d not endear the College to the parliamentary party.
Oliver Cromwell surrounded the College, took Dr. Beale a prisoner, and,
to equalise matters, confiscated the communion plate and other
valuables.

Beale, after some imprisonment and wandering, escaped from England and
became chaplain to Lord Cottington and Sir Edward Hyde (afterwards Lord
Clarendon) in their embassy to Spain; he died at Madrid, and was there
secretly buried. A number of the Fellows were also ejected, and for
some time the College was used as a prison. The Chapel was stripped of
the obnoxious ornaments, and other damage done. A little bundle of
papers labelled "Receipts for Army taxes during the Commonwealth" still
reposes, as a memento of these days, in the Muniment Room.

St. John's, which dabbled in Presbyterian doctrines during the days of
Elizabeth, now had these imposed upon it by superior authority. The two
Commonwealth Masters, John Arrowsmith (1644-1653) and Anthony Tuckney
(1653-1661), were able men of Puritan austerity, the rule of the latter
being the more strict; judging from the after careers of its members,
the College was certainly capably directed. A well-authenticated College
tradition relates that when, at an election, the President called upon
the Master to have regard to the "godly," Tuckney replied that no one
showed greater regard for the truly godly than himself, but that he was
determined to choose none but scholars; adding, with practical wisdom,
"They may deceive me in their godliness; they cannot in their
scholarship."

On the Restoration, Dr. Peter Gunning, afterwards Bishop of Ely, was
made Master; and the Earl of Manchester, who, as an officer of the
Parliament, was the means of ejecting many of the Fellows, now directed
that some of them should be restored to their places. An interesting
College custom dates from this period: on the 29th of May in each year
the College butler decorates the Hall and Kitchen with fresh oak boughs;
there is no order to that effect, but--"it has always been done."

[Illustration: THE COLLEGE ARMS]

The rest of this century of the College existence, with the exception of
one exciting event, passed quietly enough. Such troubles as there were
in College were but eddies of the storms in the world outside. Of the
"seven Bishops" sent to the Tower by King James II. in 1688, three were
of St. John's: Francis Turner, Bishop of Ely (who had been Master of the
College from 1670 to 1679); John Lak