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Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V

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University.] THE FIRST VISITATION. 9 was appointed as second master in the college, where he taught Latin for the first year, and Greek in the second. He died in 1586 ; and from the circumstance that he and Rollock were paid board by the Town Council, it has been supposed that they were both bachelors, and did not live within the college. ture upon being examined in their knowledge of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and the whole circle of the sciences.? Those chosen on this occasion were Mr. Adam Colt of Inveresk, and Mr. Alexander Scrimger of Irwin. The first visitation of this university was held in 1614, when the,Town Council appointed sixteen THE LIBRARY OF THE OLD UNIVERSITY, AS SEEN FROM THE SOUTH-EAST CORNER OF THE QUADRANGLE, LOOKING NORTH. ( F Y o ~ a8 Eng-raving by W. Ff. Lizarr of a Drawing by Playfatr). for which, and for preaching weekly in St. Giles?s, he had 400 merks per annum. As students came in, the necessity for adding as their assessors. There was not then a chancellor in the university, or any similar official, as in other learned to advertise for candidates all over the kingdom. Six appeared, and a ten days? competition in skill followed-a sufficient proof that talent was necessary in those early days, and much patience on the part of the judges. ?They must have possessed great hardihood,? says Bower, ? who could adven- 98 at Stirling, he desired the principal and regents of his favourite university to hold a public disputation in his presence. On this, the five officials repaired to Stirling, where the royal pedant anxiously awaited them, and took a very active part in the discussion.
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I0 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Univtrsitv. He seemed greatly delighted with the result, and felt much self-gratification at the part he had himself borne. lhus, immediately after the removal of the court to Paisley, on the 25th Gf July, 1617, he addressed the following letter to the magistrates of Edinburgh :- ? JAMES R. ? Trustie and weill beloved, we greet you weill. ? Being sufficientlie perswadit of the guid beginning and progresse which ye haiff madein repairing and building of your college, and of your commendable resolution constantlie to proceed and persist thairin, till the same sal1 be perfytlie finished; for your better?encouragement in a wark so universallie beneficial for our subjectis, and for such ornament and reputation for our citie, we haiff thocht guid not only to declair our special1 approbation thairof, but lykewayes, as we gave the first being and beginning thairunto, so we haiff thocht it worthie to be honoured with our name, of our awin impositione ; and the raither because of the late air, which to our great content, we ressaived of the gude worth and sufficiencie of the maisters thairof, at thair being with us at Stirling : In which regard, these are to desyre you to order the said college to be callit in all times herafter by the name of KING JAMES?S COLLEGE : which we intend for an especial1 mark and baidge of our faivour towards the same. * ?So we doubting not but ye will accordinglie accept thairof, we bid you heartilie fairweill.? Though James gave his name to the college, which it still bears, it does not appear that he gave anything more valuable, unless? we record the tithes of the Archdeacanry of Lothian and of the parish cf Wemyss, together with the patronage of the Kirk of Currie. He promised what he called a ? Godbairne gift,? but it never came. The salary of the principal was originally very small; and in order to make his post more comfortable he was allowed to. reap the emoluments of the professorship of divinity, with the rank of rector; but in 1620 these offices were disjoined, and his salary, from forty guineas, was augmented to sixty, and Mr. Andrew Ranisay was appointed Professor of Divinity and Rector, which he held till 1626, when he resigned both. They remained a year vacant, when the Council resolved to elect a rector who was not a member of the university, and chose Alexander Morrison, Lord Prestongrange. a judge of the Court of Session, who took the oath de j d d i adviinistratione, but never exercised the duties of his position. In the year 1626 Mr. William Struthers, a minister of Edinburgh, in censuring a probationer, used some expression derogatory to philosophy, among others terming it ?the dishcZout to divinity,? which was bitterly resented by Professor James Reid, who in turn attacked Struthers? doctrine. The latter, in revenge, got his brother to join him, and endeavoured to get Reid deposed by the Council ; and so vexed did the question ultimately become; that the professor, weary of the contest, resigned his chair. It would seem to have been customary for the Scottish Universitiesto receivein those daysstudents who had been compelled to leave other seats of leaining through misbehaviour, and by their bad example some of them led the students of Edinburgh to conimit many improprieties, till the Privy Council, by an Act in 1611, forbade the reception of fugitive students in any university. In 1640 the magistrates chose Mr. Alexander Henrison, a minister of the city, Rector of the University, and ordained that a silver mace should be borne before him on all occasions of solemnity. They drew up a set of instructions, empowering him to superintend all matters connected with the institution. The custody of the Matriculation Roll was also given to him ; the students were to be matriculated in his presence, and he was furnished with an inventory of the college revenues and donations in its favour. ?For some years,? says Arnot, ?we find the rector exercising his office; but the troubles which distracted the nation, and no regular records of this university having been kept, render it impossible for us to ascertain when that office was discontinued, or how the college was governed for a considerable period.? From the peculiar constitution of this college, and its then utter dependence upon the magistrates, they took liberties with it to which no similar institution would have submitted. ? Thus, for example,? says Bower, ?? they borrowed the college mace in 165 I, and did not return it till 1655. The magistrates could be under no necessity for having recourse to this expedient for enabling them to make a respectable appearance in public when necessary, attended by the proper officers and insignia of their office. And, on the other hand, the public business of the college could not be properly conducted, nor in the usual way, without the mace. At all public graduations, &c., it was, and still is, carried before the principal and professors.?? The magistrates of Edinburgh were in those days, in every sense of the word, proprietors of the university, of the buildings, museums, library, anatomical preparations, and philosophical apparatus ; and from time to time were wont to deposit in their own Charter Room the writs belonging to the institution. They do not seem to have done this from the earliest period, as the first notice of this, found by Bower, was in the Register for 1655, when the writs and an inventory were ordered to be
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