Meanwhile the real
control of education was left in the hands of Leverett, who was appointed
tutor in 1686, and of William Brattle, who was in full sympathy with his
policy. Among the many powers usurped by the old trading company was that
of erecting corporations; hence the effect of the judgment vacating the
patent had been to annul the college charter which had been granted by the
General Court; [Footnote: 23 May, 1650. _Mass. Rec._ iii. 195.] and
although the institution had gone on much as usual after the Revolution,
its position was felt to be precarious. Such being the situation when the
patriarch came home in 1692 in the plenitude of power, he conceived the
idea of making himself the untrammelled master of the university, and he
forthwith caused a bill to be introduced into the legislature which would
certainly have produced that result. [Footnote: _Province Laws_, 1692-93,
c. 10.] Nor did he meet with any serious opposition in Massachusetts,
where his power was, for the moment, well-nigh supreme. His difficulty lay
with the king, since the fixed policy of Great Britain was to foster
Episcopalianism, and of course to obtain some recognition for that sect at
Cambridge. And so it came to pass that all the advantage he reaped by the
enactment of this singular law was a degree of Doctor of Divinity
[Footnote: Sept.
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