students free of charge. That the College school of
medicine was a noted one is confirmed by the fact that three successive
Presidents of the Royal College of Physicians were Fellows of St.
John's: Richard Smith (1585-1589), William Baronsdale (1589-1600), and
William Gilbert (1600-1601). Smith and Gilbert were physicians to Queen
Elizabeth; Baronsdale and Gilbert had been Senior Bursars of the
College. Of these Gilbert is the most celebrated; his treatise, _De
Magnete_, is a scientific classic. Galileo spoke of Gilbert as "great to
a degree which might be envied." Francis Bacon mentions the book with
applause, and Hallam describes Gilbert as "at once the father of
experimental philosophy in this island, and by a singular felicity and
acuteness of genius, the founder of theories which have been revived
after the lapse of ages, and are almost universally received into the
creed of science." Gilbert, who always signs his name Gilberd or Gylberd
in the College books, was Senior Bursar of the College in 1569, and
President in the succeeding year.

Amongst others who have held the Linacre lectureship, and attained to
scientific distinction, was Henry Briggs, who was appointed lecturer in
1592. He afterwards became Gresham Professor of Geometry and Savilian
Professor at Oxford. He took up Napier's discovery of logarithms; the
idea of tables of logarithms having 10 for their base, and the
calculation of the first table of the kind, is due to him.

CHAPTER V

THE SECOND CENTURY

1612-1716

The second century of the College history opened quietly. Owen Gwyn was
elected Master by the choice of the Fellows; John Williams, then a
Fellow, afterwards Lord Keeper, Dean of Westminster, Bishop of Lincoln,
and Archbishop of York, exerting himself on Gwyn's behalf. It appears
that Williams in after years repented of the choice, and Thomas Baker,
the historian of the College, speaks slightingly of Gwyn. Still, under
his rule the College flourished, and Williams himself marked the period
by providing the greater part of the funds for the new Library.

King James I. and Prince Charles (afterwards Charles I.) frequently
visited the University; James holding his Court at Trinity, but being
entertained at St. John's. On one of these occasions, comparing the
great Court of Trinity with the two then existing Courts of St. John's,
he is said to have remarked tha