tholic in the presidential chair of Magdalen College, one of the
richest and most venerable of the University of Oxford, against even
the friendly remonstrances of his best friends, even of his Catholic
counsellors, and not only against the advice of his friends, but
against all the laws of the land and of the rights of the University;
for the proposed president, Farmer, was a Catholic, and was not a
fellow of the college, and therefore especially disqualified. He was
also a man of depraved morals. The fellows refused to elect Farmer,
and chose John Hough instead. They were accordingly cited to the
infamous court of which Jeffreys was the presiding and controlling
genius. Their election was set aside, but Farmer was not confirmed,
being too vile even for Jeffreys to sustain.

[Sidenote: Quarrel with the Universities.]

The king was exceedingly enraged at the opposition he received from
the University. He resolved to visit it. On his arrival, he summoned
the fellows of Magdalen College, and commanded them to obey him in the
matter of a president. They still held out in opposition, and the
king, mortified and enraged, quitted Oxford to resort to bolder
measures. A special commission was instituted. Hough was forcibly
ejected, and the Bishop of Oxford installed, against the voice of all
the fellows but two. But the blinded king was not yet content. The
fellows were expelled from the University by a royal edict, and the
high commissioner pronounced the ejected fellows incapable of ever
holding any church preferment.

But these severities were blunders, and produced a different effect
from what was anticipated. The nation was indignant; the Universities
lost all reverence; the clergy, in a body, were alienated; and the
whole aristocracy were filled with defiance.

[Sidenote: Magdalen College.]

But the king, nevertheless, for a time, prevailed against all
opposition; and, now that the fellows of Magdalen College were
expelled, he turned it into a Popish seminary, admitted in one day
twelve Roman Catholics as fellows, and appointed a Roman Catholic
bishop to preside over them. This last insult was felt to the
extremities of the kingdom; and bitter resentment took the place of
former loyalty. James was now regarded, by his old friends even, as a
tyrant, and as a man destined to destruction. And, indeed, he seemed
like one completely infatuated, bent on the ruin of that church which
even James I. and the other Stuart king