in asserting the liberties of our particular Common-wealth, a­gainst a parallel tyranny; I hope my boldness will find the easier pardon.

This I have been necessitated to premise, in answer to those e­vill surmises which you hear have been rais'd, and objected, as of great consequence against the title of the Petition, and more might be added; but seeing this Committee hath been so just and honourable, as waving all respect of persons, to take the matter it self into your grave considerations, I shall now wholly apply my self to the matter in hand.

The Petition is large, but may, in summe, be reduc't to these two heads.

First, a Preamble consisting of a Concatenation of divers mo­tives for enforcement of the Petition.

Secondly, The Prayer of the Petition it self.

The Motives are many, and of great weight.

You have in them,

First, a generall Proposition of those great mischiefs which the common experience of all ages, places, and Nations, teaches us do arise from the chief Officer of any Corporations being intrusted with a power distinct from, and superior to that of the commu­nity. 'Tis both the true characteristicall badge of slavery, and the chief fomenter of jealousies and contentions: For wheresoever 'tis so, there's alwayes a particular interest of the governing pow­er set up distinct from, and most what contrary to, that of the publike, then which nothing can be more destructive to the wel­fare of any Community: the truth of which Maxime we have had a feeling proof in the sad series of those evills which have lately sprung up in this Nation from the claime and exercise of this power by the chief Officer of Englands great Corporation: 'Twas that which had like first to have plung'd us into the depth of slavery, and did afterwards ingage us in a bloudy war, the ju­stice of which war can never be solidly maintained by the assert­ers of a Negative Voice. For my own part, this was to me the great convincing argument of the Scots apostasie from their first principles, and from the cause they were with using ag'd in, when I saw them in their Manifesto plead so openly for the upholding of this great branch, or rather stock, and bulk it self of the royall Prerogative.

2. You have for confirmation of this truth the judgment of the whole Representative of England, and those that have most cordially appear'd with them in this cause, especially of the now governing power, which hath always declared this power in the King of a most dangerous and destructive nature to the weale publike, and inconsistent with the Nations freedom: And the Ar­my in particular, when we were not yet attained to that wise and generous resolution of removing the Kingly Office as well as his Person, did in their grand Remonstrance propound it as a neces­sary caution for the securement of our Liberties, that whosoever should, upon the removall of the late King, be admitted, though but by election, to succeed him, should before his admission dis­avow all claim to a Negative Voice.

3. You have presented to your view a more particular decla­ration of this present Parliaments judgment in this point, in re­ference to a particular Corporation: Those evills which the [Page 10]whole Nation had formerly groan'd under, there was a criticall time when the City of London felt the same pangs of the same disease arising from the same fountain of corruption: the chief governour of that city exercising that power in his own Corpo­ration, which himself with others had declar'd and fought against in the supreme Officer of the Nation; wherupon this Parliament was pleas'd to remove that prerogative, and provide them this very way now petition'd for, of acting as a free Body in case of need, without the chief Officers concurrence.

4. The fourth motive humbly propounded to your conside­ration is the great mischiefs which have redounded to our small Corporation from the exercise of this arbitrary power by our chief Officer: But of this theme, because 'tis very large, and will need much interlacing of proofs and examination of Wit­nesses, I shall treat, if need be, in the last place.

5. The fifth, and that the most generally convincing motive of all, is from our locall Statute which I read to you, when I was here last before this Committee, which runs in these words.

‘Quia quod à pluribus quaeritur, faciliùs invenitur, et consu­lendo dicit Sapiens, Omnia cum consilio fac, & minimè poenitebit: statuimus injungendo, nè cùm ardua domus emerserint negotia, Ma­gister capitosè suae prudentiae imitatur, sed omnes Scholares convo­cet, & emersa [...]egotia exponat eisdem, & super illis quaerat consili­um singulorum, nedum seniorum, sed juvenum, cùm donet juniori Deus aliquoties quod non seniori: sed si in unam conveniant sen­tentiam, bene quidem sin autem, numero stetur majori, etiam & saniori.’

Here you see our Lawgiver expresly declares his will, that the Master shall not prefer his private wisdom before the wisdom of the whole or major part of the Society: and brands such proceed­ings of his with an imputation of headinesse and rashnesse: One­ly supposing the conscience of that Oath which the Master was to take at his admission would bee a sufficient tie to a strict performance of his will, thought it needlesse to establish his law by any penalty, or to point us out a way of acting without him, which is the defect we now desire a supply of.

In those times, when a pla [...]n, honest, and conscientious simpli­city bore sway in mens hearts, and wickednesse was not so inge­nious [Page 11]as it hath since proved in our times, a few rules sufficed to preserve righteousness and peace amongst men: The Laws were then (as the Mosaical Law) like those wide-window'd Nets our national Statutes prescribe for hindering the destruction of the young fry of fish: but afterwards the corruption of mans nature spinning out it self to such a subtilty as to find easie Evasion through those spacious grates, 'twas found necessary in every age to make an intertexture of new threds, and cross bars for the in­tangling of those subtiller Offenders: Now therefore this which is propounded unto you being of this nature, not purely a new Law, but only a new way laid down (agreeable to what the wis­dom of Parliament had prescrib'd in a parallel case) for the more sure and effectual execution of the old established Law of our Founder, ought in reason to find the easier admittance.

