e, made a solemn
profession of passive obedience; and the court, probably, expected that
they would show their sincerity when their turn came to practise that
doctrine; which, though, if carried to the utmost extent it be contrary
both to reason and to nature, is apt to meet with the more effectual
opposition from the latter principle. The president of Magdalen College,
one of the richest foundations in Europe, dying about this time, a
mandate was sent in favor of Farmer, a new convert, but one who, besides
his being a Catholic, had not in other respects the qualifications
required by the statutes for enjoying that office. The fellows of the
college made submissive applications to the king for recalling his
mandate; but before they received an answer, the day came on which, by
their statutes, they were obliged to proceed to an election. They
chose Dr. Hough, a man of virtue, as well as of the firmness and vigor
requisite for maintaining his own rights and those of the university.
In order to punish the college for this contumacy, as it was called, an
inferior ecclesiastical commission was sent down, and the new president
and the fellows were cited before it. So little regard had been paid to
any consideration besides religion, that Farmer, on inquiry, was found
guilty of the lowest and most scandalous vices; insomuch that even the
ecclesiastical commissioners were ashamed to insist on his election. A
new mandate, therefore, was issued in favor of Parker, lately created
bishop of Oxford, a man of a prostitute character, but who, like Farmer,
atoned for all his vices by his avowed willingness to embrace the
Catholic religion. The college represented, that all presidents had ever
been appointed by election and there were few instances of the king's
interposing by his recommendation in favor of any candidate: that,
having already made a regular election of a president, they could not
deprive him of his office, and, during his lifetime, substitute any
other in his place: that, even if there were a vacancy, Parker, by the
statutes of their founder, could not be chosen: that they had all of
them bound themselves by oath to observe these statutes, and never on
any account to accept of a dispensation and that the college had at all
times so much distinguished itself by its loyalty, that nothing but the
most invincible necessity could now oblige them to oppose his majesty's
inclinations. All these reasons availed them nothing. The