Mr. Vicechancellors SPEECH TO HIS MAJESTY, AT Christ-Church in Oxford, ON New Years Day: When in the name of the whole University, he presented his Majesty with a fair Gild Cup, and two hundred pounds of Gold in it.  SAPIENTIA ET FELCITATE  printer's or publisher's device 
Printed at Oxford by Leon ard Lichfield. 1643.   

DOCTRINA PARIT VIRTUTEM  device with an open book, sword, scepter, and surrounding motto, often used for official publications by the King's printers  
Master Vicechancellors Speech to His sacred Majesty at his entertainment at Christ Church in Oxfo●d on Newyears' day.  
MAy it please your sacred Majesty,  
that I in the name of this University, may salute your Highness with the same words and wishes that the Noble Poet Horace once of old used to that great favourite of Augustus, and Patron of desert, Maecenas, according to that Poet's testinmony atavis edite regibus; namely, spectaum satis est & donatum cum rude quaeris.  
Maecenaes' iterum antiquo me includere ludo,  
Non eadem est aetas.  
Never any words ever suited our purpose with a more efficacious aptitude: for now we may justly say in this University, non eadem est aetas, the face of times are so wrinkled on the sudden, that they who not long since beheld them young, fair and flourishing, look upon them now, as if thy were quite banished their memory, they appear so decayed, aged and uncomely, as if the Chaos were returned again, and the fabric of our English world shaken into a rude and undigested mass of confusion.  
And not without reason, when that all illustrating Sun of your Majesty's Royal presence hath, as it were, suffered a long and hideous eclipse, been obvolved and surrounded with clouds and darkness, in respect of the diminution of that light of obedience which was refulgent in the bosoms of all your Subjects, darkened are the beams too of your Royal countenance in regard of the absence of your dear Consort the Queen her Majesty, who hath blessed your Majesty with so many fair and hopeful pledges of your loves; so many sweet and gracious Princes of both sexes, that they do as those in the Psalmist, sit like Olive branches round about your table; darkened they are also in regard of the still increasing and overflowing troubles and distractions that so riot in your Majesty's Dominions, a stream of blood which hath issued from the bodies of your wounded and slaughtered Subjects, like a purple cloud, shadowing the accustomed rays that used so cheerfully to issue out from your Majesty's eyes, which now seem all to be transformed into the very Ideas of pensiveness and sadness; so that we may with much grief of heart say of your Grace, O quantum mutatus ab illa; How much are you altered from that King you were, when you used before these civil wars to grace our University with your Royal presence, when nought was heard in our Colleges, Halls and Houses, nay, in this whole City, but the voice of joy and gladness; but now, non eadem est aetas, the gallant and learned Orations made here in entertainment of your Majesty, are now reduced to this poor unworthy Speech of mine, the meanest of your Highness' Subjects, instead of those pregnant issues of wit and fancy which the nimble brains of our Poets have invented to fill the Scene of your welcome hither. Nothing is heard here at this great Festival of our Redeemers nativity, but the tongue of mourning, the University being a very theatre of silence, though we must confess ourselves more obliged to the bounty of the Almighty than any City in your Majesty's Kingdoms, in that he hath blessed us thus long with being esteemed worthy to enjoy your Majesty's presence; and so that never forgotten benefit hath a little revived and refreshed our drooping souls; yet the sense of our neighbour's sufferings comes like the ill Gemi into our imaginations to affright them with the horror of their ghostly and hideous countenances; Non nobis solum nati sumus, we were not worthy the Religion we profess, if we should not have a fellow-feeling of the afflictions of our Country and its inhabitants, who groan as the Israelites did under the Egyptians, under the oppressive weight of their burdens, so insupportable, that they would crack the shoulders of another Atlas to sustain them; their burdens which comprehend the contracted weight of all miseries incident to mortality; since all of them are charactered in this civil war. This civil war that hath rob the Kingdom of the ancient tranquillity, the Church of its so despised ornaments, the Subjects of their estates quite, nay, lives, and many of them undone past all reparation or recovery by these military tumults, your facred Majesty will be pleased to afford me an indulgent pardon for my expatiating so much on this point of the Subjects calamity, it is not that I dare be so disloyal, to believe any fault of it rests in your Majesty, but out of the tender compassion and hearty consideration of their afflictions, which we all hope your Majesty's paternal and pious care will in good time rectify, for this particular City, but especially for the body of this University, which this year is under my government, unworthy as I am of that charge, had not your Majesty's comfortable and all-quickning sight removed away the clouds that shadowed us; certamly ere this darkness had encompassed us round about: here would have been no need of a Vicechancellor, when there would have been no Students to govern; no need of Schools, when there would have been none to have been taught in them. No Science Liberal practised in the Colleges, whence all the Practisers were fled for fear of persecution, of being plundered of their substances; nay, deprived (as it was probable enough) of their lives, for being loyally affected to Your Most Excellent Majesty.  
In that great desection of the Israelites from the Tribe of Indah and Family of David, the Tribe of Levi stuck close to their rightful King, so hath it in England to your Highness, in all these domestic broils, not one of the Clergy (but some of factious spirits) deserting your cause: The two Universities, this and that of Cambridge, declaring themselves in your Majesty's behalf; and surely we in Oxford had been justly branded with the title of ingratitude, if we should have relinquished your Grace, who have formerly, and at this present time, heaped upon us so many evident testimonies of your Royal Benignity to us, and your dear affection to the advancement of good literature, which as I before related, was here reduced to the last gasp, labouring as it were for life, till your Goodness, by transferring your Person and Presence hither, making this your winter residence, infused new life into the languishing Academy. The Fellows of Houses now return to their chambers, secured by your Majesty from any fear of dangers. The young Students, that for their safeties were retired home to their father's houses, haste back to the Colleges, proud that they shall have the happiness to reside where they may see the light and favour of your Royal Countetenance; So that (thanks be to God and and your Majesty) decayed learning gins here again to respire and reflourish.  
The Romans in a noble gratitude to that great Camillus, who rescued them from the tyranny and ruin of the Galls under the conduct of Brennus brought upon them, would needs have conferred upon him the title of the second Romulus, the Founder of the City, and allowed him equal honour with him. The same must we, inspired with no less a gratefulness, tender to your Majesty, you are our second Alured, the second Founder of our University; and if to save when lost, in some opinion, was as great an action of the Almighty, as to create mankind out of nothing; Surely our reason must enforce us to acknowledge ourselves as much indebted to your Highness, for our preservation and restitution, as to Alured for our foundarion and institution. And so with the general votes of the whole University, this new year I present your Majesty in their names, with these wishes; Grace and Peace this year be multiplied upon Yourself, your absent Queen, and Royal Progeny. May the due fall upon you all, and the blessings of jacob be in your inheritance. May all these tumultuous and civil distractions end with the beginning of this year, and the rest of it be spent in embalming and curing the many wounds of our English Israel. And to conclude, may Heaven's best bounty be showered down on you, its mighty and outstretched Arm protect you. And as an humble and zealous testimony of the Universities desires to serve Your Sacred Majesty in their names, and as the best expression, they for the present can make of their loyalty, I here beseech Your Highness, to accept this widow's mite, cast as this New Years Oblation into Your Treasury, this Cup with two hundred pounds in gold, which is contained within it. 'Tis all, Royal Sir, our Universities decayed debility hath to tender as an offering to Your Gracious Hands; our wishes desire it were an unexhaustible Indies: And so we hope the intention of the gift will make us win favour in Your Eyes, so that Your Majesty will vouchsafe to accept it as graciously, as we present it humbly.  
FINIS.