BY THE SAME AUTHORS 
 
 BY H. RASHDALL 
 
 THE UNIVERSITIES OF EUROPE IN THE MIDDLB 
 AGES. 1895 
 
 DOCTRINE AND DEVELOPMENT: UNIVERSITY 
 
 SERMONS. 1898 
 
 BY R. S. RAIT 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN. Uniform 
 with the present work. In preparation 
 
 THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT. 1901 
 
 AN OUTLINE OF THE RELATIONS BETWEEN 
 ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. 1901 
 
COLLEGE 
 
 HISTORIES 
 
 OXFORD 
 
 NEW COLLEGE 
 
VIRO REVERENDO 
 
 IACOBO EDWARDS SEWELL, S.T.P., 
 
 COLLEGII NOVI 
 
 PER XLI ANNOS CUSTODI 
 
 HUIUS OPERIS FAUTORI ET ADIUTORI 
 
 BENEVOLENTISSIMO 
 
of sfotir 
 
 COLLEGE HISTORIES 
 
 NEW COLLEGE 
 
 BY 
 
 HASTINGS RASHDALL, M.A. (OxoN.), D.C.L. (DUNELM.) 
 
 FELLOW AND TUTOR OP NEW COLLEGE 
 PREACHER OF LINCOLN'S INN 
 
 AND 
 
 ROBERT S. RAIT, B.A. (OxoN.), M.A. (ABERDON.) 
 
 FELLOW AND LECTURER OF NEW COLLEGE 
 
 LONDON 
 F. E. ROBINSON & CO. 
 
 20 GREAT RUSSELL STREET, BLOOMSBURY 
 1901 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THIS book was originally undertaken by Mr. Rashdall. 
 Being at the time occupied with other literary work, he 
 was unable to begin it till the series was approaching 
 completion. To expedite the fulfilment of his task, 
 Mr. Rait consented to assist in the work. The chapter 
 on the College buildings and that on the 'Age of 
 Reform ' have been for the most part written by Mr. 
 Rait, the rest by Mr. Rashdall; but Mr. Raitfs 
 collaboration has extended to the whole of the work. 
 
 It may be convenient here to give a short account of 
 the materials at our disposal. It must be confessed 
 that, considering the long life and importance of the 
 College, the amount of interesting matter available is 
 disappointingly small. 
 
 The original sources for the life of the founder are 
 a short account written in a copy of Pope Nicholas" 
 Taxation for Adam of Orlton, Bishop of Winchester 
 from 1333 to 1345, and another prefixed to the Register 
 of Winchester College, written by Robert Heete, a 
 Fellow of that College, and dated c the twentieth year 
 after the death of the said father 'i.e., 1424. The 
 MS. Life in the possession of New College, attributed 
 
 336573 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 to Warden Chandler, but in all probability only 
 corrected by him, adds little but rhetoric to the 
 information contained in these two sources. It con- 
 tains, however, some interesting pictures, one of which 
 is reproduced in the present volume. The first printed 
 Life is Martin's ' Historica Descriptio Complectens 
 vitam ac res gestas Guillelmi Wicami,' Londini, 1597. 
 There are two scholarly biographies by Bishop Lowth 
 (London, 1758), a work of much research, and G. H. 
 Moberly (Winchester, 1887). But the most valuable 
 authorities for Wykeham's life are now Mr. Tait's article 
 in the 'Dictionary of National Biography,' and the 
 'History of Winchester College,' by Mr. Arthur F. 
 Leach (New York, 1899), to both of which we are 
 much indebted. 
 
 On the College itself, the only considerable book is 
 Mackenzie Walcott's 'William of Wykeham and his 
 Colleges' (London, 1852), which contains much valuable 
 information, but cannot be said to be based on a real 
 study of the MS. materials for the history of the 
 College, and leaves out much that is important. Two 
 short notices have been published by Mr. Rashdall in 
 his work on ' The Universities of Europe in the Middle 
 Ages' (Oxford, 1895) and 'The Colleges of Oxford' 
 (ed. Andrew Clark, 1891). Mr. Kirby's ' Winchester 
 Scholars' (London, 1888), a full list with some notices 
 of their subsequent careers, has been of great value. 
 
 Among the general authorities for the history of the 
 University it will be enough to mention Antony Wood's 
 ' History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford ' 
 (ed. Gutch, 1792), 'History of the Colleges of Oxford' 
 (ed. Gutch, 1776), and ' Athense Oxonienses' (ed. Bliss, 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 1813-20), and Ingram's ' Memorials of Oxford ' (Oxford, 
 1837). Wood's ' Athenae ' being our chief authority 
 for the lives of the older worthies, we have occasionally 
 quoted him without express reference.* Hearne's ' Col- 
 lections ' (ed. by Doble and Rannie for the Oxford 
 Historical Society) have been diligently searched, but 
 they contain fewer allusions to the College than might 
 have been hoped. The portion of Hearne's MSS. still 
 remaining unpublished and the Ballard papers (both in 
 the Bodleian Library) have also been employed. 
 
 Much use has been made of the State Papers, espe- 
 cially for the reign of Henry VIII., and of the 
 'Register of the Visitors of the University of Oxford 
 from A.D. 1647 to 1658, 1 edited by Professor Montagu 
 Burrows for the Camden Society. Most of the 
 information which we have derived from the first- 
 mentioned source has escaped the notice of previous 
 writers about the College. It is needless to say that 
 the ' Dictionary of National Biography ' has been con- 
 stantly referred to. 
 
 The MS. authorities in the possession of the College 
 include an enormous mass of documents relating to its 
 property and finances, but very little besides. The deeds 
 relating to the foundation of the College (including Papal 
 Bulls the originals of which are mostly preserved), and 
 the title-deeds of the various properties, were in the 
 time of Warden Woodward carefully copied out in 
 seven folio volumes of ' Evidences ' which are kept in 
 
 * ' Wood ' with the number of a volume indicates Wood's 
 ' Annals ' ; ' Wood ' as the authority for a statement about an 
 individual may be taken to refer to the notice of that individual in 
 the ' Athenae.' 
 
x PREFACE 
 
 the Bursary. The immense collection of court rolls 
 of manors, farmers 1 accounts, and the like, are very 
 valuable materials for history, of which much use has 
 already been made by the late Professor Thorold Rogers 
 in his monumental ' History of Prices,' but they throw 
 no light on the internal history of the College. Besides 
 these, the following classes of documents may be noticed : 
 
 1. The Steward of Hall's books from 1387 to 1544, 
 containing (with considerable gaps) the names of all 
 members of the foundation who were receiving commons 
 during each week, with occasional entries relating to 
 guests. 
 
 2. The Bursars 1 rolls from the foundation to 1638, 
 and the 'Long Books 1 which succeeded them from 1651 
 to 1881, since which time they have been supplanted 
 by ledgers and balance-sheets of a more modern type. 
 
 3. The * White Book, 1 containing the admission of 
 Wardens, scholars, and Fellows from the foundation 
 to 1456, with the notarial attestations and a few other 
 formal documents, such as the list of books presented 
 to the College by the founder (printed by A. F. Leach 
 in the ' Collectanea, 1 vol. iii., of the Oxford Historical 
 Society). There are also MS. lists of Fellows in Raw- 
 linson MSS., D. 130 (Bodleian Library), and in the 
 possession of the Warden of Winchester. 
 
 4. Registers of College meetings or meetings of the 
 Warden and Thirteen from 1764 (the earlier part very 
 meagre). 
 
 5. Visitatorial injunctions (referred to in various 
 notes). 
 
 6. MS. notes by Wardens Pincke and Woodward. 
 
 7. Of the original statutes there exist the following 
 
PREFACE xi 
 
 copies : One in the College library, one in the custody 
 of the Warden, one in that of the Visitor, one in the 
 British Museum (Harl. MSS., No. 1,343), from which 
 last they were printed for the University of Oxford 
 Commissioners in 1853. 
 
 Another most valuable MS. source is to be found in 
 the registers of the Bishops of Winchester, especially 
 the register containing a full record of the Visitations 
 of Bishop Home, of which only a very slight account 
 his hitherto been given. We are much indebted to the 
 kindness of our present Visitor in allowing us to use 
 this volume in the Bodleian Library. 
 
 Reference to the original authorities for the names 
 and dates of Fellows has been rendered unnecessary by 
 the labours of our present venerable Warden, who has 
 compiled an elaborate register of past members of the 
 Society,* and collected an immense amount of informa- 
 tion relating to their subsequent careers. The use which 
 he has kindly allowed us to make of this precious volume 
 is so great that we feel almost entitled to claim him as 
 a joint-author of the present work. In many other 
 ways we have been indebted to his knowledge of the 
 College documents and the extracts which he has made 
 from them. We must also express gratitude to the 
 Rev. Hereford B. George, now senior Fellow of the 
 College, for much useful information about the recent 
 history of the College, and for his kindness in reading 
 over our proof-sheets. 
 
 Though we trust that we have put together a fuller 
 and more systematic history of the foundation than has 
 
 * ' F. ' with a date after a name means that the person became a 
 ' true and perpetual Fellow ' in that year. 
 
xii PREFACE 
 
 hitherto appeared, the present volume is very far from 
 being the complete and final history of New College 
 which we should like to see written. In partial extenua- 
 tion of its many deficiencies, we trust that the short 
 time at our disposal (in spite of much indulgence at 
 the hands of our Publisher) may be duly borne in mind. 
 It is possible that we may be able at some future date 
 to produce a volume more worthy of our ancient and 
 beloved Society. 
 
 H. RASHDALL. 
 
 ROBERT S. RAIT. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. THE FOUNDER I 
 
 II. THE FOUNDATION 1 8 
 
 III. THE STATUTES 39 
 
 IV. THE BUILDINGS 64 
 
 V. THE MIDDLE AGES AND THE RENAISSANCE . . 90 
 
 VI. THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES .... IOO 
 
 VII. THE REVOLUTION AND THE RESTORATION . . l6l 
 
 VIII. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 196 
 
 IX. THE AGE OF REFORM 217 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 A. LIST OF WARDENS 232 
 
 B. LIST OF PORTRAITS IN THE HALL .... 233 
 
 C. PRINCIPAL PICTURES IN THE WARDEN'S LODGINGS . 234 
 
 D. THE COLLEGE PLATE 235 
 
 E. BENEFACTIONS 238 
 
 F. THE JUNIOR COMMON ROOM . . . . .242 
 
 G. NEW COLLEGE PUDDINGS 244 
 
 H. ATHLETICS 244 
 
 I. COLLEGE CUSTOMS 247 
 
 K. THE LIBRARY 250 
 
 L. PROGRESS 251 
 
ILLUSTKATIONS 
 
 I. NEW COLLEGE, FROM LOGGAN'S DRAWING, 1675 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 II. NEW COLLEGE, FROM WARDEN CHANDLER'S MS. 
 
 to face p. 38 
 
 III. THE HALL 60 
 
 IV. THE FRONT GATEWAY .... 64 
 V. THE DOOR OF THE MUNIMENT ROOM . 82 
 
 VI. THE CHAPEL: EAST END. ... 130 
 
 VII. THE CITY WALLS, FROM THE GARDEN . 164 
 VIII. THE HALL AND CHAPEL, FROM THE NEW 
 
 BUILDINGS 226 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 THE FOUNDER 
 
 WHEN the founder of a College is one of the most pro- 
 minent statesmen of his age, a detailed life of him 
 becomes out of place as an introduction to the history 
 of a College. A biography of William of Wykeham 
 would involve an inquiry into the whole political history 
 of a peculiarly perplexed and difficult period of English 
 history. All that we shall aim at in the following sketch 
 is to inform the reader what sort of man William of 
 Wykeham was. So much is essential if we would enter 
 into the spirit and aim of his educational founda- 
 tions. 
 
 William of Wykeham was born at Wickham in 
 Hampshire in the year 1324. He lived just at the 
 time when surnames were beginning to get stereotyped 
 even in non-noble families. William took his surname, 
 as was usual with ecclesiastics, from the place of his 
 birth : his father is said to have been called John 
 Longe.* On the other hand, a number of his relations, 
 who may or may not have been actually born at Wyke- 
 ham, assumed the name of the man who had founded 
 
 * Ancient Register of Winchester College. 
 
 1 
 
2 / THE FOUNDER 
 
 tHe. forties, of his family, His parents are said to 
 have been of humble condition : William was the first 
 of his family who assumed a coat-of-arms.* The well- 
 known motto which he added thereto and bequeathed 
 to his College suggests an honourable disclaimer of noble 
 lineage. His father is said to have been a freed villein, 
 and the chevrons of his arms have been supposed to be 
 an allusion to his trade of carpenter. Nothing is more 
 probable than that William of Wykeham should have 
 been a carpenters son. His parents were too poor to 
 have him educated at their own expense ; but he lived 
 at a time when Grammar Schools were abundant, and 
 the patronage of promising lads of humble extraction 
 was a recognised work of neighbourly kindness or 
 religious piety. At the Grammar School, or one of the 
 Grammar Schools, of Winchester Wykeham apparently 
 gained his early education. For the promising youth of 
 humble birth the regular avenue to a career in the Church 
 was by way of the University. But there were other 
 avenues to the same end. At his time the professions, 
 as we should call them, were in Northern Europe chiefly 
 exercised by ecclesiastics that is, by clerks, generally in 
 minor orders, who eventually took the higher orders as 
 the offer of promotion made it worth their while. In 
 England this had ceased to be the case with the common 
 lawyers, but the ecclesiastical lawyers, the physicians, the 
 secretaries and clerks of the King, of the Bishops, and of 
 the great nobles were still, for the most part, tonsured 
 
 * Report of Robert Glover, Somerset Herald, to Lord Burghley, 
 ap. Lowth, p. ii. The authorities for statements in this chapter, 
 when they are not given in the notes, may be found in Lowth or in 
 the excellent Life of Wykeham by Mr. Tait in the ' Dictionary of 
 National Biography.' 
 
WYKEHAM THE NOTARY 3 
 
 ecclesiastics. These occupations, or at least their higher 
 grades, were chiefly recruited from the Universities ; but 
 there was one profession that of notary for which a 
 Grammar School education was sufficient, and which 
 qualified its members for that service of great men which 
 was the easiest road to greatness for those who were 
 not born great. In a notary ^s office, we may presume, 
 Wykeham ' completed his education, 1 learnt the ordinary 
 routine of business, and picked up the rudiments of law. 
 At all events, it is practically certain that he did not go 
 to the University. On this point Chandler, who was 
 Warden of New College within fifty years of its founder's 
 death, was not likely to have made a mistake.* The 
 patron who 6 exhibited ' him at school is said to have been 
 the Governor of Winchester Castle. His first employ- 
 ment was that of notary to his benefactor. t He is 
 found acting for Edyngton, Bishop of Winchester,! but 
 there is no reason to believe that he was permanently in 
 his service. In May, 1356, we find him attached to 
 the King's service as Clerk of the King^s Works in his 
 Manors of Henley and Easthampstead. On October 30 
 of the same year he is promoted to be ' Supervisor ' of 
 the King's Works at the Castle and in the Park of 
 Windsor by a patent which gives him power to press 
 artificers, and to superintend the compulsory ' purvey- 
 ance 1 of stone, timber, carriages, and the like. His 
 
 
 * See extract from his Chronicle in Lowth, p. 15. Lowth adds 
 that he might have consulted the University Registers ; but at this 
 time there were no Registers of Matriculations, and only a small 
 proportion of the University students took a degree. 
 
 f Reg. of Winchester College : Chandler's Chronicle. 
 
 I Mentioned by Tanner as acting for the Bishop in documents 
 of that time (Lowth, p. 14). 
 
4 THE FOUNDER 
 
 wages are a shilling a day at Windsor, two shillings 
 elsewhere, with three shillings a week for his clerk. 
 His income was that of a fairly well-beneficed priest. 
 It was by his advice that in 1359 the King ' was per- 
 suaded to pull down many good buildings, and to build 
 many more beautiful and sumptuous ones : nearly all 
 the masons and carpenters throughout all England were 
 brought to that work, so that scarcely anyone could 
 have any good mason or carpenter except in secret, by 
 reason of the King's prohibition. 1 The historian who 
 gives us this account adds that he was a man * of the 
 lowest, perhaps (as was said) of servile condition ; but 
 very astute, and a man of great industry.'* Windsor 
 Castle owes its present form to Wykeham's superin- 
 tendence, if not to Wykeham's design ; he was also 
 employed upon the building of castles at Sheppey t 
 and elsewhere. There is a story that somewhere on an 
 inner wall of Windsor Castle Wykeham had inscribed 
 the ambiguous words : ' Hoc fecit Wykeham.' Envious 
 tongues denounced his presumption to the King ; Wyke- 
 ham deftly stopped the mouths of his calumniators by 
 translating it : ' This made Wykeham. 1 But the story 
 is probably a legend, and not an early one. 
 
 Wykeham at this time must be thought of as 
 a man of business, an official, a sort of Chief Commis- 
 sioner of Works only by accident an ecclesiastic. He 
 has sometimes been regarded as an architect in the 
 modern sense, but it is not likely that he possessed a 
 technical knowledge of building. In 1357 he had received 
 the addition of a shilling a day to his salary, which made 
 
 * Continuatio Chronic! Ranulphi per Job. Malverne (Lowth, p. 20). 
 t Ibid. 
 
WYKEHAM THE PLURALIST 5 
 
 him a richer man than the Warden of his future 
 College ; but the cheapest way for Kings and nobles 
 to pay their employes was by ecclesiastical preferment ; 
 and in 1348 the Black Death began to create a glut of 
 vacancies. From this time benefices begin to be showered 
 upon Wykeham with a liberal hand. In 1349 he begins 
 with the rectory of Irstead, in Norfolk. In 1357 he is 
 presented to Pulham, in the same county ; there being 
 difficulties with the Roman Court, he is granted ^200 
 a year till he obtains 6 peaceable possession,"* which he 
 does in 1361. Then in 1358-59 he gets a prebend in 
 Lichfield Cathedral, exchanged for another benefice in 
 1361. In 1360 he is Dean of the King s Free Chapel of 
 St. Martin-le-Grand in London. Here he began to in- 
 dulge his taste for building at his own expense by 
 rebuilding the chapel and cloister-house. In 1361 he 
 acquires from the King a great batch of prebends, 
 recently vacated by the plague, at Abergwili, Llandewi 
 Brewi, Bromyard, Beverley,Wherwell, Hereford, St. Paul's, 
 and at least two from other patrons i.e., one (if not two 
 simultaneously) at Sarum, and another prebend in St. 
 Paul's. In 1362 he becomes Canon and Prebendary at 
 Lincoln, and is in possession of three livings in that 
 diocese, one of which is soon afterwards exchanged for 
 a prebend of York. In 1363 (or 1362-3) the list is 
 augmented by prebends in the Collegiate Churches of 
 Hastings and St. Stephen's, Westminster, and a couple 
 of archdeaconries, held in succession Northampton 
 and Lincoln with the provostship of Wells and a 
 prebend in that church. A few of these benefices 
 appear to have been exchanged or dropped after a 
 short tenure, and there are other preferments of which 
 
6 THE FOUNDER 
 
 even the diligence of Lowth has failed to preserve a com- 
 plete record. We are able, however, to give a complete 
 list of his preferments in the year 1366. Urban VI., 
 the truculent torturer of the recalcitrant Cardinals, 
 opened his reign by an attack upon pluralities. In the 
 year 1365 he issued a Bull requiring an account of all 
 pluralities to be sent to him through the Ordinary of 
 the place in which the pluralist resided. At this time 
 Wykeham is credited with the possession of one arch- 
 deaconry, one provostship, and ten canonries with 
 prebends. The total value of these preferments is 
 <873 6s. 8d. 
 
 It is, of course, improbable that Wykeham ever re- 
 sided a day in any of these benefices. His earliest pre- 
 ferments were acquired before he was even an acolyte 
 an order which he received in 1361. He was not 
 ordained priest till 1362. In the above-mentioned return 
 he is mentioned as ' residing and commonly dwelling 
 in the city and diocese of London." Meanwhile his 
 civil promotion fully kept pace with his ecclesiastical. 
 In 1359 he became Chief Warden and Surveyor of the 
 King's Castles of Windsor, Leeds, Dover, and Hadleigh, 
 and of the Manors of Old and New Windsor, Wichemer, 
 and a number of other castles, manors and parks, an 
 office which included the stewardship or judgeship of 
 the manorial courts.* In 1360 he attends the King at 
 the signature of the Peace of Bretigny. In 1363 he 
 becomes Warden and Justiciary of the King's Forests 
 on this side Trent ; in 1364 Keeper of the Privy Seal ; 
 two years later Secretary to the King. In 1365 he is 
 associated with great officers of State in a Commission 
 
 * Rot. Pat. 33 Ed. III. (Tanner and Ashmole). 
 
WYKEHAM THE CHANCELLOR 7 
 
 to treat about the ransom of the King of Scotland. 
 About 1365 Froissart* speaks of him as 'so much in 
 favour with the King of England that everything was 
 done by him and nothing was done without him.' At 
 last, in 1366, on the death of his former patron, sixteen 
 years or more of service to the Crown were rewarded by 
 the magnificent bishopric of Winchester, and (some 
 difficulties with the Pope having been adjusted) he was 
 consecrated in the following year. As Bishop-elect, on 
 September 7, 1367, he became Lord High Chancellor 
 of England. It was not till 1368 that he found time 
 to run down to Winchester for his enthronement. 
 
 Wykeham had now attained the highest prize that 
 lay open to the ambition of an ecclesiastical statesman. 
 But the moment was an ill one for ecclesiastical states- 
 men. The mismanagement of the French war, the 
 heavy taxation at home, and administrative abuses had 
 produced an outburst of popular indignation. The 
 cry -went forth that it was the administration of ' gens 
 (feglise ' that was responsible for all that was wrong, 
 and the discontent was increased by the Wycliffite out- 
 cry against the secular power of Churchmen, an outcry 
 artfully fomented (later, if not now) by John of Gaunt, 
 Duke of Lancaster, whose faction was trying to get 
 the decrepit King into its hands. This policy found 
 expression in the Parliament of 1371, which petitioned 
 that all Churchmen might be removed from the great 
 offices of State. The King, now completely under the 
 influence of the Duke, yielded, and for the first time 
 the Great Seal passed into lay hands. Released from 
 administrative duties, the Bishop retired to his diocese 
 * viii. 101. 
 
8 THE FOUNDER 
 
 and began the kind of reforms which usually marked 
 the early days of a vigorous episcopate. He set about 
 repairing the episcopal residences, much dilapidated by 
 his predecessor. He held a visitation of the diocese 
 in person, leaving injunctions for the reform of monastic 
 abuses. In particular he attacked with a vigorous hand 
 the abuses in the Hospital of St. Cross, where the late 
 Bishop's nephew and other Masters had been systemati- 
 cally appropriating to themselves revenues left for the 
 relief of the poor. Here the Bishop finally triumphed 
 after a long suit in the Roman Court. But the malice 
 of the Lancastrian faction was not content to allow the 
 Bishop, the chief support of the Black Prince's party, 
 to devote himself to these harmless labours. It had 
 been discovered that lawyers and lay nobles managed 
 affairs rather worse than ecclesiastics, especially when 
 their influence depended on the mistress of an aged and 
 lascivious monarch. By the good Parliament of 1376, 
 inspired by the Prince of Wales, Alice Ferrers was 
 banished from Court, the Duke's chief agents were im- 
 peached, and a Parliamentary Commission appointed to 
 control the Government. But the dissolution of the 
 Parliament practically restored Lancaster to power, and 
 left Wykeham exposed to the vengeance of the faction. 
 A prosecution was instituted against Wykeham for 
 alleged maladministration and misappropriation when 
 in office. The first charge is simply one of wasteful ly 
 expending the money voted for the war ; the rest 
 relate chiefly to various fines and other debts to the 
 King which the Bishop was accused of corruptly or 
 negligently remitting. All the articles were, however, 
 dropped with the exception of one alleged remission of 
 
WYKEHAIVTS TRIBULATIONS 9 
 
 a fine, by which the King was defrauded, though it is not 
 contended that the Bishop was enriched. For this offence 
 a charge of this kind in those days could probably 
 have been made against anyone who had held the Great 
 Seal for four years the temporalities* of his see were 
 seized, and he was forbidden to approach within twenty 
 miles of the Court. His name was expressly omitted 
 from the general pardon at the King's Jubilee all this 
 apparently after an examination before the Council, 
 but no regular trial. The Bishop was obliged to retire 
 to a kind of sanctuary in the monasteries of Merton 
 and Waverley, near Farnham. Impoverished by the 
 sequestration, 
 
 ' he then brake up househould and scattered his men and 
 dismissed them, for he could no longer gouerne and 
 meinteyn them ; sending also to Oxford, whear vpon 
 almose and for God's sake he found LX. scollers, that they 
 shold depart and remoue euery one to their frendes, for he 
 could no longer help or finde them ; and so they all de- 
 parted in great sorow and discomfort, weeping and with 
 simple cheer. 'f 
 
 Wykeham's disgrace and the suspension of his 
 College's existence was not of long duration. The Con- 
 vocation of 1377 refused to grant a subsidy till the 
 Bishop of Winchester was present. He was persuaded 
 by the Bishops to return to his palace at Southwark, 
 and to take his seat in Convocation. With character- 
 istic prudence ' he came to London with a small number 
 of servants, whoe before tyme was thoughte to excel all 
 
 * This does not, of course, imply that he was reduced to pauperism. 
 About half the income of the see was in ' spiritualities,' i.e., tithes, 
 f Chron. Angliae, p. Ixxx. 
 
10 THE FOUNDER 
 
 other in multitude of servants. 1 When Lancaster's 
 violence against the Bishop of London at WyclifiVs 
 trial had provoked a riot of the Londoners, one of the 
 popular demands was that the Bishop of Winchester 
 should be brought to trial before his peers. On 
 June 18 Lancaster was unable to prevent the restitution 
 of the Bishop's temporalities on condition of his fitting 
 out three ships of war, with the pay of fifty men at 
 arms and fifty archers in each for three months. To 
 procure this pardon he had, it is said, to stoop to the 
 humiliation of entreating and paying for the intercession 
 of Alice Ferrers ; but others besides Wykehamists have 
 doubted the story. 
 
 When out of office the Bishop of Winchester still 
 took a prominent part in politics. Year after year he 
 appears among the small Committee of Lords whose 
 advice and assistance the Commons demanded in their 
 own deliberations. The great Parliamentary revolt 
 against the misgovernment of the De la Pole Ministry 
 in the early days of Richard II. placed William of 
 Wykeham among the Commission of eleven who were 
 to superintend the administration. He does not appear 
 to have taken any part in the armed resistance to the 
 King, but served as one of the mediators between the 
 Lords Appellant and the young monarch. When the 
 King had waxed strong enough once more to assert 
 himself and to take the government into his own hands, 
 Wykeham reluctantly accepted the Great Seal again. 
 In the Parliament which followed he took the pre- 
 caution of formally resigning, and inviting any com- 
 plaints against his official conduct ; but none were 
 made, and he resumed the chancellorship, which he 
 
WYKEHAIVTS OLD AGE 11 
 
 retained till 1391. When the King attempted to 
 wreak vengeance on his uncles and the Commission of 
 eleven (1397), the Bishop was formally declared to have 
 been ignorant of the scope of this Commission ; but he 
 had taken the precaution of lending the King ^1,000 
 in furtherance of his scheme of practically ruling with- 
 out a Parliament, and he so far assented to the King^s 
 proceedings against Archbishop Arundel as to be the 
 Papal delegate for conveying the pallium to the intruder, 
 Richard Walden. After the impeachment of Arundel, 
 Richard in his last Parliament solemnly pronounced 
 Wykeham and other Commissioners 'immune, 1 where- 
 upon they fell upon the ground and thanked the King 
 for his goodness.* He absented himself from the Parlia- 
 ment which deposed Richard II., and was not among 
 the Lords who voted for Richard^ imprisonment in the 
 first Parliament of Henry IV. From this time the 
 Bishop practically retired into private life. He died 
 in 1404. 
 
 The memory of Wykeham has been exposed to a 
 curious succession of baseless attacks. Firstly, there is 
 the assertion that Wykeham had accused John of Gaunt 
 of being a changeling. This is as old as Malverne's 
 ' Continuatio Ranulphi, 1 circa A.D. 1376. So indiscreet 
 a circulation of so improbable a slander would be very 
 unlike Wykeham's usual caution. Secondly, there is a 
 batch of stories about his low extraction, etc., preserved 
 by Leland, which owe their origin to the infamous 
 Warden London, the value of whose testimony we shall 
 have more opportunity of estimating hereafter. Lowth 
 
 * ' Proni in terrain ceciderunt, regi de tanto beneficio regraciantes.' 
 Adam of Usk, ed. M. Thompson, p. 12. 
 
 
12 THE FOUNDER 
 
 has no difficulty in showing the impudent falsifications 
 of history with which they are mixed up. Among these 
 assertions is the story that his real name was Perot. 
 This appears to be the sole historical basis of the 
 calumny that Wykeham introduced Alice Ferrers, his 
 niece or sister, 'to the King's favour and bed.' This 
 story makes its appearance for the first time in a work 
 called ' The English Lawyer ' (under the head of 
 Scandalum Magnatum\ edited by one William Bohun, 
 who had a quarrel with the College about property in 
 Essex, and who adopted an original method of airing 
 his grievances : 
 
 ' In the year 1726 Bohun met the College progress in 
 Essex, and first expostulated with Mr. Pryor, a Fellow of 
 the College, and acting upon that occasion as Deputy 
 Steward, on the supposed injustice of the proceedings. 
 Mr. Pryor contented himself with answering that the 
 Society had not acted in this affair without taking due 
 advice, and that they were ready to justify their conduct 
 whenever they should be called upon by a proper authority. 
 This was all that passed in Mr. Pry or' s presence ; but 
 Dr. Bigg, Warden of the College, sent for Mr. Bohun into 
 the parlour of the house where the College courts were 
 held, and there in the presence of Mr. Bridgell and 
 Mr. Coker (then Fellow of the College, and by his office 
 attending upon the Warden in his progress) undertook to 
 reason the matter with him calmly and dispassionately in 
 behalf of the Society's proceedings. But finding himself 
 unable to make any impression on him, and high words 
 arising between Bohun and Bridgell, the Warden thought 
 proper to withdraw. Soon after, Bridgell having gradually 
 shoved Bohun off the end of the bench on which they both 
 sat, Bohun struck him, and the gentlemen, though both 
 
WYKEHAIVTS CHARACTER 13 
 
 armed with swords, exercised their canes on each other 
 pretty smartly.' LOWTH, pp. 332, 333. 
 
 The consequence was victory to Bridgell, and a severe 
 beating to Bohun. 
 
 Bohun, on his recovery, not only brought an action 
 against Bridgell for the assault, but likewise swore the 
 peace against the Warden, alleging that he was a 
 confederate of Bridgell, and aiding and abetting him, 
 since the Warden had invited Bohun into the house, 
 and ought to have protected him during his stay in it. 
 The Warden was obliged to attend in person at West- 
 minster Hall, and to give bail ; but, Bohun proceeding 
 no further against him, the matter, so far as concerned 
 the Warden and the College, dropped there. 
 
 The few facts here collected will perhaps be sufficient 
 to suggest to the reader the public character of William 
 of Wykeham. He was in the main an admirable man 
 of affairs sagacious, cautious, moderate. He belonged, 
 on the whole, to the constitutional party of his time, 
 sympathizing with the lawful King and the heir-ap- 
 parent against princely factions, with Parliamentary 
 government against Court intrigues, with the cause of 
 good administration against tyranny and oppression. Yet 
 he was averse from extreme measures in public policy, and 
 from encountering great risks in person or in purse, and he 
 lived at a time when personal security not unfrequently 
 demanded some sacrifice of nice scruples, or even of 
 personal dignity. A good patriot and a good Church- 
 man, he had no mind for the role of a Langton or a 
 Becket. Without being a great statesman, a saint, or 
 a hero, he was probably the most respected prelate of 
 an age when prelates were not wont to be either saintly 
 
14 THE FOUNDER 
 
 or heroic. He was content to keep out of evil which 
 he could not prevent, and to make the best of a situa- 
 tion in which high success was perhaps impossible and 
 certainly dangerous. It was in the main due to his 
 virtues rather than to his failings that he won more 
 respect and suffered less injury at the hands of political 
 opponents than any other public man of his time. 
 
 Such was William of Wykeham, the statesman. But 
 what of Wykeham the ecclesiastic ? The answer is that 
 his religious ideas and his views of ecclesiastical duty 
 were exactly those of his time no better and no worse. 
 He was a typical representative of the characteristic 
 abuses of his age : as such, and as the enemy of their 
 patron, John of Gaunt, he was a favourite object of 
 attack to Wycliffe and the Lollards. The central theme 
 of all their denunciations was the wealth, the secular 
 power, and, above all, the secular employments, of the 
 clergy. Wykeham had become Bishop of one of the 
 greatest English sees by being 'wise in buildyng castles, 1 * 
 as Wycliffe himself puts it ; nor is it probable that he 
 had ever heard a confession or preached a sermon before 
 his elevation to the episcopate. Lowth notices that he 
 
 * I cannot doubt, in view of Wykeham 's prominence as an eccle- 
 siastical statesman, that these words are aimed at him, and they 
 support the traditional view that Wykeham had something to do 
 with the designing of the various buildings erected under his direc- 
 tion a view against which Mr. Leach, in his ' History of Winchester 
 College ' (following the lead of Mr. Papworth's most important paper 
 in the ' Transactions of the Royal Institute of British Architects,' 
 part iii.), has argued with his accustomed vigour. It is impossible 
 to determine exactly the share which he took in the matter. There 
 is no reason to think that he actually drew the plans or inspected 
 the workmanship, but there seems to be a probability that he was 
 not exactly in the position of the modern official or private person 
 who employs an architect mere clay in the hands of the potter. 
 
WYKEHAM THE BISHOP 15 
 
 was the first Chancellor who did not take a text, divide, 
 distinguish, and so on, in his Parliamentary addresses 
 a sensible but unclerical proceeding. These abuses were 
 increased when the Churchman was ignorant as well as 
 secular. Wykeham, though he must have picked up a 
 little law in the notary's office, had enjoyed nothing 
 but a Grammar School education. 6 Quod minus habuit 
 litteraturae, laudabili compensavit liberalitate,' says a 
 contemporary apologist.* Not only Lollards, but all 
 earnest Churchmen, deplored the monstrous abuses of 
 plurality and non-residence : Wykeham was perhaps the 
 worst pluralist of his time, and is not known to have 
 kept a day's residence in any of his cathedral dignities 
 or parochial cures. Not only Lollards, but all patriotic 
 Englishmen, sympathized with the legislation against 
 Papal provisions : Wykeham had accepted a provision 
 from the Pope in his early days, and as Bishop consented 
 to be 'provided 1 to his bishopric, though now by collusion 
 and arrangement with the King. All earnest men 
 lamented the spiritual destitution which made WyclifiVs 
 4 poor priests ' a necessity, and traced it largely to the 
 abuse of ' impropriations ' : Wykeham, even when pro- 
 viding for the better education of the secular clergy, 
 did so largely by buying up or creating impropriations. 
 The abuses of the age centred in his person. Like many 
 a commercial philanthropist of modern times, he was 
 better than other men, not in his way of getting money, 
 but in his way of spending it. In right of his see, he 
 owned a particularly disreputable property in South- 
 wark.f From so typical a bulwark of the old regime in 
 
 * Ann. Hen. IV., p. 391. 
 
 f See Trevelyan, ' England in the Age of Wycliffe,' p. 280. 
 
16 THE FOUNDER 
 
 Church and State, we could hardly expect original ideas 
 in religion or in education ; and yet, strange to say, this 
 half-educated, conservative man of the world discerned, 
 and attempted to remedy, some of the most conspicuous 
 defects in the educational system of his day. 
 
 It must not be supposed that because Wykeham saw 
 no harm in accumulating pluralities, and taking out 
 Papal licenses of non-residence, he was not a man of 
 profound piety after the conventional clerical fourteenth- 
 century manner. We are told much of the magnificence 
 of his gate-alms, of his remission of customary dues from 
 tenants on his accession to the bishopric, of his paying 
 the debts of the Convent of Selborne, of his repair of 
 the roads between London and Winchester. He so far 
 improved upon the conventional charity of his day as to 
 employ pages to seek out those who were really in distress, 
 instead of reserving his liberality for importunate or 
 professional beggars. The most tender medieval piety 
 and the basest medieval superstition gathered round 
 the provision made for the soul's health after death. 
 In this, too, Wykeham was a man of his age. At one 
 of the nave-altars of Winchester Cathedral there was 
 wont in Wykeham's school-days to be celebrated a very 
 early morning Mass, which good schoolboys voluntarily 
 attended before their long day's work began. The 
 future Bishop, whose eyes (we are told) often streamed 
 with tears when he reached the commemoration of the 
 living and the dead in the service of the Mass, was a 
 frequent attendant at this service : and this scene of his 
 early devotions he chose as the place of his burial, and 
 the site of his gorgeous mortuary chapel ; and here he 
 carefully contracted with the Prior and convent that 
 
WYKEHAM THE FOUNDER 
 
 17 
 
 three Masses daily should aid the repose of his soul for all 
 time. But a more gorgeous memorial and a more ample 
 provision for perpetual prayer was supplied by the two 
 great Colleges at Winchester and Oxford, with which 
 his memory is eternally associated. To the history of 
 these foundations, for which Wykeham had begun to 
 make preparations since the very first days of his 
 episcopate, it is now time to turn. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE FOUNDATION 
 
 RESPECTABLE as is the position which Wykeham won for 
 himself by his administrative and political labours, it is 
 by the * two S. Mary Winton Colleges ' that his name 
 will chiefly live in history. What was his design in 
 founding them? In the first place, it must be 
 remembered that they were essentially ecclesiastical 
 foundations. They served the purpose of all ecclesiastical 
 foundations. They were a 'good work 1 upon which 
 the pious and celibate Churchman who had grown 
 rich upon the wealth of the Church might naturally be 
 inclined, and was almost expected, to bestow a portion 
 of his gains. They gratified the generous passion 
 for building which was widespread among mediaeval 
 ecclesiastics, and was likely to be especially strong in 
 a ' Surveyor of Works. ' They added to the numbers 
 of the clergy, which was an end in itself apart 
 altogether from pastoral needs or * spiritual destitu- 
 tion ' ; and in particular they would insure a continual 
 supply of prayers and Masses for the founder's soul 
 and for the souls of his parents and benefactors. But 
 among the good works which would fulfil these designs 
 
WYKEHAIVTS DESIGN 19 
 
 there was room for considerable choice. The would-be 
 'pious founder" might build a hospital; but since 
 leprosy had become rarer, this form of benefaction had 
 not been very popular in the Middle Ages : in those 
 days it was only extreme affliction which made poverty 
 interesting. He might found a monastery.* But 
 monks were getting out of favour. An orthodox 
 Churchman like Wykeham would not have denied in 
 the abstract the value of lives divided between slothful 
 repose and mechanical service-singing. But it is 
 probable that many of Wycliffe's opponents secretly 
 sympathized with his polemic against the hunting 
 Abbots and ' buzzing monks, 1 who battened upon the 
 revenues of impropriated parish churches, and whose 
 social function was at the best that of very respectable 
 squireens. It had begun to dawn upon the laity that 
 the lives of the monks were, to say the very least of it, 
 less edifying than those of the ordinary secular priest, who 
 could chant a service quite as well, and at a very much 
 cheaper rate, while he sometimes found leisure besides 
 to do a good many things that the monk was not 
 allowed to do to preach sermons to laymen, to hear 
 confessions, to teach a school or the like. The orders 
 of friars needed no large endowments ; and they, too, 
 had left their first love. Founded to perform these 
 social duties which the monks made a profession of 
 abjuring, they had degenerated into preachers of 
 amusing stories or gross superstitions, sturdy beggars, 
 
 * The statement that Wykeham had intended to found a monas- 
 tery, which I have previously adopted, was made on the authority 
 of Wycliffe, ' De Ecclesia,' cap. xvi., but further consideration shows 
 me that the passage will not bear the interpretation which I put 
 upon it. 
 
20 THE FOUNDATION 
 
 hawkers of every spiritual quack-medicine indulgences, 
 letters of fraternity, and the rest of it. Religious men 
 had begun to feel a secret disgust for monks and friars 
 alike. Hardly any monasteries were founded in the 
 fourteenth century. The secular clergy were coming 
 into favour again. Men were beginning to found 
 chantries and Colleges of secular Canons instead of 
 monasteries. Chaucer^s ideal ecclesiastic was a secular 
 the 'poor priest of a town, 1 i.e., a country town- 
 ship or village. Above all. thoughtful men had long 
 recognised the value of Colleges in University towns, 
 without which it was scarcely possible for the poor 
 man, not a monk or a friar, to face the long educa- 
 tion which led to the higher degrees. It was to 
 the secular theologians that men turned who hoped 
 for reformation in the Church; it was by secular 
 theologians, as WyclifiVs opponents must have felt, 
 that a stand could most effectively be made against the 
 heretics who were on every side catching the ear of the 
 religious-minded laity. Thus, in the middle of the 
 fourteenth century the foundation of a College pre- 
 sented itself as the most natural and obvious outlet 
 for the spirit of ecclesiastical munificence. It was the 
 College-founding epoch par excellence. At Paris sixteen 
 Colleges had been founded before 1300 ; by the time 
 when Wykeham founded New College there were fifty. 
 At Oxford six Colleges had come into existence between 
 1263 and 1341 ; at Cambridge seven between about 1300 
 and 1352. There was thus nothing very original in 
 Wykeham^s choice of a College as the recipient of his 
 liberality. 
 
 To realize what a College in the fourteenth century 
 

 COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY 21 
 
 was, and what it was not, it is essential to bear in mind 
 that the Universities were older than the Colleges, and 
 had reached the period of their highest intellectual 
 vitality almost without their aid. The Universities " ; 
 were originally great guilds or autonomous corpora- 
 tions in the north of Europe of teachers, in the south 
 of students which had grown up, not in the first 
 instance through the will of any definite founder, but 
 by a process of spontaneous and astonishingly rapid 
 evolution. They had gradually acquired legal pre- 
 rogatives, privileges, immunities of all kinds, but they 
 still possessed almost no endowments. In the south of 
 Europe the University teachers were partly supported 
 by the State or the municipality ; in the north they 
 were still dependent entirely upon the fees of their 
 students, or upon the ecclesiastical benefices held by the 
 teachers. Every newly - made Master of Arts was 
 compelled to teach for a time in the schools of the 
 University ; every Master of Arts and every graduate 
 of a higher faculty might continue to do so as long as 
 he felt disposed. So long as he did so, he was called a 
 Regent Doctor or Master. The College introduced no 
 revolution into the University system. It was simply 
 a way of supporting students who were attending the 
 schools of the University Regents. A community of 
 clerks living together in the University schools was 
 naturally expected to live more or less after the fashion 
 of other clerical communities. Even in the unendowed 
 Halls, in which students of all ages had been accustomed 
 to reside before the era of Colleges, there was a certain 
 amount of order and discipline. They were communi- 
 ties governed by a Principal of their own election. At 
 
22 THE FOUNDATION 
 
 first they even made their own statutes ; and even after 
 statutes were made for them by the University, they 
 still retained a good deal of self-government. The 
 College was originally nothing but an endowed Hall. 
 We must not therefore attribute to the earliest College 
 founders any idea of introducing a revolution into the 
 educational system ; it was not their primary design 
 to supplement by a system of private discipline and 
 domestic superintendence the unchastened liberty of the 
 old student-life. Men like Robert de Sorbonne at Paris, 
 or Walter de Merton at Oxford, only aimed at pro- 
 viding endowments and houses of residence in which 
 poorer students might live very much as students of 
 average means had hitherto lived in the unendowed 
 Halls at their own expense. And in particular they 
 aimed at enabling the poorer men to extend their 
 residence to a longer period than they could have 
 done without such assistance. When it is remem- 
 bered that the 'standing 1 now required of graduates 
 in the superior faculties was formerly a period of 
 actual residence, it is clear that only well-to-do students 
 could without assistance attain to those degrees. But, 
 although the provision of stricter discipline was not the 
 primary aim of College founders, the conditions of 
 College life naturally made stricter discipline possible. 
 The Head of a College was, indeed, in this country 
 usually elected by the community, but he could neither 
 be removed by it nor be deserted in favour of a more 
 easy-going Principal. The community was autonomous ; 
 but the degree to which different grades of scholars 
 participated in the government was minutely prescribed 
 by the statutes. The statutes were made by the founder, 
 
THE FOUNDATION DEED 23 
 
 and their execution was watched over by his representa- 
 tive, the external Visitor. The foundation of Colleges 
 naturally led to the growth of a stricter, more dis- 
 ciplined and more orderly form of academic life than 
 had hitherto been known in the Universities, and the 
 advantages which the system revealed in its practical 
 working served as an additional inducement to add to 
 the number of such foundations. 
 
 We are not left to conjecture the motives which 
 inspired Wykeham's designs. He tells us in his founda- 
 tion charter that one of the considerations which moved 
 him to the foundation of his Colleges was the falling off in 
 the number of students on account of pestilences (refer- 
 ring especially, of course, to the Black Death of 1349, 
 and the milder recurrences of the same epidemic), and 
 the poverty of those who wanted to study, in conse- 
 quence of which some were drawn away by the attrac- 
 tions of a military, others by those of a married, life, 
 others by the more lucrative pursuit of mechanical arts. 
 But another reason for such foundations was to be i 
 found, he adds, in the want of discipline among those 
 who proved superior to these seductions, many of whom 
 were 'given up to idleness and frivolous vanities, be- 
 taking themselves to wandering and various insolences/ 
 With regard to the first of these explanations, we may / 
 remark that this sort of thing was almost a matter of 
 6 common form ' in medieval documents ; the medieval 
 was always a laudator temporis acti, especially in the 
 Universities, and habitually disposed to believe that 
 most things were going to the dogs. William of 
 Armagh a little before this time assured the Pope that 
 the numbers of the University had recently declined 
 
 
24 THE FOUNDATION 
 
 from 30,000 to 6,000, while Wykeham^s contemporary, 
 Wycliffe, estimates the fall as being from 60,000 to 
 3,000. These figures are, of course, wholly prepos- 
 terous ; there was at the bottom of them the undoubted 
 fact that the Black Death had diminished the population, 
 and consequently the student class, to some appreciable 
 extent, while it had not diminished the number of pre- 
 bends and livings for which incumbents must be found. 
 
 The kind of discipline which naturally suggested 
 itself to the medieval College-founder as suitable for a 
 community of men all more or less destined to an 
 ecclesiastical career was of course the discipline of an 
 ecclesiastical house. Nothing was further from the 
 intention of a secular College-founder than to make 
 monks of his students. But many features of monastic 
 life were shared by the clergy of collegiate churches 
 and by the Colleges of Priest Vicars or Minor Canons, 
 who often lived together in a common Hall, as well 
 as worshipped together in a common church ; and the 
 life of scholars being much more strictly a 'common 
 life ' than that of Canons, many of the features of the 
 internal discipline and organization of a College were 
 naturally suggested by those of a monastery. The College 
 may be said from one point of view to represent a fusion 
 between the ideal of the self-governing Hall evolved by 
 the action of the students themselves in the Universities 
 of the thirteenth century and that of the ecclesiastical 
 common life in so far as that was suitable to the position 
 of ecclesiastics who were scholars and not monks. 
 
 Such was the ideal which floated before the mind of 
 Walter de Merton, the originator of the English 
 College system. For the most part, it was the same 
 
EARLIER COLLEGES 25 
 
 system which had already grown up at Paris and other 
 University towns. There were, however, certain features 
 more or less peculiar to the English type of College, 
 such as greater autonomy, greater independence of 
 outside Visitors, patrons, or other authorities, and a 
 more liberal and more permanent position for the 
 foundation scholars. And the 'rule of Merlon' was 
 the model upon which all the statutes of later English 
 Colleges, except the first statutes of Balliol, were more 
 or less directly based. Wykeham's conception did not 
 materially differ from that of Walter de Merton, except 
 that the whole foundation was on a larger scale : the 
 buildings were more ample, the allowances more liberal, 
 and the numbers larger. In some respects, the magni- 
 ficence of Wykeham's ideas was anticipated by the 
 Court Chaplain, Eglesfield, the founder of Queen's ; 
 but Eglesfield began to build, and had not wherewith 
 to finish. The most original feature of WykehanTs 
 foundation was its connexion with another foundation. 
 While it is fanciful to make of Wykeham an ' educa- 
 tionist ' of great and original ideas, his arrangements do 
 testify to the penetration with which he discerned the 
 weakest features in the medieval educational system. 
 All medieval books of a learned or scientific character 
 were written in Latin ; all instruction was given in 
 Latin ; the scholar was still supposed to talk, and often 
 did talk, in that language, though less naturally and 
 less well than he had talked it in the thirteenth century. 
 And yet, ever since the rediscovery of Aristotle at the 
 beginning of the thirteenth century had killed the 
 incipient Humanism of the twelfth, Latin was nowhere 
 studied or taught with any thoroughness. In the north 
 
 
26 THE FOUNDATION 
 
 of Europe especially, it was all but ignored in the Uni- 
 versity schools. Even at Oxford the student was still, 
 indeed, nominally examined in grammar and verse- 
 making, but there was no teaching of the classical 
 authors after a boy had once left the Grammar School. 
 And boys commonly left the Grammar School at twelve 
 or fourteen to plunge into the study of the Latin 
 Aristotle, which must often have been wholly above 
 their heads, and which certainly did no good to their 
 Latin prose. The consequence was that medieval Latin 
 was becoming worse and worse. In the thirteenth 
 century scholars had still, to a large extent, thought in 
 Latin. The Latin of Wycliffe, as Dr. Poole has 
 remarked, has sometimes to be literally translated into 
 English before it becomes intelligible. Wykeham was 
 an able man, whose own education had been chiefly 
 that of the Grammar School. In so far as he had any 
 original educational object, it was to improve the 
 scholarship of future ages. And he did this in the 
 best possible way by the foundation of a school quite 
 distinct from his College. Divining, perhaps, that it was 
 no use to struggle against the epidemic of bad Latin 
 and premature scholasticism in Oxford, he placed that 
 school at Winchester, and he provided that his scholars 
 should not leave for Oxford till they had attained the 
 comparatively mature age of sixteen. The College at 
 Oxford was to be strictly confined to former scholars in 
 the founder's College of St. Mary at Winchester.* 
 
 * Mr. Leach ('History of Winchester College/ p. 85) suggests 
 that Wykeham may have taken a hint from the Grammar School 
 established at Exeter by Bishops Stapledon and Grandisson as a 
 nursery for Exeter College, but here there was no organic connexion 
 between the two foundations. 
 
PURCHASE OF THE SITE 27 
 
 And now let us briefly trace the steps which Wyke- 
 ham took for the realization of his great design. It is 
 in the year 1369 that we first find Wykeham beginning 
 to buy up property in Oxford. He buys New Inn Hall> 
 in the parish of St. Peter-le-Bailey, from the represen- 
 tatives of Thomas Trillek, late Bishop of Hereford. 
 This may suggest that he had thought of that region 
 for his College, but he had already begun buying land 
 on the present site in the parish of St. Peter-in-the- 
 East. It would be tedious to mention the successive 
 purchases in detail, mostly effected through the agency 
 of John de Buckingham (Canon of York), and John de 
 Ronceby, clerks both ex-Fellows of Merton. The owner- 
 ship of the soil in medieval towns was divided and sub- 
 divided to an extraordinary extent. The Bishop had to 
 buy his site from a large number of ' capital lords "* and 
 inferior tenants. The largest owner was perhaps the city 
 of Oxford, from whom he had to purchase a considerable 
 empty space in the angle of the city walls, and a public 
 road leading from Smithgate (near the present Indian 
 Institute) to the High Street. An Inquisition ad 
 quod damnum was held in the usual way by the royal 
 coroner, at which it was found* by the jury that 'it 
 would not be to the damage of the King if the said 
 Bishop of Winchester 1 acquired these lands, provided 
 that the Warden and scholars of the proposed College 
 bound themselves to keep the city walls in repair, and 
 that the commonalty of the town have free access to 
 the walls in time of war. The jury adds that : 
 
 ( The said common way or lane and plots of ground before 
 mentioned were full of filth, dirt, and stinking carcases, 
 * Wood, p. 179. 
 
28 THE FOUNDATION 
 
 brought from several places in the Town, which were to 
 the great annoyance of the Town and University of 
 Scholars, and to the detriment of all men that passed that 
 way ; and that also there was a concourse of malefactors, 
 murderers, whores, and thieves, to the great damage of 
 the Town, and danger of Scholars and other men passing 
 that way, and that Scholars and others were there often 
 wounded, killed, and lost ; and that all the said plots of 
 ground lay waste, and had been long time deserted from 
 the inhabiting of any person, and that it was a place as it 
 were desolate and not included or by any occupied.' 
 
