OF THOMAS HEARNE Suum cuique VOL. V (DEC. 1, 1714–DEC. 31, 1716) EDITED BY D. W. RANNIE, M.A. ORIEL COLLege, oxford Oxford PRINTED FOR THE OXFORD HISTORICAL SOCIETY AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1901 [All rights reserved] PREFACE T does not seem necessary to say much by way of preface to this fifth volume of Hearne. IT Opening, as it does, with the obsequies of Dr. John Radcliffe in December, 1714, the volume comments, from Hearne's peculiar point of view, on Oxford and its affairs during the first two years of George I's reign. Those years, which were not sensational ones in University history, were critical for Hearne's own career. It was in January, 1716, that he assumed the nonjuring martyr's crown, and finally turned his back, for conscience sake, on his little official study in Bodley. Readers will follow with interest the steps which led to the catastrophe. At the beginning of the volume things seem to be going well. On January 19, 1715, Hearne was elected Architypographus and Superior Bedel of Civil Law by a large majority (pp. 17, 18). Soon, however, the 'dishonest' leaven begins to work. In March, 1715, it was decided that Hearne, on account of his principles, was to receive no emolument as Architypographus (p. 32). In April there was much wrangling with Hudson about the supposed incompatibility of the duties of the SubLibrarian with those of the Bedel of Civil Law (pp. 43, 46); and Hearne reports a growing tendency on the part of the authorities to make his position in the Bodleian uncomfortable, if not intolerable. The policy of persecution culminated at the annual visitation of the library on November 5, 1715 (pp. 135-142). How Hearne tried to fortify himself in Bodley by resigning the two offices to which he had been elected in January, and how Hudson foiled him by tampering with the lock and key, need not be here rehearsed. The critical moment arrived on January 23, 1716, 'the last Day allowed by the new wicked Act to Persons that have places to come in and take the Oaths' (p. 164). On the following day Hearne, who could not, of course, take the oaths, resolved to act no longer as Sub-Librarian. Unfortunately for the tranquillity of his existence, Hearne also resolved not to resign the Sub-Librarianship, but to regard himself as still holding it and as entitled to its emoluments (p. 172). An account of what was 196695 |