of character. He got involved in an
unfortunate dispute with Everard Digby, one of the Fellows, a man of
considerable literary reputation, but of a turbulent disposition.
Whitaker, who clearly wanted to get rid of Digby, seized upon the
pretext that his bill for a month's commons, amounting to 8s. 7-1/4d., was
left unpaid, and deprived Digby of his fellowship. An appeal was lodged
with Whitgift and Cecil, who ordered Whitaker to reinstate Digby.
Whitaker replied that Digby was a Papist, was wont to blow a horn in the
Courts and to holloa after it, and that he had threatened to put the
President in the stocks! He seems to have succeeded in getting rid of
Digby for good.

On the death of Whitaker in 1595, Richard Clayton became Master. If not
a brilliant scholar, he commanded respect, and the tenor of many letters
which have come down from that time shows that the Fellows in residence
were on good terms with each other, and with those of the Society who
had gone out into the world. The College was prosperous, and the
building of the Second Court was the visible sign of returned
efficiency. Clayton lived on into the reign of King James I., dying 2nd
May 1612; besides being Master of St. John's, he was also Dean of
Peterborough and a Prebendary of Lincoln.

During this period the College enjoyed a considerable reputation as a
training ground for medical men. Thomas Linacre, physician to Henry
VIII., founded in 1534 a medical lectureship in the College, endowing it
with some property in London. The stipend of the lecturer was to be L12
a year, no mean sum in these days--being, in fact, the same as the
statutable stipend of the Master. In the Elizabethan statutes special
and detailed provisions are made for the continuance of the lectureship.
These lay down that the lecturer must be versed in the works of
Aristotle, and that he should lecture on the works of Galen, which
Linacre had translated. The effect of the foundation was to attract a
number of medical students to the College, many of whom seem to have
obtained fellowships, for we find the Fellows petitioning Queen
Elizabeth, while her code of statutes was under consideration, that
Divines should be preferred to Physicians in the election of Senior
Fellows; otherwise, they submitted, an undue proportion of Physicians
would get on the seniority and rule the College. Further, they asked
that the medical Fellows, as some return for their privileges, should
attend on poor