 Another document tells us that at an earlier period 
 it had been occupied by ' taverns and deep caves, 1 in 
 which malefactors often lay in wait, and sallied forth to 
 commit thefts, homicides, and other intolerable evils. 
 It has been conjectured that the unoccupied condition 
 of a piece of land within the walls of a crowded city, 
 and close to the centre of University life, was due 
 to its having been used as a plague-pit in the Black 
 Death. The jury found that the plots of ground were 
 worth ten shillings a year. As they made the Bishop 
 pay ^80 for this most undesirable property (3 roods in 
 all),* it is clear that the citizens of Oxford were already 
 laying the foundations of their traditional reputation 
 as remarkably astute and tenacious landlords. The 
 other landlords with whom Wykebam had to deal were 
 the Prior and Convent of St. Frideswyde's, the Master 
 and Brethren of the Hospital of St. John (then occupy- 
 ing the site of Magdalen), the Vicar of St. Peter-in-the- 
 East (whose garden was absorbed) and the wardens of 
 that parish, the Abbot and Convent of Oseney, the 
 
 * There were other purchases of land from the city. 
 
ROYAL LICENSE 29 
 
 Minister and Brethren of the Trinitarian Order (who 
 had a chapel and convent near the East Gate leading 
 out of the city, at the corner of New College Lane), the 
 Prioress and Convent of Littlemore, the Provost and 
 Fellows of Queen's, the Abbess and Convent of God- 
 stow, the Warden and Fellows of Merton (lords of the 
 neighbouring Manor of Holywell), the Prioress and 
 Convent of Studley. As a large part of the site con- 
 sisted of gardens, or wholly unoccupied land, the 
 College displaced fewer of the old Halls than other 
 large Colleges ; still, the founder had to buy up 
 Chimney Hall, Little Hammer Hall, Maiden Hall, 
 Shelde Hall, Mariolhall, Bolehall, and Spaldyng Court, 
 once a domus pauperum, or house of residence for the 
 poorest class of students.* The land now covered by 
 the College buildings and garden was only gradually 
 acquired, and the College had entered into possession 
 of its premises long before the purchases were com- 
 pleted. 
 
 The royal license to found the College and hold land 
 in mortmain was granted on June 30, 1379, together 
 with a pardon to the Bishop's attorneys for having 
 already acquired various plots of ground without 
 license, subject to the condition of keeping in repair 
 the city wall and allowing access to the Mayor and 
 burgesses once in three years to see that this was 
 done, as well as to defend the wall in time of war. 
 The license also requires the College to make a gate 
 or postern in the wall 'at each end of the close of 
 the said Colleges."* The gates actually made were the 
 present front gate and the one at the Slype. On 
 * These facts appear from the Register of Merton College. 
 
30 THE FOUNDATION 
 
 November 26, 1379, the founder from his town-house 
 in Southwark issued his charter erecting a College for 
 a Warden and seventy 'poor and indigent scholar 
 clerks,' to be called 'Saynte Marie College of Wyn- 
 chester. 1 As there was already a St. Mary's College 
 in Oxford the College which early acquired the name 
 of Oriel Wykeham's foundation soon became popularly 
 known as the New College. The name ' New College 
 of St. Mary ' is used even in an official document the 
 petition to the Bishop of Dunkeld for the dedication 
 of the cloister in 1400 ; but the legal style of the 
 corporation is still 'the Warden and Scholars of the 
 College of St. Mary of Winchester in Oxford. 1 
 
 The Bishop of Winchester naturally took pains to 
 provide the College with an ample armoury of Papal 
 Bulls of privileges. The following are worthy of 
 notice : 
 
 1. In 1371 Gregory XI. issues a Bull to the Bishop 
 of Worcester and Exeter and the Prior of Lewes, 
 empowering them to inquire and report concerning 
 a petition of the Bishop of Winchester, who intends 
 to raise his foundation from sixty to one hundred 
 scholars, for leave to buy certain alien priories in 
 England from the houses to which they belong. 
 
 2. Bull of Boniface IX., 1389, giving the College 
 leave to farm out their appropriated churches or posses- 
 sions for any term on lease without the permission of 
 the Bishop of the diocese. 
 
 3. Bull of Urban VI. in 1383, giving the Bishop 
 of Winchester license to consecrate or dedicate the 
 chapel and its altars, and to reconcile the same if 
 desecrated per effusionem sanguinis, by himself or 
 
PAPAL BULLS 31 
 
 any other Catholic Bishop without leave of the 
 Diocesan. 
 
 4. Bull of Boniface IX. in 1389, allowing the College 
 to have a cemetery with right of burial therein without 
 permission of the parish priest. 
 
 5. Bull of Boniface IX. in 1389, granting an indul- 
 gence of 100 days to all who visit the chapel on certain 
 festivals and contribute to its fabric. 
 
 6. Bull of Boniface IX., 1391, giving the College 
 leave to receive oblations and bequests (' oblationes, 
 obventiones, donata, legata, relicta, et alia obvenientia 
 emolumenta quecunque, 1 etc.) without leave of the 
 Diocesan, or Rector or Vicar of the place. 
 
 7. Bull of Boniface IX. in 1398, to allow the 
 College to farm out its possessions to laymen for ten 
 years. 
 
 8. Bull of Boniface IX. in 1398. Since the Bull of 
 1391 made no mention of the original Bull allowing 
 a cemetery with right of burial without permission of 
 the Diocesan, or Rector or Vicar of the place, but 
 saving the rights of the parish church, doubts had 
 arisen as to whether the first Bull was cancelled or 
 whether the second was * surreptitious, 1 to remove which 
 it was now provided that the burial dues, etc., should 
 be received by the College without any deduction. 
 
 9. Bull of Boniface IX. in 1398, granting leave to 
 the Warden to hold a benefice in addition to the 
 wardenship without residence (confirming a Bull of 
 Urban VI., the Warden's necessary residence at Oxford 
 having recently been reduced from eleven months to 
 ten). 
 
 10. Bull of Boniface IX. in 1398, granting Warden 
 
32 THE FOUNDATION 
 
 Malford leave to hold West Wycombe, or any other 
 benefice, with the wardenship and without residence 
 (doubts having arisen as to the legality of such 
 plurality). 
 
 11. Bull of Boniface IX. in 1893, granting to the 
 Bishop of Winchester the right to dedicate (i.e., in 
 modern language, consecrate) the chapel and cemetery, 
 and to reconcile the same if desecrated by effusion of 
 blood, without leave of the Bishop of the diocese. 
 
 12. Bull of Boniface IX. in 1398, declaring (because 
 of doubts as to the interpretation of former Bulls) that 
 the College and its members are exempt from oblations 
 or funeral dues to the Vicar of the place. 
 
 13. Bull of Boniface IX. in 1400, appointing the 
 Archbishop of York, the Abbot of Westminster, and 
 the Abbot of Evesham, ' Conservators "* to protect the 
 College against those who might unlawfully occupy its 
 possessions, withhold rents, etc. The Bull recites that 
 such usurpations had actually taken place. 
 
 Most of these Bulls remain in perfect preservation in 
 the muniment-room ;* but the most valuable and ex- 
 tensive of all College privileges seems to have disap- 
 peared. There is, however, a copy of it in the statute- 
 book in the possession of the Visitor. This is a Bull of 
 Boniface IX. granted in 1398, by which the College is 
 totally exempted from all jurisdiction of any other pre- 
 late than the Bishop of Winchester. It is printed in 
 extenso in a pamphlet published in 1711, when the 
 Fellows of Winchester appealed against ' certain orders 
 and injunctions made against justice and right by the 
 
 * A few of the above are only preserved in the copies in the 
 College Evidence Book, vol. i. 
 
LITIGATION 33 
 
 Electors of New College, 1 * in which it is pointed out 
 that the visitatorial power at New College is granted 
 by Papal Bull, and is absolutely exclusive of all other 
 visitation, whereas the visitation of Winchester belongs 
 to the Bishop jure ordinario in right of his see, and 
 is therefore liable to interference from the Metropolitan. 
 It is only sede vacante that the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury ever had any jurisdiction in New College. 
 
 One of these exemptions of the College led to a 
 prolonged dispute with the Vicar of St. Peter-in-the- 
 East. The College right of burial touched his 
 ' mortuaries,' and for these he litigated for many years. 
 The College eventually triumphed, winning its case by 
 a decision of the Commissioners of the Council of Con- 
 stance after the deposition of John XXIII. (1415).t 
 
 * The pamphlet is styled ' The Plea of the Fellows of Winchester 
 College against the Bishop of Winchester's Local and Visitatorial 
 Power over the said College,' London, 1711. As some doubt has 
 been of late years entertained on the point, I print the essential 
 words : ' Et nihilominus de uberioris dono gratiae, praefatos Custo- 
 dem, Scholares, Presbyteros, Clericos et Personas tarn praesentes quam 
 futuras, necnon Collegium, et locum hujusmodi, cum ambitu praefato, 
 ab omni et omnimoda Jurisdictione quorumcumque Legatorum et 
 Delegatorum Sedis praed', necnon quorumlibet Archiepiscoporum, 
 Episcoporum, Judicum et Ordinariorum, praefata Sede inferiorum, 
 ut prasfertur, prorsus eximimus et totaliter liberamus, ita quod nullam 
 Pouestatem sive Jurisdictionem, etiam bassam vel minimam in Cus- 
 todem, Scolares, Presbyteros, Clericos et Personas praesentes et 
 futuras, necnon Collegium (sive) locum hujusmodi, cum eodem 
 ambitu, per [se vel per] alios, quodomodocunque vel qualiter- 
 cunque po[ssint vel] debeant exerceri (sic), ac hujusmodi Custodem, 
 Scolares, Presbyteros, Clericos et Personas in eodem Collegio pro 
 tempore degentes ac collegium et locum hujusmodi, cum eodem 
 ambitu, Gulielmo Episcopo suisque Successoribus antedictis, quoad 
 omnes et omnimodam hujusmodi Jurisdictionem specialem et Ec- 
 clesiasticam, auctoritate praefata, submittimus et subjicimus.' 
 
 f Evidences, vol. i., pp. 50-56. 
 
 I 
 
34 THE FOUNDATION 
 
 A history of the College estates would exceed the 
 limits prescribed to the present work. It must suffice 
 to record the fact that the estates given to the College 
 by the founder lay chiefly in Oxfordshire, Bucks, Berks, 
 Wilts, Essex, and Norfolk. There have, of course, 
 been buyings and sellings on the College estate of 
 late years; but at the present moment the follow- 
 ing may be mentioned as the chief centres of the 
 College property : Buscot and West Hanney in Berks-; 
 Chackmore, Great Horwood, Hardwicke, Tingewicke, 
 Newton Longueville, in Bucks ; Hornchurch, Romford, 
 and Takeley in Essex ; Great Witchingham in Norfolk ; 
 Adderbury, Heyford Warren, and Stanton St. John in 
 Oxfordshire; Alton Barnes, Stert, Colerne, and West 
 Kington, in Wilts ; Soho and Fenchurch Street in 
 London. 
 
 One of the pieces of property which the College owes 
 to its founder has a curious history. Henry II. gave 
 to the Hospital of St. Nicholas and St. Bernard in 
 Savoy the famous ' hospice ' in the Alps the church 
 and a small estate at Hornchurch in Essex, with its 
 dependent chapelry of Romford, possibly in requital 
 of some service to English travellers. The church 
 lay in the royal demesne of Havering - atte - Bower. 
 The church, being impropriated to the hospital with- 
 out any obligation to appoint a ' perpetual Vicar,' was 
 served by a few of the Savoyard priests, who established 
 a ' cell ' at Hornchurch, and (being Canons Regular, and 
 not technically monks) were not forbidden to perform 
 parochial duties. More than once we find the un- 
 fortunate parishioners complaining of their Savoyard 
 pastors^ inability to talk or understand English, but 
 
HORNCHURCH 35 
 
 to no purpose. The abuse was perfectly canonical. 
 So matters went on till the great fourteenth-century 
 schism in the Papacy, when the Savoyards were obliged, 
 with their Duke, to own the Avignon Antipope, while 
 England adhered to the Roman obedience. The 
 temporalities of the little monastery were seized into 
 the King's hands, and the brethren at St. Bernard's 
 found their English estate a not very valuable asset. 
 They were willing to sell it to William of Wykeham 
 for 4,000 nobles in English gold and 500 francs in 
 French gold. Each party to the transaction got the 
 license of its own Pontiff, the Bull of the Roman Pontiff 
 gracefully reciting that the Canons had unfortunately 
 adhered to ' that son of iniquity ' Robert, calling him- 
 self Clement VII. After his death he becomes ' Robertus 
 damnatse memoriae.' The first Bull (1392) sanctioning 
 the transaction required the College to appoint a 
 6 perpetual Vicar ' ; but upon the College representing 
 that the estate which they had bought had been 
 saddled with no such encumbrance, this condition was 
 rescinded (1398), and the College continued and con- 
 tinues to this day to receive the whole tithes, being 
 responsible merely for serving the two churches in any 
 way they please. The benefice is annexed to the 
 College pleno jure ; the only way of enforcing the 
 liability to serve the church is by information exhibited 
 by the Attorney- General. As a matter of fact, the 
 College deals liberally with the two Vicars, giving them 
 about four times the income that could legally be 
 enforced, and that security of tenure which as mere 
 ' Chaplains and Vicars temporal ' (i.e., temporary) they 
 would not enjoy. 
 
 32 
 
36 THE FOUNDATION 
 
 Anomalous as is the position of these two churches 
 in this respect, there is a still more curious anomaly 
 connected with them. It came to be supposed that 
 the churches were not merely impropriated in this 
 extraordinary manner, but were actual ' peculiars ' i.e., 
 exempt from the jurisdiction of the Bishop and Arch- 
 deacon, and subject only to that of the College ; and in 
 the last century we actually find the College exercising 
 this jurisdiction through a Commissary, who conducted 
 visitations, admitted churchwardens, granted probate 
 of wills, marriage licenses, and so on.* By what 
 means the College succeeded in acquiring this position 
 we have not been able to discover, but it is pretty clear 
 that it is a pure usurpation. In the Middle Ages, both 
 before and after the transference from the Hospital to 
 the College, we find the parish visited by both Bishop 
 and Archdeacon in the usual way. It is not, apparently, 
 till the time of Henry VIII. that we find the College 
 establishing its rights of visitation against the Arch- 
 deacon of Essex ; and it is much later before we come 
 across the slightest trace of a claim to be exempt from 
 the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London. The whole 
 matter is now of merely antiquarian interest, since by 10 
 and 11 Viet., cap. 98, all peculiars have been abolished, 
 except for a concurrent right with the Bishop to grant 
 marriage licenses. Two other parishes in the gift of the 
 College are in the same position, i.e., Writtle and Rox- 
 well. The Vicars still claim exemption from attending 
 Bishops' visitations, but, it would seem, illegally, though 
 they are probably free from that of the Archdeacon. 
 
 * The Commissary's citations, even in the present century, 
 summon all ' schoolmasters, apothecaries and midwives ' to exhibit 
 their licences. 
 
THE START 37 
 
 Another alien priory has found its way into the 
 possession of the College, the church of Newton 
 Longueville in Bucks, formerly belonging to the 
 Cluniac Abbey of St. Faith at Longueville, near 
 Dieppe, in Normandy, to which house it was given 
 by the Earl of Buckinghamshire in 1142. After the 
 dissolution of the alien priories, Henry VI. gave the 
 church to the College at the instance of Thomas 
 Beckington, Bishop of Bath and Wells. 
 
 It is difficult to determine the exact moment at 
 which the College entered upon a de facto existence. 
 A Grammar School was actually established at Win- 
 chester by the year 1373, though the foundation deed 
 of Winchester College was not executed till October 20, 
 1382. In 1374 or 1375 we find the founder addressing 
 to Master Nicholas Wykeham, c Warden of our College 
 at Oxford,' and Master Thomas Cranlegh, Warden of 
 Winchester, and others, a letter giving directions for 
 the impartial election of scholars for Oxford.* The 
 election now presented was probably the first. At this 
 date, then, the College was in full working order, 
 though, as we have seen, there was a certain inter- 
 ruption of its continuity after the Bishop's prosecution 
 in 1376. During this period of growth the scholars 
 were, it appears, lodged in Hart Hall and Black Hall, 
 on the site of the present Hertford College.t The foun- 
 
 * Printed by Lowth, Appendix X. ; and cf. Leach, ' History of 
 Winchester College,' p. 67. The date cannot be 1373 or 1376; see 
 the Itinerary appended by Mr. Kirby to his edition of Wykeham 's 
 Register. 
 
 t There were apparently two Hart Halls one on the site of the 
 cloisters, which was bought by the founder ; the other on the other 
 side of the lane, which is now Hertford College, and which then 
 belonged to Exeter. It was probably in the latter that the infant 
 College was lodged. 
 
38 THE FOUNDATION 
 
 dation deed was executed on November 26, 1379 ; the 
 foundation-stone was laid at 8 a.m., on March 5, 
 1379-80, and on April 14, 1387, at 9 a.m., the Society 
 entered into possession of the beautiful dwelling which 
 its founder had been preparing for it. By the year 
 1385 the College was old enough to have abuses. 'No 
 moderate stupour, 1 the Bishop tells us, ' had invaded 
 his mind, that in his vineyard which he had planted 
 wild vines had grown up, and the shoots which he had 
 hoped would be fruitful were being turned into spurious 
 vine-shoots and bringing forth bitter grapes. 1 There 
 were prevalent among his scholars ' odious comparisons 
 of nobility to ignobility, of science to science, of faculty 
 to faculty, of country to country. 1 Some had ' erected 
 their necks on high 1 and claimed the first places at 
 table, and there were other ' insolences, 1 ' dissensions, 1 
 and ' scandals, 1 which the Bishop (or his rhetorical 
 scribe) could not bring himself to describe in further 
 detail. A commission was accordingly appointed to 
 visit the College and conduct the needful reformation. 
 Unfortunately, we are unable to give our readers any 
 further account of these proceedings. 
 
From a photograph by thc\ [Oxford Camera Club 
 
 FROM WARDEN CHANDLER'S MS. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE STATUTES 
 
 THE charter of foundation reserved to the founder the 
 right of altering his own statutes during his lifetime. 
 This right was several times exercised. In their final 
 form they date from the year 1400, and by them the 
 College was (nominally) governed down to the era of 
 modern University legislation. The basis of the code 
 is distinctly the famous ' rule of Merton, 1 drawn up by 
 Walter de Merton, Bishop of Rochester, for the typical 
 English College of his foundation. But it is the rule of 
 Merton enormously elaborated. Walter de Merton's 
 statutes occupy thirty-seven printed octavo pages ; 
 William of Wykeham's extend over no less than 117. 
 The Bishop-Chancellor's was no doubt the kind of 
 mind which enjoyed the devising of an elaborate code of 
 laws. He was, though in some ways a reformer, in 
 others a reactionary. He believed in the old regime in 
 Church and State, now rudely assailed by secular lords 
 and heretical Lollards. He believed in the Canon Law 
 and lawyer ecclesiastics ; in the career which opened to 
 humble youths a road to wealth and position ; in going 
 to heaven through the investiture of large moneys in 
 
40 THE STATUTES 
 
 perpetual Masses; and he thought to strengthen the 
 old system by prescribing in minute detail a life which 
 would lead infallibly to the production of such men as 
 he wanted. He knew well enough the kind of abuses 
 which were incident to such foundations ; but he 
 thought that his legal acumen was equal to succeeding 
 where other men had failed, and set himself to impose 
 his will upon posterity with all the zest and all the 
 minuteness of a peer tying up his land to checkmate 
 the possible dispersive tendencies of his posterity. And 
 on the whole, from the Bishop's point of view, the 
 statutes are wisely drawn. 
 
 The College consisted of a Warden and seventy 
 scholars, ten stipendiary priests or chaplains, three 
 stipendiary clerks, and sixteen chorister boys. On 
 entering the College, the boy from Winchester found 
 himself a scholar or probationer for two years, at the end 
 of which time, if approved after examination, he might 
 be admitted a ' true and perpetual Fellow.' The word 
 'Fellow' (socius) in the Middle Ages meant simply com- 
 rade, fellow-student ; in a more technical sense members 
 of the organized and self-governing community which 
 lived in the same Hall called one another 'Fellows. 1 
 The name naturally passed to the members of the 
 endowed Hall or College ; Wykeham took the first step 
 towards the modern specialization of the term by reserv- 
 ing it (though still with the epithets ' true and perpetual ') 
 to the full or governing members of the body. It was 
 only later and very gradually that the term ' scholar ' 
 came to signify distinctively the inferior and merely 
 temporary class of foundationers. At New College 
 and elsewhere, the legal style of the society is still 
 
CONSTITUTION 41 
 
 ' Warden [or whatever be the title of the Head] and 
 scholars. 1 Founder's kin had the right to be admitted 
 full fellows at once. The founder speaks of the 
 College as a College of scholars ' in diverse sciences and 
 faculties, 1 and all faculties were to be represented. As 
 compared with most other English Colleges, the study 
 of Law (the only higher study, we may presume, on 
 which the Chancellor-Bishop had bestowed much atten- 
 tion himself), is decidedly prominent. Ten scholars 
 were to be students in Civil and ten in Canon Law 
 (subject to some elaborate exceptions to meet the 
 difficulty of having students ready at the right moment 
 to succeed to vacant places). The remaining fifty were 
 to study Arts or Philosophy, and then to proceed 
 with a course of Theology. It is obvious that the 
 period during which the lawyers would be engaged in 
 the study of Arts would be to some extent dependent 
 upon the occurrence of vacancies among the civilians 
 and the canonists. It is intended that they should 
 normally spend the two probationary years in Arts, and 
 no one could join the ranks of the civilians after passing 
 three years in the study of Arts ; but, if necessary, the 
 number was to be made up by the election of a scholar 
 who had not completed his two years of probation, in 
 v/hich case he became ipso facto a full fellow. Vacancies 
 among the canonists were filled up from among the 
 civilians who had proceeded to the degree of Bachelor 
 in that faculty; in point of fact, the study of Civil Law 
 in this country, being of no use for practice in the 
 courts of Common Law, was chiefly pursued as a 
 preliminary or auxiliary to the study of the Canon Law, 
 which was the road to a lucrative practice at the bar of 
 
42 THE STATUTES 
 
 the ecclesiastical courts, to the numerous officialises 
 and other offices in the entourage of Bishops, and (far 
 more than Theology) to high ecclesiastical preferment. 
 For the study of Theology it was necessary to take the 
 full seven years'* course of Arts, and to perform a year's 
 'necessary Regency, 1 or compulsory teaching in the 
 schools of the University. Two of the fifty Fellows 
 might, however, be allowed to study Medicine, and two 
 the science of Astronomy, in which (though reckoned 
 as one of the seven ' Arts ') no special graduation was 
 possible at Oxford. The study of Medicine was on so 
 uncertain a footing that it was necessary to provide 
 that, in case there should at any time be no Doctor 
 of Medicine teaching in the University, the students of 
 Medicine should immediately betake themselves to the 
 study of Theology. Vacancies in the number of legal 
 and theological students respectively were to be filled 
 up by the senior Artist of the requisite standing (so far 
 as possible) alternately, no room being apparently left 
 for private choice or inclination or suitability. It 
 seems rather to be assumed that those who had the 
 chance would betake themselves to the more lucrative 
 profession ; refusal to adopt the prescribed faculty was 
 to be visited by expulsion. All were to proceed to 
 degrees in their respective faculties a provision which 
 was not a matter of course, since it is a curious fact that, 
 though hardly anybody was ' ploughed ' in a medieval 
 University, only a minority of students outside the 
 Colleges ever took degrees at all. A degree, it must 
 be remembered, required not merely the passing of an 
 examination, but a long course of attendance at lectures, 
 giving lectures as a Bachelor, disputations and the like, 
 
QUALIFICATION OF SCHOLARS 43 
 
 for which the majority, it would seem, lacked industry, 
 ambition or ability, while some were deterred by 
 considerations of expense. The large proportion of 
 non-serious students in a medieval University was, as 
 we have seen in the case of Wykeham, one of the evils 
 which the College founders sought to correct. 
 
 In the election to vacant places there was to be a 
 preference for the founder's kin, and (after them) to 
 those born in places or parishes in which either College 
 had ' spiritual or temporal possessions ' ; after them pre- 
 ference was to be given to certain counties in a certain 
 order (seriatim) Oxford, Berks, Wilts, Somerset, Bucks, 
 Essex, Middlesex, Dorset, Kent (one MS. has Lancaster), 
 Sussex and Cambridge. All must be ' poor indigent 
 scholars, having the first clerical tonsure, adorned with 
 good manners and of good condition, sufficiently 
 instructed in grammar, honest of conversation, able and 
 fit to study and desirous of advancing in study,' of at 
 least one year's standing at Winchester, of at least 
 fifteen and less than twenty years of age, except 
 in the case of founder's kin, who were admissible 
 up to thirty. An income exceeding five marks per 
 annum, or in the case of founder's kin twenty marks, 
 or bodily defect such as constituted a bar to ordination, 
 disqualified for election. The places were to be filled 
 up by an annual examination at Winchester held by 
 the Warden of New College, one M.A. and one Jurist 
 Fellow, at which a general visitation or ' scrutiny ' into 
 the educational and domestic management of the 
 school was also to be held, and deficiencies corrected 
 and reformed, or, if necessary, reported to the Bishop 
 of Winchester. At the same time vacancies in the 
 
44 THE STATUTES 
 
 College at Winchester were filled up by the Examiners 
 or Posers (i.e., Opposers), all medieval examinations 
 taking more or less the form of a disputation. The 
 term ' Posers ' is still applied to the two Fellows who 
 examine at Winchester, though they no longer wield the 
 formidable visitatorial powers of their predecessors. Till 
 recently it was the custom for Posers to appear at 
 Winchester in Proctor's gowns, which are really only 
 the full-dress costume of Masters of Arts. 
 
 The medieval idea of a College and its government 
 was very different from the popular idea of modern 
 times. According to modern ideas, a College is supposed 
 to consist of two classes of persons a body of Fellows 
 or ' Dons ' who teach and are understood to govern, and 
 a body of younger men who are supposed to be taught 
 and more or less governed. As residence after the B.A. 
 degree is exceptional, and the graduate, or at all events 
 the M.A., not engaged in teaching, soon ceases to have 
 any real connection with the College, the distinc- 
 tion roughly corresponds with the distinction between 
 graduate and undergraduate. At the medieval Colleges 
 all were students; for in the Middle Ages University 
 education was not a matter of three or four years. It took 
 seven years to become a Master of Arts, about twelve 
 years (in all) to become a Doctor of Canon Law and at 
 least seventeen years to become a Doctor of Divinity. 
 During all this time the scholar was a student, though 
 during part of it he was also a teacher. Every full 
 member of the society had some share in its government, 
 though a share which varied in nature and amount 
 according to his office and standing ; but all were also 
 subject to a mass of minute regulations and restrictions 
 
MODE OF GOVERNMENT 45 
 
 which might be and were enforced, even upon grave 
 persons of mature years and high University position, 
 by minute supervision and disciplinary penalties such 
 as forfeiture of commons. The ideal of discipline was 
 that of a monastery or other ecclesiastical community, 
 in which all were subject to the authority of the Head, 
 who normally acted on behalf of the community in its 
 external relations, but was supposed to take counsel 
 with the whole society, or at least the seniors, in all 
 matters of importance. At New College the system of 
 government was decidedly elaborate. The Warden, 
 who was required to be thirty years of age at least, was 
 elected for life by the whole body of Fellows. The 
 Sub-warden was elected every year by the Warden 
 and thirteen seniors (of whom five must be Jurists) ; he 
 presided over the College in the absence of the Warden, 
 and exercised a special supervision over the Hall (in 
 which the Warden did not commonly dine), the chapel 
 and the servants. The Warden and Sub-warden 
 annually appointed five Deans, one of each superior 
 faculty (Theology, Canon Law, Civil Law) and two of 
 Arts, who supervised the disputations of their respective 
 faculties, and superintended both the studies and the 
 conduct of the students. There were also three Bursars 
 elected annually by the Warden, five Deans and six seniors 
 (of whom one must be a civilian and another a canonist), 
 one of the Bursars being necessarily a Jurist, who under 
 the supervision (per visum) of the Warden or Sub- 
 warden and one of the Deans received the rents and 
 defrayed the ordinary expenses of the common life 
 ' according to the discretion, disposition, and advice of 
 Warden, Sub-warden, and Deans. 1 The power of the 
 
46 THE STATUTES 
 
 Bursars was thus very restricted : the really important 
 financial business of the society was left to the Warden. 
 It was only in affairs of the gravest moment such as 
 the institution of suits which might involve 'dis- 
 inheritance or grave prejudice 1 to the College* or in the 
 letting of farms, the presentation to benefices, and the 
 like that the Warden was obliged to have the consent 
 of the majority of the Fellows, among whom (in the case 
 of suits) there must be ten Jurists, a provision which 
 must, it would seem, have led to a deadlock whenever 
 the majority of the College and the majority of the 
 Jurists happened to disagree. As the same body had to 
 consent to the use of the common seal, the Warden and 
 Thirteen may be looked upon as the ordinary executive 
 of the society. 
 
 But there are various cases in which the Warden 
 was to act with the concurrence of some other seniors 
 or officers. Quarrels are to be adjusted by the Sub- 
 warden, Deans, and Bursars and other Fellows whom 
 they may call to their assistance ; if after three 
 days their labours for the restoration of peace prove 
 futile, the Warden is to undertake the matter with the 
 aforesaid officers and other Fellows ; and their decision 
 is to be final. In the event of the Warden himself 
 quarrelling with a Fellow, the Sub-warden, Deans, 
 Bursars, and five other seniors (one to be a canonist 
 and one a civilian) are to mediate, with a power of 
 appeal to the Bishop of Winchester in the event of 
 their failure to restore harmony. The power of 
 expelling a Fellow and of dealing with some other 
 
 * So according to Statute 9, but Statute 47 seems to extend this 
 to all suits. 
 
THE VISITOR 47 
 
 grave offences is similarly vested in the Warden, Sub- 
 warden, five Deans, three Bursars and five seniors, with 
 apparently no power of appeal to the Visitor. In 
 minor ' corrections and punishments, 1 the Warden is to 
 act with the assent of one of the offenders Deans. The 
 fitness of a candidate to be allowed to proceed to a 
 degree was to be judged of by the Warden or Sub- 
 warden and Deans, with a power (in the event of 
 disagreement) of appeal to the whole body of civilians 
 and canonists in the case of a Jurist or to the rest 
 of the Fellows in the case of a theologian or artist. 
 Absence from disputations was to be punished by the 
 Warden and Deans, but to deal with scurrilous or 
 offensive language the Warden required the assistance 
 of the Sub-warden, five Deans, three Bursars and five 
 seniors. 
 
 The Bishop of Winchester was appointed Visitor of 
 the society, but his power was jealously limited to the 
 matters expressly defined in the statutes. Neither he 
 nor the College could alter one jot or tittle of the 
 founder's statutes, or grant any dispensation from 
 them, or even remit any penalty expressly denounced 
 for any offence by the statutes ; and most offences 
 were punished by one or more days 1 subtraction of 
 commons, increasing with the repetition of the offence. 
 The Visitor's functions were limited to the enforce- 
 ment of the statutes, and the punishment of the gravest 
 offences by deprivation of Warden or scholar. No 
 appeal was to be allowed against the decision of the 
 Visitor, except in the case of sentence of depriva- 
 tion or other personal sentence (inhabiUtatio personos) 
 against the Warden, in which case he was not to be 
 
48 THE STATUTES 
 
 debarred from resorting to any legal remedy open to 
 him. 
 
 Three times a year a solemn chapter or scrutiny was 
 held in the chapel on the model of the 'chapter of 
 faults ' which is usually held once a week in a monastery. 
 On each of these occasions, after a Mass of the Holy 
 Trinity and the solemn reading of one-third of the 
 statutes, a formal investigation was held by the Warden 
 and one Fellow nominated by the College into the life, 
 conduct, and studies of every member of the founda- 
 tion. No record has been preserved of these interesting 
 meetings at New College ; but fortunately the deficiency 
 is to some extent supplied by a record of scrutiny at 
 Merton. From that document* it appears that each 
 member of the College was invited to criticise freely 
 all that he had observed amiss in the conduct of 
 the rest, and the most candid suggestions were 
 actually made as to the peculations of the Bursars, 
 the boots of the Chaplain, the indecent levity of a 
 Fellow who addressed the Warden by his Christian 
 name, and so on. 
 
 According to the medieval idea, a poor scholar did 
 not want much. If he had literally food and raiment 
 and books from the College library, it was considered 
 that he ought therewith to be content, and this was all 
 that the College founder undertook to provide for him. 
 A shilling a week was the allowance for commons, which 
 might, however, rise in times of scarcity to Is. Id. or 
 Is. 4d., or even, when the bushel of corn rose to 2s., to 
 Is. 6d. Besides this he had an annual ' livery ' i.e., 
 clothes ' of one and the same cut ' (secta), which probably 
 
 * Printed in Rogers' ' History of Prices/ vol. ii., pp. 670-89. 
 
FELLOWS 1 ALLOWANCES 49 
 
 implied the same colour, so far as this was consistent 
 with University statutes, but with the form and acces- 
 sories appropriate to the status or degree of the scholar. 
 These garments were not to be pawned or sold within 
 five years, but the owners were allowed to give away a 
 fifth-best suit, which had stood four years' wear, to junior 
 scholars or Fellows. A Fellow as such received no other 
 regular allowance, unless he were a poor founder's kin 
 Fellow, not having W a year of private income, in 
 which case he shared in a sum varying with the number 
 of such Fellows in the College, which was to be dis- 
 tributed among them ' for beds, boots and other neces- 
 saries **; the maximum allowance was four marks. There 
 were, however, various ways in which a Fellow of a 
 certain standing might add to his scanty income. Forty 
 marks a year were to be distributed among the Fellows 
 in priests'* orders who assisted in the chapel services. 
 Small payments were made to the numerous College 
 officers a mark to each Dean, and 6s. 8d. to each 
 Bursar. Moreover, the studies of a scholar in his first 
 three years were placed under the supervision of a tutor 
 (informator), and for each pupil the tutor was entitled 
 to receive 5s. from the College revenues, provided that 
 his whole income from this source should not exceed 
 1 3 5. 
 
 The introduction of this system of tuition destined 
 in course of time to revolutionize Oxford education, to 
 supersede the teaching of the University Regents, and 
 practically to transform the University into a federation 
 of educationally independent and isolated Colleges is 
 a somewhat original feature in WykehaiiTs scheme. At 
 Paris the Head, or the Master of each particular faculty 
 
 4 
 
50 THE STATUTES 
 
 into which the College was divided, was appointed with 
 the express view of supervising studies and supple- 
 menting the University teaching. At Oxford the Head 
 was essentially a guardian of the College property, and 
 had no educational functions. Walter de Merton ap- 
 pointed one senior student in ten or in five (vicinarius or 
 decanw) to superintend and help the studies as well as 
 supervise the conduct of the rest ; William of Wykeham 
 distinctly separates the functions of supervision from 
 those of teaching, and may therefore (although, like so 
 many other reformers, he was only carrying further a 
 change already initiated) fairly be regarded as the 
 founder of the distinctively English system of College 
 tuition. We have seen how unerringly he had dis- 
 covered one weak point in the medieval system the 
 premature abandonment of the Grammar School for 
 the University Latin Logic Lecture. By the system of 
 tutors he aimed at correcting another the want of 
 supervision and personal teaching for the younger 
 University students, who were left to profit, or not to 
 profit, by formal non-catechetical lectures in the public 
 schools, when they should have been construing or 
 answering questions in class or performing written 
 exercises. The appointment of tutors was at least a 
 step in the right direction. 
 
 It was only the probationers who received any con- 
 siderable portion of their actual instruction in College. 
 But for all there were disputations. The Bachelors of 
 Arts disputed ' questions or problems "* twice a week in 
 the hall probably after dinner or supper during the 
 greater part of the year. In the early part of the 
 Long Vacation, when the lectures in the schools 
 
DISPUTATIONS 51 
 
 ceased, there were also ' intrinsic [i.e., College] lectures 
 on particular sciences."* The scholars and Sophist 
 Fellows (i.e., Fellows who had passed Responsions) 
 disputed sophisms once a week, at which all Masters 
 of Arts (except D.D.Y) were to attend. There 
 was a disputation in Canon and in Civil Law in 
 alternate weeks, attended by students of both facul- 
 ties. The theological disputation took place in the 
 ante-chapel once a week. On these occasions the 
 seniors, and especially the Deans, were to help the 
 juniors. 
 
 Small as was the normal allowance of a Fellow of 
 New College, he was much better provided for than 
 many continental collegians. In some of the con- 
 tinental Colleges commons ceased altogether during 
 the Long Vacation ; in the . English College it went 
 on all the year round, and even in the Long Vacation 
 not more than twenty Fellows were to be absent at a 
 time. The Parisian bursary often ceased when the 
 student had fully graduated in his faculty ; at New 
 College he might keep his fellowship as long as he 
 continued to study or teach in Oxford, though the 
 founder would probably never have dreamed of a 
 man continuing through life 1 to prefer his modest 
 allowance in College to the 'fat benefice' for which 
 all this education was training him. Liberal allowances 
 were made in case of illness. The heavy expenses of 
 graduation consisting partly in fees or presents, but 
 chiefly in the banquets offered by inceptors to 
 graduates were to be paid by the College in cases 
 of scholars whose relations were unable to pay them for 
 them. The maximum fees fixed by the founder are 
 
 42 
 
52 THE STATUTES 
 
 interesting, as supplying a table of the usual expenses 
 
 not elsewhere obtainable. They are 
 
 s. d. 
 Responsions ... ... ... ... 13 4 
 
 Determination (i.e., B.A.) ... ... 13 4 
 
 Inception as M. A. ... ... ... 1 6 8 
 
 Bachelor of Decrees, Civil Law, or 
 
 Medicine ... ... ... ... 13 4 
 
 Bachelor of Divinity ... ... ... 1 
 
 Inception as D.C.L., M.D., or D.D. .. 1 6 8 
 
 B.D 100 
 
 D.D 168 
 
 These allowances, it may be observed, are on a 
 minimum scale, and it may be doubted whether 
 Wykehanrfs scholars really succeeded in doing the 
 thing on the College allowance. The scale of the 
 banquet required depended upon the wealth of the 
 graduates. A moderately rich man often spent 10 or 
 more on becoming a Doctor. 
 
 When the Fellow had resided long enough and had 
 failed to obtain promotion from any other source, the 
 founder had provided benefices in the country some- 
 times vicarages of parishes where the great tithes were 
 impropriated by the College, but sometimes fatter 
 rectories, whether appendent to College manors or 
 independently acquired to which he could retire. 
 This system of ' College livings ' is particularly charac- 
 teristic of the English Colleges. 
 
 If in his allowances for the Fellows William of 
 Wykeham was only following in the footsteps of 
 Walter de Merton, he went far beyond him in the 
 magnificence of his provision for the Warden. The 
 
THE WARDEN 53 
 
 Warden of Merton no doubt passed rich (among the 
 Fellows) on 50 marks a year : the Warden of New 
 College had ^40. The Warden of Merton enjoyed 
 the use of three horses (evectlones) at the expense of 
 the College: the Warden of New College (with the 
 Fellow who attended upon him when he rode abroad 
 on College business)* had six, three times as many as 
 certain canons allowed to a Cathedral Dean. The 
 Warden of Merton dined at a high table in Hall 
 with the Sub -warden and three chaplains. At New 
 College the Sub- warden presided over the Hall (like 
 the Prior of an Abbey), while the Warden lived in a 
 separate house of his own (like an Abbot or a Dean), 
 dined in a ' hall ' of his own, kept a cook who some- 
 times dined with the Fellows, and an undercook who 
 was entertained occasionally at the scholars 1 table. In 
 chapel he wore an amice of fur (amicio de griseo) like a 
 Cathedral Canon. He was allowed to hold other benefices, 
 and no doubt the founder desired that he should do so. 
 He wanted his Warden to be as big a personage as 
 possible. More than any previous founder, William of 
 Wykeham succeeded in making his College not a mere 
 eleemosynary provision for poor scholars, but an eccle- 
 siastical house which might be on a level, in the modest 
 dignity of its corporate life, with the minor monastery 
 or respectable collegiate church. 
 
 As we follow the development of the College idea 
 through the statutes of successive founders, we notice 
 
 * The Warden required considerable attendance for other reasons 
 than dignity alone. He had to collect sums due to the College, 
 and to bring the money safely to Oxford. As late as the reign 
 of Henry VIII. we find sums paid for bows and arrows for the 
 Warden's servant for the progress (Bursar's Rolls, 1518-19). 
 
54 THE STATUTES 
 
 an increasing prominence of the ecclesiastical aspect. 
 To some extent this was a particular manifestation of 
 a tendency traceable in medieval life generally a 
 tendency towards an increasing emphasis upon the 
 external machinery of devotion. All through the 
 Middle Ages there was an increase both in the number 
 of Masses daily said and in the importance attached 
 alike to the personal hearing of Masses and to the 
 getting them said by others. The Merton statutes 
 only require attendance at Mass and the canonical 
 hours 'on festivals and other days when they have 
 leisure for if: William of Wykeham required all his 
 scholars to attend Mass every day. Walter de Merton 
 has scarcely any regulations about Divine service beyond 
 providing chaplains to say Mass and the canonical 
 hours in the parish church which had been im- 
 propriated to the College. William of Wykeham 
 had the liveliest belief in that whole doctrine of the 
 'treasury of merits 1 and all the concomitant abuses 
 against which Wycliffe was writing and preaching. The 
 Chaplains were to sing the Divine Office daily (cum 
 cantu et nota) according to the use of Sarum, as also 
 the seven penitential psalms with the Litany for the 
 Living, Placebo and Dirlge and the accustomed com- 
 mendations for the dead. Seven Masses were to be 
 said in the chapel daily. It will be observed that 
 even now it is not contemplated that each Chaplain- 
 priest will necessarily celebrate every day. Elaborate 
 regulations are laid down as to the kind of Mass to 
 be said (De Samta Maria, ob requiem, de die) and the 
 persons the King and other benefactors of the founder 
 or his College to whose posthumous benefit each per- 
 
CHAPEL 55 
 
 formance was to redound. Four times a year ' the 
 exequies of the dead"* were to be sung for the same 
 benefactors, and attended by the whole College. Once 
 a week came the Office of the Dead for the same favoured 
 souls, and also for the Bishops of Winchester ; and once 
 a year the obit of the founder, when a special distribu- 
 tion was made among all members of the College present 
 on the occasion. A special obit is also provided for 
 John Buckingham, Bishop of Lincoln, who gave the 
 College an acre and a revenue of thirty shillings at 
 Swalcliffe, near Banbury, together with the church 
 of Swalcliffe and adjoining church of Adderbury. The 
 gift, no doubt, came out of the property of the see, and 
 his successors are therefore admitted to participation in 
 the spiritual compensation. William of Wykeham has 
 the credit of being the first College founder who in- 
 augurated that system of daily compulsory attendance 
 at chapel which has now been abolished in deference to 
 the scruples or the laziness of the modern undergraduate. 
 But even at their daily Mass the scholars were not en- 
 couraged to attend to the service for their own private 
 edification, but rather to be still gratefully labouring 
 for the good of their founder's soul by repeating fifty 
 Aves and five Paters, though they were at liberty to say 
 these at other times. Other prayers are appointed to 
 be said on rising and on going to bed, including a 
 prayer for the founder; each scholar is also to repeat 
 in the course of the day a De profundis and certain 
 prayers for the founder, his parents, Richard II., and 
 his consort, Queen Anne. On Sundays and holidays 
 the whole College were to attend Mass, matins, and 
 first and second vespers, and to march in procession 
 
56 THE STATUTES 
 
 round the cloisters clad in surplices and hoods. On 
 such days a Fellow officiated instead of a Chaplain, 
 on the greater festivals the Warden or 'one of the 
 principal and more dignified persons of the College.'' 
 This custom is still kept up by the Warden or a 
 Fellow taking the service on the specified days. 
 
 Amid all this elaborate machinery of devotion (as 
 need hardly be said to anyone familiar with medieval 
 life), the idea that these boys of sixteen and upwards, 
 destined for the priesthood, might want some instruc- 
 tion in the principles of the Christian religion, or any 
 advice or encouragement about life and conduct, never 
 entered into the founder's head. Any such provision 
 would have probably carried with it in his view a 
 dangerous savour of 'Lollardy/ For men like 
 Wykeham religion was almost wholly an affair of 
 opus operatum, of external performances, and this 
 could be secured by statute. Only once a year, on 
 the Feast of the Annunciation, is a sermon to be 
 preached in College. Sermons except, perhaps, when 
 preached by well - disciplined friars always brought 
 with them a danger of heresy. There were, indeed, 
 the University sermons, but these would often at this 
 time be preached by Lollards. Wykeham would prob- 
 ably not be particularly anxious that his scholars should 
 attend them. The only religious instruction provided is 
 instruction in plain - song and the mechanical art of 
 saying Mass by the Chaplains. The theological teach- 
 ing of the schools was, of course, only for the theolo- 
 gians. Wykeharcfs statutes are a typical and peculiarly 
 elaborate expression of a religious ideal which his con- 
 temporary and enemy, Wycliffe, had already undermined, 
 
LIFE IN COLLEGE 57 
 
 and which is now probably almost as unintelligible to 
 the educated Catholic as to the Protestant mind. 
 
 It is hard to present a living picture of life in an 
 institution ; for the real life of an institution its daily 
 talk, its amusements, its ambitions, its traditional jests 
 and stories is what passes away. In the whole history 
 of New College there are few striking personalities 
 least of all in the medieval period. Of life in -a 
 medieval College we can usually reproduce little except 
 its regulations and the way in which they were broken ; 
 and in the case of New College we have few records of 
 the latter and livelier topic. All we can do is to re- 
 construct the life according to statute. 
 
 The men lived three or four in a room. The rooms 
 on the ground-floor had three windows, and held three 
 scholars ; the upper rooms had four windows and four 
 occupants. At each window was a ' study "* (i.e., a sort 
 of bureau), perhaps rather larger than the old Win- 
 chester ' toys, 1 which contained a shelf or two for books, 
 a backless seat, and a desk to read or write at. The 
 windows, of course, were unglazed, but were possibly 
 provided with linen shutters. There was no fire, pos- 
 sibly some straw on the floor. The beds stood in the 
 middle of the room. In Wykeham^s comparatively 
 luxurious College there was to be a separate bed for 
 each scholar. To promote Move, amity, and charity, 1 
 the Jurists were to be mixed up with other men in the 
 chamber; and in each there was a Fellow ' more advanced 
 than his other chamber-fellows in maturity, discretion, 
 and knowledge,' who was to be responsible for their 
 diligence and good conduct, and report periodically to 
 the Warden, Sub- warden, and Deans. The Chaplains, 
 
58 THE STATUTES 
 
 clerks, and choristers lived very thick together in 
 the dark, gloomy chambers beneath the hall. There 
 is an express provision that no inhabitant of an upper 
 chamber, in 'washing his head, feet, or hands, 1 or 
 otherwise, should upset ' water, wine, or beer, or any 
 other liquors whatever *" (we suppress further particulars) 
 ' to the annoyance of those in the lower. 1 The provision 
 throws an interesting light on the exact extent of our 
 predecessors 1 ablutions, which were probably well up to 
 the highest medieval standard. The beds were made, 
 and other such service performed, by the choristers. 
 But there were other servants besides the choristers, 
 and the choristers were not to be sent or taken out 
 of College or to be allowed to go out without leave 
 of Warden, Dean, Sacrist, or Precentor. A Doctor 
 of Divinity might be allowed to keep a private servant 
 at his own expense. As in all medieval statutes the 
 employment of women servants is sternly forbidden. 
 If a ' lotor ' cannot be found, the dirty linen might be 
 sent through one of the servants of the College to 
 a ' lotrix, 1 but even so she must be ' of such age and 
 condition that no sinister suspicion can, or ought to, 
 fall on her. 1 
 
 The hour of rising is not specified, but lectures in 
 the schools probably began at six. Breakfast was not 
 officially recognised, but there is reason to hope that 
 those who could afford it took a ' jentaculum "* a crust 
 of bread and a flagon of beer at the buttery before 
 going out to the schools. Lectures might last for two 
 hours or more, after which (more probably than before) 
 the scholar might find time to attend a Mass in chapel, 
 and would then resume his studies till dinner probably 
 
DINNER 59 
 
 at eleven. During dinner-time, or part of it, the Bible 
 was read by one of the clerks or an undergraduate scholar. 
 The rest were first to listen to the reading in silence, and 
 then to speak only alike at table and elsewhere within 
 the College walls ' in modest and worthy mode/ and in 
 Latin, except when compelled to speak some other 
 tongue by the presence of strangers or laymen. The 
 choristers assisted the servants to wait in Hall, and 
 fed on the broken meats afterwards, but this allowance 
 might be supplemented out of the College revenues if 
 necessary. 
 
 It was the founder's melancholy conviction (though 
 such words are almost * common form ' in medieval 
 statutes) that ' after bodily refection by the taking of 
 food and drink, men are commonly rendered more 
 prompt to scurrilities, turpiloquy, and (what is worse) 
 detraction and strife, and the perpetuation of very 
 many other evil and dangerous acts, and, shrinking less 
 than on an empty stomach from such excesses, excite 
 simple persons to strifes, contumelies and other excesses. 1 
 Hence, there was to be no lingering in Hall after dinner 
 or supper, but after grace and the passing round of the 
 loving-cup (potus caritatls) all were to retire to their 
 studies 'or other places/ After one o'clock there 
 would be more lectures and studies. Supper was at 
 five. At curfew there were 'potations in Hall,' and it is 
 possible that (though not mentioned in the statutes) 
 there may have been a similar light refreshment, known 
 as ' nuncheons ' (i.e., none-cheons or noon-cheons, 
 whence our word ' luncheon '), in the interval between 
 dinner and supper. Only at great festivals, on which 
 the Warden dined in Hall, when there were 'epulae 
 
60 THE STATUTES 
 
 lautiores ' in his honour, was fire ministered to the 
 Fellows in the hall,* and only then were the scholars 
 allowed to sit round the great central brazier after dinner 
 or supper and indulge in ' songs and other solaces,' or 
 listen to ' poems, chronicles of the realm, wonders of 
 this world, or other things which befit the clerical 
 state. 1 
 
 This is a pleasant recognition, scanty as it is, of the 
 fact that the age of Wykeham an age of decadence in 
 the region of scholasticism and Latin literature generally 
 was also the age which gave the birth of English 
 literature ; the age not only of the offensive Bible- 
 translations of Wycliffe, but of Chaucer, of Mandeville, 
 of the ' Mort d 1 Arthur, 1 and of the first English 
 Chronicles. It was only at very light moments that 
 serious scholars could be allowed to. occupy themselves 
 with such frivolities. 
 
 These chronicles of the realm and wonders of the 
 world are the only recreations contemplated by the 
 austere College founder's statutes. Wykeham himself 
 had lived in Courts and palaces, where, doubtless, life 
 was not altogether life according to statute, but for 
 poor scholars amusement was not supposed to be neces- 
 sary just as many people now think that it is un- 
 necessary for the lower classes partly because they were 
 scholars, partly because they were clerks, partly because 
 they were comparatively poor. Most of the amuse- 
 ments which might naturally have occurred to them are 
 prohibited. The amusements of the age were, indeed, 
 
 * It is not quite clear whether there was fire at all on ordinary 
 days, or whether it is meant merely that the fire was not kept up 
 during the evening perhaps the former. 
 
From a photograph by the\ 
 
 THE HALL 
 
 {Oxford Camera Club 
 
AMUSEMENTS 61 
 
 chiefly the amusements of the rich ; and Wykeham 
 held that it was 'not meet for the poor, and especi- 
 ally those living on alms, to take the children's bread 
 and cast it to dogs for them to eat.' He recalls also 
 the text, ' Woe unto those who to their sin play with 
 the birds of heaven, 1 and therefore prohibits any scholar 
 of his from ' keeping a harrier or any other dog what- 
 ever, ferrets, sive nisus, or any other hawk whatsoever/ 
 What would he have said at the spectacle of rich men^s 
 sons riding to hounds on horses kept by their College 
 scholarships? Games of dice, chess, hazard, or ball, 
 and every other 'noxious, inordinate, unlawful, and 
 unhonest 1 game, are similarly forbidden, especially any 
 game ' ministering cause or occasion of loss of money, 
 things, or goods whatsoever, and also that most vile 
 and horrid sport of shaving beards ' (probably after the 
 manner practised upon sailors crossing the line for the 
 first time at sea) * which is wont to be practised on the 
 night preceding the Inception of the Master of Arts. 1 
 There was to be no hurling or shooting of stones, balls, 
 or other missiles within the College walls (not even in 
 the garden), by which damage might be done to the 
 buildings. There are to be fi no wrestlings, dances, jigs, 
 soi'gs, shoutings, tumults, or inordinate noises, effusions 
 of water, beer, or other liquor, or tumultuous games, 1 in 
 Hall, lest they should incommode the chaplains and 
 choristers in the room below. Another reason for 
 the prohibition of ' leapings and wrestlings, or other 
 incautious or inordinate games in the hall, or perchance 
 in the chapel itself, 1 is the danger of shock to the 
 images in the chapel reredos attached to the wall 
 dividing the east end of the chapel from the hall. 
 
