n John Hough, a man
of eminent virtue and prudence, who, having borne persecution with
fortitude and prosperity with meekness, having risen to high honours and
having modestly declined honours higher still, died in extreme old
age yet in full vigour of mind, more than fifty-six years after this
eventful day.

The society hastened to acquaint the King with the circumstances which
had made it necessary to elect a President without further delay, and
requested the Duke of Ormond, as patron of the whole University, and the
Bishop of Winchester, as visitor of Magdalene College, to undertake the
office of intercessors: but the King was far too angry and too dull to
listen to explanations.

Early in June the Fellows were cited to appear before the High
Commission at Whitehall. Five of them, deputed by the rest, obeyed the
summons. Jeffreys treated them after his usual fashion. When one of
them, a grave Doctor named Fairfax, hinted some doubt as to the validity
of the Commission, the Chancellor began to roar like a wild beast. "Who
is this man? What commission has he to be impudent here? Seize him. Put
him into a dark room. What does he do without a keeper? He is under
my care as a lunatic. I wonder that nobody has applied to me for the
custody of him." But when this storm had spent its force, and the
depositions concerning the moral character of the King's nominee had
been read, none of the Commissioners had the front to pronounce that
such a man could properly be made the head of a great college. Obadiah
Walker and the other Oxonian Papists who were in attendance to support
their proselyte were utterly confounded. The Commission pronounced
Hough's election void, and suspended Fairfax from his fellowship: but
about Farmer no more was said; and, in the month of August, arrived a
royal letter recommending Parker, Bishop of Oxford, to the Fellows.

Parker was not an avowed Papist. Still there was an objection to him
which, even if the presidency had been vacant, would have been decisive:
for he had never been a Fellow of either New College or Magdalene. But
the presidency was not vacant: Hough had been duly elected; and all the
members of the college were bound by oath to support him in his office.
They therefore, with many expressions of loyalty and concern, excused
themselves from complying with the King's mandate.

While Oxford was thus opposing a firm resistance to tyranny, a stand not
less resolute was made in another qu