fl
 
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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 RIVERSIDE
 
 of 
 
 FOUR CENTURIES OF ENGLISH HISTORY 
 
 ILLUSTRATED FROM THE COLLEGE ARCHIVES. 
 
 MONTAGU BURROWS, 
 
 OHICHELE PROFESSOR OP MODERN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD 
 
 AND 
 FELLOW OF ALL SOULS. 
 
 [ All rights reserved ]
 
 L F 5 2. 5" 
 
 OXFOKD: 
 
 BY E. FICKARD HALL AND J. H. STACY, 
 
 PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY.
 
 falI0iahtrj[
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THERE are many reasons for and against exposing to the 
 public the inner history of an institution like the College 
 of All Souls. Those against such an attempt can only be 
 answered by a perusal of the book. Those in its favour 
 may be briefly summed up thus : 
 
 In general, every public institution or even private family 
 of importance may probably make some valuable contribu- 
 tions to history. At this moment the Historical Manu- 
 script Commission is pushing its researches into every 
 private library in Great Britain. It is now very generally 
 understood that too much of what has hitherto passed for 
 history will not bear the close investigation of these scientific 
 days, and even the smallest rill from a fresh source may 
 be acceptable. 
 
 In particular, All Souls cannot but have something to 
 say. The greatest statesman and ecclesiastic of his day was 
 its Founder ; successive Primates of All England have been 
 its Visitors. Their voluminous correspondence suggests 
 some fresh material for the Lives of the Archbishops. A 
 King was the co-Founder of the College. It will be seen 
 in the following pages how hard a battle All Souls had to 
 fight in subsequent ages in order to keep the hands of 
 the ' holy Henry's ' successors many of them anything but 
 holy off its revenues. Simple, unsuspected facts bring out 
 many a touch of character in these exalted personages. 
 Lastly, the College has nourished or sheltered illustrious
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 men of whom it may well be proud. Some of them 
 have been sadly misrepresented, some too little noticed in 
 history. 
 
 These considerations seemed to justify the attempt to lift 
 the subject above the level of a mere dry record of events, 
 interesting 1 to none but antiquarians. The conception of 
 the work was however due to an accident which, though 
 trivial in itself, it may possibly be worth while to relate 
 in this place. 
 
 The Chapel of the College had fallen into a dilapidated 
 condition. A thorough repair was necessary; and a thorough, 
 repair brought the question to a point ; Should the work 
 of Sir Christopher Wren's school, the elaborate Italian 
 decorations which had completely concealed and transformed 
 the ancient Gothic, be repaired, re-painted and re-gilded ? 
 or should there be a thorough restoration to the condition 
 in which the Chapel was left by Archbishop Chichele and 
 his immediate successors ? The discovery of the ruins of 
 the ancient Reredos, reaching from floor to ceiling, a 
 discovery as unexpected to compare small things with 
 great as the sculptures of Nineveh, settled the question. 
 Lord Bathurst, the Senior Fellow, munificently undertook 
 the renewal of this great work, and, piece by piece, the 
 interior of the Chapel is now, under the judicious hands of 
 Sir Gilbert Scott, undergoing restoration to its original 
 condition. 
 
 The writer of these pages, in the autumn of 1871, hap- 
 pened to be on the roof-scaffolding at the very moment 
 when the suspicion that there might be something con- 
 cealed behind Sir James Thornhill's fresco of the Apotheosis 
 of Chichele became a certainty. The removal of Mengs' 
 picture had already afforded a glimpse of the ruins of two 
 ancient niches for statues. The workmen were now scraping 
 off the plaster from the eastern collar-beam ; and, letter by 
 letter, there began to appear on a faded gilt ground the 
 famous words, Surgite morlui, venite ad judicium. The 
 character of the letters left no doubt as to their date. It 
 was that of the Founder !
 
 PREFACE. vii 
 
 There was something suggestive, not to say weird-like, 
 in suddenly finding oneself standing face to face in this 
 manner with an unsuspected past. It would be too much 
 to say that the scheme of this little work dated from that 
 moment ; but it would not be far from the truth. Not 
 the slightest tradition had survived that the modernized east 
 end, with its fine fresco, its handsome marble entablature, 
 and its well-known picture of the Noli me tangere, con- 
 cealed anything behind it save a bare wall. On the removal 
 of all this modern work one of the finest achievements, 
 perhaps the finest, of the fifteenth century stood revealed ! 
 The attempt to unravel the history of these transformations 
 led to a search of the College Archives, which revealed a 
 past all but equally unknown and unsuspected by the 
 present generation. 
 
 How to give a faithful sketch of that College history of 
 more than four centuries without descending to wearisome 
 details, and at the same time to throw into a form con- 
 venient to the general reader the illustrations it afforded 
 of the history of the nation, was the problem which 
 gradually presented itself. How far it has been solved 
 others must judge. 
 
 With very few exceptions the documents, or rather extracts, 
 which follow have been hitherto unpublished. Gutch, the 
 well-known Editor of Anthony Wood (whose edition is used 
 throughout these pages), was a Chaplain of the College, and 
 added some notices from its Archives to Wood's account 
 of All Souls ; he also published some interesting papers 
 from the Archives in his ' Collectanea Curiosa.' Reference 
 has been gratefully made to these in their proper place ; 
 but he merely skimmed the surface, and that of the early 
 period alone, his object not being to produce anything in 
 the shape of a history. Nothing of that sort exists, nor are 
 the materials for a large part of it to be found in the 
 College. The numerous collections of pamphlets and letters 
 in the public libraries of Oxford and London, especially in 
 the Bodleian, have supplied, to some extent, what was 
 wanting for that portion. It so happens also that the
 
 viii PREFACE. 
 
 great antiquarian Hearne was the next best thing to a 
 zealous lover of All Souls, since he was, for well-known 
 reasons, a special hater of the College ; and consequently we 
 can pick out some useful matter from his voluminous Diary, 
 which fills 145 volumes. 
 
 It would be unpardonable in the writer not to notice in this 
 place the valuable aid which has been generously afforded him 
 by several friends towards the completion of the following 
 historical sketch. At the head of these he must name the 
 Rev. Dr. Leighton, the Warden of All Souls, whose never- 
 failing kindness, shown in many ways with reference to this 
 undertaking, has added one more to his numerous claims on 
 the gratitude of the writer. From the Rev. W. Stubbs, the 
 Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of 
 Oxford, he has once more experienced the kindness of a true 
 friend and judicious critic. To the officers of the Bodleian, 
 Lambeth, and Christ Church Libraries, he desires to render 
 his special thanks ; and he would mention Mr. W. H. Turner, 
 of the former Library, by name, whose suggestions as to 
 sources of information have been eminently useful. Nor 
 should Mr. Etheridge, the Sub-Librarian of the Codringtou 
 Library, be omitted, since he has spared no pains to ransack, 
 in the writer's service, the treasures committed to his charge. 
 
 All Souls, February, 1874.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The state of England and of Oxford when Archbishop Chichele founded 
 
 All Souls College ....... i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE FOUNDER. 1362-1443. 
 
 Chichele's Education under William of Wykeham Becomes Primate, 
 and Prime Minister to Henry the Fifth His share in the War 
 with France, and Papal Sympathies Bearing on the Foundation 
 of All Souls of both influences . . . . .11 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE EARLY DAYS OF THE COLLEGE. 1443-1500. 
 
 The Bull of Eugenius the Fourth Oriel College The first Warden 
 The Chapel and its Reredos Pilgrimages The Cardinal Arch- 
 bishops Wars of the Roses Escape of the College from Edward 
 the Fourth and Henry the Seventh Prince Arthur The only 
 letter of his in English now extant found in the Archives of 
 All Souls ........ 24 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ALL SOULS AND THE RENAISSANCE. 1443-1526. 
 
 The Abbess and Nuns of Syon Life and Manners of the early Fellows 
 Lynacre Latimer Leland Other distinguished Men Civil 
 Law at All Souls Archbishop Warham Rapid succession to 
 Fellowships . . . . . . . .41 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ALL SOULS AT THE REFORMATION. 1534-1558. 
 
 Why the College was spared at the Reformation Renunciation of 
 Papal Supremacy The chief Wardens of All Souls Cranmer's 
 Visitation; and letter to the College demanding Soldiers 'Cor-
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 i-upt Resignations' Letter from Edward the Sixth The Com- 
 missioners of 1549 ; tbeir proceedings at All Souls All Souls 
 the first College in Oxford to possess ' Organs ' and an Organist 
 Reaction under Mary Papal government by Cardinals Car- 
 dinal Pole ...... 56 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ALL SOULS UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH AND ARCHBISHOP PARKER. 
 1558-1581. 
 
 The Anglo-Catholic Settlement Warden Warner, Sir John Mason, 
 and Sir William Petre Parker and the High Commission Court 
 Their struggle with the College on ' monuments of superstition ' 
 Parker's letters The Queen and Leicester . . 78 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE AT ALL SOULS. 1571-1603. 
 
 Warden Hoveden Queen Elizabeth and Cecil -Great men of the 
 College Sir Anthony Sherley The Lawyers Archbishop Grindal 
 Archbishop Whitgift, the great organiser of All Souls College 
 luxury College Surplus Its history Grammar Schools Edu- 
 cation of poor Scholars at All Souls . . . -93 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ALL SOULS UNDER JAMES THE FIRST AND ARCHBISHOP ABBOT. 
 1603-1633. 
 
 The intimate connection between the College and the Stuart Dynasty 
 The genesis of the Laudian polity Bancroft's Reforms ; College 
 Beer Abbot's Letters ; the Mallard-feast The ' roasted Warden ' 
 Abbot on ' Corrupt Resignations ' The College and Cecil Earl 
 of Salisbury James the First tries to impose a Warden on All 
 Souls His letter Abbot resists His merits King, Bishop of 
 London . . . . . . . .117 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ALL SOULS DURING THE LAUDIAN PERIOD. 1633-1642. 
 
 Brian Duppa; Steward; Sheldon as Fellow and Warden Laud and 
 Jeremy Taylor ; criticism of Heber's treatment of the subject 
 Laud's Letters and Reforms Laudian Revival at All Souls 
 Duck and Digges College Gaudy Pressure of hard times 
 Sheldon at Great Tew His politics identical with those of Hyde 
 and Falkland Comparative place of All Souls among Oxford 
 Colleges and Halls . . . . . . .141
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ALL SOULS DURING THE CIVIL WAR. 1642-1648. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sheldon as Charles's chief ecclesiastical adviser Lord Say in Oxford 
 
 Insults to All Souls; Alderman Nixon Oxford as a Fortress 
 and Camp College plate sent to the Mint Charles's letter on 
 this, and recommendation of a friend for a Fellowship Decay 
 of College Estates Charles's Vow ; entrusted to Sheldon and 
 by him buried for thirteen years Surrender of City Sheldon's 
 forcible expulsion from All Souls and imprisonment Prynne . 162 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ALL SOULS DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 1648-1660. 
 
 Palmer, the Pseudo-Gustos Submissions of the Fellows and servants 
 
 Oxford Colleges compared on this point Sydenham, the phy- 
 sician Sheldon's life at this time; original letter of Jeremy 
 Taylor's to him The Puritan Visitors Their quarrels with the 
 new Fellows, and with the Parliamentary Committee All Souls 
 allowed to elect Fellows in 1653 Sir Christopher Wren College 
 reported to Cromwell for corrupt elections His reply Collapse 
 
 of the Visitors Death of Pseudo-Gustos . . . .187 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ALL SOULS AT THE EESTORATION. 1660-1667. 
 
 The Restoration ; how felt at Oxford and All Souls Sheldon as Bishop 
 of London Duppa's letter to him Recovery of the Vow of 
 Charles the First Effects on Charles the Second Sheldon as 
 Primate Death of Duppa ; and of Jeremy Taylor Sheldonian 
 Theatre Account of Wren First 'restoration' of the College 
 Chapel ........ 215 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ALL SOULS UNDER CHARLES THE SECOND AND ARCHBISHOP SHELDON. 
 1666-1677. 
 
 Warden Jeames Sheldon on ' Corrupt Resignations ' Letter of 
 Charles the Second and the ' Dispensing Power ' Scramble for 
 All Souls Fellowships The Duke of Ormond Rise of preference 
 for old families at All Souls Sheldon in his old age Clarendon's 
 Will Sheldon's Will His munificence Samuel Parker's account 
 of him Sheldon and Chilling worth Attacks of Burnet, Kennett, 
 Neal, and Hallam on Sheldon's memory . . . .238
 
 , xii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN ABCHBISHOP BANCROFT AND THE COLLEGE. 
 
 1678-1680. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The final struggle on ' Corrupt Resignations ' History of the Tanner 
 MSS. Sancroft's vigorous Reform Coincidence of struggle with 
 the national crisis on Exclusion Bill The superior class of Fellows 
 put in by Bancroft and Jeames Defence made by Fellows 
 Visitor and Warden fairly embarked against the Fellows . .256 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ARCHBISHOP BANCROFT'S VICTORY. 1680-1686. 
 
 The Fellows go to law with the Visitor ' A perfect state of war ' 
 Sancroft's letter to the College The Fellows procure a Mandamus 
 The King's Bench supports Bancroft A Policy of Conciliation 
 Boisterous loyalty of certain Fellows Death of Warden Jeames 274 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 JAMES THE SECOND AND WARDEN FINCH. l686-l688. 
 
 The Dispensing Power All Souls in dread of a Papist Warden 
 Dryden the Poet Mandate to Finch Finch as a rioter Lord 
 Chancellor Finch Finch as a Volunteer His excuses to San- 
 croft Sancroft's conduct to James and Finch His character . 287 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 ALL SODLS AT THE REVOLUTION. 1 688-1702. 
 
 Finch as Warden All Souls accepts the Revolution Finch's conflict 
 with Proast The better side of Finch's character His account of 
 Queen Mary's death Dr. George Clarke His influence at All 
 Souls Creech, the poet Tanner, the antiquarian His connec- 
 tion with Wood His affection for All Souls The state of Christ 
 Church and of Oxford generally ..... 305 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 CODRINGTON. 1690-1710. 
 
 Codrington's family His father His Oxford education Campaigns in 
 Flanders Public oration at Oxford Sent to command in the West 
 Indies Opinions of contemporaries Career as Captain-General 
 Learned retirement His Will Bequests to All Souls and the 
 Society for Propagation of the Gospel His character Addison's 
 verses ........ 324
 
 CONTENTS. xiii 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 ALL SOULS IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. 1702-1714. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The settlement of All Souls a type of that of the nation Character 
 of Warden Gardiner His effort to revive the Statutes Opposition 
 of Archbishop Tenison The case of Blencowe Queen Anne's 
 share in the affair Tenison's Visitation Non-Residence of 
 Fellows established ' Restoration ' of College Chapel . . 347 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 ARCHBISHOP WAKE AND WAEDEN GARDINER. 1714-1726. 
 
 Opposition of the Whig Visitor and Tory Warden Gardiner as Vice- 
 Chancellor Ayliffe Hearne Wake saves the University after 
 the death of Anne Trelawny, Bishop of Exeter Wake's Visi- 
 tation of All Souls Appeal to Wake against the College 
 Dr. Clarke ....... .366 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 ALL SOULS AND JUDGE BLACKSTONE. 1726-1792. 
 
 Codrington Library Selection of Worthies History of Orthography 
 from Archives Hawksmoor on Modern Architecture Young, 
 the poet Duke of Wharton Judge Blackstone His influence on 
 All Souls Struggles on question of Founder's Kin . -387 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 1792-1874. 
 
 Ancient and modern All Souls The University Commission of 1852 
 The Eighteenth Century a period of Stagnation The modern 
 Wardens Distinguished Men of Modern Times Bishops Heber 
 and Stuart All Souls Burgesses for the University . . 411 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 Codrington College, Barbadoes ...... 425 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 The All Souls Mallard ..... -4^9 
 
 INDEX . .... 439
 
 Table of Contemporary Sovereigns, Archbishops of Canterbury, 
 and Wardens of All Souls. 
 
 SOVEBEIGNS. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 1413 Henry V. 
 
 1422 Henry VI. 
 
 1461 Edward IV. 
 
 1483 Edward V. 
 1483 Richard III. 
 1485 Henry VII. 
 
 1509 Henry VIII. 
 
 1547 Edward VI. 
 1553 Mary. 
 
 1558 Elizabeth. 
 
 1603 James I. 
 1625 Charles I. 
 
 1649 Commonwealth. 
 1660 Charles II. 
 
 ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY. WARDENS OF ALL SOULS, 
 
 A.D. 
 
 1414 Henry Chichele. 
 
 1443 John Stafford. 
 
 1452 John Kemp 
 (Cardinal). 
 
 1454 Thomas Bourchier 
 (Cardinal). 
 
 1486 John Morton 
 
 (Cardinal). 
 1501 Henry Deane. 
 1503 William Warham. 
 
 1533 Thomas Cranmer. 
 
 1556 Reginald Pole 
 (Cardinal). 
 1559 Matthew Parker. 
 
 1576 Edmund Grindal. 
 1583 John Whitgift. 
 1604 Richard Bancroft. 
 1,6 1 1 George Abbot. 
 
 1633 William Laud. 
 
 (See vacant 16 years.) 
 1660 William Juxon. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 1437 Richard Andrewe. 
 1442 Roger Keyes. 
 1445 William Kele. 
 
 1459 William Poteman. 
 1466 John Stokys. 
 
 1494 Thomas Hobbys. 
 
 1503 William Broke. 
 
 1525 John Coale. 
 
 1526 Robert Woodward. 
 1533 Roger Stokely. 
 1536 John Warner. 
 
 1555 Seth Holland. 
 
 1558 John Pope. 
 1558 John Warner (again). 
 1565 Richard Barber. 
 1571 Robert Hovedeu. 
 
 1614 Richard Moket. 
 1618 Richard Astley. 
 1635 Gilbert Sheldon. 
 1648 John Palmer 
 
 (or Vaux, pseudo-custos), 
 
 1660 Gilbert Sheldon 
 (restored).
 
 Table of Contemporary Sovereigns, Archbishops of Canterbury, 
 and Wardens of All Souls. 
 
 SOVEREIGNS. 
 
 1685 James II. 
 
 1689 William and Mary. 
 
 1694 William III. 
 
 1 702 Anne. 
 1714 George I. 
 
 1727 George II. 
 
 1760 George III. 
 
 1820 George IV. 
 
 1830 William IV. 
 1837 Victoria. 
 
 ARCHBISHOPS OP CANTERBURY. WARDENS OF ALL SOULS 
 
 1663 Gilbert Sheldon. 
 1678 William Sancroft. 
 
 1691 John Tillotson. 
 16 Thomas Tenison. 
 
 1 7 if William Wake. 
 1737 John Potter. 
 1747 Thomas Herring. 
 
 1757 Matthew Hutton. 
 
 1758 Thomas Seeker. 
 
 1 768 Frederick Cornwallis. 
 1783 John Moore. 
 
 1805 Charles M. Sutton. 
 1828 William Howley. 
 
 1848 John B. Sumner. 
 1862 Charles T. Longley. 
 1868 Archibald C. Tait. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 1660 John Meredith. 
 
 1665 Thomas Jeames. 
 
 1686 Hon. Leopold W. Finch. 
 
 (1698 Finch admitted and 
 
 installed afresh). 
 1702 Bernard Gardiner. 
 
 1726- Stephen Niblett. 
 
 1 766 John Lord Visct. Tracy. 
 
 1 793 Edmund Isham. 
 1817 Hon. Edward Legge. 
 1827 Lewis Sneyd. 
 
 1858 Francis K. Leighton.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The state of England and of Oxford when Archbishop Chichele 
 founded All Souls College. 
 
 ALL SOULEN, Alsoulne, Alsolne, or, as it has been called 
 in modern times, All Souls College, was founded by Arch- 
 bishop Chichele in 1437. In 1443 it was opened with all 
 pomp by the Founder, assisted by four of his suffragans. 
 The consecration of the Chapel and delivery of the Statutes 
 to the Warden were almost the last acts of the aged prelate. 
 This was the form in which he left his last message to the 
 country which he had so conspicuously served, to the Uni- 
 versity which he had so earnestly attempted to raise up from 
 its prostration and to reform. Reserving for the next chapter 
 some remarks on this great man, we shall perhaps better 
 understand what was in his mind if we try to place ourselves 
 for a moment in his position at the time when he contem- 
 plated the foundation of All Souls. 
 
 England has seldom been in a more depressed condition 
 than at this period. For the second time she had made an 
 effort beyond her strength, and was suffering from the 
 consequent exhaustion. For the second time she had all but 
 conquered France, and then discovered that there was no one 
 to continue the work which had been so gloriously begun. 
 The death of the great Duke of Bedford in 1435, broken- 
 
 B
 
 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. 
 
 hearted at the Treaty of Arras, and the final defection of 
 Burgundy, had at last brought about what the shock of the 
 death of the mighty victor of Agincourt and the apparition 
 of the Maid of Orleans had failed to effect ; it aroused the 
 country from that Imperial dream, premature by many 
 centuries, in which it had for so long a time delighted to 
 indulge. The nation was no doubt far more torn to pieces 
 and perceptibly harassed during the Wars of the Roses or 
 the struggles of the e Great Rebellion,' but scarcely perhaps 
 so miserable as now. Those were times of action, of hope, of 
 conflict of principles, real or supposed ; and no people take 
 to fighting, when they have once got over the first effort, 
 so readily as the English. But an air of dull hopelessness 
 shrouds the early manhood of Henry the Sixth ; there was 
 no one who imagined a bright future to be in store for him ; 
 scarcely even at a later date when his marriage seemed to 
 have secured him a happy home, for the brilliant Margaret 
 was the child of a faction from the first, and the pre- 
 sentiment of coming disasters was vivid and overpowering. 
 England had never before mounted so high ; she had 
 never before appeared on the way to fall so low. She had 
 bought at a high price the success which her last monarch's 
 splendid capacities for war and politics had achieved. That 
 most gallant and accomplished band of royal brothers, 
 Henry, Bedford, and Clarence, the noble Salisbury, the peer- 
 less Talbot, might offer the highest types of soldiers or 
 statesmen then known to Europe ; a Hallam and an Aben- 
 don might shew the assembled Doctors of the West what 
 the home of Duns Scotus and Ockham could produce when 
 its literary energies were directed into the channels of Church 
 reform ; a Cardinal Beaufort might astonish the world 
 with his wealth, his versatile abilities, and the true English 
 courage which taught him to stand his ground against the 
 fanatical Bohemians, when the chivalry of the Empire basely 
 fled, leaving him and his little band deserted on the bloody
 
 i.] ENGLAND UNDER HENRY VI. 3 
 
 field 1 . But the penalty was too surely exacted from the next 
 generation. Few pages of English history are more pain- 
 ful than those which record the lingering retreat of the 
 enfeebled conquerors from the country they had so shock- 
 ingly injured, the growing bitterness and barbarity of the 
 internecine conflict, the disgraceful desertion of the gallant 
 men on whom it fell to fight out the battle to the last. 
 The nation had lost all heart, all sense of political responsi- 
 bility, and stood still, sullenly gazing at the factions of the 
 Court; but the ever-increasing murmurs of discontent were 
 only too plain a prelude to subsequent events. The dynastic 
 conflict of York and Lancaster was only one out of many 
 causes of the Wars of the Roses, causes which lay much 
 deeper. They had their root in the factious struggles of 
 Beaufort and Gloucester, in the general sense of disgrace and 
 misery, in the various convulsive effects of the expulsion from 
 France, in the resolution of English patriotism to submit to 
 no government which did not support the honour of England 
 at home and abroad. It did not require much penetration 
 to see that the sword of conquest was about to be replaced 
 by the dagger of civil war. 
 
 Nor was the ecclesiastical prospect more encouraging. 
 The dreams of the enthusiastic conqueror had included not 
 only a new Empire of the West, but a reformed Church 
 and a recovered Jerusalem. Henry the Fifth had sent his 
 emissaries to report on the best port in the East for land- 
 ing his troops. What stain there was on the Lancastrian 
 escutcheon should be wiped out by the final overthrow of 
 the Moslem, and the peaceful resettlement of a reformed 
 Christendom in all her ancient seats. Nor are there want- 
 ing judicious writers of our own day who believe that such 
 prospects were not altogether visionary. Never did great 
 events appear more imminent than when the heroic King, 
 in the pride of his manhood, and with a promise of success 
 1 Milman's Latin Christianity, vol. vi. p. 249. 
 B 2
 
 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. 
 
 not unlike that which beamed on Alexander the Great, was 
 struck down hy a fatal disease at Paris. 
 
 But the reform of the Church had appeared to be far more 
 than a day-dream. It seemed on the point of being realised. 
 England had for the first time established an equal place for 
 herself with other nations in the Councils of Europe, and she 
 exercised an influence which no other nation had an equal 
 moral right to claim, not that of might, but that arising 
 from her unique, persistent, and most ancient resistance to 
 the tyranny of Rome. Well might she lead the way. Well 
 might Sigismund, the Emperor so-called, in the period of his 
 reforming zeal, make use of the great Bishop of Salisbury as 
 his right-hand man ! But how transient had this bright 
 prospect been ! Even before Henry was dead, the new Pope saw 
 a way out of the pit in which the Papacy had been so nearly 
 engulfed. Playing off one 'nation' against the other, 'escaping 
 with the skin of their teeth ' he and his successors recovered 
 not only their old position, but, as far as England was con- 
 cerned, much more. When the conqueror no longer stood 
 in the way, a fixed resolution was taken to bring England 
 under the same yoke as the Continent. She should pay the 
 penalty of the danger to which she had been one chief means 
 of exposing Rome. She was now absorbed into the Papal 
 system ; she now suffered under a ' Papal aggression ' such 
 as her kings, her clergy, and her nobles had hitherto resisted 
 with the most persistent resolution. She must be made to 
 bend like the rest; and she bent accordingly for a time. 
 It was a humiliation which cut Englishmen to the heart. 
 It was an infraction of their ancient laws. It was by no 
 means a remote cause of the Reformation. 
 
 The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge presented as 
 usual no unfaithful picture of the nation. They were the 
 centres of the intellectual and religious struggles of the day ; 
 they shared in the rise and fall of the national prosperity, 
 the action and reaction of Ultramontane Papalism and revo-
 
 i.] OXFORD IN CIIICHELE'S TIME. 5 
 
 lutionaiy Lollardisra. The supporters of the last-named move- 
 ment had been indeed nearly extinguished in Oxford during 
 the reigns of Richard the Second and Henry the Fourth. Every 
 possible agency had been brought to bear upon them from 
 high places, and with success ; but the marks of the storm 
 were apparent enough. The patrons of English livings looked 
 less and less to the Universities for incumbents. The Friars 
 who had repelled their assailants stepped into the place of 
 prominence ; the law was no longer exclusively in the hands 
 of University-bred ecclesiastics ; the camp carried off to a 
 more promising sphere of action the eager youth who had 
 hitherto made Oxford and Cambridge the stepping-stones to 
 an honest livelihood ; the disorderly life of the great mass of 
 the students had become all the more conspicuous by the 
 light of the Collegiate system which as yet only illumined 
 a small portion of the University. 
 
 We are apt to forget how very different an aspect such 
 a place as Oxford presented to the eye as well as to the 
 mind, in the early part of the fifteenth century, from what 
 we have been accustomed to witness in modern times. We 
 little measure what a change was effected even as lately as the 
 time of Charles the Second, when the walls of the city were 
 levelled to the ground, the encircling fosse filled in, the old 
 gateways destroyed (except Bocardo, which lingered on for 
 another century,) the ancient Norman castle finally dis- 
 mantled, the avenues and gardens planted, the ruined medie- 
 val structures replaced by modern buildings. 
 
 Far more does it demand the aid of imagination to picture 
 to ourselves the external aspect of the Oxford of more than 
 two centuries earlier, the Oxford of Chichele's age, to sup- 
 pose the absence of the Radcliffe Library, the Schools, 
 the present Divinity School was only commenced in 1426, 
 the Bodleian, the Theatre, the Museums, and the majority 
 of the Colleges, and in their stead to see around us a 
 multitude of closely-packed, squalid habitations in irregular
 
 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP- 
 
 streets and lanes, interspersed with those little Halls, the 
 ancient peculiarity of English Universities, in which the 
 scholars for the most part resided. In the centre of Ox- 
 ford, where the University buildings now rise in dignified 
 grandeur, we have to imagine those thirty-two humble 
 tenements, in rows facing one another, which then usurped 
 the title of Vicus Scholarum, or School Street. Some 
 of the present churches were indeed there at that time, and 
 some sort of substitute for the modern Colleges was to be 
 found in the monasteries, the models no doubt on which their 
 rivals and successors were framed ; but of the magnificent 
 Collegiate and University buildings which are now the dis- 
 tinguishing feature of Oxford, one and one only of those 
 which met the eye of Archbishop Chichele remains in its 
 completeness. New College was then what its name desig- 
 nates, and he himself had been enrolled on its first list of 
 scholars ; but the ancient foundations which had preceded 
 it in order of time had been conceived on a far humbler scale. 
 Several portions of the noble work of Walter de Merton and 
 his immediate successors still indeed exist, but the architec- 
 ture of the domestic buildings of his College tells for the 
 most part of later dates. Within the precincts of Univer- 
 sity, Balliol, Exeter, Oriel, Queen's, and Lincoln, it re- 
 quires the eye of the experienced archaeologist to discover 
 any traces of those early erections which were no doubt 
 too small and inconvenient to claim restoration when the 
 ruder ages, for which they had done such good service, had 
 passed away. 
 
 It is at least equally difficult to imagine the University life 
 of the period, for it had very little in common with our own. 
 When we watch the care with which the experienced Founder 
 of All Souls framed his Statutes, it will be well to remind 
 ourselves of the state of society in which his Fellows were to 
 mix, to remember that the Colleges were but as yet the ex- 
 ceptional institutions of the place, still on their trial amidst
 
 i.] RISE OF COLLEGES. 7 
 
 the far more ancient system of numerous small societies, which 
 were bound to their common life by very lax ties, and which 
 exhibited on the one hand all the turbulence and irregularities 
 of medieval license, while they offered on the other too many 
 opportunities for the monks and friars to make captives of the 
 quiet and well-disposed. Multitudes of poor scholars lived 
 from hand to mouth by borrowing small sums from the public 
 chests or ' hutches ' provided by benevolent persons, as notably 
 by Chichele himself, or when that failed, by mendicancy ; and 
 numerous are the enactments, which even King and Parlia- 
 ment failed to make effective, against the pseudo-scholars 
 or ' chambcr-dekyns' who 'sleep by day and at night prowl 
 about the taverns and brothels for purposes of theft or 
 homicide V 
 
 Amidst a sea of discord and disorder the Colleges rose one 
 after another like islands of peace, absorbing year by year 
 the small decaying tenements around them, and supplying 
 the men who made the name of Oxford famous in the world. 
 From them came, in the Lancastrian reigns, the chief speci- 
 mens of the via media, the secular clergy who represented the 
 old stubborn English antagonism to Papal abuses and Lollard 
 excesses. In one and all alike of those which have been 
 mentioned no monk or friar could obtain admission. Their in- 
 mates were the loyal subjects of Anglican Church and State, 
 the same in that respect before, as after, the Reformation. 
 
 In these temples of learning the Fellows and Scholars 
 found access to the precious volumes which were worth at 
 that date more than their weight in gold, volumes to be 
 found elsewhere only in the ' religious ' houses, or in the 
 public chests under lock and key, lent from those receptacles 
 with the most burdensome restrictions and formalities, and 
 indeed quite beyond the reach of the great majority of 
 students. When the 'good' Duke Humphrey gave (in 
 1439) his 129 volumes to the University, it was mentioned 
 1 Munimenta Academica, Rolls Series, vol. i. p. 320, &c.
 