62 THE STATUTES 
 
 The scholars were to walk abroad only two and two, 
 for walking alone in the Middle Ages was considered 
 'bad form,' partly, perhaps, as dangerous, partly as 
 exposing a man to moral suspicion (nobody was above 
 suspicion in the Middle Ages), and still more as ' infra 
 dig:" in persons of the slightest pretension to gentility 
 or respectability. A man of family or position always 
 went abroad with a numerous retinue, and even poor 
 but respectable scholars must at least keep each other 
 company. In modern Jesuit schools suspicion is carried 
 further, and the rule is to walk in threes. There was 
 a special servant to carry the scholars' heavy clasped 
 books to the schools for them, a point which shows 
 Wykeham's solicitude for the respectability of his 
 scholars, since the poorest students used to carry other 
 people's books . for them for a consideration. All 
 through the statutes there is a great dread of quarrel- 
 ling, always a prominent amusement with people who 
 have no other, particularly when living in very close 
 quarters. There is, for instance, a prohibition (con- 
 stantly met with in all scholastic statutes) of 'com- 
 parisons of family to family, nobility to nobility, or 
 ignobility,' as well as of other 'injurious, tedious, 
 scandalous, or opprobrious language.' How far the 
 founder's judicious dispositions really succeeded in 
 securing immunity from these chronic disorders in 
 the early days of his foundation we do not know 
 (but for the early Visitation already mentioned), 
 for none but the most formal records of that period 
 survive. 
 
 Wykeham's statutes exhibit extraordinary care, fore- 
 sight, legal sagacity and knowledge of the world. 
 
SUBSEQUENT CHANGES 63 
 
 The subsequent history of his foundation will illus- 
 trate to how small an extent the most cunningly 
 devised legal instruments can really prevent a founder's 
 benefactions being used, even when the letter of 
 his enactments is scrupulously observed, for purposes 
 exactly opposite to those which he had intended, 
 under the altered circumstances of a (to him) un- 
 imaginable age. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE BUILDINGS 
 
 IT is not difficult for us to picture the home which the 
 founder had prepared for Warden Nicholas de Wyke- 
 ham and the scholars of the College of Seynte Marie 
 Collegie of Wynchestre, when they entered under the 
 gateway tower, with litany and solemn procession, at 
 nine o'clock on the morning of Palm Sunday, 1387. 
 ' Our ancient and honourable house, which our fathers 
 builded, 1 still remains to us, retaining, amid the changes 
 that the years have brought, something of the appear- 
 ance it presented to the eyes of the first Wykehamists 
 as they came to take possession of the promised land. 
 The quadrangle on which they gazed was, but for the 
 addition of the third story, much as it stands to-day. 
 The west side was filled chiefly by the principal gateway 
 and the Warden's house with its elegant staircase towers, 
 the east and south sides by the chambers of the scholars. 
 On the north side, then as now, chapel and hall bore 
 witness to the greatness of the founder's aim and the 
 grandeur of his design. The cloisters completed the 
 noble equipment for the services of the Church, and 
 offered a resting-place for the dead. The gardens, 
 
From a photograph by the\ [Oxford Camera Club 
 
 THE FRONT GATEWAY 
 

 FORM OF CHAPEL 65 
 
 bounded by the city wall, increased the material com- 
 fort of the living ; and the library, on the east side 
 of the quadrangle, and extending towards the garden, 
 served for the intellectual nourishment of WykehairTs 
 scholars. 
 
 The history of the buildings may best be narrated 
 by describing in the first place those of the original 
 foundation. The period is that known to architects 
 as the transition from the Decorated to the Perpen- 
 dicular style, and from the work of Wykeham the 
 movement received a very considerable impulse. Chapel 
 and hall formed, as at Winchester, one large building, 
 extending along the whole length of the north side of 
 the quadrangle, and displaying an unbroken line of 
 roof adorned with Wykeham^s characteristic pinnacles. 
 The experiment of placing the hall at the east end 
 of the chapel, and erecting a reredos to replace the 
 normal east window, was abandoned when, a few years 
 later, the buildings at Winchester were designed ; but 
 it was again carried out by Waynflete, the founder of 
 Magdalen, and by Chichele at All Souls\ In another 
 respect the chapel of New College was an experiment. 
 It consists of choir and transepts only, and has no nave. 
 This T shape became afterwards the normal form of a 
 college chapel in Oxford, and it is probable that Wyke- 
 hanVs device at New College was immediately followed by 
 the abandonment of a nave at Merton.* The foundation- 
 stone was laid by the founder himself on March 5, 
 1379-80, and on December 13, 1383, Pope Urban VI. 
 granted a Bull for the dedication of the chapel. The 
 
 * Cf. ' Merton College,' by Mr. B. W. Henderson, in the present 
 series, pp. 205, 206. 
 
 5 
 
66 THE BUILDINGS 
 
 chapel was dedicated in honour of the Virgin and the 
 Annunciation, and the feast of the dedication was kept 
 annually on the 15th of November, when the service was 
 sung, and a sermon preached in the vulgar tongue by 
 the Warden or one of 4 the majores persona?. 1 * In accord- 
 ance with the requirements of the Act of 1536 regard- 
 ing holy-days, the date of the feast of the dedication 
 was changed to the first week in October. It ceased to 
 be observed during the reign of Edward VI. ; but the 
 Bursars 1 Rolls show that it was revived under Mary, 
 and was held for the last time in the first year of the 
 reign of Elizabeth. Of the general arrangement of the 
 chapel we know little, and our only information regard- 
 ing the number of altars comes from an entry in the 
 Bursars' Rolls for 1509-10, a payment made for candles 
 to stand ' coram Altaribus Trinitatis Angelorum et 
 Apostolorum, 1 and from a subsequent mention of altar- 
 cloths 'pro tribus altaribus inferioribus. 1 
 
 The most notable feature of the chapel was, of 
 course, the reredos. The exact arrangement of the 
 figures cannot now be traced. The statutes speak of 
 4 an image of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity, 
 a representation of the Holy Rood with an image of 
 the Crucified, and images of the Blessed Virgin and 
 many other saints. 1 We also learn from the statutes 
 that the chapel and its images, its windows of glass, its 
 wall spaces, and ' other beautiful works,' were, in accord- 
 ance with medieval usage, ' adorned with many colours. 1 
 The chapel of to-day, still beautiful with the cold 
 beauty of perfect proportion, is but a pale shadow 
 of Wykeham's building. Its colour has gone, and it 
 * Warden's Note-book, ^p. 58. 
 
RAVAGES OF THE REFORMATION 67 
 
 no longer possesses the equipment for the gorgeous 
 medieval ritual 'gold and silver vessels, vestments, 
 cups, and other ecclesiastical ornaments . . . cloth of 
 gold and of silk/ Various ornaments were presented 
 to the chapel in the course of the first century of its 
 history, and the gifts included an organ (probably 
 replacing an earlier one), which the Liber Albus records 
 to have been erected in 1458 at the expense of a 
 certain William Port. It stood, as Antony Wood 
 relates, 'in a loft supported by wooden pillars, joining 
 to the vestry door on the north side of the upper end ' 
 of the chapel. The original stalls have been partially 
 preserved, and the miserere seats testify to the beauty 
 of the original carved work. 
 
 The chapel partially escaped the first ravages of the 
 Reformation. The Visitors of King Edward VI. con- 
 templated the suppression of the choir school, but took 
 no active steps in the matter, and they ordered the 
 destruction of the stained glass windows. The College 
 destroyed altars and images, and promised to carry out 
 the injunction about the windows 6 whenever they were 
 rich enough to replace them.' That time never 
 arrived, and windows, stalls, and reredos alike survived 
 till 1567, only to be condemned at Bishop Home's 
 visitation, which is said to have been made by 
 Queen Elizabeth's express wish. At the visitation by 
 Bishop Home in 1567, the altar was ordered to be 
 reduced to the level of the stalls, and every image to 
 be committed to the flames, while the reredos was to be 
 destroyed and the east end covered with a plaster wall, 
 ' on which let sentences of Holy Scripture be inscribed.' 
 Home's injunctions were fully complied with, and the 
 
 52 
 
68 THE BUILDINGS 
 
 east end of the chapel was changed beyond all recog- 
 nition. An attempt at ' restoration ' was made in 1636, 
 when, according to Antony Wood, 
 
 ' the old stalls and desks being pulled down, these that 
 are now [c. 1680] standing were set up, and the wainscot 
 adorned with curious painting, containing the figures of 
 the Apostles, Saints, etc. At the same time also, a very 
 fine screen, curiously painted and sumptuously gilt, was 
 erected, and the floors of the inner and outer Chapel being 
 taken up, were paved with black and white marble of a 
 diamond figure, as they still remain.'* 
 
 All this was, doubtless, part of the Laudian revival ; 
 and how far the 'figures of the Saints'* survived the 
 changes of the Commonwealth we cannot tell. The 
 
 O 
 
 organ ,f at all events, was destroyed after the surrender 
 of the city in 1646. 
 
 With the Restoration came, of course, a new interest 
 in the chapel. The society at once set about procuring 
 a new organ, and they entered into an agreement with 
 a Mr. Dalham that he should erect, for ^350, an organ 
 the pipes of which were to be f of especially good metal, 
 and sweet and musical"; but the price was afterwards 
 raised to 4t^Q to cover the additional expense of 
 trumpet and cornet stops, of the existence of which 
 in other organs the College had heard rumours. A 
 new loft was built for this organ * over the screen in the 
 
 * The College archives contain references to ' one Hawkins who 
 gilded our Chapel, and drew the pictures there.' The panels 
 contained representations of Apostles, Evangelists, Patriarchs and 
 Prophets, some of which are still preserved in the Bursary. 
 
 f The organ presented by Port had been repaired in 1540, and 
 practically renewed in 1598, when the College paid 10 for ' making 
 the orgaines,' and 22 for the wainscot frame and for gilding. 
 
CHANGES AT THE RESTORATION 69 
 
 Chapel at the entrance of the Quire, 1 and the case was 
 made ' open in the midst to let in more light from the 
 Western Window." The pipes and the ' frieze or border 
 of the said loft "" were gilded, and pictures were painted 
 ' in the panes* of the organ loft within the Quire and 
 without, as also some pictures under the said loft.' 
 
 The decoration of the east end proved a source of 
 much difficulty. A proposal to purchase some hang- 
 ings from Worcester Cathedral was rejected for various 
 reasons. The lustre had perished, and the gold was not 
 seen ; the great man in the arras had no name, and they 
 knew not who he was, especially at some distance ; the 
 Communion-table, or altar, would cover some part of 
 the chiefest work made to be seen, viz., Melchisedec's 
 entertainment of Abraham ; and, besides, it would be 
 necessary to erect two pillars and a canopy. An alterna- 
 tive suggestion to commission ' an excellent artist, whose 
 name is said to be Theodore Van Thulden," to paint a 
 picture of the offerings of the Three Kings, was nega- 
 tived, because * the ^700 demanded for the great picture 
 was thought by some an impudent price.* 1 So it was 
 decided to erect, paint and gild ' a frame of wainscot at 
 the east end,'' and to purchase ' a remnant of Cloth of 
 Gold offered unto the College " by the Principal of Brase- 
 nose to serve as an altar-piece. The organ was finished 
 in 1663, but the decoration of the choir was not com- 
 pleted till the close of the century. While the altera- 
 tions were in progress, some traces of the old reredos were 
 
 * An account of the year 1780 contains a payment of i 4$. for 
 1 new leading 72 feet of glass in your screen.' In the same document 
 is a per contra payment of 2, 145. for ' the Glass as came out of the 
 screen in the Chapell, 72 foot at gd. per foot.' Can this have been 
 some of the original glass ? (Cf. p. 77.) 
 
70 THE BUILDINGS 
 
 discovered, but the idea of restoring it did not occur to 
 anybody, and finally the work was entrusted 'to our 
 ingenious countryman Mr. Henry Cook, 1 for the results 
 of whose ingenuity the guide-books of the early part of 
 the eighteenth century have a profound admiration. 
 
 'As we enter the Chantry or inner Chapel, the most 
 striking object is the Altar-piece. ... It represents the 
 Concave of a Semi- Rotunda in the Ionic order, with a 
 Cupola adorned with curious Mosaic Work, in which the 
 East End of the Chapel seems to terminate. The Altar, 
 which is partly built of wood and partly painted, inter- 
 cepting in some Degree the View at right Angles, greatly 
 favours the Deceptio ; particularly two large open Pannels 
 in the lower Part thereof, which have a wonderful Effect. 
 In the upper Part of the Altar, which is painted in such a 
 Manner as to seem the Finishing of the Woodwork that 
 supports it, between two Columns of the Composite Order 
 rising in just Proportion to the Corinthian below, is a 
 Frame and Pannel, wherein is represented the Salutation 
 of the Virgin Mary ; and above the Entablature hangs 
 hovering a most beautiful Cloud with great Numbers of 
 Angels and Cherubs in various Attitudes, waiting the 
 return of the Angel Gabriel/ 
 
 The College accounts, from time to time, contain 
 records of payments made for painting this screen 
 and ' picking in the Ground of Cherubs and Stars, and 
 Shadowing Flowers different Colours.''* 
 
 * Some incidental references to the appearance of the chapel are 
 preserved in the verses written in honour of the visit of the Duchess 
 of York (Mary of Modena) in 1683 (Bodl. Lib. MS. Rawlinson, 
 Poet. 19, fol. 86, 87). As the verses have never been published, 
 and as they are of considerable interest, they are here subjoined : 
 
 4 Madam ! Forgive the zeal of Him that Dares 
 Detayn you here from your best welcome Prayers : 
 
MORE RESTORATION 71 
 
 In 1773 Lord Radnor presented, as an altar-piece, a 
 picture of the Adoration of the Shepherds, attributed to 
 some pupil of Caracci, which was removed to the hall 
 some sixteen years afterwards. With the exception of 
 the windows, which are reserved for separate treatment, 
 no further changes of importance were made in the 
 chapel till towards the end of the eighteenth century, 
 when it became evident that the roof required to be 
 strengthened. 
 
 No Place for you but in our Chappell's found, 
 A Sacred Person upon Holy Ground. 
 
 In Whome are Joyn'd, as in yon Antique Paint, 
 Prophets and Kings, a Princess and a Saint, 
 In Whome Heav'ne Does their Prophesys Fulfill, 
 Giving the Church a nursing Mother still, 
 Born to Revive, to Cherish, and Advance, 
 And give poor Baffled Virtue Countenance, 
 To bring 't in Vogue, and make 't be understood 
 Tis truly Gallant to be truly Good : 
 For now all see that onely Pleases you, 
 Will make Devotion grow Court-Fashion too. 
 
 How may Wee Pay such Homage as we Owe, 
 When more's your due than's fit for us to know ! 
 That Glorious Day much to your Highness ought 
 Who Pray'd as heartily as his Highness fought. 
 Our Canons had but beat the Ayre, as theirs, 
 But for the thundering legion of your Prayers. 
 
 Since Saxon Kings did to Christ's sceptre yeeld, 
 And good Queen Bertha first a Church Rebuild, 
 Our Church, with joy full thanks, we must confess, 
 Ne'er knew so fayre, so kind a Patroness. 
 Will to do Good and Pow'r are met so well, 
 That my Prophetique Spirit bids me Tell, 
 You'll be the greatest Foundress in our Days, 
 And add to th' olde, or some new Colledge Rays, 
 Where your Majestys Statue shall appear, 
 Exalted as our Lady's Image heer, 
 And you shall Live, when Death shall you Prefer 
 To a High Place in Heaven, and nigh to Her.' 
 
72 THE BUILDINGS 
 
 The condition of the roof led to a general scheme of 
 restoration, some of the details of which we can gather 
 from the College records, and others from the corre- 
 spondence of Thomas Warton, the Poet Laureate, who 
 was Camden Professor of Ancient History at the time, 
 and of Daniel Prince, the Oxford bookseller and anti- 
 quary. Their letters are preserved in Nichols" fc Literary 
 Anecdotes ** and in his ' Illustrations of Literary History. 1 
 The College accounts of the year 1779 contain an 
 entry : * 2 joiners 4| Dayes to Cutting out the Panel in 
 the Wainscott in the Altarpiece and Cutting out the 
 Stone Work/ The sculpture thus disclosed must have 
 been the ' series of basso-relievo of the life of the 
 Virgin Mary ' of which Warton speaks, and a portion 
 of which may now be seen in the cloisters. Prince tells 
 us that it was because this ' small opening presented such 
 an elegant specimen that the Society have now [1789] 
 opened the whole, and purpose to have it restored 
 under the direction of Sir Joshua Reynolds and Mr. 
 Wyatt, 1 and he and Warton agree in their descriptions 
 of the discoveries made on the removal of Cookers in- 
 congruous rotunda. 
 
 ' It was well known at New College ' (writes Prince) 
 ' that the whole of the east end of the chapel was ordered 
 by Home, Bishop of Winchester ... to be completely 
 hid by plastering up the whole, and in the operation, 
 where any parts projected beyond this level, they cut all 
 even. . . . The images are all demolished. What re- 
 mains is the Gothic architecture carried on to the ceiling, 
 with the niches empty. The bottom row has good sculp- 
 ture of the Nativity, etc., the human figures about the 
 scale of 9 inches.' 
 
THE REYNOLDS WINDOW 73 
 
 Warton mentions that the niches were 6 feet high, 
 'the canopies and rich traceries all hacked to pieces/ 
 Chalmers, in his ' History of Oxford ' (1810), adds that 
 6 the ground colour of these niches was of a deep ultra- 
 marine blue, and the exterior edges of the shafts of the 
 niches richly gilt."* Wyatt professed himself confident of 
 restoring the reredos to its original condition, but the 
 result of his work was the erection of empty plaster 
 niches, involving the removal of such of the original 
 stonework as had survived the efforts of Home and 
 Cooke. 'The good sculpture of the Nativity,' etc., 
 was replaced by the existing series of five compart- 
 ments of alto-relievo in marble by Westmacott, repre- 
 senting the Salutation, the Nativity, the Descent from 
 the Cross, the Resurrection, and the Ascension. 
 
 The alterations in the east end were completed by 
 Wyatt's painting the altar in blue and gold, which, 
 when it was 'displayed to the publick, 1 caused, accord- 
 ing to Prince, such emotion in Warton that ' Poor 
 Thomas fetched such sighs as I could not have thought 
 he could breathe/ All traces of this colouring have 
 now disappeared. A fierce controversy raged over 
 Wyatt's treatment of the east end, but Warton himself 
 approved of Wyatt's other performances. ' They are 
 new-roofing the choir of New College Chapel, 1 he says, 
 ' at a considerable expense woodwork in the Gothic 
 style in a good taste.' Probably what modern taste 
 can least forgive Wyatt at New College is the roof, 
 which seems to have satisfied contemporary critics. 
 He destroyed the old wooden roof (the beauty of which 
 may be guessed from Wykeham's surviving roof in 
 the chapel at Winchester), and replaced it by one 
 
74 THE BUILDINGS 
 
 made of plaster, with sham groin-work, altering the 
 pitch of the roof, and concealing a portion of the 
 upper part of the reredos. The ' woodwork in a good 
 taste "* consisted of a reconstruction of the screen and 
 the building of a new organ-loft. The stall-seats which 
 had been erected in 1636 were placed in the ante- 
 chapel, and the screen was entirely remodelled, and 
 extended up to the altar-steps, thus gaining in length 
 what it had lost in breadth. Part of the original 
 carved wood was retained, and the new lath and plaster 
 canopied stalls were painted in white and gold. This 
 brilliant colouring gave way to a dowdier hue at some 
 time before living memory; but since the restoration 
 of 1879, some traces of it may still be seen. The new 
 organ-loft was constructed to serve as a frame for the 
 Reynolds window, which had been by this time in- 
 serted. It was, according to our guide-book, ' a most 
 superb piece of Gothic architecture, raised over the 
 entrance of the choir at the west end, and very fitly 
 corresponding with the richness and beauty of the 
 altarpiece/ Large plaster canopies were erected over 
 the stalls. The whole effect of the interior decoration 
 was, says Prince, more and more admired as the work 
 approached completion in 1793 ; ' the internal colour ,"* 
 he adds, ' a warm white/ 
 
 In the year 1839 the floor of the ante-chapel was 
 repaved, but otherwise (but for the repainting of the 
 stalls) the building remained as Wyatt had left it till 
 Sir Gilbert Scott^s restoration in 1879. Scott reopened 
 the vestry door, which Wyatt had closed in lengthening 
 the stalls. He also restored to their original use the 
 miserere seats which Wyatt had employed to decorate 
 
WYATT AND SCOTT 75 
 
 the scholars 1 seats immediately under the stalls, and 
 he replaced Wyatt's plaster canopy by one of oak, 
 which unfortunately he made too high,* so that it cuts 
 off the legends in the windows. Wyatt^s roof was also 
 removed, and Scott took the serious responsibility of 
 substituting an open oak roof of considerably greater 
 elevation. Whatever may be said in extenuation of 
 this proceeding, it is unquestionable that it has 
 altered the original proportions of the chapel, and 
 destroyed the symmetry and beauty of the exterior. 
 An attempt to preserve the original proportions by 
 rejecting the design involving the higher roof, in favour 
 of another which Scott submitted to the College, was 
 made by the Rev. W. A. Spooner, but without success 
 to the lasting regret of some of the guilty generation 
 and of all its successors. The only remaining altera- 
 tion completely carried out by Sir Gilbert Scott was 
 the construction of a new organ-loft. The organ of 
 1663 had been repaired in 1775 by Green, and it re- 
 mained in use till 1879, when it was partially replaced 
 by Willis, for whose organ a new case was designed. 
 Important parts of the earlier work are, however, still 
 in use, and in this sense the organ is one of the oldest 
 in England. t 
 
 It had been intended that Scott^s work should include 
 the restoration of the east end of the chapel, but his 
 death prevented him from completing his scheme. 
 Scott had removed Wyatt's plaster reredos and had 
 
 * The renovation of the stalls was not fully carried out till after 
 Scott's death. 
 
 f Two stops by Dalham (1664) remain in use the Great Double 
 Diapason and the Choir Flute as well as several of those inserted 
 by Green in 1774, including the Great Open Diapason. 
 
76 THE BUILDINGS 
 
 restored the niches in stone after fourteenth-century 
 designs, but on the lines of Wyatt's plaster erection, 
 for which the architect had the guidance of the traces 
 of the original work that survived Cookers rotunda. 
 
 After Scott's death the completion of the restoration 
 was entrusted to Mr. Pearson, and it was decided to 
 restore the figures in such a way as to embody the 
 idea of the Te Deum : 
 
 ' To Thee all Angels cry aloud. . . . 
 The glorious company of the Apostles praise Thee. 
 The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise Thee. 
 The noble army of Martyrs praise Thee. 
 The Holy Church throughout all the world doth ac- 
 knowledge Thee.' 
 
 Under a representation of the Lord in Glory is the 
 top tier of niches, containing a representation of the 
 Agnus Dei, with angels on each side. The centrepiece 
 of the second tier is the Crucifixion, and to the right 
 and left are Apostles and Saints. In the third row is 
 a figure of the Virgin and Child, with, on the one side, 
 King Richard II., a benefactor of the founder, and 
 the following martyrs : St. John, St. Jude, St. Simon, 
 St. James the Greater, St. Thomas, and St. Philip. On 
 the other side are leading representatives of the Church 
 in England : William of Wykeham, St. Augustine, the 
 Venerable Bede, St. Anselm, the Wykehamist Arch- 
 bishop Warham, and the Wykehamist Bishop Ken. 
 The lowermost tier represents Prophets and Christian 
 Teachers. The statues were presented between 1890 
 and 1892 by members of the College. 
 
 The windows in the ante-chapel, with the exception 
 
THE WINDOWS 77 
 
 of the west window, consist of glass inserted either here 
 or in the chapel by the founder, who was specially 
 interested in stained windows. The legend which they 
 bear, ' Ora pro Gulielmo de Wykeham . . / sufficiently 
 indicates that they date from his lifetime. All the 
 windows in chapel and ante- chapel were probably of 
 this glass, and when it was removed to comply with 
 Home's injunctions, it was, fortunately, not destroyed. 
 Part of it seems to have been replaced in the chapel 
 about the end of the seventeenth century ; and the 
 Order-Book of the Warden and Thirteen ' for 1775, 
 when new windows had been placed in the north side, 
 contains an injunction that an opinion be obtained 
 ' regarding the old glass taken from the chapel. 1 The 
 opinion was favourable, and it was decided to place the 
 glass in the ante-chapel. In the accounts of the follow- 
 ing year there is a bill for 6 taking down the Figures 
 out of the three windows, altering the Positions, repair- 
 ing Damages, and replacing with some fresh Pedestals,"" 
 and for ' eight figures done, remaining in the Cloysters 
 ready to be put up in the Ante-Chapel/ The ingenuity 
 of the workmen in ' altering the Positions ' led to several 
 mistakes in the arrangement of the windows. Attention 
 was first drawn to these errors by Mr. Charles Winston 
 in a learned article on the glass in New College Chapel 
 and Hall, contributed in 1852 to the Archaeological 
 Journal' 1 (vol. ix.). A scheme for cleaning and re- 
 pairing the windows was completed by Mr. Powell in 
 1900, and under his care the errors have been rectified, 
 and the windows present what is, perhaps, the best 
 collection of fourteenth- century glass in this country. 
 Their beauty of tone and colour, and their harmony 
 
78 THE BUILDINGS 
 
 with the architecture of the building, render it hard 
 to forgive the vandalism which has robbed the chapel 
 of so many similar adornments. 
 
 The windows on the south side of the chapel are 
 traditionally ascribed to pupils of Rubens, but were cer- 
 tainly finished by Price, from whom the college purchased 
 them ' at the expense of 100Z. per Window, 1 one window 
 being inserted every year, between 1737 and 1740. Those 
 on the north side were produced by Mr. Peckitt of York 
 between 1765 and 1774, the three nearest the screen 
 from designs by Rebecca. The west window of the 
 ante-chapel, from designs by Sir Joshua Reynolds, was 
 completed in sections, about 1784. The centrepiece 
 was put into position in September, 1783, and, 
 unfortunately, the tracery of the window had to be 
 altered to admit it. Contemporary opinion was con- 
 siderably divided about the window. It was argued 
 that the pictures were not suited for reproduction in 
 glass, and that a window should not be a monochrome. 
 Horace Walpole prophesied failure for it in 1779. But 
 in 1783 he wrote : 
 
 ' Sir Joshua's Nativity is glorious. The room being 
 darkened, and the sun shining through the transparencies, 
 realizes the illumination that is supposed to be diffused 
 from the glory, and has a magic effect/ 
 
 Two years later he had again changed his mind : 
 
 1 The old and the new are as mismanaged as an orange 
 and a lemon, and destroy each other ; nor is there room 
 enough to retire back, and see half of the new ; and Sir 
 Joshua's washy virtues make the Nativity a dark spot from 
 
HORACE WALPOLE 79 
 
 the darkness of the shepherds, which happened, as I 
 knew it would, from most of Jarvis's colours not being 
 transparent.' 
 
 The 'washy virtues 1 (which, by the way, had been 
 placed in the window before Walpole wrote the first 
 criticism we have quoted) are described in a con- 
 temporary guide-book as resembling seven chamber- 
 maids. Sir Joshua's design for the Nativity was sold 
 to the Duke of Rutland for 1,%QQ and was burned in 
 the fire at Belvoir Castle in 1816. The ' Seven Graces ' 
 did not come into the market till after the death of 
 Sir Joshua's niece, the Marchioness of Thomond, and 
 they were purchased in 1821 by the Earl of Normanton, 
 who paid over c 3 5,000 for them. These were enormous 
 prices for those days, and opinion in general has been 
 on the side of the purchasers rather than on that of 
 Horace Walpole. 
 
 Of the brasses which adorned the chapel and cloisters 
 only about half now remain. They are, with a single 
 exception, in the north transept of the ante-chapel, 
 where they were collected and placed when the chapel 
 was repaved in 1636. It is possible that others may 
 be concealed by the stalls which Wyatt placed round 
 the walls. Fortunately, some of the most beautiful 
 specimens have been preserved, e.g., the brasses of 
 William Hautryve (1441), Warden Cranley, afterwards 
 Archbishop of Dublin (1417), and Warden John Rede 
 (1521). The brasses in the cloisters were, Wood tells 
 us, ' sacrilegiously conveyed away, when the King's 
 ammunition was reposed therein in the time of the 
 Civil War, an. 1643 and after.' Only one of them now 
 remains that to Richard Dyke (1604), in the south 
 
80 THE BUILDINGS 
 
 cloister, with its characteristically seventeenth-century 
 riddle : 
 
 Exiit e vita cum Februus exiit, annum 
 
 Si cupis, et marbum scire, dabit MeDICVs.'* 
 
 
 The cloisters, with the bell tower, were completed a 
 few years after the entrance of the society into the 
 College, and were consecrated on October 19, 1400, 
 by Nicholas, Bishop of Dunkeld, who, having been 
 appointed by the Roman Pope, could find no home in 
 Scotland, which recognised the Avignon Papacy, but 
 afterwards held the rectory of Belbroughton in 
 Worcestershire. The cloisters were intended for pro- 
 cessions and as a place of interment; but they have 
 been employed for various purposes. We are indebted 
 to Antony Wood for an account of the use made of 
 them during the Civil War (of which more hereafter) 
 as a magazine for the royal forces. At the end of the 
 eighteenth century we find them used for more peaceful 
 purposes, for in 1776 the College enacted that 'the fruit 
 trees at present standing against the walls and windows 
 of the cloisters be removed, and that hereafter no other 
 plantation be again made in the same place without 
 orders. 1 About the same time there was some discus- 
 sion (though the College records show no trace of it) 
 about the advisability of pulling down one or more of 
 the cloister walls, and erecting iron railings ' to admit 
 light and air. 1 Burials in the cloisters or chapel are 
 now forbidden without the special license of the 
 Home Secretary. 
 
 * For full information about the brasses, see ' A Catalogue of the 
 Brasses in New College, Oxford,' by H. C. P. Dobree, in the Journal 
 of the Oxford Brass-rubbing Society, vol. i., No 2 (June, 1897). 
 
THE HALL 81 
 
 The great tower, standing outside the city walls, 
 served as a receptacle for a clock and bells. Five bells were 
 given by the founder, at a cost of < J 132 16s. 4d. Three 
 of them were dedicated respectively to the Holy 
 Trinity, the Blessed Virgin, and St. John Baptist and 
 St. Frideswide. The old clock (the date of which is 
 unknown) was replaced in 1885 by the present one, but 
 no alteration was made in the chimes. 
 
 The hall has suffered less from the ravages of time 
 than has the chapel. It was completed in 1386, and 
 adorned in the reign of Henry VIII. by the beautiful 
 panelling which an early tradition has asserted to be 
 the gift of Archbishop Warham. Otherwise it does 
 not seem to have been much changed till the year 
 1722, when the original wooden floor was replaced by 
 the existing marble pavement. At Wyatt's restoration 
 of the College, the roof of the hall was destroyed, and 
 its place taken by a flat plaster ceiling, designed by 
 Wyatt. In 1865 Scott removed Wyatt's ceiling, and 
 erected a wooden roof of elaborate design, built 
 entirely of timber felled on the College estates. Scott 
 restored as far as possible the old pitch of the roof,* 
 which Wyatt had altered, and included in his design a 
 reproduction of the louvre, which had originally served 
 as chimney for the fire in the middle of the floor. At 
 the same time the windows with their armorial bearings 
 were renovated and restored. 
 
 The library occupied the rooms in the east end of 
 the quadrangle, which now form the lower library, and 
 
 * The present dimensions of the hall are : Length, 79 feet ; 
 breadth, 33 feet ; height, 50 feet. But Chalmers, in his ' History 
 of Oxford,' writing about twenty years after Wyatt's changes, gives 
 the original height as only 40 feet. 
 
 6 
 
82 THE BUILDINGS 
 
 the room which is now the upper senior common-room 
 was assigned as a special library for law books. The 
 room under the Law Library was, then as now, known 
 as the Chequer, and was used for much the same 
 purpose as a modern bursary. It probably extended 
 to the front - quadrangle, and included the present 
 bursary. The kitchen occupied its present site. The 
 staircase tower was built as a series of four muniment- 
 rooms : the ground-floor for ' vessels of brass ** and other 
 College utensils; the first-floor for charters and docu- 
 ments; and the two remaining rooms for plate and 
 jewels, the uppermost to contain plate and jewels of 
 special value used in the chapel. These rooms retain 
 their beautiful tiled floors and vaulted roofs. All are 
 now used for the storing of College archives. The 
 Chaplains 1 rooms were under the hall (the present 
 storeroom), and a choir-school was at an early period 
 built between the east cloister and the west wall of 
 the chapel. There were three gates. The great gate, 
 with a smaller one inserted in it for actual use, just 
 as we have it to-day, was ordered by the statutes to 
 remain closed from sunset to sunrise; and this regula- 
 tion applied also to the gate at the east end, which 
 was made in the city wall leading into the Slype, or 
 slip of ground outside the city wall. Besides these, 
 there was a gate ' close to the Church of St. Peter in 
 the East, 1 to be opened only when the Mayor and 
 Bailiffs of Oxford came, once in three years, to inspect 
 the fortifications, or in time of war, or when repairs 
 were being made on the fabric. Fellows and scholars 
 alike were forbidden to make use of it in ordinary 
 circumstances. This non licet gate disappeared when 
 
Frcm a photograph by the\ [Oxford Camera Club 
 
 DOOR OF THE MUNIMENT-ROOM 
 
DOMESTIC ARRANGEMENTS 83 
 
 the garden quadrangle was built, and its place has 
 been taken by the small gate in the garden wall near 
 St. Peter's Church. 
 
 The apportionment of the domestic buildings is known 
 to us. The gateway tower contained the Wardens 
 lodgings, and the remainder of the quadrangle afforded 
 space for some twenty chambers. The statutes provide 
 that three Fellows or scholars should reside in each upper 
 chamber, and four in each lower chamber, except in 
 the room at the south-east corner, which was to accom- 
 modate only three. This distribution of space was 
 maintained,* it would appear, till the additions were 
 made to the buildings in the end of the seventeenth 
 century ; and in 1666 one of the questions put to the 
 Visitor was whether, in view of the additions to the 
 buildings then proposed, a more liberal allowance of 
 room might be made. The answer was in the affirma- 
 tive, and the rooms probably ceased to have more than 
 two occupants each. But part of the garden quadrangle 
 was built in accordance with the old arrangement, the 
 plan of which is perhaps best seen in the rooms in the 
 second wing of the quadrangle, looking to the garden. 
 In these the four small windows (three facing the garden 
 and one in the north wall) were apparently intended for 
 four ' studies." 
 
 We have anticipated our account of the additions to the 
 founder's buildings. The first change was the erection of 
 attics in Warden Colepepper's time (1573-1579). These 
 may be seen, in one of Loggan's prints, extending along 
 three sides of the old quadrangle. The attics did not 
 
 * It is not unlikely that the big rooms were divided up by some 
 sort of partition, or that, at all events, the ' studies ' (as to which 
 see above, p. 57) had grown into larger structures. 
 
 62 
 
 
84 THE BUILDINGS 
 
 face the quadrangle, but the roof was raised to make 
 room for them, and the proportions of the towers were 
 spoiled. The attics on the east side were used for a 
 Manuscript Library, to afford greater space for the 
 increasing number of printed books in the Arts Library 
 below. Probably at the same date chimneys were for 
 the first time inserted in the buildings. About 1674-75 
 the wall in the interior of the quadrangle was carried 
 up and the attics converted into a third story. The 
 attic windows, looking on to the back of the quadrangle, 
 dated from the time of Charles I., and were plain sash- 
 windows. The windows of the third story, facing the 
 quadrangle, were made in similar fashion ; and the 
 College about the same time further disfigured the 
 quadrangle by inserting square windows throughout. 
 The beautiful oriel windows in the Warden's lodgings, 
 between the archway and the chapel entrance, were 
 about the same time destroyed and made uniform with 
 the rest of the quadrangle. Loggan^s representation 
 shows them very similar to the oriel window in New 
 College Street, facing the cloister wall, which has been 
 left undisturbed. 
 
 When the Manuscript Library was enlarged by the 
 completion of the third story, the law books were 
 removed thither, and the original Law Library was 
 converted into a senior common-room. In the middle 
 of the seventeenth century Merton created a precedent 
 by converting a room into a common chamber, and 
 New College about 1679 or 1680 followed the example 
 thus set. The passage connecting the new common- 
 room with the library was closed up and a new entrance 
 made from the hall. The common-room was panelled, 
 
WARDEN'S LODGINGS 85 
 
 and the plaster ceiling was inserted, obscuring a roof 
 with wooden beams. The plaster was removed and the 
 ceiling restored in 1873. When the alterations were in 
 progress, the removal of some panels revealed two of 
 the original mullioned windows in the south wall, and 
 two niches with grooves for bookshelves on the east 
 side. The most interesting part of the internal furnish- 
 ing of the common-room is the ' railroad,' by which the 
 decanters are carried by their own weight from one side 
 of the fireplace to the other. This great invention, of 
 which all others in Oxford common-rooms and elsewhere 
 are imitations, is due to Shuttleworth (afterwards 
 Warden, and then Bishop of Chi Chester), who had seen 
 the principle employed in the collieries of his native 
 Durham. The Chequer, or the part of it under the 
 common-room, was turned into 'a morning-room for 
 the Fellows ' probably about the same time as the con- 
 version of the upper room took place. 
 
 There have been some slight changes in the Warden's 
 lodgings. Hearne records that in 1734 ' Dr. Coxhead, 
 Warden of New College, made a door out of his lodgings 
 into the street a thing much taken notice of as against 
 the statutes by persons that are not for innovations.' 
 In 1814, and again in 1822, additional rooms were 
 appropriated to the Warden's use. The statues of 
 St. Mary in the Annunciation of the Archangel Michael, 
 and of the founder himself, which adorn the gateway 
 tower, remain undisturbed. In 1696 a leaden statue of 
 Minerva, the gift of a Warwickshire gentleman, was 
 placed in the centre of the quadrangle. When the exist- 
 ing grass plot was laid out, about 1789, the statue was 
 sold, and the proceeds added to the funds of the library. 
 
86 THE BUILDINGS 
 
 There is a tradition that, in reply to a curious American 
 who had handsomely ' tipped ' a former porter to reveal 
 the secret of the enviable smoothness of the grass in the 
 quadrangle, that functionary remarked, ' Well, you see, 
 sir, we mows it and we rolls it for 500 years, and there 
 you are P The reader will have gathered that the effect 
 can be produced by a considerably shorter expenditure 
 of time. 
 
 Before turning from the original buildings to describe 
 later additions, we may indicate briefly Wykehanfs 
 claim to originality as a College-builder. The quad- 
 rangular shape, probably suggested by the gradual 
 growth of the buildings at Merton, and first consciously 
 adopted, perhaps, in the construction of Corpus Christi 
 College at Cambridge, is here developed on a really 
 magnificent scale. ' In New College, for the first time, 
 the chapel, the hall, the library, the treasury, the 
 Wardens lodgings, a sufficient range of chambers, the 
 cloister, and the various domestic offices, are provided 
 for and erected without change of plan/* Many of 
 these features appear themselves for the first time. No 
 previous College could boast of a tower gateway, a 
 separate residence for the Head, a cloister-cemetery, 
 and a regular library. In numerous respects, the 
 model set by Wykeham has been unquestioningly fol- 
 lowed by later founders, f both at Oxford and at 
 Cambridge, and even in Scotland, where, though the 
 founders were imbued with French ideas, the influence 
 of Wykeham may be traced. 
 
 * Willis and Clark, ' Architectural History of University of Cam- 
 bridge, 1 iii. 258. 
 t Cf. Willis and Clark, vol. iii., passim. 
 
COMMON-ROOMS 87 
 
 No sooner were the additions made to the old 
 buildings than the College undertook the construction 
 of a new quadrangle. It was at first proposed to erect 
 a closed quadrangle, but this suggestion was abandoned 
 in favour of a plan of an open court, made by ' William 
 Bird, mason in Oxford. 1 Anthony Wood* tells us that 
 on February 13, 1682, 'the first stone was laid by the 
 Warden [Beeston] near the gate of the quadrangle lead- 
 ing to the garden, where now the Common Chamber is 
 on the south side. 1 Bird's plan provided for the build- 
 ing of a junior common-room parallel with the older 
 Chequer and senior common-room, and of two wings, 
 one on each side of the quadrangle, eastward of the 
 common-rooms and at right angles to them. These 
 ranges were built in 1682-83, and the quadrangle was 
 completed in the beginning of the eighteenth century 
 by the addition of two further wings at right angles to 
 the eastern walls of the last-mentioned buildings, the 
 width of the quadrangle thus increasing by two succes- 
 sive enlargements. The south range dates from 1700, 
 and the north (which was built by private subscription 
 and presented to the College) from 1708. 
 
 No further additions were made to the buildings till 
 the latter half of the nineteenth century, when the 
 increase in numbers consequent upon the opening of 
 the College rendered necessary a scheme of building 
 extension. Ground was therefore purchased outside 
 the old city wall, and parallel with the line of the hall 
 and chapel, with a frontage to Holywell Street. On 
 that site was erected in 1873 a block of buildings by 
 Sir Gilbert Scott, which added nothing to the architec- 
 * ' Life, 1 p. xciv, ed. Bliss. 
 
88 THE BUILDINGS 
 
 tural interest of the College. In 1884 a tutors house 
 and one new staircase were built, further to the east, 
 on a very different design, by Mr. Basil Champneys. 
 These were continued, to effect a junction with Scott's 
 buildings, in 1897, and at the Encaenia in 1898 a new 
 gateway tower, erected to commemorate the great 
 services to the College of the late Bursar, Mr. Alfred 
 Robinson, was inaugurated by the Warden. These 
 later buildings are also from Mr. Champneys' designs, 
 and the renovation of the pinnacles on the hall and 
 chapel, unfortunately necessitated in 1899 by their 
 dangerous condition, has been carried out under his 
 directions. Unfortunately, the new pinnacles are thicker 
 and less graceful than the old, though the old seem to 
 have dated only from Wyatt.* 
 
 The garden was originally used for kitchen produce, 
 and the Bursars 1 Rolls for the first years of the College 
 history contain entries of the planting of vines there. 
 By the beginning of the sixteenth century it had come 
 to be 'used for pleasure and walking." The artificial 
 mound, which adds greatly to its beauty, was com- 
 menced in 1529-30, when many labourers were employed 
 to carry in earth and soil. Similar entries are again 
 found in the Bursars' Rolls in 1584-85, and between 
 1616 and 1623. The MS. of Warden Woodward 
 tells us that in 1648-49 'the mount was perfected 
 with steps of stone and setts for the hedgest about the 
 
 * The change was made on the supposed authority of an old 
 print. 
 
 f Poynter (c. 1750) thus describes the garden: 'There is a lofty 
 artificial Mount, encompassed with several Hedges of Juniper, 
 adorn 'd with Trees cut into several Shapes, with Stone Steps and 
 winding Walks up to the Top, and the Top encompass 'd with Rails 
 
THE GARDEN 89 
 
 walk.' Seventeenth-century prints show to the west of 
 the mound ' the King's and founder's arms, a dial and 
 a knot, all curiously cut in box.' The southern portion 
 of the garden was used for archery, and ended in an 
 Ionic temple, of eighteenth-century date, removed in 
 1890. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, 
 the access to the mound had been removed, the 
 boxwood designs had disappeared, and the garden 
 had acquired its present appearance. AylifFe mentions 
 that the screen in front of the garden, 'a curious 
 Piece of Iron- Work, 130 feet in length, was set up in 
 the year 1711, and was made by that ingenious Artist, 
 Mr. Thos. Robinson at Hyde-Park Corner.' Ayliffe 
 was a contemporary, and, as a Fellow of New College, 
 must have known the fact ; but it is interesting to 
 note that a tradition arose that the screen had been 
 ' brought from Timon's villa [Canons, belonging to the 
 Duke of Chandos], satirized by Pope in his 'Moral 
 Essays' (cf. IV., ver. 99).'* The gardens are fortunate 
 in the unique charm lent them by the old city wall 
 which forms their boundary, and provides so effective a 
 background to the graceful foliage on the mound and 
 the dignified shade of beech and lime. The beauty of 
 the scene is increased by the glimpses of the old Norman 
 west front of St. Peter's-in-the-East on one side, and of 
 the tower of Magdalen on the other. 
 
 and Seats, and a Tree growing in the Middle.' Archery has for 
 some years ceased to be practised in New College, and the only 
 amusement now possible in the garden is the old English game of 
 bowls played in the summer term. 
 
 * Chalmers, 'History of Oxford,' vol. i., p. 129. Chalmers 
 mentions this as a fact. But the ' Moral Epistles ' did not appear 
 till I73I-34- 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE MIDDLE AGES AND THE RENAISSANCE 
 
 NEW COLLEGE was founded too late in the Middle Ages 
 to produce famous schoolmen of the medieval type. 
 The scholastic philosophy was in its decadence. 
 WyclifFe was the last of the great schoolmen. The 
 founder was a member of that party in the Church 
 which was bent on stamping out Wycliffism ; its efforts 
 were in due time accomplished, but only at the cost of 
 stamping out thought also. Not one even of the 
 orthodox philosophical works of the greatest contem- 
 porary schoolman appears among the books which the 
 founder presented to the College, and the Society 
 produced practically nothing of its own in that region. 
 Nor did any of the more famous Lollards come from 
 the College, but in spite of all its founder's care heresy 
 soon crept into his fold. A Fellow named Richard 
 Wyche was burnt at London in 1439.* Wykeham 
 had, of course, no thought of introducing any funda- 
 mental change into the traditional education of his 
 time. But it is probable that he was more interested 
 in the study of law on the one hand, and of grammar 
 * Winchester Register and Foxe 
 
TWO ARCHBISHOPS 91 
 
 on the other, than in scholastic theology and scholastic 
 philosophy. The most famous New College men of the 
 first generation were not learned schoolmen or divines, 
 but lawyers, diplomatists, ecclesiastical politicians 
 men of the type to which the founder himself belonged, 
 and which he was most solicitous to rear ; for these 
 were precisely the class of men to whom he looked to 
 defend the old regime in Church and State, to keep 
 power in the hands of the Bishops, and to suppress the 
 ominous alliance between heretical theologians and 
 revolutionary laymen which had produced the alarm- 
 ing phenomenon of Lollardy. In the very first page 
 of the Steward of Hall's book, which records the 
 Fellows present each day and each week at the common 
 meals, occur the names of two Archbishops. One was 
 Henry Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury, famous as 
 a diplomatist, as the War Minister of Agincourt, as the 
 founder of All Souls', as a strenuous defender of the rights 
 of the English Church against Rome. The other was 
 Thomas de Cranley, second Warden of the College 
 (1382-1385), the Chancellor of the University, afterwards 
 Warden of Winchester, finally Archbishop of Dublin 
 (1398-1417). He was at one time Lord Chancellor and 
 Justiciar of Ireland. He lies buried in the ante-chapel, 
 where a fine brass preserves his features. As an indica- 
 tion of the fact that the founder intended the expression 
 'poor scholar 'to be interpreted with a certain amount of 
 liberality, it is worth noting that Chicheley's father was 
 twice Lord Mayor of London. Archbishop Cranley 
 testified his affection for the College by a gift of 
 books in 1413, and a legacy of books in his will.* 
 * Bursar's Rolls for 1513 and 1518. 
 
 
92 MIDDLE AGES AND THE RENAISSANCE 
 
 Another Wykehamist of the same stamp was Thomas 
 Bekynton, D.C.L., successively (among other prefer- 
 ments) tutor to King Henry VI., Dean of Arches (in 
 which capacity he is found active in the suppression of 
 Lollardy), Secretary of State, Lord Privy Seal, and 
 Bishop 'of Bath and Wells (1443-1465). He was 
 consecrated in the still unfinished chapel of Eton, which 
 he afterwards proceeded to ' dedicate, 1 or, as we should 
 now say, to consecrate. He built the west cloister of 
 Wells, left the money out of which the Rector's 
 lodgings at Lincoln were built (his rebus a T, a 
 beam and a tun may still be seen there), and procured 
 for his own College the manor and suppressed alien 
 priory of Newton Longueville (1443) from his pupil 
 Henry VI., together with the manors of Great 
 Horwood, Whaddon, Akeley, West Hanney and 
 Witchingham.* Royal gifts, however, are apt to be 
 expensive; it cost the College <648 14s. 5d. to get 
 into its little property. Before this the College 
 finances had apparently fallen to a very low state, f 
 
 These men carried on the legal and statesmanlike 
 traditions of the founder. But Wykeham, whose own 
 education had probably ended with the Grammar 
 School, was also in a modest and medieval way inter- 
 ested in the study of grammar. The one distinctive 
 educational idea which his statutes represent is an in- 
 creased appreciation of the need of sound grammatical 
 teaching, which Wykeham endeavoured to secure both by 
 insisting on his scholars studying at Winchester till they 
 were sixteen, and by the institution of tutors to super- 
 
 * ' Bekynton Correspondence,' vol. i., p. 226. 
 f Ibid., p. 225 
 
CHANDLER AND VITELLI 93 
 
 intend their early studies at Oxford. And these measures 
 bore fruit in due time. New College is the earliest 
 home of the Renaissance in Oxford, if the name of 
 Renaissance can be given to those humble efforts after a 
 more thorough teaching of grammar and the writing of 
 decent Latin prose which are traceable from about the 
 middle of the fifteenth century, or soon afterwards, all 
 over Europe. This movement, it is worthy of note, 
 does not appear in the first instance to have been due 
 to any direct contact with the Humanists of Italy, 
 though it may have been stimulated by the vague 
 rumour that in that country scholars, and even 
 Cardinals, were beginning to think Virgil and Cicero 
 worthy of serious study. Of this tendency the first 
 distinct representative in Oxford was Thomas Chandler, 
 who became Warden of Winchester in 1450, and of 
 New College in 1454 (1454-1475) afterwards Canon of 
 half a dozen churches, Chancellor of Oxford (while still 
 Warden), Master of St. Cross, Dean of the Chapel 
 Royal, Privy Councillor, and finally Dean of Hereford 
 (1481-1490). As Chancellor he presided over the 
 burning of Bishop Pecock's books at Corpus in 1457. 
 In his extant letters to his friend Bishop Bekynton,* he 
 writes perhaps better Latin prose than any that had 
 been known in England since the twelfth century. It 
 was probably during his wardenship that we find the 
 first direct contact with the Italian Renaissance. At 
 all events, it was within the walls of New College that 
 Greek was first taught in Oxford by the Italian scholar 
 Vitelli, who remained here till 1488 or 1489. It was, no 
 doubt, from Vitelli that the more famous William Grocyn, 
 * Published in the ' Bekynton Correspondence.' 
 
94 MIDDLE AGES AND THE RENAISSANCE 
 
 who became full Fellow in 1467, received his first instruc- 
 tion in the Greek tongue. He was the son of a tenant 
 of the College, the farmer of Colerne in Wilts. Upon 
 the foundation of Magdalen, Grocyn was transferred 
 to a Fellowship in that College, where he became the 
 first of its Readers in Divinity in 1481, holding at the 
 same time the New College benefice of Newton 
 Longueville. After travelling in Italy and continuing 
 his studies under Politian and Chalcondyles, he returned 
 to Oxford, and in 1498 began lecturing in Greek at 
 Exeter ; but his godson, George Lily, distinctly tells us 
 that he had taught Greek before leaving Oxford 
 possibly (as Wykehamists will like to think) before 
 leaving New College.* It was not, of course, till after the 
 Italian visit that he numbered More and Erasmus 
 among his hearers. It is significant of the strong 
 conservative bias which his Wykehamist training had 
 imparted that, with all his new and unheard-of classical 
 accomplishments, he had little sympathy with the new 
 religious ideas of his period, still reverently studied the 
 schoolmen against whom Erasmus was stirring up the 
 scorn of cultivated Europe, and preferred Aristotle to 
 Plato : the difference between them, he declared, was 
 the difference between Philosophus and Philomythus. 
 Before his death he became Warden of All Hallows 1 , 
 Maidstone, but he spent the latter part of his days 
 chiefly in London, where he was the centre of the most 
 cultivated circle of his time. Erasmus, who owed to 
 him his introduction to Warham, styles him ' the 
 most upright and best of all Britons. 1 The College has 
 
 * See Professor Montagu Burrows' interesting memoir of William 
 Grocyn in ' Collectanea,' vol. ii., of the Oxford Historical Society. 
 
GROCYN 95 
 
 commemorated its most illustrious scholar by a brass 
 and inscription in the church of Newton Longueville. 
 With the departure of Grocyn, the lead in the 
 humanistic movement passed to Magdalen, which may 
 in a manner, architecturally and otherwise, be regarded 
 as a daughter of New College, though its founder, 
 William of Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester, was not 
 a New College man. He was, however, Headmaster 
 of Winchester (afterwards of Eton), and his own plan 
 testifies to an increased measure of that solicitude for 
 classical study which had begun to show itself in 
 Wykehanrfs foundations. 
 
 Magdalen College produced Colet and gave a 
 temporary home to Erasmus. The Masters of its 
 school in Oxford became the earliest reformers of 
 Grammar School teaching in England. The originator 
 of this movement was Thomas Stanbridge, author 
 of the first Latin Grammar on the new model 
 developed and made famous by Lily of Magdalen at 
 St. Paul's. He was probably the teacher of Wolsey, 
 who succeeded him in the Magdalen headmastership. 
 Stanbridge is said to have been a member of New 
 College, but it is certain that he could not have been a 
 Fellow. 
 
