Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

Having set up the dispensing power, James
proceeded to use it for the overturn of all
institutions and principles, not excepting that
liberty for the sake of which, as he said, he had
assumed it. The bolt fell first on the two universals.
The king sent his mandate to Cambridge, ordering
the admission of one Allan Francis, a Benedictine
monk, to the degree of Master of Arts, without
taking the usual oaths. The senate replied that they
could not do so without breaking their own oaths,
and besought the king not to compel them to
commit willful perjury. The king insisted that the
monk should be admitted, and, the senate still
refusing, the vice-chancellor was deprived of his
office. The storm next burst over Oxford. The
presidency of Magdalen College being vacant, the
Romanists coveted exceedingly this noblest and
richest of the foundations of learning in
Christendom. The king ordered the election of
Anthony Farmer, a man of bad reputation, but who
had promised to become a Papist. The authorities
of Oxford must either violate their oaths or disobey
the king. They resolved not to perjure themselves;
they refused to admit the king's nominee. James
569