The facts that have been preserved by Owen's biographers suffi- ' Oratio prima, translated by Orme, pp. 12S-131.
PUS VICE-CHANCELLORSHIP. LI
ciently prove tliat this inaugural address was no mere language of dignified ceremony. By infusing that tolerant spirit into his admi- nistration which he had often commended in his days of suffering, hut which so many in those times forgot when they rose to power, — by a generous impartiality in the bestowal of patronage, — by an eagerness to detect modest merit, and to help struggling poverty, — by a firm repression of disorder and licentiousness, and a steadfast encourage- ment of studious habits and good conduct, — he succeeded, during the few years of his vice-chancellorship, in curing the v/orst evils of the university, and restoring it to such a condition of prosperity as to com- mand at length even the reluctant praise of Clarendon.
Among other honourable facts, it is recorded that he allowed a society of Episcopalians to meet every Lord's day over against his own door,^ and to celebrate public worship according to the forms of the Hturgy, though the laws at that period put it in Owen's power to disperse the assembly; and there were not wanting those of a less enlarged and unsectarian spirit to urge him to such a course. In the same wise and conciliatory spirit he won the confidence of the Pres- byterians, by bestowing upon their ablest men some of the vacant livings that were at his disposal, and taking counsel of them in all difficulties and emergencies. Many a poor a.nd promising student was aided by him with sums of money, and with that well-timed encou- ragement which is more gratifying than silver and gold, and which, in more than one instance, was found to have given the first impulse on the road to fame. Foreign students of hopeful ability were admitted through his influence to the use of the libraries and to free commons; and one j^oor youth, in whose Latin epistle, informiug Owen of his necessities, he had discovered an unusual " sharpness of wit," was at once received by him as tutor into his own family.^
But, amid these generous and conciliatory measures, Owen knew how, by acts of wholesome severity, to put a curb upon licentiousness, and to invigorate the whole discipline of the university. At a public Act, ^vhen one of the students of Trinity College was Terrm filiiis, he stood up before the student began, and told him in Latin that he was at liberty to say what he pleased, on condition that he abstained from all profane and obscene expressions and personal reflections. The student began, but soon violated all the conditions that had been laid down to him. Owen repeatedly warned him to desist from a course so dishonouring to the university; but the youth obstinately persisting in the same strain, he at length commanded the beadles to pull him down. This was a signal for the students to interpose; on
' " At the house of Dr Willis the physician, not far from his own lodf^iiigs at Christchutch." — Biograph. Diet., x. 103.
- Asty, pp. xi., xii. Calaniy's Noncon. Alcm., i. 201. Wood's Fasti, ii. 7S8.
LII LIFE OF DR OWEN.
which Owen, determined that the authority of the university should not be insolently trampled on, rose from his seat, in the face of the remonstrances of his friends, who were concerned for his personal safety, drew the offender from his place with his own hand, and com- mitted him to Bocardo, the prison of the university, — the students meanwhile standing aloof with amazement and fear at his resolu- tion/ Was there not something, in this scene, of that robust physical energy which had distinguished Owen at Oxford in earlier days in bell-ringing and the leaping of bars?
But the aims of the vice-chancellor rose far above the mere attempt to restrain licentiousness within moderate bounds ; — his whole arrangements were made with the anxious desire of awakening and fostering among the students the power of a living piety. His own example, as well as the pervading spirit of his administration, would contribute much to this; and there are not wanting individual facts to show with what earnestness he watched and laboured for the reli- gious wellbeing of the university. It had been customary for the Fellows to preach by turns on the afternoon of the Lord's day in St Mary's Church; but, on its being found that the highest ends of preaching were often more injured than advanced by this means, he determined to undertake this service alternately with Dr Goodmn, the head of Magdalen College, and in this way to secure to the youth of Oxford the advantage of a sound and serious ministry. It is inte- resting to open, nearly two hundred years afterwards, the reminis- cences of one of the students, and to read his strong and grateful testi- mony to the benefits he had derived from these arrangements of the Puritan vice-chancellor. We have this privilege in the " Memoir of Philip Henry, by his son." " He would often mention, with thank- fulness to God," says the quaint and pious biographer, " what great helps and advantages he had then in the university, — not only for learning, but for religion and piety. Serious godliness was in repu- tation ; and, besides the public opportunities they had, many of the scholars used to meet together for prayer and Christian conference, to the great confirming of one another's hearts in the fear and love of God, and the preparing of them for the service of the church in their generation. I have heard him vspeak of the prudent method they took then about the university sermons on the Lord's day, in the afternoon, which used to be preached by the fellows of colleges in their course; but that being found not so much for edification, Dr Owen and Dr Goodwin performed that service alternately, and the young masters that were wont to preach it had a lecture on Tuesday ap- pointed them."^