 Though, after Grocyn's time, it is Magdalen which 
 is specially identified with the Greek movement in 
 Oxford, Humanism at least, the Latin Humanism 
 was not extinct in New College. Its most illustrious 
 representative was William Warham, D.C.L., Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, who began life as a Civil Law 
 Fellow of New College, 1475, was presented to the 
 College living of Horwood in 1488, rose to fame as 
 
96 MIDDLE AGES AND THE RENAISSANCE 
 
 an advocate in the Court of Arches, and became Master 
 of the Rolls, Bishop of London, Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, and Lord High Chancellor. His friendship with 
 Colet, and his patronage of Erasmus, gave him a high 
 place in the history of the Oxford Renaissance, so 
 brilliant in its promise, so stunted and imperfect in 
 its later growth. No higher praise can be bestowed 
 upon him than the fact that he died worth not 
 30. He left us his law books and his collection of 
 Greek MSS., and during his lifetime is said to have 
 been the donor of the scrollwork wainscot which gives 
 our hall its peculiar charm. 
 
 For the other medieval Wardens the reader may be 
 referred to the list at the end of this volume. With 
 the exception of the two prelates already mentioned, 
 and Chandler, who became Chancellor of Wells, and 
 afterwards Dean of Hereford, all of them ended their 
 days in the wardenship, though all held other prefer- 
 ments all of them after Chandler a canonry or cathe- 
 dral dignity. Of none of them can anything be recorded 
 except their preferments, until we come to John Young 
 (F. 1482), who was elected Warden in 1521, and became 
 Bishop of Callipolis and Archdeacon of London in 1514. 
 He acted as a Suffragan to the Bishop of London, and 
 afterwards became Master of the Rolls and Dean of 
 Winchester. All these preferments he apparently re- 
 tained with the wardenship. 
 
 Among the few events of the medieval period which 
 our records enable us to note are the visits of dis- 
 tinguished people. These, on account of the expenses 
 which they involved, have left traces in the College 
 accounts. In 1418 the 'Ambassadors of our Lord the 
 
FEASTS AND PLAGUES 97 
 
 Pope ' were entertained with ; spiced bread and beer ' 
 and with wine. In 1426 the Ambassador of the Duke 
 of Burgundy visited the College ; while in May of the 
 following year the Bishop of Lincoln was entertained, 
 and the Earl of Stafford in October. Some years later 
 William Saye, Dean of St. Paul's (Fellow 1428-1442), 
 who presented books to the library and ornaments 
 to the chapel, was received with rejoicings ; and 
 in 1442 preparations were made for a reception of 
 King Henry VI. The most complete account of a 
 College banquet occurs in connexion with a two days' 
 visitation by William Wayneflete, Bishop of Win- 
 chester, in 1470-71, when sums are recorded as spent 
 ' pro pane, cervisia, carnibus bovinis, farina, sale, cygnis, 
 caponibus, cuniculis, qualys.' Another variation of the 
 general monotony of medieval life in College was 
 supplied by the frequent outbursts of pestilence. In 
 the same year as the great feast for Waynflete, the 
 accounts show that an allowance of commons was made 
 for some members who remained to guard the College, 
 while the rest had withdrawn from Oxford on account 
 of the plague. There is a similar entry under the year 
 1594. Most of the Colleges had some farm in the 
 neighbourhood of Oxford to which it was wont to 
 retire on such occasions, but tradition does not seem 
 to have preserved the name of the usual New College 
 sanatorium. 
 
 In addition to those mentioned in the course of the 
 chapter, the following names of medieval Fellows 
 deserve notice : 
 
 JOHN WALTER (F. 1386): Mentioned as a famous mathe- 
 matician by Pitseus (p. 594). 
 
 7 
 
98 MIDDLE AGES AND THE RENAISSANCE 
 
 THOMAS CUBULWYKE (F. 1408) : ' Multae in literis hu- 
 manioribus lectionis erat, necnon Historicus eruditus, et 
 Evangelii Praedicator baud contemnendus, Literatorum 
 denique Maecenas paucis secundus.'* 
 
 ANDREW HULS (F. 1414-20): Archdeacon of Wells and 
 Keeper of the Privy Seal. 
 
 BARTHOLOMEW BOLNERY (F. 1421-22) : According to the 
 Winchester Register, Judex Angliae Primarius (uncon- 
 firmed). 
 
 WILLIAM WHYTE (F. 1434-42) : Burned at Norwich as a 
 Lollard under Henry VI. 
 
 WILLIAM WESTBURY (F. 1435) : As Provost of Eton he 
 saved that College from the rapacity of Edward IV. (cf. 
 Creasy's ' Eminent Etonians/ pp. 33, 34). 
 
 JOHN RUSSELL (F. 1449-62) : Bishop of Rochester 1476 ; 
 Bishop of Lincoln 1480 ; Keeper of the Great Seal 
 Chancellor of Oxford 1483 ; Lord Chancellor of England 
 under Richard III. He was, according to Sir Thomas 
 More, ' a wise and good man of much experience, and one 
 of the best learned men that England had in that time.' 
 He played an important part in the events of the year 
 1483, and his sermon preached at the opening of Richard's 
 first Parliament has been preserved, and will be found in 
 Nichols' ' Grants of Edward V.,' pp. 1-lxiii. For Russell's 
 political career, cf. Gairdner's ' Richard III.' 
 
 RICHARD JANNE (F. 1456): Bishop of Norwich 1499; a 
 benefactor. 
 
 RICHARD MAYHEW, D.D. (F. 1459): First President of 
 Magdalen ; Ambassador to Spain to negotiate marriage of 
 Prince Arthur ; Chancellor of Oxford 1 502 ; Bishop of 
 Hereford 1504. 
 
 GEOFFREY SYMEON (F. 1468) : Rector of Colerne ; Dean 
 of Lincoln ; a benefactor. 
 
 * Wood, 'Hist, and Antiq.,' ii., p. 134. 
 
ALUMNI 99 
 
 ROBERT SHERBOURNE (F. ] 474) : Dean of St. Paul's 
 1499; Bishop of St. David's 1505; Bishop of Chichester 
 1508, where he founded the four still existing Wyke- 
 hamical prebends; died 1536. 
 
 THOMAS KNIGHT (F. 1472): Secretary of State to 
 Edward IV. 
 
 WILLIAM HORMAN (F. 1477) : Headmaster of Winchester, 
 and afterwards of Eton; the author of 'Vulgaria Puerorum ' 
 (Lond., 1519-30), which gave rise to Christopher Jonson's 
 epigram : 
 
 ' Egregia Hormanni quis non vulgaria novit ? 
 Ille hie, Etonae postmodo, terror erat.' 
 
 HUGH INGE, or YNGE (F. 1484) : Bishop of Meath 1511 ; 
 Archbishop of Dublin 1521 ; Lord Chancellor of Ireland ; 
 died 1528. 
 
 THOMAS WELLEYS (F. 1484): Rector of Heyford ; Chap- 
 lain to Archbishop Warham, and, as titular Bishop of 
 Sidon, acted as his Suffragan ; elected Warden, but declined. 
 
 WILLIAM KNIGHT, LL.D. (F. 1493): Bishop of Bath and 
 Wells 1541. He left the College 40. 
 
 72 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 IN the modest Oxford Renaissance we have seen New 
 College taking a prominent part ; but the conservatism 
 of the New College Humanists will have prepared us to 
 find that, in the Reformation movement which followed, 
 New College men are for the most part though there 
 was a zealous minority of Protestants lukewarm or 
 hostile. 
 
 In the earliest phase of the Reformation movement 
 under Henry VIII., it was, indeed, the fate of the 
 College to bear, through its Warden, an unfortunately 
 conspicuous part. However beneficial the suppression 
 of the monasteries may have been, however well con- 
 firmed are many of the charges brought against them 
 by the King's Commissioners, the task involved a good 
 deal of dirty work. For such work every qualification 
 was possessed by John London, D.C.L. (F. 1505-18), 
 who, after holding the College living of Adderbury 
 and other preferments, became Warden of New College 
 in 1526. He was already Canon of York and of 
 Lincoln, and afterwards became also Dean of Walling- 
 ford (1546) and of Oseney (1542) ; he also held a stall 
 
MARTYRDOM OF QUINBY 101 
 
 at Sarum, and the College rectory of Stanton St. John. 
 When the persecution of Lutherans was in favour, 
 London was foremost in the gruesome task. We find 
 him (as official to the Bishop or Archdeacon) hearing 
 accusations of heresy as early as 1520 in the parsonage 
 of Stanton Harcourt. In 1 533 he is engaged with the 
 Commissary or Vice-Chancellor and the Dean of Christ 
 Church in the proceedings against the little Oxford 
 group of Bible-readers. When Master Garret, Curate 
 of Honey Lane in London, was caught in Oxford selling 
 Tyndale's New Testament to scholars, and managed to 
 escape, we hear of the Commissary fetching the Dean 
 of Cardinal College (now Christ Church) out of the 
 choir during vespers and being met in the middle of 
 the church by 'Dr. London, puffing, blustering, and 
 blowing, like a hungry and greedy lion seeking his 
 prey,' and subsequently preaching at the trial of the 
 offenders and threatening them with rack and little- 
 ease. It is curious to note the fact that, when the 
 prisoners escaped, the Vice -Chancellor consulted an 
 astrologer as to the direction they had taken ; and 
 London seems quite to have approved of this course.* 
 Antony Delaber describes him as ' the rankest Papistical 
 Pharisee of them all.'f As Warden he had a Lutheran 
 heretic to deal with in his own College, one Peter 
 Quinby. who was 
 
 'imprisoned veary stray ghtely in the steeple of New 
 Colleadg, and dyed half sterved with colde and Incke of 
 foode. He desyred his fryndes that came to see him 
 that he might receave the Lordes supper in both formes, 
 
 * See his letter in Froude, ' History of England,' chap. vi. 
 f Foxe, ' Acts and Monuments,' v. 424 et seq. 
 
102 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 but it wold not be graunted. He was axed of his fryndes 
 what he could eate ; he sayd his stomach e was gonne from 
 all meate, except it were a warden pye. " Ye shall have 
 it," quod they. " I wolde have but two wardens (quod he) 
 baked : I meane to be playne, (said he) our Warden of 
 Oxforde, and our Warden of Wynchester, London and 
 More ; for suche a warden pie might do me and Christes 
 churche good ; whean other wardens from the tree can 
 doo me no good at all." Thus jestyng at their tyranny, 
 thorow the cheerfulness of a saffe conscience, he turned 
 his face to the wall in the said belfry ; and so after his 
 prayers sleapte swheetly in the Lorde.'* 
 
 This story comes from the reminiscences of John 
 Louth, B.C.L., a New College contemporary (F. 1540- 
 43), who was converted to Protestantism by reading 
 Fritli's ' Disputation of Purgatory "* when a boy at 
 Winchester ; he eventually became Archdeacon of Not- 
 tingham (d. 1540). Another New College friend of his, 
 John Philpott (F. 1534), was Archdeacon of Winchester 
 under Edward VI., and was burnt by Bonner at 
 Smithfield in 1555. When at Winchester, he is 
 said, for a bet of 20d., to have written 200 verses 
 in one night without making more than three mistakes. 
 He wrote ' An Apology for Spitting on an Arian.'f 
 
 Other members of this little Protestant circle who 
 recanted and escaped with mere expulsion were John 
 Man (F. 1531), afterwards Archbishop Parkers chap- 
 lain, Ambassador to Spain in 1567, then Warden of 
 Merton and Dean of Gloucester; and Robert Talbot 
 (F. 1532-33), author of a ' Commentary on the Itinerary 
 
 * Strype's ' Eccles. Memorials,' vol. i., p. 376. 
 f ' Narratives of the Reformation,' ed. Nichols (Camden Society), 
 PP- 34. 35- 
 
 , 
 
 
 
WARDEN LONDON 103 
 
 of Antoninus.' But all forms of opinion seem to have 
 been found at New College in those days. In 1534 
 one Sir Robert Croft, priest, denounces Amerson to 
 the Warden for denying Transubstantiation, whereupon 
 Emerson delates Croft to the Council for denying the 
 King's supremacy.* 
 
 Warden London was evidently a man of considerable 
 administrative and legal capacity. He came under the 
 notice of Cromwell in the course of the years 1532 and 
 1533 through several distinct circumstances. In 1532 
 he was trying to secure for the College a piece of the 
 Canditch, i.e., the strip of land in Holy well outside the 
 city wall, between it and the present new buildings. 
 The Bishop of Chichester had offered to pay for 
 ' purging ' the unsavoury moat if the College should 
 succeed in acquiring it. By the influence of Cromwell 
 he succeeded in forcing the mayor and citizens to yield 
 to his claims apparently in exchange for some equiva- 
 lent property elsewhere. In the following year London, 
 who was known as an expert on disputes between Town 
 and Gown, was sent to Cromwell as a representative of 
 the University in one of their incessant quarrels. At 
 the same time the Warden had a little axe of his own 
 to grind. The King's breach with Rome had filled the 
 zealous canonist with alarm lest his favourite occupa- 
 tion of persecuting heretics should be taken away. He 
 had a nephew in the College who was given to the new 
 views. One morning the Warden sent for him, searched 
 his papers, and walked him up and down his garden 
 from 5 a.m. till dinner-time at 10 or 11, lecturing him 
 on the guilt of heresy. In the course of this conversa- 
 
 * Calendar of State Papers (ed. Brewer), vii. 300. 
 
104 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 tion London indiscreetly let fall the remark that, 
 ' though the King had conceived a little malice against 
 the Bishop of Rome, he would yet wear harness on 
 his back to fight against heretics/* The remark was 
 reported, apparently by the nephew's contrivance, to 
 the great Thomas Cromwell, the King's Vicar- General, 
 and for years London had to be constantly endeavouring 
 to clear away the suspicion of disaffection to the new 
 regime. 
 
 To expedite these various suits London found it 
 necessary, t according to the manner of the time, to 
 send frequent presents to the great man : in 1532, a 
 dish of partridges; in 1533, a 'trotting gelding, 1 de- 
 scribed as ' light and able to carry a man through the 
 world.' Moreover, these were the days when collegiate, 
 like other ecclesiastical property, was beginning to 
 excite the cupidity of greedy courtiers. The inform- 
 ing kinsman had, London alleges, been set on by a 
 courtier who wanted, of course on dishonestly easy 
 terms, a college farm at Hornchurch. And Cromwell 
 himself had demanded a lease of the College estate at 
 Alton Barnes in Wilts. This the Warden had the 
 pluck to refuse, because it was already let, but offered 
 him the lease of Stert instead without a fine. More- 
 over, a year later it appears that from 1532 the College 
 had actually agreed to assign to the rapacious Vicar- 
 General an annual pension of ^4, which the Warden 
 
 * The document is placed in the Calendar under 1534, but either 
 this or some similar accusation by a ' kinsman ' is mentioned in the 
 preceding year. 
 
 t All the following statements about London's relations with 
 Cromwell and other politicians rest on letters which may be found 
 in the State Papers under the years mentioned. 
 
LONDON AND CROMWELL 105 
 
 pays in half-yearly instalments, usually with an addi- 
 tional douceur gloves, or two dozen quails, or even 
 a 'gelding of easy pace.' Another courtier expected 
 the Warden to put his servant into possession not 
 merely of the vacant farm, but of the late tenant's 
 widow. London did his best, but it seems that the 
 widow objected. 
 
 In defending himself against the accusation of Popery, 
 London professes immense zeal to serve the King, and 
 appeals to the fact that he had already written in 
 favour of the King's marriage. Eventually these offers 
 of service were accepted, but for the present it was as 
 much as the Warden could do to secure his own position 
 and that of his colleagues. It is fair to add that on 
 another occasion, beside the one mentioned, he refused 
 to sacrifice the interests of the College to the rapacity 
 of courtiers. In 1538 we find him refusing to manumit 
 a ' bondman ' or villain at Colerne, and telling Cromwell 
 that the statutes forbade him to alienate the property 
 of the College. 
 
 On another occasion London had to appeal to 
 Cromwell through a fellow - Wykehamist, Thomas 
 Bedyll,* to reinforce his authority over the College. 
 Only a few years before his accession, a royal pardon 
 had been obtained for the murder of one Fellow by 
 another. And about the year 1529 the town in its 
 complaints- against the University declares that one 
 Filledewe, a Fellow of New College,f at one o'clock 
 in the afternoon came to Carfax with a sword under 
 
 * Successively Archdeacon of Cleveland, London, and Cornwall, 
 f Strictly a scholar, elected in 1554 ; he seems never to have 
 reached his Fellowship. 
 
106 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 his arm, and other company after him, and went thence 
 to the house of Thomas Bradley, and said : ' Thou hast 
 a club of mine ; if thou wilt not deliver it, I will fetch 
 it, and make thy face like a club. 1 It is possible, there- 
 fore, that London was not entirely without grounds for 
 his complaint that the Fellows wanted more liberty 
 than was good for them. They had, it would seem, 
 become possessed with a premature craving for non- 
 residence, and would not submit to the ordinances of 
 the Thirteen. London begs Cromwell to restrain these 
 disorders, but as it appears that the Fellows with whom 
 he was especially embroiled were ' Sir Man '* and Hobbes, 
 who on their own account petitioned Cromwell on behalf 
 of the new learning, it would seem that the disorder 
 in question was mainly an outbreak of Humanism, not 
 unconnected with reforming views in religion. 
 
 Sir Man and Hobbes appear to have been compelled 
 to make some sort of submission to the Warden ; but 
 to support London in his attempts to suppress the new 
 learning was no part of Cromwell's programme. In 
 the following year, 1534, Sir Man and Hobbes must 
 have (to borrow a Winchester notion) been 'junketing 
 over' the Warden. For in 1535 Dr. Lay ton conducted 
 a visitation of the University on behalf of the King. 
 This is his report to Cromwell on New College : 
 
 ' In New College we have stablished a lecturer in Greek 
 and another in Latin with an honest salary and stipend. 
 . . . Wee have set Dunce in Bocardo and have utterly 
 banished him Oxford for ever, with all his blynd glosses, 
 and is now made a common servant to every man, fast 
 
 * Sir (Dominus) was the usual title of a Bachelor. This ' John 
 Man ' is not the same as the one mentioned on p. 102. 
 
DUNCE IN BOCARDO 107 
 
 iiayled up upon posts in all common houses of easement, 
 id quod oculis meis vidi. And the second time wee came to 
 New College, after wee had declared your injunctions, wee 
 found all the great Quadrant Court full of the leaves of 
 Dunce, the wind blowing them into every quarter ; and 
 then wee found one Master Greenefeld, a Gentleman of 
 Buckinghamshire, gathering up part of the said book- 
 leaves (as he said) therewith to make Sewells or Blanshers 
 to keepe the Deere within the wood, and thereby to have 
 the better crye with his hounds.'* 
 
 Such was the fate of Duns Scotus at the hands of 
 the men of the new learning, and such was the fate, 
 we may suppose, of the greater part of the founder's 
 library. Sir Man, it may be added, became the new 
 Greek lecturer. 
 
 It is probable that these reforms were not really to 
 the Warden's mind ; but he had to make the best of 
 them, and in his next complaint to his patron against 
 the Fellows (August, 1537), he affects great zeal for the 
 new learning, and accuses the College of reactionary 
 tendencies. The youth are now, he declares, given to 
 such liberty in study that they would let pass all good 
 order in learning. Because Duns and such ' barbarous 
 dreamers 1 are set apart, they object to meddle with 
 Archyrople, Faber, and Melancthon's 'Logic, 1 or with 
 Aristotle in the original Greek. But it is probable 
 that this enthusiasm for the new learning was not 
 uninfluenced by fears lest Cromwell should deprive him 
 of the wardenship. It is impossible to say exactly 
 what were the charges which were being whispered 
 
 * ' Three Chapters of Letters relating to the Suppression of the 
 Monasteries,' ed. T. Wright (Camden Society), pp. 70, 71. 
 
108 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 into CromwelPs ears against London, but it would 
 seem that, willing as the Warden showed himself to 
 accommodate himself to the theological and political 
 necessities of the time, he was really a little too undis- 
 guisedly a champion of the old learning and the old 
 religion, and too vigorous a persecutor of the new, to 
 be altogether acceptable to the reigning powers. How- 
 ever, at last he succeeded in getting the opportunity he 
 desired of proving his loyalty to the new regime in an 
 unmistakable manner. In 1535 he was appointed a 
 Visitor of Monasteries. The task was exactly to his 
 taste, but his work in that capacity does not concern 
 us here. Suffice it to say that his letters or reports 
 are remarkably free from violent accusations against 
 the monks. He surpassed the other Visitors in zeal 
 for the King^s pecuniary interests ; but there are many 
 indications of good sense and humanity to individuals. 
 
 Enterprising historians would find John London 
 quite as well worth whitewashing as many a medieval 
 Pope or Renaissance Cardinal. His private character 
 would probably be found less easy to vindicate than 
 his public action. It is hinted by Puritans that he 
 abused his opportunities as Visitor of Nunneries ; and 
 there is an explicit accusation that at some time or 
 other in his career he did ' open penance with two 
 smockes on his shoulders, for Mrs. Thykked and Mrs. 
 Jennynges, the mother and the daughter ... as it was 
 then known to a number in Oxford and else where. 1 * 
 But such an incident can hardly belong to the period 
 at which he was armed with all the authority of the 
 Crown as a Visitor of Monasteries. If true at all, it 
 
 * 'Narratives,' p. 35. 
 
WARDEN COLE 109 
 
 must belong to his earlier life, or (just possibly) to the 
 period after his fall. But it is more probable that 
 London deserved, than that he actually received, any 
 such punishment. 
 
 London was always happier in persecuting real Pro- 
 testants than in suppressing monasteries, and this occupa- 
 tion he resumed after the death of Cromwell "in 1540. 
 He became a Prebendary at Windsor, and this made him 
 the leading instrument of Gardiner's proceedings under 
 the Six Articles. He succeeded in getting three towns- 
 men of Windsor hanged ; but his zeal overshot the 
 mark. When his wider plot against Cranmer and the 
 Protestant courtiers was discovered, his faction lost 
 the King's favour. London was summoned before the 
 Council, examined on oath, and, upon denying the 
 matter alleged against him, he and two of his fellow- 
 conspirators were sentenced, as perjurers, to 'ride about 
 Windsor, Reading, and Newbury with papers on their 
 heads and their faces turned to the horse-tails, and so 
 to stand upon the pillory in every one of these towns, 
 for false accusations of the afore-named martyrs and for 
 perjury.'* 
 
 This 'stout and filthy Prebendary,' as Parker calls 
 him, resigned the wardenship in 154, and died in the 
 Fleet prison a year later. 
 
 The next Warden was Henry Cole,D.C.L. (1542-1551). 
 His career may be briefly traced, as it is a kind of 
 compendium of the history of the University in his 
 time. He had travelled in Italy, and studied at Padua. 
 He returned to London in 1540, and practised in the 
 Court of Arches. To the Wardenship he gradually 
 
 * The main authorities for this affair are Foxe and Strype. 
 
110 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 added the archdeaconry of Ely, and the rectory of 
 Newton Longueville, and after resigning the warden- 
 ship became Dean of St. Paul's, Dean of the Arches, 
 Vicar-General of Canterbury, and Provost of Eton. 
 He started with being of the King's religion under 
 Henry VIII. ; under Edward VI. he preached Protes- 
 tantism at Carfax. Under Mary he was entrusted 
 with Cranmer's execution sermon, was Pole's Vicar- 
 General, and one of his Commissioners for the visita- 
 tion of the University. Doubtless he would willingly 
 enough have conformed under Elizabeth, but he was 
 not given the opportunity, was deprived, fined, and 
 sent to prison. According to some, he died in the 
 Fleet prison. The friend of Leland and Ascham, he 
 must have belonged decidedly to the party of the new 
 learning, though not (in heart) to the new religion. 
 
 The majority of the College, no doubt, trod in the 
 footsteps of its Warden. Though New College, as we 
 have seen, was not without its small contingent of 
 earnest Protestants, the real tendency of the majority 
 was conservative. How strong was the conservative 
 feeling of the College may be inferred from the theo- 
 logical temper of its nursery at Winchester. William 
 Forde (F. 1519), the Second Master, was a Puritan 
 whose soul was vexed by the 'golden images' of the 
 College Chapel. One night 'Mr. Forde tyed a longe 
 coorde to the images, lynkinge them all in one coorde, 
 and being in his chamber after midnight, he plucked 
 the coorde, and at one pull all the golden gods came 
 downe with heyho Romhelo. It wakened all men with 
 the rushe.' In consequence of this episode, the Second 
 Master 'hadd a dogge lyff among them, Mr. Wright 
 
EMINENT ROMANIZERS 111 
 
 the schoolmaster, the Fellows of the house, and the 
 scholars, crying out and rayling for Mr. Forde many 
 tymes.'* 
 
 In the majority of the Fellows no doubt conservatism 
 was tempered by considerable adaptability ; but not so 
 with the best of them. The most typical representatives 
 of the College at this time were the ablest and best 
 among the reactionaries men who combined the new 
 learning with the old, well-read and scholarly in a 
 Jesuit-like fashion ; men who fled to the Continent 
 under Edward VI., returned, rose to high preferment 
 under Mary, and became exiles again, or suffered at 
 home, under Elizabeth. Men of this stamp were John 
 Harpesfield, D.D. (F. 1534), who left the College in 
 1551 to be Bonnets chaplain, and afterwards Arch- 
 deacon of London, where he rivalled his diocesan in 
 the vigour of his persecution for heresy : he was after- 
 wards Dean of Norwich, was deprived under Elizabeth, 
 imprisoned in the Fleet, and afterwards lived in retire- 
 ment. His brother, the better-known Nicholas Harpes- 
 field, D.C.L. (F. 1536), is said to have been for a short 
 time Regius Professor of Greek. In 1556 he fled to 
 Louvain ; under Mary became Archdeacon of Canter- 
 bury and Dean of Arches ; was committed to the Tower 
 in 1559, where he died in 1575. He is the author of 
 the very respectable ' Historia Anglica Ecclesiastica.' 
 A zealot of less uncompromising sincerity, though of 
 greater violence, was Thomas Harding (F. 1536), who 
 became Regius Professor of Hebrew under Henry VIII., 
 and affected strong Protestantism under Edward VI. 
 so much so that (according to Strype) he was given 
 
 * ' Narratives,' pp. 29, 30. 
 
THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 letters patent to recommend him to the wardenship of 
 New College letters which, we have seen, the College 
 resisted. Under Mary he became Gardiner's chaplain 
 and Treasurer of Sarum, but on Elizabeth's accession he 
 fled to Lou vain. A rather younger member of the group 
 was Nicholas Sanders, B.C.L. (F. 1548), who had lectured 
 on Canon Law under Mary, but on the accession of 
 Elizabeth fled to the Continent, and became Pro- 
 fessor of Theology at Lou vain. Harding and Sanders 
 became the centres of quite a little nest of Popish 
 Wykehamists : Dr. Dorman (scholar 1549, afterwards 
 Fellow of All Souls); Robert Poyntz (F. 1554); 
 Thomas Hide (F. 1543), ex-Headmaster of Win- 
 chester; John Marshall, ex-Second Master (F. 1551, 
 afterwards Canon of Lille) ; the Jesuit Thomas 
 Stapleton (F. 1554, D.D., afterwards Dean of Hill- 
 verbeck, in Brabant), described by Wood as ' the most 
 learned Catholic of his time 1 ; John Rastall (F. 1549), 
 also a Jesuit, pronounced by Wood a good grammarian ; 
 and Richard Whyte (F. 1557), deprived for absence in 
 1564, afterwards Professor of Law at Douai. All these 
 men spent their lives in writing replies to Bishop 
 Jewell's defence of the English Church, and the like, 
 and died in foreign preferments. Sanders, as Papal 
 delegate, was the inspiring spirit of the rising under 
 Desmond in Ireland, where he died ' of want and cold "* 
 in 1581. John Mundyn (F. 1562), expelled at the 
 visitation of 1566, became a Jesuit, and was hanged 
 at Tyburn in 1582. To the same type, but to a later 
 generation, belongs John Pits, still well known as a 
 bibliographer (his book is styled ' Relationum Histori- 
 carum de rebus Anglicis,' torn, i.); became a probationer 
 
VISITATION UNDER EDWARD VI. 113 
 
 in 1578, but in 1580, before becoming a full Fellow, 
 fled for conscience 1 sake to the Continent; was ordained 
 at Rome, professed Greek at Douai, led a wandering 
 life in Continental schools and Courts, and died Dean 
 of Liverdun in 1616. 
 
 At the visitation of the University under Edward VI. 
 in 1549, an injunction was issued abolishing the study 
 of the Civil Law in the College ; but the order* 
 so far as the nominal taking of degrees in that faculty 
 is concerned never took effect or ceased to be observed 
 on the accession of Mary. The Edwardian Visitors also 
 required the destruction of the painted windows in the 
 chapel ; but the College appears to have saved them for 
 the present, or some of them, by pleading that it was 
 too poor to defray the expense of such an act of 
 vandalism. f The destruction of the library, begun by 
 the zeal of Henry's Visitors against the old learning, 
 was now continued under the pretext of zeal against 
 the old religion. As an exceptional number of New 
 College men fled before the approach of the Edwardian 
 Visitors in 1549, and had their places filled by good 
 Protestants, so there was naturally a rather exceptional 
 exodus of Protestants on the accession of Queen Mary, 
 when the College was visited by the Commissioners of 
 Bishop Gardiner. At this time (1554), it may be 
 observed, we find the College buying 500 worth of 
 vestments, altar-cloths, and hangings from a Prebendary 
 of Christ Church, who had, no doubt, been a collector 
 in the time of Edward VI., when such things were a 
 drug in the market. The influx of Papists under Mary 
 
 * Wood, ii., p. 98. t Ibid., i., p. 107. 
 
 8 
 
114 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 naturally prepared the way again for an exceptional 
 number of expulsions under Elizabeth. 
 
 Golems successor was Ralph Skinner, who after two 
 years of office (1551-1553) resigned the wardenship to 
 sit in the House of Commons under Mary, and became 
 Dean of Durham under Elizabeth. His successor was 
 Thomas White, D.C.L., who conformed upon the 
 accession of Elizabeth, and, in spite of some suspicions, 
 retained his place till 1573. 
 
 The accession of Elizabeth saw the flight or expulsion 
 of the following Fellows : William Knott, M. A. ; Dr. 
 John Catagre, LL.B. ; Thomas Butler, LL.D. ; Robert 
 Poyntz, M.A. (already mentioned) ; Robert Fenne, 
 LL.B. ; his brother John Fenne (who became a school- 
 master at Bury St. Edmunds, and afterwards joined the 
 Lou vain colony) ; John Fowler, B. A. ; John Hardy ; 
 John Noble, B.A.; Thomas Daryll; Richard White, 
 B.A. ; Edward Astlow, M.D. Owen Lewes, or Lewes 
 Owen (Welshmen at this time were vague in the 
 use of surnames), B.C.L., was one of those who left 
 College of his own accord, and became successively a 
 Professor at Douai, Vicar - General of St. Charles 
 Borromeo at Milan, and Bishop of Cassano in Naples ; 
 as also John Hunyngton, who fled to Italy, and a 
 chaplain named Pomerell, who fled to Ireland. 
 
 But it is perfectly clear that the purge thus effected 
 was very inadequate. It was only the most conscientious 
 men who disappeared ; the majority of those who 
 remained were very reluctant conformists. That such 
 a nest of crypto-Papists should have been allowed to 
 remain undisturbed for so many years is a curious 
 instance of the precarious and transitional position of 
 
BISHOP HORNE'S VISITATION 115 
 
 Church affairs in these years. At last, however, the 
 soul of the sturdily Protestant Bishop Home was moved 
 by the tidings which reached him from Oxford, and he 
 determined to hold a systematic visitation of New 
 College and some other colleges of which he was Visitor. 
 As this visitation is one of the most minutely recorded 
 events in the history of the College, and as it has never 
 been properly dealt with by the historians of the College, 
 we propose to give the reader a fairly full account of it. 
 An absolutely exhaustive account our space will not 
 permit. The official record transcribed from the 
 Bishop's register occupies upwards of a hundred folio 
 pages.* 
 
 On September 20, 1566, the Bishop's Commissary, 
 George Acworth, Doctor of Laws, took his seat in the 
 chapel, and commenced a formal visitation of the 
 College. The commission having been read by the 
 Bishop's Registrar and Notary Public, together with 
 the statutes of the College defining the Visitor's juris- 
 diction, the Warden, Dr. White, handed in a list of 
 the Fellows and other members of the College. The 
 names were called over, and those who appeared took 
 the oath of canonical obedience to the Bishop (' salva 
 fide sua statutis dicti Collegii debita et non aliter ') and 
 the oath to answer truly all articles and interrogatories 
 which should be administered to them. The Com- 
 missary then proceeded to set forth the causes of the 
 visitation and to hand the Warden and Fellows a 
 schedule of 'Articles or Interrogatories' to be answered 
 
 * We hope shortly to print the proceedings in extenso in the 
 fourth volume of ' Collectanea,' to be published by the Oxford 
 Historical Society. 
 
 82 
 
116 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 in writing. The day fixed for the formal return of the 
 replies to the Puritan Bishop's inquiries was, it is curious 
 to note, the following Sunday. The full-blown Sabba- 
 tarianism which we are accustomed to associate with 
 Puritanism dates only from the closing years of the 
 century. On Sunday morning the answers were handed 
 in, and a fresh batch of articles 'concerning the Catholic 
 Faith and Religion ' (i.e., the newly-published Thirty- 
 nine Articles of Religion) were placed in the hands of 
 the College to be signed by every member of the same. 
 The College asking time for deliberation, they were 
 given till the following Tuesday. On Monday, at seven 
 o'clock in the morning, the visitation began in earnest. 
 All members of the College, except the chaplains and 
 choristers, were directed to withdraw to the antechapel. 
 The choristers were then examined as to their * hability ' 
 to sing, and it was speedily ascertained that, with the 
 exception of three, they ' could not, and had never been 
 instructed to sing.' Their ' instructor and schoolmaster 1 
 was thereupon cited to appear. Conscious of guilt, we 
 may presume, that official had sought safety in flight. 
 He was pronounced contumacious, and suspended from 
 the enjoyment of all 'emolument, advantage, and profit 
 in the said College.' The chaplains were then 
 admonished concerning the defects which had been 
 already 'detected' presumably in the written replies 
 to the visitation articles. They were, it appears, ' too 
 remiss in their ministrations in the said chapel,' and 
 refused to sing the Psalms in English metre. They 
 admitted their fault, and were admonished to be more 
 diligent, and to sing the metrical Psalms before and 
 after service under pain of eviction. They were also 
 
CR YFIO-PAPISTS 1 17 
 
 required to exhibit their letters of Orders, and three 
 chaplains who had them not were ordered to exhibit 
 them to the Warden and Fellows before Christmas 
 i.e., to get themselves ordained. Then the individual 
 chaplains were questioned as to the various irregu- 
 larities alleged against them or against others in the 
 answers of the Fellows or others to the articles. 
 Bolney denied having spoken disrespectfully of sub- 
 scription i.e., of course, subscription to the recently- 
 promulgated Articles of Religion : ; scribinge and 
 scribelinge all iis one to me ' were the words attributed 
 to him. Morton and others declared that Amerson 
 4 hath of Payne's books about a dozen, 1 and other 
 seditious or Popish literature, which he lent or sold 
 to his friends for instance, Harding's 'Apology of 
 the Private Mass.' And so the visitation went on from 
 day to day. Other Fellows were accused of reading or 
 circulating Popish books, such as Sanders on the Sacra- 
 ment and Harding's c Apology of the Private Mass of 
 the Cross.'' A large number of the works mentioned 
 were by ex-Fellows of New College now in exile at 
 Louvain or elsewhere a circumstance which fully 
 explains the real cause and meaning of this exception- 
 ally strenuous visitation. John Munden refused the 
 oath, and was suspended. No less than twenty-three 
 members of the College refused to subscribe the Articles 
 of Religion, alleging that they were not required to do 
 so by the statutes of the College. They were given 
 further time to reconsider this matter, and the visitation 
 proceeded. Five of them were at the next sitting sus- 
 pended for refusal, power being given the Warden and 
 certain Fellows to relax the sentence in the event of their 
 
118 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 subscription. Then various disciplinary or moral offences 
 were dealt with. Lewkener was accused of absence 
 without the Warden's leave : he replied that he had 
 obtained leave from the thirteen seniors. Blandy (who, 
 it is suggested, had been admitted a Fellow through a 
 bribe to the Warden, in spite of grave charges of im- 
 morality in Tingewicke Church preferred against him 
 by the Protestant Rector of Hardwicke) was accused of 
 having 'atrociously struck one Pearse with a great stick 
 so as to fell him to the ground. 1 He pleaded that the 
 assault was less than atrocious, and that he had been 
 properly punished at the time. At another time he 
 had broken the head of the said Pearse with a club. 
 This he denied, as also a charge of throwing the said 
 Pearse on to the fire, saying ' that he hoped to see all 
 such heritiques burned with hoter fier then that is, 1 and 
 of expressing the opinion 'that all Protestants were 
 knaves, schismatikes, and bruter than brute beastes. 1 
 Another Fellow deposed that Blandy had argued thus, 
 ' He ys a minister, ergo he ys a knave, 1 but alleged that 
 he ' did not smite Pearse so grievessly that he feld him 
 by reason that a dore somewhat defended the blow. 1 
 Yet another witness confirmed the habit of 'railing 
 upon ministers, 1 and added another assault on Pearse 
 ' with a pot, 1 upon which occasion ' he sawe the blood 
 runne doun about his eares. 1 Master Henslow was 
 accused of not having communicated for seven years 
 past. He vaguely denied the allegation, but declined 
 an invitation to purge himself on oath. The charge 
 was pronounced proved. A further charge of ' papistical 
 heresy, 1 or of being ' vehemently suspected of the same, 1 
 was also denied, and purgation, i.e. 9 the procuring of 
 
CHARGES AGAINST THE WARDEN 119 
 
 witnesses to swear his innocence, enjoined. Failing to 
 procure them, he was deprived. Nothing is said of a 
 charge of adultery at which the Warden is elsewhere 
 charged of having connived. Bolney, likewise accused 
 of Papistry, was required to clear himself by six Pro- 
 testant compurgators. Harries was peremptorily pro- 
 nounced ' non socius ' for not having complied with the 
 statute about taking Orders, though the College had 
 granted him leave to postpone that step. Harries 
 declared that he appealed to the Queen, but the 
 bursars were enjoined not to allow him to receive any 
 emolument. Munden was also deprived for not having 
 communicated since the accession of Elizabeth. Blandy 
 also failed to purge himself of Papistry, and for that 
 offence was deprived. Nothing further was said about 
 the trifling question of assaults. Fisher had, indeed, 
 communicated, but was accused of having laughed and 
 sworn while doing so, and of having drunk the whole of 
 the wine ' in mockery of the Holy Supper. 1 Such was 
 the testimony of Bilson (afterwards Bishop of Winchester) 
 and others. On the other hand, seven Fellows offered 
 themselves as compurgators for Fisher. The Com- 
 missary, however, 'to avoid perjury,' declined to swear 
 them, and on September 27 adjourned the further pro- 
 ceedings till the Tuesday after Passion Sunday, when 
 the court was to meet in the lodgings of the President 
 of Magdalen. 
 
 There had been some allusions to charges against the 
 Warden, but on his alleging that some of the witnesses 
 against him were his enemies, and engaged in a con- 
 spiracy against him, the matter was adjourned. The 
 charges against him amounted to a general accusation 
 
120 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 of laxity, neglect, and even malversation in administer- 
 ing the College property. He had negligently allowed 
 Christ Church to present to the College living of Milton ; 
 had kept ten horses at the College expense instead of 
 the statutable six ; had ' burdened the College with the 
 payment of condiments ' for his family ; had allowed 
 his friends to buy College copyholds for nothing, and 
 had even alienated bits of College property. His 
 'family 1 (i.e., servants) were ill-behaved, shouted about 
 the College so as to make both study and sleep im- 
 possible ; kept dogs ; ' visited the bursars 1 table at supper 
 and dinner, to the great expense of the College ' ; and 
 generally annoyed the Fellows. One witness describes 
 them as ' Rybaldes and Roysters who keapeth hounds 
 within the Colledge whoping and hallowing and blow- 
 ing their homes within the precincte of the Colledge.'' 
 Another witness adds that they rode about the court. 
 The Warden had, it is further alleged, permitted the 
 farmer of Alton Barnes to dilapidate the buildings ; 
 had by his negligence in a lawsuit lost to the College 
 a pasture of 500 acres (called the ' meanemershe **) at 
 Stanton St. John; and had 'jactitated' against senior 
 Fellows of the College. Some of his choice expressions 
 are recorded : ' I canne make thee a beggar ' ; ' Yf I 
 had such a conscience, I wold hang yt on the hedge 
 until 1 the winde blew throughe yt ' ; 'I will make the 
 a querister rather than a senior." He had called others 
 fools, packmakers, or cockscombs. In spite of the 
 statutable prohibition of female servants, a woman ( of 
 suspected life and honesty 1 frequented his house early 
 and late. He had appropriated presents sent by farmers 
 to the College, and fines or bribes for the renewal of 
 
WARDEN WHITE 
 
 leases. He had refused to take the Fellow appointed 
 by the College (who was, by the way, his chief accuser) 
 with him on progress as ' rider, 1 or, as it is now called, 
 ' outrider," and generally had refused to allow the Fellows 
 their proper share in the conduct of College business. 
 There is also a suggestion of connivance at something 
 like corrupt resignations, a practice as to which we 
 shall have to say more hereafter. Other irregularities, 
 great and small, bring the articles of charge tip to 
 seventy - three, with a supplementary schedule of five 
 more. Fifty-sixth among these articles, as though among 
 the minor charges, appears the accusation of having 
 seduced a maid -servant in his rectory at Stan ton St. 
 John, and killed her by an attempt to procure abortion. 
 He is also accused of keeping a mistress at his other 
 rectory of Longworth. To the moral enormities are 
 appended some theological charges. In the original 
 articles Warden White is not accused of actual Papistry 
 himself, but he is charged with expressing sympathy 
 with the Duke of Guise, with speaking against 'pro- 
 fessors of the Gospel, 1 and with connivance at the 
 Papistry of the Fellows. He had allowed them, for 
 instance, leave of absence at Christmas, Easter, and 
 Pentecost, and had not demanded certificates of Com- 
 munion on their return. He had applied to the metrical 
 Psalms the opprobrious name of 'rimes, 1 and called a 
 Fellow who wanted to have them sung in chapel a 
 ' busyhed. 1 The supplementary articles go further, and 
 allege that from Easter of 1562 to Easter of the present 
 year he had not received Holy Communion, and had not 
 administered it more than three times during the whole 
 reign, though under Mary he had always celebrated 
 
THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 Mass on the principal festivals. They also add that 
 he had allowed absence from chapel to go unpunished 
 for the last eight years, on the pretext that the number 
 of such offenders was too great for him to deal with 
 them. There are other charges of connivance or neglect 
 to punish the offences of Fellows or chaplains. Among 
 others, he had failed to inquire into the authorship of 
 a ballad against the Bishops entitled 'A Knacke to 
 know a Knave, 1 written and circulated in the College. 
 
 Of White's answers, it will be enough to say generally 
 that the minor irregularities and breaches of the statutes 
 are admitted, but the moral charges and peculations are 
 denied. He pleads guilty, for instance, to eight or 
 seven horses, to allowing his servants to keep two dogs, 
 to calling a Fellow a ' pack maker ' by way of correction 
 (as to the other opprobrious words, he forgets whether 
 he used them or not), to such presents as a capon or a 
 couple of rabbits from the farmers.* His reply to the 
 charge about the fines for renewing leases suggests that 
 the motive of the accusation was that the Fellows 
 wanted to appropriate fines on renewal to their own 
 private advantage, which was already the case in some 
 colleges and was soon to be the universal practice. The 
 maid at Stanton St. John had been seduced by his cook. 
 When he discovered her condition, he turned her out of 
 doors (with gross inhumanity, it would appear to us) in 
 the middle of the night (intempesta node). She was 
 found in the fields by shepherds, who brought her back 
 
 * As a contribution to the history of prices, it may be mentioned 
 that, for cleaning his hall and the passages leading to it every day or 
 every other day, Warden White gave his charwoman a penny per 
 week. 
 
WHITE'S DEFENCE 
 
 to his house, where she died, apparently from want and 
 exposure. Then follows an array of exceptions taken 
 by the Warden to the character of witnesses against 
 him. He pleaded that the witnesses should not be 
 admitted at all, on the ground of their hostility to 
 him, or that, if examined, they should be asked a list 
 of questions which he submits, a somewhat clumsy and 
 elaborate method of cross-examination necessitated by 
 the penchant of the ecclesiastical courts for written 
 evidence. In these questions he brings all sorts of 
 accusations against his two principal accusers, Barkly 
 and Merrick adultery and other immoralities, Popery, 
 conspiracy, and threats against the Warden, attempts 
 to procure the wardenship, corrupt dealings with 
 farmers, spending more on their clothes than they 
 could honestly have come by (Barkly is accused of 
 having spent 100 marks in a year), and the like. The 
 evidence of the witnesses was received, and they, of 
 course, deny the accusation contained in the Warden's 
 interrogatories.* 
 
 It is probable that the learned Commissary was as 
 much puzzled as the modern reader to see his way 
 through this mass of crimination and recrimination.* 
 Two things only were clear : that the College contained 
 many crypto-Papists, the most obstinate of whom were, 
 
 * Incidentally it appears that Adderbury (including the ' par- 
 sonadge') had been let by the College to the Earl of Leicester 
 another of the attempts on the part of courtiers to live upon the 
 property of corporations, of which we have already had instances. 
 
 It is also alleged by witnesses that ' Cardenall Poole had the 
 Colledge bounde he knew not in what conditions and summes of 
 money for two greate chestes of bookes which the Colledge re- 
 ceaved from the said Cardinall's executors.' 
 
THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 as has been explained, removed ; and this was, no doubt, 
 the main purpose of the visitation. The other, that 
 there had been much irregularity both in the religious 
 and the financial administration of the College. To 
 remedy this, a number of rather mild injunctions were 
 left behind by the Visitor's representative. As to the 
 Warden, he is neither (so far as appears) definitely 
 acquitted nor condemned. He was probably a time- 
 server, perhaps somewhat inclined to the old regime, 
 not at all anxious to commit himself too deeply to 
 the new before its stability was quite established. At 
 all events, it is certain that Warden White remained 
 Warden till 1573, and then passed on to the arch- 
 deaconry of Berks and the chancellorship of Sarum. 
 
 The injunctions left behind in the name of the 
 Visitor may be briefly summarized : 
 
 1. Fellows and scholars to attend matins daily. 
 
 2. The steward of the hall and the manciples (obsona- 
 tores) to buy good and wholesome victuals. 
 
 3. No chaplains to be admitted without letters of 
 orders and letters commendatory. 
 
 4. Due reverence to be paid to seniors and officers. 
 
 5. No Fellow to introduce or keep the works of 
 Harding, Saunder, Marshall, Hesken, Dormer, or any 
 other schismatics. 
 
 6. Masters of Arts and Bachelors of Law to sit in 
 Hall at the table next to the high table. 
 
 7. The Warden to see that the expelled Fellows retire 
 at once with all their effects (' cum utensilibus suis 
 omnibus et singulis '). 
 
 8. Warden and Fellows not to attempt anything to 
 the prejudice of the visitation, which was only adjourned. 
 
HORNKS INJUNCTIONS 125 
 
 9. No benefices, farms, or lands to be given, leased, 
 or alienated during the continuance of the visitation 
 without the consent of the Bishop. 
 
 10. Latin to be spoken in College. 
 
 11. No proceedings to be taken against those who 
 have subscribed the Articles of Religion without con- 
 sent of the Bishop. (This probably means that by- 
 gones were to be bygones.) 
 
 But this was only the first act in the tragi-comedy. 
 On the 18th of the following March (1566 - 67) the 
 visitation was resumed. An exact account of the 
 successive adjournments and formalities would be 
 tedious. We must be content with a brief account 
 of the Commissary's dealings with the more interesting 
 offenders. The answers to the interrogatories having 
 supplied the basis for his further proceedings, the Com- 
 missary went on to charge the individual Fellows with 
 the enormities thus revealed. 
 
 Henry Barckly, sub-warden, LL.B., was accused (1) 
 of having misappropriated ^11 15s., moneys of the 
 College entrusted to him, for the purchase of fish (no 
 doubt dried fish) at Stourbridge Fair; (2) of having 
 adopted lay attire on the last visit of Queen Elizabeth ; 
 (3) of having pernoctated out of College during the last 
 week of the visitation. This he admitted, but pleaded 
 that he was engaged on business of the College. The 
 charge of misappropriation rested upon the evidence of 
 John Dodwell, obsonator, or manciple, of the College. 
 He pleaded that Dodwell was a man of ' impecunious 
 condition, bad repute, and unhonest conversation,"* and 
 was ordered to purge himself by the evidence of five 
 honest and indifferent Fellows. This was done, the 
 
126 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 compurgation admitted, and the charge dismissed. For 
 his non-subscription he was pronounced contumacious, 
 but ultimately submitted, and was restored. 
 
 William Smith, M.A., was accused of being an < im- 
 pediment to the true and Christian religion now received 
 in England,' of having derided the metrical Psalms by 
 calling them ' rimes,' of having ' contumeliously sworn 
 against the preachers of these times, namely, Master 
 Lever and others." 1 All the charges were at first denied, 
 but he subsequently admitted ' that he did mislike his 
 (Lever's) pronunciacion, for he sounded "witch" for 
 " which." ' He was further accused of the dissemination 
 of contentions and discords 'here and in other churches.' 
 The charges ended in an admonition. 
 
 Martin Colepepper, M.A. (a future Warden), was 
 accused of adultery, and of having called the metrical 
 Psalms ' Robin Whode's Ballads.' He denied the juris- 
 diction (as some others had done without mentioning 
 reasons) on the explicit ground that the Bishop could 
 not visit twice in two years, but pleaded not guilty. 
 
 Richard Sotwell, LL.B., was accused of being a 
 4 common defender of Papists,' of purchasing seditious 
 books of the fugitives of Louvain (jugitivorum Lavanis- 
 tarum), and of having graduated without proper leave. 
 He denied the charges, and was eventually given permis- 
 sion to go abroad, partly for the good of his health 
 and partly for the sake of study. 
 
 John Dodwell, B.A., was 'preconised and is a 
 walker (obambulator) about the town of Oxford ' after 
 the hour of gate-shutting, of having got into College 
 after the gates were shut, by the door of the hall near 
 the kitchen, which he opened with a knife, and of having 
 
HERESY AND NECROMANCY 127 
 
 frequently appropriated to his private use coals and 
 wood belonging to the College the first trace, by the 
 way, of private fireplaces. He admitted only the illicit 
 entry into College, and pleaded that for this he had 
 been punished by the Warden; but this the Warden 
 denied, alleging that Dodwell had only been punished 
 for coming in late. He was suspended from his reader- 
 ship, but restored. A number of other Fellows were 
 accused of taking part in this escapade. 
 
 John Jenour denied having maintained that ' a Person 
 of the Holy Trinity consisted of the same bodily linea- 
 ments as men.'' Quarles and Singleton deposed to 
 having heard him maintain the position. He was 
 required publicly to declaim against this heresy in the 
 chapel the following Monday. 
 
 Thomas Hopkins refused subscription, and was pro- 
 nounced contumacious. He was also accused of keeping 
 birds contrary to the statutes, but pleaded that he had 
 already been punished. He ultimately subscribed, and 
 was restored. He subsequently admitted the possession 
 of a ' book of conjurations, 1 which he had received from 
 Fisher, and was admonished not to use the art of magic. 
 
 John Fisher admitted breaking into College at night 
 by the hall door. He also pleaded guilty to giving 
 Hopkins a ' book of conjurations, 1 which he had re- 
 ceived from a Christchurch M.A. 
 
 John Underbill (a future Bishop) admitted breaking 
 into College at night by the hall door, Edward White 
 holding the lantern. 
 
 Luke Astlowe, M.A., denied the Commissary's juris- 
 diction, refused to answer, and was pronounced con- 
 tumacious. He subsequently consented to be examined, 
 
128 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 and was accused of adultery, but admitted only a kiss. 
 He was also accused of wearing in London and else- 
 where ' a dress and boots incongruous with the scholastic 
 habit,"* and of minor breaches of discipline. He was 
 allowed to clear himself by compurgators. 
 
 Richard Deale, civilian, accused of wearing a yellow 
 doublet, pleaded that it was subnm coloris, also of 
 frequent absence from morning chapel, which he denied. 
 
 Benedict Quarles, accused of keeping birds, pleaded 
 that he had already been punished ; also of pawning his 
 gown, books, and other goods potandi et lurwriandi 
 causa. 
 
 Christopher Diggles was accused of frequenting 
 suspected places for the purpose of dancing. 
 