Only there is one Objection or two of some weight which I, must crave the patience of this honourable Assembly, to give me leave to discuss, for the fuller clearing of all doubts, which may perplex the question.

The first is, that our Founder where he saith the Master must numero stare majori, adds [etiam & saniori,] whence some may perhaps infer, that 'tis left to the Master to judg which is the sounder part, and so if he relinquish the major part, and follow their advice whom he judgeth the sounder part, he transgresseth not. But that this was an exposition far from our Lawgivers intention, I shall demonstrate by these Reasons.

First, It's apparent the Founder intended this Statute mainly as a provision against the Masters self-wisdom, upon which he saies, he shall not rely. Now therefore if the Master refuse the major, and adhere to the minor part, only because in his judgment the sounder, he does in effect rely upon his own prudence, which is the thing our Founder forbids.

Secondly, If the judgment of the sounder part be left to the Master, the word majori may as oft as he pleases be made a meer non-significant Cipher. If the Master propound a business to the whole number of Fellows, which is fourteen, & can get but two or three (then which nothing is more easie) to side with him, he may cal those few men the onl syound men of the Society, all the other eleven or twelve shall be esteemed as factions or frantick, because of their advice not suiting with his ends; and so that obscure [Page 12]word [sani [...]ri] shall, like one of Pharaohs lean Kine, swallow up the word majori, though fairer and better likin [...], into its insati­able stomack. So shall the Master contrary to the Founders will be made by his own estimate the Solus sapiens, and supream Lord. The fellows, they are flattered with a specious shew of liberty and co-partnership in the Government, but are indeed like meer School-boys (such would the King have made the whole Parlia­ment) called together to a posing, not voycing, in which they must either comply with the Masters will, or have their advice re­jected with scorn, and themselves dismissed with infamy, as crack­brain'd and unsound men.

Therefore this being an interpretation so full of contradiction and inconsistency both to the general current of this Statute, and particular, contexture of the sentence it self, the word saniori cannot be understood, but is either a meer word of formality, or to say the most, was added only as a Proviso, where 'twas impossible to determine which was the major part, as where the num­ber of Fellows on both sides was equally divided, that there the Master might encline to that part which he should judg the sounder.

But that by the word saniori is not meant at all a reference to the Masters judgment, but that 'twas rather a meer word of form affected by the solemn gravity of those times, will appear several ways, As,

First, From our eighteenth Statute, where our Founder, treat­ting of license to be given to two of our Fellows to travel, shuf­fles the Master and Fellows all into one pack, and says that they (the Master and Fellows, or the major and sounder part of them, shall have power to give this license. His words are these, ‘Nos principatitor hoc attente, dictis Magistre, & Scholuribus potosta­tem & licentiam impartimur: quod ipsi vel saltem major pars, & sanior corundem, si hoc Domini & Scholaribus expedire viderint, unum vol duos Scholares domûs hoc p [...]t [...]ntes, si ad hoc suo judicio fuerint habiles licentiare valeant.’

Here you see the Master is cleerly levell'd as one man with the rest of the Society: The expression runs not, as in some Statutes, Magister & maior ac sanior pars Scholarium, but maior & sanior pars Magistri & Scholarium, the greater and sounder part of the Master and Fellowes put together: so the Master being here made [Page 13]a party in the Scrutiny, is incapable of being a Judge in the same: and therefore in all probability the word saniori is, as I said, put in by the Founder only as a word of course, a meer synonima, an expression affected by the gravity of those times in which he lived.

And further, that this is no bare conjecture of mine, but ra­ther a truth evidenced with us by experience of all times, the first of all the University Statutes entituled De modo statuendi, which I have here copied out of the Proctors book, will make it very e­vident.

That De modo statuendi runs thus:

‘Authoritate totius Ʋniversitatis Cantabrigiensis tam Regen­tium quàm non Regentium, ordinatum est, quòd in statuendis rebus & negotiis utilitatem communem dictae Vniversitatis concernenti­bus solum illud pro Statuto habeatur, quod de consensu maioris & sanioris partis dictorum Regentium, & de consensu non Regentium fuerit decretum per Statutum.’

And I have here ready to produce, if need be, a sufficient number of presidents shewing the observation of this Statute in severall sanctions from time to time, all which bear the stile of the major and sounder part of Regents and Non-Regents: yet the con­stant tenour of our University proceedings witnesses that the ma­jor and sounder part were never look'd at as two distinct noti­ons, and left to the Vicechancellors and Proctors discretion to determine of; but that the major part was alwayes (and as I can prove by another Statute ought to be) adjudged the sounder, and whatsoever was decreed by the major number of voices, past al­wayes for an act of the University without exception. And for the truth of this assertion, I appeal not only to those of our So­ciety, men of great standing, here present, but to all that e­ver have long resided as Masters of Art in the University: yea and to Doctor Seaman himself, if he has seen so many Congre­gations as to make him a competent witnesse in this matter.

