, enjoyed a temporary
exemption from their control; but Cambridge was already in their power,
and a succession of feuds between the students and the townsmen afforded
a decent pretext for their interference. Soldiers were quartered in
the colleges; the painted windows and ornaments of the churches were
demolished; and the persons of the inmates were subjected to insults and
injuries. In January, 1644, an ordinance passed for the reform of the
university;[a] and it was perhaps fortunate that the ungracious task
devolved in the first instance on the military commander, the earl of
Manchester, who to a taste for literature added a gentleness of disposition
adverse from acts of severity. Under his superintendence the university
was "purified;" and ten heads of houses, with sixty-five fellows, were
expelled. Manchester confined himself to those who, by their hostility to
the parliament, had rendered themselves conspicuous, or through fear had
already abandoned their stations; but after his departure, the meritorious
undertaking was resumed by a committee, and the number of expulsions was
carried to two hundred.[1] Thus the clerical establishment gradually
crumbled

[Footnote 1: Journals of Lords, vi. 389; of Commons, Jan. 20, 1644. Neal,
1, iii. c. 3. Walker, i. 112. Querela Cantab. in Merc. Rust. 178-210.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1645. Jan. 22.]

away; part after part was detached from the edifice; and the reformers
hastened to raise what they deemed a more scriptural fabric on the ruins.
In the month of June, 1643, one hundred and twenty individuals selected
by the Lords and Commons, under the denomination of pious, godly, and
judicious divines, were summoned to meet at Westminster; and, that their
union might bear a more correct resemblance to the assembly of the Scottish
kirk, thirty laymen, ten lords, and twenty commoners were voted additional
members. The two houses prescribed the form of the meetings, and the
subject of the debates: they enjoined an oath to be taken on admission, and
the obligation of secrecy till each question should be determined; and
they ordained that every decision should be laid before themselves, and
considered of no force until it had been confirmed by their approbation.[1]
Of the divines summoned, a portion was composed of Episcopalians; and
these, through motives of conscience or loyalty, refused to attend:
the majority consisted of Puritan ministers, anxious to establish the
Calvinistic discip