While it was chiefly through the organized means afforded by the Universities and Colleges that Cromwell did what he could for the encouragement of learning, his relations to the learned men individually that were living in the time of his Protectorate were always at least courteous, and in some instances peculiarly friendly.
Usher being dead (March 21, 1655-6), and also the great Selden (Nov. 20, 1654) and the venerable and learned Gataker (July 27, 1654), the following were the Englishmen of greatest literary celebrity already, or of greatest coming note in English literary history, who were alive at the midpoint of Oliver's Protectorate, and could and did then range themselves (for we exclude those of insufficient age) as his adherents on the whole, his subjects by mere compulsion, or his implacable and exiled enemies. We divide the list into groups according to that classification, as calculated for the year 1656; but the names within each group are arranged in the order of seniority:1—
1: There may be errors and omissions in the list; but, having taken some pains, I will risk it as it stands.
ADHERENTS MORE OR LESS CORDIAL.
- George Wither (ætat 68).
- John Goodwin (ætat 63).
- Edmund Calamy (ætat 56).
- Thomas Goodwin (ætat 56).
- John Lightfoot (ætat 54).
- Edmund Waller (ætat 51).
- John Rushworth (ætat 49).
- Milton (ætat 48).
- Benjamin Whichcote (ætat 46).
- James Harrington (ætat 45).
- Henry More (ætat 42).
- John Wilkins (ætat 42).
- John Owen (ætat 40).
- John Wallis (ætat 40).
- Ralph Cudworth (ætat 39).
- Algernon Sidney (ætat 39).
- Marchamont Needham (ætat 36).
- Andrew Marvell (ætat 36).
- Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill (ætat 35).
- William Petty (ætat 33).
- Thomas Stanley (ætat 31).
- John Aubrey (ætat 30).
- Robert Boyle (ætat 29).
- John Bunyan (ætat 28).
- Sir William Temple (ætat 27).
- John Tillotson (ætat 26).
- John Howe (ætat 26).
- Edward Phillips (ætat 26).
- John Phillips (ætat 25).
- John Dryden (ætat 25).
- Henry Stubbe (ætat 25).
- John Locke (ætat 24).
- Samuel Pepys (ætat 24).
- Edward Stillingfleet (ætat 21).
SUBJECTS BY COMPULSION.
- Ex-Bishop Hall (died Sept. 8, 1656, ætat 82).
- John Hales (died May 19, 1656, ætat 72).
- Robert Sanderson (ætat 69).
- Thomas Hobbes (ætat 68).
- Robert Herrick (ætat 65).
- John Hacket (ætat 64).
- Izaak Walton (ætat 63).
- James Shirley (ætat 62).
- James Howell (ætat 62).
- Gilbert Sheldon (ætat 58).
- William Prynne (ætat 56).
- Brian Walton (ætat 56).
- Peter Heylin (ætat 56).
- Jasper Mayne (ætat 52).
- Thomas Fuller (ætat 52).
- Edward Pocock (ætat 52).
- Sir William Davenant (ætat 51).
- Thomas Browne of Norwich (ætat 51).
- William Dugdale (ætat 51).
- Henry Hammond (ætat 51).
- Richard Fanshawe (ætat 48).
- Aston Cockayne (ætat 48).
- Samuel Butler (ætat 44).
- Jeremy Taylor (ætat 43).
- John Cleveland (ætat 43).
- John Pearson (ætat 43).
- John Birkenhead (ætat 41).
- John Denham (ætat 41).
- Richard Baxter (ætat 41).
- Roger L'Estrange (ætat 40).
- Abraham Cowley (ætat 38).
- John Evelyn (ætat 36).
- Isaac Barrow (ætat 26).
- Anthony Wood (ætat 25).
- Robert South (ætat 23).
ACTIVE ENEMIES IN EXILE.
- John Bramhall (ætat 63).
- George Morley (ætat 58).
- John Earle (ætat 55).
- Sir Kenelm Digby (ætat 53).
- Sir Edward Hyde (ætat 48).
- Thomas Killigrew (ætat 45).
- George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (ætat 29).
The relations of Cromwell to such persons varied, of course, with their attitudes towards himself and his government.