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"Yet, my Lord, after all this artifice, the rasure is very plain when the leaf is held up to the light; especially of those two lines I mentioned, even through the thick paper; which, doubtless, has no other business there, than to come in aid to this notable piece of forgery.

"Thus, my Lord, I hope I have satisfactorily accounted for one of the great difficulties that have, for a long time, clogged the Annals of the Press. That part of Literary History has been employed for a considerable time in clearing its way, and getting rid of spurious dates, that perplexed its evidences, partly by fraud, and partly accident.

"Of the former sort I reckon, in some measure, the famous Lauderdaile Bible in your Lordship's very valuable Collection; a Cicero de Officiis of 1465, in the Library of Mr. Raymund Kraafft, burgomaster of Ulm, mentioned by Schelhornius in his Amoenitates Literariæ, tom. 3; which is altered into 1440. And, lastly, a piece of Thomas Aquinas, printed by Faust and Scheffer, anno D'ni millesimo quadringentesimo septuagesimoprimo, which being altered by the pen from septuagesimo into quinquagesimo, bears date before the era of Printing. I question not but that time will make more discoveries of this sort; and that the Decor Puellarum of Nicholas Jenson in 1461; and Franciscus Florius de Amore Camilli et Emilia, said to be printed at Tours in 1467, will be found in one of these two lists I have been speaking of *.

"I am, my Lord, &c. J. TAYLOR."

* See Ames's Historical Account of Printing in England, p. 438. See also a Letter on a Book supposed to have been printed in 1454, in the Gentleman's Magazine for July 1759. W. C.

2. Dr.

2. Dr. TAYLOR* to Dr. DUCAREL.

"Cambridge, Nov. 2, 1759.

"There is in the [University] Library at Cambridge a MS. of the Gospels and Acts given us by Theodore Beza about the age you mention: the Codex Claromontanus in the Royal Library at Paris, containing the Epistles, is said to be the Second Volume of that Book; but I think without any foundation. The Paris Book, though called a Quarto, I am informed, is not properly so, but a small Folio rather, however by all accounts of a different size from ours, which is strictly speaking a Quarto, as far as a parchment-book can be called so. is one thing that may settle this question upon a near inspection, and it stands thus:

There

"[Our] Beza's Book is Greek on the left page, and Latin on the right, by which means every leaf on the first side is Latin, on the second Greek. Between the Gospels and Acts this Book once contained the Epistles, at least St. John's Epistles; for the leaf which begins the Acts (according to the foregoing account) contains likewise on the first side the end of the last Epistle of St. John in Latin, with this colophon :

Explicit

Epistola Johannis HF.
Incipit

Actus Apostolorum.

Now, if the Codex Claromontanus contains these few verses of the Latin translation of St. John's last Epistle, it is plain that it is not the counter part of ours: If it wants those verses precisely of the Latin translation, then I think it as plain that it is.

"But of this you may read more in Le Long's Bibliotheca Sacra, in the Prefaces to the critical editions of the New Testament, more especially those of Dr. Mill and Professor Wetstein. J. TAYLOR."

* See another Letter of Dr. Taylor to Dr. Ducarel, vol. VI. p. 51.

No. VII.

No. VII.

MASTERS OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE,
CAMBRIDGE *.

OF Dr. HUMPHREY GOWER and Dr. ROBERT JENKIN some particulars will be found (extracted principally from Mr. Cole's MSS.) in Vol. IV. pp. 240. 246.

ľ Of Dr. LAMBERT, Dr. NEWCOME, and Dr. Powell, Memoirs shall here be given from the same MSS.+

* In the "Catalogue of the Harleian MSS. now in the British = Museum, 1759," is the List of the Articles in Mr. Baker's XXIII Volumes of MSS. in that Collection, preceded by this short note: "The XXIII following Volumes in folio, contain Collections written by the hand of Thomas Baker, of St. John's College in 1 Cambridge, Bachelor in Divinity."

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"Then follow the Contents of each Volume, which I shall endeavour to supply the defects of my own transcript by that, though a very paltry performance. The First Volume I shall transcribe wholly, as it is in the Printed Catalogue.