So the advantage of that expression for the assumption of a negative voice being now I hope cleary remov'd, I shall procced to the last objection urg'd, and chiefly relied upon by the Master, which is, that the University Statute allowes all Masters of Col­ledges a negative voice.

The Statute for your memories sake I shall again rehearse.

‘In omnibus & singulis electionibus tam Sociorum, Discipulorum, Scholarium, Officiariorum, Lectorum, reliquorum (que) membrorum cuiusque Collegii, quàm in omuibus & singulis locationibus, & concessionibus quibuscunque necessarsò requirendus est Magistri fi­ve Praepositi illius Collegii assensus & consensus.’

This is as much of the Statute as concerns the question in hand.

This Statute will, I know, to al that read it at first sight seem an Argument invincible.

But I shall notwithstanding orave leave to say somewhat in answer to it, not doubting but before I have done I shall make it appear as contemptible, as now it seems formidable. As,

1. First, That every Colledg being a distinct Corporation by it self, and Laws prescribed for its Government by him that found­ed or endowed it, it may well be questioned whether those Laws of any of them can be taken away or superseded by any general Statute of the University. And this I do the rather question, because the University hath in former Statutes shown it self very tender of the infringement of the particular Statutes of Customs of private Colledges; as appears by the last clause of a Statute de expulsis in ali a Collegium non recipiendis, which Statute though in it self most rational, and fit to have a binding power over all, yet did not the University think fit to pass it without this additional ‘Salvo, Ne (que) intendimus per praesens Statutum, Statutis, Constitutionibus, Compositionibus cateris (que) Colligiorum, in aliud derogdre: Nor is it our meaning by this present Statute to de­rogate ought from the Statutes, Constitutions, and other Com­positions of particular Colledges.’

Besides, it hath formerly been the declared Opinion of some of the wisest of our University, that the Vice-chancellor, who is our chief Officer in the Government of the University, cannot exercise his Jurisdiction within the walls of a private Colledg.

Now it seems irrational to think that the University Statutes should claim a Power paramount to the local Statutes of those places, where yet the chief Officer entrusted with the execution of those Laws that lay claim to this supremacy, can find no en­trance.

2. Our Colledg Statute is of a far ancienter standing then this University Statute; and therefore though this of the University seems to thwart it, yet being made without any clause of a non obstante, the Colledg Statute lies unrepealed, and therefore in full force, especially our Colledg Statutes being revis'd and con­firmed at the same time with the University Statutes, and by the same Visitors, as I shall, if it be thought needful, make it ap­pear.

3. This Statute is none of our ancient Statutes of the Univer­sity, but one of very late standing, no ancienter then the tenth year of Queen Elizabeths Raign, for in all our Statutes till that time (as I am well able to say, having lately searched the Proctors book to that purpose) there appears no footstep of it; nay not in the first new model of our Statutes which, was made primo Eli­zabethae. For our Reformers being then but newly come out of the furnace of the Marian persecution, were not yet mounted to that height of ambition: but about ten years after growing warmer and fatter in their great preferments, the Heads of Colledges did its likely upon plea, that our University-statutes were not e­nough refin'd from Popery, & that new Diseases stood in need of new Remedies, got a revivall of the commission granted formerly primo Elizabethae for another new modelling of them, in which though for pomps sake the Commissioners appointed for that work were some of them, as Cecil, Cook, and Haddon of the Queens privy Councel; yet the rest of them being Doctors of Law, Physick, and Divinity, and two of them Divinity Professors of the University, no man that is not blind, and knows not how little leisure those greater Statesmen had to labyrinth their brains with all the tedious anfractus of that Theory, but will say that the main Engines, and the very both prima & secunda mobilia in this last new Model were the Heads of Colledges alone; and they having now gotten this ample power into their own hands, did, together with the publick Reformation, cunningly interweave their own private advancement; and in purging us of Popery, did, like those Medicamenta maledicta, emunge the body of the University of some of their most essentiall and fundamentall pri­viledges;

As for example.

The choice of a Vice-Chancellor, which was before in the whole body of Regents, they got in this Reformation a Mono­poly of it to themselves, so as the body of the University hath only left them a bare superficies of election, but the substance they got into their own hands; for by this new Reformation, they got themselves the nomination of two, one of which the University is necessitated to elect, and if they doubted of him, whom they desir'd to have elected, 'twas but nominating some one distasted or contemn'd man for a stale, and then they were sure to carry it for such one of those two nominated, as they should think fittest.

2. Another great priviledge, whereof they depriv'd the Body of the University, was the interpretation of Statutes, which be­fore except in a few cases, was as well as the making of Statutes in the body of the University; but in this new Modell, the heads got a Monopoly of it intitely to themselves.

And if I mistake not that strange Statute of the Caput Senatus, consisting of the Vice-Chancellor, and five others chosen by the heads of Colledges, and the two Scrutators out of fifteen persons nominated by the Vice-Chancellor, and Proctors, and all this without the least advice or privity of either of the two Houses, and these five men entrusted, every one with more then a Nega­tive voice (for nothing, be it never so just or necessary to the com­mon good, or of particular persons, can be so much as propoun­ded to the Houses, till every single man of these hath given his positive consent) is of the same date. If but one of these deny, though giving no reason, the concurring voices of the Vice-Chancellor, and the other four are of no force, the motion is stiffed in the very cradle, a thing of not care practise among us; Now this Stature, if considered in its full latitude, will, I think, be found of no longer standing then that new model. Something there was of a like nature before, but if compared with this, will be found vastly different; For that had for its object onely tempus & formam, but this, Concessions of all natures: in that the nega­tive was in three, here in any one.

