of the colleges were exhausted, the private resources of individuals had been drained to the utmost, and the triumph of her enemies, which she was now constrained to witness, seemed all that was wanting to complete her mortification and wretchedness.

Even the articles of surrender were unscrupulously and instantly violated. The university had stipulated for the continuance of her ancient government, and the preservation of her privileges and property, without fine or other molestation on account of the part she had taken in the civil war. No sooner however were the army possessed of the place, than the Commons issued an order forbidding the university to fill up any vacant fellowships or other places, or to make or renew any leases. Upon this Dr. Hammond, as public orator, was deputed to remonstrate against so open a violation of articles to which the army was pledged. But the cause which the university had espoused was tottering to its fall, and therefore the remonstrance was ineffectual.

From that time till the work of ejection and spoliation was finished, Oxford was the principal residence of Dr. Hammond. He had been appointed sub-dean of Christ Church, and in that office he gave encouragement to virtue, learning, and diligence; devised "stratagems to ensnare the idle to a love of study;" exhorted the students so to prepare for the impending persecution that they might not suffer as evil doers; and received many at his weekly private exercise of fasting and humiliation. He was also the generous helper of the friendless in those troublous times. After supplying his own small wants, he employed the rest of his means in warding off from others the day of indigence and misery; and even where his resources were greatly contracted, he contrived by prudent management to reserve a considerable part of

Poor scholars were

his income for purposes of charity. particular objects of his beneficence; and amongst those who shared his bounty was the eminent and learned Isaac Barrow, who many years after recorded his grateful recollections, in an excellent epitaph which he wrote on the death of his generous benefactor.

In order that the duties of his official situation might not prevent the prosecution of his studies, Dr. Hammond now usually gave up many hours of the night to literary pursuits, frequently not retiring to rest till three in the morning, and yet seldom failing to be present at prayers at five o'clock..

He was sometimes called away from the university to attend upon his royal master, who requested the presence of some of his chaplains whenever the ruling powers saw fit to allow him that privilege. But that was only at intervals. When the Scottish army delivered him into the hands of the English commissioners, he was placed in rigorous confinement at Holdenby, and cut off from all communication with his old servants, his chaplains, his friends, and his family. In his lonely meditations he expresses himself with much feeling upon the harsh exclusion of his spiritual advisers, "whom," he says, "for their functions I reverence, and for their fidelity I have cause to love. By their learning, piety, and prayers, I hoped to be either better enabled to sustain the want of all other enjoyments, or better fitted for the recovery and use of them in God's good time.... But my agony must not be relieved with the presence of any one good angel." When the army got possession of the king's person, they took off this restraint, and we find that Dr. Hammond visited him at Woburn, Caversham, Hampton Court, and Carisbrook Castle. But at Christmas 1647 access was again cut off.

Meanwhile, the university was in a very great strait, and stood in need of all the judgment, prudence, and energy, of such a son as Dr. Hammond. The enemies of the church were inflamed to fresh efforts by their repeated successes, and at length brought about the famous Oxford Visitation.

In September 1646, parliament had sent down seven divines to advocate its cause from the university pulpit, and to preach against loyalty, episcopacy, and the liturgy. These preachers zealously executed their commission, and used all diligence in making all things ready for an ordinance for visiting the university; which was accordingly passed on the 1st of May 1647. This instrument appointed twenty-four visitors, and empowered them or any five of them to take cognizance of any crimes alleged against members of the university-to take evidence upon oath against such as refused to take the solemn league and covenant, had borne arms in favour of their king, or opposed the ordinances of parliament concerning discipline and the directory-and to "certify the vacancies of those who should be found guilty of any of the aforementioned offences" to a committee of about seventy-five members of the houses of parliament, whose decisions were to be final.

The visitors arrived on the third of June, but the university contrived by various ingenious expedients to delay the work of spoliation for some months. The authority of these inquisitors was denied, and their strings of questions returned unanswered. At length, however, they were enabled to begin in good earnest. On the fifth of office of vice

October they deprived Dr. Fell* of the

chancellor, and although he continued to discharge its functions for a few days, yet his resistance was but of * The father of Dr. Hammond's Biographer.

short duration, for on the 12th of that month he was sent in custody to London.

After this they proceeded to make other vacancies with unsparing hands. Dr. Hammond was called before them to answer their enquiries; but, as he declared that he could not recognise the authority by which they acted, and declined giving them satisfaction, he was summoned to appear before the higher court, which sat in London. Finding there that he might be represented by counsel, be returned to Oxford, where he soon resisted the visitors again, by refusing to publish Dr. Fell's eject

ment.

A chaplain of the king's, showing such tokens of disaffection towards his sovereign's enemies, was not likely to escape their vengeance; and, on the 30th of March 1648, his name was found in a list of members of the university whom the London committee ordered to be forthwith expelled. The charges brought against him were, that he refused to submit to the visitors, that he was concerned in drawing up certain Reasons which were presented to the convocation against the authority of that visitation, and that he would not publish the visitor's orders for the expulsion of several members of Christ Church.

On the 1st of April, these instructions having arrived, the visitors marched to the hall of Christ Church, whence they sent a musketeer to the subdean's lodgings, to take Dr. Hammond into custody, which having done, they erased his name from the college books, and instead of their usual practice of sending expelled members out of Oxford by beat of drum, and so throwing them on the wide world, they kept him for many weeks in confinement. The generosity exercised by the loyalist laity towards the suffering clergy is beyond all praise. It seems like

I

one of those verdant spots which refresh the traveller's spirits in the waste and howling wilderness. While Dr. Hammond remained in this captivity, many pressing offers of pecuniary help were sent to him from different quarters, and one at least of these was from a gentleman wholly unknown to him, who happened to be passing through Oxford. But although his own past munificence must have left him at this time in very scanty circumstances, he accepted the assistance of only one of these friends.

Soon after his arrest, the visitors wished to remove him and Dr. Sheldon, the warden of All Souls, to Wallingford Castle, but colonel Evelyn, the governor, although no friend to the loyalist clergy, was moved by a sense of justice to declare that if they were brought to him he should treat them as friends and not as prisoners. They were therefore detained at Oxford; and notwithstanding the king's request, they were not permitted to attend him at the treaty of the Isle of Wight, which took place about that time. The king then desired to see a sermon which Dr. Hammond had preached before him about a year before, and this wish was cheerfully obeyed.

It was during this imprisonment that Dr. Hammond formed the design of writing his Annotations on the New Testament; a work over which he passed many hours of pleasant and improving occupation during the ensuing years of his life, and which is still often quoted, and much valued for its learning and piety.

After about ten weeks of confinement at Oxford, he was removed, through the interest of his brother-in-law, Sir John Temple, to the house of Sir Philip Warwick at Clapham in Bedfordshire; whence he forwarded an Address, dated Jan. 15, 1648 to the general and council of officers, reprobating their design of bringing the king to