 INTRODUCTION. [CHAP. 
 
 in the Statutes of that body as ' largissima et magnificentissima 
 donatio / the books are ordered to be deposited within St. 
 Mary's Church, in a ' chest of five keys/ and the most elabo- 
 rate provisions are made for their safe custody, provisions 
 with which ' not even the Congregation of Eegents shall be 
 able to dispense 1 .' Scarcely were the tokens of University 
 gratitude more conspicuous in the case of Chichele himself, 
 for whom it was decreed that ' a solemn anniversary should 
 be perpetually observed on that day on which God should 
 be pleased to call him out of the world 2 .' Masses for 
 the soul of the benefactor are to be celebrated every year 
 with stated laudations ; two closely printed pages of the 
 ' Munimenta ' are filled with the ample terms which ex- 
 press the feeling of the University. Nor was this recog- 
 nition so extravagant as it might appear. This is the 
 precious library which originated the famous Bodleian, not 
 far from the first in rank of all European collections. 
 
 It is not surprising that the pupil of Wykeham should 
 refuse to remain satisfied with giving precious books to the 
 University and money for loans to poor students, with pro- 
 viding for the renewal of Church patronage to University 
 men, and procuring Parliamentary statutes for the repression 
 of disorder. All this Chichele did in his accustomed princely 
 manner. Wood finds it ' too tedious to enumerate the many 
 benefits he conferred on the University 3 .' But he must do 
 something for the future. He must found a College, 
 ' exiguus* perhaps in comparison with that of his great 
 master, but still more perfect, still more suited to the wants 
 of the age than New College itself. It was a very deliberate 
 act ; it was, as we have said, his last conception. For he had 
 already tried his hand. A portion of the front of St. John's 
 College is his work. But before he had proceeded far with 
 the building he handed it over, under the name of ' St. Ber- 
 
 1 Munimenta Academica, Rolls Series, vol. i. p. 327. 
 
 2 Wood's Annals, sub ann. 1431. 3 Ibid.
 
 i.] TEE IDEA OF ALL SOULS. 9 
 
 nard's/ to the Cistercian monks. At the dissolution of the 
 monasteries it fell with the rest, and became a new founda- 
 tion, with its present name, in the reign of Queen Mary, 
 under the auspices of Sir Thomas White. The foundation 
 at Higham Ferrers, his birthplace, was for a humbler pur- 
 pose, but equally useful in its way, and very characteristic. 
 
 These other institutions are only noticed here to mark 
 the fact that this aged ecclesiastical statesman was no 
 ordinary Founder, but one whose mind, as exhibited in 
 his Statutes, it was the duty of subsequent ages, if in any 
 case, to study. In his exclusion of the 'regular' clergy, 
 the monks and friars, he only followed Walter de Mer- 
 ton, Eglesfield, Adam de Brome, Wykeham, and others of 
 his illustrious predecessors ; and indeed the case of the 
 secular clergy had become worse than ever in his time ; 
 his Charter speaks in the most emphatic manner of the 
 alarming decrease of their numbers 1 . But in providing 
 that his College should so plentifully nourish ecclesiastical 
 lawyers that there must always be as many as sixteen ' Ju- 
 rists ' among the forty Fellows, he not only differed from 
 all his predecessors except Wykeham, but far exceeded 
 the proportion assigned by Wykeham himself to ' Seinte 
 Marie College of Wynchestre in Oxenford,' which was to 
 have twenty Students of Law out of its seventy Scholars. 
 Thus Canon and Civil Law became the speciality of All 
 Souls. 
 
 Still further it was to have a peculiar development as, 
 if not in name, yet substantially, a Chantry. It was 
 to be a Chantry of the most perfect kind that had yet 
 been seen in England, but this only in the second place. 
 The words ' ad studendum' come first; the words 'ad oran- 
 dum' afterwards. These prayers are to be offered, says 
 King Henry the Sixth in his Charter, speaking in Chi- 
 
 1 ' Incrementum Cleri regni nostri desiderans qui in prcesenti- 
 arum noscitur plurimum defecisse.'
 
 10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ehele's name, ' for our welfare and that of our godfather ' 
 (the Archbishop) 'while alive, and for our souls when we 
 shall have migrated from this light, as well as for the 
 souls of the most illustrious Prince Henry, late King of 
 England, of Thomas, late Duke of Clarence, our uncle, of 
 the Dukes, Barons, Knights, Esquires, and other noble 
 subjects of our father and ourself, who in the times and 
 under the command of our father and ourself, fell in the 
 wars for the Crown of France, and for the souls of all the 
 faithful departed.' This last limb of the sentence remained 
 as the title of the institution; 'Collegium omnium ani- 
 marum fidelium defunctorum,' or, shortly, ' Coll. Omn. 
 Anim.,' or 'All Soulen College.' 
 
 It was thus a peculiar and distinct foundation. Though 
 Chantries were abolished at the Reformation, and though 
 sundry minor changes have taken place since, All Souls 
 has always remained, rightly or wrongly, peculiar and dis- 
 tinct. Neither here nor elsewhere in this book shall we 
 consider the question whether continuity and unchangeable- 
 ness may or may not have been carried too far, whether 
 this or that improvement might not have been made with 
 advantage : we are simply concerned with the reading of 
 the past. 
 
 It is time that we turned our attention in a more special 
 manner to the great Layer of Foundations whose shadow 
 has as yet been only dimly projected before us.
 
 CHAPTEK II. 
 
 Cjtf Jfxnmtor. 
 1362-1443. 
 
 Chichele's Education under William of Wykeham Becomes Pri- 
 mate, and Prime Minister to Henry V His share in the War 
 with France, and Papal Sympathies Bearing on the Founda- 
 tion of All Souls of both influences. 
 
 AECHBISHOP CHICHELE stands almost alone amongst the 
 numerous founders of Oxford Colleges and Halls. With, 
 the exception of Wolsey no one of them has so largely in- 
 fluenced the history of his times. With the exception of 
 Wolsey and Wykeham there is no one of them with whose 
 life and character we are so well acquainted. With the 
 exception of those two and Walter de Merton there is 
 no one of them who has left so distinct an impression of 
 himself on his foundation. Of such a man it would be a 
 duty to attempt a sketch, however imperfect ; but Dr. Hook 
 has recently performed the task with great success in his 
 valuable Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury. Using 
 the materials afforded by Dr. Arthur Duck, a Fellow of All 
 Souls in the reign of James I, who wrote a concise life 
 of his Founder in what Fuller 1 justly calls 'most elegant 
 Latin,' and bringing to bear round this central source of 
 information every other available document, the Dean of 
 
 1 Worthies, Devon.
 
 12 THE FOUNDER. [CHAP. 
 
 Chichester has given us a very graphic picture of the Arch- 
 bishop and his times. All that will be here necessary is 
 therefore to summarise the events of his life, and to bring 
 out one or two points in connection with All Souls which 
 do not find a prominent place in Dr. Hook's pages. 
 
 Chichele, Chicheley, or Chichely for all the readings 
 have authority, and shew that if, as moderns have decided, 
 the letter 'y' is to be dropped, the pronunciation must 
 remain the same, was the son of a highly respectable and 
 prosperous tradesman, born in the year 1362-3, and educated 
 as a boy at William of Wykeham's noble College at Win- 
 chester, under the eye of that great man. From thence he 
 proceeded to Oxford, where he was one of the first to occupy 
 the rooms of New College. ' His name occurs for the first 
 time as Scholar of the College in the thirty- seventh week 
 of the first year of the College, 1386 V To this training 
 under the eye of Wykeham he mainly owed, in all pro- 
 bability, his success in life. He was the pre-eminent type 
 of person ' qualified to serve God in Church and State ' that 
 Wykeham aimed at producing. His industry, activity, 
 readiness, piety, munificence may all be traced to his early 
 education. The Statutes he caused to be framed by the 
 celebrated Lyndwood for All Souls were largely taken from 
 those of the College in which he learnt the lessons of life, 
 the tone of which College he no doubt influenced, at the 
 first commencement of its beneficent career, as only young 
 men of goodness and ability can. 
 
 The connection between master and pupil has been quaintly 
 drawn out by Dr. Benjamin Buckler of All Souls, in a 
 sermon preached before his College in 1 759, under the notion 
 of Elisha receiving the mantle from Elijah : 
 
 ' By this Elijah he was made choice of as one of the earliest 
 ornaments of that school of the prophets which had been 
 
 1 Mr. Kiley's Report to the Hist. MSS. Commission, 1871.
 
 ii.] EDUCATION AND RAPID RISE. 13 
 
 newly established by him ; and from his example, which he 
 had the opportunity of contemplating- for some years by 
 a personal intimacy and correspondence, he caught the same 
 love of letters and the same ambition of being- their patron 
 and supporter. When his founder was taken from him he 
 seems to have succeeded to all his literary and academical 
 cares; and his speedy advancement in the Church most 
 plentifully enabled him to support them.' 
 
 Certainly the mantle of the master fell upon the pupil 
 in this latter respect. By the end of Righard the Second's 
 reign Chichele was not only an Archdeacon and a Doctor 
 of Laws, but a lawyer of very extensive practice, holding 
 numerous ecclesiastical preferments,, which in those days 
 were commonly granted by way of fees for legal services. 
 His education, abilities, and fortunes had thus placed him 
 at the prime of life on the best possible vantage-ground 
 for pursuing his career under the auspices of the Lancastrian 
 House. 
 
 Dr. Hook thinks he was kept back for a time by his con- 
 nection with the friends of the deposed sovereign, but it must 
 have been for a very short time. He soon became the trusted 
 agent and minister of Henry the Fourth, who, like so many 
 of his house, instinctively understood character ; and soon 
 afterwards Bishop of St. David's. As bishop he represented 
 England at the Council of Pisa ; and it was at this Council, so 
 largely under the management of the French, that he no doubt 
 learnt to measure the condition of that country, and to con- 
 template the policy which now became identified with the 
 House of Lancaster. Scarcely had Henry the Fifth ascended 
 the throne when he seized the opportunity of placing the Pri- 
 macy of all England in the hands of his father's ablest servant. 
 From that day till the death of the young hero Chichele 
 held the post which we should designate as that of Prime 
 Minister. 
 
 How he crossed and recrossed the Channel in order 
 to persuade the French to accept the preposterous terms
 
 14 THE FOUNDER. [CHAP. 
 
 offered by his master, terms which, however extravagant 
 they may seem, were devoutly believed by the Lancas- 
 trian princes to be but the legitimate demand of the 
 inheritance which had been filched from them, how on 
 him fell the organisation and support of the magnificent 
 armaments England now sent forth, how he took the extra- 
 ordinary step of actually putting the ecclesiastics of the 
 diocese of Canterbury under arms and distributing them 
 along the coast fov fear of an invasion in the absence of the 
 fighting men, how he rose superior to the traditions of his 
 order, and advised the total suppression of those Alien Priories 
 which were so much wealth to the national enemy, and 
 which Edward III had only ventured to appropriate for 
 a time, how completely the great monarch loved to shew 
 that he recognised him as his right-hand man up to the day 
 of his death, how accordingly the Primate represented the 
 King at the baptism of the child whose birth was fondly 
 hailed as the pledge of future union between England and 
 France, taking the honoured post of sponsor at the font, all 
 this is matter of common history. So also is his share in 
 the miseries of the subsequent period. We find it difficult 
 to estimate the exact weight of his influence over the tender 
 mind of his godchild. Oppressed by the ever-growing weight 
 of the factions at Court, and harassed by the Popes, he now 
 confined himself very much to the peculiar cares of the 
 Primacy, to the task of healing the wounds which had been 
 occasioned by the convulsions of the times ; but we shall 
 probably not be far wrong, judging by the respect paid to 
 the Archbishop by the youthful King, if we attribute some- 
 thing of the piety and munificence for which Henry was so 
 conspicuous to the early lessons of his godfather. 
 
 With the fortunes of the House of Lancaster those of 
 Chichele were bound up from beginning to end. He wit- 
 nessed its rise, its glory, its decadence. He was spared the 
 last act of the drama. Never were Sovereigns more devotedly
 
 ii.] POLICY AS TO CHURCH AND STATE. 15 
 
 served ; never did Minister evince a more honourable free- 
 dom from the pursuit of selfish ends. No one in the realm 
 set a finer example of pious munificence. Yet his career is 
 far from affording unmixed satisfaction, and it is but right 
 that we should regard both sides. 
 
 Two lines of national policy stand out beyond all others 
 as characteristic of Chichele's personal administration. Both 
 have been the subject of misapprehension. For the Lan- 
 castrian war with France he has received more than his due 
 share of blame ; while it is an open question whether his 
 decided advocacy of that war deserved blame at all. And, 
 secondly, the fluctuations of his conduct towards the Papacy, 
 and his final submission, have been strangely misunderstood. 
 The foundation of All Souls supplies some points of con- 
 tact with both lines of policy. If" the consideration of these 
 points suggests some different shading of the picture from 
 that given us by Dr. Hook, it must not be taken as any 
 attempt to disparage his work. There will be no attempt 
 to dispute facts for they are well ascertained. 
 
 The very name of All Souls, the prominence given to the 
 observance of All Souls Day, the elaborate mention, in the 
 Charter, of those for whose souls prayer is to be made, and 
 the traditions of the splendour with which the College 
 Chapel was originally decorated, have perpetuated the 
 belief that the Archbishop was materially actuated in this 
 work by compunction for the share he had taken in ad- 
 vising the French war. That he entertained any such 
 feeling whatever is wholly foreign to Dr. Hook's con- 
 ception of his position. Yet this Chapel or ' Chantry 
 of peculiar magnificence,' as the University Commissioners 
 of 1852 styled it, the grandeur of which has only lately 
 been exposed to the world by the discovery of the ruins of 
 Chichele's reredos, seems to demand some explanation. 
 
 It will not in the present day be disputed that there 
 are some grounds for the opinion that there was in reality
 
 16 THE FOUNDER. [CHAP. 
 
 sufficient reason for renewing- with vigour a war which had 
 never technically ceased. At any rate the notion of sitting- 
 down quietly, even after the lapse of many years, under a 
 grievous wrong, such as the expulsion of the English from 
 Aquitaine had always been considered, for a moment longer 
 than was absolutely necessary, was intensely repulsive to the 
 high-spirited men of that day. The policy of the French 
 alliance which Richard initiated, and Henry the Sixth re- 
 newed, was, under such disgraceful circumstances, intolerable. 
 It is also probable that Dr. Hook is right in combating the 
 commonly received belief that the war was undertaken at 
 the instance of the clergy rather than the laity ; and he is 
 doubtless correct in asserting that the famous speech put 
 into Chichele's mouth by the chronicler, Halle, in the fol- 
 lowing century, and from him copied by Shakspeare, and 
 thus immortalised, has no contemporary authority. 
 
 But we all know how often speeches which are in them- 
 selves without authority embody the truth ; and Dr. Hook 
 admits, as he could not but admit, that the Archbishop ' was 
 a decided advocate for the war.' He also describes, with no 
 more amplitude than the facts warrant, the enormous in- 
 fluence possessed by Chichele at this period. In short it 
 is indisputable that he, the Primate, was, whether rightly 
 or wrongly, as much the cause of the decisive movement 
 which for more than a generation deluged France with 
 blood, as any single person in the realm. Nor can we in 
 common fairness dissociate the prelate, who, like his pre- 
 decessors, kept down the Lollards with a strong hand, from 
 the State policy of that day which seized with eagerness 
 such an opportunity for diverting the minds of the people 
 from their pertinacious attacks upon Church property. 
 The Crown also, of which Chichele was the devoted ad- 
 herent, was firmly allied to the fortunes of the Church, and 
 the House of Lancaster still felt its tenure insecure. Yet 
 even at this time there was a party, though more feeble
 
 ii.] FAILURE OF THE FRENCH WAR. 17 
 
 than before and after the reign of Henry the Fifth, which 
 deprecated the war with France. Such voices were unheard 
 in the clang and shout of victory. 
 
 But time passed on. The ahle administrator, the san- 
 guine statesman of middle life had merged into the pious, 
 aged, laborious, harassed Archbishop, whom the arrogance 
 of Popes, the factions of politics, and the disasters of the 
 French wars were sinking down into the grave , apace. 
 Where were now his splendid hopes and well-laid plans? 
 What had become of the magnificent success which seemed 
 at one time beyond the reach of failure? Where were 
 those mighty warriors whom he had sent forth to war with 
 his blessing ? How empty a title had this of ' King of 
 France ' already become for that child of his old age, 
 
 'Whose state so many had the managing, 
 That they lost France and made his England bleed V 
 
 What must have been the later thoughts of the worn- 
 out Primate whose touching petition to the Pope to be 
 relieved from his life of intolerable labour reveals the in- 
 tense weariness of his spirit ! And what so natural as to 
 follow the example of his hero-master, long silent in the 
 dust, who had built 
 
 'Two chantries where the sad and solemn priests 
 Sing still for Richard's soul 2 !' 
 
 Surely we should be doing violence to that estimate of the 
 times and the man which a full consideration of their history 
 forces upon us, if we did not still give credit to the view 
 which has been supposed to be contemporaneous, and which 
 has been handed down to us from at least very distant 
 times! Opinions differ now as much as they ever did on 
 the arguments for and against that famous French war. If 
 we are free from any obligation to join in the intemperate 
 1 Shakepeare, Henry V. 2 Ibid, 
 
 c
 
 18 TEE FOUNDER. [CHAP. 
 
 abuse which has been heaped on the head of its chief 
 adviser, it by no means follows that when the bright visions 
 of manhood had given way to the stern realities of old age, 
 we may not believe that Chichele found it difficult to stifle 
 the reproaches of his own conscience. 
 
 The next aspect in which we shall regard him leads us 
 in the same direction. It was the rule, rather than the 
 exception in this age, since the Popes still exercised a 
 supervision which it was dangerous to overlook, to procure 
 Papal Bulls for the foundation of Colleges; but the extra- 
 ordinary care taken by Chichele to send his first "Warden 
 of All Souls to Pope Eugenius the Fourth at Florence 
 for this purpose, and the special privileges and exemptions 
 contained in this document, which still exists, suggest a 
 deference to Rome only too strictly in keeping with other 
 facts. The Primate's relations with the Holy See are at 
 first sight puzzling and inconsistent. At one time we 
 find him more Papal than his brethren ; anon he is the 
 champion of our old English independence of the Papacy ; 
 again, succumbing to the yoke, he falls so low that Dr. 
 Hook says, ' through the weakness of the Archbishop the 
 Court of Rome now gained its point,' 'with Chichele 
 terminated that long line of independent prelates who 
 had come down in succession from Augustine 1 .' 
 
 This fall may, perhaps, be put a little too strongly; 
 but there is no real difficulty in understanding Chichele's 
 course. It is plain that he was never able to extricate 
 himself from the position in which his close connection with 
 the Court of Rome in his earlier days had involved him. 
 The four following undoubted facts relating to that period 
 speak for themselves. The laws against ' Papal Provisions ' 
 had been enacted long before his time, yet the clergy very 
 generally evaded them, and he allows himself to be nominated 
 both to a prebend and a canonry by this very method, the 
 
 1 Archbishops of Canterbury, vol. v.
 
 ii.] CONDUCT TOWARDS THE PAPACY. 19 
 
 Pope's Provision. Again, he is named by the King for 
 a bishopric which fell vacant during his absence at the 
 Papal Court. It would have been at least not unnatural 
 that he should defer any proceeding in the matter till his 
 return home ; but on the contrary he requests and obtains 
 consecration from the Pope himself, not a very common 
 occurrence with English medieval bishops. Again, he en- 
 gages in conflict with the Courts of Common Law on his 
 right to retain the English preferments which he had 
 received from the Pope ; and he is hopelessly beaten.' 
 Lastly, when King and Chapter agree in pressing him to 
 accept the Primacy, he positively refuses to have anything 
 to do with it without a Papal Dispensation and a Bull of 
 Provision, from the abominable John XXIII ! and these 
 precious documents are accordingly obtained l . It cannot be 
 said that his conduct was unusual in that age ; but it was 
 sufficiently marked. 
 
 Up to mature age therefore, his sixth decade, Chichele 
 had been a Papal partisan during times when party spirit 
 ran high on this vexed question of the Pope's jurisdiction 
 in England. He had taken his side. But he was now called 
 upon to assume a leading part in those successive Councils of 
 the West which for a moment turned the tide, and promised 
 a general settlement of the national claims to ecclesiastical 
 independence. Soon after his elevation to the Primacy, we 
 find him catching something of the spirit of the times ; and at 
 last we see him take up a position worthy of the dignity which 
 Henry the Fifth had once more claimed for England in the 
 eyes of Europe. When the precedency of Canterbury is called 
 in question by the Pope's audacious conduct in the case 
 of Cardinal Beaufort, he is the true mouthpiece of his country- 
 men in protesting with all his might against an innovation 
 hitherto unattempted. Backed by the king and people, he is 
 for the moment successful ; Pope and Cardinal are forced to 
 1 Duck's Life and Hook's Archbishops. 
 C 2
 
 20 THE FOUNDER. [CHAP. 
 
 recede. But now a change occurs which tests the strength 
 of the Primate's power of endurance. The great monarch 
 dies ; the country is torn to pieces by faction ; the Popes 
 triumph, by the aid of their consummate Italian artifices, 
 over the Councils. What will the Primate do ? It is painful 
 to contemplate the fall. It is not easy for us to estimate 
 the full amount of the trial. But the fact remains ; Arch- 
 bishop Chichele signally failed. 
 
 We have remarked that a 'Papal aggression 'upon England 
 was resolved upon at Rome. Pope Martin, and after him 
 the wily Eugenius, saw that their time was come. It was 
 their one golden opportunity. They resolved that England 
 should be their own, now and for ever. On Chichele the blow 
 fell. They knew their man. They knew how entirely Chi- 
 chele had been committed to their side till quite of late; 
 how precedent after precedent on the question of the Pope's 
 jurisdiction might be quoted against him. Year after year 
 they pursued their advantage. They scolded, they threatened. 
 They reduced the aged Primate at last to the humiliating 
 position of begging for his own degradation, of beseeching 
 the House of Commons, with tears, to abrogate the Statutes 
 of Provisors and Prsemunire, those splendid bulwarks of 
 English liberty, which it had cost the country the arduous 
 labours of a century to pass and secure ! The prospect of 
 an Interdict was too terrible to contemplate. (Doubtless this 
 feeling inspired his anxious care to procure for All Souls the 
 special exemptions to be found in the Bull from similar 
 afflictions which might befall St. Mary's Church or the sur- 
 rounding institutions of Oxford.) Happily, however, the 
 House of Commons knew its duty too well. If the clergy 
 gave way the laity must come to the front. Once more 
 pealed forth from its walls those notes of defiance which were 
 yet to find an effective echo in more auspicious times. 
 
 It was reserved for Chichele to drink the cup of humilia- 
 tion to the very dregs. If England would not repeal the
 
 ii.] UNDER PAPAL PERSECUTION. 21 
 
 obnoxious anti-papal Statutes, he at least, said the Pope, 
 should feel the papal yoke. He was forced to suffer the still 
 further degradation of being- obliged to yield the precedence 
 of the Primate of all England, not as before to a Cardinal 
 Legate a latere, but to a Cardinal who was not a Legate 
 at all, a Cardinal merely as a Prince of the Roman Curia, 
 to Cardinal Kemp, Archbishop of York, over Chichele, Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury ! The struggle was over ! ' From this 
 time,' says Dr. Hook, ' until the resumption of our indepen- 
 dence under Archbishop Parker, the Church of England was 
 virtually governed by the Pope.' Certainly, on this point, 
 the reputation of the good Archbishop, as represented in 
 the quaint language of Fuller, was cheaply gained : 
 
 ' He was thoroughpaced in all spiritual Popery, which 
 made him so cruel against the Wicklevites ' [another mistake 
 by the by, for his dealings with them were by no means 
 especially harsh], ' but in secular Popery, as I may term it, 
 touching the interest of princes, he did not so much as rack, 
 and was a zealous supporter of English liberties against 
 Romish usurpation 1 .' 
 
 The later period of his career seems to have been entirely 
 unknown to the witty historian. Even, however, when most 
 completely in the trammels of the Papacy, as late as 1438, 
 there was a point beyond which the harassed Primate would 
 not be driven. He met Eugenius the Fourth with the 
 most determined opposition when he quietly gave away the 
 bishopric of Ely to be held in commendam by the Arch- 
 bishop of Rouen 2 . It is difficult to imagine England having 
 fallen so low as that such a thing should be conceived even 
 by the Pope. 
 
 Perhaps in attempting to account for this failure on the 
 part of Chichele in his later life, we should bear in mind not 
 only the long training in ' spiritual Popery ' which he had 
 undergone, but also that his mind had been framed on the 
 
 1 Worthies, p. 292. ^ Duck's Life.
 
 22 THE FOUNDER. [CHAP. 
 
 Canon and Civil Law, the maxims of which had become 
 a second nature to him ; and we know how the convictions 
 of early life often re-assert themselves in old age. The inbred 
 love of national religious liberty, descending through all 
 vicissitudes from the pure fountains of early English times, 
 had no real abiding-place in the heart of the lawyer, the 
 Minister, the skilful diplomatist. And indeed it would have 
 required no little chivalry of character, no little of that baronial 
 spirit which has supported so many of our great historical 
 Englishmen against all odds, to stand out, deserted for the 
 most part by his own ecclesiastical brethren, against all the 
 cruel artillery of Home ; and his blood was not, like that of 
 so many of the Prelates of that century, baronial. Dr. Hook, 
 by the way, has scarcely proved his point that Chichele 
 himself did not use swans as Supporters to his arms. It is 
 true they are not upon his tomb, his missal, or his register ; 
 but Harris, in his History of Kent (1719), says that Chiehele's 
 is the only instance of an Archbishop, not of noble blood, 
 having Supporters to his arms. ' I have seen,' says he, ' a seal 
 of this Archbishop's to a deed where his arms are borne 
 with Supporters.' If it were a question of merit it would 
 not be easy to find many to whom this honour has been 
 granted for more faithful service. 
 
 If we wish to go still further afield for reasons why the 
 aged Prelate disappoints us so painfully towards the end of 
 his Primacy, we must fall back on the condition of England 
 described in the last chapter. The 'time was out of joint;' 
 there is scarcely a figure during Chiehele's later years on 
 which the eye can rest with satisfaction. 
 
 A fuller consideration of the Archbishop's career may thus 
 detract in some degree from the indiscriminate laudation of 
 which he has been at times the subject, this laudation 
 being a reaction from the superficial view taken by the old 
 historians ; but, in such an age of confusion and transition, 
 who has a right to judge harshly of so good and wise a man,
 
 ii.] DEATH AND CHARACTER. 23 
 
 called on to play so great a part ? If his noble munificence 
 bears some marks of the growing- Papalism which had come 
 over him again in his old age, we may rejoice that it was 
 overruled for good. And we may place on the other side 
 that he had courage enough to procure the application of 
 the suppressed Alien Priories to the maintenance of Oxford 
 Colleges, the first step of that sort towards the Reformation, 
 as Wolsey's wholesale suppression of monasteries and nun- 
 neries, in order to found Cardinal College or Christ Church, 
 was the second. It is remarkable too that he should have 
 favoured the monks so much as to hand over to them his first 
 unfinished College ; while his last, his mature conception, was 
 formed on the same model as those of his predecessors, and 
 excluded from All Souls any but the secular clergy. 
 
 It is given to few men, as it was to Chichele, to con- 
 centrate the experience of a long life in one focus as it were, 
 to complete with the most deliberate accuracy what he de- 
 signed, to watch every step in its progress, and to die in 
 peace almost at the moment after the final touch was given, 
 -just when the Statutes, a very large part of which has 
 not been swept away even by the Commissioners of 1852, 
 had been signed with his own trembling hand. He was 
 in his 8 ist year when he died. A likeness of him, sup- 
 posed to be contemporary, in a window at All Souls, con- 
 veys the impression of a wise, benevolent old man. So also 
 does his recumbent figure in his splendid monument at 
 Canterbury. From these and other more apocryphal pic- 
 tures Roubiliac in the last century produced that beautiful 
 bust which now adorns the College hall, and which, if we 
 may not accept it as authentic, at least impresses successive 
 generations with a pleasing and dignified idea of one of the 
 truest Worthies our country has produced.
 
 CHAPTEK III. 
 
 1443-1500. 
 
 The Bull of Eugenius the Fourth Oriel College The first 
 Warden The Chapel and its Eeredos Pilgrimages The 
 Cardinal Archbishops Wars of the Roses Escape of the 
 College from Edward the Fourth and Henry the Seventh 
 Prince Arthur The only letter of his in English now extant 
 found in the Archives of All Souls. 
 
 WE have mentioned the Bull procured by the Founder 
 for his College. A few words upon it may serve the 
 double purpose of introducing us to the early years of the 
 institution, and, it may be hoped, of convincing the reader 
 that he will not be required to wade through a mass of 
 dry documents suitable enough for the antiquarian, but self- 
 condemned to be perused by antiquarians alone. 
 
 Among the points worthy of our attention in this in- 
 teresting document, which is dated from Florence in 1439, 
 is its citation of the objects of the College, which, by the 
 by, it states to be for ' pauperes scholar es* whereas the 
 words of the Charter are f pauper es et indigentes,' and the 
 permission granted for the burial of its members within 
 the consecrated precints of the College. But, in its bear- 
 ing on the last chapter, it is more important to notice 
 the elaborate provisions, which occupy so much of its space, 
 for the immunity of the College during an Interdict.
 
 THE POPE'S BULL. 25 
 
 Divine Service may be performed in the Chapel with closed 
 doors, and silent bells, and hushed voice, in spite of any 
 Interdict to which the city might perchance be subjected, 
 so long as the College is not itself concerned in the offence, 
 nor allows interdicted persons to be present. Further 
 voluminous provisions free the College from all services 
 which might be claimed at any future time by 'the King's 
 Hall' (Oriel College), St. Mary's Church, or the Vicar of 
 St. Mary's. 
 
 This last privilege is connected with the fact that a part 
 of the College was built upon ground over which St. Mary's 
 (the present University Church) and ' The King's Hall,' as 
 ' Proprietors ' of St. Mary's, had hitherto held ecclesiastical 
 jurisdiction. Immunity from dues and offerings was not 
 of course obtained from the King's Hall for nothing. A 
 deed of the year 1443, still in the Archives of All Souls, 
 between All Souls College on the one part and Walter 
 Lyhert, Provost of the King's College or Hall and his 
 Fellows on the other, recites the Bull, acknowledges that 
 the Founder of All Souls had given two hundred marks 
 by way of indemnity to the said College or Hall, and 
 ratifies the same for ever, only, however, as to the im- 
 munity of those who live and sleep, or die within the 
 actual precincts of All Souls. 
 
 It may be worth notice that not only does the name 
 ' Oriel ' fail to appear in these documents, which will not 
 surprise the well-informed, but neither does that occur 
 which is said by Anthony Wood to be the ancient name 
 of the College, ' the House of the Scholars of the Blessed 
 Mary.' In the deed it is called ' Collegium vel Anla Regalis; ' 
 in the Bull, ' aula regalis,' nothing more. But this title is 
 never mentioned by Wood or other Oxford writers, and 
 has completely passed out of memory. Brasenose, a com- 
 paratively modern College, having been known as the 
 ' King's Hall ' for some centuries, has monopolised the title ;
 
 26 THE EARLY DAYS OF THE COLLEGE. [CHAP. 
 
 it has been forgotten that, in the early struggles of Colleges 
 with their numerous jealous neighbours, it was natural to 
 bring into prominence, by way of protection, the title to 
 royal patronage, such as Oriel possessed from Edward the 
 Second. The name ' Oriel ' was from early times a familiar 
 and unofficial designation, being derived from an ancient 
 Hall which previously occupied the site of the College, 
 this Hall itself, as some think, having derived its name 
 from the oriolus or little window over its eastern gate- 
 way ; but it did not become the official title of the ' King's 
 College or Hall' till the reign of James the First. 
 
