appointed to try the case, and maintained the exclusive functions of the profession over which he presided. His arguments were deemed so conclusive that the decision was unanimously given in favour of the physicians. It was through his influence that a grant was obtained from the crown of the bodies of criminals after their execution for dissection. He compiled the 'Annals' of the college from its foundation; and it was at his suggestion that the society first adopted the insignia of the presidential office—the cushion, silver verge, book, and seal.
Caius's relations with the society over which he ruled at Cambridge were less happy. Lying, as he did, under the suspicion of aiming at a restoration of catholic doctrine, he was an object of dislike to the majority of the fellows, and could with difficulty maintain his authority. He retaliated vigorously on the malcontents. He not only involved them in lawsuits which emptied their slender purses, but visited them with personal castigations, and even incarcerated them in the stocks (State Papers, Dom. Eliz. xxxix. 5). Expulsions were frequent, not less than twenty of the fellows, according to the statement of two of their number, having suffered this extreme penalty. In their resentment, they brought forward articles accusing him of atheism. Archbishop Parker and Sir William Cecil (afterwards Lord Burghley), who were called upon to adjudicate in these disputes, did not altogether acquit Caius, although they confirmed several of his acts of expulsion (Parker Correspondence, pp. 251-2).
The strong feelings of resentment evoked in England by the massacre of St. Bartholomew led to renewed feelings of animosity against all suspected of harbouring catholic sympathies; and one of the fellows, having discovered that the master had in his secret possession a collection of ornaments and vestments such as were used in the Roman ritual, gave information to the ecclesiastical authorities. An inquiry was forthwith instituted by Sandys, the intolerant bishop of London, and this having led to an examination of the master's premises, the different prohibited articles discovered in his keeping were publicly burnt in a bonfire in the college court. The indignity was keenly felt by Caius, who, in his 'Annals' of the college, animadverts upon the ingratitude thus shown for his services to the society and to learning. In the following year we find him devoting his leisure to the compilation of his 'History of the University,' not improbably as a distraction from his harassed and dejected feelings. It was his last service to letters. Blomefield indeed suggests that his life was shortened by the growing intolerance of the times, his death, which took place in London, having occurred (29 July 1573) only seven months after the events above described. By his will, dated a few days before, he appointed Archbishop Parker his literary executor; and availing himself of powers conferred by a grant obtained from the society in the preceding September, he nominated Thomas Legge, of Jesus College, his successor in the mastership. He was interred in the college chapel, where the simple inscription on his monument, 'Fui Caius. Vivit post funera virtus,' with simply the addition of the date of his decease, affords a striking contrast to the prolixity and fulsome adulation customary in such inscriptions in those times.
A few years before his death Caius became involved in a controversy respecting the comparative antiquity of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and in his zeal for the reputation of the latter was led to maintain its priority in a treatise which must be looked upon as the least creditable of all his writings. He was answered by a writer who, singularly enough, bore the same surname, one Thomas Key, a fellow of All Souls [see Caius, Thomas], Oxford; and his treatise was subsequently reprinted by Hearne with the criticisms of his antagonist appended (Oxford, 8vo, 1730). He availed himself on more than one occasion of the services of Richard Grafton the printer, and it has been surmised that he rendered that writer material assistance in the compilation of his chronicle.
Of the three portraits of Caius in the possession of the college, that in the combination room, representing him in profile, is the most striking, and is an admirable work of art. About 1719, in the course of certain repairs in the college chapel, his tomb was opened and the corpse fully exposed to view. 'After comparing the picture' (probably the portrait in the hall) ' with his visage,' says Blomefield, 'there was found a great resemblance' (Ives, Select Papers, p. 65).
Out of the long list of Caius's works given by himself, only the following seem to have been printed: 1. 'De Medendi Methodo libri ii. ex Cl. Galeni et Joh. Bapt. Montani sententia,' Basileæ, 1544, 8vo. Dedicated to William Butts; reprinted Lovanii, 1556, 8vo (in Joh. Caii Opera), with dedication to Sir John Mason; also printed in 'Joh. Bapt. Montani Opuscula,' Basil, 1558. 2. 'Galeni libri aliquot Græci, partim hactenus non visi, partim repurgati, annotationibusque illustrati,' Basileæ, 1544, 4to (dedicated to Henry VIII, containing (1) Galeni de placitis Hippocratis et Platonis liber primus jam primum inventus et in Latinum sermonem
