The case of Exeter-Colledge in the University of Oxford related and vindicated

POSTSCRIPT.

SInce these Papers were finished, Mr. Painter, the new pretended Rector and his party, have set on foot another practice, as little warranted by the Statutes of the Colledge, as the rest of the procee∣dings above mentioned: They have assum'd a power to themselves of Electing New Officers out of their own party in the room of the old ones, whom the Visitor had as Arbitrarily suspended, and with the assistance of the Youth of the Colledge have placed these New Officers by force and violence both in the Hall and the Chappel, and that whilest the matter of Right is depending judicially before a pro∣per Court, and at their own Suit; and they dare to confront the Court of Kings-Bench, which has already declared the pretended Sentence of Excommunication against the Rector to be null and void, by opposing forcibly his entrance into the Chappel under the pretence of his being an Excommunicated person.

The particulars of these disorders are not here intended to be made publick; but their unstatutable proceeding in chusing New Officers as aforesaid, must be taken notice of, and the Authors of these confu∣sions put in mind of the Statutes, which they seem to have forgotten.

It is provided by the Statute De Electione Subrectoris & Decani, &c: that their Election shall be, Tricesimo die Junii annuatim modò & formâ subsequentibus, videlicet quod convocatis per Rectorem quinque maximè seni∣oribus scholaribus perpetuis tunc in Universitate praesentibus, inquirat di∣ctus Rector palam ac publiè suffragia singulorum, quibus suum duplex suffra∣gium addat, & ille Subrector habeatur, in quem plura suffragia praedictorum

consenserint. Quae similiter forma eligendi Decani semper observetur. So that by the Statute the Election is appointed to be upon a certain day of the year, viz. on the 30th. of June; and so strict was the Colledge for∣merly in observing their Statutes, and of their Oaths, that they con∣ceiv'd a just doubt whether or no in any case whatsoever they could proceed to an Election upon any other day: And therefore they pro∣posed it as a question to their Visitor in Queen Elizabeth's time, Si forte Subrector, Decanus, &c. Quoquo tempore ante Crastinum Petri fato vel sodalitio cesserit, vel amotus fuerit a Collegio, quum ipso crastino Petri nec aliàs praedictorum Electiones fieri Statuta praescribant, quid interim faciendum? To which the Answer is, Quum quid tale evenerit, alius idoneus in ceden∣tis vel amoti officium vacuum a solitis Electoribus juxta Statuta intrà septem dies usque ad crastinum Petri sequentis, nec ultrà ex ea Electione substituatur & eligatur. By this Question and Answer it appears that the Colledge in those days had not the least apprehension of an Officer's place be∣coming void otherwise than by Death, Cession or Expulsion; and none of the Officers are either dead, or have made a Cession, or are Expell'd: suspended taliter qualiter they are. But as the Statutes do no where warrant any such thing; so if they did, there could be no ground to chuse new ones in their room, because new ones are not to be chosen but in one of the three cases a forementioned; and if Suspension did war∣rant a new Election, it ought to be made within seven days after the Suspension: so that all's wrong. Nor can any pretence of necessity justifie what's done; for if there be any such necessity, it's a necessi∣ty that their own illegal and unstatuable procedeings have occa∣sion'd.

FINIS.