5

must be hardship on the one hand or the other: and if it lies on the bishop's side, the king surely has not said enough, for then the bishop's statutes did not only de justa rerum descriptione paululum deflectere.

One thing was omitted in these statutes mentioned in the former; the bond was left out, given by the fellows at their admission, not to accept dispensation with their oath or statutes, which might usefully have been retained, might it not have been thought a limiting the king's supremacy, 10 though it was no more than what had been formerly done. for the pope's. And one other thing is added, that might have been omitted, for it comes in very oddly'; there was to be every year a lord at Christmas, whose duty is there prescribed at large, which gave occasion to such an abuse 15 as could never be regulated, till it was at last wholly laid aside. The bishop of Ely was continued visitor, under such limitations as the king by his supreme power could more unquestionably and more effectually put upon him.

But I have enlarged too much upon these statutes, 20 which are now of no force, and indeed of no use in discovering the foundress' intention, which may be had better from the old statutes. At the close of these statutes is added the name of P. or W. Lylly, which has given occasion to a certain person to suppose them to have been 25 penned by W. Lylly the famous grammarian, who had been dead twenty years before, and this W. Lilly, whoever he was, had probably no other hand in them than as a scribe in copying them over.

It might have been expected that these statutes would 30 have given peace to the college, as was intended, and pro

bably so they might, had they observed somewhat more of temper, and had not turned the bias too much the other way but whilst the men were the same, and the statutes so very opposite to the temper of those that were to be 35 governed by them, they rather provoked new heats than any ways allayed the old ones, and the divisions broke out again so outrageously, that Dr Tayler the very next year was obliged to abdicate the government. Mr Parker" says

1 Tit. de lud. venat. et aucup.
3 Σκελ. Cantabr.

2 MS. D. M.

he was ejected, but, as he mistakes the time, so, I suppose, he is mistaken in the thing. It was only an involuntary resignation, or abdication. For the same form of words, that was made use of1 upon the books for Dr Metcalf, does afterwards serve for Dr Tayler, the date and names being 5 only altered.

There is a letter from him some years before to Dr Butts, wherein he offers, that if the king would please to bestow on him some prebend3 towards the maintenance of his house at Lincoln (being then dean), he would imme- 10 diately resign his mastership to be disposed of by the king, (which was no large compliment, if the king had known how weary he was of that preferment), and adds some other reasons, which for his honour and with regard to his memory I shall conceal: he did not resign till under the 15 succeeding king, though very early in that reign; and though the court had then another man in view, yet that he had any compensation then made him, I cannot say; for he was not promoted to the see of Lincoln till the latter end of that reign.

20

He was of Queens' college', where he was elected fellow about the year 1524, having commenced B.A. the year before, together with Matthew Parker afterwards archbishop of Canterbury and one of the Ridleys, probably he that was afterwards bishop of London, two very 25 bright and shining ornaments of the university. In the year 1532-3 he was chose one of the proctors, which being a year of action and business gave him opportunities of making himself known. By the king's favour he became rector of St Peter's' Cornhill London, and dean of 30

1 Liber rub.

2 Archiv. coll.

3 Prebend. of Coringham 1548. B. W.

4 He had the prebend of Coringham, in the church of Lincoln, in which he was installed Mar. 16, 1548, upon the resignation of Thomas Mag

nus.

5 MS. Tenison.

6 Regr. acad.

7 He was presented to St Peter's

8

by Dr William Butts the king's physician and favourite; instituted there Apr. 14, 1536.

8 Dean of Lincoln an. 1538, not, as has been commonly supposed, 1548; collated to the prebend of Bedford Min. Feb. 3, 1539; which, I presume, he resigned, if he were the same John Tayler; I know of no other of both his names, that was then S.T.P., as he is then styled.

