Corporations Vindicated, Statute 4 – Title page
STAT. 9. Of the Master being sick, or weak.
BUt if the aforesaid Master shall have behav'd himself well and laudably in his administration, and providently persever'd in the same, and is afterwards without his own fault, so broken, or otherwise made impotent and weak, by Old-age or labours, that he cannot sufficiently attend as he ought to the regiment and care of his said administration: Then from that time forward, when this shall notoriously appear, or by other lawful means become known, let one of the Fellows be made Master to succeed into his place by authority of this constitution. And to the remov'd Master still residing in the aforesaid Colledge, let there be allow'd according to the Houses ability a competent and decent maintenance among the Fellows of best rank and Seniority to the end of his life. But he shall therefore be bound while he lives to help on all the Colledge-affairs with his best councels, as if they were his own, and shall further, not spare to promote them even wi…h his bodily labour in such opportune helps as his strength will permit.
Out of these Statutes we may make divers considerable collections;
1. That were the Mastership of our Colledge reduc't to its original constitution: and its usurpations, the negative Voice, and double Dividend taken away, a Statutable residence firmly enjoyn'd, and he made in some easier way responsible for his miscarriages (for our Visitor with full power of Oyer and Terminer, should come to us, not we to him) it would then be justly said of this Office,
Qui quaerit Episcopatum quaerit opus, [not opes] There would then be nothing of temptation to any man, either ambition or covetousness, to make it desirable by self seeking men. 'Twould be, as all other Offices in our Colledge (which are annually elective) rather studiously avoided then contended for.
2. See how tender, even in those we call Times of Ignorance, Slavery, Superstition our Founders were of the welfare of a Community above that of a private man. As soon as ever a man, though not through his own fault, appears unserviceable to the Community in his station, he is presently to be remov'd, and a serviceable man plac'd in his stead.
3. You may hence gather, That the Mastership of our Colledge was not intended as a Commenda, or Augmentation to a London Ministers Parsonage: and how flatly 'tis against our Founders intention, that one or two men residing upon the place should bear the burthens of the Mastership, and another living at distance, and employed in another charge, should bear the title, and reap the profit due to that service; but that he who supplies the charge is to possess entirely all the profits and priviledges of the place. But Doctor Seaman, hath, as I said in my Book, not resided at all, but onelyonly made a few short visits upon some urgencies; all which will not amount to one of the whole seven years of his enjoyment of that Mastership; during which time he hath laid near the whole burthen of his Office upon a Presidents shoulders, not allowing him one penny for his labour. Nay, hath not only swept away all the profits due to the Executor of that charge, but takes without any warrant of Statute, a double portion (which Doctor Wren did not) upon this only plea, that Doctor Cosins did the same; All which considered, he ought either forthwith to come down, and be resident upon his trust; or be remov'd from his Office, and another chosen to supply the place.
Its true, our Statute enables him in case of long absence to chuse a President; but the whole current of these Statutes is a clear demonstration, that 'tis upon supposition, his absence is with consent, upon Colledge affairs, not his own emolument.
If he will still plead his Assemblymanship; the main business of that place being now at an end, and there sitting but once a week a few of them for small dispatches, for which there are London Ministers enow wi…hout him; it must needs be thought by all men a depth of fraud for him to make use of that title to elude both our Founders Will, and the Parliaments intention in exemption of Ministers from their other charges during their attendance upon that employment.
4. You see by our Statute of Amotion, that even where the Masters removal hath been for simple negligence, want of skill, simplicity; and thereupon he will lay claim, at least to his subsistence among the Senior Fellows; yet 'tis in Domo praedicta, not extra Domum; in, not out of the Colledge-Precincts: besides, it must be upon plea of his making amends in learning for his failings in point of activity and prudence: But we have in that point found him most of all deficient; for though his Office not very many years before he attain'd this preferment, was (as we hear) a Country Pedagogue, yet has he not attain'd so much skill in the Latin tongue as to be able rightly to pronounce our Statutes: 'Thas been a common Observation, That when some passages were to be read in publike, he would upon pretext of quereing upon the sense, get some one or other of us privately to pronounce those places before him; and that when he hath adventured without this help, he hath most grossly faltered; nay, though he has since a little mended his skil by his study of the Porta Linguarum; yet has he, to the eternal disgrace of our Colledge, left such a miserable piece of Latine upon publike Record in one of our Colledge Rowls, as Posterity imagining it could not be written there without the Auditors consent, will brand us for strange Dunces, 'Tis this.
Solutiones pro fabricis Collegii non computantur hoc anno ratione dubiorum & exceptionum ex parte sociorum, A QƲIBƲS DEMANDATAE FƲERƲNT per Magistrum.
This his Latine is as hard for me (without Ignoramus his skill) to translate, as our Colledge Statutes are for him to pronounce; yet because his Dulman is not here to help me, Ile use my best endeavor to give you his sence; which if not non sence, must be as follows.
The payments for the Colledge fabricks are not computed this year, by reason of some doubts and exceptions on the part of the Fellows OF WHOM THEY WERE DEMANDED by the Master.
The occasion of the Masters leaving upon Record this famous sentence, is a story too long now to be related. All I will say at present of that matter, is,
That this writing of his pleasure in our publike Records, without our common consent, is a thing (I shall make appear) may prove of mischievous consequence, & must inter alia, be one day laid to his charge; Mean while let him be think himself.
WE whose names are underwritten, being Senior Fellows of Peter-House in Cambridge, have seriously perused the Book, Entituled The Petition and Argument of Mr. Hotham, &c. And do testifie that his Narrative of Colledge Transactions therein related, is, as we conceive, faithful and agreeable to Truth. And further, that for such other expressions as he hath there used concerning the Master of our Colledge, his behaviour in his Office; we have found by our constant observation of the same for many years, that there was good grounds for Mr. Hotham so to express himself. In witness whereof we have hereunto set our Hands this 17. of July 1651.
Senior Fellows.
Robert Quarles.
James Clark.
Francis Brook.
Edward Sammes.
Charles Mildmay.
Jun. Dec.
THE PETITION AND ARGUMENT OF Mr. Hotham, Fellow of Peter-House in Cambridge, before the Committee for Reformation of the Universities, April 10. 1651.
Against the Masters Negative Voice of that Colledge, and for a remedy to be granted the Colledge against the usurpations of Doctor Seaman the present Master, agreeable to what was granted by Parliament to the City of London, An. Dom. 1648. for the better enabling them, in case of need, to act as a free Body, without their chief Officers concurrence.
Printed in the Year, 1651.