 We shall make still shorter reference to the elaborate 
 Computus, or account-book, containing the expenses of build- 
 ing the College, inasmuch as the public have access to its 
 most interesting passages in Gutch's Notes upon Wood's 
 History of the Oxford Colleges, and in his Collectanea 
 Curiosa. It is believed that no College has so complete a 
 repertory of all that is required for comparing the price of 
 labour and materials in those times with the prices of our 
 own day as All Souls. The beauty of the writing and ex- 
 actness of the accounts betray the care required by the 
 Founder from his agents. The persons to whom it seems 
 to be due are the chief architect, Roger Keyes, who be- 
 came the second Warden, and Robert Druell, the overseer 
 of the works, and afterwards a Fellow. The names of all 
 the persons employed and their hours of labour are duly 
 registered. Perhaps it has not yet been remarked that 
 we may gather from the above document that the process 
 of creating surnames was at this period not even yet 
 completed, at least for the trading and labouring classes. 
 Thus the joiner is called ' Giles Joyner,' the smith 
 ' Robert Smyth,' the sawyer ' Thomas Sawyere,' the 
 glazier ' John Glasier ; ' but the sculptor is Richard 
 Tyllot, Kervere. He it is who carved the angels in the 
 roof at a cost which, after making the amplest allow-
 
 in.] THE KING MADE CO-FOUNDER. 27 
 
 ance for the difference in value of money, is greatly 
 below what it cost to carve one of these same angels in 
 1872 in order to replace one that had decayed. 
 
 The total cost defrayed by Chichele was about ^10,000, 
 including site, endowment, books, and chapel furniture. 
 Of this c^iooo were spent in the purchase from the King 
 of the non-conventual Alien Priories which have already 
 been noticed. New College also received some of these 
 spoils, which even Papal England felt were more fit to be 
 used at Oxford than in feeding the French enemy. Perhaps, 
 as authors differ very widely in estimating the comparative 
 value of money between that day and our own, we may 
 fairly split the difference between Dr. Hook, who gives us 
 ten for a multiple, and Mr. Anstey, who, in his Munimenta 
 Academica, gives twenty. If we take fifteen, which is nearly 
 what Hallam believed it to be, we shall credit the muni- 
 ficent Archbishop with having spent ^150,000 of our cur- 
 rency in founding All Souls ! 
 
 One of the precautions suggested by the legal training 
 of the Founder turned out to be singularly unfortunate. 
 Indeed the fortunes of the College, as we shall see, were 
 very nearly wrecked through this means during the Wars 
 of the Roses. He devised the scheme of passing the College 
 and its revenues over to the King, and receiving them back 
 from the King as co- Founder with himself. Something 
 of this sort had been done before. Adam de Brome had sunk 
 his own personality in that of his Sovereign ; but even 
 Edward the Second offered a better prospect of security for 
 Oriel than Henry the Sixth for All Souls. Chichele's 
 anxious mind read only too plainly the signs of the times; 
 and in the coming troubles he still leant on the royal au- 
 thority as the most stable element in society. Well, indeed, 
 might he trust the saintly youth who joined so heartily in 
 his plans; and perhaps he could not be expected to foresee 
 that it was against this very bulwark that the storm would
 
 28 THE EARLY DAYS OF THE COLLEGE. [CHAP. 
 
 beat. He shewed more sagacity in providing that the Arch- 
 bishops of Canterbury should be for all time ex officio Visitors 
 of the College l . They were to have a specially lofty position 
 as Visitors. Though the Statutes only speak of the Arch- 
 bishops as ' Co-Founders with the King for ever,' and though 
 Henry in his Charter calls it ' our College,' the Archbishop 
 of the time being was to stand in the place of the Founder, 
 the sole interpreter of his Statutes, from whom there was 
 no appeal, the almost- Warden and Father of the College. 
 So strongly was this worded that Archbishops Stafford and 
 Whitgift claimed the power of promulgating new Statutes, 
 and the interpretations of Archbishops Tenison, Wake, and 
 Cornwallis have been thought to answer very nearly to that 
 description. Of the special provisions of the Statutes it will 
 be less tedious to speak when at different periods the history 
 of the College brings any portion of them before us. 
 
 And now, the careful, kindly, generous, and pious Founder 
 having been taken to his rest, -we must attentively watch 
 for whatever scanty and fitful light may be cast upon 
 this history during the remainder of the century. In the 
 general historical gloom which overshadows most of the 
 latter half of the fifteenth century All Souls shares the 
 fate of the rest of the nation. It is one of the ' dark 
 ages' of English history. The medieval chroniclers are 
 gone, or are sounding their last notes; the modern author 
 is waiting for the Renaissance. We experience a sort of 
 voiceless pause, much shorter but not unlike that dark 
 age which elapsed between the break-up of the Roman 
 Empire and the formation of modern nationalities, be- 
 tween two periods of articulate song and speech. The bar- 
 barous wars of York and Lancaster hang like a thunder- 
 cloud over the landscape of history, and, when it rolls 
 away, we see that a Revolution is in progress. The Eng- 
 
 1 See Chap. XIV, end.
 
 in.] THE FIRST WARDEN. 29 
 
 land of the Plantagenets is changing into the England of 
 the Tudors, the reign of force and license into that of 
 statecraft and order, fraud and foreign diplomacy. The 
 medieval Church is making a vast effort to rally round it 
 the new forces of society. It finds itself confronted with 
 the printing-press, the Bible, the growing middle class, 
 the new ideas gradually making -their way from abroad. 
 It throws itself, as a last resource, with redoubled ardour 
 upon the lower and more ignorant classes, upon the sesthe- 
 tical developments suited to their tastes, upon pilgrimages 
 of every species, old and new, on the gaudy decoration 
 of shrines, and of course on the ready zeal of the Friars, 
 for they surpassed all others in their keen perception of 
 the danger. It was too late. 
 
 All Souls seems, as might be expected, to have made an 
 excellent commencement of its career. The Founder himself 
 selected the first twenty Fellows, who, as he desired, selected 
 twenty more. Forty Fellows were to partake ^of his bounty. 
 That number remained unaltered for more than four hundred 
 years. Chichele seems to have selected almost too great a 
 man for Warden ; since he is so important a statesman that 
 he is obliged to resign his office, in order to fulfil his duty to 
 the Crown, before the College is opened ; but, on the other 
 hand, he was able in all probability to be even more useful to 
 his departed master's Foundation during the forty years of his 
 subsequent career, all which time he was holding great offices, 
 than if he had remained Warden. We have seen how the Arch- 
 bishop had trusted Richard Andrewe, his intimate friend, 
 with the mission of procuring the Bull. No doubt, as Warden, 
 he kept the Fellows together in the lodgings assigned by 
 Chichele during the greater part of the five years occupied in 
 building the College under the Founder's own directions ; and 
 so laid the foundation of the subsequent success of the College. 
 This wise arrangement had been pursued by Wykeham in 
 building New College. Those who were to set the tone of
 
 30 THE EARLY DATS OF THE COLLEGE. [CHAP. 
 
 the institution should be prepared by a previous common life 
 and daily devotions for their future work within the building-, 
 in whose approaching- completion they could not but take an 
 active interest. In his subsequent career, Warden Andrewe 
 may be taken as no inadequate type of the sort of men whom 
 Chichele designed that his College should provide, and which 
 it did indeed largely produce. He resigned his Wardenship 
 to become a Secretary of State, and received preferment as 
 Dean of York. He was very frequently employed as a Com- 
 missioner for making treaties of peace, or truces, both with 
 France and Scotland. In the most important of these Com- 
 missions he may be reckoned a peculiarly fortunate man. 
 Though the Duke of Suffolk was the head of the embassy 
 which concluded the disastrous and disgraceful negotiation 
 with France as to the cession of Maine and the marriage of 
 Margaret of Anjou, Andrewe seems to have been the real 
 chief, and at any rate the principal agent as to all the forms 
 and details. Along with Suffolk he brings the hapless Mar- 
 garet to England ; unlike Suffolk he saves his head, and 
 indeed uses it to the great advantage of his country often 
 afterwards. 
 
 Of the few notices we possess of the condition of the 
 College during the fifteenth century those connected with 
 the Chapel are among the most characteristic. It had 
 been magnificently built by the Founder, but probably much 
 internal decoration was supplied after his death. The 
 reredos, now under restoration, is pronounced by the first 
 of modern authorities, Sir Gilbert Scott, to be the most 
 elaborate and beautiful work of the age which has come 
 down to our time; the windows of the Ante-chapel, 
 once well matched by those of the Chapel, have no supe- 
 riors of that century ; nor will many roofs be found more 
 beautiful than the hammer-beam roof which has lately been 
 exposed to view. The proportions of the Chapel, however, 
 exhibit, according to the late Professor Cockerell, decided
 
 in.] SPLENDOUR OF CHAPEL. 31 
 
 marks of deterioration from those of Chichele's great master, 
 Wykeham. ' That ruin,' says the Professor, ' of the archi- 
 tectural schools of our country, which the revival of classical 
 taste in Italy and throughout Europe finally accomplished, 
 was now, under Archbishop Chichele and Bishop Wayn- 
 flete (at Magdalen), rapidly accelerated 1 / He instances 
 especially the neglect of the rule which requires three 
 diameters for the length of the choir, and the projection of 
 the Ante-chapel beyond the space required by Wykeham's 
 proportions. 
 
 Possibly the limited extent of ground procurable for 
 the Chapel, and the peculiar form of the site, which has 
 visibly affected the lines of the Ante-chapel, may have 
 had something to do with the changes introduced by 
 Chichele's architects ; but when everything was changing, 
 no one thought of imputing any fault in this instance ; 
 and the attractions, which from many causes the Chapel 
 possessed, drew supplies from all quarters. The death of 
 Chichele was, under the circumstances of the times, a loss 
 profoundly felt by the nation. As long as he lived he re- 
 presented the glories of days gone by ; and all knew that 
 he had done his best to perpetuate those glories at All Souls. 
 His successor, Archbishop Stafford, thought it his duty to 
 express this sentiment in a manner suitable to the notions 
 of that day. Immediately after Chichele's death he makes 
 it his business to procure a most elaborate and exhaustive 
 Charter of Privileges, often afterwards of use to the College ; 
 and soon after that marks his sense of the peculiar esteem in 
 which the Chapel was held by granting an Indulgence of forty 
 days to all Christians of his province who shall annually visit it, 
 and there say a prayer, ' cum salutatione angelica' for the souls 
 of all the faithful resting in Christ. In 1457 we have per- 
 haps an evidence of the great resort then made to the Chapel, 
 in consequence of its being widely known as a place of pil- 
 
 1 Proceedings of the Archaeological Institute : "Winchester, 1845.
 
 32 THE EARLY DAYS OF THE COLLEGE. [CHAP. 
 
 grimage, by means of a record of the number of wafers 1 
 consumed when the Obit of Lady Shottesbrooke was cele- 
 brated. The number was no less than 9400. 
 
 It seems that the public attention thus drawn to the 
 Chapel had a great effect on the progressive development 
 of its splendour. Chichele had himself supplied it with a 
 magnificent furniture of plate, vestments, and other orna- 
 ments, the list of which, in all its profuseness, is still extant. 
 But it seems probable, as we have said, that much remained 
 to be done in filling up the niches of the reredos, and in the 
 adornment of the altar. We have no absolute record in the 
 original Computus of more than two 'great stone images,' 
 which were placed over the altar; but we find towards the end 
 of the fifteenth century that Bishop Gold well of Norwich, a 
 former Fellow, not only built the cloisters and screen, but left 
 ^50 (^"750 of our money) ' circa adificationem summi altaris ;' 
 while Robert Este, a Fellow, left 11 18*. 4^. (nearly ^300 
 of our money) for ' making and setting up certain images 
 over the high altar.' We also read that ' the high altar was 
 adorned with the image of the Holy Trinity gilt and painted.' 
 The ruins, lately exposed, of the Crucifixion, with attendant 
 figures, alone remain to explain what was meant by these 
 entries. The statues of the four Latin Fathers of the 
 Church, SS. Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine, and Gregory, 
 to whom the Chapel was dedicated, no doubt found places 
 over the central group ; and the ornamentations of a parti- 
 cular canopy suggest that the figure of the Virgin Mary 
 filled a particular niche ; while the traces of the strings of a 
 cardinal's hat, with the initial W, are thought to suggest that 
 the great Cardinal Beaufort of Winchester was one of those 
 represented. Marks were also left of the figure of our Lord 
 seated in Judgment at the summit of the reredos, close under 
 the gilt collar -beam containing the inscription, f Surgite 
 
 1 So in the copy ; but the original has not yet been found, and 
 perhaps we ought to read 'tapers.'
 
 in.] ESCAPES FROM TWO KINGS. 33 
 
 mortui, venite ad judicium,' surrounded by archangels, and 
 with naked figures on either side trooping to Judgment ; 
 but all else is left to conjecture. Historical figures connected 
 with the Lancastrian House and the French wars, like that of 
 Beaufort, are supposed to have filled many of the lower niches; 
 while the central and upper portions were reserved for sacred 
 or semi-sacred ' images.' The zeal of the times was not satis- 
 fied with one altar, however richly bedizened. No less than 
 seven additional altars were eventually reared, three along 
 each side of the Choir, and one in the Ante-chapel. 
 
 This somewhat minute description is inserted here not so 
 much in consequence of the modern discovery, as to illustrate 
 the times, and to suggest one reason amongst others for 
 the escape of the College from the dangers to which it 
 was shortly subjected. The precaution of the Founder in 
 handing over his institution to Henry the Sixth, and re- 
 ceiving it back from him, proved a damnosa h&reditas. The 
 unhappy King, from whom the College continued to receive 
 benefits to the last, soon began to totter on his throne ; and 
 his successors were sorely tempted to confuse the distinction 
 between his nominal and his real possessions, his sacred 
 obligations and his legal property. The position in which he 
 had been placed by Chichele gave a ready handle to Edward 
 the Fourth and Henry the Seventh. Both claimed the en- 
 dowment of the College as royal property. We can only guess 
 at the influences which staved off the peril ; but we shall not 
 be wrong in attributing something to that which was exercised 
 over their superstitious minds by the fame of the Chapel as 
 a place of pilgrimage. We find for example that Edward the 
 Fourth considers it worth while to turn its services to account 
 in his Deed of Re-grant of the Alien Priories, where, carefully 
 describing the late King as nujoer de facto non de jure Hex, 
 he makes it a condition of his gift that the College shall pray 
 for ' our health and that of Cecilia, our dearest mother, 
 Duchess of York, as long as we are alive, and for our souls 
 
 D
 
 34 THE EARLY DAYS OF THE COLLEGE. [CHAP. 
 
 when we shall have migrated from this light.' Right glad 
 was All Souls to escape with the payment of a not im- 
 moderate sum to purchase a pardon of the King for inno- 
 cently taking part with Henry the Sixth ! 
 
 Much no doubt was also due to the Visitors ; for these 
 were days when Kings could not afford to affront a loyal 
 Primate. Their interests were too closely united; the 
 danger to Church and King from the swelling tide of 
 middle-class freedom was equally imminent over both. These 
 Cardinal Archbishops of the fifteenth century, whatever 
 their services to the College, were not however altogether 
 above a little venture or two on their own account. Warden 
 Warner in his short account of the College, in the time of 
 the later Tudors, says, 
 
 ' The Archbishop of Canterbury succeeding Henry Chichely, 
 either next or shortly after, took again from the College the 
 Parsonage of Teying in the County of Bucks, which King 
 Henry and Henry Chichely had impropriated to the College, 
 but that was never again restored. No more was a Lord- 
 ship in the County of Bucks called Foxcote ; and these evil 
 chances maketh the College poor and bare, and the Warden's 
 and Fellows' portions much less than they be in other 
 Colleges.' 
 
 Perhaps it may strike us that the good Warden is hardly 
 thankful enough for the escape of his College in such perilous 
 times. 
 
 And, besides the fame of the Chapel and the interpo- 
 sition of the Visitors, we shall surely be correct in ascribing 
 something to the genius loci. If the College bore its silent 
 witness to the Lancastrian rule, it told also of glories which 
 England could not afford to forget. It enshrined the memory 
 of Agincourt ; it held forth as an aegis ' Henry's holy shade.' 
 Even the Yorkists felt the spell ; but it must have told 
 with still greater effect in unloosing the rigid fingers of 
 the first all -grasping Tudor, when they also closed over 
 the College property. His efforts and those of his son to
 
 m.] HENRY VII AND WARDEN HOBBYS. 35 
 
 procure the canonization of Henry the Sixth are well known. 
 They proceeded so far that a book of prayers to 'Saint Henry' 
 may still be seen. In the fourth year of Henry the Seventh's 
 reign we find the College petitioning him, as his ' continual 
 orators and true bedesmen,' in the following terms. After 
 stating that though Edward the Fourth had resumed the 
 royal grants, 'the Warden and College at all times have 
 occupied the premises, and thereof taken the profits con- 
 tinually since the foundation of the same until now right 
 late they be inquieted by process made of your Exchequer 
 upon the said resumption/ they beg him to confirm and 
 establish all that had formerly been done by the ' blessed 
 mind ' of his c dear uncle of noble memory, Henry the Sixth, 
 late King of England.' This Petition was allowed by Henry 
 the Seventh, and ordered to be enrolled, which made it an 
 Act of Parliament ; and as such it has been pleaded by 
 Wardens Stokes, Warner, and others. 
 
 Some years later, if we may judge by the scanty, but very 
 curious, evidence of the note made by one of the said King's 
 Commissioners, who had pressed the Warden for a loan, the 
 College was so strong that it only required the exercise of 
 a little sturdy independence on the Warden's part to procure 
 such an immunity from arbitrary taxation as Henry was the 
 last man to admit if he could help it. The document, which 
 is of rare occurrence in the case of an individual, may be 
 worth a moment's attention. Here, and in some other cases 
 where the archaic structure of the language employed seems 
 to make the additional burden of the orthography no real 
 hindrance, the original spelling is preserved. 
 
 The occasion was an invasion of England by the Scots ; 
 and, though there is no date to the letter, we may safely 
 place it in the year 1496, when James the Fourth, along with 
 the so-called ' Perkin Warbeck,' ' harried the Marches.' The 
 grounds on which the request is based are put with almost 
 a touching force.
 
 36 TEE EARLY DAYS OF THE COLLEGE. [CHAP. 
 
 It is ' for the revenging of the grete cruelty and dis- 
 honour that the King of Scotts hath done unto us, our 
 realme and subjects.' The King has been advised 'by our 
 grete counseill of lords spiritual and temporal, of Judges, 
 Serjeaunts in our lawe, and of other some hedwisemen of 
 every citie and good towne of this oure lande,' who have 
 4 determyned us to make by see and by lande two armies 
 roiall for a substantial werre to be contynued upon the 
 Scotts unto such tyme we shall invade the realme of Scotland 
 in oure owne person, and shall have with Godd's grace re- 
 venged their grete outrage ... in such wise as we trust 
 the same our subjects shall lyve in rest and peace for many 
 yeares to come.' He goes on to say that ' the lords and other 
 of the same grete counseill considering well that the same 
 grete substantial! werre cannot be borne but by grete sommes 
 of redy money, have prested [lent] unto us every of them for 
 his part grete sommes of redy money ; . . . . and because as 
 we here ye be a man of good substaunee, we desire and pray 
 you to mak loon unto us of the somme . . . . ' [amount left 
 blank]. Then follow exact directions as to the way in which 
 the loan is to be made, but ending with the following ominous 
 and characteristic words : ' This is a thyng of so grete weight 
 and importance as may not be failed. And therefore faile ye 
 not for y r said part eftsoone we pray you, as ye tendre the 
 good and honour of this o r realme, and as ye tendre also the 
 wele and suretie of y r self.' 
 
 ' Yeven under our signet at o r paleys of Westm. the first 
 day of Decembre V 
 
 The initials at the head of the letter are the King's. It is 
 inscribed to Warden Hobby s, who governed the College from 
 1494 to 1503. But the King had come to the wrong man. 
 Hobbys, or Hobbes, had, like Henry himself, gained a little 
 experience in the rougher walks of life. He had twice been 
 'Northern Proctor' for the University, an office for which 
 men were elected by open vote, and which the stoutest 
 champion in battle generally obtained. In that capacity 
 he had been called upon to assert the rights of the University 
 against the people of Woodstock, who supported Hambden, 
 High Steward of the University, in levying a tax for the 
 
 1 Archives.
 
 in.] COURT CLAIMS ON FELLOWSHIPS. 37 
 
 King which was probably, since it was afterwards remitted, 
 illegal. Hambden no doubt an ancestor of the illustrious 
 patriot had to yield, after a battle, to Hobbys, and to sur- 
 render his brother, who was confined in Bocardo, the famous 
 old prison-gateway which formerly stood at the top of Corn- 
 market Street. 
 
 These experiences seem to throw light on the brief memo- 
 randum which we find, in the hand of the Commissioner, at 
 the foot of the King's missive. It was to this effect : ' Hee 
 hath given an oth that hee nedre may lend x^ ' [ten pounds'], 
 'nedre XLS, except he should borow hytt to his grete hurte/ 
 What the King said in reply to his baffled Commissioner 
 we know not ; still less how far the ' wele and suretie ' of the 
 sturdy Warden were affected by his refusal ; but we find him 
 a Canon of Windsor before he dies. 
 
 Another letter of the same period may conclude this 
 chapter. It is the first of many indications that if Kings 
 relinquished the hope of seizing the revenues of All Souls 
 in the gross, they, and many others besides them, very early 
 learnt to exhibit a tender interest in the separate emoluments 
 of its Fellowships. For two centuries there was a general 
 scramble in high places for these coveted posts, natural 
 enough if we bear in mind the intimate relations between 
 our Kings and Primates. Both no doubt considered the 
 election of their nominees as some sort of return due 
 for favours received, but it was most prejudicial to the 
 true interests of the College. The constant infraction of 
 the Statutes sapped the morality of the Fellows, and, per- 
 haps, led them gradually, under colour of self-defence, to 
 adopt a system of corrupt elections, which at least gave 
 them a better chance of securing their own privileges. But 
 for this scandal in high places we should, however, have 
 lost some of the most interesting passages in the history of 
 All Souls ; and we shall at least observe, from the intensity 
 of the struggle, which terminated at last in the purification
 
 38 THE EARLY DAYS OF THE COLLEGE. [CHAP. 
 
 of the College from an inveterate abuse, how dangerous are 
 the first steps, however plausible, in the process of inter- 
 ference with a self-governing institution. 
 
 Nothing can be milder than this first attempt, if indeed 
 it was the first. It has hitherto, like the foregoing letter, 
 been overlooked and undocketed by any previous examiner 
 of the College archives, perhaps because it is undated and 
 unsigned, but scarcely on account of its illegibility. The 
 letter is written on a very small, insignificant piece of parch- 
 ment, and merely headed 'By the Prince.' What prince ? The 
 collation of a few facts enables us to assign both name and 
 date. It is one of the most interesting documents of the 
 lesser domain of history, and would make the fortune of many 
 a collection. It is the only letter or paper, written in English, 
 known to have emanated from one of the most interesting 
 young princes our country has possessed, Arthur, Prince of 
 Wales, son of Henry the Seventh, the first husband of 
 Catharine of Aragon ! Its object is to make interest with 
 the College to elect a friend to a Fellowship. Being short, 
 it may be given verbatim: 
 
 ' By the Prince. 
 
 ' Trusty and right well beloved We grete you wel. And 
 forasmoche as we ben credibly informed that y or late elec- 
 tion is past and nowe of late devolved into the handes of 
 the most reverend fadre in God o r right trusty and most 
 entirely beloved cousin y e Cardinal of Canterbury, we 
 desire and right affectionately pray you that the rather for 
 o r sake and at the contemplation of these o r l res ' [letters] ' ye 
 wol have o r right and wellbeloved William Pickering, scoler 
 of lawe, inasmoche as he is of alliaunce unto the founder of 
 y r place, and that his fadre also is in y e right tendre fav r of 
 o r derrest modre the quene, especially named in y * next 
 election, as we especially trust you, whereynne be ye acer- 
 tayned us to be ' [be assured that we will be] ' unto you and 
 y r said place the more good and gracieux lord in eny y r 
 reasonable desires hereafter. 
 
 ' Yeven under or signet at the Manor of Sunninghill the 
 xvin day of November.'
 
 in.] PRINCE ARTHURS LETTER. 39 
 
 That it was one of the two sons of Henry the Seventh who 
 wrote this letter might be asserted from th,e evidence of the 
 orthography ; but as it could not have been written later than 
 1499 or 1500, it cannot be attributed to Prince Henry, who 
 was then only ten years old, nor would he be designated as 
 ' the Prince.' Archbishop Morton, the last Archbishop of 
 Canterbury before Pole who was a Cardinal, died in Sep- 
 tember, 1500, in the life-time of ' the quene our derrest modre,' 
 Elizabeth of York ; while the fact that the College elections 
 were always held in November throws the date back nearly 
 a year at least before Morton's death. The extreme youth 
 of even the eldest of the sons for Prince Arthur was only 
 in his fourteenth year might indeed be a difficulty in an 
 ordinary case, but it is not so in this. The Tudors were 
 eminently precocious, but Prince Arthur surpassed them all. 
 His tutor, Bernard Andre, considered his talents almost super- 
 human. Before he had attained his sixteenth year, 'he had 
 learnt parts of, or at least turned over with his own hands 
 and studied with his own eyes, in grammar, Garinus, Perotus, 
 Pomponius, Sulpicius, Aulus Gellius, Valla ; in poetry, Horace, 
 Virgil, Lucan, Ovid, Silius, Plautus, Terence; in rhetoric, 
 Cicero's Offices, Epistles, and Paradoxes, Quintilian ; in his- 
 tory, Thucydides, Livy, Caesar, Suetonius, Tacitus, Pliny. 
 Valerius Maximus, Sallust, and even EusebiusV 
 
 There are marks of character about the letter which in- 
 dicate the personal share of the writer in its composition ; 
 the affectionate manner, for example, in which he mentions 
 his mother, a woman well capable of inspiring such affection, 
 the earnestness with which he pleads for a friend, and the 
 lordly style with which he baits his request. He did not 
 live long to be the ' good and gracieux lord ' he hoped to 
 prove. 
 
 We have still less difficulty with respect to the Prince's 
 
 1 Quoted from Bernard Andre", in Gairdner's Memorials of King 
 Henry the Seventh.
 
 40 THE EARLY DAYS OF THE COLLEGE. 
 
 tender years when we compare this letter with the only two 
 others of his which are extant. The first of these, of about 
 the same date as that to All Souls, is a passionate love- 
 letter to the Princess Katharine, very much indeed beyond 
 what a boy of his age would think of writing in these 
 days ; and the last, to Ferdinand and Isabella, upon meet- 
 ing his bride, written two years later, is equally warm and 
 affectionate. Both of these are written in Latin, as was 
 natural *. 
 
 And yet, though he lived some two years at least after his 
 letter of recommendation, it is to be remarked that his suit 
 to the College entirely failed. The name of Pickering does 
 not appear on the register. This is the more remarkable 
 when we remember that Prince Arthur visited Oxford in 
 1501, and that the celebrated Lynacre, who had been elected a 
 Fellow of All Souls in 1484, and, after his return from Italy, 
 had succeeded Bernard Andre as tutor to the Prince, might 
 be supposed to have exercised his influence with the College. 
 Perhaps some other advancement was found for Pickering ; or 
 is it possible that we have here an instance of the resolution 
 of the College to guard its independence, even against the 
 insinuating attack of the accomplished boy-Tudor ? 
 
 The only reason that can be assigned for the letter being 
 written from Sunninghill, is t^hat ' Sunninghill Park was 
 formerly part of the royal demesnes V There was probably 
 some manor-house on it which was placed at the Prince's 
 disposal, or he might have lodged in the nunnery there. In 
 1542 Henry the Eighth held a Council at Sunninghill. In 
 that year died Sir William Pickering, Knight Marshall to 
 Henry. This was probably Prince Arthur's friend. 
 
 1 Bergenroth's Calendar of Spanish State Papers, vol. i. 
 pp. 246, 312. 
 
 2 Lysons' Berkshire.
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 0ttls aittr % 
 1443-1526. 
 
 The Abbess and Nuns of Syon Life and Manners of the 
 early Fellows Lynacre Latimer Leland Other dis- 
 tinguished Men Civil Law at All Souls .Archbishop 
 Warham Rapid succession to Fellowships. 
 
 SAVE and except the above indications of the perils through 
 which the society had passed, the College, so far as its records 
 have yet been searched, knows nothing 1 of the Wars of the 
 Roses. The partial impoverishment which befell it was 
 shared with the rest of the University and other corporate 
 bodies of the realm. Those records are generally, during the 
 first century after the Foundation, of that unimportant char- 
 acter which, like those of a country happy in ' having no 
 history,' betoken useful work and progressive development. 
 
 Besides the notices of the Chapel already mentioned, 
 perhaps the most suggestive entries are those made from 
 time to time of Confratres and Consorores. The successive 
 Primates, each in his turn, as he draws near the end of 
 his days, plead their claims as Visitors, and beg, as the 
 greatest of favours, that they may be admitted to the benefit 
 of the College prayers, dirges, and repetitions of De Pro- 
 fundis. Such petitioners of course do not ask in vain ; and 
 an occasional benefactor is also registered as a recipient of 
 this highly-prized privilege. One of the latest of these
 
 42 ALL SOULS AND THE RENAISSANCE. [CHAP. 
 
 entries is also the most curious. It is the admission of the 
 Abbess and other members of the Monastery of Syon to the 
 benefit of the College prayers. The elaborate document con- 
 veying the boon has been printed in Gutch's Collectanea 1 . 
 What obligation on the part of Syon the College thus repaid 
 is not known, nor are we told whether the kind of repay- 
 ment was entirely satisfactory to the ladies ; but the College 
 seems to make no doubt that it will be so. ' Others,' say 
 they, 'may repay in gold, silver, and gems, ... we in pearls 
 and necklaces of another kind, . . . we make you and your 
 successors partakers of all our Divine offices, chants, prayers, 
 masses, studies, alms, fasts, and indulgences.' 
 
 The Warden whose name appears in this document is 
 Woodward, who presided from 1526 to 1533, when he re- 
 signed. Its date, March 6, 1536, is therefore a difficulty. 
 It is possible that delay took place in the transmission, 
 caused perhaps by the suppression of the smaller monas- 
 teries in 1534. It may have been hoped in 1536 that the 
 storm had blown over, and that Syon would be saved ; but 
 the interesting point is that All Souls, as we shall see, 
 had made its full and complete submission to Henry the 
 Eighth as early as 1 534 ; thus shewing that as yet there 
 was no feeling of inconsistency between the acknowledg- 
 ment of the Supremacy of the Crown, and the Roman 
 Catholic doctrines involved in such a transmission of spiri- 
 tual privileges as the above. However this may be, the 
 document could hardly have been dated and dispatched be- 
 fore Syon fell. It was one of the first of the larger monastic 
 institutions to feel the heavy hands of Henry and Cromwell, 
 for it had given special offence in the matter of 'the Holy 
 Maid of Kent,' and was formally accused of harbouring the 
 King's enemies. 
 