And lastly, to fill up the measure of their iniquity, they did like­wise as much as in them lay, defraud those Societies, where the Founders had inricht them with that unvaluable treasure, of their [Page 17]precious liberties; and with their spoyls, sacrific'd to their own ambition, made every Master of a Colledge and absolute Monarch, and the Societies their Vassals.

Thus miserably were the poor Fellows of Colledges deluded and oppressed; but to complain was no boot.

These mens potency at Court was such, and such was the re­verend esteem had of them there, that to have spoken ought in derogation of them, or their proceedings, would have been deem­ed blasphemy, but especialy for one of no higher condition, then a Fellow of a Colledge to have appear'd in publick in his Russet-Coat against these grand silken Rabbies, had been to have expos'd himself only to laughter or ruine.

But the Court-prerogative, the root of all these oppressions be­ing now dig'd up, these excrementitious branches will, I hope, be thought fit to be removed with it: besides nature teaches us, than each evill is best cured by its contrary: therefore it having been laid open clearly before you, how the Monarchs connivence at the fraud and corruption of its Representatives was the cause of this distemper'd mutation. We hope for cure from the vigilant sincerity of our true Republical-Magistrates, by the anulment, if need be, of that Statute, and restauration of each Colledge to at least that ancient wholesome Crasis of Liberty it was created in by its first Founder.

I speak not this to cast any the least prejudice upon that good work of Reformation in Religion, for which I cannot but say the Nation owes much thanks to the endeavours of all those Re­verend Divines, that were so happy instruments in it. But we see the experience of that proverbial sentence, Nullum magnum in­genium sine mixturâ insaniae. The best of men are but men. This whole World, and the heart of every man in it, is nought else but a Champaigne, where good and evill, light and darkness, contend for victory; and so where God hath his Church, the Devill will erect his Chappel as a Fort to lay battery against it. So in all Re­formations the greatest instruments in it will alwayes (if they be not by themselves, or others narrowly look't to) carry on some design of their own private, an attendant at least, if not corrivall to that of the publick. Besides we know how the people of God, [Page 18]who immediatly upon their deliverance from Pharaoh, and the Red-Sea, did nothing, but in humility of heart, worship and sing praises to God their Deliverer, were observ'd afterwards upon a little prosperity to have forgotten God; to have waxen fat and kick'd. And of our Reformers, about that Decade, it may justly be question'd. Whether thein zeal in preserving the Reformation begun, were more to be commended, or their ambition in obstru­cting its further progress and perfection to be condemn'd.

But above all I desire to be understood, not to intend any the least reflection of blame upon those reverend Gentlemen and Mi­nisters, the present Heads of Colledges in our University, for as they had no hand in procuring of those incroachments, so neither that I know of, have they ever made ill use of that power vvhich their Predecessors ambition had purchas'd to their hands: For though they have, by the last Statute I told you of, the full power of interpretation of Statutes within themselves, and there was a time, when they might have used it with applause, in that excel­lent interpretation of our University Oaths, whereby mens con­sciences, indanger'd to perjury upon every penal statute, were much eas'd, yet to my best remembrance, they did not assume to themselves, but yielded to the whole body of the University the honour of alleviating this grievance.

Nay this I must needs say, to the honour of all those Heads of other Colledges, except our own, that I conceive 'tis nothing but their honest and prudent carriage in their several charges, which is the cause that none of the University (none having the like particular cause of complaint) appear as yet in this cause to de­sire those provisions against Tyranny, petition'd for in our Col­ledge, For 'tis not evils in posse, though of the nearest probability, but those in esse that stir up the generality of men to the inventi­on of remedies. In other Colledges where the Masters have by statute or custome a negative voyce, yet they have chosen rather to wave sometimes their own, not interest onely, but judgment too, then make use of it, and in the very propositions of questions to be swayed by the publick reason of their Societies.

And if our Head had behav'd himself with the like candor and moderation in his trust you had not I think been troubled with these tedious disputes at this day: but our Head though, as you have heard, denyed a negative voice by our Law-giver, will yet usurp it, propounding onely what he pleases himself, and after the vote past, following his own, not the common prudence of the Society, as shall be amply proved (if need be) in its proper place. Besides, we ha­ving in the general course of this mans Government, observ'd no­thing of a publike Spirit, ayming at the common good, but rather a constant tenor of close dissimulation and greedy intentiveness upon all advantages of not onely holding fast in every punctillo, but ad­vancing still further, the grand interest of his power and profit; and that as far as humane wit could guess of mans heart by its fruits, the two great poles of his whole revolution were dominion and cove­tousness (of which upon many sinister dealings of his, there's not three men of all our Society that have been the constant observers of his College-tranfactions this seaven years but have at one time or other exprest their deep resentment) this is that has occasion'd this extraordinary petition for a just restraint of this exorbitancy of an assum'd power within those bounds our Law-givers wisdom had prescribed to it, with some concurrent helps for the surer execution of his declared will: "Ex malis moribus ortae sunt bonae leges. 'Tis the greatest glory of good magistrates, that they can, in imitati­on of him whose image they bear, bring forth good out of evil, light out of darkness; and like the Sun in the Firmament, produce good Laws out of an equivocal brood of corrupt manners.

