bury and York and the bishops of London and Ely, they were of opinion that the statutes as drawn might stand, and no great cause to make any alteration, and blamed the younger men for seeking their pretended reformation by disordered means; and a letter1 was sent down from the 5 chancellor to that purpose. That Nicholas Shepherd was one of the leading heads in this matter I cannot say, his name does not appear in that proceeding; nor does he appear to have had a hand in the censure of Mr Cartwright, who having been fellow with 10 him in two several colleges, in point of decency he might keep away. But it is probable he was brought in with regard to the present juncture and to second the designs then on foot, wherein how he performed or what he was able to perform in a distempered society I am not able to 15 determine, there having been less said of this master than of any other since the foundation of the college. This I can only say, that the Geneva psalters were discontinued in his time, and the bishops' bible introduced as soon as it was printed an. 1572. As to any other further opinion 20 of him, he seems not to have been a man of great abilities, and from his never having been vice-chancellor, nor having commenced doctor when by his standing he might have done it, he seems not to have been much considered in the university. 25 There is a tradition in the college very disadvantageous to our master's character, that having got the keys of the several officers into his hands, he put the seal to some grants or leases for his own emolument, whereupon he was expelled the college. I am unwilling to credit this account, 30 but from a visitation held by the bishop of Ely in Mr Shepherd's last year, as well as from a grant signed by him and all the fellows in the same year, it seems there was some disorder in the college, and that more than usual care was made use of to prevent it. He was archdeacon of Northampton, to which dignity he was admitted about the year 1571', and one Nicholas 35 Shepheard, D.D. (an easy mistake for B.D.) having been a prebendary in the same church, viz. of Peterborough, about the same time, it is probable he might be the same man, though Mr Gunton's' account makes it doubtful. 5 Higher preferment, I suppose, he never attained to, especially if he left the college in so disgraceful a manner. 2 In the college he was admitted scholar for Sir Marmaduke Constable by the king's visitors July 4 an. 1549, was chose fellow an. 1553 and ejected the same year, and 10 therefore did not commence M.A. till the first year of queen Elizabeth, and was then one of the first preachers that was sent out for the university in that reign. That he or Richard Longworth were in exile is more than I know, though Dr M. says it of the latter. But if Mr Longworth 15 were one of that number, he does not appear in either catalogue of these confessors, though the Leavers, the Pilkingtons, etc. are ranked in that list. The truth of it is, he does not seem to have stirred beyond the walls of the house; for one of his name commences M.A. in queen Mary's 20 reign, and the same Mr Longworth commences B.D. an. 1563, which he could not have done, had he not been master under queen Mary. It may be said to Mr Shepperd's honour that he preferred men of learning, as appeared in his first choice of Hugh 25 Broughton the famous Hebrician, by his next election of Andrew Downes the noted Grecian, and after them of Everard Digby, John Palmer, etc. But Broughton, who did not use to stay long in a place, removed to Christ's, notwithstanding the kind and advantageous offers made him by 30 Mr Shepperd. succeeded in his archdeaconry by James Howland M.A. Nov. 12 an. 1587, and in his prebend by William Hills M. A. July 29, 1587, both preferments being then void by the death of Nicholas Shepard. So he died that year. Regr. Howland. In 1580 I find him concerned in an exercise at Stamford, not much to his honour, and is there distinguished by the title of archdeacon of Northampton, He (Nicholas Shep pard) was rector of Hartlebury co. Worcester, where he was probably buried 1587. See Mr Willis' Archd. of Northampton. [p. 514.] 1 Hist. Peterb. p. 91. 2 Nov. 14, 1561. Regr. acad. 5 2. Regr. coll. Broughton's Works, p. (360). JOHN STILL FOURTEENTH MASTER, ADMITTED JULY 21 AN. 1574. IF Mr Shepherd were a slug, his successor will compensate for his inactivity. This was John Still B.D. fellow of Christ's college, Margaret preacher in the year 15701 and Margaret professor the year after, and elected master of this college Jul. 14th, 1574. In the instrument2 of his 5 presentation to the vice-chancellor Dr Whitgift he is said to have been elected unanimi assensu et consensu majoris partis præsentium, that is in true English, he was not chose unanimously, having been chose only by a majority of those present, the rest being either absent or absenting 10 themselves. It should seem somewhat was not right, as well from the form of presentation as from the delay in his admission, usually