[259] "Oxoniana," edited by the Rev. John Walker, vol. i. 98.
[260] For many particulars and sources of information on the subject of Oxford University, I am indebted to Mr. Orme's Memoir of Owen, chap. vii.; but Wood's Athen. Oxon. is the principal authority.
[261] Thorndike, a Cambridge man, noticed in another part of this volume, took an active part.
[262] Twell's Life of Pocock, 209.
"3rd July, 1654.—That the order of the late Council of State, dated 15th July, 1653, for freeing the paper which is to be used for printing the Bible in the original and other learned languages, from the payments of customs and excise, be confirmed, and that according Dr. Bruno Ryves be permitted and suffered to import into this Commonwealth, free from customs and excise, so many reams of paper for the use aforesaid, as with that which is already imported and discharged of duties, shall make up 7,000 pounds, being the total allowed by the said former order to be so imported."—State Papers Order Book of Council.
The handsomer copies were printed on Avergne paper, at that time considered the best.
[263] The price of one copy to a subscriber was £10; of six copies, £50. To others the cost seems to have been from £15 to £18.—Thorndike's Works, vi. 203, note. In Jacobson's edition of Sanderson's Works, vol. vi. 375, is a list of subscriptions amounting to £560. Walton's Polyglott is said to be the first book published in England by subscription.
[264] Owen's Works, iv. 450.
[265] The spirit in which Owen composed this treatise has often been misrepresented. It is probable that some who have condemned have never read it. The work on the Divine Original Authority, Self-evidencing Light and Power of the Scriptures—to which the treatise is an appendix—is also worth studying in connexion with theological controversies at the present day. The third chapter is very remarkable, and the last paragraph moves in a direction which Owen's disciples now would be very unwilling to follow. It shews how the habits of thought alter even in the same school, and should teach us all a lesson of charity.
[266] Thus, the editor of Thorndike, vol. vi. 170, speaks of Cambridge between 1613 and 1646. It applies up to the year 1654, when the regular post began. The first coach from Cambridge to London was set up in 1653. It is scarcely needful to say that the well-known carrier was Hobson, who died of the plague in 1630; but carriers afterwards would convey letters.