These things I thought it convenient by way of diversion to sug­gest, not that the cause stands in need of it, but onely to open your eys, that you might see how this Antichristian mystery of the nega­tive voice began its working betimes, even neer the Apostolick dayes of Reformation.

For to the very letter of the Statute as it stands, I am not without a very satisfactory answer.

For it says not positively, that all Concessions, Elections, &c. shall be Null which want the Prefects consent; but that in all Elections, Concessions, &c. the Prefects consent is necessarily to be required. Now we know that that word is of the same nature with Postulo in Latin, and so implies rather that the Prefects consent is to be required [Page 20]of him de jure, as a right, then begg'd as an act of grace, as if the Societies consent without his Le Roy le veult were of no force.

And this answer in these times wherein all Statutes ought to be in­terpreted in favour of liberty, as they were formerly in favour of Pre­rogative, might alone suffice. But I shall add another of more convincing evidence; Which is this.

That granting the intent of this Statute was to make the Masters consent a necessary ingredient to the composition of each Election or Concession, &c. yet it absolves them not from that obliging power which lies upon them by any of their local Statutes to consent to what is advis'd by the major part of their Societies, but that by refusal of such consent they incur the guilt of perjury and breach of trust or such other penalty as their Founders providence hath allotted for the establishment of that Law; and therefore this obligation to consent remaining still in full force, supposes in the major part the Prefects consent legally involv'd and included.

As to compare the greater with our smaller controversies, the Kings consent was always suppos'd to be legally included in the major vote even of the most petit Tribunal much more of the grand Judicatory of the whole Nation, though never so much personally dissenting: which principle hath been always esteem'd one of the main pillars of our cause upon which alone we might lay the whole stress of not one­ly the justice and lawfulness but even legality of our war. But this man who no doubt hath more then once with our once-Brethren of Scotland voted the King a man of blood, and guilty of all the blood­shed of this war, for endeavouring but to assert this power to him­self (though far more favoured by the the standing Laws of the Kingdom at that time, then with us by our Statute) yet hath not scru­pled to do the same thing himself, both in his particular practice in the Colledge, and by his appearance here with all his interest and wit to maintain this prerogative.

But to return to the point.

This point having been fully clear'd up to you out of our local Statute, that our Master is bound to consent to the vote of the ma­jor part, that expression of the University-Statute will now I hope create no prejudice.

And this answer may likewise satisfie another argument for the negative voice, which may possibly be drawn from our Statute of Elections, which requires Consensum Magistri, & major is part is [Page 21]sociorum, and some others running in the same strain. For the true sence of that Statute de ardius being now fully clear'd, makes it ap­parent, that in the consent of the major part of the Society, the Ma­sters consent always is or ought to be included.

And now having I hope removed all doubts and objections, I shall now desire leave to speak a word to my sixth motive for granting my Petition, viz. the danger lest this root of corruption left among us, should hence spread it self again to infect the whole Nation. This I confess may seem at first sight but a meer flourish of Rhetorick, or far-fetcht strain of melancholy; but I shall make it appear, there's much of reality in the assertion.

'Tis an humour you all know the most of mankind are much inci­dent, to, to labour the promotion and propagation of the forms, opi­nions, and customes of those places where they live, especially where they have been train'd up in their younger years; and therefore it was the policy of the contrivers of our former Government (as know­ing that that Government could never be durable which had not its image stampt upon the peoples affections) to set up the image of that universal Government of the State in every petty combination of men. Hence as a reflected image of the then-present Government by King and Councel, King and Lords, or King and Parliament, was set up that Government of Corporations by Maior and Aldermen, Dean & Chapter, Master and Fellows; and in Corporations, Masters and War­dens of particular Companies; all which were nothing but the general frame of the State-Government contracted as to the matter onely into a narrower compass; and this was that that fixt the love of Monar­chy so fast in the affections of most Corporations, that had it not been that the King had displeased some of the greatest of them by hard im­positions upon them in way of their Trade, and withall let loose his Bishops to exercise their tyranny in trampling upon the faces of their reverenc'd Ministers, they had never been brought off to draw sword against their Prototype; and after they had done it, its observable how prone the great ones among them were often to defection, and how zealous in shewing their distaste at the removall of that great Idol; of all which the King was very sagaciously sensible in the be­ginning of these wars, when in a proposal of his to part with the Mi­litia upon some provisoes, yet would by no means consent to take the Militia's of Corporations out of their own hands: yet were not the Chiefs of those Corporations such perfect images of Monarchy, as [Page 22]ours, either for power, or durance; those were indeed but shadows of it; but ours, in regard of their continuance in trust during the term of their lives, were its living images, wanting nothing but an establish­ment of it in their posterity, which yet they bid fair for too, when in that new Elizabeth-Reformation wherein they did in a positive inhibition of Fellows from Marriage handsomely imply a leave in­dulg'd to themselves.