 How curiously different the career of the two institu- 
 tions which had both felt Chichele's fostering care at their 
 
 1 Vol. ii. p. 268.
 
 iv.] THE NUNS OF SYON. 43 
 
 birth, and which thus exchanged good offices when on the 
 point of final separation ! Syon was founded by Henry the 
 Fifth in 1414, by Chichele's advice. At its opening Chichele, 
 as Archbishop, officiated with all ecclesiastical pomp, just 
 as he did, some thirty years later, at the consecration of 
 All Souls Chapel. Like All Souls, Syon was endowed by 
 the Crown from the estates of suppressed Alien Priories ; 
 like All Souls, as it was one of the latest medieval founda- 
 tions, so it was the most aristocratic. Its fashionable species 
 of monastic life under the rule of St. Austin (as then lately 
 reformed by St. Bridget, Queen of Sweden), its royal patron- 
 age, great wealth, and beautiful position on the Thames at 
 Isleworth, as well as its vast staff of eighty-five ' religious ' 
 in honour of the thirteen apostles and seventy-two disciples 1 , 
 made it a natural ally of the favoured College at Oxford 
 so munificently linked by Chichele to the memory of the 
 Lancastrian princes. No doubt scholars of one became priests 
 of the other; no doubt many a nun of Syon was to be 
 found as a pilgrim making her offerings at the glittering 
 shrines of All Souls. 
 
 But now the crash came. While the College was spared, 
 the Nunnery found its way into the hands of the Dukes 
 of Northumberland, with whom it has ever since remained ; 
 and the nuns set forth on their toilsome wanderings. The 
 stout English spirit in their gentle blood forbade them to 
 give way without a struggle, one of the most gallant and 
 prolonged on record. It lasted three hundred years. After 
 the failure of their fond attempts to settle near their own 
 land in the Low Countries and in France, they eventually 
 found a home at Lisbon, still keeping their English na- 
 tionality through all vicissitudes. In the seventeenth cen- 
 tury their convent was destroyed by fire. That did not 
 daunt them. They diligently begged for alms, and rebuilt 
 
 1 The number of eighty-five was composed of an abbess, fifty- 
 nine nuns, thirteen priests, four deacons, and eight lay-brethren.
 
 44 ALL SOULS AND THE RENAISSANCE. [CHAP. 
 
 their nest. Again their new abode was levelled to the 
 ground in the famous earthquake of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury ; and again it was rebuilt. But what fire and earthquake 
 had failed to effect was brought about by the 'Peninsular 
 War.' When Lisbon became the head-quarters of our army 
 the convent became the English hospital, and the forlorn 
 relic of the sisterhood, consisting of nine English ladies, 
 made their way back to their own land once more in 1810. 
 'In 1825 two or three of them were still alive in the 
 vicinity of the Staffordshire Potteries 1 .' Probably the last 
 thing which would occur to any of them in their distress 
 would be to knock at the gates of the College which had 
 once exchanged spiritual privileges with their remote pre- 
 decessors ! 
 
 As far as the individual members of the College and their 
 mode of life are concerned, there are no signs of wealth at 
 All Souls in its early period. Their buildings may be hand- 
 some, their Chapel magnificent, their endowments, with all 
 respect to Warden Warner, ample ; but no man has at his 
 disposal anything whatever beyond his food, his clothing, and 
 his share of a room. His 'commons' are fixed at one shilling 
 a week when wheat is cheap, one shilling and fourpence 
 when dear ; his ' livery ' is of too modest a value to enable 
 him to make any display in dress; two 'chamber-Fellows' 
 live together in one room. He must not even walk alone 
 outside the College, and then only within the distance of a 
 mile the limits being ' Greenditch Fosse on the North, the 
 cross upon the bridge going to Bagley on the South, Heading- 
 ton or Cowley on the East, and Hinksey or Botley on the 
 West.' The College accounts are presented to the Visitor 
 every year, and the surplus income of the College lands which 
 remains after the commons and livery are deducted, is, 
 should there be any, placed in the tower-chest. It is the 
 
 1 Dugdale's Monasticon, ed. Bandinel.
 
 iv.] LIFE IN COLLEGE. 45 
 
 Visitor, and he alone, who grants from time to time, not as 
 a matter of course, but as the greatest of favours, that some 
 small portion of this treasure may be divided amongst the 
 Fellows for the ' augmentation of commons.' But even this 
 does not appear for more than a century. At first there was 
 very seldom any surplus ; and if any occurred under some 
 peculiarly favourable circumstance, it was to go towards pro- 
 viding what was necessary for the improvement of the College 
 property. Gradually, after the Reformation, some portion 
 came to be assigned to the purchase of livings for the Fellows; 
 this being the method, and not a bad one, by which such 
 learning as the Universities possessed was to be circulated 
 throughout the country 1 . 
 
 At the early period of which we are speaking, we find 
 notices of the addition to the College property of the vari- 
 ous little tenements which once occupied its present ample 
 site, three of which were small ancient Halls. The College 
 lands are managed by the members of the College appointed 
 for that purpose, annual ' progresses ' being regularly made 
 to receive the rents and consult the wood-wards ; for most of 
 the land is as yet covered with forests, and leases are almost 
 unknown. Payments are for centuries very frequently made in 
 trees instead of money. College stables, College grooms, and 
 College horses are necessary for this purpose. Disputes as to 
 the respective rights of the Warden and Fellows in the use 
 of these horses, which came no doubt to be employed largely 
 for other purposes than those of the ' progress/ occur even 
 as late as the beginning of the seventeenth century. It need 
 hardly be said that so agreeable a mode of taking exercise 
 at the expense of the College ceased long ago to be in the 
 power of either the Warden or Fellows ! 
 
 The Statutes, like those of most other Colleges, contain 
 the minutest regulations as to behaviour and discipline. 
 
 1 See Chap. VII, sub finem.
 
 46 ALL SOULS AND THE RENAISSANCE. [CHAP. 
 
 The Bible or some other sacred writing is to be read out 
 by the appointed person at dinner, while the strictest silence 
 is to be preserved. Severe penalties are imposed for any inter- 
 ruption. After dinner, which is at eleven o'clock, after supper, 
 and after the ' potations ' in hall at Curfew-time, 
 
 ' Grace having been said and the Cup of Charity passed 
 round, the Fellows are to betake themselves to their studies 
 or other places within the College, and the seniors are not 
 to suffer the juniors to linger in the hall. But on the 
 principal feasts and the greater double feasts, and when 
 College business, or disputations, or other important College 
 matters are to be transacted, or when, in winter-time, the 
 Fellows are allowed a fire in the hall out of reverence to 
 God and his mother, or any other saint or solemnity, then, 
 by way of recreation, the Scholars and Fellows may, after 
 dinner or supper, divert themselves for a reasonable time with 
 songs and other proper amusements (cantilenis et aliis solatiis 
 honestis], as well as in the more serious discussion of poemata 
 Regnorwn, Cronicas, et mundi kujus mirabilia et cetera quae 
 Clericalem statum condecorant.' 
 
 These arrangements for recreation are copied verbatim from 
 the Statutes of New College, and must have been well tested 
 in his own youth by the Founder. On the eve of the Renais- 
 sance the fifteenth century still accepted the manners of the 
 fourteenth. The words in the text have often excited the 
 curiosity of the antiquarian. Warton in his History of Poetry 1 
 says that ' the cantilena which the scholars should sing on 
 these occasions were a sort of poemata or poetical chronicles 
 containing general histories of kingdoms.' Hearne collected 
 some fragments of this kind which were ' supposed to have 
 been written about the time of Richard the First, but I rather 
 assign them,' says he, ' to the reign of Edward the First.' 
 But surely Warton here seems to have attempted to explain 
 separate and distinct things by the simple process of mixing 
 them all up with one another. What were the cantilena ? 
 There is indeed a certain ancient song peculiar to the College 
 
 1 PP- 93-4-
 
 iv.] DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARS. 47 
 
 of which we find mention at a later date than this, and which 
 will be found discussed in an Appendix. Whether this was 
 one of the cantilena will ever remain a doubt ! 
 
 Warton supposes the ( mirablUa mundi ' to be from such 
 sources as Marco Polo, Mandeville, and other travellers of the 
 Middle Ages. With his usual penetration he distinguishes 
 Marco Polo from the herd. What w r ould he have said to 
 Colonel Yule's late splendid edition of the medieval Hero- 
 dotus, which vindicates him from the aspersions of centuries ! 
 
 The College Library, excellent for those times, was en- 
 riched by successive donations from the Founder and co- 
 Founder and other distinguished men, among whom we 
 find, in the next century, the names of Cardinal Pole, 
 and Pole Bishop of Peterborough, specially mentioned. It has 
 long been engulfed and superseded by Codrington's magnifi- 
 cent Foundation ; but it did its work. Few Colleges, if any, 
 can boast such students as All Souls in its earlier days. 
 If the mass of them came more prominently before their 
 contemporaries in the exercise of their function ad orandum, 
 they certainly laid more stress than most on the injunc- 
 tion which in their Charter came first in order ad studendum. 
 Fuller, writing in 1662, describes All Souls as 'the fruitful 
 nursery of so many learned men 1 .' In the notice of All 
 Souls at the foot of Loggan's print of the College in the 
 seventeenth century we find, 'usque ab exordiis viri cele- 
 lerrimi prodierunt? It will not therefore surprise us to 
 find that among the earliest entries on the College books 
 occur notices of permission of absence, given to different 
 Fellows for stated periods, in order that they may pursue 
 their studies at foreign Universities. At the particular crisis 
 of English literature which we associate with the later 
 portion of the fifteenth century such a fact goes far to 
 explain Fuller's remark. For after the fall of Constanti- 
 nople in 1453, ^ was a * Padua, Florence, Rome, and the 
 
 1 Worthies, p. 293.
 
 48 ALL SOULS AND THE RENAISSANCE. [CHAP. 
 
 other great Italian centres of the Renaissance, that learned 
 Greeks and precious Greek manuscripts were to be found ; 
 and we know very fully from Erasmus how successfully the 
 English bees had gathered the Italian honey, and stored it 
 up at Oxford. Of the ever-glorious names which have come 
 down to us in this connection, two out of the six which 
 Oxford specially boasts are All Souls men, and not the least 
 distinguished. Dean Colet and Lily were from Magdalen, 
 Grocyn from New College, he afterwards became ' Header ' 
 at Magdalen, Tunstall from Balliol, Lynacre and Latimer 
 from All Souls. Leland's catalogue of these luminaries is 
 well known, but will bear repeating : 
 
 ' Lumina doctrinse, Grocinus deinde secutus, 
 
 Sellingus, Lynacer, Latimarusque plus, 
 Dunstallus, Phoenix, Stocleius atque Coletus, 
 
 Lilius et Paceus, festa corona vivvirn, 
 Omnes Italiam petierunt sidere fausto, 
 
 Et nituit Latiis musa Britanna scholis ; 
 Omnes inque suam patriam rediere diserti, 
 
 Secum thesauros et retulere suos.' 
 
 Lynacre has been already mentioned as tutor to Prince 
 Arthur. He w r as also tutor in Italian to Katharine of 
 Aragon. His connection with All Souls dates from 1484, 
 when he was elected Fellow, and Wood in his Athense tells 
 us that ' by his close retirement at this College he improved 
 himself very much in literature, and in a few years after, 
 much more by his travels in Italy.' The study of Greek 
 and the study of Medicine are the employments with which 
 his residence in Italy are historically connected ; he became 
 Professor of Medicine at Padua, and eventually in England 
 the founder and first President of our College of Physicians : 
 finally, he established Professorships of Greek at both 
 Oxford and Cambridge. But his grand position as the father 
 of English medical science was not attained by any isolated 
 study of particular subjects. His w r as the true philosophical 
 mind which assimilated every particle of intellectual nourish-
 
 iv.] LYNACRE AND LATYMER. 49 
 
 merit the age could afford, the mind of the truly educated 
 man, 6 TTCLV Treiraibev^vos. He achieved such various 
 distinction that it has been questioned whether he was 
 ' a better Latinist or Grecian, a better grammarian or phy- 
 sician.' In the succeeding age his fame as grammarian 
 seems to have been the most generally known. 'That 
 famous grammarian Linacre,' says the great-grandson of 
 Sir Thomas More in his Life of his ancestor, written about 
 1 627 *. His eminence as a physician has been more asserted 
 in modern times. His praises, however, scattered throughout 
 the pages of Erasmus and Leland, are too well known to 
 require special notice in this place. 
 
 To modern ears the name of Lynacre is not altogether 
 unfamiliar. The father of a great and distinguished pro- 
 fession, his name has been justly preserved in the founda- 
 tion of a modern Professorship at Oxford, and the linea- 
 ments of his shrewd countenance have come down to us 
 in a famous contemporary picture by Quintin Matsys, 
 an excellent copy of which now adorns All Souls. But 
 in his own age he was scarcely more distinguished than 
 his All Souls friend and literary colleague, William Latymer, 
 whose name is forgotten. Of him Wood says that 'he 
 left a name second to none for generality of learning V 
 He was elected Fellow of All Souls in 1489, and 'spent 
 some years there in logicals and philosophical ; ' then 
 followed Lynacre, his senior by five years, into Italy, 
 where he ' obtained the name of the most excellent 
 Grecian and philosopher,' and on his return was associated 
 with Lynacre and Grocyn in the translation of Aristotle 3 . 
 His friendship with Erasmus is well known. Erasmus 
 styles him, 'vere theologus integritate vita conspictius.' 
 The Roman Catholic author of Sir Thomas More's Life, 
 
 1 In the Bodleian Library. 
 
 2 Wood's Hist, of Oxford University. Orig. MS. Bodl. Lib. 
 
 3 Tanner's Bibl. Biog. 
 
 E
 
 50 ALL SOULS AND THE RENAISSANCE. [CHAP. 
 
 quoted above, describes him (p. 95) as that wonderful 
 man's ' verie great acquaintance/ and characteristically tells 
 us that it is ' William Lattimer ' of whom he is speaking, 
 'not Hugh the Heretike that was burnt, but another most 
 famous for vertue and good letters.' Pace also was his 
 intimate friend, and Cardinal Pole was his pupil. What 
 can be nobler than Leland's encomium, ' Latimarusque 
 plus ' / 
 
 Yet one more luminary of that age comes forth to complete 
 the trio, the encomiast himself, the great Leland, the father 
 of English antiquarians, if not of English history, regarded 
 in its aspect of strictly accurate research. His name 
 indeed does not appear, like those of Lynacre and Latymer, 
 on the register of Fellows ; but he ' spent many years in 
 study at All Souls 1 / drawn there, it is said, by its proxi- 
 mity to Humphrey Duke of Gloucester's Library, which 
 to this day ' forms the central portion of the great Reading 
 Room ' of the Bodleian 2 , and residing no doubt under the 
 patronage of one or both of the Fellows just named. Of 
 him it might seem an insult to the reader to say anything 
 in detail ; but possibly a couple of short quotations may 
 be acceptable to some. From Wood we will only take the 
 following sentence : ' This incomparable worthy, by \vhose 
 immature death (having been a walking library while 
 living) Britain hath susteyned an irreparable loss 3 .' Bale 
 may be quoted at greater length, since he was Leland's 
 personal friend. 
 
 ' I was, ' says he, ' as familiarly acquainted with him as 
 with whom I am best acquainted, and do know certainly 
 that he from his youth was so earnestly studious and desirous 
 of our antiquities that always his whole studies were 
 
 1 Wood's Athenae ; Burton's Corollarium vitse Lelandi ; Hall's 
 Preface to Leland's Commentaries. 
 
 2 Macray's Annals of the Bodleian, p. 8. 
 
 3 Wood's Hist, of Oxf. University. Orig. MS. BodL Lib.
 
 iv.] ISLAND 'ANTIQUARIUS.' 01 
 
 directed to this end. And for the true and full attaining 
 thereunto he not only applied himself to the knowledge of 
 the Greek and Latin tongues wherein he was, I might say, 
 excellently learned, but also to the study of the British, 
 Saxonish and Welsh tongues, and so much profited therein 
 that he most perfectly understood them. And yet not 
 herewith all content he did fully and wholly both labour 
 and travail in his own person through this our realm 
 and certain of the dominions thereof, because he would 
 have the perfect and full knowledge of all things that 
 might be gathered and learned both for things memorable 
 and the situation of the same. And as for all authors of 
 Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, British, Saxonish, 
 Welsh, English, or Scottish, touching- in any wise the 
 understanding of our antiquities, he had so fully read and 
 applied them that they were in a manner g-raffed in him 
 as of nature. So that he might well call himself "Anti- 
 quariusV ' 
 
 That this intellectual giant should have died deranged 
 will surprise no one. It is curious that All Souls should 
 have supplied in successive ages the two scholars who, with 
 the exception of Dugdale, have rescued from destruction 
 the largest antiquarian spoils contained in the records of 
 monasteries. Leland's Commission from Henry the Eighth 
 to the monastic houses before their spoliation afforded him an 
 unrivalled opportunity, and never was an opportunity better 
 used. Nearly two centuries later Tanner secured what 
 perishing fragments were still left. 
 
 Other Fellows of this period are noted in the pages of con- 
 temporaries for their learning, several expressly as mathe- 
 maticians, but the three names already mentioned stand out 
 supereminent, and are enough for the purpose of this book, 
 which is to give a general sketch rather than a minute history. 
 To some extent these men may be taken as representatives of 
 the rest. Though each resided many years within the College, 
 we find no special mention of them. Chichele's foundation 
 
 1 Preface to the 'Laborious Journey and Search of John 
 Leland for England's Antiquities.' 
 
 E 2
 
 52 ALL SOULS AND THE RENAISSANCE. [CHAP. 
 
 supplied them with all they wanted Looks, leisure, daily food 
 and clothes, learned society, religious Services, an orderly way 
 of life. By a liberal interpretation of the Founder's intentions 
 the College encouraged their visits to foreign Universities ; 
 and whatever merit may be due to King Henry the Seventh 
 and Warham for their sanction or promotion of these visits, 
 the enlightened conduct of the College deserves the most 
 grateful recognition. They pass on the torch of literature for 
 some forty or fifty years. Can it be doubted that these high- 
 priests of the Renaissance left their mark on their associates 
 as well as on the greater world for which they studied, 
 travelled, wrote, and taught ? The standard they erected was 
 noble and lofty, and the College acknowledged it in the 
 best of all ways by the sort of men it sent forth into the 
 world. 
 
 Besides the studies peculiar to that period of abounding 
 energy, General. Literature, Mathematics, and Medicine, 
 those of Canon and Civil Law especially nourished at All Souls. 
 This, as we have seen, was one great object of the far-sighted 
 and experienced Founder. He evidently contemplated from 
 the first the direct as well as indirect service of the Crown 
 by his Fellows, and to that the Law, as it has been ever 
 since, was the natural avenue. The sixteen Jurists made up 
 nearly one half- of his foundation of forty Fellows. These 
 men, like himself, were in succeeding ages largely employed, 
 as no doubt he intended they should be, in the public service. 
 We have briefly traced the career of the first Warden, Dean 
 Andre we. Poteman, the fourth Warden, followed Andrewe 
 in resigning his office. He too became a Commissioner under 
 Edward the Fourth for treating with Scotland, and, eventually, 
 Archdeacon of Cleveland. Broke, the seventh Warden, was 
 Moderator of the School of Canon Law at Oxford, or as we 
 should now call him, Professor. Warner, the eleventh Warden, 
 who was twice Proctor for the University, twice Warden of 
 All Souls, and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, was also the first
 
 iv.] LAWYERS AND THE PUBLIC SERVICE. 53 
 
 Oxford Regius Professor of Medicine. He was at least once 
 employed as a member of the French Embassy, and died Dean 
 of Winchester. Weston was Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and 
 was designated by Queen Elizabeth Chancellor of England, 
 but died on the way to take up that office. At the end of the 
 first century after the foundation of the College we find in 
 the course of twenty years no less than four Fellows who 
 became in turn the Professors of Civil Law in the University 
 of Oxford, while in the reigns of Henry the Eighth and 
 Elizabeth three Fellows figure as successive Deans of Arches, 
 and others attain the post of Master of Bequests, or become 
 Chancellors of different dioceses. The precedents and tra- 
 ditions thus formed, with respect to Law, Medicine, and the 
 Public Service, assume importance in the later history of the 
 College. They are noticed in this place by way of illustrating 
 the history of the times, and especially the wide and varied 
 uses to which statesmen in those days put the Universities. 
 
 It would seem that it was this strong legal element 
 planted in the College by the Founder which chiefly exer- 
 cised the patience and temper of the successive Archbishops 
 of Canterbury, from whose interesting letters, in their capa- 
 city of Visitors, we are enabled to gather numerous parti- 
 culars for our purpose during the sixteenth and seventeenth 
 centuries. And we may here remark that there is scarcely 
 an Archbishop since Chichele's time from whom the College 
 has not in its possession some document formally exercising 
 statutable rights in the nomination of Fellows or officers 
 when devolved upon the Visitor, or some letter dealing with 
 matters which required his interference. Side by side with 
 the Royal deeds which enrich the Archives (the Great 
 Seal of England marking the succession of nearly every 
 Sovereign), containing some Re-grant of lands, or some 
 Pardon which secured the College from the charge of a 
 possibly constructive treason, will be found in equally regular 
 succession the stately seal of Metropolitan Canterbury. The
 
 54 ALL SOULS AND THE RENAISSANCE. [CHAP. 
 
 mere juxtaposition of these relics of the past tells its own 
 story. It is a history in itself of English Church and State. 
 Yet it would be unfair to the lawyers to omit the fact 
 that the first of many very sharp missives from Lambeth, 
 now in possession of the College, relates to the alleged 
 delinquencies of beneficed clergymen. It is from Warham, 
 the friend and patron of the great All Souls men, Lynacre 
 and Latymer, the last of the Archbishops who sought and 
 obtained the stated prayers of the College for his soul. 
 This letter is addressed to ' Maister William Broke, Wardeyne 
 of my College of Alsoules in Oxford.' Like the two previous 
 letters given above, it is undated, but must be limited by 
 the tenure of both Warham' s and Broke's offices to the 
 period between 1504 and 1525. It commences with ' Brother 
 Wardeyne,' and is directed, in a tone of great indignation, 
 against a practice, which was creeping into the College, of 
 persons pretending f to kepe and enjoy their said place in 
 the said College with their said Benefice, contrary to th'ordi- 
 nances of your Statutes in that behalve.' 
 
 ' Lothe wold I be,' says the Visitor, ' to suffer y e mynde 
 of y r Fundator to be defrauded or broken . . . and if this sh d 
 be suffered to contynue by such colorable meanes and wayes, 
 every felowe of that College being beneficed shall pretend 
 to kepe both his College and also his benefice as long as 
 it sh d please him, wher in his roome another scholer might 
 profit and doo good. ... In case that they will fall to the 
 plee of the Lawe I shall be contented to bere the costs and 
 charges thereof myselve 1 .' 
 
 The vigour with which Warham writes, the resolution he 
 shewed to put an end to an abuse, and his mode of speak- 
 ing of ' my College,' which College indeed always styled 
 itself, in letters to the Visitor, familia vestra, are points 
 worth observing in the last princely Primate of the un- 
 reformed Church. His letter seems to have been effective ; 
 
 1 Archives.
 
 iv.] ARCHBISHOP WARHAM. 55 
 
 for no other instance of the abuse presents itself to our 
 notice in the subsequent ages. Stagnation is thus pre- 
 vented. A constant movement is going 1 on, as the Founder 
 intended it should go on. 
 
 This may introduce the remark that for the first two 
 centuries after the Foundation of the College the succession 
 to Fellowships is wonderfully uniform, and, in comparison 
 with aftertimes, very rapid. Down to about 1640 the 
 average number of vacancies in a year is four and a fraction. 
 From 1640 to 1780 they are about three in a year. From 
 1780 to 1850, a little over two and a half in a year. How 
 is this change to be accounted for ? We shall perhaps receive 
 fresh light as we proceed with our history; but no doubt 
 there were many more openings for University men, and 
 especially All Souls lawyers, at the earlier than at the later 
 dates. No less than seven Wardens out of the first eleven 
 resigned their office : none afterwards left their post till 
 relieved by death or forced by violence. Perhaps also the 
 increasing comfort and prosperity of the College, which 
 began in the reign of Elizabeth, may have had the effect 
 of inducing the Fellows to remain longer in such good 
 quarters. Certainly the change, in the case of the Wardens, 
 is synchronous with the provision of superior lodgings for 
 them. But as these considerations are not of themselves 
 sufficient to account for the growing increase in the average 
 length of tenure of Fellowships, we shall have by-and-by 
 to look further for a cause 1 . 
 
 1 This may be the place to mention that the term ' Fellow' is 
 applied in these pages, for the sake of convenience, from the date 
 of election, though for the first year the name of ' Scholar' or 
 ' Probationary Fellow' is technically correct. Confusion is sure to 
 arise unless this course is pursued in the narrative, since Founder's 
 Kin were allowed the privilege of being 'admitted' at once, 
 without the year of Probation.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 gJJ Souls ai % 
 
 1534-1558- 
 
 Why the College was spared at the Reformation Renunciation 
 of Papal Supremacy The chief Wardens of All Souls 
 Cranmer's Visitation; and letter to the College demanding 
 Soldiers ' Corrupt Resignations ' Letter from Edward the 
 Sixth The Commissioners of 1549; their proceedings at 
 All Souls All Souls the first College in Oxford to possess 
 'Organs' and an Organist Reaction under Mary Papal 
 government by Cardinals Cardinal Pole. 
 
 How did the Reformation affect All Souls? How could 
 an institution so eminently medieval and Roman Catholic 
 in its Foundation escape the hand of the spoiler ? The 
 University Commissioners of 1852 l have attributed it 
 entirely to the prominent place given in the Statutes to 
 the ' Collegiate element/ which eclipsed or atoned for the 
 functions assigned to the College in relation to prayers for 
 the departed. We must, with all respect, take exception to 
 this mode of accounting for the fact. Collegiate institutions 
 existing side by side with the Colleges which were spared, 
 and equally devoted to purposes of study, fell without grace 
 or mercy. Even the monasteries and nunneries were the 
 common schools of the age; for Winchester and Eton 
 
 Report, p. 217.
 
 WHY THE COLLEGE WAS SPARED. 57 
 
 were but just taking off a few lads to be trained on a 
 superior system j yet none were spared. 
 
 What then made the difference? It was nothing- more 
 nor less than the fact that while the one set of institutions 
 were in the hands of monks and friars, these persons had 
 been from the first expressly excluded from the other. 
 Public opinion, or at any rate that of its influential classes, 
 upheld the Crown in abolishing 1 the first; the last were as 
 necessary as they ever were for the benefit of the parochial 
 clergy and for the general culture of society. It was only 
 necessary that they should accept the Reformation like the 
 rest of the country. This was not attended with much 
 difficulty, though of course it could not be done without 
 some opposition. The rivalry between the Colleges where 
 no Regulars were admitted, and those where they were, 
 was coeval with the foundation of every one of the former, 
 and no assistance was likely to be forthcoming on their part 
 when the doom of their rivals was pronounced. Henry and 
 his advisers saw plainly enough the advantage they might 
 thus gain in executing the projects they had at heart. 
 In the persons of the monks and friars all the defenders of 
 the Papal system, with its hateful Supremacy and corrupt 
 Courts, received a death-blow. In the Colleges which were 
 retained, and in the secular clergy which they supplied to 
 the parishes of the land, remained the National as opposed 
 to the Papal spirit, the inheritance of the principles which 
 had never ceased to work against Rome from the earliest 
 ages. 
 
 But more than this. The Tudor princes of the Reformation, 
 with their highly cultivated minds, well understood the 
 importance of retaining and using to the utmost these foci 
 of intellectual light, through which alone they could hope 
 to perpetuate the Reformation they were pledged to carry 
 through. Greedy courtiers might suggest that the Uni- 
 versities and Colleges should be treated as the monastic
 
 58 ALL SOULS AT THE REFORMATION. [CHAP. 
 
 bodies had been treated ; but to this the Tudors, though 
 sometimes shewing- how severely they were tempted, ever 
 turned a deaf ear. If the medieval Founders had been alive, 
 these Sovereigns argued, no doubt, patriots and statesmen as 
 they were, and having openly expressed in their Statutes 
 their sentiments with respect to the ' Pope's body-guard' 
 of monks and friars, they would have agreed with the rest 
 of the nation in casting away the yoke which had often so 
 heavily pressed upon themselves. Through the Universities 
 and Colleges alone could the change be made without a 
 relapse into barbarism. They were the fly-wheel of the 
 machinery which kept it going during the dead period 
 between the loss of one motive power and the establishment 
 of another. The Tudor Reformation was to be no return 
 to the dark ages, but rather the intellectual as well as 
 spiritual elevator of the whole population. 
 
 The history of All Souls illustrates these remarks. Not 
 one word do we find as to the struggles which must have 
 occurred at the early stages of the Keformation. Perhaps, 
 however, we must not build too much on such negative in- 
 ference ; for if a certain Henry Gold, who was hung at 
 Tyburn for his alleged concern in the affair of 'the Holy 
 Maid of Kent,' was the same person as a Fellow of the 
 College of that name and date (which seems more than 
 probable) , his example might not have been very encouraging 
 to the rest. It is more to the purpose to observe that Leland 
 had accepted the Reformation very early ; and we may well 
 suppose that his strong anti-papal influence was not unfelt 
 in the College which had sheltered him for so many years. 
 If the Renaissance had opened the eyes of any society, we 
 have seen reason to think that it must have operated upon 
 All Souls. And the connection of the College with Cranmer 
 as its Visitor must also have had its weight on his ' family.' 
 How much was due to fear of the King, and how much to 
 conviction, we shall never know ; but the renunciation of
 
 v.] PA PAL S UP RE MA CY RENO UNO JED. 5 9 
 
 the Pope by the College and its acceptance of the King as 
 ' Caput Ecclesite Anglican^,' dated September 28, 1534, is 
 explicit enough, and is certainly very far from betraying 
 any struggle or suspicion of compromise. 
 