“7028. Vol. I. A succinct and impartial Account of St. John's House, and St. John's College, with some occasional and incidental Account of the Affairs of the University, and of such private Colleges as held Communication or Intercourse with the Old House or College, Collected anno 1707." (Cole's MSS. vol. XXXI. p. 24. b.)—"This first Volume contains the History, or Annals of St. John's College, through a succession of all its Masters, from the Foundation to the end of Bishop Gunning's (the 22d) Mastership. This Mr. Baker himself had some thoughts of making public himself: as appears by a marginal note in his Preface prefixed to Bishop Fisher's Funeral Sermon, p. lv; and I am told, by those who have perused it, that it is a complete and most useful as well as entertaining Work, and every way ready and fit for the press. This, or a duplicate of it, I suppose, is in St. John's College Library. Bishop Gunning resigned the mastership in 1670." W. C.

+ In Mr. Cole's Continuation of Baker's History he has written the Lives of the following Masters: Francis Turner, Humphrey Gower, Robert Jenkin, Robert Lambert, John Newcome, William-Samuel Powell, John Chevallier.

DR.

DR. ROBERT LAMBERT,

the 26th Master of this College, was of Northern extraction, being a native of the county of York. The year of his admission into the Society I have not learnt; but he was sworn and admitted Fellow * for Mr. Gregson, on March 28, 1699, in the place of Mr. Alleyn.

On the death of Dr. Jenkin there was no small stir in the Society about the choice of a successor. No fewer than five Candidates appeared upon this occasion, whose names were, Dr. Drake, Mr. Field, Dr. Lambert, Dr. Newcome, and Dr. Baker. As this election was made before I came to the University, so I can pretend to say nothing of it upon my own knowledge: yet I have some Memoirs relating to it that will sufficiently explain it.—The Author of the Annals of University College (p. 324, 325) gives this account of it: "Upon the Election of a new Master of St. John's College in Cambridge, there were five Candidates: none of which being able to get a majority of votes of all that had suffrages, there was a devolution to the eight senior Fellows; and if a majority of them could not concur in one of the Candidates, the Election would have devolved farther to the Bishop of Ely; but five of the eight agreeing in one person, the Election was concluded without going any farther."

I have a particular scheme of all the Scrutinies upon this warm Election, in which Dr. Lambert carried it against his Opponents. He was elected April 21, 1727. Dr. Baker seems to have laid the loss the most to heart.

The exact time when Dr. Lambert took his degrees I do not know: in 1722 he was Lady Mar

* Mr. Baker's History of St. John's College, p. 397.

+ Here Mr. Cole has inserted a Conference between Dr. Baker and Dr. Newcome, which does not throw any light on Dr. Lambert.

↑ On December 31, 1722, he was elected.

garet's

garet's Preacher; and the same year that he was elected Master of the College, viz. 1727, he was elected Vice-Chancellor of the University. This office he served again in 1729; but not without the utmost struggle between the two Parties that then divided the Body. The two Candidates were, Dr. Mawson, Master of Bene't College, and our Dr. Lambert, who carried it by one vote only, 84 for Dr. Lambert, and 83 for Dr. Mawson. And had the votes been equal, as was like to be the case, the Regius Professor of Divinity, Dr. Bentley, in that case, was to have had the determining vote. Indeed people's spirits were then warmly agitated by party distinctions; and, though the Tory interest carried it this time by a single vote, it was a strong presumption that the cause was declining; and that the Whigs, with the countenance of the Court, would soon have the majority. This shewed itself at their next election, in 1730, when Dr. Mawson was chosen; and the Party, to shew their triumph, elected him again the following year. It seems that times have altered the property of things; for at this time, 40 years after, that office is looked upon so burthensome and troublesome, that no one takes it upon him but through necessity and by rotation. When party ran high, it was the harvest for preferment-hunters. Dr. Mawson stood upon the Whig interest, and was rewarded with a bishoprick; Dr. Lambert was supported by the Tories, and got nothing. I have a very particular account and list of this contested election, with the names of each voter as he voted. One thing however the Tories gained their point in; for a public Commencement was voted, to grace the second year of Dr. Lambert's Vice-chancellorship.

In the first year also of Dr. Lambert's Vice-chancellorship he met with some trouble and vexation from a disputed election of a person to be one of the four Vintners of the University, at the Mitre tavern in Trumpington-street, now converted into a

coffee

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