 John Ingram admitted publicly defending Trans- 
 substantiation. He was pronounced non socius, but 
 upon submission restored. 
 
 Edward White was accused of reading profane books 
 in chapel, and at other times the hours of the Virgin ; 
 also of having abused the Visitor as an oppressor of his 
 tenants, and of having said that there were many lies in 
 the Bishop of Salisbury's book (Jewell's ' Apology ""). He 
 denied all the charges. 
 
 Bartholomew Bolney refused subscription and was 
 pronounced contumacious. He afterwards appeared, 
 and was accused of using a dagger (pugio), of dancing 
 in the town, and frequenting suspected places. He 
 denied the charges ; eventually subscribed and was 
 restored. 
 
 William Norwood, civilian, was pronounced contuma- 
 cious for non-appearance and refusing to subscribe the 
 articles. He afterwards appeared, and was accused of 
 
EXPULSIONS AND DESTRUCTIONS 
 
 keeping one bird, for which he pleaded that the Warden 
 had punished him by subtraction of commons. He was 
 restored upon subscription. 
 
 Thomas Reading, M.A., Reader of Greek in the 
 College, was accused of ' negligently reading ' that 
 tongue, and contumaciously absenting himself when 
 Bursar from the admission of a scholar. To this last 
 he pleaded absence on College business. Also of refusing, 
 as Dean of Arts, to consent to his own transference to 
 the ranks of the theologians. This was admitted, but 
 he pleaded that he was hindered by ' divers businesses. 1 
 Later he was charged with ' supineness in the office of 
 Dean, 1 but does not appear to have been further dealt with. 
 
 It is difficult to sum up the net result of all this 
 investigation and formality. Ultimately John Munden 
 and William Blandy seem to have been the only Fellows 
 who actually disappeared directly in consequence of 
 the visitation of 1566-67. Munden became a Jesuit, 
 and was hanged at Tyburn in 1582. Blandy abandoned 
 the dangerous pursuit of theology, and was called to 
 the Bar. Besides these, there were of course the absen- 
 tees, who were deprived for non-appearance. During the 
 following years a considerable sprinkling of Fellows are 
 removed for non-residence, most of whom were prob- 
 ably men who could no longer reconcile themselves to 
 an enforced conformity. 
 
 At the end of the visitation the Bishop issued another 
 batch of injunctions sixty-two in number.* These 
 relate chiefly to such unquestionable violations of 
 the statutes as the visitation had shown to be most 
 
 * A copy is preserved at the end of the MS. Statute-book in the 
 custody of the Warden. 
 
 9 
 
130 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 common speaking English; neglect of academical dress ; 
 the wearing of garments of unscholastic colour or cut ; 
 not taking orders at the statutable times ; the employ- 
 ment of female servants ; playing at hazard or cards ; 
 keeping dogs or hawks ; walking about without a com- 
 panion; entertaining strangers at the expense of the 
 College ; keeping ' poor scholars "* who were not bond fide 
 students, but a cheap sort of personal servants. Some- 
 times the Bishop claimed to apply the general precepts 
 of the statutes to the needs of the time. The seniors 
 are not to sit after meals in the College gate, or to 
 waste time ' in otiose fabulations ** to the bad example 
 of the juniors. Members of the College are to treat 
 each other politely (tractent mansuetis sermonibus)* and 
 to abstain from ' cursings and contentious disputa- 
 tions, 1 or from calling in question the articles of re- 
 ligion. There are a whole series of new enactments 
 intended to complete the suppression of Popery in the 
 College. The most important of these decrees the 
 total destruction of all images in the chapel, and of all 
 pictures ' up to the height of the stalls. 1 The tapestries 
 or hangings are also to be removed from the east end 
 of the chapel, and the walls whitewashed and painted 
 with texts of Scripture. The metrical psalms are to be 
 sung before and after sermons, and every member of the 
 College is to bring a psalm-book. The Homilies are 
 to be read in chapel on Sundays and Saints' Days when 
 there is no University sermon. When there is a sermon 
 the Warden is to conduct some of the Fellows and 
 scholars thereto. The Litany is to be said every day 
 at the time prescribed in the statutes for Mass. 
 Festival days are to be spent in the reading of Holy 
 
From a photograph by the} [Oxford Camera Club 
 
 THE CHAPEL: EAST END 
 
NO POPERY 131 
 
 Scripture. No one is to read or possess the writings of 
 the ' Anglico-Lovanienses ' i.e., the English colony of 
 Louvain, or other seditious writers, especially Harding, 
 Sanders, Heskens, Dormer, Marshall* and other schis- 
 matics or papists, while an antidote is to be provided in 
 the works of Marlorat, the Magdeburg ' Centuries of 
 Ecclesiastical History,' the work called the ' Key of 
 Scripture, 1 and other theological works which are to be 
 bought for the library. All are to communicate three 
 times yearly, and a certificate of their having done so 
 is to be transmitted to the Bishop of Winchester. 6 The 
 Fellows, scholars, or ministers of the choir are not to 
 turn to the east in papistical fashion when Gloria patri 
 is sung.' At elections to Winchester no boy is to be 
 chosen unless his parents or relations promise on his 
 behalf that he will defend the royal authority in 
 spirituals or temporals, and sincerely profess the 
 Christian religion as approved and established by Act 
 of Parliament in the time of Queen Elizabeth.^ No 
 one is to be admitted to the College without taking 
 the oath prescribed in the Act of Uniformity and sub- 
 scribing the Articles of Religion. 
 
 If the Bishop exhibited the usual puritanical objec- 
 tion to plastic or pictorial art, he had no objection to 
 music, and advised that the choristers should spend 
 most of the day in learning to sing 4 as well plane song 
 as composite.']: He also seems to have had an inkling 
 
 * All New College men. 
 
 f ' Fidemque et religionem Christianam per statuta tempore 
 Elizabethae Angliae Reginse in ea parte edit, et approbat. et stabilita 
 sincere profitiatur. ' We should probably read ' edita approbatam 
 et stabilitam.' 
 
 J I.e., presumably Anglican chants and anthems. 
 
 92 
 
THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 of the modern view as to the relations between cleanli- 
 ness and godliness, and left orders for the cleaning out 
 of the ' cloaca dicta Longhouse,' and insisted on some 
 other obvious requirements of decency and sanitation the 
 necessity for which throws a lurid light upon the habits 
 of our predecessors. Other injunctions are directed 
 against the usual College abuses. The poor are to be 
 preferred to the rich in the elections to Winchester; 
 the Warden and Opposers are not to take bribes. 
 Money given for the common seal (i.e., probably for 
 copyholds or other privileges) is to be divided equally 
 among all the Fellows. Fines for the renewal of leases 
 are to go to the general funds of the College, and not 
 to individuals. The Steward of the Hall for the week 
 is personally to go to market with the Manciple for the 
 purchase of victuals. Owing, perhaps, to the peculiar 
 constitution of the College, there was, he thought, too 
 much intimacy between seniors and juniors. The 
 scholars are not ' too familiarly to frequent the chambers 
 of Fellows, and the Fellows are not to admit scholars 
 to their familiarity. 1 Another violation of College 
 discipline which the Bishop condemned was the prefer- 
 ence shown to juniors over seniors in the assignment of 
 rooms. Moreover (a rather mysterious provision) the 
 lower garden (commonly called the Master's garden) is 
 to be assigned to the two senior Masters of Arts ' unless 
 grave cause of indignity in any Fellow or the remark- 
 able excellence of any of the juniors shall persuade the 
 contrary. 1 There is also, by the way, an injunction to 
 the gardener to be more diligent in the discharge of his 
 duties ; and there are a number of similar injunctions 
 addressed to the College servants. The cooks, for 
 
HORNE'S SECOND VISITATION 133 
 
 instance, are not to ' basely treat (turpiter tractent) the 
 scholars' food. 1 Finally, all proceedings taken 'in 
 derision of a civilian named Floyde, or Lloyd, which 
 included the taking away of his B.C.L. degree, were, so 
 far as the College had it in their power to do so, to be 
 cancelled and reversed.* 
 
 In the course of the next ten years the taint of Popery 
 had almost entirely disappeared from the College, and 
 on the second visitation of Bishop Home the delin- 
 quencies attributed to the offenders were for the most 
 part moral or disciplinary, though we may, perhaps, 
 suspect that political or theological tendencies may have 
 had something to do with the rigour, far exceeding that 
 of the first visitation, with which some of the Fellows 
 were dealt with. 
 
 Bishop Home's Commissaries on this occasion were 
 John Kyngsmill and Thomas Bilson, Master of Arts. 
 Bilson was, it may be remembered, one of the sturdy 
 Protestant minority among the Fellows at the last visi- 
 tation, and was now Head-master of Winchester. The 
 accuser of his brethren was now their judge. Martin 
 Colepeper, accused on the former visitation both of moral 
 and papistical enormities, was now M.D. and Warden. 
 No objection was raised to Bilson's position at first, but 
 at a later stage the Warden protested against him 
 on the ground that many of the Fellows had been in 
 the school under him, while the Warden and Fellows 
 were themselves his Visitors at Winchester. The pro- 
 ceedings were opened on January 16, 1575-76. Henry 
 Barckly, one of the most gravely accused persons on 
 
 * Presumably Hugh Lloyd, subsequently Headmaster of Win- 
 chester, and then Chancellor of Rochester and Rector of Islip. 
 
134 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 the previous visitation, had apparently resigned in view 
 of the approaching visitation. 
 
 Among the delinquencies brought to light by the visi- 
 tation, the following are worth mentioning : 
 
 John Piggott was accused of stealing books from 
 Whittell and Blake and pawning the same. He admitted 
 the charge as to sixteen books of Blake and seven or 
 eight others, but did not remember whether any of them 
 were WhittelPs. His only defence was that ' he lacked 
 mome.** Judgment was postponed. 
 
 William Erie denied a charge of seduction, and was 
 ordered to find seven compurgators. 
 
 Richard Harley was accused of being a great ' gamer 
 and frequenter of taverns, 1 and of passing four nights 
 running out of College. He admitted the charge, 
 and was sentenced to study in the library from 6 to 
 7 a.m. for fifteen days. 
 
 Cruse was ordered a similar penalty for ' inordinately 
 playing at ball, hazard, and cards,** but his hours were 
 from 1 to 2 p.m. 
 
 Harley senior was accused of giving %0 to be put 
 into a jurist's place, and admitted that ' there was 
 monie given by his frendes, viz., his father, for his place, 
 but how much he cannot tell.*' 
 
 Culter was also accused of buying a jurist's place, but 
 denied it. 
 
 Body, Erie, and Blake had kept dogs. Blake was 
 also accused of frequenting taverns, but pleaded that it 
 was only when his friends came to see him. As a 
 punishment he was confined to College for fifteen days. 
 
 Reading, Payne, and Estmonde denied frequenting 
 taverns and ' inordinately playing at hazard." 
 
PROTEST AGAINST VISITATION 135 
 
 Smith was accused of singing base songs and of saying 
 that he never wished to hear a preacher. He denied 
 the ' turpiloquy, 1 but admitted having said ' Preachers 
 should live according to their preaching, els lay men 
 will not believe them.'' 
 
 Tinchener was accused of being a notorious fighter 
 (insigms gladiator), and admitted that he was wont to 
 resort ' to the fence schole and plaide thereat for his 
 recreacion. 1 
 
 Pryme and Barker were accused of being 'seditious 
 and factious, 1 and pleaded 'that they never exhorted 
 anie man against person, but only they have exhorted 
 others in causes of Religion and about the benefitt of the 
 house. 1 They were probably overzealous Puritans. 
 
 Boorne denied ' suspiciously frequenting the house of 
 Marbeck, 1 but was admonished not to frequent it any 
 more. He was also accused of ' inordinately playing at 
 ball and hazard, 1 and for this was ordered to the library 
 like Harley. He was further accused of seducing Culter 
 to Papistry. Culter, being called, testified to the fact, 
 which Boorne denied. 
 
 After dealing with these minor offences, the Com- 
 missioner administered to the College a general exhorta- 
 tion about ' the reformation of their excesses in apparel 
 and indecent garments, 1 and about the reformation of 
 various ' discords and enormities ' not further specified, 
 and at length adjourned the visitation, but in the 
 following June it was resumed by the Bishop in person. 
 The Warden,* with Underbill and other Fellows, pro- 
 tested against this double visitation within two years 
 
 * The Warden entered a formal protest, but seems not to have 
 pushed his opposition further. 
 
136 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 as contrary to the statutes, but the objection was over- 
 ruled by the Bishop as ' frivolous and inept.' Even- 
 tually they submitted to the visitation with various 
 qualifications ' so far as the statutes allowed," or the 
 like. But the Bishop would not be satisfied with this. 
 The gross injustice of the subsequent proceedings goes 
 far to explain and justify that strong dislike of the ex 
 officio oath,* and the procedure of the Ecclesiastical 
 Courts generally, which played a larger part than is 
 sometimes recognised in the troubles of the following 
 century. After a long and rambling argument with 
 the College, the Visitor pronounced a solemn interpre- 
 tation of the statute, holding that the prohibition of 
 more than one visitation did not exclude an adjourn- 
 ment of any duration. The whole body of Fellows were 
 quite prepared to accept this decision under protest, 
 (reserving to themselves any right of appeal which they 
 possessed), to answer interrogatories and to submit in 
 practice to the visitatorial authority of the Bishop. 
 But this would not satisfy the truculent disciplinarian. 
 He proceeded to demand of Underhill and the rest their 
 private opinion of the Tightness of his interpretation, 
 and when they had admitted that they thought the 
 Bishop^s decision wrong, they were pronounced con- 
 tumacious and rebellious, were lectured and brow- 
 beaten, and threatened with the utmost rigour of the 
 law. Moreover, it appears that since the adjournment 
 of the visitation by the Commissary, the book-thief 
 Piggott had been deprived by the Bishop and another 
 
 * I.e., the oath administered ex officio by the judge requiring the 
 accused person to answer all questions put to him, though they 
 might tend to criminate him, and though the charges suggested 
 might be unsupported by evidence. 
 
SENTENCES AND MONITIONS 137 
 
 scholar put in his place whether by the sole authority 
 of the Visitor or by election at Winchester does not 
 appear. The twenty-one protesting Fellows were now 
 questioned as to their opinion of the legality of John 
 Piggotfs removal and his successor's election. A large 
 body of Fellows admitted that they were against the 
 Bishop on both points. At last his Lordship pro- 
 nounced sentence of deprivation against the three ring- 
 leaders, and also against Ralph Pigott, who had also 
 taken his kinsman's side, John Underbill, a future 
 Bishop of Oxford, Osborne (afterwards M.D.), and 
 John Body, all Masters of Arts, and demanded their 
 withdrawal from the College, but they positively declined 
 to retire, and the rest of the College refused to separate 
 themselves from their colleagues. The Bishop there- 
 upon sent for the Vice-Chancellor, and required him as 
 a Justice of the Peace to lend the aid of the secular 
 arm, and compel their removal. They were at length 
 persuaded to withdraw without the employment of 
 actual violence, and the Visitor then proceeded to lecture 
 the College generally on its behaviour, and to issue a 
 series of monitions. Four other rebels were suspended 
 from commons and from voting or exercising any 
 authority in the College for a month ; and five more 
 were only suspended from vote and office, but not from 
 commons, during the Bishop's pleasure. The Bishop 
 now adjourned the proceedings and left the College in 
 peace for a while. 
 
 The monitions related to the conduct of College 
 business, to the wearing of surplice, cap, and academical 
 dress, and to corrupt resignations. The Bishop tells 
 the College that their conduct in this matter had been 
 
138 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 publicly complained of in the last Parliament, and that 
 a statute was likely to be made to deal with it. The 
 threat eventually took shape in an Act of Parliament 
 (31 Eliz., cap. vi.) 'against abuses in election of 
 schollers and presentacions to Benefices, 1 providing 
 penalties for corrupt elections, and requiring the 
 statute itself to be read before every election under 
 penalty of <40, to be recoverable by action of debt 
 from every person participating in such an election. 
 Every election so made is declared void. New College 
 is one of the few colleges in Oxford, it is believed, in 
 which this statute is invariably complied with. Many 
 of the colleges probably have not a single legally 
 elected Head or Fellow upon their foundations, and 
 might offer a rich harvest to any ' common informer' 
 into whose hands this work may fall. But in spite of 
 this punctilious observance of the letter the complaint of 
 the statute continued for at least a couple of centuries 
 to be true that, in spite of their oaths to the contrary, 
 
 ' notwithstandinge it is sene and founde by experience that 
 the said eleccions, presentacions and nominacions be manye 
 tymes wrought and brought to passe with moneye guyftes 
 and rewardes, whereby the fittest persons to be presented, 
 elected, or nominated, wantinge money or friends, are 
 sildome or not at all preferred.' 
 
 Besides the monitions verbally delivered by the Bishop 
 and recorded in his register, he shortly afterwards (Sep- 
 tember, 1576) forwarded to the College a batch of 
 injunctions,* partly on matters brought to his notice 
 
 * Preserved only in the reissue by his successors mentioned 
 below. 
 
INJUNCTIONS OF 1576 139 
 
 by the visitation, partly by way of interpretations of 
 points in the statutes upon which doubts had arisen. 
 Among these we may notice the following : 
 
 1 . The Readers (Prelectores) of Philosophy and Law 
 are required to lecture five times a week. This shows 
 that a regular system of College teaching had grown up 
 here as elsewhere since the time of the founder. 
 
 2. The disputations are frequently begun late at 
 night, and only last a quarter of an hour. They are 
 in future to begin not later than 8 p.m. and to last 
 two hours. 
 
 3. The Bursars are not to treat the dripping (sepum) 
 and the like from the kitchen as a perquisite. (Bishop 
 Bilson subsequently allowed the College to assign such 
 things to the Bursars by way of salary.) 
 
 4. Fellows of M.A. standing or above it are not to 
 dine, as they have been wont to do, at the Bursars' 
 table (i.e., apparently a table for guests of the College), 
 or in the Chequer, in the little room at the end of the 
 Hall. 
 
 5. Fellows are not to invite their friends to the 
 Bursars' table at the expense of the College. 
 
 6. It is generally reported that in the election of 
 Winchester scholars money prevails (dominari pecuniam). 
 Anyone who takes such bribes is pronounced a violator 
 of the statutes. 
 
 The other injunctions dealing with rather minute and 
 technical matters may be omitted. 
 
 In the year 1585 Bishop Cooper held a visitation, at 
 which the following among other injunctions* were 
 issued : 
 
 * Known only from the reissue by Bishop Bilson mentioned 
 below. 
 
140 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 1. A celebration of the Holy Communion to be held 
 once a month, at which all or the greater part of the 
 Fellows shall participate ; there is to be half-an-hour's 
 sermon on each occasion. 
 
 2. A book to be kept in which absences on leave 
 shall be recorded. No leave shall be given to go 
 abroad. 
 
 3. The Deans may set impositions (scliolastica exer- 
 citia imponere) to offending juniors. (Impositions, it 
 may be mentioned, appear to be a sixteenth-century 
 invention.) 
 
 4. Fines and court-fees (received in progress) are to 
 go to the College, and the auditors are to insist on their 
 being accounted for. 
 
 At the Winchester election of 1592 the same Bishop 
 made an order that no places vacated after the com- 
 mencement of the election should be filled up at that 
 election. It is expressly declared that the purpose of 
 this injunction is to prevent corrupt resignation in 
 favour of a particular candidate. Another interesting 
 interpretation of this prelate, given in 1524, ruled that 
 the Canonists were bound to take deacon^s orders at the 
 time at which the founder had required them to enter 
 upon the sub-diaconate. 
 
 In 1599 Bishop Bilson found it necessary to reissue 
 the injunctions of Home and Cooper, with additions 
 or variations of his own. The growth of Puritanism 
 made it necessary to insist on the use of surplice and 
 hood, offenders to be punished by the loss of a month's 
 commons. The office of woodwarden (whether held by 
 a Fellow or not does not appear) was abolished, that 
 official having been in the habit of appropriating fees 
 
SERVITORS 141 
 
 and profits which should have gone to the College. 
 Permission was given to devote a portion of the College 
 revenues to the increase of the library. A practice had 
 grown up by which scholars and servitors of particular 
 Fellows (in spite of the injunctions of former Visitors) 
 were housed and boarded at the expense of the College. 
 The Bishop ordered that such servitors should only be 
 admitted by leave of the Warden and seniors, and that 
 their expenses should be defrayed by the Fellows whom 
 they served. 
 
 The Bishop also found it necessary to forbid the 
 practice of taking meat from the kitchen and bread 
 from the buttery between meals, probably for breakfast 
 or ' nuncheons, 1 either in anticipation of, or in addition 
 to, the College allowance for breakfast or supper. 
 
 Another injunction is directed against the practice of 
 scholars entering the service of great men, waiting at 
 their tables and wearing their livery, while keeping 
 their places on the foundation. Such conduct is in 
 future to entail expulsion. 
 
 A still more serious abuse which the Bishop found it 
 necessary to check was the letting of College farms or 
 other property to Fellows, who must presumably have 
 absented themselves for long periods to look after them. 
 
 The Bursars were in the habit of extracting annual 
 commissions from the bakers, brewers, and others em- 
 ployed by them ; their selection is henceforth trans- 
 ferred to the Warden and Thirteen. 
 
 Scholars and Fellows of all ranks were to show proper 
 respect to their superiors, especially within the College 
 walls, by taking off their caps and giving way to them 
 (de via lllis ad manifest-urn intervallum cedendo\ i.e., 
 
THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 probationers to Fellows, non-graduates to graduates, 
 Bachelors of Arts to Masters or Bachelors of Law, and 
 all to Doctors. The loss of a montrTs commons is the 
 penalty for the violation of this injunction. A similar 
 penalty is denounced against the wearing of long hair 
 or unclerically coloured garments. 
 
 While the Bishop enforces the statutes and injunc- 
 tions of his predecessors about disputations, he intro- 
 duces an exercise more in accordance with the educational 
 ideas of the time by requiring two undergraduates or 
 Bachelor Artists to declaim in Latin for half an hour 
 each once a week before the assembled Society on 
 some moral or political theme to be selected by the 
 Warden. 
 
 The most important of the matters chronically in 
 dispute between the Bishops of Winchester and the 
 College was perhaps the matter of corrupt elections at 
 Winchester. The subsequent history will show how 
 ineffectual were the efforts alike of Parliaments and of 
 Visitors to check the abuse by which the liberality 
 which was intended for the comparatively poor was 
 transferred to the comparatively rich, and what was 
 intended for the able was appropriated by the stupid. 
 
 The visitations apart, the College records throw little 
 light upon the religious vicissitudes of the time ; the 
 following items in the Bursars 1 rolls are, however, signifi- 
 cant : 
 
 1533. To a goldsmith for repairing the great cross. 
 
 j> first 
 
 1534. ' Pro duobus libris de officio Visitationis Beatae Mariae, 
 
 Nominis Jesu, et transfigurationis Domini/ 
 
BURSARS 1 ROLLS 143 
 
 ' Pro Imaginibus Divorum Georgii et Katherinae, 
 
 Crucifix! cum Maria et Johanne.' 
 ' Pro quatuor Imaginibus emptis Wyntoniae.' 
 
 (Total cost, 125 17s. 6d.) 
 1539- ' Pro reparatione navis argenteae.' 
 1541. ' Pro frenge de serico pro ornamentis ad summum 
 
 altare ' (and other ornaments for the altar). 
 1545. ' Fabro aurario affigenti imaginem argenteam cruci.' 
 
 On the other hand we find 
 
 1540. Ambo placed in Hall ' pro lectura biblii.' 
 
 1541. ' Pro biblia inclusa ferreis cancellis in nave eccle- 
 
 siae.' 
 
 After the death of Henry VIII. changes become more 
 apparent. 
 
 1547. Two books of Homilies and Injunctions bought. 
 1547-8. 'Circa frangendas et deponendas imagines in 
 
 summo altari et reliquis partibus templi.' 
 1547-8. ' Pro libello de Communione.' 
 1548-9. ' Pro dimi [dio] paraphrasis Erasmi pro ecclesia de 
 
 Swackclyffe.' 
 1548-9. ' Pro iv Psalteriis Anglice.' 
 
 In the same year there is a payment to one 
 'Marshall pulsanti ad preces matutinales/ This is 
 probably John Marshall, who was elected in 1549, and 
 who, under Mary, became Vicar of Upham in the 
 diocese of Winchester. On Elizabeth's accession he 
 went abroad and became Canon of St. Peter's Church, 
 Lisle. He wrote a treatise on the Cross, and left a 
 piece of the true cross to the Cathedral at Lisle.* 
 
 * Ath. Oxon. i., p. 568, ed. Bliss. 
 
144 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 The reaction under Mary is illustrated by the follow- 
 ing entries : 
 
 MARY. 
 
 1556-7. 'Pro confectione 3 vestium pro tribus aitaribus 
 
 inferioribus de rubeo serico cum zonis.' 
 1557-8. ' Pro duobus missalibus.' 
 
 ' Pro libro hymnorum ' and various ornaments for 
 
 the altars. 
 ' Pro pingendo velamine pendente ante crucem.' 
 
 ELIZABETH. 
 
 1559-60. 'Sol. duobus laborantibus per quatuor dies in 
 destruendis aitaribus, tollentibus picturas, 
 destruentibus imagines.' 
 
 Communion books and psalters again bought. 
 1571. Rood-lofts taken down. 
 
 ' Pro expensis Commissariorum.' 
 1575. ' Pro libro homiliarum et psalmorum.' 
 
 The following notes from the Bursars' rolls may be 
 added : 
 
 150.9-10. The Justices of the King, sitting at Oxford 
 (Grevyll and Elyott), are entertained by the 
 College. The King sends a gift ' farinam.' 
 
 1 529. Wolsey sends for the Warden and other repre- 
 sentatives of the College, whose expenses 
 appear in the Bursars' rolls. 
 
 1534. Cromwell's Visitors are magnificently enter- 
 tained. 
 
 1 540. Payment to Dr. Smythe ' pro portione sua de 
 hoc Collegio sapiente ex mandato regis sti- 
 pendium publicae lecturse in theologia.' 
 
WARDEN LAKE 145 
 
 (A Roger Smythe was elected in 1533 and re- 
 moved in 1538 for non-residence.) 
 
 1541. Expenses in connexion with a visit to London 
 to oppose the King's project of alienating 
 Stepingley for his private use. 
 
 1545. Benevolence of 10 paid to the King. 
 
 Colepepper retained the wardenship till 1599, when 
 he resigned. He had been Dean of Chichester since 
 1577, and Archdeacon of Berks since 1588. He was 
 succeeded by George Ryves, D.D., who is only remem- 
 bered as the founder of the endowment for the Trinity 
 Sunday University sermon in the College Chapel. He 
 died in 1613. He was also a Canon of Winchester. 
 He was succeeded by Arthur Lake (Warden 1613-1617), 
 once Rector of Stanton St. John, now Dean of Wor- 
 cester, a learned, moderate and liberal divine, who left 
 the wardenship for the See of Bath and Wells, where 
 he became the model diocesan Bishop of his age. He 
 used to sit in his own consistory, personally superintended 
 the carrying out of the penances, and ended by asking 
 the offenders to dinner. 
 
 It was during Lake's Vice-Chancellorship (1613) that 
 a Jew was converted in Oxford, 
 
 ' and a Sabbath was appointed publickly, whereon Baptism 
 should be administered to the new disciple in St. Mary's 
 Church. Dr. William Twysse, of New College, was com- 
 manded to preach before the administration of this sacred 
 ordinance, to add the more lustre to it. But the very day 
 before he was to be baptised, this dissembling Jew ran 
 
 away.'* 
 
 * Wood, 'Annals,' ii., p. 316. 
 
 10 
 
146 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 Lake had him pursued, arrested, and lodged in the 
 castle, but the supposed convert declined to submit to 
 the ordinance, and the disappointed Doctor had to turn 
 his sermon into an anti-Semitic discourse, a feat of 
 extemporization which excited the applause and admira- 
 tion of the whole University, and laid the foundation of 
 the preacher's reputation. 
 
 The warden ship of Lakers successor, Robert Pincke, 
 B.M. and D.D. (1617-1647), brings us to the period of 
 the Great Rebellion, to which, in so far as it affected 
 the fortunes of New College, a separate chapter must be 
 devoted. 
 
 With Warden White, it may be noticed, began the 
 custom that the Warden of New College should hold 
 also the Rectory of Colerne, in Wilts, which has lasted 
 to our own day. But many Wardens held other College 
 livings. In addition to Colerne, White and his three 
 successors held Stan ton St. John, Lake retaining it as 
 Bishop until his death. 
 
 This was an era of much preaching. The homiletical 
 passion surely never took so quaint a form as in one 
 Richard Hay dock, Fellow of New College, who (as 
 Wood tells us) 'did practise physic in the day, and 
 preached at night in his bed. His practice came by 
 his profession (for he was Bachelor of Physic of this 
 University), and his preaching (as he pretended) by 
 revelation. It is also further said that he would take 
 a text in his sleep and deliver a good sermon upon it ; 
 and though his auditors were willing to silence him 
 by pulling, haling, and pinching, yet would he per- 
 tinaciously persist to the end, and sleep still. The 
 fame of this sleeping preacher spread abroad with a 
 
A SLEEPING PREACHER 147 
 
 light wing, which, coming to the King's (James I.) 
 knowledge, he commanded him to Court. And when 
 the time came that the preacher thought it was fit for 
 him to be asleep, he began with a prayer, then took 
 a text of Scripture, which he significantly enough insisted 
 on a while, but after made an excursion against the 
 Pope, the cross in baptism, and the last Canons of the 
 Church of England, and so concluded sleeping. The 
 King would not trouble him that night, letting him 
 rest after his labours, but sent for him the next morn- 
 ing, and handled him so like a cunning surgeon that 
 he found out the sore, making him confess not only 
 his sin and error in the act, but the cause that urged 
 him to it, which was that he apprehended himself as a 
 buried man in the University, being of a low condition, 
 and if something eminent and remarkable did not spring 
 from him, to give life to his reputation, he should never 
 appear anybody, which made him attempt this novelty 
 to be taken notice of.'* The King pardoned his offence, 
 but he was apparently obliged to resign his Fellowship, 
 and practise physic (without preaching) in Salisbury. 
 Wood adds the following epigram by a contemporary 
 poet, John Owen : 
 
 ' In somnis ignota prius mysteria discis, 
 
 Multaque te vigilem quse latuere doces : 
 Quanta plus igitur scires, si mortuus esses, 
 Tarn bene quern docuit mortis imago loqui.' 
 
 New College, as a body, usually took the most con- 
 servative, the most Churchy view that the circumstances 
 of the time permitted ; but Conservatism varies as much 
 
 * 'Annals,' ii., p. 284. 
 
 102 
 
148 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 as Radicalism, and it is curious to find how completely, 
 as Elizabeth's reign wore on, the highest Churchmen 
 had come to treat the Calvinistic system as the accepted 
 Theology of the Church of England, and how completely 
 the difference between High Churchman and Puritan 
 or sectary came to turn upon mere questions of ritual 
 and discipline. The most significant glimpse which we 
 get into the condition of New College in the age which 
 terminates with the Revolution is contained in a letter 
 of Archbishop Laud addressed to his brother of Win- 
 chester as Visitor of the College. The letter had best 
 be given in full : 
 
 ' Another business there is, which I think may be very 
 well worthy of your consideration ; and if you do not give 
 a remedy (as I think it abundantly deserves) I do not 
 know who either can or will. I have often wondered why 
 so many good Scholars came from Winchester to New 
 College, and yet so few of them afterwards prove eminent 
 Men. And while I lived in Oxford I thought upon divers 
 things that might be causes of it, and I believe true ones, 
 but I have lately heard of another, which I think hath 
 done and doth the College a great deal of harm, in the 
 Breeding of these Young men. When they come from 
 Winchester they are Probationers for two years ; and 
 some years after should be allowed to Logick, Philosophy, 
 Mathematicks, and the like Grounds of Learning, the 
 better to enable them to study Divinity with judgment. 
 But I am of late accidentally come to know, that when 
 the Probationers stand for their Fellowships, and are to 
 be examined how they have profited, One chief thing in 
 which they are examined is, how diligently they have read 
 Calvin's Institutions, and are more strictly held to it, how 
 they have profited in that, than in almost any kind of 
 
LAUD AND CALVIN 149 
 
 Learning besides. I do not deny but that Calvin's Institu- 
 tions may profitably be read, and as one of their first 
 Books for Divinity, when they are well grounded in other 
 Learning ; but to begin with it so soon, I am afraid doth 
 only hinder them from all grounds of Judicious Learning ; 
 but also too much possess their judgments before they are 
 able to judge, and makes many of them humorous in, if 
 not against, the Church. For so many of them have proved 
 in this latter age, since my own memory in that University. 
 Your Lordship is Visitor there, and I think you cannot do 
 a better deed, than to advise a way, how to treat this 
 Business with the Warden, who is a learned and discreet 
 man, and then think upon some remedy for it. For I 
 am verily perswaded, it doth that College a great deal 
 of harm. I do not hold it fit that Your Lordship should 
 fall upon this Business too suddainly. When the Warden 
 comes next to the Election may be a fit time ; nor would 
 I have you to let it be known that you have this Informa- 
 tion from me ; but sure I am 'tis true, and needs* a 
 remedy. 
 
 ' W. CANT. 
 
 * February 2, 1635 (1636, N.S.) ' 
 
 The most that the Primate of all England, the 
 leader of the great High Church reaction, the typical 
 6 Arminian ' of his day, can venture to urge against 
 an education based on CalvirTs ' Institutes ' is that it 
 is premature. What was the result of this letter or of 
 the Bishop's conference with the Warden is not known, 
 but a remedy for the excessive study of Calvin, or, 
 indeed, of anything else, was not long in coming. 
 
 Whatever may be thought of Laud's explanation, 
 the fact of the great promise and small achievement of 
 
 * Laud's ' History of his Chancellorship' (London, 1700), p. 82. 
 
150 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 Wykehamists attracted the attention of other observers. 
 There was an ugly proverb, we are told, current at this 
 time : ' Golden Scholars, silver Bachelors, leaden Masters, 
 wooden Doctors,"* ' which is attributed," Wood continues 
 in a private letter, ' to their rich Fellowships they have, 
 especially to their ease and good diet, in which I think 
 they exceed any College else. From thence you may 
 suppose they did build that great privy house you 
 were in. 1 * 
 
 Another of the Oxford abuses which attracted the 
 martinet eye of the archiepiscopal Chancellor was the 
 wearing of 'long, undecent hair 1 by the younger Fellows. 
 We learn from the MS. notes of Warden Pincke that 
 in 1633 one Robert Barkar (F. 1629, d. 1635) was 
 
 1 punished a fortnight's commins for having long hayre 
 down to his nose before ; and he had once before been 
 punished and warned for the lyke a week's commins. 
 Then before and with the consent of Mr. Axen, Dean 
 of Law, John Eldred was then also viz., Aug. 24, 1633 
 punished for having long hair down to his shoulders 
 (Stat. 23) a week's commins. . . . had a little before 
 given publicklie a stray te charge from the V ice-Chancellor, 
 he from our Chancellor against long hayre, slashed doublets, 
 and bootes and spures, under gownes and no regard made 
 of it by these two gallants.' 
 
 The College enjoyed the expensive luxury of a royal 
 visit in 1566, when orations were made by George 
 Coriat and William Raynolds, Bachelors of Arts, but 
 the College bore a comparatively minor part in the 
 
 * Ballard MSS., xiv., p. 124. 
 
ROYALTIES AND DRUNKENNESS 151 
 
 entertainment of the Sovereign. In the Civil Law dis- 
 putations before the Queen at St. Mary's, Dr. Thomas 
 Whyte, of New College, figured as an opponent, and in 
 the disputation in physic, Dr. Walter Baylie. 
 
 In 1583 Albert Alasco, the learned Polish prince, was 
 ' entertained with a sumptuous dinner and scholastical 
 exercises in New College Hall/* The entertainment 
 cost the University and Colleges <350. Another State 
 visit was paid to the College by the French Ambassador, 
 Viscount Chartres, in 1593. In leaving the Hall, we 
 are told by Wood, 
 
 ' he discovered the pictures of many candles or flambois in 
 the windows, and " fiat Lux " written under. But under- 
 standing not what they meant, asked Dr. Culpepper (the 
 Warden), who told him that they were set up by his 
 predecessor Dr. Chandler as a rebus of his own name ; 
 to which the Count replied that instead of Jwt lux, might 
 rather have been written Fianl tenebrce, because the painting 
 darkened the Hall.'f 
 
 In 1605, James I. was entertained ' with a royal 
 feast and incomparable musick. 1 Antony Wood adds 
 that a great increase of drunkenness took place in 
 Oxford about this time, and attributes it to this visit 
 of the Court, which ' left such impressions of debauchery 
 upon the students that by a little practice they im- 
 proved themselves so much that they became more 
 excellent than their masters, and that also without 
 scandal, because it became a laudable fashion/ The 
 difficulty was ultimately met (1617) by a statute ira- 
 
 .* Wood, ii. 217. t Ibid., ii. 256. 
 
152 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 posing whipping on the younger, fines and other punish- 
 ments on the older, students convicted of ' noctivagation ' 
 or taken in alehouses. It must be remarked that 
 Antony Wood was a John Bull of the type which 
 believes that the inscription on the gates of hell is : 
 'Ici on parle Francais. 1 Oxford vices he habitually 
 ascribes either to the French or to the Court. 
 
 The College also took the leading share in the 
 entertainment of the famous Antony, Archbishop of 
 Spalatro, the Dalmatian Primate, who had joined the 
 Anglican Church (afterwards Dean of Windsor), and 
 came to pay a reverential visit to the headquarters 
 of Anglican theology during Lakers Vice-Chancellor- 
 ship. Whether through disappointment with his 
 English preferment or otherwise, he returned to com- 
 munion with Rome. 
 
 It is interesting to observe that three out of the four 
 ' sub -delegates ' appointed in 1629 to conduct that re- 
 vision of the statutes commonly known as the Laudian 
 Code, by which the University was governed down to 
 the era of modern University reform, were New College 
 men : Dr. Pincke, the Warden, Dr. Thomas James, 
 and Dr. Zouche now Regius Professor of Civil 
 Law, Principal of St. Alban's Hall the fourth being 
 the greatest of Oxford antiquaries, Bryan Twyne, of 
 Corpus Christi College. James, however, soon retired, 
 having quarrelled with the delegacy (according to Wood), 
 because they objected to accept his own collections of 
 ' old Statutes with all their contradictions, Antinomies, 
 Antiquations, and the like.' The main burden of the 
 task ultimately fell upon Zouche and Pincke. Zouche 
 was the most famous civilian of his time, and was after- 
 
THOMAS JAMES 153 
 
 wards Judge of the Admiralty Court, and a Visitor of 
 the University at the Restoration. Thomas James, 
 first Bodley's Librarian, was perhaps the most famous 
 scholar, in the highest sense of that word, whom New 
 College ever produced. He knew what criticism was 
 in an uncritical age ; as a patristic student, he boasts 
 of having restored the genuine texts of 300 passages 
 corrupted by the Papists. He was also one of the 
 first workers upon Wycliffe. His labours remained 
 largely unpublished for want of means. * If I were 
 in Germany, 1 he pathetically remarks, 'the States 
 would defray all my charges. Cannot our estates 
 supply what is wanting ?' The sub -deanery of Wells 
 was the highest preferment that England had to offer 
 to one of its most learned men in the ' learned age ' of 
 Europe. 
 
 This seems the proper place to allude to a peculiar 
 privilege which long continued to be the most dis- 
 tinctive and characteristic feature of the College con- 
 stitution. It is well known that till recently Fellows 
 of New College claimed their degrees as a matter of 
 right, without any examination. There is no trace of 
 such a privilege till the year 1607, when the Duke of 
 Dorset, as Chancellor of the University, requires the 
 Vice-Chancellor and proctors to recognise this right 
 and to admit New College men to their degrees with- 
 out ' supplicating ' the Regents.* It is simply in- 
 conceivable that so curious and important a privilege 
 could ever have been obtained by the founder for his 
 College by any formal charter or grant of King or 
 
 * Wood, 'Annals,' ii., p. 292. Cf. Ayliffe, 'Past and Present 
 State of the University of Oxford,' ii., pp. 315, 316. 
 
154 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 University without any record of the fact being left 
 in the well-kept muniment -room of the College or 
 in the records of the University. The explanation of 
 the supposed privilege we believe to be as follows. The 
 ' grace ' of congregation was not anciently necessary for 
 the taking of a degree except in those cases where some 
 of the numerous and cumbersome formalities (residence, 
 hearing or giving of lectures, disputations, etc.) required 
 for a degree had been omitted. The 'grace 1 was, in 
 short, a dispensation from some of the statutable require- 
 ments. At a comparatively early period it became the 
 rule, rather than the exception, to seek for and obtain 
 some relaxation of these onerous conditions ; and, as 
 the old University system broke down, as University 
 lectures were practically superseded by college lectures, 
 and one disputation after another degenerated into a 
 farce, it became practically impossible to take a degree 
 without the 'grace. 1 The founder of New College, 
 anxious to resist the already growing laxity, had pro- 
 vided in his statutes that none of his scholars should 
 seek dispensation from any of the uttermost require- 
 ments of the statutes. He desired that all his students 
 should be, in medieval language, rigorosi, not graciosi 
 honour-men (to use modern language) rather than 
 charity passmen. While, then, in all other cases the 
 6 grace ' became a matter of necessity and a matter of 
 course, Wykehamists alone, bound by their oath to 
 their own statutes, supplicated for no graces, but (when 
 the statutable requirements had become thoroughly 
 obsolete) were silently allowed their degrees without 
 the formality of supplication. Thus, what had 
 originally been intended as an exceptional disability 
 
THE NEW COLLEGE PRIVILEGE 155 
 
 came to be looked upon as an exceptional privilege ; 
 what had been intended by the founder as an exceptional 
 stimulus to industry acted in practice as an exceptional 
 sanction to idleness. When the privilege was for the 
 first time formally recognised as a matter of right by 
 the University in 1607, there was, it must be re- 
 membered, no examination at all, in the ordinary sense 
 of the word, for the University degrees ; but when, by 
 the Laudian Statutes, a pass examination was established, 
 the exemption must have told prejudicially upon the 
 industry of the College. Still, this examination could 
 not have been a very formidable terror to men bred at 
 Winchester ; and this, too, ere long, degenerated into a 
 purely farcical examination by two young Masters of 
 Arts selected by the candidate and well dined by him 
 the night before. It was when the new Examination 
 Statutes of 1800 and 1807 began to awaken the Uni- 
 versity from its eighteenth -century torpor that this 
 strange perversion of the founder's intentions con- 
 tributed to keep the College out of the progressive 
 current which was everywhere else gaining strength. 
 Few better texts could be supplied for a homily on 
 the difference between the letter and the spirit, and 
 the vanity of attempts to provide by testamentary 
 dispositions against the abuse of endowments. The 
 voluntary surrender of the privilege in 1834 shall be 
 related in its proper place. 
 
 Two other distinctive privileges were claimed by the 
 College at about this time. The undergraduate-Fellows 
 of New College claimed to wear tassels, or, rather, 
 'tufts, 1 to their caps at a time when other under- 
 graduates wore none, and to sit in the Bachelors" seats 
 
156 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 at St. Mary's.* There was some further peculiarity of 
 costume, of which it is not very easy to give a clear 
 account. In a MS. note added to a copy of the Uni- 
 versity Statutes by Bishop Barlow, who was Provost of 
 Queen's from 1658 to 1677, there is an explanatory 
 note upon the University ' cappa ' (the red cope or 
 convocation habit worn over the gown by Doctors) 
 * Capa est habitus talaris sine manicis seu clausa interius 
 seu aperta. We call it a Habit, such as New College 
 Tippiters alwaies wore above their gownes; and all 
 Doctors when they appear in Scarlett besides their 
 Hood, have their Cappa, or Habit. 1 It is probable 
 that the black cappa anciently worn by ail Masters, 
 and sometimes by Bachelors and undergraduates, was 
 retained, after it had elsewhere become obsolete, by 
 this conservative College or by some class of persons 
 in it ; but who constituted this class of tippeters we 
 are unable to explain. It might be conjectured that 
 they were the same anomalous class of undergraduate 
 Fellows who had arrogated to themselves certain other 
 prerogatives of Bachelors. 
 
 Together with the Fellows of King's College, Cam- 
 bridge, it is sometimes alleged that the Fellows of New 
 College possess the right of seeking ordination from any 
 Bishop without letters dimissory,! but it is doubtful 
 whether this is not really a right enjoyed by all Fellows 
 of colleges. 
 
 A word must be said as to the history of the founder's 
 kin privileges in the College. For a century or so after 
 
 * Letter of Warden Coxed to the Vice-Chancellor in 1738 (in 
 possession of the Warden), 
 f Cripps, ' Laws Relating to the Church and Clergy,' 1857, p. 14. 
 
FOUNDER'S KIN 157 
 
 the foundation, founder's kin Fellows were numerous, 
 and were, no doubt, bond fide descendants of the 
 founder's brothers and sisters. Then for a century 
 there were no such claims. Then suddenly appears 
 the name of Richard Fiennes (afterwards first Lord 
 Saye and Sele), claiming to be descended from Sir 
 William Wickham, knight, son of William Perot by 
 Alice, daughter of William Champneys, by Agnes, the 
 founder's sister. Such is the entry in the register of 
 Winchester College, but in 1586 the Visitor pronounced 
 it to be ' different in material points from the original 
 roll, and therefore to be utterly void and of no force,' 
 the entry there being merely, ' Ric. Fenys de Broughton, 
 Consanguineus Dni Fundatoris,' and there being no 
 proof that Richard Fenys was, in fact, descended from 
 Agnes Champneys. The Visitor's decision was reversed 
 by a very questionable stretch of authority on the part 
 of Lord Keeper Hatton, on the strength of whose 
 judgment the family of Fiennes have battened upon 
 the College from that day till the abolition of the 
 founder's kin privileges by the Commission of 1855. 
 As founder's kin Fellows had the privilege of staying 
 at Winchester much later and trying for places at New 
 College much oftener than other candidates, it is obvious 
 that they must frequently have fallen below the by 
 no means high minimum of capacity required of other 
 aspirants to the benefits of the foundation. For long 
 periods in the history of the College about a fourth of 
 the Fellows were persons of this class. In the year 1580, 
 it should be added, Bishop Cooper made an order, ' for 
 ye sett number of eighteen Founders in both ye Colleges.' 
 Later on, two were elected to New College every year. 
 
158 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 The following New College worthies may be added 
 to those already mentioned in this chapter : 
 
 JAMES TURBERVILE, D.D. (F. 1514): Bishop of Exeter 
 1555. 
 
 JOHN HOLYMAN, D.D. (F. 1512): Rector of Colerne ; 
 monk of Reading ; wrote against Luther and the divorce ; 
 Bishop of Bristol 1554. 
 
 JOHN BEKINSAW (F. 1520): Professor of Greek at Paris ; 
 vacated his Fellowship by marriage in 1538 ; author of ' De 
 supremo et absolute Regis imperio/ 
 
 JOHN WYATT (F. 1512): Disputed against the three 
 Protestant martyrs at Oxford in 1554. 
 
 JOHN WHITE (F. 1527): Headmaster of Winchester 1534; 
 Warden of Winchester 1541 ; sent to the Tower under 
 suspicion of Popery in 1550; Bishop of Lincoln 1554; 
 Bishop of Winchester 1556. Preaching before Elizabeth 
 on the death of Mary, he gave offence by quoting the 
 proverb, ' Melior est canis vivus leone mortuo/ and was 
 sent to the Tower and deprived. He gave to the College 
 the manor of Hall Place in the county of Southampton on 
 condition of celebrating his obit. 
 
 THOMAS MARTYN (F. 1539): Biographer of Wykeham ; 
 Chancellor of Bishop Gardiner ; Dean of Arches ; Judge 
 of the Admiralty, etc. Wrote against the marriage of 
 priests, in the course of a reply to which Bishop Poynet 
 of Winchester writes : ' They might easily perceive that in 
 playing the Christmas lord's minion in New College in 
 Oxon in thy fool's coat, thou did'st learn thy boldness and 
 begin to put off all shame/ 
 
 SIR HENRY SIDNEY, K.G. : Father of the more famous 
 Sir Philip; successively Lord President of Wales and 
 Deputy of Ireland ; said by Wood to have been for a 
 short time a student of New College in 1543. 
 
ALUMNI 159 
 
 JOHN BOXALL (F. 1542): A Romanist who kept quiet 
 under Edward VI. ; under Mary became Secretary of 
 State, Warden of Winchester, Dean of Peterborough, 
 Norwich, and Windsor ; imprisoned under Elizabeth ; died 
 abroad 1570. 
 
 CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON (F. 1555): Headmaster of Win- 
 chester in 1560, but resigned to practise medicine in 
 London. Pronounced by W T ood to have surpassed all the 
 poets of his age. 
 
 JOHN MERICKE (F. 1557): Vicar of Hornchurch; Bishop 
 of Sodor and Man 1515 ; died 1599- 
 
 SIR GEORGE TURBERVILE (F. 156l): Secretary of Embassy 
 to Russia under Elizabeth ; poet. 
 
 THOMAS BILSON (F. 1565): Headmaster, then Warden, 
 of Winchester ; Bishop of Worcester : Bishop of Win- 
 chester ; Privy Councillor. 
 
 JOHN UNDERBILL (F. 1563): Rector of Lincoln; Bishop 
 of Oxford 1589 ; died 1592. 
 
 JOHN HARMAR (F. 1574) : Regius Professor of Greek 
 1585; Warden of Winchester; a New Testament trans- 
 lator in l6ll ; editor of Chrysostom ; died 1613; buried 
 in choir of chapel. 
 
 JOHN LLOYD (F. 1579): Regius Professor of Greek; 
 Vicar of Writtle ; scholar and preacher ; translated Josephus 
 into Latin. 
 
 THOMAS STEVENS: The first Englishman who actually 
 visited India was Thomas Stevens, in 1579. He is usually 
 said to have been educated at Winchester and New College ; 
 but there is no trace of his name in the register of Fellows 
 and scholars. The register of Winchester contains the 
 name of a Thomas Stevens, who became a scholar in 1564. 
 It is unlikely that a Winchester scholar could have been a 
 gentleman commoner at New College, and the absence of 
 his name from the register affords a strong presumption 
 
160 THE REFORMATION STRUGGLES 
 
 that he was not a New College man. He was afterwards 
 Rector of the Jesuit College in Sabrette. The impetus 
 to Indian trade in the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign was 
 in some measure owing to the interest aroused by the 
 reports sent home by Stevens in his letters to his father 
 (see Sir George Birdwood's ' Report on the Old Records 
 of the India Office/ pp. 196, 197; and Arber's ' English 
 Garner/ vol. iii., p. 182). 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE REVOLUTION AND THE RESTORATION 
 
 IN the deepest sense it may be that the history of its 
 Universities is the history of a country in microcosm. 
 But it is just what one does not find much about in the 
 pages of the ordinary historian which as a rule gives 
 University history its importance the ideas that fill 
 the minds of teachers and of students, the books that 
 are read and the books that are written, the influence 
 of mind upon mind. From the point of view of the 
 general historian, the story of the Universities com- 
 monly belongs to a rather sequestered and un visited by- 
 path of history. It is only at a few stirring epochs of 
 revolution that the thoughts and sayings and doings 
 of scholastic societies force themselves upon his notice. 
 Never has the actual daily life of a University been 
 thrown into more intimate relations with external history 
 than at Oxford during the revolutionary years of the 
 seventeenth century. A full history of that period in 
 the history of Oxford would almost amount to a history 
 of the Great Rebellion itself; and no doubt the history 
 of a single College, fully told, would be the history of 
 the University in epitome. Here we can do no more 
 
 11 
 
162 THE REVOLUTION AND RESTORATION 
 
 than notice a- few of the most prominent incidents by 
 which the Great Rebellion made itself felt within the 
 peaceful walls of New College. 
 