 In this document Warden Stokeley and the Fellows 
 
 ' with one mouth and voice assent and consent, under 
 our common seal affixed in our chapter house' [no doubt the 
 Ante-chapel, which was used for official assemblies of the 
 College], for ourselves and each and all of our successors for 
 ever, profess, testify, and faithfully promise that we, the 
 said Warden and Fellows, and each and all of our successors, 
 will always keep whole and inviolate a sincere and perpetual 
 fidelity, deference, and obedience to our King Henry the 
 Eighth and Queen Anne his wife, and to the legitimate 
 descendants of him and the said Anne begotten and to be 
 begotten, and that we will make the same known, preach, 
 and persuade others wherever place and opportunity permit/ 
 
 They then, declaring Henry to be ' Head of the English 
 Church/ pronounce that 
 
 'the Bishop of Rome, who in his bulls usurps the title 
 of Pope, and claims for himself the headship of a Supreme 
 Pontiff, has no higher jurisdiction granted him by God in 
 this realm of England than any other foreign Bishop;' and 
 promise that ' none of us in any private or public discourse 
 will mention the said Bishop of Rome by the name of Pope or 
 Supreme Pontiff, but by the name of the Bishop of Rome 
 and of the Roman Church, and that none of us will pray 
 for him as Pope, but only as Bishop of Rome ; also that we 
 will adhere to the said lord the King alone and to his suc- 
 cessors, and will maintain his laws and decrees, renouncing 
 for ever the laws, decrees and canons of the Bishop of Rome 
 which shall be found to be against the Divine law, against 
 the Holy Scriptures, or against the rights of this realm ; also 
 that none of us shall presume in any private or public dis- 
 course to twist anything taken from Holy Scripture to any 
 other sense, but that each of us will preach Christ, his 
 words and acts, simply, openly, sincerely, and according to 
 the original pattern or rule of Holy Scripture and of the 
 catholic or orthodox Doctors in a catholic and orthodox 
 manner ; and that each of us in his own prayers and in the 
 customary common Drovers sha-U commend to God and the
 
 60 ALL SOULS AT THE REFORMATION [CHAP. 
 
 people first of all the King- as supreme Head of the English 
 Church, then Queen Anne with her offspring 1 , then finally 
 the Archbishops of Canterbury and York with the other 
 orders of the clergy, as shall seem fit/ 
 
 Gutch has given this document in its original Latin form 
 in his Collectanea Curiosa, and the only point worth noticing 
 in it here is the omission of the famous qualifying words 
 insisted on at an earlier date by Convocation ; ' quantum per 
 Christi legem licet.' The College adopted the phrase of Par- 
 liament, and was satisfied, we may hope, with the King's 
 explanation that he did not claim the Headship of the Church 
 in spiritual things, but only in temporal things, 'in those 
 we be indeed in this realm caput, and because there is no 
 man above us here, supremum caput 1 .' This after all was 
 ' no new thing/ but only what even the zealot Gardiner, 
 Bishop of Winchester, declared was ' a power which of Divine 
 right belonged to the prince 2 .' Though the title was 
 offensive, and very properly changed by Elizabeth into that 
 of ' Supreme Governor/ it did in reality only mean what is 
 expressed in the Bidding Prayer, that the King is 'in all 
 causes and over all persons, ecclesiastical and civil, within 
 these his dominions supreme,' and that the English Eccle- 
 siastical Courts and Councils were independent of the Pope's 
 jurisdiction. This is the position of the Crown laid down by 
 all the greatest lawyers as inherent in the Constitution, a 
 position of which the Crown was deprived for a time, and 
 which, as the lawyers phrase it, was t restored ' to it at the 
 Reformation. On this we need not dwell. We might well 
 expect that All Souls would be less careful in this matter 
 than the assembled clergy of the realm. Its society was 
 largely composed of lawyers, and the Universities generally 
 had been prepared, long before the rest of the nation, for 
 the great change now taking place. 
 
 1 Wilkins' Concilia, iii. 704. 
 
 2 De Vera Obedientia (published 1535).
 
 v.] THE CHIEF WARDENS OF ALL SOULS. 61 
 
 A little later, July 3, 1544, we find the College obtaining 
 a small portion of the monastic spoils. It still possesses a 
 grant of lands which the Crown had confiscated, and which 
 Warden Warner had bought for ^200 8s. ad. and i obol. 
 This is sealed with the Great Seal, bearing the legend, 
 ' Henricus Octavus, &c. . . Fidei Defensor et in terra Ecclesie 
 Anglicane et Hibernie supremum caput.' More interest than 
 usual attaches to this seal, inasmuch as the year 1544 was 
 that in which the King's style was set forth for the first time 
 in the above manner, and when it was made treason to object 
 to the new form. A remnant of some previous inscription on 
 the edge of the seal reminds us that the style had only just 
 been altered, and suggests the anxiety of the College officials 
 to leave no loophole by which the creatures of the King 
 might invade the new acquisition of the community. 
 
 We have attempted to trace the general causes of the suc- 
 cessful emergence of the Universities and Colleges from the 
 dangers in which they were involved by the Reformation. 
 This is the province of history, even when concerned with so 
 small a society as a College ; but it would be very unsatis- 
 factory to neglect the strong personal influence exercised over 
 its fortunes by the governors whom it possessed at critical 
 periods. All Souls has been particularly happy in this respect. 
 Through very nearly the whole period of the Reformation 
 through a part of the reign of Henry the Eighth, through 
 that pf Edward the Sixth, through part of Mary's, and most 
 of Elizabeth's reign the College was steered by helmsmen of 
 the greatest ability and good sense, by Wardens Warner and 
 Hoveden ; through the troubles of the Stuarts by Wardens 
 Sheldon and Jeames; through the difficulties of the reigns 
 of Queen Anne and George the First by Warden Gardiner. 
 Each of these men, even the last, with all his faults, seems 
 to have been specially adapted for dealing with the peculiar 
 dangers to which the College was exposed, whether they 
 arose from the changes of religion, the luxury and corruptions
 
 62 ALL SOULS AT THE REFORMATION. [CHAP. 
 
 which crept in with the lapse of years, the arbitrary pro- 
 ceeding's of monarchs and courtiers, the political conflicts of 
 the nation, or the factions which existed among- the Fellows. 
 It is from the progress of these various struggles that we 
 shall reap our best crop of illustrations of English history. 
 
 In the case of the two first of these five remarkable War- 
 dens we have to proceed very much by way of inference. 
 The records are scanty; but their deeds remain. We must 
 fill up the spaces as we best can. But before we notice their 
 individual share in the transactions of the College we must 
 clear the road by a brief narrative of its more general history. 
 
 There have been four solemn ' Visitations ' of the College, 
 since its Foundation, by the proper Visitor, the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury of the day. To these must be added two other 
 National Visitations connected with the Revolutions of the 
 period, that by King Edward the Sixth at the Reformation, 
 and by the Parliament during the ' Commonwealth,' both of 
 which closely affected All Souls. Cranmer, Whitgift, Tenison, 
 and Wake are the four Visitors who thought it necessary to 
 adopt this stringent method of proceeding. Others are found 
 occasionally taking credit to themselves for trying to obtain 
 reforms by milder and less unpopular means. 
 
 Cranmer's Visitation took place in 1541, and was occa- 
 sioned by a complaint of certain scandals among the Fellows. 
 His Injunctions, which were the result of his Visitation, 
 are prefaced by a declaration that he found ' enormous ' 
 abuses going on. These are only hinted at in so formal a 
 document ; but it is abundantly clear that the Colleges, 
 like the monasteries, required examination at the hand of 
 authority, and, if they were to survive, reform. The 
 religious and social perturbations of the times had no doubt 
 relaxed many of the old restraints ; but it is observable 
 that so late as 1541 there is not a word in these Injunctions 
 relating to any change of religion. Long before this the 
 Bible had been set up in the parish churches, and we have
 
 v.] CRANMER'S INJUNCTIONS. 63 
 
 seen that the College had accepted Holy Scripture as the 
 supreme standard of faith; but there is nothing about it in 
 the Injunctions. Attendance at ' High Mass' is enforced. 
 Every religious observance remains untouched. This was 
 the early policy of the King and his advisers. The nation 
 being set free from the uncatholic yoke of Rome, and 
 everything being referred to the National Courts, the change 
 was to shape itself by degrees, as the knowledge of the Bible 
 increased and the teaching of the reformed clergy extended. 
 Yet in this very year the King and Cranmer began to take 
 more decided measures. 
 
 It would be tedious to quote much from the above body 
 of Injunctions. Like most of the subsequent missives from 
 Lambeth, if a little querulous, they breathe a spirit of good 
 sense and piety. It is here that we find the first of a series 
 of sumptuary laws, which we must take for granted were 
 necessary, or at least not unsuitable for the times. The 
 Warden and Fellows are to wear ' gowns reaching to the 
 heels, shirts that are plain and not gathered round the 
 collar or arms, or ornamented with silk.' The Fellows had 
 evidently begun to receive their 'livery' in money. This 
 is stopped. They are to receive it in cloth only. Dogs 
 are to be rigorously excluded from the College. Penalties 
 are imposed for absence from College, insubordination, 
 quarrels and intemperance ; for which last there are no less 
 than four different names, with a saving clause at the end ; 
 ' compotationibus, ingurgUationilius, crapulis, ebrietatibus ac aliis 
 enormibus et excessivis commessationibus? No private servants 
 are to be kept, no lads to reside in College. Newly-elected 
 Fellows are not to be required to entertain the rest. But 
 above all, there are no less than four clauses devoted to 
 the practice which had crept in of taking money for the 
 Resignation of Fellowships. The penalty is nothing less 
 than the summary forfeiture of the Fellowship, whether 
 the arrangement is made directly or indirectly ; and as- every
 
 64 ALL SOULS AT THE REFORMATION. [CHAP. 
 
 one must swear to obey these Injunctions, or undergo the 
 penalty attached, the Archbishop no doubt thought he had 
 extirpated the mischief. How little could he have foreseen 
 what was to follow ! It took a century and a half to eradicate 
 the practice of which we have here the first notice ! 
 
 When the sale of Fellowships, or, more strictly speaking, 
 of Resignations, began cannot now be ascertained. It is 
 possible, as before suggested, that it might have been 
 gradually adopted by way of defence against the intrusion 
 of nominees by persons in authority. At any rate it had 
 now become, or soon became, the custom to consider the 
 Fellowship just what, till the late Abolition of Purchase, a 
 Commission in the Army was held to be in our own times, 
 a marketable commodity. So much had been paid, so much 
 was expected for it. Custom had covered all deficiencies. 
 The Fellows ceased to consider that the Statutes were to 
 be taken literally, and looked upon Visitors who interfered 
 with the rights they conceived they had acquired as so 
 many unjust judges. The system no doubt, like Army 
 Purchase (which is not of course open to any charge of 
 immorality), had some advantages as well as many faults. 
 No doubt it is one of those causes, of which we were in 
 search, of the rapid succession of Fellows; for the change 
 to a more tardy succession commenced just when the abuse 
 was at last abolished : but whatever else it did, it wholly 
 defeated the principle of election, sapped the habit of de- 
 ference to the Statutes, and generally demoralised the 
 society. The gallant struggle made by successive Wardens 
 and Visitors, assisted by a portion of the Fellows, to remove 
 this scandal, and the success at last of Archbishop Sancroft 
 and Warden Jeames, will occupy our attention by-and-by. 
 We shall find persons winking at ' corrupt resignations ' 
 whose conduct will astonish us. 
 
 A second Visitation by Cranmer took place in the same year, 
 but as nothing came of it, and as it was in reality only a
 
 v.] CRANMER DEMANDS SOLDIERS. 65 
 
 continuation of the first, it has not been reckoned by the 
 College as a separate instance of this species of supervision. 
 
 We pass from these Injunctions to the only other 
 document of public interest the College possesses from the 
 hand of Cranmer. It is addressed thus : ' To my loving 
 friend the Wardeyn ' [Warner] ' of All Souls Colledge in Ox- 
 ford give this Hast, Hast.' It is the last in the College 
 archives which is speeded to its destination with this 
 ancient formula, common enough in the later Middle 
 Ages. It carries us back from the dress and dogs of the 
 Fellows to French wars and the methods by which Eng- 
 lish armies were provided. It seems the Archbishop had 
 already written to the Warden to furnish the King with 
 one ' Demy-Launce l and two light geldings against his 
 Grace's going this summer into ffraunce.' He now says 
 that 
 
 ' the King's Majesty's pleasure is ye shall with all dili- 
 gence send up hither to London the said demy-launce and 
 geldings if you can by any means possible find the same 
 so that they may be here by the iiij h or v h day of 
 May at the furthest, or this at the least, to send up one 
 demy-launee well furnished, with an able man and all 
 things thereto apperteyning. And hereof not to fail in any 
 wise. Thus hertilie fare you well. 
 
 ' ffrom myne howse at Lambeth the xx b of Aprill. 
 
 ' T. CANTUAEIENS 2 .' 
 
 The year in which the letter was written does not appear, 
 but it is no doubt 1544, when Henry the Eighth, in July, 
 invades France and takes Boulogne. The readiness to 
 accept anything the Warden will be good enough to send, 
 and the delay which had already occurred, seem to sug- 
 gest, like Warden Hobbys' answer to Henry the Seventh, 
 a want of zeal in the service of the Tudors as far re- 
 moved as possible from the energetic spirit which we 
 
 1 A Demy-Launce was the name given at this date to the 
 ancient ' hobbler,' or Light-horseman. Grose's Military Antiquities. 
 
 2 Archives.
 
 66 ALL SOULS AT THE REFORMATION. [CHAP. 
 
 shall see the College evince when we come to the 
 period of the Stuarts. The Society does not yet seem to 
 have relinquished the idea they expressed in their letter to 
 the Monastery of Syon, that they were to return tem- 
 poral favours by spiritual gold and gems. They did not 
 yet see their way to melting down the splendid gilt and 
 silver goblets which successive benefactors had already 
 bestowed on them, and which formed as yet their only 
 available wealth. Perhaps also they were not quite at 
 ease about the ecclesiastical proceedings of the Court, nor 
 admired the late expulsion of private servants and dogs, 
 still less the interference of the Visitor with their arrange- 
 ments as to Fellowships. The suddenness of the cessation 
 of this brief war may account for our hearing nothing 
 more of the ' demy-launce.' 
 
 The same spirit of independence may be traced in the 
 reply of the College to a letter it received, in 1550, from 
 Edward the Sixth. The young King, whose greedy courtiers 
 had set their hearts on some All Souls property, told the 
 Warden and Fellows that he was informed they had 
 
 ' a certayne fearme belonging to your Colledge called Wedon 
 Weston in our countie of Northampton, not being in your own 
 occupation, which might be very commodious for our trustie 
 and well beloved servant, Dr. Mendye our physician, and we 
 have thought good by these our letters to require you that 
 for our sake and upon the sight of these our letters you will 
 immediately graunt unto our well-beloved servant a lease 
 under your common seal for 21 years of the said fearme as 
 you have done in others heretofore after the term expirithe 
 of the lease that now is for such rents as ye have graunted 
 the same in tymes past. In your doinge whereof we shall 
 not only take that thankfullye, but also have it in remem- 
 brance when occasion shall serve to render any your 
 honeste and reasonable sutes. Given under our signet at 
 our manor of Greenwich the 26 Jan., 4 yere of our 
 reign.' 
 
 The College was however equal to the occasion. Delay 
 was all-important under such circumstances, and the "Warden
 
 v.] EDWARD VI AND THE COLLEGE. 67, 
 
 was absent on the King's affairs. . After an exceedingly 
 humble preface the Fellows say : 
 
 'It may please your Highness to be further advertised 
 that at this present our Warden (without whose presence 
 or at least wise consent we cannot by the orders of oure 
 Foundation and Statutes entreat and commune of any such 
 matters) is now absent with your Grace's ambassador in 
 the French Court, and at his departure made a restraynte 
 that we should do nothinge in any such case till his returne : 
 for the which consideration and also for that by your Grace's 
 lawes the consent of the Hedde is specially requir'd to every 
 effectual grant that passeth from a House incorporated, we 
 cannot lawfully and without danger of perjurye accomplyshe 
 your Grace's request herein : we most humbly beseech Al- 
 mighty God longe to preserve your Majesty in all godliness 
 and prosperity to the singular wyl and comfort of us all your 
 Grace's most loving and obedient subjects.' 
 
 1 From your Highnesse's Colledge of All Soules in Oxforde 
 the 13 Feb. 1 ' 
 
 We are unable to trace this matter any further. The 
 College having soothed the young King, we may well imagine 
 that Warden Warner, on his return from France, found 
 himself able to deal with his brother physician. Greek 
 met Greek. The letter reminds us of the former one written 
 by Edward's uncle, Prince Arthur. All Souls seems to 
 have been a sort of practising ground for the Tudor boy- 
 princes, not unlike the little cork on which the playful 
 kitten exercises its nascent powers before it breaks ground 
 on rats and mice. Perhaps when other Colleges contribute 
 their history we shall find that All Souls was not without 
 companions. 
 
 The year before this correspondence, however, the College 
 had been forced to submit, like all other such institutions 
 at this time, to an authority which could not be gainsaid. 
 How far they were a consenting party we know not, but 
 we hear of no resistance to the Royal Commissioners of 1549, 
 
 1 Transcribed into MS. book penes custodem. 
 P 2,
 
 68 ALL SOULS AT THE REFORMATION. [CHAP. 
 
 whose proceedings effected the great change which had been 
 so long impending. The Warden must certainly have been 
 not unfavourable to their revolutionary acts, or he would 
 not have been employed by the Crown in the very next 
 year ; and if there were malcontents, as subsequent events 
 shewed, probably the majority were glad to see the sword 
 descend at last, and to breathe freely once more. Cranmer, 
 as he was not on the Commission, was not responsible for 
 the acts of these Commissioners or the details of their In- 
 junctions ; and it is easy to see that they betray the hand 
 of Protector Somerset and of Cox, Dean of Christ Church, 
 the leader of the iconoclastic party in Oxford at this time. 
 Nothing was now left untouched. They made a clean sweep. 
 All portions of the Statutes which did not suit the Refor- 
 mation were abrogated. The old Services were abolished, 
 and the new substituted. All the young men are to learn 
 the Catechism. There is to be ' but one altar, or rather 
 Lord's table, in the chapel.' 'All the rest of the altars, 
 images, statues, tabernacles, the things they call organs, 
 and all similar monuments of superstition and idolatry, are 
 to be altogether removed.' 
 
 This portion of the Injunctions was most completely, not 
 to say ruthlessly, executed. The times no doubt required 
 some sacrifice of medieval art, but there was no discri- 
 mination. The magnificent reredos, of which mention has 
 already been made, was now 'defaced.' Every one of its 
 fifty statues and eighty-six statuettes was thrown down, and 
 broken to pieces ; while the projecting portions of the struc- 
 ture were chipped away till the whole was left a ruin. 
 The altars were destroyed and the 'Lord's table' placed in 
 the centre of the Chapel. The mass of the Chapel furniture 
 shared the same fate, though we shall see that a considerable 
 remnant gave very serious trouble to the authorities of the 
 State in the reign of Elizabeth. We have no certain know- 
 ledge whether the stained glass windows of the Chapel were
 
 v.] THE ICONOCLASTS LET LOOSE. 69 
 
 destroyed at this time; but it seems probable that there 
 was at least a partial destruction, as there is no mention of 
 any such act in the time of the Commonwealth. The four 
 great windows of the Ante-chapel, however, by some miracle 
 escaped at this time the hand of the spoiler ; and their great 
 beauty, now at last visible, since skilful hands have removed 
 the soil of ages, bears silent witness to the barbarism which 
 made havoc of the rest. 
 
 The ' things called organs ' (' qua vacant organa '} were also 
 no doubt destroyed at this time ; and never since that date 
 has ' Cecilia's mingled world of sound ' pealed forth its note 
 of praise within the precincts of All Souls. Indeed the 
 memory of there having ever been an organ in the College 
 Chapel had so faded from men's memories that the question 
 profoundly exercised the antiquarian mind of Hearne in 
 the last century. He registers in his Diary 1 the informa- 
 tion he had received that 'provision had been made for an 
 organist at All Souls long before the time of Henry the 
 Eighth,' and again one of the Fellows c confessed they had 
 formerly a little organ 2 ; ' and he quotes with triumph 
 a passage in the Statutes of King's College, Cambridge, 
 where provision is made for an organist. His remark- 
 able sagacity had set him on the right track, but it would 
 have relieved his difficulties if he had known that a passage 
 from the University archives, which has been printed in 
 Mr. Anstey's Munimenta Academica 3 , and which had escaped 
 both Wood and himself, proves that All Souls possessed 
 an organist, at least as early as 1458; for the ' organ-pleyer 
 of All Souls ' was convicted of a very serious offence, ' wept 
 bitterly,' and was condoned after three hours' imprison- 
 ment on the intercession ' of Master Kele, his Warden, who 
 had a good hope he would behave better in future.' Further, 
 we have ' unum par organorum ' mentioned in an inventory of 
 
 1 108. 61. 2 108. 113. 
 
 3 vol. ii. p. 674.
 
 70 ALL SOULS AT THE REFORMATION'. [CHAP. 
 
 All Souls property which Gutch 1 believed might be of the date 
 of the Founder, but was ' certainly taken before the death of 
 John Druell ' (the ' clerk of the works ' when the College was 
 built) ; ' for on the back of it a book is mentioned to be in his 
 hands. He died in 1462.' This 'pair of organs' forms part 
 of the ' Contenta in Vestibule,' along with the ' tmtinnabula? 
 the 'Paria candelabrorum de Latyn cum octo nasis,' the 'vascula 
 pro aqua lenedicta cum 2 spryngilll and sundry missals, legends, 
 &c. which were kept in the sacristy forming, in all probability, 
 a portion of the Ante-chapel, or possibly of some chamber lead- 
 ing out of the east end, all traces of which have disappeared. 
 Some have thought a ' pair of organs ' to mean a large one for 
 grand occasions and a small one for ordinary Services ; but this 
 can hardly have been the case in such institutions as All Souls. 
 Others say it is an archaic form, like ' pair of stairs.' And 
 where not called ' a pair,' we find that the plural is always 
 used, as in the Commissioners' Injunctions, the exact meaning 
 of which term is still a matter of dispute among the learned in 
 music. It seems at least safe to say that it meant that there 
 was ' more than one pipe 2 ; ' for the pipe itself in early times 
 may perhaps have been called the ' organ.' 
 
 From what has been said about the wealth lavished on the 
 Chapel of All Souls we might expect to find that it took 
 precedence of all other Oxford Colleges in this matter of 
 organs. If the ' organ given by William Port in 1458 ' to 
 New College was the first that College possessed, and no 
 earlier date is claimed 3 , All Souls must have preceded the 
 more ancient foundation, or it would not have had an 
 ' organ-pleyer ' in that same year. Nor does any other Col- 
 lege appear as a competitor ; Magdalen had an organ in 
 1481 4 . The introduction of organs into Colleges was in 
 fact a movement of Henry the Sixth's reign. 
 
 1 Collectanea, vol. ii. p. 257. 
 
 2 Dr. Rimbault's History of the Organ, p. 43. 3 Ib. p. 79. 
 4 Bloxam's Register of Magdalen College, Introd. p. xcvii.
 
 v.] ORGANS AND BELL-RINGING. 71 
 
 Nor does any other College seem to have preceded All Souls 
 in the possession of a special organist, ' the duty of organist 
 being probably discharged by some one or other of the Vicars 
 Choral 1 .' The modern editors of the work here quoted have 
 to descend as low as 1580, when the first stipendiary organist 
 is found at Trinity College, Oxford. No mention of an 
 organist is indeed found in the Statutes of any of the Oxford 
 medieval Colleges, but the ' organ-pleyer ' of All Souls can 
 hardly have been anything else. This was his official desig- 
 nation in 1458. 
 
 Though the Injunction as to organs had thus a definite 
 meaning in the case of All Souls, it is less easy to understand 
 how that which relates to bell-ringing could apply. There 
 seems no reason to suppose that the College ever possessed 
 more than one bell, and that a little one; but the Commis- 
 sioners indite almost a homily on the subject, possibly the 
 same as they sent to other Colleges and parishes which really 
 had the means of offending their susceptibilities, and by way 
 of warning for the future to one that had not. They declare 
 that the noise is most injurious to study, that it can give no 
 pleasure to the living nor help to the dead, especially ' that 
 rustic sort of ringing which reminds one of people quarrelling 
 or insane.' This is never to be used on any account, except 
 in the one case of fire. The summons to Chapel is to be 
 effected by a gentle tinkling, ' leviore tinnitu' and a ' passing- 
 bell ' may be rung if the dying person request it. 
 
 The regulations as to dress are still more minute than 
 Cranmer's own. No one is to wear outlandish or c prodigious ' 
 dresses, nor to have his gown sewn up in front, or to go about 
 without a cap. 
 
 But it would be most unjust to omit the observation that 
 while some of these Injunctions appear trivial enough, others 
 evince remarkable sagacity. Some indeed there are which, 
 
 1 Hawkins's History of the Science and Practice of Music, vol. i. 
 p. 264.
 
 72 ALL SOULS AT THE REFORMATION. [CHAP. 
 
 at a distance of more than three centuries, have a peculiar 
 significance with reference to reforms that have engaged 
 the anxious attention of modern times. For example, non- 
 residence for more than six months, except for illness or 
 other just cause, or the King's service, is to involve forfeiture 
 of the Fellowship ; no one is to hold a Fellowship for more 
 than twenty years unless he is a public Professor; the College 
 is not to do the duty of a school, but the training of its 
 inmates is to commence with Mathematics, the knowledge 
 of Grammar and the Latin language being the condition 
 of admission ; the condition of poverty, ' since all Colleges 
 were built for the children of the poor (inopum)' is to be 
 more strictly guarded in order to prevent rich men from 
 taking advantage of the Founder's bounty; and examinations 
 after all lectures are to be enforced. Some notice is even 
 taken of a ' burning question ' of our own day, the higher 
 education of Irishmen. One of the Fellowships is always 
 to be in Hibernian hands. 
 
 The Ordinance which excluded scholars in Grammar and 
 Latin from Colleges had a sweeping effect in Oxford. Up 
 to this time the Oxford boys had been taught in the Colleges, 
 as they had been in the monasteries before their suppression ; 
 and now that this also was denied to the citizens, we find 
 from Wood 1 that they made a formal remonstrance on 
 the subject. But the Visitors were quite right. The 
 Founders had not intended the Colleges to be boys' schools. 
 We shall see presently that a custom soon obtained of edu- 
 cating ' poor scholars ' within the walls ; but those were 
 young men, not boys. 
 
 The Commission took a still higher flight. Part of its 
 object was to rearrange the whole system of Colleges with a 
 view to the pursuit of different lines of study in each. All 
 Souls was to be exclusively devoted to Civil Law, New College 
 transferring thither its ' Jurists,' and All Souls in its turn 
 
 1 Annals, 1549.
 
 v.] HA PP 7 FA IL URE OF COMMISSIONERS. 7 3 
 
 handing over its ' Artists ' to New College l . Nothing, how- 
 ever, was effected in this direction. Perhaps the opinion may 
 be here expressed that it was fortunate the attempt failed. 
 Not only would it have been an utter defiance of the will of 
 the Founders, but the Universities would have received at a 
 critical moment an impulse in the wrong direction. Instead 
 of clergy and laity being educated together within the same 
 walls, learning to respect one another as brethren of a common 
 Foundation, with a common basis on which to found their 
 subsequent studies, we should have had the foreign religious 
 ' seminary ' and the University-fashioned lawyer. Instead 
 of the character of the English gentleman we should have 
 had the foreign 'savant. Instead of a system of professions 
 gathered round common centres in the Metropolis, and casting 
 off antiquated theories by the wholesome rivalry of practice, we 
 should have been bound by chains which would have caused us 
 to lag behind the ages instead of leading them. Instead of 
 a Collegiate system which, though often subject to abuses, 
 has been the salt of English life, we should have had the 
 Roman monastery under another form, and the class- 
 separated, narrow communities of less favoured lands, de- 
 riving but little illumination from the varied nature of the 
 culture which up to a certain point, and extending well intt) 
 manhood, our English Universities have hitherto happily 
 fostered. 
 
 With the exception of the anti-Roman changes made by 
 these Injunctions, very little of them seems to have been 
 taken by the College for its permanent guidance. The 
 Visitation was looked upon as exceptional and of a tem- 
 porary character. The Statutes, as far as they were not 
 affected by the Act for the Suppression of Chantries, or by 
 the changes which Church and State had adopted, resumed 
 their authoritative character, and the reigning Visitor, who- 
 ever he might be, again asserted his interpreting function. 
 
 1 Wood's Annals, 1549.
 
 74 ALL SOULS AT THE REFORMATION. [CHAP. 
 
 This result was doubtless very much due to the violent 
 reaction of Mary's reign. The ultra-Protestantism of Ed- 
 ward's Commissioners was felt to have made them in- 
 adequate exponents of the national mind and of its instincts 
 with regard to the Universities. So also with the effort of 
 Rome to resume her medieval position under the auspices 
 of Queen Mary and Cardinal Pole, Gardiner and Bonner. 
 The moderation of Queen Elizabeth's policy, on the other 
 hand, its permanent character, after two such brief periods of 
 violent oscillation, and the Catholicity of its Protestant settle- 
 ment, commended itself to the ancient institutions which had 
 been hastily reformed under Henry the Eighth and his son. 
 It is to her reign that we must look for the steady settling 
 down of All Souls to its work under the new conditions of 
 the age, relieved from revolutionary terrors and political 
 anxieties, and winged with the fresh impulses which that 
 consummately gifted Sovereign knew so well how to apply. 
 This last phase of the Reformation will, however, require a 
 chapter to itself. The present chapter may conclude with 
 the few words necessary to describe the effect of Mary's 
 reign upon the College. 
 
 Besides the shortness of the time over which the Roman 
 Catholic revival extended, we must reckon the constant 
 changes in the Wardenship of All Souls during that period 
 as a chief reason why we hear so little of any reactionary 
 movement in the College. At Magdalen, for instance, we 
 find the restoration of the Chapel to its ancient con- 
 dition making a remarkable progress before the death of 
 the Queen. It was indeed Pole's own College, while All 
 Souls was only his officially; and it is possible that more 
 changes were made at the latter than we know ; but we do 
 not hear of any rehabilitation of the old condition of the 
 Chapel further than we can gather from the obstinate 
 struggle in the next reign to retain the plate and service- 
 books which had in the time of Mary been brought out
 
 v.] THE REACTION OF MARY'S REIGN. 75 
 
 from the hiding-places where they had been secured from 
 the eye of Edward's Commissioners. Warner retained his 
 Wardenship during the first two years of Mary's unhappy 
 reign. As a reformer he no doubt checked the Romanist 
 development as far as he could, but when the persecutions 
 began he thought it time to resign. Cardinal Pole now 
 seized the opportunity of putting his own chaplain, Seth 
 Holland, into the Wardenship, and his deed of institution 
 is the single record of the Cardinal's Visitorship pos- 
 sessed by the College. The style in which it is set forth 
 may be interesting to those who are aware of the import- 
 ance, in the medieval struggles between England and Rome, 
 of the position assigned at different periods to the Papal 
 Legates. 
 
 The public are indebted to Dean Hook for having ably 
 popularised this subject. Referring the reader to the fifth 
 volume of the ' Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury,' 
 it is enough to repeat here that nothing had so roused 
 the ire of the English people as the Ultramontane change 
 effected in this respect by the Popes after the collapse of the 
 General Councils of the West. We have noticed Arch- 
 bishop Chichele's failure to make any effective resistance. 
 Up to his time the Primate of all England was the natural 
 and official governor of the Anglican Church; although he 
 had, at least since the time of King John, held an ordinary 
 legatine Commission from Rome. Legates a latere had only 
 been sent from Rome on special occasions for very short 
 periods, retiring when the object for which they were sent 
 was accomplished. The Metropolitan was the ' Ordinary.' 
 The conspiracy which revolutionised this ecclesiastical settle- 
 ment was hatched by Pope Martin the Fifth. That 
 Pope and his successors claimed to be the ' Universal 
 Ordinary,' and to govern the English Church through 
 Legates a latere, permanently settled in England as Cardi- 
 nals, all other dignitaries being placed under their orders.
 
 76 ALL SOULS AT THE REFORMATION. [CHAP. 
 
 Forced from this position for a brief period by the deter- 
 mined attitude of Henry the Fifth and the English people, 
 they only retired to make the better leap after the recoil. 
 The Pope could not have chosen a better agent than the 
 resolute Beaufort, nor a better reign than that of Henry 
 the Sixth. The Primate, after the death of Beaufort, is for 
 half a century a Cardinal, the mere confidential agent of the 
 Pope. He may regard himself as legatus natus, but he acts 
 as legatus a latere. Wolsey, Archbishop of York, as Legate 
 a latere and Cardinal, took precedence of Warham, Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, who was neither. The law of Prse- 
 munire did indeed still make such a position technically 
 illegal, as Henry the Eighth, though he had begged the 
 legatine office for Wolsey, notably pretended to discover; 
 but precedents had virtually settled the question, till the 
 nation, under his guidance, once more threw off the yoke. 
 