But it may be some will look at this Argument as a great Mallet lifted up to kill a Fly: Our Corporations you will say are small, and inconsiderable, a meer Synedrion of young Youths, or handfulls of poor contemplative men systeem'd up for Orders sake into the form of a Corporation; what good or ill can redound from these to the whole Nation?

But I shall easily make this appear to be a misprision, and that there will be more and greater danger from neglect to remedy this evil in our smaller bodies, then from the most populous City of the whole Nation.

For our Corporations, though but small in bulk, are like those grains of Mustard-seed our Saviour speaks of, of a vast, comprehen­sive, and multiplying capacity. The members of those great Corpo­rations are men it's true of abler purses, and stronger bodies for the present State-service; but their abilities are confin'd all within the narrow bounds of their own territory; but ours are Seminaries of able wits which are sent to us from all parts of the Nation, in the very nick of their first emersion from the slavery of the Ferula into a state of liberty, at the first putting on of their considering caps, they being as yet abrase tabula, smooth tables, prepar'd to receive of us those tinctures of good or bad principles; with which impressions stampt upon them, they afterwards spread themselves into every corner and quarter, to leaven the whole Nation. No man educated among us, but goes away instructed for some publike trust but is in capacity, to be an Abraham, a Father of many Nations.

Therefore it concerns you very-deeply, who desire not by arms on­ly, but by principles, to root up Regality, and mold the Nation into a true Commonwealth-frame, to pull down (by taking away its de­structive power) this image of it in those Fountains of Youths educa­tion, lest the youth of the Nation coming in their souls choicest preg­nancy to drink of our waters, enamour'd of that idoll, conceive and [Page 23]bring forth its Antitype, as heir male to their strongest affections and endeavors, to be promoted again to its lost inheritance, when time and opportunity shall serve.

And for the same reason does it deeply concern you to take spe­cial care of the Society of Colledges, and not give away Fellowships, being you see places, though of small profit yet of high trust to every begger that comes to you with a formal Certificate, much less to con­fer these high trusts upon Samaritans and meer slavish compliers, but especially to tender their precious liberties as the apple of your eye, to which nothing can be more inconsistent, then a negative voyce plac'd in any one man; for let any of the Society approve himself never so active and industrious in promoting the Colledge good, and with his utmost pains and skill train up his Pupils to the most eminent pro­ficiency in piety and learning, yet if he will not flatter, and fawn, crowch and cringe, and comply with this one great Monarch, even to a betraying of the common Freedome to his corrupt ends of pride or covetousness, he lives an unserviceable man, and all those edu­cated under his charge are put into an impossibility of ever attaining that preferment their deserts shall make them capable of. Though the whole community, or far greater part, judge them worthy of it, one mans non placet shall blast all: and how great a temptation this will be even to some not dis-ingenuous men (being not willing to expose those under their trust to contempt and beggery) to worship the Image of that great beast, I leave to your wisdoms to judge; as likewise, whether such an impression of slavery fixt upon the spirits of Fellows of Colledges be not like to impress its counterfeit upon those educated under their trust, and by their means upon the greatest part of the Nation.

Another motive giue me leave to present you with, which though omitted in my Petition is of great consequence, being drawn from the principles of universal reason, which will say that every parti­cular mans interest of the Society being every way equal to that of the Master, nay in some respects far greater, (for the Master is but one single person; but every Fellow having pupils under his charge, is a kind of Corporation by himself) 'tis a thing contrary to common sense that his one voyce should be laid in the balance to oversway the ma­jor part of the Society.

There was once a custome in some Corporations (of which our selves have yet in our Colledge some shadows left) that not the War­den [Page 24]or Master onely but every single man of the Society had a nega­tive voyce, which upon this very ground, as contrary to the common Law of the Land, i.e. to common Reason, was taken away by an Act of Parliament, 33. H. 8. onely I conceive in tenderness to the Pre­rogatives of Monarchy, much favour'd throughout the whole body of our Laws, the Statute was so pen'd, that the Maior, Master or Warden had his Negative left him; but now we have no Monarchy, whose priviledges we ought to be tender of, and there's every way the same reason, nay far more, for devesting the single Warden of his Ne­gative, then for taking it away from so many members conjunctive, as may amount to neer the half of the Society.

One word more I desire to add as an inforcement of my Petition, that of all Masters of Colledges in the Town, there's least reason the Master of our Colledge should claim to himself this grand Preroga­tive of a Negative voyce; for the whole burden of the Colledge-go­vernment hath for all these seven years layed wholly upon the shoul­ders of the President and Fellows.

The Master hath held his place now for about seven years, yet he hath never once that I know of resided among us for six weeks, nay not one moneth, seldome above a fortnight together at one time; hath seldome or never visited us, but either when he was necessitated to it, either to supply his course in the University-Church, or to audit our Accounts, and receive his money: All his short visits put together for this whole seven years, will not mount to one years continu­ance.