 In July, 1642, an order came down from the King, 
 addressed to the Commissioners of Array for the county, 
 that the University should defend itself in the event of 
 attack. A more definite call to arms was contained in 
 the King's proclamation of war against the rebels on 
 August 9. On August 1 the actual muster of the 
 University train-bands took place ' 330 or more,' with 
 the drums and flags of the incorporated Cooks of Oxford. 
 The Vice-Chancellor, Prideaux, Bishop of Worcester, 
 had found it expedient to retire into the country ; he 
 was 'wanted' by the Parliamentary Serjeant-at-Arms. 
 Our Warden, Dr. Pinke, was left to act as Pro- Vice- 
 Chancellor, and he would exercise a mild and distant 
 supervision over the drills in the front quadrangle from 
 the window of his lodgings. He also appears to have 
 initiated the first attempts to fortify the town, and to 
 have held long technical discussions with the military 
 authorities on the subject. Thomas Reade, D.C.L., a 
 Fellow of the College, is mentioned as actually serving 
 in the ranks of the pikemen. The war brought him no 
 fortune ; he died a Brother of the Charterhouse. Two 
 others, Good and Winderbanke, were among the dele- 
 gates appointed by the University to co-operate with 
 Sir John Byron in command of the King's troopers. It 
 being rumoured that Lord Saye, the Wykehamist com- 
 mander of the Parliamentary forces at Aylesbury, was 
 meditating an attack, a deputation was sent by the 
 University to deprecate such a proceeding. Unfor- 
 tunately, Lord Saye was not there, and 
 
AN ARSENAL IN THE CLOISTERS 163 
 
 ' those Commanders that were, returned very sharp answers, 
 and insolently demanded of them the doctors that were 
 delinquents, meaning those that had sent the University 
 money to the King. Upon which, after the return of the 
 Masters, Dr. Pinke, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, repaired 
 thither to deprecate for himself, but they as perfidious 
 persons laid hands on him as a Delinquent, sent him to 
 London to the Parliament, also forthwith by order com- 
 mitted him Prisoner to the Gate-house at Westminster.'* 
 
 On September 12 a body of Parliamentary troopers 
 entered the town, apparently without any opposition, 
 followed on the 14th by Lord Saye,t who was a New 
 College man. The same night (being late) he, with a 
 guard of soldiers, and with torches, went to New College 
 to search for plate and arms with what success we are 
 not told. On the night of the 22nd Lord Saye again 
 went to his old College, 'where searching Dr. Pinke^s 
 study, took thence divers papers, and the same time one 
 of his men brake down the King's picture of Alabaster 
 gilt, which stood there ; at which his Lordship seemed 
 to be much displeased.' The Parliamentary troops got 
 out of the city before Edgehill, and after the battle 
 (October 29) their place was taken by the King himself. 
 The city now became the Royalist headquarters. In 
 November the tower and cloisters of New College were 
 turned into a magazine ' for arms and furniture, bullets, 
 
 * Wood, iii. 448. 
 
 f William Fiennes, second Baron and first Viscount Saye and Sele. 
 Wood's opinion of a Roundhead is not to be taken as final ; but his 
 view of him is that he ' being ill-natured, choleric and severe, and 
 rigid and withal highly conceited of his own worth, did expect great 
 matters at Court, but they failing he sided with the discontented 
 party.' Under Charles II. he became Lord Privy Seal and Lord 
 Chamberlain. 
 
 112 
 
164 THE REVOLUTION AND RESTORATION 
 
 gunpowder, match,'* etc. This involved the turning of 
 the choir-school out of its usual quarters between the 
 chapel and the cloisters, and their 'removal to the 
 choristers' chambers at the east end of the common hall 
 of the said College : it was then a dark, nasty room, 
 and very unfit for such a purpose, which made the 
 scholars complaine, but in vaine. 1 * Such is the account 
 of Antony Wood, whose history is now so valuable to 
 us as the testimony of an eye-witness. He was at this 
 time a little boy of eleven and a pupil in the school, 
 but evidently a very close observer, if not yet a diligent 
 diarist. He goes on to tell us that it was found almost 
 impossible to prevent the boys getting out of the school 
 to see the University train-bands drill in the quad- 
 rangle. 
 
 ' And it being a novel matter, there was no holding of 
 the schoolboys in their school in the cloyster from seeing 
 and following them. And Mr. Wood remarked well that 
 some of them were so besotted with the training and 
 activities and gayities therein of some young scholars, as 
 being a longing condition to be one of the traine, that they 
 could never be brought to their books again. 'f 
 
 It was to this war that New College School owes its 
 most distinguished alumnus. The progress of the war 
 by September had compelled Wood's withdrawal from 
 Lord Williams' Grammar School at Thame, where he 
 had been under a New College master. We are sorry 
 to find that he always regretted Thame. 
 
 Other Fellows besides Reade served with the Uni- 
 
 * Wood, ' Life and Times, ' i. 69. 
 f Ibid., i. 53- 
 
FIGHTING FELLOWS 165 
 
 versity train-bands. William Oldys was killed (c. 1644) 
 in a skirmish near Adderbury ; another, William Aliffe, 
 is described as ' captus et occisus "" in 1645. The College 
 plate, of course, went with that of the other Colleges 
 into the royal melting-pot, and was coined in the mint 
 at New Inn Hall. The Fellows kept back only their 
 Communion-plate, and three cups made of ' Indian 
 nuts.'* 
 
 From the beginning of the Civil War, the autumn of 
 1642, to the surrender of the city on June 24, 1646, 
 Oxford was transformed into a fortress, some of the 
 Colleges into a court, the rest into a barrack ; and the 
 vices of both left a permanent and indelible mark upon 
 the University. Oxford was never again a place of 
 study in the sense that it had been in the Middle Ages, 
 in the sixteenth century, and most emphatically in ' the 
 learned age, 1 the first half of the seventeenth. But the 
 story of the Civil War and the siege of Oxford does not 
 specially concern us now. We do not hear of the College 
 bearing any special part in the defence. The Wyke- 
 hamists must have mounted guard with the rest on the 
 city walls, but the Parliamentary cannon on Headington 
 could never have reached the venerable masonry. 
 With the exit of the Royalist garrison the Puritan 
 regime began. Here, fortunately, the Register of the 
 Parliamentary Visitorst enables us to trace the fortunes 
 of each particular College with the greatest minuteness. 
 
 The Visitors appointed by the Parliament were of 
 
 * This appears from a note of Warden Woodward's, though the 
 College does not appear in Gutch's list. See Appendix on College 
 Plate. 
 
 t Edited by Professor Montagu Burrows for the Camden 
 Society. 
 
166 THE REVOLUTION AND RESTORATION 
 
 course sturdy puritanical divines, till now persecuted or 
 barely tolerated denizens of the despised unendowed 
 Halls. It must have been a bitter humiliation to good 
 Churchmen from respectable Colleges like New College 
 to be had up, interrogated, and admonished by men like 
 Prynne, the scurrilous barrister and pamphleteer who 
 had stood in the pillory ; John Wilkinson, of Mag- 
 dalen Hall, now Principal of that society, ' an illiterate, 
 testy old creature, one that for forty years together had 
 been the sport of boys, a person of more beard than 
 learning''; Henry Wilkinson, known as Long Harry, 
 who ' bore in his face the exact cut of a precisian, 1 and 
 was always having his windows broken by undergra- 
 duates.* With great judgment, the Parliamentary 
 Visitors proceeded to appoint two or more members of 
 each College as 'delegates to the Visitors' in dealing 
 with their respective foundations. The representatives 
 of New College were Mr. Townsend (F. 1644) and 
 Mr. Allanson (F. 1641). The visitation began on 
 September 30, 1647. After removing Dr. Fell from 
 the vice-chancellorship, the Visitors dealt with par- 
 ticular Colleges. Their proceedings were dilatory, 
 probably owing to the policy of studied moderation 
 (according to the standard of the times) which they 
 systematically pursued. It was not, apparently, till 
 May 8, 1648, that the members of New College were 
 summoned to appear before them in the President's 
 lodgings at Magdalen, the College butlers having been 
 two days before required to send in a list of the mem- 
 bers, together with its buttery -book. 
 
 Before that date arrived, the College had lost its 
 * Wood, 'Annals,' iii. 615, 618. 
 
WARDEN PINKE 167 
 
 Warden. On January 5, 1643, Pinke had been released 
 on bail, and soon afterwards found his way back to 
 College. Shortly after the beginning of the visitation 
 (November 2, 1647) he died from the effects of a fall 
 down the steps of his own lodgings a few days before,* 
 and so anticipated the ejection which would certainly 
 have been his fate. He was the last Warden of the 
 learned days. He was the author of a very curious 
 work called ' Qusestiones in Logica, Ethica, Physica, et 
 Metaphysica n (Oxford, 1640), a collection of problems 
 for disputation, with a formidable array of references to 
 authorities, classical, patristic, and scholastic. The 
 work is very suggestive of the turning-point in Oxford 
 history at which we have arrived. Even when it 
 appeared, the work must have been almost an ana- 
 chronism. 1640 is almost the last year in which such 
 a work could have been published in Oxford or in 
 England a work in which the schoolmen and their 
 problems are still treated seriously, in which Ramus, 
 Descartes, and of course Hobbes, are alike ignored, 
 while there is almost as little hint of the theological 
 as of the political and military convulsions which were 
 so soon to interrupt the Warden's old-world studies. 
 From this time no Warden of New College has left 
 a name which can be found in the library catalogue 
 of his University or his College until the days of 
 Shuttle worth, who became Warden in 1822. 
 
 One or two of the many good deeds of Warden Pinke 
 deserve to be mentioned because they introduce us to 
 one of the most noticeable New College men of the 
 time. He contributed to pay the debts of the learned, 
 
 * Wood, iii. 530. 
 
168 THE REVOLUTION AND RESTORATION 
 
 eccentric, and unfortunate Thomas Lydiat (F. 1593) 
 when he had found his way first into Bocardo, and 
 eventually into the King's Bench Prison, by becoming 
 security for his brother. Lydiat was one of the most 
 learned men of his time, his studies ranging far and 
 wide round the connected subjects of chronology and 
 astronomy. He 'first contrived the octodesexcentary 
 period, ' and entered into a controversy with Scaliger, 
 in which that eminent scholar (according to so good 
 a judge as Archbishop Ussher) was more abusive than 
 successful. He was long imprisoned by the Parliament, 
 and is commemorated by a tablet set up at the expense 
 of the College in his church of Alkerton, where he died 
 in 1646. The black marble altar -tomb, or table, 
 'adorned round with books and mathematical instru- 
 ments cut in white stone,' in the cloisters has dis- 
 appeared. He published much; but vast MSS., 
 including a ' Harmony of the Gospels, 1 will long await 
 an editor in the Bodleian. He is likely to be best 
 remembered by Johnson's lines in the ' Vanity of 
 Human Wishes ' : 
 
 ' Then mark what ills the scholar's life assail, 
 Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail ; 
 See nations, slowly wise and meanly just, 
 To buried merit raise the tardy bust. 
 If dreams yet flatter, once again attend, 
 Hear Lydiat's life, and Galileo's end.' 
 
 The other two men by whose patronage Pinke con- 
 ferred honour upon himself and the College were 
 Cambridge men ejected for refusing the Covenant, 
 viz., the learned High Church controversialist, Peter 
 
PARLIAMENTARY VISITATION 169 
 
 Gunning, afterwards Bishop of Ely, who during the 
 Parliamentary period courageously conducted the 
 Anglican services in London attended by John Evelyn; 
 and the still more eminent mathematician, theologian, 
 preacher, Isaac Barrow, eventually Bishop of St. Asaph. 
 It is unfortunate that we can claim only so slight, 
 transitory, perhaps uncertain, a connexion with perhaps 
 the greatest man who was ever on the foundation of 
 New College. The sojourn of these two men in the 
 College must have been brief, as their names do not 
 occur in the Visitors' Register. Another chaplain of 
 this period was Morgan Owen, the famous chaplain of 
 Laud, who built the porch of St. Mary's with the 
 6 superstitious image ' of the Virgin which was made an 
 article of charge against the Archbishop. He became 
 Bishop of Llandaff in 1638. 
 
 On the death of Pinke the College was inhibited by 
 the Visitors from proceeding to another election. The 
 Fellows thereupon sent a deputation to their rebellious 
 ex-Fellows, Lord Saye and his son, Nathaniel Fiennes, 
 to ask them to use their influence with a view to the 
 College being allowed a free election. The answer was 
 that a free election would be permitted, provided they 
 elected John White, an ex-Fellow, commonly known 
 as the Patriarch of Dorchester (Nov. 7, 1647). The 
 friendly hint was not accepted, and the College boldly 
 elected Dr. Stringer (November 18), a Fellow and 
 Professor of Greek. John White, it may be mentioned, 
 is described even by Antony Wood as ' a moderate, not 
 morose or peevish Puritan, 1 and 'one of the learned 
 and moderate ' members of the Westminster Assembly. 
 During his long ministry at Trinity Church, Dorchester 
 
170 THE REVOLUTION AND RESTORATION 
 
 (Dorset), 'he expounded the Scripture once and half 
 over again. 1 He died in 1648. 
 
 On May 29, 1647, the loyalists of New College at 
 least, the clerks and choristers had the audacity to 
 celebrate the Prince's birthday by 'a Bonefier on the 
 Mount in the College Walks. 1 In July an attempt 
 was made to recapture the ; Guard and Magazine ' in 
 the College. But the fact was let out by a boozing and 
 boastful conspirator, and one of them, William Collier, 
 a servant of Pembroke College, ' was imprisoned at New 
 College in one of the Chaplains' Chambers under the 
 Hall, who (after he had been tortured by burning his 
 hands, that were tied behind him, with lighted match, 
 purposely to gain a confession of those that were 
 engaged in the plot) made his escape through the 
 window and over the high embattled wall adjoyning, 
 and so saved the hangman a labour.' Will Collier 
 ' Honest Will Collier,' as Hearne sympathetically calls 
 him became a Yeoman Bedel after the Restoration, 
 and a famous toper ; he numbered the discreditable 
 Cavalier-Bishop Peter Mew among his most intimate 
 boon-companions. 
 
 The Visitation of the University and Colleges began 
 in Sept. 1647, but it was not (as we have seen) till 
 May 8, 1648, that the members of New College were 
 cited to appear in the lodgings of the President of 
 Magdalen. Every member of the College was now 
 required to say whether he submitted himself to the 
 authority of the Visitors appointed by Parliament. On 
 the following day the answers were handed in. Each 
 College had its own way of dealing with the casuistical 
 problem which presented itself. In substance New 
 
SUBMISSION REFUSED 171 
 
 College was the most uncompromising and united of 
 all the Colleges, but the form of its answers aimed 
 at giving the minimum of offence. Its members, for 
 the most part, put their refusal upon a minute and 
 delicate scruple of conscience. The statutes, jealous 
 for the College's independence of University authority 
 and for the rights of Wykehanfs successors, forbade the 
 College to submit to the authority of any Visitor who 
 was an actual i.e., resident member of the University. 
 Long Harry and others among the Visitors fell within 
 this category. So Mr. Lucas, the Sub-warden, replied : 
 ' For the Visitation of the Universities I referre to the 
 Answere given in by the Delegates. As for my College, 
 I am bound by expresse Statute of my Colledge, to 
 which I am sworne, to acknowledge noe man as my 
 Visitor that is an actual member of the Universitie.' 
 Twenty Fellows,* seven scholars, two chaplains, and 
 two clerks, repeated this refusal. The answers are 
 almost invariably the same in substance, but are 
 expressed with greater or less fulness. Just a few, 
 more timid or more constitutionally inclined than 
 the rest, try to let themselves down more easily by 
 slight qualifications. Two or three expressly admit 
 the authority of Parliament. William le Beaue, for 
 instance, afterwards Bishop of Llandaff,f in con- 
 sideration of this acknowledgment, humbly requests 
 'a favourable connivance to the most indispensable 
 
 * Two other Fellows refused later (pp. 14, 150). 
 
 f Fellow 1637. He became Major of Horse on the Royalist side, 
 and afterwards served with the Swedes against Poland. He was 
 restored to his Fellowship 1660, and became Vicar of Adder- 
 bury ; 1679 Bishop of Llandaff; died 1705. A typical Restoration 
 prelate. 
 
172 THE REVOLUTION AND RESTORATION 
 
 oathes and solemnest engagements' of his private 
 
 foundation. 'To all the rest,' he concludes, 'and 
 
 without prejudice to your power in the Universitie in 
 
 generall, I submit.' One or two refuse in a provisional 
 
 way: their consciences are 'not yet satisfied,' or the 
 
 like. The one and only unqualified submitter is the 
 
 senior Fellow, Dr. Vivian. At his time of life he 
 
 doubtless said to himself he could not be expected to 
 
 go out into the world and start in life again. The 
 
 Head Cook had, however, submitted as long ago as 
 
 the preceding August; and later on a Fellow named 
 
 Edward Farmer (who does not appear before) positively 
 
 acknowledged himself 'convicted in conscience to submit,' 
 
 but afterwards refused in a very hedging and submissive 
 
 tone. The names of non-submitters were sent up to 
 
 the London c Committee of Lords and Commons for 
 
 regulating the University of Oxford.' The New College 
 
 list contains fifty-three names. The Committee ordered 
 
 them to be expelled. But between such orders and 
 
 their execution a considerable interval of time commonly 
 
 elapsed. On June 6 Warden Stringer, who could not 
 
 previously be found, is cited 'omnibus viis et modis.' 
 
 ' On June 7 the Oxford Visitors definitely order 
 
 seventeen to leave the College or be removed by the 
 
 soldiery of this garrison.' A further resolution of the 
 
 London Committee of June 29 deprives the four senior 
 
 non-submitters. 
 
 Notwithstanding the fulness of the Register, it is 
 difficult to give a connected account of the subsequent 
 proceedings. Batches of Fellows who had already given 
 their replies seem to have been had up again from 
 time to time, and usually repeated their answers, but 
 
EXPULSIONS 173 
 
 occasionally varied them. And it is often difficult to say 
 when the expulsions decreed were actually carried out. 
 At New College, Wood tells us that men who refused 
 to submit ' continued in their places by friends and 
 cringing to the Committee.'* The appointment of 
 new Fellows which begins on July 18, 1648, is, however, 
 a sure indication that the expulsions had actually 
 begun. The Commissioners did their work in a spirit 
 of great moderation, possibly, we may conjecture, 
 through the influence of Lord Saye. Only a few of the 
 new Fellows were Winchester men, but all (even when 
 already Bachelors) were required to undergo their years 
 of probation. Some of the intruders came from the more 
 puritanical Cambridge. But as late as October, 1648, 
 obstacles were put in the way of the new Bursars 
 appointed by the Commisioners, and they had to be 
 specially 6 authorised to breake open the Bursary and 
 Audit house of New College or any other place of 
 the Colledge aforesaid, where the scales, books, evidences, 
 wrytings or any goods of the Colledge are, or should 
 bee, that they may secure and preserve them.'f 
 
 It was not, apparently, till January 25, 1649 (N.S.), 
 that the pretended Warden, Dr. Stringer, who had gone 
 on progress and held Courts for the College, < contrary 
 to the express order of Parliament,' was dealt with. 
 He was pronounced c guilty of high contempt and 
 denyale of the authoritie of Parliament,' and George 
 Marshall appointed in his place. But Stringer does 
 not appear to have actually cleared out till the follow- 
 ing September. Not unnaturally, the zeal of the Oxford 
 
 * Wood, iii. 582. f Register, p. 205. 
 
174 THE REVOLUTION AND RESTORATION 
 
 Visitors in dealing with New College seemed to the 
 London Committee inadequate, and had constantly to 
 be quickened by resolutions of that body. Marshall's 
 appointment, for instance, was their doing. 
 
 A batch of seventeen appears to have been expelled 
 on July 7, 1648, and some at least of these were really 
 removed from the College a few days afterwards. The 
 procedure was as follows : ' a Drum with a guard of 
 Musqueteers were sent to every College, where (after a 
 call had been beaten by the drummer) the like order as 
 before, subscribed by the Deputy Governor, was read. 
 The most part obeyed, but some undergoing the brunt 
 were imprisoned, while others absconded for several 
 weeks.'* But no less than sixteen contumacious Fellows 
 and scholars and three chaplains retained their places 
 till June, 1649.t 
 
 It was the new Warden's ' importunacy,' if we may 
 trust Wood, which at length secured a clean sweep of 
 the rebellious Fellows. Like other eminent Radicals, he 
 appears to have been fond of tree-felling (we may note 
 by the way), and ' made great havock of the College trees 
 near Stanton St. John in this County and elsewhere, 
 cutting down about 5,000.^ 
 
 The inquisition descended down the College hierarchy 
 till it reached the non-academical officers and servants. 
 The Barber submits with caution : ' So farre as I may, 
 without breach of my oath, I shall humbly submit to 
 this Visitation. 1 The Butler with equal tact submits 
 'to the power of King and Parliament.' But the 
 
 * Wood, iii. 600. 
 
 t Register, p. 195; cf. Wood, iii. 621. 
 
 I Wood, iii. 622. 
 
WARDEN MARSHALL'S DIFFICULTIES 175 
 
 loyalty of the under-servants exceeds that of their 
 superiors. The Under-butler replies : ' I cannot in 
 conscience submitt myself to this present Vissitation 
 unlesse I should render myself guilty of perjury/ On 
 July 15 the Under-cook now submits with a reservation, 
 perhaps owing to the example of his chief. But the 
 Tinder-cook's submission seems not to have been 
 accepted ; and the Organist, Sexton, Under-butler, 
 Manciple, Porter, Groom and Basket-bearer were all 
 4 outed. 1 It is curious to find ' the Committee of 
 Lords and Commons for the Reformation of the Uni- 
 versity of Oxon ' solemnly intervening to provide the 
 College with a Butler of sound theological and political 
 principles. 
 
 Professor Montagu Burrows has thus summarized the 
 results of the whole work of the Visitors at New 
 College : 
 
 Certainly expelled : Members 50, Servants 7. 
 Probably expelled: Members 12. 
 Certainly submitted : Members 1 3, Servants 2. 
 Probably submitted : Members 2. 
 
 The proportion of submitters to non-submitters 
 (whether we include or exclude the doubtfuls) is 
 decidedly the highest in Oxford. 
 
 It is highly probable that some of the newly intruded 
 Wykehamists were not men of the sternest republican 
 or puritanical stuff; and even the intruders gave trouble 
 to the Visitors, apparently taunting one another with 
 crypto-Royalism. In July, 1649, 
 
 1 Mr. Townsend and Mr. Allanson, Fellowes of New 
 Colledge, complayned to the Visitors, that they were much 
 
176 THE REVOLUTION AND RESTORATION 
 
 injured and scandalized by Dr. Vivian, Fellow of the said 
 Colledge, in reportynge to the Warden of the said Colledge 
 that the said Mr. Townsend and Mr. Allanson had spoken 
 words of dangerous consequence ; vizt : they came to him 
 about Candlemas last past, and told him that the Prince and 
 the Scots were now agreed, advising the said Dr. Vivian to 
 go and joyne with them.' 
 
 The Visitors, ' being well assured of the good affection 
 of the said Mr. Allanson and Mr. Townsend to the 
 Parliament,' 1 pronounce them ' innocent as to any such 
 pretended words informed by Dr. Vivian. 1 This Dr. 
 Vivian, it will be remembered, was one of the old lot, 
 who had submitted probably against his conscience ; he 
 was eventually deprived by the Warden and Fellows, 
 and their sentence was upheld by the Visitors. The 
 Warden found it difficult to enforce discipline in a 
 College now largely composed of very young Fellows 
 who objected to the doubtless long and dreary puritanical 
 prayers. On August 6, 1650, we read : 
 
 'In the cause depending before the visitors of the 
 Universitie betweene the Warden of New Colledge and 
 the Fellowes of the said Colledge : 1 st. Whether the 
 Warden had sole power of himselfe to secure [or score i.e. 9 
 deprive of commons for a time] the said Fellowes for 
 their absence from prayers in the said Colledge. It is 
 thought fitt that the said question be not presently 
 determined: but whereas the said Fellowes have made 
 themselves judges in their own cause by taking off the 
 scoure which, for their absence from prayers, was laid upon 
 them by the said Warden : It is ordered and thought fitt 
 that the said scoure shall remaine and continue upon 
 them.' 
 
PURITAN NEW COLLEGE 177 
 
 In still more serious ways it seems that much of the 
 old Wykehamical man was left even in the best Puritans 
 that had been grafted on to the old Wykehamical stock 
 enough, at least, to produce scandal among the more 
 precise. On December 31, 1651, the Oxford Visitors 
 make a special report to the London Committee. 
 
 f In obedience to your Order of December 18th instant, 
 directed to us the Visitors of the Universitie of Oxon 
 touching some Fellowes of Newe Colledge abusing them- 
 selves by excessive drinking, to the publique scandall of 
 religion at the last election at Winchester, wee doe humbly 
 certifie : That we accordingly convented soe many of the 
 said Fellowes as wee found upon the place, some being 
 absent, others quite departed from the Universitie, and 
 cannot find the least inckling from any of them concerning 
 the same, who all professe they know nothing of any such 
 disordered carriage, much less of publique scandall, as the 
 order mentions.'* 
 
 All the same, this general absence from Oxford about 
 December 25 looks bad. We cannot but suspect that 
 the ' prelatical ' habit of keeping Christmas was not quite 
 extinct in the homes from which these men came. 
 
 A grave accusation of outrage upon a woman is 
 brought against two chaplains, Sir Dennis and Sir 
 How in 1653t. It is greatly to be feared that the 
 application for leave of absence ' for special service at 
 sea ' made and granted to Sir Dennis in the following 
 year was not entirely voluntary. 
 
 The curious position assigned by the original statutes 
 to the Jurist Fellows has already been commented on, 
 
 * Register, p. 341. t Ibid., p. 361. 
 
178 THE REVOLUTION AND RESTORATION 
 
 Not unnaturally, the assignment of the duties of 
 government now to one body, now to another, led to 
 difficulties. In 1653 the Visitors resolved : 
 
 'for that the number of Lawyers have a very great 
 influence into the government of the House, and the 
 Statutes concerning them are so mixed and complex't with 
 the whole body of Statutes, that they cannot (at present) 
 be certified : Wee therefore shall pro hoc vice nominate the 
 13 Seniors and Officers for the carryinge on the govern- 
 ment of the said Colledge.'* 
 
 The two civilians were afterwards restored, and it 
 was ordered that the so-called canonists should really 
 be students of divinity. But it would seem not im- 
 probable the visitorial decision permanently affected 
 the government of the College. After this time, though 
 (after the Restoration the number of twenty civilians 
 was nominally kept up), we hear nothing of any 
 governing body except the Warden and thirteen 
 seniors.! 
 
 In the register of the Parliamentary Visitors we 
 encounter fresh explicit evidence of the prevalence of 
 the ' corrupt resignation ' system which was long 
 peculiarly rampant at New College and at All Souls 1 , 
 though not unknown elsewhere. If we ask why the 
 system should have specially fastened upon these two 
 Colleges, the answer is probably to be found in the 
 comparatively high social position of the members of 
 these two foundations, which caused places upon them 
 to be sought for by people who could afford to pay the 
 retiring Fellow whom he hoped to succeed. A good 
 
 * Register, pp. 362, 363. f But see below, p. 185. 
 
CORRUPT RESIGNATIONS 179 
 
 proportion of the New College Fellows are described 
 as ' gen. fil.' or 6 cler. fil.,' instead of 'pleb. fil.,' even in 
 the sixteenth century, and we find among them many 
 men of excellent family. This phenomenon is again, in 
 part at least, due to the presence of a large number of 
 Founders kin Fellows. At New College Lord Saye and 
 Sele's younger sons had already begun to live upon the 
 College ; and Winchester had become the great school 
 of the gentry of Hampshire and the neighbouring 
 counties. The Visitors ordered that every Fellow on 
 his appointment should take an oath that he would not 
 give, or on his retirement receive, ' any money or 
 money worth by way of gratuity or otherwise,' and 
 every elector that he would not be influenced by any 
 such consideration. This measure was, of course, in- 
 effectual in stamping out the practice; at all events, 
 its effect must have ended with the Restoration. No 
 materials exist for tracing minutely the history of the 
 abuse at New College, the decline and fall of which at 
 All Souls' is much better known.* Warden Traffics, 
 who died in 1703 after only two years of office, is 
 declared by his epitaph in the chapel to have been 
 distinguished by his zeal for purity of election (elec- 
 tlonum castltati prospiciendo). But only a few years 
 later (1715) Hearn hears that four Fellows of New 
 College, amongst whom is ' Dr. John Ayliffe, who is 
 degraded and expelled the University (tho' not the 
 College), have sold their Fellowships, which is a custom 
 here under pretence of Resignation, and so will go off. 1 
 An order of the Visitors requiring the friends of boys 
 admitted to Winchester to enter into a bond 6 for the 
 * See Mr. C. G. Robertson's ' All Souls' College ' in this series. 
 
180 THE REVOLUTION AND RESTORATION 
 
 securing of the Colledge from corrupt admission ' is 
 deleted in their register. 
 
 It is creditable to the Parliamentary commanders in 
 Oxford that, in spite of the fanaticism prevalent in the 
 ranks, their stay in Oxford did so little damage to the 
 place. Doubtless the buildings, including many archi- 
 tectural features which might plausibly have been 
 considered superstitious, were saved by the College 
 loyalty of the Parliamentary leaders. But in one way 
 the military occupation of New College did leave traces 
 of itself behind. It was in the last phase of the war, 
 in August, 1651, that there was a rumour of an attack 
 upon Oxford by Charles II., when the castle was 
 abandoned after ^2,000 had been spent upon its forti- 
 fication.* Wood notices 
 
 * the unadvised fortifying of New College thereupon, by 
 the said Colonel (Will. Draper), to the great detriment 
 ( 1 ) of the Scholars thereof, who for the present were forced 
 to quit their quarters ; (2) of the buildings, by making 
 great holes through the walls of the Cloister and gates, 
 for the scouring the way by Southgate, the passage leading 
 to the College, and the way from Queen's College to their 
 back or non-licet gate, as also the breaking down the 
 wall at the entrance into their privy house, to the end 
 that a passage might be made to the Tower of defence, 
 which in three days' time they had erected of stone in the 
 middle of New College, purposely to clear those parts, if 
 occasion offered ; (3) of their neighbours, by plucking 
 down Queen's College wall (near to the said Tower) which 
 parts their walls and New College lane, as also two or 
 three tenements which joined to the west Cloister. 'f 
 
 * Ballard MSS. (Bodleian), xiv. 12. 
 t Wood, iii. 646, 647, 
 
THE RESTORATION 181 
 
 It seems that this want of thoroughness on the part 
 of the Puritan party was responsible for at least one 
 perversion to Rome after the Restoration. Walter 
 Harris (F. 1666, as founder's kin) attributed his change 
 of religion to ; the lively memorials of popery in statues 
 and pictures on the gates and in the Chapel of New 
 College.'' Wood took him ' to have an unsettled head, 
 or, as we usually say, a worm in his pate. 1 He prac- 
 tised medicine in College, and conformed again after 
 Titus Oates 1 plot. 
 
 Whatever may have been the feelings of the rest of 
 England, there can be no doubt that in Oxford the 
 reign of the saints was thoroughly unwelcome. It 
 must be remembered that in Colleges less stanch and 
 loyal to the old order in Church and State than New 
 College the submitters were numerous in some more 
 numerous than the non-submitters. And the intruded 
 scholars were many of them, even when not mere time- 
 servers, very qualified admirers of the new regime. The 
 virtues of the new rulers, the high standard of morals, 
 discipline, and study which the best of them attempted 
 to enforce, were as unpopular as the formality and 
 hypocrisy of which they were commonly accused. 
 Even the learning which the Puritan regime did much 
 to encourage was not particularly appreciated by the 
 great majority. In those days men had to take a side, 
 but most of those who conscientiously or uncon- 
 scientiously were prepared to acknowledge the authority 
 of Parliament and to do without Bishops were far from 
 being enthusiastically devoted to long Presbyterian 
 sermons and compulsory attendance at innumerable 
 religious exercises conferences and catechisings in the 
 
182 THE REVOLUTION AND RESTORATION 
 
 Tutor's room and the like ; and as the Cromwellian regime 
 became more and more indisputably a de Jacto govern- 
 ment, the number of reluctant conformists naturally 
 increased. Nowhere was the news of the approaching 
 Restoration more heartily welcomed than at Oxford 
 Here as elsewhere men did not wait for any formal pro- 
 clamation of the new order, but reverted to it by a 
 kind of sudden and spontaneous instinct. Six weeks or 
 more before the Restoration a bold man read the 
 Common Prayer in St. Mary Magdalen Church in 
 surplice and hood, ' and that church was always full of 
 young people purposely to hear and see the novelty.' 
 At New College, even in 1654, in the midst of the 
 Parliamentary regime, Evelyn found the chapel 'in its 
 ancient garb, notwithstanding the scrupulosity of the 
 times,' and before the Visitors appointed by the restored 
 Parliament arrived, the College on its own authority 
 seems to have begun turning out the puritanical 
 minority. The choral service was restored in the 
 chapel by December, 1660, in New College and other 
 Colleges with choirs on the foundation, ' to which places 
 the resort of people was infinitely great." 1 At about the 
 same time a malignant fever, possibly small-pox, raged 
 in the College. Between November 8 and June 4 no less 
 than eight Fellows died. Consequently we are told : 
 
 'The restless Fanaticks did continually buzz into the 
 ears of the vulgar '^that te Lord's hand fell upon that 
 College for their turning out so many godly men (for the 
 most part before the Visitors sate) and introducing the 
 Common Prayer before it was read in other Colleges." '* 
 
 There was another epidemic this time undoubtedly 
 
 * Wood, iii. 708. 
 
BISHOP MORLEY'S INJUNCTIONS 183 
 
 small-pox in 1662. A rationalistic observer, Henry 
 Stubbe, in his work on ' Phlebotomy ' declares that none 
 died who were let blood in time. 
 
 The Restoration naturally called for a re-settlement 
 of many small points in the interior arrangements of 
 the College, especially in connexion with the Chapel 
 services. In 1663, the Visitor, Bishop George Morley, 
 determined the relative precedence of the founder's 
 kin and of the other Fellows, ordaining that all should 
 rank according to the date of admission to the College, 
 not according to the date of their becoming perpetual 
 Fellows. In 1664 the Bishop held a ' personal visita- 
 tion,' and issued an elaborate body of injunctions.* All 
 were to attend the full morning and evening prayer. 
 The service was, it would seem, to be sung on all days, 
 but on festivals and during festival seasons it was 
 to be more fully choral, or ' solemn,' 6 according to the 
 use of the cathedral churches.' On these days and on 
 vigils there were also to be non-choral prayers in the 
 Chapel at 9 p.m. Surplices were to be worn on Sun- 
 days and holidays. The ordinance of the puritanical 
 Bishop Home for the daily use of the Litany was 
 annulled ; but besides matins and evensong, two ' inter- 
 mediate canonical hours ' (tierce and sext) were to be 
 said in the Chapel, except, apparently, on festivals ;t 
 but these were to be attended only by Theologians, 
 Canonists, Masters of Art, and (of course) the Chaplains 
 and Clerks. Those who came in after the beginning of 
 
 * A copy of these and the last-mentioned injunctions is appended 
 to the copy of Martin's ' Life of Wykeham ' in the College library. 
 
 f But the ordinance is not clear as to the days on which these 
 services were to be held. 
 
184 THE REVOLUTION AND RESTORATION 
 
 the General Confession on festivals or after the close of 
 the first Psalm on other days were to be counted late.* 
 An injunction of Bishop Cooper for the monthly cele- 
 bration of Holy Communion and the enforcement of 
 quarterly reception is confirmed. The service was to 
 include an ' exhortation ' of half an hour's duration. 
 The injunctions go on nominally to interpret and 
 enforce the founder^ statutes on a number of minute 
 points, but practically in many cases to substitute new 
 rules for the old. The wearing of academical dress is 
 prescribed. Long hair is condemned, the maximum 
 length to be determined by the Warden and one of the 
 Deans. Latin is to be spoken. The disputations in 
 theology, philosophy, and law, which had been neglected, 
 were to be kept up or revived. Fellows were to be 
 allowed to keep poor scholars as servitors on giving a 
 caution for the payment of their battels. The Bishop 
 repeats Laud's complaint, that the College failed of 
 late years to rear eminent men. The reason which 
 he gives is probably more to the point than Laud's 
 theory as to the malign effects of Calvin's * Institutes ' 
 prematurely studied. He attributes the fact to the 
 facilities which the College afforded for remaining in the 
 University without taking holy orders, and to the large 
 number of comfortable College livings, which deterred 
 New College men from becoming Chaplains to the 
 King, Bishops, and other magnates then, and for two 
 centuries later, almost the only road to preferment for 
 men of small means and undistinguished family. To 
 remedy the evil the Bishop insists upon a strict obser- 
 
 * Can this mean that the service began with the Lord's Prayer 
 on ordinary days ? 
 
SENIORS v. JUNIORS 185 
 
 vance of the founder's statutes as to the date of 
 ordination, and requires that any dispensation given by 
 the Warden and Fellows shall be at once reported to 
 himself. Notwithstanding this injunction, it would 
 appear that the obligation to take orders was in practice 
 gradually relaxed, so that before the age of modern 
 reform began the College was in the singular position 
 of not having a single ' clerical Fellowship. 1 Fellows 
 were allowed to draw the augmentation of commons 
 which they received over and above the amounts pro- 
 vided by the Founder, even during their absence while 
 residing in the household of the King as a Lord of 
 Parliament. Here we trace the beginning of that vast 
 system of non-residence which was ultimately to turn a 
 Fellowship from a student's maintenance into a pension 
 for celibate sinecurists. The porter, it appears, had 
 been both remiss and extortionate in the matter of 
 shaving and hair-cutting. His charges are, therefore, 
 fixed, the rate varying from one shilling to ten, accord- 
 ing to status or degree. The ' too strict cohabitation ' 
 provided by the founder's statutes is relaxed, partly 
 because it had been proved conducive to the spread of 
 infectious diseases ; and the building of further rooms 
 for the Fellows is sanctioned. 
 
 A year later (1666), during the same episcopate, a con- 
 troversy arose between the senior and the junior Fellows. 
 The seniors claimed on the basis of some undoubtedly 
 ambiguous language in the founder's statutes* that 
 
 * ' Communiter vel per majorem partem seniorum.' The Bishop 
 held that whatever doubt there might previously have been was 
 removed by 33 Henry VIII., cap. 27. The original injunctions are 
 in the possession of the College. 
 
186 THE REVOLUTION AND RESTORATION 
 
 even in matters requiring the consent of the whole 
 College a majority of the seniors was still necessary to 
 authorize the affixing of the seal. The Visitor's 
 decision makes a clean sweep of all reservations and 
 exceptions, and provides that all matters should be 
 decided by a majority of the whole meeting, provided 
 they constituted an absolute majority of the whole 
 body of Fellows. It was only in case of a tie that the 
 majority of seniors were given a casting vote. 
 
 It was not till the year 1677 that the introduction of 
 non-foundation members received the sanction of the 
 Visitor. Doubts about its legality had, it would appear, 
 prevented the College from acting upon the Bishop's 
 permission to enlarge its buildings ; for the garden 
 quadrangle was intended mainly for the sons of ' noble- 
 men and gentlemen ' not on the foundation i.e., gentle- 
 men commoners, who would, of course, pay handsomely 
 for their accommodation, and, as the Bishop remarked, 
 be afterwards 'useful in acquiring honour and dignities' 
 for the Fellows. In spite of the precedents already 
 mentioned, scrupulous spirits were still found to oppose 
 the lucrative scheme for entering such boarders in 
 greater numbers. And the Bishop had to employ 
 considerable sophistry to justify a decision which, how- 
 ever sensible in itself, is obviously opposed both to the 
 letter and the spirit of the founder's statute.* 
 
 The Restoration was a period of great change at 
 Oxford. The Puritan strictness and the Puritan 
 discipline disappeared. Everybody was anxious to go 
 back to the old regime ; but the old habits of study, the 
 old discipline, the old simplicity of life, never returned. 
 
 * The original injunctions are in the possession of the College. 
 
DISORDERS 187 
 
 Debauchery was looked upon as a satisfactory indication 
 of orthodoxy and loyalty. The large influx of young 
 fellows naturally brought with it peculiar difficulties in 
 a College where undergraduates were for many purposes 
 members of the governing body. In 1666 the Bishop 
 of Salisbury advised the Warden to treat his rebellious 
 subjects with a high hand. He had learned with 
 regret, he writes, that * the fountain whence the Marah 
 and Meribah waters springe ' was Wykeham's foundation, 
 ' from whence too many of their rebellious generation 
 proceeded. 1 
 
 ' Cause the ancient discipline to be revived, and executed 
 with all strictness in respect of externals, and without 
 distinctions of persons and degrees. When you shall call a 
 meeting, take a special observance of those who make 
 themselves the Captaines and Leaders : " verba brigosa " 
 and other words and demeanor will be vented from those 
 petulant spirits. Impose (with the Deans' assent) some 
 scholastical exercises, declamations in the Hall at a time 
 appointed for a public meeting. The high spirits will not 
 show their obedience. Your Statutes will prompt the way 
 to putt them to their eight dayes. If they make not a full 
 testimony of theire ready obedience, pronounce their 
 places void in a judicial proceeding, and supply their 
 places with better spirits.' 
 
 This account is borne out by an interesting passage 
 from Warden Woodward^s biographical notes. A propos 
 of a squabble about the outridership which, it seems, 
 was claimed by two Fellows, Hobbes and Pelham, who 
 both wanted to accompany the Warden on progress, he 
 enters the following pathetic complaint against the 
 irregularities of the Fellows : 
 
188 THE REVOLUTION AND RESTORATION 
 
 ' By such cunning tricks as these they impose upon me. 
 And as in this, so in all affairs of the College. Besides, the 
 senior Company will do what they list as dine in the 
 Exchequer alwaies, keep fires in the Exchequer, read 
 lectures either not at all or at what hours they please. 
 Instead of at 6, Mr. Hobbes would read at 8 or 9- In the 
 winter he would not rise. If they will not be governed by 
 me, I hope that another of more power and authority may 
 govern them.' 
 
 The conscientious Warden Woodward was a man of 
 antiquarian tastes who carefully studied the college 
 documents. He is the last Head who took an interest 
 in such matters till they were systematically gone 
 through by the present Warden. He died in 1675, and 
 was succeeded by Dr. Nicholas, of whom we hear nothing 
 but that as Vice- Chancellor he was ' verie active in 
 walking and hauling taverns. 1 Upon the election of 
 Dr. Henry Beeston in 1679, Wood remarks, 'So govern- 
 ment will signifie nothing hereafter."* Nevertheless we 
 find that in the year after his accession a Fellow named 
 Joseph Pratt was ' expulsus ob noctivagationem. 1 But 
 the example seems to have been insufficient. ' The next 
 College 1 (after St. John's, Wood tells us in 1682) 'that 
 wants a thorough reformation is New College, much 
 given to drinking and gaming and vaine brutish 
 pleasure/t A Warden who was likely to govern was 
 voted ' a turbulent man. 1 Beeston was a courtier who, 
 according to Wood, ' had run with the times, 1 having 
 been 'gen-usher to the protectress. 1 He was, we are 
 told, a member of the Oxford Philosophical Society, 
 
 * Wood's ' Life and Times,' ed. Clark, vol. iii., p. 142. 
 t Ibid., p. 3. 
 
DRUNKENNESS 189 
 
 established in 1683 for the improvement of 'real and 
 experimental philosophy, 1 a sort of affiliated branch of 
 the Royal Society of London. Little more is recorded 
 of him but that he had twenty -three children. 
 
 Wood's estimate of New College morals at this period 
 receives an unfortunate confimration from a letter written 
 by the famous author of the ' Character! sticks, 1 then 
 Lord Ashley, to his father, the second Earl of Shaftes- 
 bury, in 1689. The young lord (he was then about 
 eighteen) writes to dissuade his father from sending his 
 younger brother to the College. All the other elements 
 of education, those 
 
 ' that prepare and fit for company and conversation and y fc 
 of y e outward carriadge, Arts both of body and minde 
 that are necessary to admittence among the better rank of 
 people/ 
 
 had been sacrificed by sending him to Winchester for 
 the single object of obtaining proficiency in the classics. 
 And the result was that 
 
 1 all y* w ch is cald good breeding, is not only totally lost in 
 him, but y e end for w ch these advantages have advisedly 
 been neglected, that part of that maine, I should call it, 
 of his Education ; for w ch all y e rest have been purposely 
 omitted and so fallne to ruine, this is faild and has come 
 as yet to nothing. The seven Improves years of his life 
 have been sacrificed at Winchister and all given up for 
 Latten and Greeke, and he is soe far from understanding 
 the first, y i he can neither make nor construe a sentence, 
 b esides y 1 in any other sort of readeing he has no maiier of 
 tincture, nor as yo r Lord? saw, can be brought to relish so 
 much as a peece of S r Walt r Ralegh, or o r English Cronicle, 
 a Life in Plutarch, or any such plesant and easie storie.' 
 
190 THE REVOLUTION AND RESTORATION 
 
 There are scarcely any at Winchester, he goes on to say, 
 
 ' that escape y e Mother vice of Drinking, the Predominant 
 of y e Place, where y e Punishm* of it would be worse then 
 insignificant amongst the Schollers, unless the reformation 
 were made or began at leaste among the reformers ; for 
 whilst y e example remayns amongst the superiors, I leave 
 any one to Judge of w* effects the correction of it is likely 
 to prove amongst the youth. . . . But yo r Lord? has heard, 
 I beleive, w* y e soe much esteemd Bish? of Oxford said of 
 theire sister new Col ledge ; That Palmer was y e only sober 
 man of it : tho for my owne part I think his Lord? might 
 have spar'd his reflections ; I believe y e Numbers were little 
 more y n proportionable through most of y e Colledges.'* 
 
 We regret to have to add that the one sober Fellow 
 retired from the College that very year. He sub- 
 sequently became a Fellow of Winchester and Canon 
 of Chichester. 
 
 The Restoration introduced the age of comfort. The 
 Fellows began to build themselves new chambers 
 and new common-rooms. The age of learning was 
 succeeded by an age of social life. The centres of this 
 social life were the coffee-houses, where the members of 
 different common-rooms met to read their news-sheets, 
 afterwards their Spectator, and to practise the newly- 
 discovered art of conversation. The New College 
 coffee-house was Begg's 'at the corner of Holy well, 
 facing the King's Arms,' frequented also by Wadham 
 and Magdalen Hall. By Antony Wood the coffee- 
 
 * This letter, found among the Shaftesbury papers in the Public 
 Record Office, was kindly pointed out to us by the Rev. Dr. Fowler, 
 President of Corpus Christi College. We are indebted to Mr. 
 L. G. W. Legg for a transcript of it. It is dated 1689. 
 
DECLINE IN LITERARY OUTPUT 191 
 
 houses are made responsible for 'the decay of sound 
 learning among us/ 
 
 The even tenor of College life was interrupted in 
 1665 by the visit of the Court to Oxford. The 
 Spanish Ambassador was entertained by the Warden 
 in his lodgings from September, 1665, to February, 
 1666.* 
 
 However it be accounted for, it is impossible in 
 turning over the pages of Antony Wood's 'Athenae 
 Oxonienses ' not to notice the extraordinary decline in 
 the literary output of the College. In the sixteenth and 
 early seventeenth centuries every other Fellow seems to 
 have produced his folio of theological or legal learning. 
 In the Restoration period we produced little that was 
 solid. The divines were content for the most part with 
 occasional sermons or pamphlets. The lighter spirits 
 turned out innumerable volumes of ' Epigrams, 1 or oc- 
 casional verse, Latin or English. Probably no College 
 has produced so many minor poets so very minor 
 that not more than one or two have found their way 
 into the largest and most indulgent collections of British 
 poets. It may be added that the Founder's provision 
 for two Medical Fellows never became a dead letter, 
 and New College at all times produced a small but 
 continuous succession of cultivated physicians. Among 
 the more serious writers of the period may be mentioned 
 Ralph Bohun (F. 1658), who produced a 'Discourse 
 concerning the origine and properties of Mind ' in 1671, 
 and Dr. Robert Sharrock (F. 1651), Rector of Great 
 Horwood and Archdeacon of Winchester, who wrote on 
 ' the propagation and growth of vegetables, 1 and tried 
 
 * Cf. Appendix on Customs. 
 
192 THE REVOLUTION AND RESTORATION 
 
 his hand at answering Hobbes. These two gentlemen 
 seem to be our most famous New College philosophers. 
 
 There was a lighter side even to the life of Puritan 
 Oxford. Though within the chapel walls Puritanism 
 declined to 
 
 ' let the pealing organ blow, 
 To the full-voiced quire below, 
 In service high and anthems clear/ 
 
 music was the one form of art which it did not con- 
 demn. And it was in Puritan New College, though now 
 on the eve of the Restoration (1659), that the saintly 
 Thomas Ken was wont to ' sing his part ' in the weekly 
 musical meetings, attended also by Antony Wood, 
 which took place in the College. Most of the party 
 were intruded Fellows, whom the Restoration was 
 shortly to doom to poverty and obscurity. Ken, at 
 present only a junior, was destined to become Bishop 
 of Bath and Wells ; to enrich the English Service-book 
 with the two hymns which for a century were almost 
 the only relief from old and new version psalmody ; to 
 win the respect of Charles II. by refusing to harbour 
 Nell Gwynn in his palace at Wells; to be among the 
 famous seven who resisted the tyranny of James II., 
 and to end his life as the most revered of non-jurors 
 under William III. These musical meetings are almost 
 the only fact recorded of his College life. 
 
 Another of the seven Bishops was a New College 
 man Turner, Bishop of Ely. One of their judges, it 
 is interesting to note, the only one of the four who had 
 the courage to charge in their favour, was also a Fellow 
 of New College, till ejected by the Parliamentary 
 
GENTLEMEN COMMONERS 193 
 
 Visitors Richard Holloway. Another New College 
 man would have been on the bench but for a previous 
 act of judicial courage. Sir Edward Herbert (F. 1667) 
 had become Lord Chief Justice of England in 1685, 
 but had just been removed to the Common Pleas bench 
 for refusing to sentence a deserting soldier to death in 
 accordance with so-called martial law. He was never- 
 theless a great stickler for prerogative, followed his 
 master into exile in 1688, and was consoled with a 
 titular earldom of Portland and lord chancellorship. 
 
 It will be remembered that Wykeham's statutes 
 expressly forbade the admission of non-foundationers. 
 At first, it would seem, this prohibition was evaded 
 by allowing gentlemen commoners to reside outside 
 the walls. Thus, we hear that Sir Henry Wotton, 
 the diplomatist immortalized by one of Isaac Walton's 
 charming lives, was a Winchester commoner, and went 
 up to New College, where (Wood says) 'living in the 
 condition of a gent. com. had his chamber in Hart 
 Hall adjoyning and to his chamber-fellow then Richard 
 Baker, his countryman, a knight and a noted writer. 
 But continuing not long, he went to Queen's College.' 
 Charles I. gave him the provostship of Eton as a set-off 
 against many years of unpaid ambassador's salaries. 
 The second Lord Saye and Sele was also a gentleman 
 commoner. William Herbert, who succeeded to the 
 earldom of Pembroke in 1661, and was (according to 
 Clarendon) 4 the most universally esteemed and beloved 
 of any man of that age,' is said to have come up to 
 New College at thirteen as a 'nobleman,' as also his 
 brother Philip Herbert, who became Earl of Mont- 
 gomery and one of the Protector's Council of State. 
 
 13 
 
194 THE REVOLUTION AND RESTORATION 
 
 The following New College worthies of this period 
 may also be mentioned : 
 
 WILLIAM TWISSE, D.D. (F. 1598): Vicar of Newton 
 Longueville 1613, but exchanged that living for Newbury 
 in 1 620 ; Prolocutor of the Westminster Assembly ; a 
 great anti-Arminian writer ; also wrote in defence of the 
 continual obligation of the fourth commandment. ' His 
 plain preaching was good, his solid disputations were 
 accounted the better, and his pious way of living by others 
 (especially the Puritans) the best of all ; yet some of the 
 New College men who knew the man well have often said 
 in my hearing that he was always hot-headed and rest- 
 less' (Wood). Died 164-6; buried in Westminster Abbey, 
 but after the Restoration his remains were thrown into a 
 common pit in St. Margaret's Churchyard. It was Twisse 
 who, when a certain converted Jew relapsed, was to have 
 preached at his baptism, and had hastily to substitute a 
 sermon on Jewish perfidy. (See Wood, 'Annals/ sub 
 anno 1613.) 
 
 THOMAS RYVES, D.C.L. (F. 1598): King's Advocate 
 during the Great Rebellion ; ' a thorough-pac'd scholar in 
 all polite learning, was a pure Latinist and master of a 
 smooth stile ' (Wood). 
 
 JOHN HARRIS, D.D. (F. 1606) : Regius Professor of 
 Greek ; ' became so admirable a Grecian and so noted a 
 preacher that Sir Henry Savile used frequently to say that 
 he was second to St. Chrysostome ' ; Warden of Winchester 
 1630 ; took the Covenant, kept the wardenship, and be- 
 came a member of the Westminster Assembly. 
 
 JOHN REINOLDS (F. 1 602) : ' The most noted epigram- 
 matist next to John Owen and Sir John Harrington of his 
 time' (Wood) ; died 1614 ; buried in cloisters. 
 
 HUGH ROBINSON (F. 1605): Headmaster of Winchester; 
 
ALUMNI 195 
 
 afterwards Archdeacon of Gloucester ; ' an excellent lin- 
 guist, able divine, and very well seen in ancient histories/ 
 He was arrested and imprisoned by the Parliamentarians, 
 but eventually took the Covenant, and became Rector of 
 Hinton, near Winchester ; wrote a volume of ' Preces ' for 
 Winchester boys, and many school books ; died 1655. 
 
 JOHN HEATH (F. 1607): Poet (Wood, < Ath. Oxon./ ii. 168). 
 
 MATTHE w NICHOLAS (F. l6l 5): Dean of Bristol 1 629; Dean 
 of St. Paul's 1660 (appointed by Charles I.); died l66l. 
 
 ALEXANDER HYDE (F. 1617) : Consecrated Bishop of 
 Sarum in New College Chapel 1665 ; died 1667. 
 