 Cardinal Pole, resuming the office of his Papal prede- 
 cessors, takes care to call himself, in the document addressed 
 to All Souls, ( legatus natus et legatus a latere' Perhaps this 
 was not novel ; but if any one might have given precedence 
 to the latter title, it would be the man whose special mission 
 was to ' reconcile' England to Rome. Yet he thinks it wise 
 to conciliate the well-known stubborn English feeling of 
 independence by giving the place of honour to the time- 
 honoured and undisputed title of Canterbury. 
 
 Soon after this the College must have been called upon 
 to witness, within a few yards of their gates, the horrible 
 torture and martyrdom of the late Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 their own old, long-familiar Visitor, the sorely-tried Cranmer. 
 Of their feelings on the subject no record remains. Their 
 new Warden was not the man to permit any sympathetic 
 demonstration, even if such a thing had been desired or 
 possible. 
 
 The fate of this Papist Warden, for whom Pole also pro- 
 cured the Deanery of Worcester, was hard. He resigned his
 
 v.] POLE AND THE PAPIST WARDENS. 77 
 
 Wardenship before Mary's death, but, refusing- compliance with 
 Elizabeth's religious changes, was committed to the Marshalsea, 
 and died there in 1560. This harshness was perhaps caused 
 by his intimate relations with the Cardinal. He it was who 
 took Pole's last message to Mary, exhorting her, as it is 
 believed, though it will never be known, to stand firm in 
 the Roman Communion to the end. 
 
 Shortly before the death of the Queen, another Papist 
 Warden, with the appropriate name of Pope, was elected 
 under Pole's auspices ; but this Warden died before he could 
 reach Oxford. He was Archdeacon of Bedford. Was it the 
 consuming excitement of such a furious religious struggle 
 which carried off so many Church dignitaries at this period ? 
 Elizabeth, we know, found six bishoprics vacant, and four 
 more bishops died before she proceeded to fill up the Sees. 
 The vacancy at All Souls was instantly supplied on her 
 accession by the return of Warner.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 mtls rnifcer (Quern (^alxeijr anfr 
 
 1558-1581. 
 
 The Anglo - Catholic Settlement Warden "Warner, Sir John 
 Mason, and Sir "William Petre Parker and the High Com- 
 mission Court Their struggle with the College on ' monu- 
 ments of superstition ' Parker's letters The Queen and 
 Leicester. 
 
 NOTHING can be more interesting than to watch the details 
 of the process by which three of the ablest persons whom this 
 country ever saw at the head of affairs set to work to educe 
 order out of chaos. Queen Elizabeth, Cecil, and Parker do 
 not receive the homage of the present generation to the 
 same degree as in times past. The extreme delicacy of their 
 task has never yet perhaps been duly appreciated. Even the 
 little sphere of All Souls will throw some light upon it. 
 
 One of the very first things to be done was to re-assert the 
 Anglo-Catholic character of the Universities and Colleges ; 
 and this with the least possible shock to the still formidable 
 Romanists, with whom the Queen was by no means anxious 
 to break. For this purpose no one could be more fitted than 
 the veteran Warner, who had presided over his College during 
 portions of the last three reigns, and held the highest ofiices 
 in the University. He not only resumes his old post as
 
 CHARACTER OF WARDEN WARNER. 79 
 
 Warden of All Souls,, but is made one of the Royal Visitors 
 of the University, along with Bishop Cox and others, for the 
 purpose of ' removing superstitious offences ' and expelling 
 the Papists who refused to conform. He is soon afterwards 
 preferred to the Deanery of Winchester. As Visitor, it must 
 have been his business to expel from All Souls two of the 
 Fellows, Dolman and Dorman, young Papists elected in 
 Mary's reign, who straightway became Romish priests. Yet 
 the one evidence we have of his ecclesiastical conduct as 
 Warden in Elizabeth's reign is the retention of the old plate, 
 vestments, tunicles, &c., which, after his death, it cost Parker 
 and subsequent Commissioners years of persistent effort to 
 remove from the possession of the College ! We must infer 
 either that they had been carefully concealed from his know- 
 ledge, or that, like Elizabeth, he was in favour of a ceremonial 
 not very different in itself from the medieval type, and was 
 content with a Reformation of a more moderate kind than that 
 of the extreme party. He had paid the debt of nature before 
 the conduct of the Pope and the foreign Romanists, rallying 
 round Mary Queen of Scots as their centre of opposition to 
 Elizabeth, forced the Queen and her advisers into a more 
 decided course of action. 
 
 This then will be the place to sum up the career of 
 one whose name has frequently come before us. It is a 
 typical case. Warner must have adopted the principles of 
 Henry the Eighth's Reformation at an early date ; for 
 otherwise, though he had been Public Lecturer in Medicine 
 to the University for twelve years, he would hardly have 
 been made the first Regius Professor of Medicine in 1535. 
 The next year we find him elected to the Wardenship of his 
 College, where his influence must have been felt previously 
 in the matter of the Supremacy, and where a firm but gentle 
 hand must have been required in the violent perturbations 
 which followed his election. In Edward the Sixth's reign 
 we must infer that he had at least 'given no dissatisfaction
 
 80 ALL SOULS UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. [CHAP. 
 
 to the authorities who displayed their iconoclastic propen- 
 sities at All Souls, or he would not have been dispatched on 
 the French Embassy in 1550; although, indeed, it is possible 
 that they might have been glad to get him out of the way 
 for a time. In Mary's reign we find him remaining at 
 his post for two years, and, in the deed of institution of 
 his successor, Warner's resignation is said to be 'free and 
 spontaneous.' No doubt it was. He moderated the change, 
 we may believe, as far as he could, and gave it up when he 
 could do so no longer. He resigned his Regius Professor- 
 ship in 1554. But once more he contrives to be no sufferer 
 in the transaction. He not only retains his other prefer- 
 ments, but acquires a fresh Rectory as late as 1557. He 
 must have conformed to the religion of the State in some 
 sense. Perhaps his interest at Court secured him from 
 being asked too many questions. Once more, however, the 
 Reformation to which he had been so deeply pledged is 
 patronized from the throne, and promoted on principles 
 which he could well accept. We have noticed his part in it. 
 
 It is clear that we have nothing of the spirit of the 
 martyr in all this. Whatever else he was, he was not that. 
 He was a distinguished physician and teacher, a practical 
 administrator, a capable, trustworthy man for State affairs, 
 exactly the man whom the Tudor princes liked to select 
 from the crowd and employ in the public service. A philo- 
 sopher no doubt, he was disposed to enter less into theo- 
 logical disputations than the working clergy, or even those 
 laymen whose sense of the overwhelming importance of the 
 Unseen (to attribute none but the highest motives) led 
 them to throw away life itself in the cause which they 
 espoused. But of those lay-people who suffered under Mary 
 it has often been remarked that but few are to be found 
 of the upper and more cultivated classes. The resistance 
 which saved England came from the bishops and clergy on 
 the one hand, the middle and lower classes on the other.
 
 vi.] MASON AND PETRE. 81 
 
 We have said that Warner's was a typical case, and sug- 
 gested that he and the College had friends at Court. It was 
 certainly a case not uncommon among All Souls men; and 
 two of these were just then so powerful at head-quarters that 
 their co-operation with the Warden of All Souls may well be 
 taken for granted. Sir John Mason and Sir William Petre 
 were elected Fellows of All Souls in 1531 and 1523 respec- 
 tively, Warner in 1520. Beginning thus their career to- 
 gether, they pursued it on much the same principles. Each 
 of these two distinguished ' Jurists' took service under the 
 Crown, and held the post of Privy Councillor through the 
 reigns of Henry, Edward, Mary, and Elizabeth. It is plain 
 that they, like so many others, did not think the changes 
 in religion sufficiently important to place any bar between 
 them and their official routine of business. They were both 
 of them devoted to the well-being of their beloved Alma 
 Mater, and formed no unimportant links in the chain which 
 bound together the Crown and the Universities. Petre was 
 Secretary of State as well as Privy Councillor. He was also 
 virtually the Second Founder of Exeter College, so munificent 
 was his contribution to its endowments. Mason was Chan- 
 cellor of the University in Edward the Sixth's reign, and again 
 in Elizabeth's. Petre was indeed a member of the Royal Uni- 
 versity Commission of 1549, but the remarkable similarity 
 on the whole in the lives of three such men must strike 
 every one. It is easily accounted for when we reflect that 
 Lynacre had just founded the College of Physicians in London 
 (1518) when they were elected into the College which he had 
 adorned at Oxford, that William Latymer's fame was still in 
 its meridian at that time, and that Leland must have been 
 their friend and brother student. High cultivation and great 
 offices may have made them ' men of the world,' but it had 
 taught them moderation. Their crown is not of the same 
 refined gold as that of Ridley, Bradford, or Rogers; but 
 they represent in some degree that marriage of faith and
 
 82 ALL SOULS UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. [CHAP. 
 
 reason, that via media along which the Reformed Church 
 of England has moved since their day, which has enabled 
 her to retain within her fold the greatest intellects as well 
 as the humblest believers, and which has made her the 
 centre of light for all other reformed branches of the Church. 
 To bring this notice of Warden Warner to an end, it may be 
 remarked that he set the example which Duck so excellently 
 followed on a larger scale, of writing a brief account of the 
 Founder of his College and the circumstances of the founda- 
 tion. From this we have already made the only extract 
 necessary for the present sketch. It is also what we should 
 expect from his good sense and enlarged experience, that he 
 determined to remove one cause of the constant resignations 
 of Wardens by supplying them with superior accommodation. 
 Up to this time, though the Statutes of All Souls gave a 
 very fitting share of the College government to the Warden, 
 he was in other respects much in the position of a Senior 
 Fellow. He lodged in the simplest way, in two rooms, 
 within the south-east corner of the one quadrangle common 
 to all. It was Warner who built the small but commodious 
 Warden's lodgings which did excellent service till the days 
 of Queen Anne, when they in their turn were voted too 
 small, and gave place, through the munificence of Dr. Clarke, 
 to those which form the present abode of the Wardens of 
 All Souls. Warner's rooms, which now occupy the street 
 front of the eastward quadrangle, were then handed over 
 to the Fellows ; but the beauty of their chief room and its 
 handsome Elizabethan ornaments still remain as a monument 
 of the builder's good taste. At any rate he attained his 
 object. The Wardens no longer resigned, but were contented 
 to live and die at their posts. 
 
 There is indeed something to be said against this departure 
 from ancient simplicity, but we are only noting historical facts. 
 The times were rapidly changing. The celibate idea was no 
 longer in fashion. Wardens, like their Visitors, might now
 
 vi.] ARCHBISHOP PARKER. 83 
 
 be married men. A century and a half later Archbishop Wake, 
 wearied with the perpetual quarrels between the Warden and 
 Fellows, some of which grew out of the married state of the 
 former, remarked that the Founder never contemplated married 
 Wardens. ' Nor/ replied Warden Gardiner, ' did he contem- 
 plate married Visitors.' It is unfortunate that there should 
 be no picture or bust extant to remind us of the personal 
 appearance of one who did such service in his day as Dr. 
 Warner. 
 
 W r e now come to a more important person still in the 
 history of .the College at this time the great man through 
 whose instrumentality the Church of England was started, in 
 the reign of Elizabeth, on her Anglo-Catholic course ' Pro- 
 testant,' as he termed it, against Rome l , Catholic against the 
 Puritans Archbishop Parker. He appears in three distinct 
 ways before us in connection with All Souls ; by his Injunc- 
 tions as Visitor, by two letters from him in the same capacity, 
 which are still in the archives, and by his correspondence 
 with the College as a Lord High Commissioner. 
 
 The first may be summarily dismissed. The only point 
 in his Injunctions worthy of observation is the careful and 
 elaborate provision he makes, like Cranmer, for ascertaining 
 that there was no corruption in the resignations of the 
 Fellows of the College, and for the expulsion of oifenders. 
 But his method was as defective as his predecessor's. It fell 
 short of the personal oath which Whitgift afterwards devised, 
 Abbot made effective, and Sancroft at last conclusively applied. 
 
 His dealings with the College as Lord High Commissioner 
 are more instructive, and though the whole correspondence 
 has been printed by Gutch in his Collectanea 2 , a short sum- 
 mary may be given here. 
 
 The first letter is dated from Lambeth, March 5, 1566. 
 It is written to Warden Barber by Parker himself. 
 
 1 Hook's Archbishops, iv. (New Scries), p. 221, 
 
 2 Vol. ii. pp. 274-281. 
 
 G 2
 
 84 ALL SOULS UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. [CHAP. 
 
 He has had ' information of certain plate reserved in your 
 College whereat divers men justly be offended to remain in 
 such superstitious fashion as it is of/ and says he had 
 already ' moved ' the Warden ' to declare to the company 
 of that Fellowship, for avoiding all suspicion of supersti- 
 tion, that the said plate should be defaced, put into some 
 masse for your howse, whereof it may have need hereafter, 
 and so safely to be conserved in your treasury ; ' and ' for 
 that I have not heard what you have done by these my 
 letters, I do require you to make a perfect inventory con- 
 taining- the form and fashion of the said plate, and also 
 the number and fashion of their vestments and tunicles 
 which serve not to use at these days.' 
 
 This and the former letters (of which we know nothing) 
 seem to be written as Visitor. It is signed, ' From my 
 howse at Lambeth, Your friend, MATTHEW CANT.' 
 
 The next missives are from the Archbishop as Lord High 
 Commissioner, along with other members of that Court. 
 But the question at once presents itself; why should the 
 Archbishop only have begun to address himself to the 
 removal of the scandal in the eighth year of his Primacy? 
 Was Warner so much respected that no one thought of 
 giving ' information ' till he was dead ? Parker speaks of 
 letters in which 'I moved you, Mr. Warden,' (Barber) no 
 one else. Or had the authorities winked hard at these 
 ' monuments of superstition,' and only ' moved ' when the 
 ' Vestiarian controversy ' brought back such matters into pro- 
 minence? It would at any rate be quite in accordance 
 with the policy of the early years of the great Queen if 
 no very minute enquiries were made into the' subject. 
 Parker would know as well as any man the strength of 
 the belief, which no doubt prevailed in the College, that 
 they could not consistently with their Statutes for the 
 twenty-sixth chapter is profusely explicit on this point 
 alienate or convert the Chapel ' vestments, chalices and jewels, 
 books and other ornaments,' to any other use than that for 
 which they were originally given ; and knowing how more
 
 vi.] 'MONUMENTS OF SUPERSTITION: 85 
 
 than thoroughly the Commissioners of 1549 had done their 
 work on the fabric, he would have no desire to bring the 
 matter to a point unless obliged. In this very year, how- 
 ever, the 'Vestiarian controversy reached its climax 1 .' 
 Puritans on one side and Papists on the other were resolved 
 no longer to remain quiescent. Strong measures had 
 become necessary at Oxford and elsewhere against both 
 extreme parties. Eye-shutting would serve no longer. The 
 College which men called the Archbishop's ' own ' could no 
 longer be allowed to retain what seems by the ( Inventory ' 
 sent in obedience to Parker's letter to have been as complete 
 a list of f Mass-books, Portuasses, Grailes, Antiphoners, Pro- 
 cessionals, and Pricksong-books/ there is also one ' Manual,' 
 one 'Invitatorie book,' and one 'Legend,' as the most ardent 
 Romanist could desire. 
 
 These letters had no effect whatever. The College had not 
 yet measured the difference between Romanism and Catho- 
 licism, the old Church reformed and the old Church unre- 
 formed ; nor could the critical condition of the nation permit 
 the judgment of narrow communities to override the larger 
 requirements of the State. The Act of Uniformity, faith- 
 fully executed, could alone secure the Elizabethan Estab- 
 lishment. A year elapses ; and Parker again speaks, but 
 now at the head of a portion of the High Commission. 
 They understand that 'you do retain yet in your College 
 diverse monuments of superstition which by public orders 
 and laws of this realm ought to be abolished as derogatory 
 to the state of religion publicly received.' The Warden is 
 ordered by his ' loving friends ' to repair to Lambeth and 
 bring with him a copy of the Statutes and two of the 
 Fellows who are known to be refractory. A month later 
 the Warden is ordered, ' divers weighty causes us specially 
 movyng,' and 'all excuses and delays set apart,' to send 
 four more refractory Fellows before the Commissioners, who 
 
 1 Hook's Archbishops, iv. (New Series), p. 399.
 
 86 ALL SOULS UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. [CHAF. 
 
 are 'not to depart without our special licence.' This was 
 followed, in four days, by an order to the Warden from the 
 Lord High Commissioners, with Parker still at their head, to 
 
 ' call the whole fellowship then present within the College 
 together, and upon the common consent of all or the greater 
 part of the said fellowship so gather'd he shall cause to be 
 defac'd and broken such church plate as is in their College 
 or custody appertaining to the use of the church or chaple, 
 except six silver basons with their ewers or crewetes, one 
 tabernacle gilt with two leaves set with stones and perles, 
 two silver bolles, a silver rodd and three Processionals. . . . 
 Item that they send up to the said Commissioners their two 
 books of the Epistles and Gospels, reserving unto them- 
 selves the Images of silver of the same defac'd in manner 
 aforesaid.' 
 
 A certificate of compliance with this order is to be made 
 within ten days, and all ' discontented ' Fellows are to be 
 sent up to the Commissioners if at any future time they 
 ' misreport or gainsay the order.' 
 
 It will hardly be believed, but all this was just as ineffec- 
 tual as the foregoing ; or at any rate, if some sort of progress 
 was made, there were sufficient ' monuments of superstition ' 
 of the same sort left in 1573, six years later, to demand all the 
 energy of the Puritan Commissioners of that date ! But the 
 party struggle having become more violent, and being in 
 this case, no doubt, stimulated by the circumstance that 
 Parker's own domestic chaplain had been elected Warden in 
 1571, so affording a suspicion that he favoured the retention 
 of some of the offensive articles, success crowned the efforts 
 of the Commissioners at last, who had, indeed, the advantage 
 of being on the spot to superintend their work. 
 
 This final effort curiously illustrates the critical nature of 
 the duel now being fought out between the Anglo-Catholics, 
 represented by Parker and the Queen, and the Puritans, as 
 patronised by Leicester. In May, 15/3, the Oxford Com- 
 missioners, Laurence Humfrey, President of Magdalen, two 
 Canons of Christ Church, and Cole, President of Corpus,
 
 vi.] THE PURITAN COMMISSIONERS. 87 
 
 ' are by credible report inform'd that as yet there are re- 
 maining- in your College divers monuments of superstition 
 undefac'd : These be, by virtue of the Queen's Commission 
 to us directed, to wyll and commande you forthwith upon 
 the syght hereof utterly to deface, or cause to be defac'd, 
 so that they may not hereafter serve to any superstitious 
 purpose, all Copes, Vestments, Albes, Missals, Books, Crosses, 
 and such other idolatrous and superstitious monuments what- 
 soever, and within eight days after the receipt hereof to 
 bringe true certificate of their whole doinge herein to us or 
 our Colleagues, whereof fayle you not as you will answere 
 to the contrary at your perill.' 
 
 Not only do the eight days pass, but nearly eight months ; 
 the slippery College is not even yet caught ! These very 
 Commissioners are on their trial ! Humfrey and Cole are 
 the leaders of the Oxford Puritans, and that faction is at this 
 time making head all over the country. The Queen in vain 
 attempts to suppress their celebrated ' Admonition to Parlia- 
 ment.' But her Council are as resolutely determined to put a 
 stop to their proceedings at Oxford as the Puritans to crush 
 the All Souls ' monuments of superstition.' In a few days after 
 the missive of the Commissioners to All Souls the Vice-Chan- 
 cellor of Oxford receives a sharp letter from the Council 
 requiring him to suppress certain books which are being 
 briskly circulated in the University by the Commissioners' 
 own party, the Puritans ! Was this a dexterous parry pro- 
 cured through Parker by his quondam Chaplain ? We know 
 not ; but from whatever cause the Commissioners take a long 
 time to think over the matter before they return to the 
 charge. 
 
 In December, 1573, they are strong enough to take 
 decisive measures. They complain that the College has 
 
 ' hitherto neglected ' to make the ' true certificate directed 
 last sommer;' and they 'will and commande yowe to make 
 yowre personal appearance before us her Majesty's Commis- 
 sioners or owr Colleagues in the President's Hawle of Mag- 
 dalen College in Oxford on Tuesday nexte, which shall be
 
 88 ALL SOULS UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. [CHAP. 
 
 the xxix of this presente month of December, at one of the 
 clocke in the afternoone, bringing with yowe a true certificate 
 of yowre whole doinges in the said defacing of the sayde 
 Monuments of Superstition, whereof fayle yowe not as yowe 
 will answere to the contrarye at yowre perill, and retorne 
 back the former and also this Writ with yowe.' 
 
 It was impossible to evade so explicit an order as this. 
 The College gave up the struggle. Successive Visitors, 
 some of whom would certainly feel with Laurence Humfrey, 
 make complaints of different kinds, but we never again 
 hear of this particular cause of offence. Even the excep- 
 tions permitted by the High Commissioners are lost to 
 sight. Of the wreck of Roman Catholic Ritualism to which 
 the early Wardens of the Reformation so pertinaciously 
 clung, nothing has come down to the present day except 
 the shabby little ' silver rodd,' probably used in those times 
 by a verger ! 
 
 Thus the third act of the Reformation was at last complete. 
 The acknowledgment of the Royal Supremacy and Edward's 
 Act of Uniformity had been followed by the final suppression 
 of the Roman Ritual. The Massacre of St. Bartholomew 
 had displayed the gulf into which the Protestants were des- 
 tined by their enemies to fall. It was Elizabeth and England 
 against the world ; and the Queen was now at her wit's ends 
 to rally the anti-Roman element of her realm around her 
 on the one hand, to preserve the essentially Catholic cha- 
 racter of the Establishment on the other. How grandly 
 she succeeded, how this one stedfast resolution was the 
 secret cause of so many of her apparent vacillations and 
 inconsistencies was, as we have said, better understood for- 
 merly than now. The multiplication of our sources of infor- 
 mation of late years has as yet done little else but dazzle 
 the eyesight of those who have attempted to make use of 
 them 1 . 
 
 Before we dismiss this subject it should be observed that 
 
 1 See the Quarterly Review, April, 1870.
 
 vi.] PARKER'S LETTERS. 89 
 
 the complaints of all the Commissioners alike, unless indeed 
 anything- further is meant by the term 'crosses,' touch nothing 
 but the portable articles which give offence. Not a word 
 is said as to altars, reredos, statues, or the like. This is 
 proof positive that the iconoclastic destruction of the Com- 
 missioners of 1549 was absolutely complete. By ' crosses ' 
 was probably meant some moveable substitutes for the ancient 
 magnificence. By those Commissioners we may believe that 
 ' the one altar or rather Lord's Table ' had been set up in 
 the middle of the Chapel the position insisted upon by Ridley 
 himself instead of at the east end. We are not able to trace 
 all the vicissitudes of position the Chapel of All Souls has 
 seen on this point ; but we shall notice in its place the effect 
 of the Laudian revival in replacing the 'altar or Lord's Table' 
 where it originally stood. 
 
 The two letters of Archbishop Parker possessed by the 
 College, and not yet published, are of a more domestic cha- 
 racter than the foregoing. The first, written in 1564, is 
 signed ' Your loving friend and patron.' In this he warns 
 the College to be more careful in its accounts and the general 
 economy of the house, and that, 
 
 ' Furder, your exercise of learninge as well in disputacons 
 as otherwise be more diligentlie observed than they have been 
 hitherto. And that men be not tolerated to defeat the Statute 
 providing after a time for entering into ministracon.' 
 
 In the other letter, written in Latin, undated, but probably 
 of the year 1567, he rebukes the members of the College for 
 their contentions about the domestic offices of the Fellows : 
 
 'To my great annoyance who am already distracted by 
 one kind of business and another in all directions. . . . 
 "Wherefore I beg you to put an end to your quarrels ; for 
 I know your dispositions and character far better by these 
 quarrels than I know yourselves, yes, indeed, far better than 
 I know any College in Oxford which has come under my 
 hands.' 
 
 'Valete: MATTHAEUS CANTUAR.'
 
 90 ALL SOULS UNDUE QUEEN ELIZABETH. [CHAP. 
 
 The irritation betrayed in these letters illustrates not only 
 the faults of the College, but the extreme severity of the 
 labours undergone by the heads of Church and State at this 
 juncture. No trouble was too great, however it might harass 
 them, no point too small for notice. If the ship was to be 
 successfully steered between the Scylla of Rome and the 
 Charybdis of Geneva it should have its decks cleared, its 
 crew at their posts, its officers properly trained, its code of 
 discipline strictly observed, every precaution taken that it 
 should survive the storms which none knew better than 
 Elizabeth, Cecil, and Parker would beat from every quarter 
 on the Anglo-Catholic Church. Perhaps in the last letter 
 we may find some reason to suppose that the action Parker 
 took in 1567 as to scandals of ritual was promoted by some 
 ' information ' he received in consequence of the quarrels 
 which he denounces with such grief and pain. When men 
 outside the College were bitterly contending on this very 
 point it was not likely that such an apple of discord with- 
 in the walls could long remain unhandled. The ' conten- 
 tions ' of the Fellows went deeper no doubt than the mere 
 contest for ' domestic offices.' It must be remembered also 
 that Parker's reforms at Oxford were continually thwarted 
 by Leicester, who, as Chancellor of the University, could 
 exercise a vast amount of obstructive power. At his own 
 University, where he was supreme, the influence of the 
 Archbishop was far more efficient. 
 
 It was under Parker's Primacy, however, that the great 
 measure was taken which stamped the character of the Uni- 
 versities for succeeding ages. The Act of 13 Elizabeth, 
 which incorporated those bodies, was the great settlement 
 under which they have worked down to our own day. The 
 orderly system of Matriculation, Degrees, and obedience to 
 Statutes, then introduced and enforced, together with the 
 cessation of religious disputes produced by the rigorous pro- 
 ceedings noted above, gave the most extraordinary impetus
 
 vi.] THE QUEEN AND THE UNIVERSITIES. 91 
 
 to both Oxford and Cambridge, which were now quite ripe 
 for such a reform. If made earlier it would have been pre- 
 mature. 
 
 Elizabeth went to work in the most enlightened spirit 
 to encourage activity among those whom she had thus set 
 free from the accumulated difficulties of ages. Perhaps a 
 quaint passage quoted by Wood from Sir William Boswell 
 will convey a better idea of her system than any modern 
 account of it. 
 
 ' Queen Elizabeth,' says this authority, ' gave a strict 
 charge and command to both the Chancellors of both the 
 Universities to bring her a just, true, and impartial list of all 
 the eminent and hopeful students that were Graduates in each 
 University, to set down punctually their names, their Colleges, 
 their standings, their Faculties in which they did eminere 
 or were likely so to do. Therein Her Majesty was exactly 
 obeyed ; the Chancellor must not do otherwise ; and the 
 use she made of it was that if she had an ambassador to send 
 abroad, then she of herself would nominate such a man of 
 such an House to be his chaplain, and another of another 
 House to be his secretary, &c. When she had any places 
 to dispose fit for persons of an academical education, she 
 would herself consign such persons as she judged to be pares 
 negotiis. This could not be long concealed from the young 
 students, and then it is easy to be imagined, or rather it is 
 not to be imagined, how the consideration that their Sove- 
 reign's eye was upon them, and so propitious upon the 
 deserving of them, how this, I say, would switch and spur 
 on their industries V 
 
 A letter of Lord Leicester's to All Souls in 1581, when he 
 was Chancellor of Oxford, confirms this aspect of the Eliza- 
 bethan policy, if indeed it were not too well known to re- 
 quire confirmation. It is addressed ' To my loving friends 
 the Warden and Officers of All Souls in Oxford,' and proceeds 
 thus: 
 
 ' After my right harty commendations, whereas Mr. Madox, 
 Felow of your Colledge, is presently to be employed in publique 
 
 * "Wood's Annals, sub anno 1602.
 
 92 ALL SOULS UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 affayrs into farre parts without this Realme, from whence he is 
 likelye to return in 3 or 3 years or more, I therefore do hartily 
 pray and also require you that he may have a cause of 3 years 
 absens from the Colledge allowed him, and that his absens for 
 the said tyme be no hynderaunce to his commodytye in the 
 Colledge, but that he may enjoy all benefytes thereof as yf he 
 were present ; and so I bid you hartily farewell. 
 
 ' Your very loving friend, ROB. LEICESTER.' l 
 
 The College does not resist this recommendation from their 
 ' very loving friend/ but it shews its good sense and in- 
 dependence in very carefully limiting its grant. The Warden 
 and Fellows give Madox the ' required' ' cause of absens,' 
 reserving to him all such rights, emoluments, &e. which 
 if present he might have received from the College, ' except 
 Commons and annual Liveries, which they altogether refuse to 
 grant 2 ' Now these exceptions included almost the only 
 assistance a Fellow got from his College at this period, so 
 that in reality the Warden and Fellows did little but provide 
 that he should be in the same position when he returned 
 as he was in when he left. It was one thing to work with 
 the Queen and her Chancellor to encourage men of talent; 
 it was another to take the remuneration for public services 
 off the hands of the Crown, and to announce that non- 
 residence abroad fulfilled the conditions attached by the 
 Founder to his bounty. 
 
 1 MS. Book penes custodem. 2 Ibid.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Clje 60Ita ^ at ,11 Souls, 
 1571-1603. 
 
 Warden Hoveden Queen Elizabeth and Cecil Great men of 
 the College Sir Anthony Sherley The Lawyers Arch- 
 bishop Grindal Archbishop "Whitgift, the great organiser 
 of All Souls College luxury College Surplus Its his- 
 tory Grammar Schools Education of poor Scholars at 
 All Souls. 
 
 ALL SOULS was nearly as fortunate in the Warden who 
 presided for forty-two years during- the period when it was 
 experiencing the Elizabethan impulse as it was in the able 
 man who presided for a similar period during the trying times 
 of the Reformation. Robert Hoveden was elected at the early 
 age of twenty-seven; but he had enjoyed the inestimable 
 advantage of having been chaplain to Archbishop Parker. 
 From his handsome monument in the College chapel we find 
 that he was elected ' summo cum consensu,' as also that he was 
 descended from the ' ancient family of the Hovedens in Kent.' 
 So young a Warden could hardly be expected to reverse the 
 decision of the College in the matter of ritual which we have 
 related in the last Chapter, nor perhaps was he much disposed 
 to do so ; but we have seen that he was speedily relieved 
 from that responsibility. His task was to conciliate, to 
 reorganise, to develop the resources of the College. When 
 he died it was thought proper to inscribe on the said monu- 
 ment the words, ' cum hide Musarum domicilio magna cum 
 sagacitate et prudentia per 42 annos prcefnisset?
 