Lincoln, and held a small prebend as dean of that church, as he says in his letter to Dr Butts, where he owns all his preferments to the king's bounty, and says, he looked for nothing of the gift of any of the bishops. But he was after5 wards bishop of Lincoln, and was scarce warm in that see, when by queen Mary's accession to the throne he suffered a second ejectment, and prevented further sufferings by a timely death. Somewhat he left the college by will, the particular sum does not very clearly appear1; more than 10 that £6. 13s. 4d. was received as the bequest of Dr Tayler bishop of Lincoln, but as the sum was small, so it was slowly paid; for it was not received till the year 1566.

He was esteemed a good man and a good divine, but was not the best master; for either through his too much 15 indulgence to his servants and relations or through his too eager pursuit of preferment having ventured upon some irregular steps, he has not left the most unspotted character2 in the college. I have often wondered how his private letters3 came into the college treasury, whether they were trumped 20 up against him at the visitation, or whether being well wrote he had kept copies, or what other way, I shall not determine; but it had been better for him they had been burnt.

1 Liber thesaurar.

2 Black Book, fol. 204, 5, 8.

3 Letters inter archiva.

WILLIAM BILL SIXTH MASTER,

ADMITTED MAR. 10TH AN. 1546.

THE man in view at court to succeed Dr Tayler was William Bill, a friend of Mr Cheke preceptor and Thomas Bill Esq. physician to the king, so that having two such powerful advocates he could not want the recommendation of the court. The protector's letters were sent down in his 5 favour, and though Mr Bill were then a very young man, not full two years standing bachelor of divinity, yet he was unanimously chose and admitted master' March 10th an. 1546, and the college choice signified to the protector2 in a letter dated the same day.

ΙΟ

He came in at a very nice juncture, at the same period with the reformation which he heartily favoured, which though a happy period for the nation, yet was not so easy for those that were concerned in it, especially if young and unexperienced in business. The state of things was va- 15 riously perplexed; two sorts of men chiefly and two sorts of difficulties he had to contend with, blindness on the one hand and overmuch zeal on the other: the warm reformers, and Mr Thomas Leaver at the head of them, were so full of the goodness of the design, that they could bear no 20 delays, but were for running before authority; Dr Madew the vice-chancellor, a very prudent man (for he is styled vir discretus upon the register of his admission as fellow) and very hearty for the reformation, was too slow for their zeal, and the master, not being able, or willing to keep 25 pace with them, kept out of the way; they were imme

diately for having the controversies of religion disputed openly in the chapel, and if the vice-chancellor would have given way, they would have brought them into the public schools: after they had overthrown the mass in their dis5 putations, because the host was not removed, the pix that hung over the altar was cut down by a private hand, which cost them some apology with the archbishop, to whom Mr Leaver was sent up to excuse the thing. A full account whereof may be had in some of Mr Ascham's epistles, 10 particularly in one lately published in Mr Strype1, only there is a mistake in the date: for bishop Day being mentioned in that epistle as then provost of King's college, and Dr Madew as vice-chancellor, which neither of them were in any part of the year 1548, it must be placed a year 15 sooner and before October 2nd that year, when bishop Day resigned his provostship. And probably the same controversy was one reason of his resignation2, which was carried on with equal warmth in that college by the fellows there against his consent.

20

From one of Mr Ascham's epistles (who was engaged in the same controversy with these warm men, though not with the same zeal, for he was no zealot in religion, as he shewed in the following reign), it appears that the master was very weary of these contentions and shewed an incli25 nation to resign his mastership. But the reformation getting ground, having then obtained the countenance and protection of the government, he struck in with the reforming party, when the thing was become regular as well as good, and in 1548 being chose vice-chancellor, was very forward 30 in promoting the reformation.

In 1549, being yet vice-chancellor, the university was visited by the king's commissioners, the bishops of Ely and Rochester, Sir William Paget and Sir Thomas Smith knights, John Cheke the king's preceptor, William Mey 35 LL.D. dean of Paul's, and Tho. Wendey M.D. the king's physician; and then those controversies, that had been so eagerly debated by private men, were openly disputed by the king's authority, and Dr Madew, who as vice-chancellor

1 Memorial. [Cranm. Append.] N. 37.

Haddon, Epist. Geo. Deio, p.169.

3 Magistro col. D. Jo.