 NATHANIEL FIENNES (F. 1624) : Parliamentary Governor 
 of Bristol, which he surrendered to Prince Rupert. 
 
 THOMAS MASTER (F. 1624) : He helped Lord Herbert 
 of Cherbury in his 'Life of Henry VIII.'; wrote ' Iter 
 Boreale' (a journey to Lincolnshire), published in 1675, 
 and died of ' a malignant fever call'd the camp-disease 
 that raged in Oxford' (Wood) in 1643. 
 
 STEPHEN CHARNOCK : Intruded Fellow 1650, 'and 
 thereby for several years did eat the bread of a worthy 
 loyalist ' (Wood) ; after the Restoration became famous 
 as a Nonconformist preacher and theological writer. 
 
 THOMAS FLATMAN (F. 1656) : Published a volume of 
 poetry in 1682. 
 
 SIR JOHN TRENCH ARD (F. 1665) : W T hig statesman ; 
 Secretary of State 1692 ; died 1695. 
 
 THOMAS MANNINGHAM (F. 1671): As Chaplain to Queen 
 Anne he distinguished himself by declining 'to whistle devo- 
 tion through a key-hole ' while the Queen was dressing ; 
 Dean of Windsor; Bishop of Chichester 1709 ; died 1722. 
 
 CHARLES TRIMNELL, D.D. (F. 1683) : Bishop of Norwich 
 1707-8 ; Bishop of Winchester 1721 ; died 1723. 
 
 PHILIP BISSE, D.D. (F. 1686) : Bishop of St. David's 
 1710; Bishop of Hereford 1713; died 1721. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 IN the history of learning there are backwaters, and 
 from many points of view the eighteenth century is one 
 of them. The ponderous learning of the early seven- 
 teenth century gave way to an age of physical science, of 
 popular controversy, of elegant literature. In the first 
 of these departments Cambridge took a prominent part ; 
 at Oxford, though there were individual students, 
 physical and mathematical study never passed to any 
 considerable extent into the traditional studies of the 
 place. Little was taught to the ordinary undergraduate 
 except some formal logic and as much classical scholar- 
 ship as was necessary for Latin verse-making. It was 
 not that the eighteenth century at least, the first 
 half of it was not an age of intellectual progress. But 
 the progress went on for the most part outside the 
 Universities. The Universities were affected by the 
 intellectual tendencies of the age, but they contributed 
 little to it. They shared the growing contempt for 
 old-world learning, for serious study, for profound 
 thought, for academic methods, sufficiently to neglect 
 their own proper business, but they had no new ideals 
 
GROWTH OF IDLENESS 197 
 
 of learning or education to substitute for the old. The 
 changes of the time showed themselves everywhere in 
 the neglect of founders'* statutes and founders'* intentions, 
 and in the growth of comfortable buildings, common 
 rooms and coffee-houses, where dons could neglect their 
 pupils, talk politics, read the Spectator or the Rambler, 
 and generally demonstrate to the world that they were 
 not the obsolete pedants that they were taken to be by 
 London wits or deistical philosophers. 
 
 It is obvious, from the nature of the case, that a 
 small College consisting entirely of men educated at one 
 school, too well off to breed Grub Street poets and men 
 of letters, not well born or influential enough to make 
 careers for themselves of a higher kind, would be likely 
 to share- to the full the tendencies of the age. Of 
 eighteenth-century New College, we can only say that 
 it was very like eighteenth-century Oxford in general, 
 though it appears to have been, so far as our very scanty 
 records show, rather more free than usual from the 
 worst scandals of the time, if we except the practice of 
 'corrupt resignations. 1 In literature it continued to 
 produce minor poets, and among others the only New 
 College poet who would be likely to be mentioned in 
 an ordinary history of English literature William 
 Somerville (founder's kin Fellow 1694) a Staffordshire 
 squire who occasionally interrupted the pursuit of field 
 sports by writing verses about them. He retained his 
 Fellowship till his father's death in 1704. His best- 
 known work, ' The Chace,' was published in 1 735, and 
 contains four books of blank verse. Such fame as it 
 possesses seems to be partly due to its having been used 
 as letter-press for sporting pictures. Successive editions 
 
 
198 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 of it have been illustrated by Bewick, Stothard, and 
 Hugh Thomson. 
 
 One of the few episodes which enliven the dull annals 
 of eighteenth-century New College is ' the case of 
 Dr. Ayliffe: Dr. John Ayliffe (F. 1695) was one 
 of the few residents in the University at this time who 
 was a ' civilian ' in something more than the nominal 
 sense required for continuing to hold a College Fellow- 
 ship without taking holy orders. He spent his time 
 as a real student in Oxford, was learned in the learning 
 of his own faculty, and also in the history and 
 antiquities of his own University. Like nearly all the 
 University antiquaries, he possessed a sharp tongue 
 and a quarrelsome temper, failed to adjust himself to 
 his environment, and (like most of them) eventually 
 made his College too hot for him. His career gives one 
 a vivid idea of the troubles which beset a Whig living 
 in a predominantly Tory College, or, rather, a College 
 with a Tory Head, at the beginning of the eighteenth 
 century. From Hearne it appears that he had the 
 indiscretion to talk ( rebellion ' to that acrid Jacobite in 
 the Bodleian Library. 
 
 The beginning of AylinVs troubles shall be told in 
 his own words : 
 
 ' Dr. John Ayliffe having for some time quitted the 
 Business of a Proctor in the Chancellor's Court of the 
 University of Oxford, on his promotion to the Degree of a 
 Doctor in the Civil Law* (1710), and during the course 
 of his Practice in that Court, having collected and laid 
 together divers materials of good use and service to that 
 
 * Yet it would seem he was already a Proctor in 1707. See 
 below, p. 204. 
 
CASE OF AYLIFFE 199 
 
 ancient School of Learning, did about November 1712, on 
 the advice of some particular friends, think fit to publish a 
 Specimen with Proposals thereunto annexed for Printing 
 by subscription a Book intituled " The Ancient and Present 
 State of the University of Oxford," containing an Account 
 of Matters as already set forth in the Preface to this his 
 case. But no sooner was the Doctor's Design made known 
 to the world, almost from no other part of his book, besides 
 that of the Title Page, but that it met with the utmost 
 opposition from several Heads of Colleges, thereby put 
 into a Fit of Shivering, and a strange Panic Fear, for the 
 Reasons before remembered in this Preface. And, in 
 short, it so far alarm' d the rest of that University, or to 
 speak more properly, the scabbed Members thereof; that 
 many of the noisy yelpers of that Place immediately 
 began to open and Bark against the Undertaking as 
 villanous and ungrateful ; for that the Author intended 
 hereby (according to their foolish sense of things) to disclose 
 and lay open all their charters, and other Academical 
 Privileges, to their avowed Enemies, which (they said) he 
 was by oath obliged to conceal from the Strictures and 
 Examination of the Publick.'* 
 
 The alarm caused the subscriptions to fall off; but 
 a sense of 'Publick Charity' compelled the intrepid 
 Doctor to persevere. The dedication to the Whig 
 Lord Somers instead of to the Tory Chancellor of the 
 University, the Duke of Ormond, was deemed a studied 
 insult to the latter. The book appeared on July 14, 
 ' about a fortnight before the late Queen's death, in the 
 time of the worst Ministry that ever surrounded the 
 Throne of any Prince.' The book was solemnly read 
 
 * ' The Case of Dr. Ayliffe,' London, 1716, pp. 27, 28. 
 
200 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 out at the Ordinance Club in Oxford in short ' lessons, 1 
 4 because it was not customary for any of them to read 
 much at a time, if they read at all.' At his speech 
 on laying down office, the Vice-Chancellor solemnly 
 announced that he was commanded by the Chancellor 
 6 to proceed against Dr. Ayliffe for writing and pub- 
 lishing an infamous libel, wherein (as he said) the 
 Doctor had defamed King Charles the first and 
 second, and King James the first and second, Arch- 
 bishop Laud, the late Ministry, with many other 
 persons. 1 On November 12, 1714, ' half an hour before 
 the University Court sat, Dr. Ayliffe was summoned to 
 appear there in two several Actions of Injury and 
 Damage, according to the Phrase of the Civil Law, 
 which our Common Lawyers stile an Action on the 
 Case.' The judge, the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Bernard 
 Gardiner, was actually one of the prosecutors ;* the 
 other was Dr. Thomas Braithwaite, Warden of Win- 
 chester. The damages were laid at d100 in each suit. 
 ' The Doctor receiving the Summons of the Court in 
 his common Hall, as he was sitting down to Dinner, 
 had not time allowed him that Day to prepare himself 
 with Proctor and Stipulator (which the Common Law 
 calls Bail), 1 and disobeyed the citation for fear of 
 arrest. But the enemy was not to be balked, ' so that 
 he was decreed to be arrested, for what the Assessor 
 was pleased to stile Contumacy, although the University 
 Charter expressly allows the Interim of one Day, and 
 the Practice of the Court has indulged two Days (at 
 least) from the date of the Citation.' On another day he 
 
 * On other occasions this has been held to bar the jurisdiction of 
 the Vice-Chancellor's Court. 
 
PERSECUTION OF AYLIFFE 201 
 
 appeared by his Proctor, and asked to be admitted to 
 give a ' fidejussory caution ' in lieu of the enormous 
 bail of ^400 which had been demanded and which 
 Oxford tradesmen were prevented (according to Ayliffe) 
 by threats from giving. The request was refused, ' the 
 Proctor brow-beaten and rejected. 1 The Proctor gave 
 notice of appeal to the Delegates of Appeals in Con- 
 gregation ; but by the Assessor's command the Registrar 
 ignored the appeal, the Assessor's subservience being 
 accounted for by the fact that he was illegally holding his 
 Fellowship at All Souls with a Professorship of Law, 
 and the Vice-Chancellor was Warden of All Souls. The 
 Sheriff's Bailiff, ' who was no sworn Officer of the 
 University, was sent into the College Chappel to arrest 
 him there, as he shou'd come from Prayers. 1 But the 
 victim had notice of ' the Plaintiff's godly Project, 1 and 
 kept away. Then a Bedel was despatched to the 
 College ' on pretence of receiving a Mulct (vulgarly 
 then called a sconce) from a Fellow's hand on the 
 College Buttery - Book. 1 'The Vice - Chancellor had 
 that day placed his great Body in the Warden of New 
 College's Dining-room,' and he and the Warden gloated 
 over the scene, while the Bedel went into Hall to 
 arrest Ayliffe. But they do not appear to have been 
 gratified by a sight of the rebellious Whig dragged 
 down the steps of his own College hall, for he managed 
 to escape, and afterwards made a great grievance of the 
 fact that there was no legal arrest, because no actual 
 mannum injectio. On a number of technical grounds 
 detailed with much curious learning, Ayliffe proceeded 
 with his appeal ; the Senior Proctor, in spite (we are 
 assured) of threatenings from headquarters, accepted 
 
202 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 the notice of appeal, and inhibited the further progress 
 of the suit. But a too short time was allowed for the 
 prosecution of the appeal, and on the ground of non- 
 prosecution the Vice-Chancellor proceeded with the 
 suit (while Ayliffe had gone to London to get a pro- 
 hibition), pronounced Ayliffe contumacious, and, under 
 the statute dealing with defendants evading arrest, de- 
 prived him of his degree and banished him from the 
 University. It would be out of place to detail all the 
 illegalities which were committed (according to Ayliffe) 
 in the course of the proceedings. The interlocutory 
 sentence in respect of which the arrest was made was 
 passed by the Assessor sitting alone without the Vice- 
 Chancellor ; the statute prescribed only degradation or 
 banishment, not both; the statute dealt only with 
 criminal cases, and not civil suits, etc. Whatever may 
 be thought of these points of law, there can be no 
 doubt of the arbitrariness and substantial injustice of 
 the whole proceeding. At this time the University 
 Court was a grossly inquisitorial engine of tyranny in 
 the hands of the University magnates. 
 
 The real object of the sentence of banishment was to 
 make AylinVs residence impossible, and so to deprive 
 him of his Fellowship. Dr. Ayliffe was now ' convened 
 before the Warden (Dr. Cobb) and Seniority.' There 
 was an elaborate trial in the ' College Audit house. 1 
 Fellows and servants were examined as witnesses, and 
 Ayliffe put in an elaborate and highly technical defence. 
 He was charged with the original offence for which he 
 had already been deprived of his degree, together with 
 the fact of that deprivation; with having gone to 
 London to sue for his prohibition in spite of the re- 
 
AYLIFFE AND THE VISITOR 203 
 
 fusal of the Warden to give him leave of absence 
 (though he had got the leave of two Deans), and, 
 finally, with having threatened to f pistol ' the Warden. 
 The last impeachment is admitted and apologized for. 
 Ayliffe pleads that he uttered the words at 1 a.m. 
 fc after sitting Six or Seven Hours in Company, 1 and 
 produced a witness to say he was drunk. The Warden 
 and five Fellows decided that he had incurred expul- 
 sion, nine Fellows that he had not incurred expulsion, 
 but deserved to be punished. This judgment would by 
 itself indicate that the College was not wholly composed 
 of Jacobites, and it appears that about the year 1715 it 
 boasted ten members of the Whig Constitution Club. 
 
 The Warden and his party now hit upon another 
 expedient. * The malicious and wicked Spirits induced 
 a Youth of Winchester College, the next in course to 
 succeed to a Vacancy in New College,' to apply to the 
 Visitor by way of appeal. The Bishop received the 
 appeal, and summoned the Warden and Fellows to 
 appear before him at Chelsea to show cause why they 
 did not remove Dr. Ayliffe from his Fellowship. The 
 Visitor eventually required Ayliffe, as the alternative to 
 expulsion, to make a solemn recantation at Winchester 
 in the presence of the two Wardens and the Posers, in 
 which he was to declare that he had had ' a fair and 
 candid hearing 1 by the Visitor, to acknowledge his 
 'justice and lenity, 1 and to admit that his book con- 
 tained ' unjust reflections upon several of the present 
 and late Members of the Society, 1 though he had there 
 acknowledged that in New College, unlike some other 
 Colleges, the majority were not persons of this stamp. 
 This recantation Aycliffe declined to make, and antici- 
 
204 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 pated expulsion by resignation. Where and how the 
 poor man lived the rest of his life does not appear, but 
 he died in 1732, having contrived to write a ' Parergon 
 Juris Canonici Anglicani "* and other learned works. It 
 would seem that Ayliffe had at an earlier period been 
 in collision with the Vice-Chancellors Court. In 1707 
 he was prosecuted in the Vice-Chancellor's Court for 
 ' extortion ' as a Proctor in the court, and was deprived 
 of that office. The Delegates of Appeals in Congrega- 
 tion refused to entertain his appeal, but he was restored 
 by the Delegates of Appeals in Convocation. 
 
 A curious light is thrown upon the standard of 
 morals and manners prevalent in the College at this 
 period by the following passages from Hearne : 
 
 'June 1, 1713. This day Sennight Mr. Thomas Butler's 
 House in Halywell was broke open about Dinner Time, 
 and Twenty Pounds in Money taken away. It appears 
 since that 'twas one Cotton, a Person of a bad Character, 
 Fellow of New College. The said Butler is Keeper of the 
 Cock-Pit, is poor, and had laid up this Money to pay his 
 Rent.* 
 
 'April 28, 1714. Last Sunday morning died one Mr. 
 William Williams, M. A., of New College. He was formerly 
 one of the Lay-Chaplains, but being a very illiterate Person 
 (for he could not so much as read Greek) he was clenyed 
 Orders two or three times. Upon which when there was a 
 Vacancy, the Warden made him Head-Butler of the College, 
 worth about a Hundred libs, per annum. Which Place 
 hath been sometimes before, I think, enjoyed by Scholars, 
 tho' not by Masters of Arts, as there is a Scholar now (an 
 Under-Graduate, who wears no gown and never intends it 
 more) that is chief Butler of Brasen-nose College.' 
 * Hearne's 'Diary,' ed. Rannie, N., pp. 185, 335. 
 
JOSEPH SPENCE 205 
 
 As specimens of the better sort of College Fellow in the 
 eighteenth century (a generation later than Ayliffe) we 
 may notice the careers of Joseph Spence and Robert 
 Lowth. The first may be taken to represent the 
 lighter, the latter the heavier, learning of the age. 
 Joseph Spence became a Fellow in 1722. So high was 
 his reputation as a scholar that he was elected to the 
 Professorship of Poetry immediately after taking his 
 M.A. degree. A New College contemporary, Chris- 
 topher Pitt, poetaster and dilettante,* pronounced him 
 in 1728 ' the completest scholar, either in solid or polite 
 learning, for his years, he ever knew. Besides, he is 
 the sweetest - tempered gentleman breathing.' The 
 professorship apparently involved no continuous duties, 
 and he at once took the College living of Birch- 
 anger, in Essex (though keeping his Fellowship), 
 where he devoted himself (during occasional intervals of 
 residence) to gardening and literature. But much of 
 his time was occupied in travelling about Europe with 
 various noblemen. An essay on Pope's ' Odyssey ' 
 procured him the friendship of that poet. His first 
 introduction to him was on this wise : Spence was then 
 in residence in Oxford. While 'lolling at a coffee- 
 house half asleep and reading something about Prince 
 Eugene and the armies on the Rhine,' an ostler brought 
 him a little scrap of paper with the following words : 
 ' Mr. Pope would be very glad to see Mr. Spence at the 
 Cross Inn just now.' To the inn he repaired, and 
 found the poet in a great state of exhaustion. He had 
 arrived in a chariot of Lord Peterborough's, which only 
 
 * He is said to have presented the Posers at his candidature for 
 New College with a complete translation of Lucan's ' Pharsalia.' 
 
206 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 held one, at Bagley Wood, where he had been obliged 
 to give it up to a lady whose arm had been broken in a 
 carriage accident, and to walk into Oxford. So much 
 exercise was almost too much for the poet. However, 
 he was persuaded to dine in Spence's rooms, and went 
 on his way refreshed. Spencers magnum opus, as it was 
 thought in his day, was 'Polymetis, or an Enquiry 
 concerning the Agreement between the Works of Roman 
 Poets and the Remains of the Ancient Artists,' published 
 as a folio with plates in 1747. It brought him much 
 fame and ^1,500. Lord Lincoln presented him with a 
 house at By fleet in Surrey, and in 1754 he received from 
 Trevor, Bishop of Durham, a fat prebend in that 
 cathedral. Henceforth he divided his time between 
 Durham and Byfleet. He resigned Birchanger for the 
 bigger College living of Horwood. Here he never 
 resided, considering that he compounded for his non- 
 residence by his liberality to the poor of that parish. 
 The Oxford Professorship of Modern History made 
 equally slight demands upon his time. He lived in 
 intimacy with Pope, Thomson, and Shenstone, and his 
 real title to remembrance is his volume of 'Anecdotes, 1 
 which is a most important authority for the literary 
 history of his time. It was not published till after his 
 death, but was freely used by Ruffhead and Johnson for 
 their lives of Pope. Spence was a sort of clerical, and 
 far less able, Horace Walpole. In those comfortable 
 days the gift of well-bred amiability, and the Church 
 preferment which it brought with it, enabled a cul- 
 tivated clergyman to pose, not merely as the critic, but 
 as the Maecenas of his age as effectually as the possession 
 of a private fortune. To such a man, University, 
 
BISHOP LOWTH 207 
 
 College, cathedral and parish alike were merely sources 
 of income; still, the common-room which Spence occa- 
 sionally adorned could not have been wholly given up 
 to uncultivated bibulosity. Though his criticism is 
 sensible, Dr. Johnson was probably not wrong in pro- 
 nouncing him 'a man whose learning was not very 
 great, and whose mind was not very powerful.'' 
 
 A scholar of a more serious order was Robert Lowth 
 (son of the well-known commentator, William Lowth)? 
 who obtained his Fellowship in 1731. In those days 
 the serious scholar was of all men the least likely to 
 think of long and continuous residence in Oxford, 
 especially at New College, where nothing to speak of 
 was to be made by tuition, and Lowth took the living of 
 Overton in Hampshire in 1735. In 1741 he became 
 Professor of Poetry, and actually lectured in Latin, of 
 course on the sacred poetry of the Hebrews. The 
 lectures were published, attained considerable fame in 
 their day, and are not quite forgotten in ours, though 
 scholars will no longer stickle for his view that Hebrew 
 was the language spoken in Paradise. The great road 
 to preferment open to a College Fellow in those days, 
 as well as an important means of education, was a 
 position as chaplain, or tutor, or travelling companion 
 to a nobleman. Lowth was at one time Chaplain to the 
 Embassy at Berlin, at another tutor to the sons of the 
 Duke of Devonshire. Of course, neither Fellowship nor 
 parish was resigned on account of these employments. 
 In 1750, Hoadley, the latitudinarian Bishop of 
 Winchester, made him Archdeacon of that place, to 
 which preferment he soon added the rectory of Woodhay. 
 He was offered an Irish bishopric, but managed to pass 
 
208 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 it on to Dr. Leslie and get in exchange that divine's rich 
 Durham prebend and rectory of Sedgefield. In 1766 
 he became Bishop of St. David's, in 1767 of Oxford, and 
 in 1777 of London. He refused Canterbury in 1783, 
 and died in 1787. Whether as a scholar or a prelate, 
 Lowth is as good a specimen as could be found of the 
 Church of his age. He writes with real feeling both for 
 literature and religion. If his new translation of Isaiah 
 and his English Grammar are inevitably superseded, his 
 life of our founder is a work of real research, and is still 
 deservedly appealed to as an authority for the general 
 history of the time. 
 
 In his famous controversy with Warburton over a 
 particular position maintained in his absurd * Divine 
 Legation of Moses,' Lowth's polished sarcasm and 
 scholarly accuracy contrast favourably with the sledge- 
 hammer style and slip-shod thought of that pretentious 
 controversialist, though it chances that Warburton's 
 view as to the date and character of the Book of Job 
 comes nearer than Lowth's to that generally accepted 
 by modern scholars. As a prelate he distinguished 
 himself by refusing to institute a presentee who had 
 entered into resignation-bonds, and getting a decision 
 of the House of Lords against the legality of that 
 objectionable form of simony. Still more creditable 
 was his refusal to sit above John Wesley at dinner. 
 Wesley speaks of Lowth as in his whole behaviour 
 worthy of a Christian Bishop. It is something to know 
 that Christianity was at least tolerated in the New 
 College common-room of 1729-1750. 
 
 In another controversy in which Lowth became 
 involved he figures to less advantage. William of 
 
DISPUTED ELECTION 209 
 
 Wykeham had intended that the wardenship of New 
 College should be a place of much greater dignity and 
 emolument than the wardenship of Winchester. The 
 Warden of New College had, as we have seen, a separate 
 house and establishment of his own, and six horses in 
 his stable, and was in a sense the Visitor of Winchester. 
 The Warden of Winchester had a single room of his 
 own, and two horses wherewith to do his journeys. It 
 never crossed his mind that a Warden of New College 
 would ever desire promotion to Winchester. But it 
 was easier for the Warden of Winchester to increase his 
 emoluments at the expense of his helpless charity-boys 
 and a very small number of Fellows than for the Head 
 of the great and highly organized corporation at Oxford 
 to monopolize the increasing value of the College 
 estates ; and so in process of time the Winchester 
 wardenship had come to be much more valuable than 
 the Oxford one. In 1757 we are told the wardenship 
 of Winchester was worth <700 or 800 a year, against 
 his superior's 300 exclusive, no doubt, of the College 
 living or livings commonly held with it. Dr. John 
 Nicholas, who became Warden of New College in 
 1675, was the first to get himself elected by the 
 Fellows of his own house to the rich preferment 
 at Winchester, and no objection was made by the 
 Bishop. His successor, Dr. Henry Beeston (1679) 
 had no opportunity of such lucrative degradation, 
 and languished all his days in Oxford. His six 
 successors, Richard Traffics (elected Warden of New 
 College in 1701), Thomas Braithwaite (1703), John 
 Cobb (1712), John Dobson (1720), Henry Bigg (1725), 
 and John Coxed (1730), all succeeded in effecting the 
 
 14 
 
210 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 coveted transplantation. On Bigg^s death in 1757, Dr. 
 Purnell, who had become Warden of New College in 
 1740, was duly elected, though not (it appears) without 
 opposition, to the vacancy at Winchester. But upon 
 being presented to Hoadley as Visitor, the Bishop 
 disallowed the election, and proceeded, without giving 
 the electors time to make a fresh choice, to appoint by 
 his own authority Christopher Gold ing, Fellow and 
 Tutor of the College, a ' peaceable and studious 
 academic, 1 as his literary champion calls him. The 
 College entered upon no litigation, and accepted the 
 Visitor^ decision. But there was a war of pamphlets, in 
 which Lowth, who owed his archdeaconry and prebend 
 of Winchester to Hoadley, took part in defence of his 
 patron. The founder had provided that the Warden 
 of Winchester must be a Fellow of Winchester or a 
 Fellow of New College or ' de illis qui aliquando 
 fuerunt in ipso nostro Collegio seu collegio prope Winton 
 et ex causis licitis et honestis recesserunt."* 
 
 Undoubtedly, the founder had not contemplated such 
 a contingency as the election of the Warden of New 
 College, but it can hardly be denied that by ' recesserunt ' 
 he meant no more than 'resigned their Fellowships.'' 
 Exclusions must be explicit, and Lowth seems to testify 
 to the weakness of his case by laying most stress upon 
 a side-issue, the fact that the election was not made in 
 due time, upon which his plea is much stronger, though 
 this objection appears to have been an after-thought. 
 It seems that the real objection to Purnell in the eyes 
 of the latitudinarian Hoadley and his friends was his 
 ' good Churchmanship ' or (what was then much the 
 same thing) his Jacobitism. Hoadley's opposition, what- 
 
A JACOBITE WARDEN 211 
 
 ever may be thought of his law, put a stop to the 
 undesirable and undignified custom. It may be con- 
 venient to notice that the fact of the Winchester 
 wardenship being in the hands of New College has 
 tended to prevent its being used, like the provostship 
 of Eton, as a retirement for the Headmasters, many of 
 whom, indeed, though educated at Winchester, had not 
 been Fellows of New College. 
 
 During his Vice-Chancellorship (in 1747) Purnell got 
 into serious trouble through his positive refusal to take 
 the depositions against certain Jacobites accused of 
 raising shouts for King James and creating a riot in 
 the streets. A criminal information was exhibited 
 against him in the Queen's Bench, but the prosecution 
 was eventually abandoned, and he remained Vice- 
 Chancellor till 1750.* 
 
 Of PurnelPs three successors Thomas Hay ward 
 (1764), John Oglander (1768), and Samuel Gauntlett 
 (1794), as of their eighteenth - century predecessors, 
 nothing can be recorded but the fact that they lived, took 
 livings, became Wardens, died, and were buried at New 
 College or at Winchester. Of Warden Hay ward the 
 Order-book of the Warden and Thirteen tells us that a 
 pension of ^50 annually was voted to his widow in 
 recognition of his services to the College ' by increasing 
 the revenue and putting the estates on a better estab- 
 lishment.'* Gauntlett was made a Canon of St. Paul's 
 by his nephew, Bishop Howley. These men were too 
 obscure even to be made Bishops in the very dullest age 
 of English prelacy, the latter half of the eighteenth 
 century. Doubtless (like Golding) they may have been 
 * For a full account, see Hulton's Rixce Oxonienses, p. 153. 
 
 142 ~ 
 
212 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 ' peaceable,' less probably they may have been c studious,' 
 academics. However that may be, we hear little of 
 their quarrels and nothing at all of their studies. 
 
 Cox, in his ' Recollections of Oxford ' (p. 184), says of 
 Gauntlett, who was elected as a compromise after a 
 contest between le Mesurier and Sissmore : 
 
 ' On his election to the Wardenship, he assumed the 
 " big-wig " (though of a moderate size), and with his quiet 
 and rather solemn deportment looked, as he stood statue- 
 like in the Chapel, the beau-ideal of a Warden. The only 
 difference at morning and at evening service was that at 
 the latter the statue had a slight glow on its face, which 
 was wanting in the morning.' 
 
 It is towards the end of this century that the first 
 continuous record of the proceedings of the Society in 
 College Meeting assembled begins if, indeed, it can even 
 now be called continuous. A single memorandum pasted 
 on to the binding relates to 1742. The next entry is 
 dated 1744, and several years together pass without 
 anything whatever being recorded. If a society is 
 happy which has no history, New College was happy 
 in those days. The few entries relate chiefly to the 
 regulations for succeeding to College livings and the 
 like. There are just one or two of these which strike 
 one as redolent of the times. In 1743 it was resolved 
 ' that the small brick building erected by Dr. Bridle 
 for his curate at Hardwicke is an useless encumbrance 
 to the living, and Mr. Cooke the Rector was desired to 
 pull down the same.' It is true that Hardwicke with 
 an able-bodied Rector did not require a curate. But 
 happy was the curate of Hardwicke compared with the 
 Warden's curate at Colerne, who till 1835 appears to 
 
THE DULL DAYS 213 
 
 have lived in a residence officially described as a ' hovel." 
 Nor is there much more to satisfy our curiosity if we 
 turn to the Order-book of the ordinary executive of 
 the society, the Warden and Thirteen, which begins 
 in the year 1788. There are some quaint evidences of 
 the conservatism of the College in the matter of names 
 and forms. . A Dean of Canon Law and a Preacher at 
 Paul's Cross go on being appointed as long as the 
 ancient constitution of the society remains. In 1791 
 the dinner-hour, which must have gone all round the 
 clock since the medieval ten or eleven, is fixed at four 
 o^clock, with evening chapel at six instead of five ; it is 
 ordered that the manciple and the servants of the 
 kitchen shall leave at five, and return from eight till 
 ten to prepare the supper, which presumably must have 
 become almost unnecessary when the dinner-hour was 
 at five, which was the case as far back in the last 
 century as living memory extends. In 1792 it is 
 ordered that no undergraduate be allowed to exceed 
 the sum of 6 10s. per quarter for battels, in addition 
 to his allowance for commons. In 1795 occurs the first 
 express mention of a (College) examination for a degree 
 in this case LL.B.* Very occasionally the society 
 votes a considerable contribution to some public or 
 charitable object quite unconnected with itself %Q 
 to the committee for the relief of the French emigrants 
 in 1796 ; ^10 10s. < to the Revd. Mr. Lomax, a dis- 
 tressM Clergyman in the Diocese of Litchfield and 
 
 * An interesting indication of the modernness of the usage by 
 which Oxford writes B.C.L. and Cambridge LL.B. They mean, of 
 course, the same thing, though a persistent myth supposes that 
 LL.B. = Baccalaurius utriusque juris (Canon and Civil). 
 
214 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 Coventry, 1 in 1797 ; 105 to the fund in aid of the 
 loyal Oxford Volunteers in 1807, and in the same year 
 Zl to the Chudleigh fire and ' 105 to the Scottish 
 Episcopal Clergy,' the last perhaps owing to the in- 
 fluence of Sydney Smith, who was once incumbent of 
 an Episcopal chapel (which, though ' Episcopal,' entirely 
 disowned the Jacobite Scottish Bishops) at Edinburgh. 
 
 This may perhaps be the fittest place to notice the 
 connexion with the society of that famous Edinburgh 
 reviewer one of the few really famous names in 
 literature which New College can boast. The period 
 of his Fellowship falls wholly within the eighteenth 
 century, 1789-1800, though the period of his literary 
 activity belongs to the nineteenth. He resided little ; 
 there are, it is believed, no allusions to the College in 
 his life or works, and no traditions remain of his College 
 days, but his accounts as Steward of Junior Common- 
 room are with us unto this day. 
 
 This chapter may fitly conclude with a brief allusion 
 to one who, though he lived on into the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, belongs by his education, at all events, to the 
 eighteenth century, and not to the 'age of reform. 1 
 William Howley was a Fellow from 1783 to 1794. 
 He was afterwards a Canon of Christ Church, Bishop 
 of London (1817), and Archbishop of Canterbury from 
 1828 to 1848 the third New College man who has 
 sat on the chair of St. Augustine. By intellect and 
 character he was the most considerable personality who 
 had occupied that great position since the death of 
 Archbishop Wake. He was one of the few prelates of 
 his time to whom the old Anglican learning and the 
 old Anglican traditions were not unknown ground, and 
 
NO MORE STRONG BEER 215 
 
 he was always treated with marked respect by the 
 Tractarian School. He both baptized and crowned 
 the Sovereign whose name, at New College and else- 
 where, will always be associated with the 'age of 
 reform.' 
 
 Is it a symptom that the bad old times were passing 
 away that in 1788 the Warden and Thirteen made an 
 order that ' the Beer Butler shall battel no more strong 
 beer in the Buttery except that stock which shall now 
 be in the Cellar ' ? But we fancy we have seen ' treble 
 X ' (perhaps only comparatively strong) in New College 
 Hall. 
 
 The following additional eighteenth-century names 
 deserve a brief mention : 
 
 GEORGE LAVINGTON (F. 1707) : Rector of Heyford 
 Warren; Bishop of Exeter 1746; died 1762. 
 
 EDMUND MARTEN (F. 1706) : Dean of Worcester. 
 
 THOMAS CHEYNEY (F. 1713) : Dean of Lincoln; Dean of 
 Winchester. 
 
 HENRY BATHURST, D.C.L. (F. 1761) : Rector of Witch- 
 ingham ; Bishop of Norwich 1805 ; died 1837. 
 
 MARTIN WALL, M.D. (F. 1763): Litchfield Professor of 
 Clinical Medicine at Oxford ; a friend of Johnson, de- 
 scribed by Boswell as a 'learned, ingenious, and pleasing 
 gentleman' ; died 1824. 
 
 HON. CHARLES BRAGGE (F. 1772); afterwards Bragge- 
 Bathurst, M.P. : a prominent politician ; Chancellor of the 
 Duchy of Lancaster 1812-23. 
 
 ROBERT HOLMES (F. 1769) : Rector of Stanton St. John ; 
 Canon of Christ Church ; Dean of Winchester 1804 ; died 
 1805 ; Professor of Poetry ; poet and scholar ; he collated 
 
216 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 the MSS. of the LXX. in seventy-three MS. volumes, and 
 published Old Testament commentaries. 
 
 GEORGE ISAAC HUNTINGFORD, D.D. (F. 1766): Warden 
 of Winchester 1789; Bishop of Gloucester 1802; Bishop 
 of Hereford 1815 ; died 1832. 
 
 CHRISTOPHER BUTSON (F. 1770): Bishop of Clonfert 1 804. 
 
 GEORGE CHANDLER (F. 1780): Dean of Chichester ; one 
 of the University volunteers in 1797-98. 
 
 CHARLES ABBOT (F. 1781) : Headmaster of Bedford 
 School 1867; known as a botanist and author of 'Flora 
 Bedfordiensis.' 
 
 THOMAS RUSSELL (F. 1782): Author of 'Sonnets and 
 Miscellanies/ edited by Archbishop Howley in 1782. 
 
 BENJAMIN BATHURST (F. 1799): Son of the Bishop of 
 Norwich ; diplomatist ; Envoy Extraordinary to Vienna 
 1809, in which year he mysteriously disappeared while 
 travelling with despatches in Prussia, supposed to have 
 been murdered by French soldiers. 
 
 NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 CHRISTOPHER LIPSCOMB, D.D. (F. 1802) : First Bishop of 
 Jamaica, 1824. 
 
 SIR WILLIAM ERLE (F. 1813): Lord Chief Justice of the 
 Common Pleas 1859-1866; died 1880. He left a collec- 
 tion of coins to Winchester College. 
 
 WALTER SHIRLEY (F. 1817): Bishop of Sodor and Man 
 1846; died 1847. 
 
 GEORGE MARKHAM GIFFARD (F. 1834) : Vice-Chancellor 
 of England 1868 ; Lord Justice 1868 ; died 1870. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE AGE OF EEFOBM 
 
 THE age of reform may appropriately be associated 
 with the wardenship of Nicholas Shuttleworth, whose 
 name is best remembered for the part he took in the 
 controversy aroused by the Tractarian Movement. 
 He was the son of a Lancashire clergyman, entered 
 Winchester in 1796, proceeded to New College in 
 1800, and was admitted Fellow in 1802. Some of his 
 poetry, written at Winchester, has been preserved, 
 and appeared in the Gentlemaris Magazine in 1861. 
 One of these pieces, dated 1800, is addressed to 
 Learning, and closes with a wish which was to be 
 fulfilled forty years later : 
 
 ' Oh ! make me, Sphere-descended Queen, 
 A Bishop or, at least, a Dean.' 
 
 Shuttleworth also obtained the Chancellor's prize for 
 Latin verse ; the subject of his poem was ' Byzantium. 1 
 He remained a Fellow of New College till 1822, when 
 he was unanimously elected Warden in succession to 
 Gauntlett. The influence which Shuttleworth possessed 
 
218 THE AGE OF REFORM 
 
 in Oxford was considerable. Archbishop Tait, who 
 himself, as an undergraduate, brought up to Oxford 
 an introduction to the Warden of New College, 
 says : 
 
 ' No person of any eminence ever came to Oxford with- 
 out dining with Shuttleworth, and from his intimate rela- 
 tions with Holland House, having been tutor to General 
 Fox, Lord Holland's son, his acquaintance was extensive 
 with all the intellectual lights of the day. The invitations 
 to his house were, therefore, of the highest interest to an 
 undergraduate.'* 
 
 ShuttlewortrTs influence was also strongly exerted in 
 Evangelical circles, while in politics he was a Whig. 
 His 'Sermons on Some of the Leading Principles of 
 Christianity,'' and his 'Translation of the Apostolic 
 Epistles, 1 both written during his wardenship, passed 
 through several editions, and his tract, ' Not Tradition, 
 but Scripture, 1 was very popular among opponents of the 
 Oxford Movement, and was admitted by Newman to be 
 ' specious, and perhaps mischievous 1 (Newman's ' Letters, 1 
 ii. 261). In 1840 Lord Melbourne appointed him 
 Bishop of Chichester ; but he held the office for less than 
 two years, dying on January 7, 1842. The Tractarian 
 party held him in such awe as a controversialist that 
 his death, just as he was about to deliver a charge to 
 his clergy, and that of the Bishop of Meath in precisely 
 similar circumstances, seemed to Dr. Pusey to be ' a 
 token of God's presence in the Church of England. 1 ! 
 He was an accomplished scholar, and his theological 
 
 * ' Life,' by Davidson and Benham, i. 40. 
 f ' Life of Pusey,' ii. 294. 
 
RENUNCIATION OF PRIVILEGE 
 
 work continued to find an appreciative audience long 
 after his death.* 
 
 Warden Shuttleworth was, according to tradition, 
 directly responsible for the first step in the series of 
 changes the renunciation by the College of its privilege 
 of taking degrees without applying to Convocation for 
 a ' grace. 1 
 
 When, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, 
 Honour Schools were instituted by the University, the 
 exclusion of New College men from University examina- 
 tions became of serious injury to the College. An effort 
 was made to maintain a high standard in the College 
 examination for the B.A. degree; but it soon became 
 clear that the exceptional position of the College was 
 adverse to its welfare. It is traditionally recorded that 
 Warden Shuttleworth, by increasing the severity of the 
 internal examinations, forced the undergraduate members 
 to petition the College to allow them to be examined 
 by the University. The privilege was, in spite of the 
 opposition of the senior Fellows, finally renounced at a 
 College meeting held on November 12, 1834. The right 
 ' to the assumption or taking of degrees in the Convoca- 
 
 * An anecdote of Warden Shuttleworth may be worth recording. 
 When the late R. D. Hampden was being tried by the Hebdomadal 
 Council on a charge of heresy arising out of his Bampton Lecture 
 of 1832, he himself, as Principal of St. Mary Hall, attended the 
 meeting of the Council. Dean Gaisford was presiding when the 
 culprit entered the room to take his seat among the judges, and a 
 painful silence ensued, in the course of which Gaisford, to relieve 
 the nervous tension of the moment, rose and stirred the fire. 
 Shuttleworth looked across to Hampden, and asked : ' Will you go 
 on now, Hampden, or will you wait till it burns up ?' Shuttleworth 
 is also credited with having dated a letter, ' Eve of Washing Day, ' 
 in answer to a High Church correspondent who had written to him 
 on the eve of a saint's day, and had adopted this method of in- 
 dicating the date. 
 
220 THE AGE OF REFORM 
 
 tion House of the University without having previously 
 performed the chief public examination ' was absolutely 
 relinquished; but it was specially provided that this 
 should be done without prejudice to 'our undoubted 
 right, secured to us by our Founder, of taking all and 
 every the degrees or degree to be granted in the said 
 University, without supplicating in any way, or under 
 any form, the aforesaid House of Congregation for the 
 same.' There is, thus, one relic of the custom still 
 existing: when a Fellow of New College takes any 
 degree, his name is omitted from the list of supplicants. 
 
 Four years later further evidences of the desire for 
 reform appear in the records of the College. For many 
 years no exception had been taken to the admission of 
 a probationer Fellow to the startus of an actual Fellow 
 on the expiry of his two years of probation. In 1838 
 Warden Shuttleworth opposed an admission on the 
 ground of 'systematic neglect of his studies 1 by the 
 probationer in question. A majority of the Fellows 
 advocated leniency, and while the matter was being 
 discussed two decisions of some importance were given 
 by the Visitor that the issue depended upon ' present 
 attainment, and not upon presumptive improvement "* 
 in the future, and that the Warden possessed a veto 
 upon the admission of a Fellow. Admission was ac- 
 cordingly refused. 
 
 Even before the accession of Shuttleworth, a cry for 
 reform had been raised within the walls of New College 
 itself. While he was still an undergraduate Fellow, we 
 are told, Augustus Hare caused grave offence by writing 
 a pamphlet against the exemption of New College men 
 from the University examinations, and when he sub- 
 
AUGUSTUS HARE 
 
 sequently became a Poser at Winchester, he ventured 
 on the audacious step of protesting against the claim 
 of the founder's kin to admission to Winchester as a 
 matter of course. The matter went before the Visitor 
 (sitting with Mr. Justice Patteson and Dr. Lushington 
 as assessors), who, after hearing counsel (Mr. subse- 
 quently Lord Chief Justice Erie appearing for the bold 
 Poser), decided in favour of the established system. 
 The petitioner had based his case not upon the tolerably 
 certain fact that the pedigrees of all modern claimants 
 to kinship with the founder were fictitious, but upon 
 the extremely precarious contention that 'consanguinity' 
 (whether the appeal be made to the Canon or to the Civil 
 Law) is exhausted, at least after the tenth generation. 
 This gallant college reformer settled down to the very 
 small and remote College living of Alton Barnes, and 
 died at an early age in 1834. He is still remembered 
 on account of his joint authorship with his better- 
 known younger brother, Archdeacon Julius Hare, of 
 the brilliant and once-popular volume of criticism and 
 pensees known as 'Guesses at Truth.' As an under- 
 graduate, he is said to have founded one of the earliest 
 College literary or debating societies, known as the 
 ' Attic Society ' ; and a perhaps more doubtful legend 
 records that he took part in a celebrated hoax a 
 breakfast party in which an audacious undergraduate 
 successfully impersonated the famous Madame de Stael 
 in the presence of the Vice -Chancel lor and several 
 Heads of Houses who had been asked to meet the 
 distinguished foreigner.* 
 
 * See article in the Diet. Nat. Biog., and Hare's 'Memorials of 
 a Quiet Life.' A printed copy of this case before the Visitor is in 
 the library. 
 
THE AGE OF REFORM 
 
 On Shuttleworth's promotion, the College elected 
 David Williams, late Headmaster of Winchester, as his 
 successor (1840). The twenty years* during which 
 Warden Williams held office were rendered memorable by 
 the first University Commission, which was appointed 
 in 1850. To the request of the Commissioners for in- 
 formation regarding the condition of the College, the 
 Warden, with the consent of the Fellows, replied that 
 
 'it is to the Visitor alone, the Bishop of Winchester, whose 
 exclusive authority as Visitor, derived from the special 
 appointment of William of Wykeham, the Founder of New 
 College, is recognised by the law of the land, that the 
 Warden and Fellows could consistently with their duty 
 supply the information and the documents required.' 
 
 Copies of the statutes were therefore obtained from 
 the British Museum, and the Commissioners, in their 
 report, suggested several important changes. They 
 proposed to release the College from the necessity of 
 taking 'the long and formidable oaths enjoined by the 
 Founder,' and of observing the minute rules of the 
 original statutes ; and they urged that the Fellows 
 should no longer be obliged to take Holy Orders,t and 
 that the clause should be abolished which compelled 
 
 * Immediately after the election of Warden Williams, the College 
 became involved in a lawsuit concerning the tithes of Hornchurch, 
 and lost its case. The Warden contributed 500 to defray the legal 
 expenses. 
 
 t The Commissioners record that Medical Fellows were already 
 free from this obligation ; but, in point of fact, it had long Ceased 
 to be compulsory for Fellows to take Holy Orders. Of the fifty 
 senior Fellows of New College in 1813, sixteen were laymen; in 
 1823, fifteen ; in 1833, twenty ; in 1843, sixteen. Tutors, however, 
 as in other Oxford Colleges, were no doubt invariably in Orders. 
 
THE FIRST COMMISSION 223 
 
 a certain number of the Fellows to proceed to degrees 
 in Civil Law, Medicine, or Theology. They strongly 
 objected to the suggestion ' of applying to the common 
 use of the College all its revenues beyond the statu table 
 stipends and emoluments of its members.'' On the 
 problems raised by the connexion with Winchester, 
 and the rights of founder's kin, less revolutionary 
 measures were proposed. While considering that ' the 
 course which would most effectually promote the honour 
 of New College would doubtless be to throw open its 
 Fellowships and scholarships to general competition,' 
 they did not recommend so sweeping a change. . They 
 wrote : 
 
 ' We think that New College may be greatly raised if 
 the Fellowships shall be divided into two classes, the former 
 consisting of graduates who shall be Fellows in the strict 
 sense, and be elected out of all who have been educated 
 in Winchester College ; the latter of undergraduate Fellows 
 taking no part in the government of the College, and 
 corresponding to the scholars of other colleges, to hold 
 their Fellowships for five years only, and to be elected, 
 after competition, out of the boys in Winchester College, 
 whether on the foundation or not.' 
 
 The restriction to Winchester men was thus pro- 
 posed alike for Fellowships and scholarships, the only 
 change being that commoners of Winchester were to 
 be eligible. In these circumstances the Commissioners 
 were of opinion that founder's kin, not being at 
 Winchester, should be allowed to compete, as it would 
 be 'a resource rather than an impediment ' to render 
 eligible 'any class of persons whatever besides those 
 educated at Winchester. 1 They suggested that there 
 
224 THE AGE OF REFORM 
 
 should be thirty Fellowships* and forty scholarships, in 
 addition to a Professor Fellowship to be created. ' It 
 is very desirable, 1 they added, * that New College should 
 open its gates to as many commoners as it can accom- 
 modated Such were the leading recommendations in 
 the report presented to Parliament in 1852. 
 
 The Commissioners' report is dated April 27. At a 
 College meeting held on June 16, it was resolved to 
 show fight, and the senior Fellows were empowered ' to 
 show the statutes to competent advisers upon the 
 question how best to meet the Oxford University 
 Commission, and their charges against our body in 
 particular. 1 By way of meeting the charges, the College 
 obtained the Visitor's consent to such changes as might 
 be consistent with the statutes. A visitation was held 
 in December, 1852, and it was decided that the College 
 should receive commoners. Winchester College, about 
 the same time, agreed to abandon its system of nomina- 
 tions, and to throw its scholarships open to competition. 
 Meanwhile, the Commission, which had in the first place 
 been appointed merely to report, had received executive 
 powers from Parliament, and the Commissioners, declin- 
 ing to be satisfied with the proposals of the College, 
 now determined, not merely to found professorships, 
 but to throw open to unrestricted competition twenty 
 scholarships, and to open the wardenship to other 
 than Fellows or ex-Fellows. On April 29, 1856, the 
 
 * The value of a Fellowship varied considerably according to the 
 number of leases which fell in each year. About 1826 it was only 
 (approximately) 100, and, although the value increased, the average 
 remained, about 1860, considerably under 200. In addition to 
 the money value, there were also certain allowances for rooms, 
 dinner, etc. Warden Gauntlett's good management is said to have 
 greatly increased the income. 
 
OPENING OF THE COLLEGE 225 
 
 College unanimously condemned these proposals. But 
 it was now becoming clear that the changes were inevi- 
 table, and a compromise was attempted. The College 
 offered to open scholarships and Fellowships to Win- 
 chester commoners, and Fellowships to Wykehamists 
 educated elsewhere than at New College, and they 
 opened the College to commoners,* the first of whom 
 entered in Michaelmas term, 1854. But the Com- 
 missioners were still dissatisfied, and after much negotia- 
 tion they eventually made ordinances enforcing their 
 proposals. Thirty Fellowships^ and thirty scholarships 
 were substituted for the original seventy. Fifteen 
 Fellowships were thrown open to competition, and 
 fifteen were restricted to members of Winchester or 
 New College. All scholarships were, in the first 
 instance, open only to members of Winchester (whether 
 on the foundation or not) ; but if there should be any 
 scholarship for which no candidate was found qualified, 
 it was to be 'thrown open for that turn to general 
 competition. 1 The first open scholar of the College, 
 Mr. (now Canon) Spooner, was elected under this clause 
 in October, 1862. The wardenship was thrown open, 
 and the College was empowered to dispense with the 
 obligation imposed upon Fellows of taking Holy Orders, 
 in cases where it seemed advisable to do so. The 
 Commissioners also charged a payment of <^?300 to 
 
 * The College had been in the habit of taking a few gentleman- 
 commoners (p. 1 86). One of the more distinguished of nineteenth- 
 century gentleman-commoners was, John Thomas Freeman- Mitford, 
 second Baron and first Earl Redesdale (B.A. 1825), who became 
 Chairman of Committees of the House of Lords. 
 
 t It was intended that these should ultimately be increased to 
 forty. 
 
 15 
 
226 THE AGE OF REFORM 
 
 each of the two Savilian professors of Astronomy and 
 Geometry of the College upon the revenues. It is 
 understood that these chairs were selected because of 
 the clause in the original statutes, which provided for 
 the study of astronomy. About the same time the 
 College, with the consent of the Visitor, reduced the 
 number of chaplaincies to three, and established not 
 less than eight choral scholarships, to be held by 
 members of the University. Some Bible clerkships, 
 which had been held by undergraduates, were abolished. 
 The experiment of choral scholarships did not prove 
 a success at all events, in Responsions and they were 
 abolished in 1866. It is recorded that the choral 
 scholars were killed by an epigram attributed to one 
 of the Fellows : 
 
 ' Nee can tare pares, nee respondere parati.' 
 
 While these changes were coming into operation, the 
 energies of the College were further occupied by the 
 restoration of the hall, described in another chapter. 
 The project had for some years been under discussion, 
 but the credit of taking the first active steps belongs 
 to the junior common-room. To meet a heavy debt, 
 the subscription to the common-room had been raised, 
 and it had not been reduced when the debt was paid 
 off. The result was that in 1857 the junioi common- 
 room, after reducing its annual subscription from seven 
 guineas to four pounds, found that it possessed the sum 
 of ^IjOOO beyond all possible requirements. This sum 
 it offered to the College as a contribution towards the 
 renovation of the hall, on condition that the College 
 should contribute ^1,000 within four years. The offer 
 
WARDEN SEWELL 227 
 
 was at first declined, but was accepted in 1859, and the 
 Warden presented the first instalment of =250. 
 
 Warden Williams did not long survive the ancient 
 constitution of the College, the changes in which 
 constitute the main interest of his tenure of office. 
 On March 22, 1860, the last Winchester Scholar was 
 admitted, on the expiry of his two years of probation, 
 to the status of an actual Fellow, and on the evening 
 of the same day the Warden died. At the date of 
 his death no Fellow or open scholar had been elected 
 under the new ordinances. His successor was the 
 present Warden, the Rev. J. E. Sewell, who had taken 
 a large share in reconciling the College to the changes 
 made by the Commission. When he was elected to the 
 headship he had already been a member of William of 
 Wykeham's foundation for nearly forty years (having 
 entered Winchester in 1821, and New College in 1827), 
 and he had held every position which a Fellow may be 
 called upon to fill. An equal number of years have 
 elapsed since he became Warden, and during those 
 years the College has been transformed from a small 
 and close corporation into the largest college but one 
 in Oxford. 
 
 The early years of Warden Sewell's reign saw the 
 logical completion of the changes which the Commission 
 had inaugurated. The College quickly adapted itself 
 to the new circumstances, and as early as 1861 in- 
 creased the severity of the matriculation examination 
 with a view to accepting as commoners none but men 
 qualified to read for an honour school. In the follow- 
 ing year a resolution was passed to this effect. In 1866 
 the open scholarships were created by the suspension of 
 
228 THE AGE OF REFORM 
 
 Fellowships, and three years later the tenure of a 
 Fellowship was made compatible with marriage in the 
 case of resident Fellows engaged in the tutorial work 
 of the College. In this important matter New College 
 was the first college in Oxford to take action, and it 
 also led the way in obtaining permission to elect 
 tutorial Fellows without examination. Some years 
 earlier, Mr. C. W. Lawrence (F. 1840), Steward of the 
 College, had been foremost in obtaining the first 
 College Estates Act, which gave the College power, 
 within certain limits, to dispose of landed property by 
 exchange or sale, as occasion offered. 
 