 94 THE GOLDEN AGE AT ALL SOULS. [CHAP. 
 
 We are left to conjecture as to many of the ways in which 
 this great sagacity and prudence were exhibited; for the 
 most useful lives are not always the most eventful. But we 
 know that he had much to do with putting the College estates 
 into order. It is he also who appears to have been the first 
 to organise the College official books, prefixing, like Warner, 
 a short account of the Founder. He refits the library, still, 
 though now converted into private apartments, beautifully 
 adorned with Elizabethan devices. Probably the good con- 
 dition of the College archives in old times was due to him. 
 Half a century after his death, Wood, at the commencement 
 of his antiquarian researches, ' began to peruse the evidences 
 of All Souls College which were brought from the tower over 
 the gate into the lodgings of Dr. Th. James, Warden of 
 the said College,' and he found ' they were put in as good 
 method as Exeter College evidences were, and therefore it 
 saved him much trouble 1 .' The records of the periodical 
 inspection of the College plate date from his Wardenship, 
 and probably the large increase it began to shew was due 
 to his care. He completes the Warden's -lodgings which 
 Warner had built. To him the College owes an ancient 
 joke. To the grounds previously belonging to it he added 
 the Warden's garden, pulling down the house which occupied 
 the site, and which was known as ' The Rose/ where there 
 was also a famous well. He now announced that the Fellows 
 should henceforth wash in Rose-water. In his days we first 
 hear of the surplus income which the proper management 
 of the College property produced, and which so exercised the 
 minds of successive Visitors. While in these, and other minor 
 ways too tedious to mention, he benefited his Society, there 
 is one transaction of his which has come down to us in some 
 detail, and throws light upon the history of the times. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth had held possession for more than thirty 
 
 1 Wood's Life, sub anno 1666.
 
 vii.] THE QUEEN AND HOVE DEN. 95 
 
 years of the mansion-house and tithes of Stanton Har- 
 court. This property had belonged to the Abbey of Read- 
 ing, and on the suppression of the Abbey, fell to the 
 Crown. Edward the Sixth gave it to Poynet, the Protestant 
 Bishop of Winchester, in exchange for some lands which 
 belonged to that See. When Mary came to the throne 
 she restored Stephen Gardiner to his See; and by agree- 
 ment with the Crown he resumed the exchanged lands, 
 while the Crown in its turn resumed Stanton Harcourt. 
 The properties returned in short to their original owner- 
 ship under Edward the Sixth. Now comes a further 
 change. A little later in Mary's reign Cardinal Pole had 
 permission given him to make grants of all such pro- 
 perties for ecclesiastical purposes, and he grants Stanton 
 Harcourt to All Souls. On Elizabeth's accession all such 
 grants were by Parliament restored to the Crown except 
 such as were in possession of schools and colleges. All 
 Souls therefore had a right to retain Stanton Harcourt. 
 But the Bishop of Winchester chose to deny this right, 
 and Cecil, in order to settle the dispute, ' procured ' that 
 the property should be made over to Elizabeth. 
 
 What the imperious Queen once got in this way she 
 had a strong mind to keep. Many an effort had been 
 made to extract the morsel from the jaws of the lioness, and 
 the College meanwhile ' went poor and bare.' She held that 
 ' she had a perfect interest to the parsonage ; " she had 
 made a lease of it for forty years. But time had tamed 
 her. Leicester, her evil genius, was dead. Whitgift had 
 long exercised his great influence in favour of the Church. 
 Burleigh was drawing to the end of his laborious career. 
 Warden Hoveden watches his time. ' Your poore subjects, 
 the W n and Fellows of yo r College of All Souls/ make a 
 very humble petition for their rights. At the foot of the 
 copy, still preserved in the archives, are these words : ' My 
 Lord Threasurer's opinion written with his owne hande on
 
 96 THE GOLDEN AGE AT ALL SOULS. [CHAP. 
 
 the backside of the College supplication to Her Ma^/ 
 Then follows the ' opinion : ' 
 
 'I doe knowe that the right of the parsonage within 
 named was in the B. of Wincester and not in Queen 
 Marie nor in the Cardinall, and to the intent the Colledge 
 might enjoy this parsonage according to the Cardinall's 
 graunt I procured the B. of Wincester to make a graunt 
 hereof to Her Maj tie and of divers others whereunto he 
 had in law a title, but not in conscience, because he had 
 a recompense for the same.' 
 
 In the very year of the great Minister's death, 1598, the 
 Queen at last yielded. Possibly if we knew more of these 
 complicated transactions we should find that not only was 
 there more excuse for the Queen than is sometimes supposed, 
 but that there was more justice done to the Church in the 
 end than is generally believed. At any rate we have here 
 a remarkable instance of Elizabeth's often repeated grace in 
 yielding at last when she found out she was wrong, of Lord 
 Buiieigh's foresight and honesty, of Hoveden's ' sagacity and 
 prudence.' The Bishop of Winchester is the person who 
 comes out of the affair least satisfactorily. 
 
 It was under these auspices that All Souls produced 
 several men who added in their measure to the glories of 
 the Elizabethan age. Lord Chancellor Weston was already 
 distinguished before he was advanced by Elizabeth. Sir 
 Daniel Dunn, Sir William Bird, and Sir Clement Edmonds 
 all entered the College in her reign, and attained the 
 high posts of Dean of Arches or Master of Requests, or both. 
 All three were in turn Burgesses for the University. But 
 if they and such men as William Aubrey represent ex- 
 clusively the legal element for which the Founder made 
 careful provision, while John Williams adorns the Margaret 
 Professor's Chair at Oxford, the College boasts of one Eliza- 
 bethan name which combines all the attributes of chivalrous 
 romance that we associate with the period. 
 
 Sir Anthony Sherley was elected from Hart Hall in
 
 vii.] SIS ANTHONY SHE RLE Y. 97 
 
 1580. He held when he died the titles of ' Count of 
 the Holy Roman Empire and Admiral of the Levant 
 Seas/ and he was a Mirza of Persia. To his name are 
 appended in the College records the words, 'that noble 
 ambassador sent by the great King of the Persians, Sha- 
 Abbas, to the Emperor and Christian Kings.' His history 
 is very curious, and though once well known, is so far for- 
 gotten that even when the English knowledge of Persian 
 affairs was displayed in our newspapers to the uttermost 
 on the late visit of the Shah to England, no one seems 
 to have remembered who was the first English Resident 
 at a Persian Court, the first to open the resources of that 
 country to the English, the man to whom and to whose 
 brother the greatest of all the Persian monarchs owed his 
 chief successes, the provinces of Christendom a partial de- 
 liverance from the Turk, and the English a successful step 
 in the career of their Indian grandeur 1 . It may therefore 
 be justifiable to suspend the thread of our narrative for 
 a moment while we give a brief account of the last of 
 the knights-errant. Of all the Elizabethan worthies he 
 seems to have been the one to 
 
 ' Chase brave employments with a naked sword 
 Throughout the world ' 
 
 1 A short abstract of the adventures of ' The Three Brothers ' 
 was published by Hurst and Robinson in 1825 ; and Mr. Evelyn 
 Shirley, the representative of the family at Easington, wrote for 
 the Roxburgh Club, in 1848, a carefully compiled account of 'The 
 Shirley Brothers ; ' but in neither case is there if one may say 
 so any sufficient notice taken of the character and opinions of 
 Sir Anthony as evinced by the ' True History of Sir Anthony 
 Sherley's Travels into Persia penned by him selfe,' London, 1613. 
 The original MS. of this ' True History ' is in the Bodleian (Ash- 
 mole Coll. 829), and has been consulted for the extracts here given. 
 Of his visit to Persia there is of course a notice in Sir John 
 Malcolm's History of Persia. Wood, Fuller, and other authors 
 make mention of the brothers ; but their notices are extremely 
 meagre, and often inaccurate. 
 
 H
 
 98 THE GOLDEN AGE AT ALL SOULS. [CHAP. 
 
 on the most extensive scale; and George Herbert may well 
 have had the three brothers in his eye when he penned those 
 famous lines. Their names were then in the mouths of all. 
 
 Sir Anthony Sherley was the first of the celebrated trio 
 to earn distinction. Sir Robert was taken out as a youth 
 by Anthony to Persia; and Sir Thomas, the eldest brother, 
 the father was also Sir Thomas, of Wiston in Sussex, 
 was driven by the fame of Anthony and Robert to emu- 
 late their deeds in a somewhat rash, not to say piratical, 
 manner. 
 
 Anthony must have learnt much at All Souls among so 
 many able men as the College at that time possessed. He 
 was elected in his seventeenth year, being already a Bachelor 
 of Arts ; and remained there though it seems he did not 
 take his degree of Master till he made his first campaign. 
 So much may be gathered from the fact that Archbishop 
 Whitgift would not allow a candidate, in November 1587, 
 to fill his place as Fellow, leave of absence having been 
 given Sherley during the previous year, ' de tempore in 
 tempus' and no vacancy having been officially reported. 
 This shows the liberal spirit in which both Visitor and 
 College dealt with such questions. It was a national 
 cause ; the young Fellow should not be hampered ; he 
 should make his first campaign, and see how he liked it. 
 The bird, however, never came back to his cage. Of this 
 period he himself says, ' My friends bestowed on me those 
 learnings which were fit for a gentleman's ornament without 
 directing them to an occupation, and when they were fit 
 for agible things they bestowed them and me on my prince's 
 service.' 
 
 Queen Elizabeth was now about to wage her momentous con- 
 flict with the Roman Catholic world in arms ; and the chivalry 
 of England were pressing round Leicester's standard in Flan- 
 ders. Sherley is among them; he fights by the side of Sir 
 Philip Sidney at Zutphen in 1586. He is afterwards found
 
 vii.] SHERLETS FIRST ADVENTURES. 99 
 
 serving- as Colonel in that gallant band of four thousand 
 Englishmen whom Elizabeth sent to the assistance of the 
 hard-pressed Henry of Navarre. How Sherley performed 
 his part may be gathered from the fact that Henry insisted 
 on investing him with the Order of St. Michael and would 
 take no denial, while Essex became from the time of those 
 campaigns his unfailing patron and bosom friend. To receive 
 knighthood from a foreign prince without permission was 
 however a grave fault, especially if, as Camden tells us, the 
 young knight, on his return to England, ' shewed himself 
 openly accoutred with the insignia of his Order in the City 
 and at Court.' Elizabeth imprisoned him for the offence. He 
 replied, as so many other gallant men did who fell under her 
 displeasure, by desperate and romantic expeditions against the 
 common enemy in the West Indies and North America. 
 Essex supplied him with money, for he had none of his own. 
 They were kindred spirits, the children of the strife. It 
 was a holy war, and they were both men of strong reli- 
 gious feelings. The Jesuits had invaded England ; the 
 Spanish and French troops Ireland. The Pope, to these 
 gallant men, was the incarnation of all that was false and 
 retrograde, the Spaniard of all that was bigoted, bloody, 
 selfish, unscrupulous. The war must be carried into that 
 Western hemisphere in whose future the master spirits of 
 the age plainly foresaw the mighty issues of the struggle, 
 and Sherley took his place among the foremost of these sea- 
 soldiers. We may still linger with delight over the quaint 
 pages of Hakluyt where the exploits of ' the general ' are 
 recorded. 
 
 It was in these expeditions that he learnt some of the 
 most valuable of the lessons which led to his success 
 in Persia. He learnt to know men, to face any odds, to 
 bear up under failure, desertion, and distress. He had no 
 resources, like Raleigh, for founding Colonies, nor perhaps 
 the genius. He made a suceessful descent upon Jamaica, 
 
 H 2
 
 100 THE GOLDEN AGE AT ALL SOULS. [CHAP. 
 
 but thought it not calculated for a settlement, and gave 
 it up ! Indeed he more generally failed than succeeded all 
 through life; but his mind soared higher than to care for 
 mere success. He thus expresses his idea of a man's duty: 
 ' Men are brought forth uppon the earth for good endes, 
 the principallest of which is the glory of God, and then to 
 better the world.' Where shall we find a nobler sentiment 
 more concisely expressed ! In recounting his Persian ad- 
 ventures, not for publication, but for the guidance of his 
 younger brother, he attributes his marvellous escapes to 
 God's goodness in honouring good intentions. 
 
 'Good intentions,' says he, 'have such a simpathie with 
 God his owne disposition, that he will both assiste them 
 who have them for their better incouragement and for other's 
 example, being one of the chiefe means by which he in- 
 structeth the world.' 
 
 We next find him serving under Essex in his ill-fated Irish 
 command, and receiving knighthood this time unexception- 
 ably at his hands. From his firm friend he once more 
 receives the means of equipping himself for foreign expe- 
 ditions; not now to the West, but to Italy, to help the Duke 
 of Ferrara against the Pope. Another disappointment ! The 
 Duke tamely submits before the English can arrive ! Shall 
 he return to England? No. Italy to a knight-errant was 
 but on the road to Persia, and Sherley had already com- 
 municated to Essex how some Italian merchants had told 
 him that a great blow might be struck at the Turks by 
 bringing Persia into communication with Europe. Essex 
 backed up the scheme with all the impetuosity of his nature. 
 On the one hand he felt that his dubious position with 
 Elizabeth would not bear the weight of a costly expedition 
 returning bootless home; on the other his genius at once 
 grasped the notion that here was the opportunity for ex- 
 tending the commerce of England to the East, where the 
 Roman Catholic powers had been already long settled, and 
 whence they were still earnestly striving to exclude all but
 
 vii. J SHE RLE Y A CRUSADER. 101 
 
 themselves. From that side the common foe of Christen- 
 dom might at last be reached, the foe which was crushing- 
 Persia on one side, Hungary on the other. It was twenty- 
 seven years since Lepanto had been won. No blow had 
 been struck since. On the contrary the Imperialists had 
 just suffered a tremendous defeat, (1596). Cyprus was 
 hopelessly lost; Venice in decay. There was no deliverance 
 in the Empire or in Spain, still less in the Papacy. The 
 Ottoman seemed about once more to overrun the world. 
 
 And so Sherley set forth from Italy, with his young 
 brother and twenty-four men, to measure himself against 
 the Ottoman Empire ! Never did enterprise appear more 
 Quixotic. Elizabeth had already perceived the importance 
 of Persia, but not being a knight-errant, she had only 
 thought of the commercial advantages her people might 
 gain. She had sent Jenkinson, a merchant, with full cre- 
 dentials, to Shah Tamasp; the bigoted Mahometan refused 
 even to see him. But she had no idea of embroiling herself 
 with Turkey, where there was already much English trade 
 embarked, and at the capital of which a Resident of her 
 own was established. She frowned on Sherley's adventure 
 as she well knew how; nor was the patronage of Essex at 
 this time any recommendation. 
 
 The mere valour of the knight-errant would scarcely, how- 
 ever, have carried Sherley over the extraordinary difficulties 
 which beset his journey. He was a Crusader, a Crusader, 
 some centuries after the Crusades. His whole soul was 
 stirred within him at the disgrace of Christendom. How 
 he felt as he passed through thinly-inhabited countries, 
 blighted by the Ottoman breath, must be read in his own 
 words. A sentence must suffice here. At Cyprus he cries 
 shame upon Christian princes who do not keep ' a compas- 
 sionate eie turned uppon the miserable calamitye of a place 
 so neere them, rent from the Church of God by the usurpa- 
 tion of God's and the world's great enemie.' And in Syria
 
 102 THE GOLDEN AGE AT ALL SOULS. [CHAP. 
 
 ' What a shame it is to the verie name of Christianitie to suffer 
 that greate Sepulchre of our Redemption to bee possessed to 
 our eternall ignominy by his professed enemies who vouch- 
 safed to give his dearest blood to buye us from perdition ! ' 
 
 He arrives at last. In the year 1600 he presents himself 
 before Shah Abbas, who had just fought his way to the 
 throne, a man stained with blood and delighting in cruelty, 
 but of unquestionable ability for the task of raising Persia 
 to the rank of a great power, and already alive to the diffi- 
 culties which lay before him on the side of Turkey. With 
 the quick convictions of genius the keen Asiatic at once saw 
 that in Sherley he had found the man he wanted. Captivated 
 by his chivalrous manners he at once admits him to the 
 closest friendship, makes him his chief adviser, reforms his 
 army after the European model under his guidance, and 
 enters with an ardour, which he retained all through his life, 
 into Sherley's schemes for a combination with the Christian 
 powers against the Turk. He begs that the young Robert 
 may be left at his Court, and with the following extra- 
 ordinary letter sends Sir Anthony, in the course of a few 
 months, as his ambassador to Europe. 
 
 ' There is come unto me,' as the contemporary translation 
 has it, ' in this good time a principall gentleman, Sir Anthony 
 Shierlie, of his owne freewill out of Europe to these parts : 
 and al you princes y* beleeve in Jesus Christ know you that 
 he hath made friendship between you and me ; which desire 
 we had also heretofore graunted, but there was none that came 
 to make the way and to remove the vaile that was betwene 
 us and you, but onely this gentleman ; who as he came with 
 his owne freewill so also upon his desire I have sent with him 
 a chiefe man of mine. The entertainment which that princi- 
 pall man hath had with me is that daylie, whilst he hath bin 
 in these partes, we have eaten togither of one dyshand drunke 
 of one cup like two breethren V 
 
 Before Sir Anthony's departure he persuaded the Shah to 
 'give libertie of Christian religion ' in his dominions. Hence- 
 
 1 Eeport of Sir A. Sherley.
 
 vii.] RESULTS OF PERSIAN MISSION. 103 
 
 forth Christianity was frankly and completely tolerated. He 
 reports that ' he had opened the Indyes for our merchants in 
 that sorte that only excepting the outward show of power 
 they shall have more power than the Portingall.' This was 
 true. One indirect result of the English influence thus 
 established was the subsequent destruction of Ormuzd, the 
 Portuguese emporium in the Persian Gulf, which had existed 
 in splendour for a century. 
 
 Sherley's journey to the Emperor, the Pope, and the King 
 of Spain on the business of his embassy was fruitless enough, 
 as fruitless as his journey was eventful and disastrous ; but 
 the effect of his expedition was most remarkable. In five years 
 after he left the Shah, his brother had enabled the Persians 
 to strike such a blow at the Turks that the Ottoman Empire 
 reeled to its centre. Though the Christian princes declined to 
 enter into any active alliance with Persia, they soon expe- 
 rienced the relief afforded by this diversion. Essex and Sherley 
 were quite right. The Ottoman Empire, in spite of its recent 
 success in Europe, was rotten at the core. If a combined move- 
 ment could have been then effected, that Empire must have 
 collapsed. As it was, the Treaty of Sitvatorok not only freed 
 Transylvania, but ' marked an era in the diplomatic relations 
 of Turkey with the rest of Christendom V For the first 
 time since he had burst upon Europe the haughty Ottoman 
 treated with the Emperor upon terms of professed equality. 
 The knight-errant had done something towards changing 
 the face of both Europe and Asia ! 
 
 Sherley's subsequent career is not so satisfactory. It 
 must be dismissed in a few words. On ill terms with 
 his own Court, which he had served so much better than 
 it deserved, he threw himself on the Roman Catholic 
 princes, professed their religion, received their titles and 
 pensions, commanded a Spanish fleet in the Levant, headed 
 an Imperial embassy to Morocco, and lived till 1630 (or 
 
 1 Creasy's Ottoman Turks, vol. i. p. 384.
 
 104 THE GOLDEN AGE AT ALL SOULS. [CHAP. 
 
 1636) a chequered life at the Spanish Court, sometimes 
 honoured as the next in rank after the Viceroy of Naples, 
 sometimes impoverished by his own imprudence. James the 
 First called on him to return to England, but he declined. 
 The fate of Raleigh was not encouraging. His brother 
 succeeded to his place in Persia, and, like Sir Anthony, 
 made bootless visits to European Courts. He was twice in 
 England as Persian Ambassador, but as Sir Anthony had 
 offended Elizabeth, so Sir Robert excited the jealousy of the 
 East India Company, and suffered much from their intrigues. 
 We may sum up the elder brother's Persian career in the 
 words of the younger one : ' He made so rare an attempt 
 as hath seldome bene seene in this or any former age by a 
 private gentleman to have beene enterprized.' He certainly 
 performed enough for one life. It was hardly to be expected 
 that he could persuade the 'princes Christian' to lay aside 
 their animosities before the battle of the Reformation had 
 been fairly fought out in the Thirty Years' War. 
 
 As All Souls did not even in those times breed knights- 
 errant every day, we must return to the humbler topics 
 suggested by the missives of its Visitors, Archbishops Grindal 
 and Whitgift. 
 
 From the second of these the College has a larger number 
 of Injunctions, Ordinances, and letters than from any other 
 Visitor except Archbishop Wake; from the first as might be 
 expected, if we recollect the circumstances of his unfortunate 
 career as Primate scarcely anything. But the single docu- 
 ment of public interest from Grindal which the College 
 possesses connects him with the movement of the age, and 
 with Whitgift's more various efforts to deal with the diffi- 
 culties which that movement brought into prominence. The 
 changes and progress of the legal profession began to test 
 severely the sufficiency of the Founder's Statutes. The 
 Reformation had given a vast impulse to the Common Law, 
 and had all but localised the whole profession in the metro- 
 polis. How were the All Souls Jurists either to learn or
 
 vii.] STUDY OF L 1 W AT ALL SOULS. 105 
 
 practise? As the sphere of the Civil and Canon Law had 
 become so much more confined, could the Founder have 
 intended that there should be no elasticity in the future of 
 his College? Was it merely to subside into an institution 
 from whence an occasional teacher or professor might emerge? 
 Were they likely to emerge if the College were to be cut 
 off from direct contact with the London Courts ? These were 
 the questions the College was asking. The distinguished 
 members of the legal profession it had supplied no doubt 
 excited the emulation of their less successful brethren at All 
 Souls; but the most important of these men were officially 
 connected with the Archbishops, and guided their counsels. 
 For the present the ambition of the College Jurists was 
 checked ; but it was not for long. 
 
 Some of the Fellows had given their theories as to the 
 Founder's intentions a practical turn. They had begun to 
 exercise the vocation of Common Lawyers in London while 
 keeping their Fellowships. Hoveden had been unable to pre- 
 vent the College from permitting this innovation, which cer- 
 tainly required authoritative sanction. That sanction Grindal, 
 as Visitor, sternly refused to grant. He takes the most de- 
 cisive measures. As one of the Lords High Commissioners 
 associated with Parker in suppressing the All Souls ' monu- 
 ments of superstition,' he had had some experience of the 
 sort of men with whom he had to deal. This will account 
 for our finding no Visitations or Injunctions concerning the 
 matter in dispute. He uses his power as Visitor in a manner 
 which the College would certainly have challenged at a later 
 date. He writes, in 1582, to insist, with the utmost de- 
 cision, that the Fellowship of a man who has left the College 
 and resorted to London in order to study Common Law is 
 ipso facto vacant; and he there and then appoints another 
 in his place. However arbitrary, this letter seems to have 
 settled the question for many a year. After the Restoration 
 that and a good many other questions were reopened. 
 
 Whitgift is fortunate in finding this Common Law question
 
 106 THE GOLDEN AGE AT ALL SOULS. [CHAP. 
 
 settled, ana 1 is able to gratify the College by relaxing the 
 severity of the Statutes in the matter of Civil Law students. 
 He remedies a grievance, already of long standing, the 
 obligation of these students to take Holy Orders. At the 
 same time he attempts a compromise. He will not sanction 
 continuous non-residence. The Civil Lawyers are to practise 
 in none other than the Oxford Courts ; and if they spend as 
 much as two years continuously in London in the pursuit 
 of their profession, they forfeit their Fellowship. The same 
 penalty will be incurred if they practise out of Oxford for less 
 than two years, but at different times, or hold for one year 
 a Chancellorship, or be an Official or Commissary of a 
 Bishop ' as though they had withdrawn from the College 
 itself with the view of abandoning^ their study.' 
 
 This attempt to establish a School of Law sufficiently 
 good to breed up Civil Lawyers without resorting to London 
 is interesting in reference to the later history of the Univer- 
 sity ; but the speedy repeal of the provision against London 
 practice by Whitgift 's successor, Archbishop Bancroft, is still 
 more so. All useful study and practice was found to be de- 
 stroyed. Only seven years had elapsed when Bancroft finds 
 ' by conference with some of the principal Doctors of 
 Arches, being likewise sworn to your Statutes, that the 
 said restraint is more prejudicial to the students in the 
 profession of your House than I suppose was ever intended 
 by my predecessor.' He therefore ' suspends the Injunction.' 
 It is needless to say that the times were marching too fast 
 for any change back again. The Civil Lawyers had tri- 
 umphed, and in their success was bound up the future of 
 All Souls. As Civil and Canon Law receded, the Jurists 
 of the College more and more began to practise in the 
 Courts of Common Law, and more and more loudly to de- 
 mand the same liberty of non-residence as their brethren. 
 
 The voluminous Injunctions and letters of the keen, clear- 
 sighted Whitgift almost form a new set of Statutes. The
 
 vii.] WHITGIFT S REFORMS. 107 
 
 briefest summary must suffice for our purpose. Throughout 
 we trace the mind of a ' great man,' such as Izaak Walton 
 represents and Strype loves to call him, resolved not only 
 to remedy abuses, but to recreate and reform the institution 
 in accordance with the momentous changes which had taken 
 place during the last century and a half. 
 
 Thus Whitgift found no substitute provided for the ancient 
 prayers for the departed, which had kept in mind the memory 
 of Founders and Benefactors, but had been swept away by 
 the Act for the Suppression of Chantries and the Act of 
 Uniformity. The beautiful prayers in commemoration of 
 the men who had benefited All Souls, which are used in the 
 Chapel to this day, and which have been so used continuously 
 except during the Interregnum for three centuries, are his 
 contribution to the Services of the College. The sermon and 
 administration of Holy Communion four times a year, which 
 are still the law of the College, were established by his 
 Ordinance. He brings the question of ' corrupt resignations ' 
 to a point by enjoining the terms of a special oath which 
 every Fellow is to take, and making deprivation the penalty 
 of offence in the matter. Even Whitgift, however, failed to 
 stop up the gaps by which evasion was still possible. He 
 made a great step in advance of Cranmer and Parker ; 
 Abbot and Sancroft had only to build on his foundations. 
 
 One concession Whitgift was able to make to the wishes 
 of the College, besides that already mentioned as to Holy 
 Orders. Slight in itself, it is suggestive. It had long be- 
 come very disagreeable to receive the Founder's livery in 
 cloth ; but the Visitors would hear of no commutation. They 
 had feared to encourage the separate personal possession of 
 money by the Fellows. Food, clothes, rooms, and a common 
 life represented the idea of the Founder and the early habits 
 of the College. Whitgift does not fear to make the change. 
 He decided that the livery might be given in money; but 
 the name has always been retained as of old.
 
 108 THE GOLDEN AGE AT ALL SOULS. [CHAP. 
 
 The greater part of his Injunctions are, however, directed 
 in the most vigorous style against the growing luxury and 
 questionable tastes exhibited by the College. His Visitation 
 by Sir Daniel Dunn in 1601 discovered many abuses. He 
 denounces the splendid and costly banquets held by the 
 Fellows in their chambers, instead of the appointed public 
 dinners and suppers in hall, the costly furniture of the rooms, 
 the superabundance of servants, the ' disreputable games ' 
 (ludos inhonestos] played within the precincts of the College, 
 the practice of keeping hounds or falcons, and of keeping 
 the College horses in London longer than necessary, the 
 drinking of double beer (potum quem duplicem dicunt] by the 
 Fellows or servants at the expense of the College, and the 
 sufferance of any factious or quarrelsome person among the 
 Fellows, any whisperer, fomentor of discords, or striker. 
 The care of the College muniments and books, pursuit of 
 studies, proceeding to degrees, attendance in Chapel, leave 
 of absence, and all similar matters touching the well-being 
 of the institution are touched with a wise hand. 
 
 These Injunctions are, however, only supplementary. He 
 had previously taken an important step. In order to secure 
 obedience, and provide a lasting remedy for the evils of which 
 he had become cognisant, he perceived that he must have 
 some one on the spot armed with authority which could not be 
 disputed. The hands of the Warden must be strengthened. 
 The Governor of the little community was losing something 
 of his ancient status. He had received from his predecessors 
 the right of Veto upon the election of College officers. This 
 was the key of his position, and it was now vehemently 
 attacked by some of the College lawyers. Whitgift resolved 
 to confirm this right in the most positive and deliberate 
 manner at any risk. He had in Hoveden a man whom he 
 could trust, and he began his reforms in strict concert with 
 him. Here is an extract from his letter to the College in 
 1597:
 
 vii.] SURPLUS INCOME. 109 
 
 ' I would have you to understand that in the interpretation 
 of your Statutes I doe not mean to be carried with the 
 opinion of rny lawyers, but by the meaning- of the Founder 
 and the long-continued use and custome of your Colledge, 
 being- the best interpretation of your Founder's meaning-. 
 And therefore if any man think to carrie me away otherwise 
 he doth but deceyve himself.' 
 
 His resolution to use his own judgment, and not that of 
 any lawyers whatever, not even his own, is characteristic 
 enough. His decision of the question settled it for more 
 than a century. This bulwark of the Warden's position was 
 not overthrown till the Visitation of Archbishop Wake in 
 1719. The above letter ends, like so many other Lambeth 
 epistles to All Souls, with some stringent sentences on the 
 ' apparell of Schollers : ' 
 
 ' My meaning is that they goe schollerlike, and not lyke 
 courtiers or laymen, as though they were ashamed of their 
 degree, place and calling/ 
 
 These efforts of the good Archbishop to cope with the 
 increasing luxury and license of the College betray the in- 
 creasing wealth and prosperity which was affecting the con- 
 dition of all institutions and classes of society in the reign 
 of Elizabeth. The extraordinary success of her policy at 
 home and abroad was producing in the latter portion of her 
 prolonged government its natural consequence. Every class 
 was making a move upwards. The full effect of what had 
 been done by her predecessors had now the opportunity of 
 developing itself. 
 
 The particular measure which affected the material interest 
 of Colleges, and notably of All Souls, was the Act of the 
 1 8th year of her reign, the chief passage from which is here 
 exti'acted. It provided that 
 
 'in all future leases made by Colleges, Cathedrals, &c. 
 one third part at least of the old rent must be reserved and 
 paid in corn for the said Colleges, &c. or in ready money
 
 110 THE GOLDEN AGE AT ALL SOULS. [CHAP. 
 
 ... to be expended to the use of the Relief of the 
 commons and diet of the said Colleges, &c., and by no fraud 
 or colour let or sold away from the profit of the said Col- 
 leges, &c. on pain of the deprivation of the Governor or chief 
 rulers of the said Colleges/ &c. 
 
 Here then was a provision for a surplus income made by 
 the law of the land. The question was settled. The sim- 
 plicity of the ancient College life could no longer be retained 
 intact, even in theory. It had doubtless been largely modified 
 before this important Act was passed ; but when the surplus 
 income in a single year 'above the sett and ordinary allowance 
 for the diet and commons of the M r , Fellows and servants l ' 
 reached as high as ^Piooo, perhaps about ^6000 or ^7000 
 of our currency, we may be sure that a great change had 
 taken place. It is true that we do not find this statement 
 as to the Surplus till a little later; but it may serve as 
 an index of what was taking place in the reign of Queen 
 Elizabeth. The members of the College were not indeed as 
 yet allowed to divide any part of the Surplus ; but perhaps 
 we may assume, without breach of charity, that there were 
 some recognised methods of waylaying portions of this Col- 
 lege wealth before it found its way into the tower-chest ; and 
 certainly no slight portion was required in the lawsuits and 
 disputes of various kinds which troubled the College in 
 reference to its property, of which we will take the following 
 by way of example. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1581, 'by the information and 
 lewd setting on of W m Langherne, late Fellow of All Souls, 
 then servant to Sir Walter Raleigh, procured letters from the 
 Queen to the College to demise to her the Manor of Scotney 
 and farm of Newlands in Romney Marsh 5 at a low rate and 
 the College, in the absence of the Warden, gave way ; but in 
 1587 'Sir Walter procured letters from the Queen for all the 
 
 1 Case concerning Surplusage Money, Tanner MSS. vol. 340.
 
 vii.] E URLEIGH A ND RA LEIGH. 1 1 1 
 
 College woods to be leased tq Lady J. Stafford, relict of 
 Sir R. Stafford,' 'for ^20 rent and jioo fine.' The College 
 refused, and gave some excellent reasons; but Lady Stafford 
 told the Queen ' it was more out of obstinacy than to defend 
 their rights, their state being so plentiful by Her Majesty's 
 Statute' [18 Elizabeth] 'as that they rather seemed rich 
 monks in a rich Abbey than students in a poor College.' 
 At her request the Queen granted a Commission of enquiry. 
 The College stoutly stood to its refusal, and applied for help 
 to Whitgift as Visitor, who interceded with Burleigh. The 
 Treasurer took it 'in good part and desired them to talk 
 with Sir Walter Raleigh. They did so ; and he promised 
 to be indifferent in the matter.' Lady Stafford was now left 
 to fight her battle with the College, which repelled her 
 unkind remarks by declaring that ' the fellows' allowance 
 at noon was but i d , and at night 2 d , a small pittance to make 
 them fat.' The Lord Treasurer having summoned her and 
 the Warden before him, now told her ' he disliked her suit, 
 and would represent it as unreasonable to Her Majesty.' She 
 would not however give up her point, though she lowered her 
 demands, and even begged at last that she might ' have some 
 consideration for her charges.' Even this the College un- 
 gallantly refused; and ' so the matter rested 1 .' 
 