the same day; whereas his presentation is not dated till two days after, nor was he admitted till a full 15 week after he was chosen master: unless this delay might proceed from the absence of the vice-chancellor, for the presentation is directed to him or his deputy: in the vice-chancellor himself there could be no stop, who must needs rejoice in having a sure friend brought in and a firm assistant 20 in all his proceedings. However the election was made, it was certainly a very good one, and they that were concerned in it could not have done better for the interest of the college. For this Mr Still, as he was an active man, so he was of unshaken 25 1 Regr. acad. 2 Thin Black Book, fol. 65. affection to the church, and being a bitter enemy to the nonconformists both upon principle and interest (for he had succeeded one Mr Aldridge deprived of a prebend of Westminster for nonconformity, as he had succeeded Mr Cart5 wright in the professorship here) seems to have been raised up to root out puritanism in St John's college, as some of his predecessors had been wholly employed in extirpating popery; which he would have effectually done, had his continuance been long enough amongst us. And this was 10 the true reason of the opposition he met with (not any such little partialities as have been generally imagined) for the which he was aspersed by the party, who having endeavoured to gain him by court and compliance, when he was not to be won that way, turned upon him by reproaches 15 and calumnies to his disadvantage. I will not deny but that there might be somewhat of north and south in this division, and that the master might favour the warmer clime, which was his own; but it was conformity and nonconformity that was at the bottom, and 20 the rest was chiefly noise and clamour. They that have grounded the controversy upon this other bottom have been doubly mistaken, first in supposing queen Elizabeth's statutes to have been given under this master, and secondly that it was these statutes that gave the mighty preference 25 to the south: whereas these statutes were not given till after he left the college, and the diminution of the northern privileges and the greater favour towards the south was brought in by the statutes' of Henry the Eighth. North and south were much the same as they were under that king, and the 30 great alteration that was made in these new statutes was by giving greater power to the master etc. in order to suppress the factious party. It was in the college as it had been in the university, where the body by abusing their privileges lost that liberty they had before enjoyed, and 35 occasioned the power to determine in the heads; and it was faction and nonconformity that was the like occasion in them both. Notwithstanding these factions and the limitations this 1 Inter archiva. master was under by the statutes of Henry the Eighth, yet he governed the college with constancy and resolution and with a steady hand, having prudence equal to his activity and a reputation for learning that set him above the calumnies of his enemies. Sir John Harrington1 (who does 5 not use to compliment in his characters) says of him that he was so great a disputer, that the learned'st were even affraid to dispute with him; and that finding his owne strength he could not stick to warne them in their Arguments to take heed to their answers; and likewise says that when 10 the great Dyet or meeting should have beene in Germany for composing matters in Religion, Doctor Still was chosen for Cambridge, and Doctor Humphrey for Oxford, to oppose all commers for the defence of the English church, than which nothing greater could be said. About the year 1581, when 15 Campian's book was published and made such a noise at its first appearing, and fit men were sought out by the bishop of London', etc. to draw up an answer, Dr Still and Dr Fulke were two of the first men that were thought of. In the economics of the college he was frugal and pro- 20 vident and a good manager of the revenues of the house, particularly the rent-corn, which in his time passed into an act in the 18th of queen Eliz., an. 1575. He put that act into a course and method and improved it to the best advantage. From a memorandum entered upon the 25 books I will just say enough to explain that act, of so much advantage to the university and in a manner a second additional endowment to every college. Danthorpe in Holderness was the first estate that was thus rented out in corn in this college, Novembr. 3 an. Eliz. 30 18, and this memorandum entered upon the book: Memorand.: That the old rent of this lease was £3. 6s. 8d., the which rent is now altered by reason of a statute made an. 18 Eliz., by virtue whereof the third part of the rent at the least is to be paid in corn, after the rate of 6s. 8d. for a quarter 35 of wheat and 5s. for a quarter of malt, as by the said statute 1 Supply to Dr. Goodwin's Catalogue, p. 118. "Life of Bp. Aylmer, p. 50. 3 Stat. Eliz. 18, cap. 6. 4 Black Book, fol. 73. |