 In the year 1868 the number of commoners had in- 
 creased to i/^irty, and the increase was accompanied by 
 an outburst of fresh energy among the undergraduates. 
 A New College eight has been put on the river every 
 year since 1869, while the literary enthusiasm of the 
 College found vent in the foundation of the Shakespeare 
 Society, and in 1868 of the Essay Society. These 
 societies have maintained a continuous and active 
 existence up to the present day. A Discussion Society, 
 founded about 1876, was, after being dormant for 
 some years, revived in 1900 in the form of a College 
 Debating Society. 
 
 The College may claim to have taken, in conjunction 
 with Balliol, the first steps in that development of inter- 
 collegiate teaching which has resulted in opening nearly 
 all honour lectures to all members of the University. 
 It originated in an arrangement between Balliol and 
 New College, suggested by the late Master of Balliol, 
 and carried out in 1868. The growth in the member- 
 ship of the College necessitated the erection of the new 
 
STATUTES OF 1881 229 
 
 building, facing Holy well Street, between 1872 and 
 1898, mentioned in another chapter. The restoration 
 of the chapel, to which also we have referred in another 
 connection, was intended to commemorate the five 
 hundredth anniversary of the College in 1879. 
 
 Later changes in the College are connected with the 
 proceedings of the second University Commission, and 
 it is now governed by the statutes issued by them in 
 1881. The College had already begun to desire further 
 change, and there had been prepared by 1877 a draft 
 constitution embodying many of the principles after- 
 wards adopted in the new statutes. These statutes 
 contemplate the existence of thirty-six Fellowships, of 
 which five are annexed to the Savilian Professorships of 
 Geometry and Astronomy, and to the Wykeham Pro- 
 fessorships of Logic, Physics, and Ancient History. The 
 revenues of the College, up to the present, have not 
 admitted of the foundation of the chair of Ancient 
 History, or of the establishment of more than twenty- 
 three ordinary and tutorial Fellowships. Ordinary 
 Fellowships are still divided into Winchester and open 
 Fellowships (the former being restricted to members of 
 Winchester or of New College) ; they are tenable only 
 for seven years, and are not vacated by marriage. Six 
 Winchester and four open scholarships are offered for 
 competition every year. The total number of under- 
 graduates increased from 30 in 1868 to 150 in 1879, 
 and remains permanently at about 200. 
 
 The policy of the College during the years when 
 these great changes were being effected was largely 
 guided by the Rev. E. C. Wickham, now Dean of 
 Lincoln, to whom belongs the chief credit for the 
 
230 THE AGE OF REFORM 
 
 speedy adaptation of the College to its new con- 
 stitution and for the introduction of a really efficient 
 system of college tuition. To Dean Wickham and to 
 the late Bursar, Mr. Alfred Robinson (not to speak of 
 any present member of our body) the College owes 
 much of the success that has justified the great 
 changes that have been made in the founder's statutes. 
 Mr. Wickham, as a Winchester scholar, represented the 
 old foundation, while Mr. Robinson, who was elected as 
 an open Fellow in 1865, belonged distinctively to the 
 new era. He occupied the position of Senior Bursar 
 from 1875 to his death in 1895. The College minute 
 adopted at the first stated general meeting held after 
 his death bears witness to his 'most valuable services 
 to the College, no less by his generosity, tact, and 
 kindliness, than by his great financial ability, his sound 
 judgment, and his experience. 1 
 
 Among living distinguished alumni we must be con- 
 tent omitting all reference to resident Fellows with 
 a bare mention of our four honorary Fellows : Dr. 
 Wickham, Dean of Lincoln ; Mr. W. J. Courthope, 
 C.B., First Civil Service Commissioner, and late Pro- 
 fessor of Poetry at Oxford ; Sir Edward Wingfield, 
 K.C.B., formerly Under Secretary of State for the 
 Colonies ; Dr. Fearon, late Headmaster of Winchester ; 
 and Lord Milner, K.C.B., G.C.M.G., Governor of the 
 Orange River Colony and the Transvaal, and High 
 Commissioner for South Africa, who is still an actual 
 Fellow of the College. But on the present position and 
 prospects of the College we prefer to say little. We 
 have endeavoured to make this little work a history, 
 and not an advertisement. New College has changed 
 
THE PRESENT 231 
 
 more rapidly and completely, perhaps, than any other 
 college. Few even among the survivors of its ancien 
 regime will, we believe, seriously doubt that it has 
 changed on the whole for the better. Yet, happily, 
 it has not broken abruptly or completely with its 
 ancient traditions. The connection with Winchester 
 remains in a less exclusive and more healthful form; 
 and so long as the scholars of Winchester retain their 
 peculiar organization and their old collegiate life their 
 presence will by itself impart a distinctive and charac- 
 teristic tone to the life of Winchester College in Oxford. 
 And in other ways than that, we trust, it is not fanciful 
 in us to regard it as in some sense the special mission of 
 our foundation to show that it is possible for an Oxford 
 college to combine success, modernity, and efficiency 
 with a reverence for all that is best in the traditions 
 of that past in which, amid all its transformations, it 
 so visibly and conspicuously has its roots. In an ampler 
 sense, perhaps, than the founder himself would have 
 given to his words, we may hope that the College works 
 and will work ' Ad dei laudem et gloriam, divinique 
 cultus ac scientiarum augmentum studiique scholastici 
 profectum . . . ac robur incommutabilis firmitatis.'* 
 
APPENDICES 
 
 A. LIST OF WARDENS 
 
 1377. Richard Toneworth. 
 
 1379. Nicholas de Wykeham. 
 
 1389. Thomas Cranley, Archbishop of Dublin 1397. 
 
 1396. Richard Malford. 
 
 1403. John Bowke. 
 
 1429. William Estcourt. 
 
 1435. Nicholas Ossulbury. 
 
 1453-54. Thomas Chandler, Dean of the Chapel 
 
 Royal and of Hereford 1481. 
 1475. Walter Hyll. 
 1494. William Porter. 
 
 1520. John Rede. 
 
 1521. John Young, Dean of Chichester, Bishop of 
 
 Callipolis. 
 
 1526. John London. 
 
 1542. Henry Cole. 
 
 1551. Ralph Skinner. 
 
 1553. Thomas White. 
 
 1573. Martin Colepepper, Dean of Chichester 1577. 
 
 1599. George Ryves. 
 
APPENDIX A 233 
 
 1613. Arthur Lake, Bishop of Bath and Wells l6l6. 
 1617. Robert Pinke. 
 
 1647. Henry Stringer. 
 
 1648. George Marshall. 
 1658. Michael Woodward. 
 1675. John Nicholas. 
 1679. Henry Beeston. 
 1701. Richard Traffics. 
 1703. Thomas Braithwaite. 
 1712. John Cobb. 
 
 1720. John Dobson. 
 
 1724. Henry Bigg. 
 
 1729. John Coxed. 
 
 1740. John Turnell. 
 
 1764. Thomas Hay ward. 
 
 1768. John Oglander. 
 
 1794. Samuel Gauntlett. 
 
 1822. Philip Nicholas Shuttleworth, Bishop of 
 
 Chichester 1840. 
 1840. David Williams. 
 I860. James Edwards Sewell. 
 
 B. LIST OF PORTRAITS IN THE HALL 
 
 The Founder. 
 
 Archbishop Chichele. 
 
 William of Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester. 
 
 Archbishop Warham. [A copy of Holbein's original 
 i.e., either the picture in the Louvre or the 
 one at Lambeth.] 
 
 Arthur Lake, Bishop of Bath and Wells. [Green- 
 bury.] 
 
 Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells. 
 
 Francis Turner, Bishop of Ely. 
 
234 LIST OF PORTRAITS IN THE HALL 
 
 Philip Bisse, Bishop of Hereford. 
 Charles Trimnel, Bishop of Winchester. 
 Robert Lowth, Bishop of London. 
 Christopher Lipscomb, first Bishop of Jamaica. 
 George Isaac Huntingford, Bishop of Hereford. 
 Henry Bathurst, Bishop of Norwich. 
 Nicholas Shuttleworth, Bishop of Chichester. 
 Sidney Smith. 
 Archbishop Howley. 
 Sir William Erie. 
 Dr. Martin Wall. 
 
 John Duncan (F. 1789) ) Benefactors of the Uni- 
 Philip Duncan (F. 1792) ) versity. 
 Warden Sewell. [By Herkomer.] 
 Alfred Robinson. [By Herkomer.] 
 James Joseph Sylvester, Savilian Professor of 
 Geometry 1883-1897. [By Emslie.] 
 
 C. PRINCIPAL PICTURES IN THE 
 WARDEN'S LODGINGS 
 
 William of Wykeham. [A painting on panel, 
 probably of the sixteenth century. Presented 
 to the College by a sister of Warden Stringer, 
 c. 1660.] 
 
 William of Wykeham ^ A . w , 
 ur-.-n. nxr n . f Left by Warden Ryves. 
 William of Waynflete ) 
 
 Abraham and Melchisedec, 
 
 Our Lord bearing His Cross. Left by Warden Ryves. 
 
 Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (?). 
 
 King Henry VIII. 
 
 Prince Henry of Wales. 
 
 Sir William Petre. 
 
 Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester. 
 
APPENDIX C 235 
 
 Archbishop Bancroft. 
 Head of our Lord. 
 Warden Dobson. 
 Bishop Jewell. 
 Bishop Ken. 
 Warden Pinke. 
 Warden Bigg. 
 Warden Nicholas. 
 A Madonna. 
 Warden Beeston (?). 
 Earl of Dorset, ob. 1608. 
 Bishop Lowth. 
 Warden Shuttleworth. 
 Philip Bury Duncan. 
 Rev. Charles Parrott. 
 Robert Wetherell, F. 1784. 
 
 D. THE COLLEGE PLATE 
 
 The omission of New College from the list of Oxford 
 Colleges which gave their plate for the King's service in 
 the Civil War has given rise to an impression that the 
 College did not carry its loyalty to this extent. But docu- 
 ments preserved in the Warden's custody are conclusive 
 on this point. Almost all the plate belonging to the 
 College was given, freely and unconditionally, for the 
 royal cause. Warden Woodward, in his memorandum, 
 from which we derive our knowledge of the facts, considers 
 the evidence only too satisfactory, ' for,' he writes, ' at this 
 time [1662] the College hath it not/ A list of the plate 
 as it existed in 1635 enables us to estimate the loss to the 
 College. The Bursars record that they had in that year 
 two gilt flagons, two chalices, and two silver plates, all 
 used for the Communion ; seven bowls, goblets, or beakers ; 
 
236 THE COLLEGE PLATE 
 
 five salts ; three tankards ; and three Indian nuts. The 
 Communion plate and the Indian nuts were excepted from 
 the gift to King Charles. 
 
 The College, therefore, possesses little plate of any 
 interest, except the founder's pastoral staff, and some 
 fifteenth-century cups and a salt of the same period pre- 
 served in the Warden's lodgings. The crozier is made of 
 iron overlaid with silver gilt and enamel, and is an example 
 of very elaborate Gothic tabernacle-work. It was thus 
 described in the catalogue of the South Kensington Ex- 
 hibition in 1 862 : 
 
 The stem has two ridged circular bosses, and is covered 
 with oblong plaques of silver repousse, with a pattern of 
 a stem and leaves, originally covered alternately with a 
 green and blue translucent enamel, of which only traces 
 now remain. The head is of Gothic architectural design, 
 octagonal in plan, ornamented by a series of statuettes of 
 saints under canopies ; above these is a battlemented pro- 
 jection resting on brackets, with four winged angels and 
 lilies (?) sustaining a series of pinnacles, with niches occu- 
 pied by statuettes and filled in with backgrounds of blue 
 and green enamel. The finials are surmounted with an 
 ornament of lapis enamel ; above these rises another 
 battlemented projection or gallery, supporting a small 
 gable-ended structure, in front of which have been 
 statuettes of angels, only one of which, holding a musical 
 instrument, remains. The curve of the crozier is richly 
 croc'keted, and has on both sides a series of translucent 
 enamels representing angels playing on various musical 
 instruments. A portion of the work within the curve of 
 the crozier has been lost ; a kneeling statuette of the 
 Bishop remains, as if praying before a shrine, above which 
 is a small figure of the Saviour, and an angel bearing a 
 scroll. The curve of the crozier is sustained by a winged 
 
APPENDIX D 237 
 
 angel resting on a bracket formed of a bearded head. . . . 
 The crozier resembles a pastoral staff, of work almost 
 equally skilful and artistic, preserved in the treasury of 
 the Cathedral of Cologne. . . . The form of these pastoral 
 staves is wholly symbolical, the crooked head indicating 
 the pastoral office the gathering the faithful together. 
 The centre is the emblem of royal power ; the sharp point, 
 the weapon of judgment. Length 6 ft. 9 in. ; diameter of 
 head 8 in.' 
 
 The founder himself bequeathed the crozier to the 
 College. After the Reformation it was allowed to fall 
 into decay, and the constituent pieces were put together 
 in 1753. It was preserved in a recess in the north side 
 of the east end of the chapel, and it has been protected 
 by a glass covering since 1843. A facsimile of it was 
 made for Bishop Harold Browne, and remains in the 
 possession of the Bishops of Winchester. Other relics of 
 the founder, including a letter in his handwriting, portions 
 of his ring, gloves, and sandals, and portions of his mitre, 
 are preserved in the Warden's lodgings. 
 
 There is also preserved in the Warden's lodgings a horn 
 of the unicorn or narwhal, which was presented by William 
 Porte (cf. p. 67) for the purpose of carrying a cross in 
 processions. In Elizabeth's time the Earl of Leicester re- 
 quested the College to give him this horn, which was 
 believed to be an antidote to poison. The College re- 
 fused, on the ground that it is ( a precious jewel of our 
 founder,' but promised to send him a small piece of the horn. 
 
 The plate in the Warden's lodgings includes a silver-gilt 
 standing cup and cover (c. 1480), a cocoanut cup in silver- 
 gilt adorned with figures of angels, and bearing the inscrip- 
 tion : Benedicta Maria, gratia plena dominus tecwn (c. 1450) ; 
 a similar cup, of slightly earlier date, ornamented so as to 
 represent a tree inclosed by a palisade fence ; and a silver- 
 
238 THE COLLEGE PLATE 
 
 gilt salt, shaped like an hour-glass and richly decorated, 
 which bears the inscription from Psalm civ., 'Super WA 
 montes TER stabant HIL aque M/ a pun on the name of 
 the donor, Walter Hill. In this connection may also be 
 mentioned a bowl of ancient Chinese porcelain, with 
 fifteenth -century English mounts, one of the oldest 
 examples of Oriental porcelain now extant. 
 
 The College, the senior common-room, and the junior 
 common-room, possess a considerable amount of plate, 
 dating from 1 660 onwards. It consists mainly of tankards, 
 cups, and table silver. The most interesting piece is a 
 very handsome Grace cup, which was presented by the 
 Spanish Ambassador (cf. p. 249) as a memento of his 
 residence in New College. The Communion plate includes 
 two flagons presented in 1602 by Warden Ryves, a small 
 alms dish given by Warden Pinke in 1642, and a larger 
 one given by Warden Nicholas in 1666, two chalices and 
 two patens, which bear no date, but are probably those 
 mentioned in the inventory of 1635 (supra). 
 
 E. BENEFACTIONS 
 
 JOHN BUCKINGHAM, Bishop of Lincoln : Appropriation of 
 Adderbury (property of the see), 1388. 
 
 THOMAS BEKYNTON, LL.D., Bishop of Bath and Wells, gave 
 the Manor of Stepingley (seized by Henry VIII., in 
 return for which Queen Mary gave the rectory and 
 vicarage of Marshfield ; see above, p. 92). Bekynton 
 also persuaded Henry VI., after the dissolution of the 
 alien priories, to give to the College the manors of 
 Newton Longueville, Great Horwood, Whaddon, 
 Akely, West Hanney, and Witchingham (Reg. Evid., 
 ii., p. 510). For Newton Longueville, however, the 
 College had to pay a total sum of <648 14s. 5d. 
 
APPENDIX E 239 
 
 CARDINAL BEAUFORT: Gift of vestments, 1447. 
 
 JOHN RUSSELL (F. 1449), Bishop of Bath and Wells, and 
 Lincoln : 100 for a morning Mass. 
 
 THOMAS JANNE (F. 1456), Doctor of Canon Law, Bishop of 
 Norwich : Lands in Curtlington, 1494. 
 
 THOMAS HOLMAN, citizen of Oxford : 40 for a morning 
 Mass. 
 
 CLEMENT HARDYNG, B.C.L. (F. 1481): Lands in Burton 
 (Berks) and Wanborough (Wilts), 1507. 
 
 WILLIAM WARHAM, D.C.L., Archbishop of Canterbury : 
 Lands in Kingsclere (Hants), 1509 ; silver weighing 
 144 ounces ; Towers lands in SwalclifFe, lands in 
 Hampton, etc., now sold ; also many valuable books. 
 
 ROBERT SHIREBOURNE (F. 1474), Bishop of Chichester : 
 Lands at Harrow and Great Wy combe, for a morning 
 Mass to be celebrated by a Fellow, and served by 
 a scholar ; also for ' Wiccamical Prebends in the 
 Church of Chichester which must be held by Wyck- 
 hamists.' 
 
 JOHN PHIPPS (F. 1509): lands (now sold) in Hempton, 
 Deddington, and Barford. 
 
 THOMAS WELLS, D.D., chaplain to Archbishop Warham 
 and Rector of Hey ford Warren : a rent-charge for 
 exhibition of 40s. a year each to three Priest-Fellows, 
 1524. 
 
 JOHN SMYTH, burgher of Ipswich : Lands in Birchanger 
 and elsewhere in Herts and Essex ; 4> per annum 
 to each of three Priest-Fellows, 1528. 
 
 WILLIAM FLESHMONGER, D.C.L. (F. 1498), Dean of 
 Chichester : Manor of Sheringhall in Tackley (Essex), 
 1528, to give exhibition of l each to eight Fellows ; 
 contributed to purchase of Stanton St. John, near 
 Oxford, on condition of exhibition of l each to 
 twelve Fellows, 1534. 
 
240 BENEFACTIONS 
 
 THOMAS MYLLYNG (F. 1490), Rector of Heyford Warren : 
 200 towards Stanton St. John, on condition of ex- 
 hibition of 2 each to two Fellows, 1533. 
 
 JOHN WHITE (F. 1527), Headmaster, afterwards Warden 
 of Winchester, then Bishop of Winchester: Manor 
 of Hall Place, Southampton, on condition of 13s. 6d. 
 being given to each Fellow on his admission, 1558. 
 
 RICHARD READE (F. 1559 or 1579): 5 a year, and 20 a 
 year to the Junior Civilian on Good Friday ; also his 
 books on Canon and Civil Law. 
 
 HENRY BAILEY (F. 1566): Left the Blue Boar in St. 
 Aldate's (sold in 1824), 1566. 
 
 CHRISTOPHER RAWLINS, D.D. (F. 1537), Vicar of Adderbury : 
 Lands in Lincolnshire subject to a trust to build and 
 maintain a free school at Adderbury ; residue to be 
 distributed among Fellows, 1589- 
 
 GEORGE RYVES (F. 1580), Warden of Winchester: 10 
 per annum to provide a sermon in chapel on Trinity 
 Sunday, and to pay those taking part in Dr. Ryves' 
 disputation. 
 
 LETTICE WILLIAMS, widow and executrix of Thomas Williams 
 (F. 1640) : Rent-charge of 12 2s. 2d. per annum for 
 Fellows preaching sermons (1) at St. Paul's Cross, 
 (2) in chapel on November 5, (3) in Winchester 
 Chapel on November 5 ; and to three of the children 
 at Winchester delivering annual oratories in College 
 (1) in praise of the founder, (2) of James I. and 
 Queen Elizabeth, and (3) to welcome the Warden and 
 opposers at election time. 
 
 ARTHUR LAKE (F. 1589), Warden, and Bishop of Bath and 
 Wells : 10 per annum to endow certain lectures, l6l6. 
 
 JOHN DUMMER (F. 1644), Rector of Hardwicke : 40s. every 
 year for a sermon on January 30 in honour of that 
 great and glorious martyr King Charles I., 1689. 
 
APPENDIX E 
 
 ROBERT PINK, Warden : Advowson of Wootton, near Wood- 
 stock, 1647. 
 
 LAWRENCE ST. LOE (F. 1669) ' Estate to purchase advow- 
 son, etc., 1674. 
 
 MICHAEL WOODWARD, D.D., Warden and Rector of Bright- 
 well (Berks) : Left tithes of Berkley Park and Black 
 Quarters (Oxon) worth 40, 300 in money, and 
 Mackney Farm in Brightwell, subject to annual pay- 
 ment of 80 to his relations, 20 to the chaplains, 
 5 to the library, 20s. to the librarian, 3 10s. to a 
 preacher in chapel on Lady Day, l 10s. for a solemn 
 prayer in Hall at dinner-time in memory of founder 
 and benefactors, 20s. to Warden and posers ; also 
 exhibitions to his kinsmen (p. 266) ; also 500 volumes 
 to the library 1675. 
 
 SIR WILLIAM PERKINS : 200 in augmentation of Marshfield, 
 1723. 
 
 NICHOLAS ASPINALL, M. A., Rector of St. Peter's, Bedford : 
 100 capital for exhibition at Oxford of a boy from 
 Bedford School, 1729- 
 
 MR. PENTON : 100 for augmentation of small livings, 1728. 
 
 DR. BACKSHALL : Estate of Hobjohn's Farm to be sold, 
 1747, and the proceeds to be divided between the 
 two St. Mary Winton Colleges. 
 
 HENRY COKER (F. 1731) : 100 to repair and beautify two 
 windows on north side of chapel nearest the organ, 
 and 100 to buy an advowson, 1749. 
 
 DR. PHILIP BARTON (F. 1739 ?) : A collection of coins, 
 1764; 100, 1791. 
 
 NICHOLAS PRESTON (F. 1721), of Alton Barnes : 3,000 to 
 certain chaplains 'most deserving for their morality 
 and learning/ 1774. 
 
 CHARLES PARROTT (F. 1732), Rector of Saham Tony ; 
 2,300 to provide for schoolmaster and education 
 
 16 
 
242 BENEFACTIONS 
 
 of twelve poor boys at Wootton ; 1,300 for widows 
 in almshouse at Marshfield ; 2,000 to buy lands for 
 Warden ; addition to glebe of Saham Tony 1785. 
 
 ROBERT LOWTH (F. 1731), Bishop of London : Copyright of 
 his < Life of Wykeham.' 
 
 JOHN EYRE (F. 1741): 300 to finish west window of 
 chapel, 1761. 
 
 PHILIP BURY DUNCAN (F. 1792) : 150 for repairing ante- 
 chapel 1839 ; 1,000 ; ob. 1863. 
 
 JOHN EASTWICK (F. 1808) : 689 6s. Id. applied to restora- 
 tion of hall; ob. 1862. 
 
 MRS. DELL, widow of the Rev. John Dell (F. 1775): 1,000 
 for the augmentation of small livings, 1857. 
 
 JEFFREY EKINS (F. 1823): MSS., medals and relics of Sir 
 Isaac Newton; ob. 1872. 
 
 ROBERT BALL (F. 1571): Advowson of Bucknell, 1610. 
 
 JOHN CAREY (F. 1714): four houses in Gerard Street, 
 Westminster, to increase the emoluments of the 
 Warden, and 100 to the College, 1764. 
 
 JOHN TAYLOR (F. 1736): 600 for various purposes, 1779. 
 
 R THE JUNIOR COMMON-ROOM 
 
 The junior common-room at New College may claim to 
 be the oldest in Oxford. The establishment of a senior 
 common-room about 1680 naturally led to a desire for 
 a similar institution for the use of the other members of 
 the College i.e., the probationers and the junior Fellows 
 under the degree of M.A. Accordingly, when the garden 
 quadrangle was built in 1682, its first wing was devoted to 
 the purposes of a junior common-room, and the two rooms 
 have continued to be thus occupied, except for a short 
 period after 1853, when the lower room was taken by 
 the College as a lecture-room. The written records of 
 
APPENDIX F 243 
 
 the junior common-room begin in 1793, and the first entry 
 is as follows : 
 
 ' Here Mr. Blackstone gave up his Stewardship and 
 balanc'd his account to me his successor, Sydney Smith, 
 April 11 th , 1793.' 
 
 Sydney Smith's term of office as steward was very brief, 
 for the next entry reads : 
 
 ' May 4 th Smith gave up the Stewardship to me, J. 
 Wickham.' 
 
 His name is the most distinguished on the roll of 
 stewards of the junior common-room, but the list also 
 contains the names of Augustus W. Hare, Chief Justice 
 Erie, Sir Edward Wingfield, Dr. Wickham (now Dean of 
 Lincoln), and Mr. A. O. Prickard (Fellow since 1866). 
 A few of the rules of the junior common-room, made at 
 various dates, possess some interest. The revival of the 
 practice of smoking among members of the University had 
 assumed such proportions in 1833 that a rule was passed 
 ' that no member be allowed to smoke in the upper room 
 at any time, neither in the lower room until 5 o'clock p.m.' 
 As late as the middle of the century fines for breaches of 
 common-room rules were paid in wine e.g., for abusive 
 language, one dozen of claret ; for appearing ' in either 
 room in deshabille (i.e., either undressed or in dressing- 
 gown or slippers), half a dozen of wine ;' and the same 
 penalty for ' wearing any other coat at dinner or wine 
 except a tailed coat or a frock coat.' (Some years later 
 any black coat was permitted.) 
 
 The increase in the number of undergraduates brought 
 the junior common-room into a new relation to the College, 
 and the question of its continuance was for some time 
 under discussion. In 1869-70 it was placed on a new 
 basis, on which it has continued to exist. 
 
 16 -2 
 
ATHLETICS 
 
 G. NEW COLLEDGE PUDDINGS* 
 
 For one duzon take a penny halfe penny white bread 
 and grate it and put to that halfe a pound of beefe suett 
 minced small half a pound of curantes one nutmeg and 
 salt and as much creame and eggs as will make it almost 
 as stiffe as past then make you in the fashon of an egg, 
 then lay them into the dish that you bake them in one 
 by one with a quarter of a pound of butter melted in the 
 bottom, then set them over a cleare charcole fire and cover 
 them, when they are browne turne them till they are browne 
 all over, then dish them into a cleane dish, for yr sause 
 take sack suger rose water and butter pour this over yr. 
 puddings and scrape over fine suger and serve them to the 
 table. 
 
 H. ATHLETICSf 
 
 Until the establishment of the College on a wider basis, 
 the place taken by it in University contests could not be 
 very important, but its efforts, even under these difficult 
 conditions, are very creditable ; and the growth of the 
 number of undergraduates gave it a new opportunity of 
 excelling in these respects. 
 
 ROWING. 
 
 The College put an eight on the river in 1840 and in 
 1852, but it is only since 1868 that it has been continuously 
 represented. It has been ' head of the river ' in the eights 
 on six occasions, in 1887, from 1896-1899 inclusive, and in 
 
 * Circa 1700. 
 
 t The rowing record of the College has been kindly contributed 
 by Mr. H. Henniker-Heaton, and the cricket record by Mr. M. H. 
 FitzGerald. 
 
APPENDIX H 245 
 
 1901 ; head of the Torpids in 1882, 1896, 1900, and 1901 ; 
 and it won the O.U.B.C. fours in 1888, 1890, and from 
 1894-1898 (inclusive). 
 
 NEW COLLEGE BLUES. 
 
 W. F. Short, 1853-1855. 
 G. Bennett, 1856. 
 
 F. M. Beaumont (cox.), 1877-1879. 
 H. M. Robinson, 1879. 
 
 G. C. Bourne, 1882, 1883. 
 
 D. H. Maclean, 1884-1887 (President O.U.B.C. 
 
 1884-1885). 
 
 H. Maclean, 1885-1887 (President 1887). 
 S. R. Fothergill, 1888. 
 A. Stewart (cox.), 1888. 
 
 F. C. Drake, 1889. 
 
 Lord Ampthill, 1889-1891 (President 1890). 
 
 J. P. Heywood-Lonsdale (cox.), 1889-1892. 
 
 C. H. Hornby, 1890. 
 
 C. M. Pitman, 1892-1895 (President 1894-1895). 
 
 J. A. Morrison, 1893, 1894. 
 
 W. E. Crum, 1894-1897 (President 1895-1896). 
 
 T. H. E. Stretch, 1894, 1895. 
 
 C. K. Philips, 1895-1898 (President 1897). 
 
 C. P. Serocold (cox.), 1895. 
 
 J. J. J. de Knoop, 1896, 1897. 
 
 G. O. C. Edwards, 1897, 1898. 
 R. O. Pitman, 1898, 1899. 
 
 C. E. Johnston, 1899, 1900. 
 R. Culme-Seymour, 1900, 1901. 
 A. de L. Long, 1901. 
 James Younger, 1901. 
 
246 NEW COLLEGE CRICKET BLUES 
 
 In spite of the small numbers of the College, cricket 
 flourished from a very early date, owing to the Winchester 
 connection. In the fifteen years after the matches with 
 Cambridge began to be played continuously, there was a 
 New College captain eight times, the earliest being the 
 present Warden of Winchester. Nor has the College ever 
 been without a creditable eleven since college matches 
 began. 
 
 NEW COLLEGE CRICKET BLUES. 
 
 G. B. Lee, 1838, 1839 (Captain, 1839). 
 
 R. A. Bathurst, 1838, 1839. 
 
 N. Darnell, 1838-1840. 
 
 J. Coker, 1840, 1842-1844 (Captain 1842, 1843). 
 
 H. E. Moberly, 1842-1845. 
 
 P. Williams, 1844-1847. 
 
 V. C. Smith, 1844-1847 (Captain 1846, 1847). 
 
 A. Ridding, 1846-1850. 
 
 R. J. Bateman, 1846-1848. 
 
 W. Ridding, 1849, 1850, 1852, 1853 (Captain 1849, 
 
 1850, 1852). 
 
 Hon. W. S. Wykeham-Fiennes, 1856-1858. 
 G. Bennett, 1856. 
 R. Digby, 1867-1869. 
 N. G. Tylecote, 1874-1877. 
 H. Fowler, 1877, 1879, 1880. 
 H. R. Webbe, 1877-1879- 
 F. G. Jellicoe, 1877, 1879. 
 A. P. Wickham, 1878. 
 T. R. Hine Haycock, 1883, 1884. 
 E. H. Buckland, 1884-1887. 
 A. R. Cobb, 1886. 
 H. W. Forster, 1887-1889. 
 H. Philipson^l 887-1 889 (Captain 1889). 
 
APPENDIX I 247 
 
 W. D. Llewelyn, 1890, 1891. 
 H. C. Bradby, 1890. 
 R. T. Jones, 1892. 
 
 F. H. E. Cunliffe, 1895-1898 (Captain 1898). 
 
 G. E. Bromley-Martin, 1897, 1898. 
 F. W. Stocks, 1898, 1899. 
 
 I. COLLEGE CUSTOMS 
 
 SINGING AT ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S HOSPITAL. 
 
 The pensioners of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, near 
 Oxford, had been accustomed to receive alms from the 
 crowds who flocked to the hospital on St. Bartholomew's 
 Day to receive the benefit of a forty days' indulgence 
 which had been granted by the Bishop of Lincoln in 1336 
 to all who should worship and bring oblations. The effect 
 of the Reformation was to put an end to these pilgrimages, 
 and the brothers of St. Bartholomew were thus reduced 
 to absolute want. The Fellows of New College devised 
 a method to relieve their necessities by singing at the 
 hospital. St. Bartholomew's Day had now acquired an 
 unhappy association, and Ascension Day was selected in 
 preference. A similar performance seems also to have 
 taken place on May Day.* Wood's account of the custom 
 is as follows (' Life and Times,' vol. i., p. 289) : 
 
 ' There was sometime an auntient custome belonging to 
 New College fellows : viz., on Holy Thursday every year 
 some of the fellows of New College (with some of their 
 acquaintance with them) did goe to St. Bartholomew's 
 Hospitall, and there in the chappell sing an anthem of 
 
 * Wood says : ' New College men made choice of Holy Thursday 
 because Magdalene College men and the rabble of the town came on 
 May Day to their disturbance.' 
 
COLLEGE CUSTOMS 
 
 2 or 5 parts. After that, every one of them would offer 
 up money in a bason, being sett for that purpose in the 
 middle of the chappell. After that, have some refresh- 
 ment in the house. Then going up to a well or spring 
 in the grove, which was strew'd with flowers round about 
 for them, they sung a song of 5 parts, lately one of Mr. 
 Wilbye's principium, " Hard by a christall fountaine."* 
 And after that come home by Cheyney Lane and Heding- 
 ton Hill, singing catches. The choristers and singing men 
 of New College did about 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning 
 sing an anthem on the tower ; and then, from thence to 
 St. Bartholomew's.' 
 
 Wood adds in a note (December, 1 659) : ' By the pre- 
 valence of Presbytery these customes vanish.' There is 
 no trace of a revival of the custom after the Restoration, 
 and Hearne, writing in 1729, speaks of it as having been 
 long in desuetude (vol. cxxi., p. 49). 
 
 SERMONS, ETC. 
 
 Warden Ryves left a sum of 3 a year for a University 
 sermon to be preached in New College on Trinity Sunday ; 
 and Warden Woodward a sum of 3 10s. for a sermon on 
 Lady Day. The University sermon on these days is still 
 preached in New College Chapel. If the preacher is not 
 a Fellow of the College, the emolument is increased to 
 about double the endowment. Poynter, in his book on 
 Oxford (1749), speaks of these sermons as being 'preached 
 in the outward chapel of this College.' It was once 
 customary to have a special sermon on ' Gunpowder 
 Treason Day,' and on January 30, and to have 'two 
 speeches spoken yearly, 1 st, on the Founder's Commemora- 
 
 * From Thomas Morley's ' Madrigals: the Triumphs of Oriana.' 
 London, 1607. 
 
APPENDIX I 249 
 
 tion, in Praise of the Founder ; the other in Commendation 
 of Queen Elizabeth and King James I.' Poynter mentions 
 also a custom in his day 'of having English Essays per- 
 formed by the Undergraduates of this College, in the 
 outward Chapel after Prayers, before the Warden and 
 Fellows.' 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 An old monastic way of waking men in the morning was 
 by striking the door with a mallet. This was also the 
 mode of summoning Fellows to a college meeting. It 
 is still practised at New College before the quarterly 
 'Stated General Meeting/ the porter going round and 
 knocking at the bottom door of each staircase in which 
 a Fellow lives. 
 
 Cox, in his ' Recollections of Oxford,' mentions that ' in 
 1802, and for many years after, there was still a curious 
 mode of summoning the members to dinner at New 
 College by the agency of two little choristers, who at 
 a stated minute started from the College gateway, shout- 
 ing in unison and in lengthened syllables : " Tem-pus-est 
 vo-can-di a-man-ger, O Seig-neurs."* It was their business 
 to make this sentence (itself a remnant of older times) last 
 out till they reached with their final note the College 
 kitchen.' Since about 1830 this custom has been super- 
 seded by the ringing of a bell in the tower. 
 
 A curious privilege of New College men was the right 
 to be entertained at a college of Salamanca, founded by 
 Molinus, who, as Spanish Ambassador, had been hand- 
 somely entertained by the College in February, 1666 
 (N.S.). A Fellow named Trenchard went to Salamanca 
 and availed himself of this privilege in 1677. The 
 
 * Poynter's ' Oxford ' (1749) gives the word thus: ' Eat-Mancheat- 
 Toat-Seni-Oat.' 
 
250 APPENDIX K 
 
 college, unfortunately, perished during the Napoleonic 
 wars. 
 
 It was customary in the eighteenth century to present 
 each of the College tenants who had paid his rent before 
 Christmas with a pair of white gloves edged with red 
 ribbon (Poynter's < Oxford,' p. 48). 
 
 K. THE LIBRARY 
 
 A list of books presented by the founder to the Library 
 of New College is preserved in the ' Liber Albus ' of the 
 College, and has been printed and edited by Mr. A. F. 
 Leach in the third volume of ' Collectanea ' of the Oxford 
 Historical Society (pp. 213-244). The gift included about 
 240 volumes, a large proportion of which were theological. 
 Of tRis large number, only twenty-seven volumes remain ; 
 the others probably suffered along with Duns Scotus and 
 Thomas Aquinas (cf. Chapter V.). Later donors of MS. 
 volumes were W. Read, Bishop of Chichester, Walter 
 Skyrlowe, Bishop of Durham, Warden Bowke, Archbishop 
 Warham, John Wykeham, Thomas Burton (F. 1398), John 
 Elmer (F. 1386), William Porter, William Pakett (F. 1430), 
 and Bishop Bekington. The earliest donor of a collection 
 of printed volumes seems to have been Arthur Lake, 
 Bishop of Bath and Wells, who in 1617 presented about 
 500 volumes; in 1623 Thomas Hopper (F. 1593) gave 
 about 400 volumes ; and Wardens Pinke and Woodward 
 bequeathed respectively about 170 and 600 volumes. 
 Single volumes were given as early as 1479, when Richard 
 Mason (? Fellow 1453) gave ' Margaritum Poeticum, 
 Romse, 1475.' Money gifts occur occasionally, and are 
 usually of a small amount. Warden Woodward left an 
 annuity of 5 a year, and similar annuities were left by 
 
APPENDIX K 251 
 
 Warden Gauntlett and Osborne Wright (F. 1775). From 
 1735 onwards degree money seems also to have been used 
 for the purchase of books, and, owing to occasional bene- 
 factions and fines, the income of the Library varies from 
 20 to 100 during the middle of the eighteenth century, 
 and early in the nineteenth it came to be regularly about 
 120, as it now remains. 
 
 The Library contains a considerable number of MSS., 
 none, however, of first-rate importance. Among the more 
 valuable is a commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics of 
 Aristotle (Michaelis Ephesii in Ethicorum librum quintum 
 expositio), which was lent to Heylbut for his edition of the 
 Scholia (Comm. in Arist, vol. xx.). Professor Bywater, 
 who was the first to make use of the MS., informs 
 us that there is a companion volume in the library of 
 Corpus Christi College ; that both manuscripts were written 
 in Reading (circa 1497), where the Abbot of Reading kept 
 a wandering Greek, John Serbopulos, to make transcripts 
 of Greek MSS. 
 
 The few valuable printed works in the possession of the 
 College include the first printed Aristotle. 
 
 L. PROGRESS 
 
 New College is one of the few Colleges in which an annual 
 ' Progress ' still takes place. The Warden (or Sub-warden), 
 accompanied by a Fellow known as ' Out-rider ' (i.e., Rider- 
 out), and the Steward, visits the farms on some part of the 
 College estates. These ' Progresses ' used to be of much 
 importance, since it was by this means that the rents were 
 collected, the fines fixed for putting new names into copy- 
 holds, trees selected for felling, etc. They are now little 
 more than a formality, though they still serve to keep up 
 
252 APPENDIX L 
 
 some kind of connection between the College and its 
 tenants, and to give the Fellows in turn some knowledge 
 of the College property. At places where the Warden 
 and Fellows are Lords of the Manor, the Steward holds a 
 manorial court, at which a homage is solemnly sworn, 
 inquiry made about the deaths of copyhold tenants, etc. 
 As tenants can now be admitted out of Court, and as the 
 College is refusing to renew its copyholds for lives, there 
 is now little, and will soon be nothing, for these picturesque 
 tribunals to do. Small sums are paid by the ' Out-rider ' 
 to the bell-ringers, farm-servants, etc., which are known as 
 ' regards/ 
 
INDEX 
 
 ABBOTT, Chas., 216 
 Acworth, George, 115 
 Alasco, Albert, 152 
 Allanson, Edw., 166, 175, 176 
 Antony, Archbp. of Spalatro, 152 
 Arundel, Archbp., 11 
 Aspinall, Nicholas, 240 
 Astlow, Edward, 114 
 Astlow, Luke, 127, 128 
 Ayliffe, John, case of, 179, 198-204; 
 quoted, 89 
 
 BACKSHALL, John, 241 
 
 Bailey, Henry, 240 
 
 Ball, Robert, 242 
 
 Barckly, Henry, 125, 126, 133 
 
 Barrow, Isaac, 169 
 
 Barton, Philip, 241 
 
 Baskar, Robert, 150 
 
 .Bathurst, Benjamin, 216 
 
 Bathurst, Henry, 215 
 
 Baylie, Walter, 151 
 
 Beau, Wm. Le, 171 
 
 Beaufort, Cardinal, 239 
 
 Bedyll, Thomas, 105 
 
 Beeston, Warden, 87, 188, 189, 209 
 
 Bekington, Bp., 37, 92, 93, 238 
 
 Bekinsaw, John, 158 
 
 Bigg, Warden, 12, 13, 209 
 
 Bilson, Bp., 119, 133 ; his visitation, 140- 
 
 142, 159 
 
 Bird, William, plan of Garden Quad, 87 
 Bisse, Philip, 195 
 Blandy, Wm., 118, 129 
 Blues, list of, 245-247 
 Body, John, 137 
 Bohun, Ralph, 191 
 Bohun, Wm., 12, 13 
 Bolnery, Bart., 98, 128, 129 
 Boniface IX., Bulls of, 30-32 
 Bowke, Warden, 232 
 
 Boxall, John, 159 
 
 Bragge, Chas. (Bragge- Bathurst), 215 
 
 Braithwaite, Warden, 200, 209 
 
 Buckingham, Bp., 55, 238 
 
 Buckingham, John de, 27 
 
 Butler, Thomas, 114 
 
 Butson, Christ., 215 
 
 CAREY, John, 242 
 
 Catagre, John, 114 
 
 Chandler, George, 216 
 
 Chandler, Warden, 3, 93, 96, 151 
 
 Charnock, Stephen, 195 
 
 Cheyney, Thos., 215 
 
 Chichele, Archbp., 65, 91 
 
 Cobb, Warden, 202, 209 
 
 Coker, Hen., 241 
 
 Cole, Warden, 109, 110 
 
 Colet, Dean, 95 
 
 Collier, Wm., 170 
 
 Colpepper, Warden, 83 
 
 Commissions, University, 221-228 
 
 Common-room, senior, 84, 85 
 
 Common-room, junior, 242, 243 
 
 Cook, Henry, 70 
 
 Cooper, Bp., his visitation, 139, 140, 157 
 
 Courthope, Prof., 229 
 
 Cox, G. V., quoted, 212, 249 
 
 Coxed, Warden, 209 
 
 Cranley, Warden, 37, 79, 91 
 
 Croft, Robert, 103 
 
 Cromwell, Thomas, 103-106 
 
 Cubulwyke, Thos., 98 
 
 Culpepper, Warden, 126, 133-145, 151 
 
 DARYLL, Thomas, 114 
 Deale, Richard, 128 
 Dell, Mrs. John, 242 
 Diggles, Christopher, 128 
 Dobson, Warden, 209 
 Dodwell, John, 126 
 
254 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Dormen, Thomas, 112, 131 
 Dorset, Duke of, 153, 154 
 Dummer, John, 239 
 Duncan, P. B., 242 
 Dunkeld, Archbp. of, 30, 80 
 Duns Scotus, 106-108 
 Dyke, Richard, 30 
 
 EASTWICK, John, 242 
 Edward III., 3-7 
 Ekins, Jeffrey, 242 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 67 
 Erasmus, 94, 95 
 Erie, Wm., 134 
 Erie, Sir Wm., 216 
 Estcourt, Warden, 232 
 Eyre, John, 241 
 
 FARMER, Edw., 172 
 
 Fearon, W. A., 230 
 
 Fenne, John, 114 
 
 Fenne, Robert, 114 
 
 Fiennes, Richard (Lord Say and Sele), 
 
 157, 162, 163, 169, 173 
 Fiennes, Nathaniel, 169, 179, 195 
 Fisher, John, 127 
 Flatman, Thos., 195 
 Fleshmonger, Wm., 239 
 Forde, William, 110 
 Fowler, John, 114 
 Froissart quoted, 7 
 
 GAUNTLETT, Warden, 211, 212 
 Gregory IX., Bull of, 30 
 Grocyn, William, 93-95 
 Gunning, Peter, 169 
 
 HARDING, Clement, 239 
 
 Harding, Thomas, 111, 131 
 
 Hardy, John, 114 
 
 Hare, Augustus, 220, 221, 243 
 
 Harmar, John, 159 
 
 Harpesfield, John, 111 
 
 Harpesfield, Nicholas, 111 
 
 Harris, John, 194 
 
 Harris, Walter, 181 
 
 Harrys, Wm., 98 
 
 Hearne, Thos., quoted, 170, 179 
 
 Heath, John, 195 
 
 Henslow, Stephen, 118 
 
 Herbert, Sir Edw., 193 
 
 Herbert, Wm., Earl of Pembroke, 193 
 
 Herbert, Philip, Earl of Montgomery, 
 
 193 
 Hertford College, 37 
 
 Hide, Thos., 112 
 
 Hoadley, Bp., 210 
 
 Holloway, Richard, 192, 193 
 
 Holman, Thos., 239 
 
 Holmes, Robert, 215 
 
 Holyman, John, 158 
 
 Hopkins, Thos., 127 
 
 Herman, Wm., 99 
 
 Hornchurch, 34, 35 
 
 Home, Bp., his visitations, 67, 115-139 
 
 Howley, Archbp., 214, 215 
 
 Huls, Andrew, 98 
 
 Huntingford, Bp., 234 
 
 Hyde, Alex., 195 
 
 Hyll, Warden, 232 
 
 INGE, Archbp., 99 
 Ingram, John, 128 
 
 JAMES I., 151 
 James, Thomas, 152, 153 
 Janne, Bp., 98, 238 
 Jenour, John, 127 
 Johnson, Christopher, 159 
 
 KEN, Bp., 192 
 Knight, Thos., 99 
 Knight, Wm., 99 
 Knott, Wm., 114 
 Kyngsmill, John, 133 
 
 LAKE, Warden, 145, 146, 240 
 
 Lancaster, Duke of (John of Gaunt), 7, 8, 
 
 10, 11, 14 
 
 Laud, Archbp., 148, 149 
 Lavington, George, 215 
 Leach, Mr. A. L., 14, 37 
 Lewes, Owen, 114 
 Lily, George, 94, 95 
 Lipscomb, Christ., 216 
 Lloyd, John, 159 
 London, Warden, 100-110 
 Longe, John, 1 
 Louth, John, 102 
 Lowth, Bp., 207-211, 242; his 'Life of 
 
 Wykeham,' 2, 3, i*, 37 
 Lucas, John, 171 
 Lydiat, Thomas, 168 
 
 MALFORD, Warden, 232 
 Man, John, 102 
 Man, John (Sir Man), 106 
 Manningham, Thos.. 195 
 Marshall, John, 112/131 
 Marshall, John, 133 
 
INDEX 
 
 255 
 
 Marshall, Warden, 173, 174, 176 
 
 Marten, Edm., 215 
 
 Martyn, Thos., 158 
 
 Mary of Modena, visit to New College, 
 
 70, 71 
 
 Master, Thomas, 195 
 Mayhew, Richard, 98 
 Merton College, 22-24, 29, 39, 50, 52-54, 
 
 65, 84, 86 
 
 Merwicke, John, 159 
 Milner, Lord, 229 
 
 Morley, Bp., his Visitation, 183-186 
 Mundyn, John, 112, 117, 129 
 Myllyng, Thos., 239 
 
 NEWMAN, Cardinal, 218 
 Newton Longueville, 37 
 Nicholas, Matthew, 195 
 Nicholas, Warden, 188, 209, 238 
 Noble, John, 114 
 Norwood, Wm., 128, 129 
 
 OGLANDER, Warden, 211 
 Oldys, Wm., 165 
 Ossulbury, Warden, 232 
 Owen, Morgan, 169 
 
 PALMEB, Samuel, 190 
 
 Parrott, Chas., 240, 242 
 
 Payne, Richard, 134 
 
 Penton, Hen., 241 
 
 Perkins, Sir Wm., 241 
 
 Perrers, Alice, 10, 12 
 
 Philpott, John, 102 
 
 Piggott, John, 134, 137 
 
 Pincke, Warden, 146-169, 237, 241 ; 
 
 quoted, 150 
 Pits, John, 112, 113 
 Pitt, Christopher, 205 
 Pope, Alex., 205, 206 
 Port, William, 67, 237 
 Porter, Warden, 232 
 Poyntz, Robert, 112, 114 
 Preston, Nicholas, 241 
 Prickard, A. O., 213 
 Prince, Daniel, 72, 73 
 Privileges, New College, 153-156 
 Purnell, Warden, 210, 211 
 Pusey, E. B., 218 
 
 QUARLES, Benedict, 128 
 Queen's College, 25, 29 
 Quinby, Peter, 101, 102 
 
 RADNOR, Lord, 71 
 
 Rastall, John, 112 
 
 Rawlins, Christ., 240 
 
 Reade, Richard, 240 
 
 Reade, Thomas, 162 
 
 Reading, Thomas, 129 
 
 Rede, Warden, 79 
 
 Remolds, John, 194 
 
 Reynolds, Sir Joshua, his window, 
 
 78, 79 
 
 Richard II., 10, 11, 55 
 Robinson, Alfred, 88, 230 
 Robinson, Hugh, 194, 195 
 Russell, John, 98, 239 
 Russell, Thos., 216 
 Ryves, George, 239 
 Ryves, Thomas, 194 
 Ryves, Warden, 145, 238, 248 
 
 SALAMANCA, 249 
 
 Sanders, Nicholas, 112, 131 
 
 Saye, William, 97 
 
 Sewell, Warden, 226 
 
 Scott, Sir Gilbert, 75, 76, 81, 87, 88 
 
 Shaftesbury, Lord, 189, 190 
 
 Sharrock, Robert, 191, 192 
 
 Sherbourne, Bp., 99, 239 
 
 Shirley, Walter, 216 
 
 Shuttleworth, Warden, 167, 217-219 
 
 Sidney, Henry, 158 
 
 Skinner, Warden, 114, 232 
 
 Smith, Sydney, 214, 243 
 
 Smith, Wm., 126 
 
 Smyth, John, 238 
 
 Somerville, Wm., 197, 198 
 
 Sotwell, Richard, 126 
 
 Spanish Ambassador, 191, 237, 249 
 
 Spence, Joseph, 205-207 
 
 Spooner, Rev. W. A. , 75, 224 
 
 Stapleton, Thomas, 112 
 
 St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Custom of 
 
 singing at, 245, 246 
 St. Loe, Lawrence, 241 
 St. Peter-in-the-East, dispute with, 33, 
 
 34 
 
 Stevens, Thomas, 159 
 Stringer, Warden, 169, 173, 17 
 Sylvester, Prof., 223 
 Symeon, Geoffrey, 98 
 
 TALBOT, Robert, 102, 103 
 Taylor, John, 241 
 Toneworth, Warden, 231 
 Townsend, Robert, 166, 175, 
 Turberville, James, 158 
 Turberville, George, 159 
 
256 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Traffles, Warden, 179 
 Trenchard, Sir John, 195 
 Trimnell, Chas., 195 
 Turner, Bp., 192 
 Twysse, Wm., 145, 194 
 
 UNDERBILL, John, 127, 135, 137, 159 
 Urban VI., Bulls of, 30, 81, 65 
 
 VITELLI, 93 
 
 Vivian, Daniel, 172, 176 
 
 WALL, Martin, 215 
 
 Walpole, Horace, opinion of Reynolds 
 
 window, 78, 79 
 Walter, John, 97 
 Warham, Archbp., 95, 90, 240 
 Warton, Thomas, 72, 73 
 Waynflete, Bp., 65, 95, 97 
 Welleys, Thos., 99 
 Wells, Thos., 238 
 Westbury, Wm., 98 
 White, John, 158, 159, 240 
 White, John, 1(39 
 White, Richard, 114 
 White, Warden, 114-133, 146 
 Whyte, Richard, 112 
 Whyte, Thomas, 151 
 Whyte, William, 98 
 
 Wickham, Dean, 228, 229, 243 
 
 Wilkinson, John, 166 
 
 Wilkinson, Henry, 166 
 
 Williams, Lettice, 239 
 
 Williams, Warden, 220-226 
 
 Williams, Wm., 204 
 
 Winchester, St. Mary's College at, 26, 
 
 32, 33, 43, 44, 92 ; Wardenship of, 
 
 209-211 
 
 Wingfield, Sir Edward, 230, 243 
 Winston, Chas., on chapel windows, 
 
 77 
 Wood, Antony, quoted, 27, 67, 68, 80, 87, 
 
 112, 145, 147, 151, 163, 164, 166, 188, 189, 
 
 191, 247, 248 
 Woodward, Warden, 186-188, 240, 248; 
 
 quoted, 88, 165, 187, 188, 235, 236 
 Wotton, Sir Henry, 193 
 Wyatt, John, 158 
 Wyatt, Thomas, 72-76, 81 
 Wyche, Richard, 90 
 Wycliffe, John, 14, 15, 26, 54 
 Wykeham, William of, Life of, 1-17, 19, 
 
 28, 35 ; relics of, 235, 236 
 Wykeham, Nicholas, Warden, 37 
 
 YOUNG, Warden, 96 
 ZOUCH, Richard, 152, 153 
 
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