NOTE C.

ON ANTHONY WOOD'S CLAIM OF ROTHERHAM

AN OXONIAN.

AS

The grounds of Wood's claim are, that, when Rotherham was granted his degree of D.D. at Oxford, after having taken it at Cambridge, he had to preach three sermons, and to pay Twenty Pounds on the day of his inception, whereas Strangers were treated in a very different manner, and not subjected to such hard conditions; further also, that in a volume of letters from the University of Oxford there was one to a Bishop of Lincoln, who according to time must have been Rotherham; and that it was not the custom of the University to address letters of this congratulatory order to any but those who had been their former members. Wood's choler had been excited by a phrase of Richard Croke, the Public Orator of Cambridge, who after mentioning certain instances of migration had called Oxford "a Colony of Cambridge "; and he deals with Rotherham in the course of his vindication.*

* Pro comperto . . . . est nullam consimilis argumenti epistolam reperiri in Codicibus nostræ quæ ad Antistitem data fuerit, qui academiæ hujus alumnus aliquando non fuerat Thomas Rotherham, qui Collegii Lincolnensis alter Fundatorum fuit (id quod plus quam probabile facit altricem Agnovisse Oxoniam) non alia nobiscum conditione donatus est (Theologiæ Doctoratu) quam

ut concionem prius examinatoriam, ac deinde alias binas haberet : in die etiam Inceptionis libras viginti, vice epularum, numeraret: cum peregrinos tamen et ab Athenis nostris mere alienos louge aliter tractare soleamus, quos legibus tam duris hand quaqum interpositis eodem apud nos loco esse jubemus quo apud suos versantur. (Wood's "History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford," lib. 1, p. 243). Wood also claims him in "Athenae Oxonienses," and adds, “In an old book of Epistles, written by the University of Oxford to great personages, is an epistle written to the Bishop of Lincoln: and he that then sat there must according to time be the said Rotheram." In which epistle are certain circumstances that show that he had sometime studied in the said University, and besides, the members thereof did seldom or never write epistles to any except such who had originally been students among them." (Wood's "Athenæ Oxonienses Ed.," 1813, Vol. II., p. 683.) I am indebted for the discovery of the letter in the University Archives (F. p. 254) to Mr. Ellis, the Latin Professor, and Mr. E. C. Sherwood, of Magdalene Coll., Oxford.

L

Cole in his MS. "Life of Rotherham," takes up the cudgels against Wood's audacity. The argument from the fees and examination demanded before the grant of the Doctor's degree he does not deal with, but in regard to the letter he writes: "As to these circumstances in the epistle, showing him to be of any other University but Cambridge, it would have been satisfactory to have produced them; till which time we shall beg leave to claim him wholly as our own; and as to that University writing to him when Bishop of Lincoln, I can see no impropriety, even though they wrote epistles to their own members, why that or any other University should not write complimentary epistles to their own diocesan; Oxford then standing in the diocese of Lincoln. Mr. Baker, in a note of this place from Mr. Wood, seems to think it probable that he might have been of that University, in the same manner as some of Cardinal Wolsey's first scholars were fetched from Cambridge to his first foundation at Christ Church: yet I think Mr. Baker did not know the age, nor the circumstances .... or he would not so readily have assented to such larceny."

It runs:

'Quinto decimo die decembris sigillata erat litera domino episcopo Lincolnensi sub forma quæ sequitur.

"Cum egregios homines clarosque reverendissime pater peramplis potiri honoribus contuemur non parum nobis iocunditatis (sic) afferri solet tum vero nil maxime non iniuria si quando eorum quempiam in apice positum uidemus, quos nostra quidem Universitas peperit fovit, educavit. Quod in te ante ceteros iocumdissime conspicimus. Nam ex olim filio mira dei prouidentia gratissimus nobis pater efficeris. Non modo te patrem verum eciam et gratissimum patrem fateri non ambigimus. Quantum tibi hac nostra ut aiunt etate ferrea Studii iactura dolori fuerit ab his qui te hoc damnum sepe plangentem conspexere satis accepimus maxime vero quod grammatica quam reliquarum scientiarum radicem esse constat tanquam in exilio posita regno e nostro abierit deflere solebas. Huic tam gravi periculo remedium saepe et multum uti nuper didicimus ferre tecum ipse cogitasti: merito quippe iocundari debemus quod ea quidem res quæ principibus habetur neglectu a tanti patris corde non abscesserit: hoc utique tam pium tam sanctumque propositum quod a deo seminatum certissimi sumus eo quidem iuvante amplissimos parire fundus indubie expectamus: siquid igitur tibi optime pater quod certe parum existimus (sic) prodesse arbitreris paratissimos homines id demum quod in nostra eistit (sic) potestate pollicemur deum nos pro tua paternitate perpetuo exoraturos."-Vale.