For which prodigious absence of his from his charge, all he can say is onely his being Benefic'd in London, or an Assembly-man, or that he hath been employed in Colledge-affairs.

Now for Colledge-affairs, in those we have, it's true, made some small use of his being at London, but never impow'red him to reside at London for that purpose; nor was there need; for nothing was ever done by him, which a common Solliciter for a small fee would not have performed as well, or better, especially being sufficiently furnisht with his instructions or Letters to Councel at Law, or such great men as were to have addresses made to them in cases of need.

And for his Benefice and Assembly-man-ship, there's no reason ei­ther of them should be a protection to save him from an Arrest for that debt of Residence he owes the Colledge, from whence he has had so considerable subsistence; for one of them being a place (by com­mon [Page 25]fame) of one, if not two hundred pounds a year, the other of four shillings a day, it seems not very reasonable, that one so against Pluralities, should enjoy the revenue of all three places, and bear the burden but of two. For he hath all this time of his discontinuance laid in a manner the whole burden of his Colledge-Office upon the Presidents back, not allowing him for his pains so much as one peny.

Besides, it may be answered that all the other Masters of Colledges, who yet were many of them Assembly-men as well as he, have been far more constant continuers at their respective charges, and have some of them as I think relinquish't considerable Benefices they were possest of otherwhere, that they might the more solely attend their charges at Cambridge: And I'm sure ours hath not wanted all the encouragement we could give him to enable him to it, having out of our common poverty conniv'd ever since our coming to the Colledge at his taking a double portion of our Dividend though neither allow­ed him by our Statute nor any constant President beyond the second year of Doctor Cosens his time.

Now that this man who is apparently of no use to the Colledge, whose servant he should be by the constitution, but resides at London afar off, making use of the Colledge onely as a prey, and his title onely as a hook to draw power and profit to himself, knowing little but by hearsay of the sufficiency or insufficiency, good or ill behavi­our of each member of the Colledge should be thought fit to have a power superior to the Society, who to their great charge reside up­on the place, and bear the whole burden, 'tis a thing beyond the comprehension of a vulgar understanding.

I have now done with all my motives.

As to the Prayer of the Petition: having so amply express'd my mind in it. I need not add much by way of Exposition or Apology.

Onely this: 'Tis not, as some may perhaps suggest, a fancie or new Model of my own brain, but 'tis a Model approv'd of in a parallel case by the reason of the whole Nations Representative. It concerns every mem­ber of this honourable Assembly more then my self to make it good; for 'tis nothing else from point to point, but a Series of such particu­lars as the wisdom of the whole Parliament judg'd necessary for the circumstantiating that freedom which the City of London were de­barr'd of thorough the like want of provision in their Law: change bu [...] the name of London for Peter-house, ten of their numerous [Page 26]Common-Councel for two of our seaven Seniors, and their [at any time] for our within 48 hours, and this draught will prove wholly the same with that Act of Parliament.

Nor could less have been well desired for taking away that hurtful Prerogative I dispute against, which is not the bare name of a nega­tive voice, but the substance, viz. that supremacy of power, which our chief Officer claims above the whole or major part of the Commu­nity, which is of a Complex nature, and consists of these three pow­ers, viz.

• Of calling of meetings.
• 2. Of proposing of questions.
• 3. Of acting the results of those meetings.

Any one of which three powers remaining in the chief Officer, makes him as absolute as if in­vested with all three; and therefore the Parliament saw well in the Ci­ty of Londons case, that for the removal of that great evil, an esta­blishment of all these particulars was of absolute necessity.

For to return to our former parallel, grant but to our once-chief Officer of State the sole power of calling Parliaments, and binding them up to those questions onely which he shall think fit to propose, hee'l not much desire or stand in need of a negative voice, seeing he is able by either of those two former powers, to crush in the egg any motion which he suspects may in the least infringe his prerogative, or other corruptions.

So in our lesser Commonwealth, though you should grant or de­clare in general terms that the Master shall have no negative voice, and leave him but this power (for want of provision to the contrary) that by delay of meetings when most necessary, or by making him­self judge of that necessity, or in those meetings by refusing such questions as he likes not, he can keep us from ever coming to a voicing, or if after voicing he may refuse or delay to act our determi­nations, and yet neither he liable to a sufficient penalty for any of those refusals, nor we through the defect in our Statute inabled to meet, debate, or act any thing without him, he is an absolute Monarch, and has a most firm possession of a negative in reality, however de­nyed him in words. And for this reason it was that I have been so bold in the prayer of my petitions to be so punctually particular.

Now if any man object that these things granted would be a cause of much tumult, and factious disorders in our Colledge: I answer; The experience of the same in the City of London shows the quite contrary, where 'tis apparent nothing but the sweetest streams of unity, freedom and peace have issued out of this fountain: [Page 27]For it lies onely as a dormant proviso, like the major excommunica­tio of the Presbytery, in terrorem, never like to be put into Act, ex­cept in cases of unheard-of obstinancie. Whereas on the contrary the want of this provision has been the original of all our divisions: nothing being the more natural fountain of contention amongst men or bodies politick, then the want of certain bounds assign'd to each man or bodies proprietie; which made the wise Law-giver Moses to denounce such a fearful curse upon the remover of Land-marks, and religious Numa to place Terminus the God of boundaries among his principal deities, and to erect him him a Temple, as I remember, next adjoyning to that of Concord.

