The Basel Beatles
The Basel theology graduate Jacob Battier (1604-1643) made his way to England like many other Swiss students; unlike them most of them, he stayed, was naturalized in the 1630s and became secretary to the powerful Earl of Leicester. After the death of his cousin Johann Jacob Frey, Battier applied for the position of Dean of Armagh which Frey had been promised. Archbishop William Laud was not convinced by Battier's candidacy, as we can see from his letter to the Earl of Strafford:
I received a letter […] from the Earl of Leicester […] for his Secretary to be Dean of Armagh. The man himself brought me the letter. He told me he was a Deacon, and that my Lord of Lincoln ordained him. But I saw nothing in him or about him like a man in Orders. Young he was, and in long hair, his clothes all in the fashion, and to my eye most unfit every way to be a prime Dean in that kingdom. My answer was accordingly, that his Lordship might expect kindness from me, but it must be such as I might perform with my own honour. But I had spoken and written so much to your Lordship against putting young men into eminent places in the Church, that I could not now forget it, at all times after that I was with you.
What is quite remarkable about this anecdote is Laud's insistence on the youthfulness of Battier, who was 32 at the time. The detail about his hair is confirmed, however, by a diary entry which the Oxford tutor Thomas Crosfield made on 11 November 1632. Crosfield discusses "some scholars […] that had long hair when they were called to be matriculated" and were admonished "to make their hair be cut short". Crosfield muses on the changeability of fashion and then notes the following:
The Switzers and those ministers that live about Helvetia, Basel, to this day wear long hair, their reason being demanded is nothing but the example of their predecessors who in opposition to the shaven monks (perhaps) wear their hair so long.Regula Hohl Trillini