As for the last clause, which concerns Masters and Presidents ab­sence, 'tis not onely almost the same with that in the Act for London, but was moreover a proviso fitted more especially to the present con­stitution of our Colledge, which hath oft: stood in great need of it, as I could instance in cases of Considerable consequence.

And besides that the making of some such provision is a thing most agreeable to our founders will, who says expresly that the Col­ledge should not defensore, & rectore carere, the thing I aym'd at in this proposal was the Presidents ease and the Colledges conve­nience: for as I told you before, the Master being almost a constant non-resident, and having power by Statute to make President whom he pleases (which president is charg'd with the whole burden of his office) it will oft happen that this President must either necessarily infer much prejudice in some affairs of his own requiring his presence otherwhere, or the Colledge suffer much detriment for want of power to act as a living body in cases of emergent need. For that our Colledge-debates should be packeted up to London to a man sitting there in his regalia, and looking at us afar oft, or that the life of our assemblies should be derived from the spirit sent from London in a cloth-bag, is a thing disagreeable to common equity, and a flat contradiction to our Founders declared will.

All I have to say further, is, that in this draught of my Petition, however displeasing to our Reverend Master, I have had no ayms at his prejudice further then was of absolute necessity to state our free­doms and vindicate them from his unjust usurpations. If I have here­in prejudic'd any, 'tis rather the Society, by allowing the Master so much as an affirmative voice, which some of us are of opinion that by our Statutes, if well understood, he cannot lay claim to. But be­ing desirous in this matter to walk in an indifferent way, giving each [Page 2]their reasonable due, and to follow close not mine own, but rather the publike wisdom of the Parliament for my pattern; I doubt not of finding from them an easie pardon of my error.

I have now done with the Petition.

There was one motive for its enforcement refer'd to the last place, which was by shewing how the Master of our Colledge for want of these provisions here petition'd for, had debar'd us of our manifest rights of treating in a Colledge-way about some affairs neerly con­cerning the common good, and of having our Resolves put into due execution: And how both particular members, and the whole Col­ledge had suffer'd much prejudice by those his usurpations, which be­cause I thought, he might possibly deny, 'twas for this cause chiefly, that I troubled these Gentlemen of our Society to make their appear­ance before you. These being they, who (except our President, and one of our Deans left at home for the necessary affairs of our Colledge) make up the whole number of those now resident, who having been present at all our former and later transactions, are best able to bear witness to those particulars I shall instance in.

Yet because I have I think already both overwearied your pati­ence, and laid before you reasons enough of far greater consequence for the enforcement of my Petition, my desire is that there may ra­ther be a perpetual Amnesty of all our forepast grievances, and that our liberties may be so setled for the future, as each part knowing their due bounds, a true Christian amity may be preserv'd among us, and this honourable Committee freed from further trouble. And therefore except this honourable Assembly, or our reverend Master for the Vindication of his own repute, shall impose that task upon me, I shall wave this Argument, and leave it to your wisdom to judge what has been already spoken.

Onely to his Argument for the negative voice in such particular cases wherein he is appointed to consult with the Deans onely, I can onely say, that 'twas not the prime Statute, but an interpretati­on of Statute made many years after by a single Bishop of Ely, which endowed the Master with this Prerogative. And it being besides against the principles of Common freedom that an Officer constituted for term of life should have this vast pre-eminence of two of the greatest Colledge-Officers annually Elected to their trusts I shall in this following Petition which I here present you with as an appen­dix to my former, crave the assistance of your authority for the solu­tion of this knot.

Resolved,

That a view be taken of the several Statutes of the Universities, and the Colledges and Halls therein respectively, to the end that they may be redu­ced to such a State as may render them most conducing to the advance­ment of true piety, and the interest of a Commonwealth.

Resolved,

That Mr. Rous, Mr. Martin, Mr. Moyle, Sir Hen. Mildmay, Mr. Oldsworth, Mr: Thomas Chaloner, Mr. James Chaloner, Mr. Palmer, Mr. R. Darley, Mr. Love, Mr. Nevill, be a Sub-Committee for this purpose, and that any three or more of them do meet and consider thereof, and make Report to this Com­mittee from time to time concerning the same, as there shall be cause: and the care of this business is especially referred to Mr. Oldsworth.

THe Parliament having resolved a thorow Reformation of the Universities, and the Committee appointed for that purpose in Order thereunto ha­ving taken the same into consideration, do hereby desire and require the re­spective Heads of Colledges, and those Fellows that are interested in the Government thereof for the time being, to send up to this Committee true transcripts of the Statutes of the said Colledges, examined and attested un­der their hands respectively; and they do specially recommend it to the care of the said Heads, Governours, and Officers, to consider what Statutes or any parties thereof are prejudicial to Religion, Learning, good Manners, or the present Government; and further, whether there be any defects in the same, and to propose their opinions concerning the supplying of the said defects; and that they give an account of the receipt hereof forthwith, and of their further proceedings concerning the same with all convenient speed.