 As we shall not return to a subject of a somewhat technical 
 nature, but really of great and wide importance, we may as 
 well forestall the history of this Surplus during the process 
 of its gradual settlement into a regular fund for supplying 
 the annual emoluments of the Warden and Fellows. It may 
 throw light upon some difficult questions of modern days. 
 
 Whitgift's successor, Archbishop Bancroft, was the first 
 to grant permission that the Surplus might be ' converted 
 to amendment of diet and other necessary uses of common 
 charge,' a precedent which the College was naturally most 
 
 2 Book of College Estates, F. P. penes custodem, p. 164.
 
 112 THE GOLDEN AGE AT ALL SOULS. [CHAP. 
 
 unwilling- to deprive of its full significance. The terms 
 were certainly large enough to permit even laymen to drive 
 the proverbial ' coach and six ' through them, much more 
 lawyers; and so when Bancroft's successor, Archbishop 
 Abbot, ventures, in the innocency of his simple and some- 
 what severe disposition, to recur to the ancient idea, he 
 discovers that he has stirred up a nest of hornets. Several 
 letters pass between the Visitor and the College on the 
 subject, the Archbishop so far maintaining his point that 
 it is very many years yet before the distribution of 
 the Surplus amongst the Fellows is an acknowledged 
 right. Abbot utterly refuses to recognise anything of the 
 nature of right in the transaction. The 'Augmentation 
 of Commons' having been made as far as was reasonable, 
 this, after 18 Eliz., could not be gainsaid, the rest of the 
 Surplus was to be paid without diminution into the College 
 treasury. Out of it large alms were to be given to charitable 
 objects, and advowsons should be bought with it; 'for 
 I much desire to see some of the Founder's bounty con- 
 verted to so good a public use in my time and by my 
 direction 1 .' But in 1629 he relents, perhaps we may 
 trace here the broken spirit of the almost nominal Visitor 
 who had long lost all influence, and ' for this time ' allows 
 a c double livery,' with the following recommendation as 
 to the future : 
 
 ' I should be glad to hear that when such money cometh 
 extraordinarily unto you it be employed in buying of books 
 and furnishing of your studies, and not spent upon vanities 
 which carry nothing with them but distemper and dis- 
 order 2 .' 
 
 Abbot's successor, Archbishop Laud, declines to make any 
 rule, but requires a certain sum to be placed in the treasury, 
 
 1 Tanner MSS. vol. 340. 2 Ibid.
 
 vii.] HISTORY OF THE SURPLUS. 113 
 
 and the rest to be divided 1 . This was no doubt a right 
 decision under the circumstances, and the good-will of the 
 College so conspicuously shewn to Laud and his party 
 if we can imagine it to be influenced by such a concession 
 was fairly earned ; but we may admire, nevertheless, the 
 honest resistance of former Visitors who hesitated to coun- 
 tenance the changes which were so visibly progressing in 
 the direction of luxurious ease. 
 
 The Visitors still kept the power over the disposal of the 
 Surplus in their own hands, as will be seen by the following 
 letter of Archbishop Sheldon's, with which our sketch of the 
 subject may be concluded. He may well be taken as a fair 
 interpreter and judge of what was right under circumstances 
 not contemplated by the Founder. He had been himself 
 Warden for many years, and had bought no little experience 
 of all sorts and kinds when he wrote as Visitor in 1666. 
 He had insisted on various improvements in the manner of 
 keeping the College accounts, and had received in reply some 
 very humble, not to say obsequious, letters 2 from the Warden 
 who had just been appointed. He then writes as follows : 
 
 ' Mr. Warden \ By the last post I did, by my Secretary, 
 signify unto you (amongst other things) that I gave you 
 leave to divide the remaining moneys upon your account 
 for the last year amongst you, which I now also do under 
 my own hand. And this I assure you, that while the 
 College continues in that good order amongst themselves 
 and temper towards me which they ought, I shall ever be 
 ready to take care of them and indulge them always with 
 what remains to be divided, so as still there be laid up in 
 the Treasury a convenient stock of money for the necessary 
 uses and accidents of the College 3 .' 
 
 If one of Sheldon's numerous enemies had caught sight 
 of this letter he might perhaps have maliciously inter- 
 preted the last sentence to imply that the harassed Primate 
 
 1 Letters in Archives. 2 Sheldon Papers, Bodleian Library. 
 
 3 Tanner MSS. vol. 340. 
 
 i
 
 114 THE GOLDEN AGE AT ALL SOULS. [CHAP. 
 
 was already beginning- to contemplate the possibility of his 
 incorrigible master being sent abroad once more on his 
 travels; for no one knew better than Sheldon what service 
 had already been done by the ' convenient stock of money ' 
 in College treasuries. But there is no need for any such 
 suspicion. The ' treasury ' in the tower was the ' bank ' 
 of those days, and it was no longer filled with the splendid 
 plate which had stood formerly instead of a money de- 
 posit. All that species of treasure had been melted down 
 in the struggle which was then but just over. We shall 
 find as we proceed that some very legitimate uses were 
 found for the new deposit 1 . The present system of annual 
 money payments out of the College revenues to the War- 
 den and Fellows was now irrevocably sanctioned after a 
 contest of nearly a century. 
 
 The increasing wealth of the College, shared, as it was, by 
 its sister institutions, had a most important political effect. 
 They had become a power in the State, and severe suffer- 
 ings were consequently impending. All Souls is probably 
 but a type of the rest. Up to this time the Fellowships 
 had afforded but little temptation to Kings and Statesmen. 
 Simplicity and poverty had been an excellent protection. 
 Even the great Elizabeth had only twice ' recommended ' to 
 Fellowships, and on one of those occasions had been suc- 
 cessfully resisted, while in the other she succeeded only 
 after a very indirect fashion. The Stuart Sovereigns, as 
 we shall see, put the College to a far severer test. 
 
 One more characteristic of the Elizabethan period must 
 be noticed at All Souls. As the energies of the Fellows 
 came to be more and more drawn off by the progress of 
 the Reformation from ecclesiastical offices and religious con- 
 troversies, the Services in Chapel having probably shrunk 
 to the dimensions of a very genuine 'Protestant sim- 
 plicity/ we find the College marching steadily along with 
 
 1 See especially Chapter XV.
 
 VIL] POOR SCHOLARS AT ALL SOULS. 115 
 
 the national development of middle-class education in the 
 country and the small towns. Several grammar schools 
 come under their hands, such as those of Faversham and 
 Berkhampstead, the College supplying supervision, examina- 
 tion, and in some cases masters. Other schools came under 
 the College at a later date. 
 
 All Souls, like New College, never educated ' Com- 
 moners.' These were the only two exceptions to the prac- 
 tice of all other Colleges and Halls, and for the same 
 reason. Their buildings were only intended to accommodate 
 their large establishment of Fellows, and could take in no 
 more; but during the reign of Queen Elizabeth must have 
 been introduced, somehow or other, the practice of admitting 
 ' poor scholars ' (' Servientes ') to an education within the walls 
 of the College ; for early in the next reign (1612) we 
 find, from a paper giving the number of Fellows, Stu- 
 dents, servants, and others in different Colleges and Halls, 
 that All Souls had thirty-one of these Servientes, indepen- 
 dently of the Famuli, or domestics, who numbered nineteen 1 . 
 As no clerks or choristers are on the roll, we must suppose 
 that they had come to be included in the band of Servientes. 
 That these were not introduced before Elizabeth's reign, 
 or even very early in the course of it, may be inferred 
 from Warden Warner's short account of the College. He 
 mentions no one besides the forty Fellows, two Chaplains, 
 three clerks, and four or five ' quiristers.' The new 
 position of these Servientes or ' poor scholars ' as a portion 
 of the establishment was no doubt, like the grammar schools, 
 a part of the movement of the age, a means of supplying 
 the educational vacancy caused by the changes of the Refor- 
 mation. The Ordinances of Edward the Sixth's Commis- 
 sioners shew that the Colleges had then already begun to 
 educate the boys who had been previously provided for in 
 the monasteries. That provision having been stopped, 
 
 1 Gutch's Collectanea, vol. i. p. 196. 
 I 2
 
 116 TEE GOLDEN AGE AT ALL SOULS. 
 
 doubtless for very good reasons, these young men or lads 
 had been taken into Colleges. It must have been difficult 
 to find room for them. We hear no more of them at All 
 Souls after the ' Great Rebellion.' 
 
 Perhaps the following may throw some light on this 
 subject : 
 
 ' The piece of building containing 4 chambers, two above 
 and two beneath, where y e Chaplains are now lodg'd, 
 abutting on the cloister S. and on Cat Street W. was, as 
 it is said, purposed to build a steeple upon it at the be- 
 ginning, but it was a storehouse till 1570, when the Abp. 
 Mat. Parker, meaning to convert the Choristers' [places] 
 into Scholarships to be elected out of Canty School, caused 
 Dr. Barber, the then Warden, and the Company to build 
 that lodging that room might be in y e Quadrangle for the 
 Scholars. So it was begun 1571; but being left off by 
 reason of y e Plague was ended 1572 ; and touching y e 
 Scholarships nothing done at y e writing hereof, 1574, 
 Jan. 23.' Then follows a later entry ' Nor is like hereafter, 
 the Abp. being long dead, who departed 18 May, 1575.' 
 
 <R. HOVENDEN 1 .' 
 
 Thus it seems that Parker meant the College to have 
 Scholars as well as Fellows, and to connect it in this 
 manner with his own Cathedral city ; and, perhaps in con- 
 cert with him, Sir William Petre left the College three 
 small Exhibitions, as well as a piece of ground adjoining the 
 College. Though this plan never came into operation, the 
 ' Servientes ' may have been a sort of substitute ; but no 
 foundation existing for them, nor any proper accommodation 
 being provided, and the lodgings mentioned by Hoveden 
 being assigned to the Chaplains, the mass of the Servientes 
 disappeared as noiselessly as they came. The four Bible 
 Clerks of All Souls are the sole representatives of the larger 
 body. The Chaplains' rooms stood on the site of the present 
 cloisters. 
 
 1 Book of Coll. Estates, F. P. penes custodem, p. 58.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 imfcer fames % Jtrsf anb 
 
 1603-1633. 
 
 The intimate connection between the College and the Stuart 
 Dynasty The genesis of the Laudian polity Bancroft's 
 Reforms ; College Beer Abbot's Letters ; the Mallard- 
 feast The ' roasted "Warden' Abbot on ' Corrupt Resig- 
 nations' The College and Cecil Earl of Salisbury 
 James the First tries to impose a Warden on All Souls 
 His Letter Abbot resists His merits King, Bishop of 
 London. 
 
 THERE is no violent break, no breach of continuity in the 
 history of a nation or institution, such as our usual way of 
 dividing historical periods too much suggests, at the end of 
 one reign and the beginning of another ; but with this 
 caution against abuse, the system must be confessed to 
 have many conveniences. All the influences of the pre- 
 vious ages, all the under-currents set in motion by the 
 Tudor Sovereigns, are rolling on in their appointed course ; 
 but the seventeenth century must for ever stand out in 
 English history as indelibly marked with the special 
 characteristics which it received from the four Kings of the 
 Stuart dynasty who reigned from 1603 to 1688. The reader 
 must bear with so indisputable a statement, as it is neces- 
 sary to introduce the remark, that however the foregoing 
 pages may be thought to justify the fuller title of this 
 book, there cannot be much doubt as to what is to follow.
 
 118 ALL SOULS UNDER JAMES I. [CHAP. 
 
 It is indeed difficult to say when Church policy, religious 
 partisanship, or whatever else we please to call the agreements 
 and differences between men on religious questions, has not 
 been a leading element, mostly the leading- element, in English 
 history ; but, in the period on which we now enter, there is 
 no question whatever on this point. The Tudor princes were 
 strong and able enough to carry the nation over the most 
 serious religious changes undergone by any people without a 
 civil war. What was staved off in their time could not but 
 break out under their feebler successors. The ecclesiastical 
 position taken up by these successors brought them into a 
 closer contact with All Souls, through the Archbishops of 
 Canterbury as Visitors of the College, than at any other 
 time before or after. But the mutual illustrations afforded 
 by the great history of England and the little history of the 
 College go deeper than this. 
 
 Side by side with the wealth, luxury, and effeminate habits, 
 the intemperance and coarse manners of the age, of which 
 the courtiers of the period are the familiar products and 
 specimens, were to be found the splendid learning, the pro- 
 found piety, and the varied gifts of those luminaries of the 
 Church of whom we speak under the general name of the 
 Caroline divines, the quiet radiance of the Herberts and 
 Donnes and Taylors and Izaak Waltons, the stern public 
 spirit of the Falklands, the Hampdens, the Clarendons, the 
 Sheldons, and Fells of the century. If the ' Great Re- 
 bellion' broke somewhat rudely in upon the too luxuriant 
 progress of English civilisation, we know how, by checking 
 its unhealthy development, it strengthened, like a season- 
 able frost, the growth of much that was truly valuable, and 
 opened new channels for the irrepressible genius of the age. 
 In strictest correspondence with this peculiar mixture of 
 good and evil, this exuberant progress, and then the check, 
 and then the vigorous outgrowth of the new shoots, will 
 be found the history of most English institutions at this
 
 viii.] GREAT MEN OF STUART TIMES. 119 
 
 period, and certainly not least that of the College whose 
 history we are attempting 1 to trace. Thus the Letters and 
 Injunctions of the successive Visitors betray too plainly 
 that corruptions of various kinds had taken a tenacious hold 
 on the society of All Souls. On the other hand, the pre- 
 eminent character of some of the Wardens and Fellows raises 
 them to the highest place among the actors on the tragical 
 stage of the nation's life. The fierce doctrinal struggle 
 within the Church which heralded the temporary victory 
 of its enemies found some of its chief champions within the 
 College walls. No institution suffered more for a time in 
 consequence of the Civil War, as none had done more in pro- 
 portion to its means to support the side of Church and King. 
 None reflected the national characteristics of the period of 
 the Restoration and Revolution with more fidelity. 
 
 The very names which render the College glorious during 
 this century tell their own story. Beginning with Brian 
 Duppa and Sheldon, its Register takes up Steward and 
 Jeremy Taylor, Sir Christopher Wren and Sydenham the 
 physician, Christopher Codrington and Bishop Tanner. Its 
 Visitors, most of whom leave their mark, are Bancroft, 
 Abbot, Laud, Juxon, Sheldon, Sancroft, and Tillotson. 
 Four members of the College, Duppa, Sheldon, Steward, 
 and Jeremy Taylor, were chaplains to Charles the First, and 
 played no unimportant part in the struggle which cost him 
 his life ; the first was also tutor to his children. The 
 name of Arthur Duck, the author of Chichele's Life, is 
 now only known to scholars, but in Wood's time 1 ' some 
 of his works of the Civil Law were extant beyond the 
 seas.' He was of this period ; and Warden Moket's 
 melancholy history will be familiar to those who are 
 acquainted with Heylin's Life of Laud. . 
 
 We have sketched Warden Hoveden's career in the 
 last Chapter. He carried on the Elizabethan traditions 
 
 1 Original MS. in Bodl. Lib.
 
 120 ALL SOULS UNDER JAMES I. [CHAP. 
 
 well into the reign of her successor, dying- in 1614. 
 As far as we can ascertain, he represented the decided 
 but moderate churchmanship of the age through which 
 he had passed in early and middle life, the position taken 
 up on the whole, though with individual variations, by 
 Cranmer, Ridley, Parker, Jewel, Hooker, and Whitgift, 
 and represented in the English Prayer-book of Edward 
 the Sixth and Elizabeth. With this phase of doctrine 
 were associated those moderate views of Church government 
 which, however objectionable to the Puritans, did not go 
 so far as to assert the exclusive claims of Episcopacy to the 
 acceptance of all Christian men as such. Calvinism in a 
 more or less pronounced form had insinuated itself within 
 this system; and, though the Anglo-Catholic position had 
 been maintained with violence against Puritans as well as 
 Romanists, it was this tinge of Calvinism which to some 
 extent reconciled that faction to the existing order of things. 
 Whitgift, who administered the penal laws of Elizabeth with 
 the greatest strictness, was, in comparison with some of his 
 successors, a favourite with the Puritans after his death. 
 ' He regarded not,' says Neal, ' the intercession of courtiers, 
 but was steady to the laws 1 .' 
 
 But a different school, of which Bancroft was the first 
 important representative, had been growing up during the 
 later years of Elizabeth's reign. The men of this school came 
 comfortably into the inheritance obtained for them by their 
 struggling predecessors. They proudly looked around and 
 saw their enemies at their feet. The glories of the English 
 Church ran in a parallel line with the glories of the English 
 State. In the very year of the Spanish Armada Bancroft 
 had publicly asserted the exclusive claims of Episcopacy. 
 Five years later, premising that ' the Church of England, so 
 refourmed by her Highnesse, is presently at this day the 
 most Apostolike and flourishing Church simply that is in 
 
 1 History of the Puritans, vol. i. p. 114.
 
 vm.] RISE OF THE SCHOOL OF LAUD. 121 
 
 all Christendoms V he attacks the Nonconformists in the 
 most bitter and trenchant manner. His sycophancy to James 
 the First, his explicit assertion of the Divine Right of Kings, 
 and his fame as the chief Church-controversialist of his day, 
 naturally pointed him out as the successor to Whitgift, who 
 in the last year of his life somewhat sullied his fair fame 
 by joining Bancroft in the fashionable adulation of the Sove- 
 reign. Yet we can hardly in fairness dissociate the great 
 name of Bishop Andrewes, and others of only inferior reputa- 
 tion, from a similar charge. Ought we to offer a too rigid 
 judgment, closely girded round as we are with the semi- 
 republican garments of the nineteenth century ? How natu- 
 ral, to say the least, it must have seemed to these divines 
 to welcome the successor of Elizabeth as the nursing-father 
 of the Church of England ! How vitally important to the 
 preservation of that which had been so hardly gained must 
 have appeared to their eyes the absolute appropriation of the 
 new Sovereign as their own ! 
 
 This lofty pedestal for Church and King, this ' hard and 
 fast line' between the Church and Nonconformity, expressed 
 in every form of intolerance, suited the heads of both parties 
 to the alliance. James found his immediate account in it 
 as well as the Bishops. But such success could only be 
 temporary. An important element had been left out of their 
 calculations, the people of England. It was not only the 
 Puritans as such who began to look upon the Church as 
 their irreconcilable enemy ; the laity in general indignantly 
 complained that this was not the Reformation which their 
 fathers had accepted. 
 
 The King had indeed accepted the doctrinal system of the 
 Church as he had learnt it under Elizabethan auspices, and 
 with the Calvinistic bias which then prevailed. Bancroft's 
 
 1 Dangerous positions and proceedings published and practised 
 within this Hand of Brytaine under pretence of Reformation and 
 for the Presbyteriall discipline. 1593.
 
 122 ALL SOULS UNDER JAMES I. [CHAP. 
 
 theological zeal precipitated the elements which had hitherto 
 been held in solution, and divided the Church into two great 
 hostile camps. Clarendon, while he tells us that ' Bancroft 
 understood the Church excellently,' informs us in the same 
 sentence that ' he had almost rescued it out of the hands of 
 the Calvinian party, and very much subdued the unruly spirit 
 of the Nonconformists/ The Arminian controversy raged in 
 the Universities, raged everywhere. Though not perhaps 
 necessarily involved either in these exclusive views as to 
 Episcopacy, or in Arminianism as against Calvinism, a 
 number of doctrines or shades of doctrine gathered round the 
 Arminian and Calvinist standards which separated the parties 
 more and more. The terms 'High' and 'Low' Church were 
 not yet invented, nor would they, as applied in modern times, 
 convey precisely the same idea of the old distinction as 
 that with which we of to-day are familiar ; but, roughly 
 speaking, while the moderate platform from which Bancroft 
 and Laud departed might be classed with modern ' Angli- 
 canism' or old-fashioned ' High Church,' the defenders of 
 the ' Prayer-book as it is,' the system of those leaders repre- 
 sented, though in a milder form, the so-called ' Tractarianism ' 
 or ' Ritualism ' of our own times ; while that of Abbot and his 
 party represented, also in a less pronounced form, the position 
 of the modern ' Evangelicals.' James himself became after 
 a time a convert to Arminianism. His intolerant adoption of 
 these views, the growing contempt for his person and 
 authority, the political errors of his reign and that of his 
 son, involved in the temporary ruin of his House the Estab- 
 lished Church, of which he was the chosen protector, and 
 opened a new chapter in the history of England. 
 
 It has been necessary to make this brief survey of affairs 
 in order to introduce the personages whom All Souls sent 
 forth during this period. The ecclesiastical polity of the 
 last reign, though its ablest exponent was the great Hooker 
 from Oxford, had been mainly worked by Cambridge men.
 
 viii.] THE COLLEGE BEER. 123 
 
 The time had now arrived when Oxford was to be the 
 chief centre of theological controversy, and as such the centre 
 of movement, the point to which the gaze of the nation 
 was chiefly drawn for more generations than one. Abbot 
 and Laud, the one the Master of University College, the 
 other the President of St. John's, had led their respective 
 parties at Oxford long before they wrestled with one another 
 on a more conspicuous stage. But before we notice their 
 connection with All Souls we must dismiss their predecessor 
 with an extract from the single letter of his in the archives 
 of the College which falls within our scope. 
 
 This letter of Archbishop Bancroft's hits a blot which is 
 only too characteristic of the period, the systematic abuse 
 of hospitality, the custom of continuous entertainments, last- 
 ing several days, given annually by the College at the time 
 when the accounts were made up. To these immoveable feasts 
 strangers were invited ; and they usually cost as much as 
 ^40 ; say, some ^300 of our currency. This was the College 
 idea as to the disposition of a part of the ' Surplus,' of which 
 we traced the history in the last Chapter. If they were not 
 allowed to divide such a growing income, and if the trea- 
 sury was in danger of being filled to repletion, why should 
 they not rejoice with their friends ? The Visitor does not 
 agree with them. We have seen that he relaxed the strict- 
 ness of Whitgift's rules about the Surplus, and commenced 
 the modern universal practice of dividing it among the 
 members of the College. He has a right then to interfere. 
 An entire reformation is enjoined. The feast is to last 
 one day only ; no strangers are to be admitted ; it is to be 
 only a ' moderate refection for the officers and ten seniors.' 
 
 But his minute, and we must suppose, experimental en- 
 quiries led him to touch the College upon a still more 
 tender point, the strength of the College beer. Being Chan- 
 cellor of the University as well as Visitor of All Souls, he 
 announces his intention of generalising upon his experience.
 
 124 ALL SOULS UNDER JAMES I. [CHAP. 
 
 ' It is astonishing,' he says, ' the kind of beer which here- 
 tofore t you have had in your College, and hath been some 
 cause of your decrements; for redress whereof I do strictly 
 charge you by all the authority I have in that behalf that 
 from henceforth there be no other received into your Buttery 
 or spent in commons at your College charge but either small 
 or middle beer ; drink of higher rates being fitter for tippling- 
 houses. And what I order herein I mean (God willing) to 
 see effected very shortly throughout the whole University.' 
 
 It is but fair to remark, on the last sentence of this letter, 
 that as the Archbishop connects the strong beer of his Col- 
 lege with that of others, so we gather from Wood, who well 
 understood the manners of the generation just preceding 
 his own, that this tendency to feasting and drinking strong 
 beer was making head all over the University. The public 
 feasting was exhibited at this time in a still more demoralis- 
 ing way than at All Souls by a custom which had grown 
 up in the University at the election of Proctors. 
 
 c When Queen Elizabeth ruled,' says Wood, 'and long before 
 when controversies depended between the Southern and 
 Northern Scholars, Proctors were chosen for their scholarship, 
 virtue, and undaunted and public spirits ; but now and after 
 he that could give the greatest entertainment was Proctor 
 against all the world. Such vanities being suffered to be 
 used, and especially this year (1607), gave occasion to make 
 the junior masters idle and given so much to excess that 
 about the same time the Bachelors imitated them in the 
 election of their Collector, wherein great entertainments being 
 given by the candidates of that office, divers mischiefs 
 followed V 
 
 As to the drinking, we find from the same author, a little 
 later in the reign, that ' the number of ale-houses was greater 
 than ever before known, so that strong measures were taken 
 to reduce them.' And Lord Clarendon, in his Life, gives 
 Oxford a very bad character for this vice during the time he 
 was at Magdalen Hall, 1621-5. His eldest brother was 
 ruined by intemperance. 
 
 1 Annals.
 
 viii.] LICENTIOUS HABITS OF THE AGE. 125 
 
 By way of contrast we find that Bancroft, as Chancellor 
 in 1607, issues orders that all University students should 
 attend daily prayers, and, thrice a year, receive Holy Com- 
 munion ; that four times a year the Articles of the Church 
 of England are to be read publicly in each College ; and that 
 the youth of the University are to be catechised once a week. 
 
 In short, the two currents of vicious license and jollity 
 on the one hand, of minute regulations of restraint upon 
 the other, accompanied with religious reforms, were running 
 side by side unmixed and irreconcilable. It was the same 
 in the nation at large, drunk with prosperity, with the 
 University of Oxford generally perhaps in a less degree 
 with that of Cambridge and with the College of All Souls in 
 particular. Wise men could not but foresee the result. The 
 society for which Shakspeare, Raleigh, and Bacon, filled with 
 the Elizabethan afflatus, wrote, was too vigorous, too various, 
 too rough, too opinionated, to be guided by feeble kings 
 and ecclesiastical pedants. It required better government, 
 or, as the terrible alternative, blood-letting. The opportunity 
 soon came for bringing that question to a point. 
 
 It was not, however, the school of Bancroft and Laud 
 which came to be identified with the repression of the kind 
 of vices which have just been noticed. Though both of these 
 great party leaders honestly exercised all their influence at 
 All Souls and elsewhere in discountenancing vicious excess, 
 the influences of those with whom they were associated told 
 in the opposite direction. It thus gradually came to pass 
 that the praise of morality was assigned to their opponents, 
 and that the middle classes began more and more to recognise 
 the Puritanic section of the Church as the legitimate repre- 
 sentatives of true religion. 
 
 Archbishop Abbot, who succeeded Bancroft in 1611, and 
 became the patron of the Puritans, soon made himself con- 
 spicuous for his opposition to the joviality of the age; and 
 certainly spared no pains to make his position clear at All
 
 126 ALL SOULS UNDER JAMES I. [CHAP. 
 
 Souls on the point of repression and restraint. His letters 
 make constant reference to the faults of the College. In 
 1616 he says: 
 
 ' I do require you, Mr. Warden, and the rest of the officers 
 severely to punish such of your Society as, neglecting- their 
 studies, do spend their time abroad in taverns and ale- 
 houses to the defamation of scholars and scandal of your 
 House, and not to impart any common favours unto them 
 unless they thoroughly reform themselves.' 
 
 In 1625 he suspends one of the Fellows, for contempt of 
 his Injunctions and of the Statutes, from his commons, and 
 from all voice in College affairs for the space of four months ; 
 and in 1632 we find him pained with the College beyond 
 all endurance, and writing as follows : 
 
 ' Salutem in Christo. The Feast of Christmas drawing 
 now to an end doth put me in mind of the great outrage 
 which, as I am informed, was the last year committed in 
 your College, where, although matters had formerly been 
 carried with distemper, yet men did never break forth into 
 that intolerable liberty as to tear off the doors and gates 
 which are the fences of the College, and so to disquiet their 
 neighbours as if it had been in a camp or town of war, to 
 the great disgrace of the government of that University. 
 Civil men should never so far forget themselves under pre- 
 tence of a foolish Mallard as to do things barbarously un- 
 becoming, from which I advise men warily to abstain, least 
 otherwise they make themselves unworthy of any habitation 
 in the house of the Muses, which I forewarn will be the issue 
 of those who hereafter transgress that way. 
 
 ' If there were no other means to restrain these and the 
 like enormities, yet there is one above the rest, that God 
 for divers years of late hath taken from you more of your 
 Society than have died in many the neighbouring Colleges, 
 wherein, as he best knoweth his own secret counsels, so it 
 may well cause you to fear that some indignation has gone 
 out against you which doth produce such fearful effects. 
 I would move it unto you whether it be not fit that you, 
 Mr. Warden and the Seniors, should in the fear of God 
 seriously consult together whether by some prayers or other 
 courses agreeable to the laws of the Church and Kingdom
 
 VIIL] 'PRETENCE OF A FOOLISH MALLARD: 127 
 
 you did not in humiliation expiate those sins either open 
 or secret which may be thought to provoke the wrath of the 
 Almighty upon you. Dictum sapientibus sat est. And so 
 I leave it to yourselves. . . . And so, praying Almighty 
 God evermore to direct and bless your endeavours, I cease, 
 but not to be 
 
 ' Your very loving friend, G. CANT.' 
 
 Both this Warden, Astley, here addressed, as well as his 
 predecessor, Moket, had been Abbot's own chaplains. Pro- 
 bably, in the then state of party feeling, this did not add much 
 to the force of the Visitor's influence in repressing disorders. 
 But it may be observed that the above letter conveys a more 
 favourable idea of the Archbishop than we gather from the 
 usual sources of information. His affectionate manner of 
 pious remonstrance betrays anything but the harsh and bitter 
 spirit with which he is in general almost exclusively credited. 
 It is true that it is written towards the close of his troubled 
 life, when experience may have taught him that an appeal 
 to the better feelings of men was likely to be the most 
 effectual method of dealing with them. 
 
 We have in this letter the first historical notice of the 
 famous All Souls Mallard. As the cultus of this ancient and 
 venerable bird has exercised the minds of the greatest Oxford 
 antiquarians, Wood, Tanner, and Hearne, he is too important 
 and solemn a being to be discussed in the text, and will be 
 found in an Appendix all to himself. 
 
 There are further grounds for regarding favourably Abbot's 
 connection with All Souls. Whatever his faults, he was a 
 good and honest man, and he would not sanction the continu- 
 ance of the ' corrupt resignations ' already mentioned. In the 
 early days of his archiepiscopate he had to deal with a 
 Warden after his own heart. Moket's name, as we shall 
 see, was traditionally mixed up with the contest which now 
 took place, and we may give a shrewd guess as to tbe state 
 of the College feeling with respect to him from the following 
 note of Abbot's written on the back of a legal opinion which
 
 128 ALL SOULS UNDER JAMES I. [CHAP. 
 
 he and the Warden had been obliged to obtain as to the 
 meaning of the expression debita reverentia, occurring in the 
 Statutes. This opinion is all in favour of the Warden ; and 
 Abbot thus confirms it : 
 
 ' I do approve the judgment of these learned men, and 
 further do declare that it is a part of " debita reverentia " unto 
 the Warden from any of the Fellowes of whatsoever degree, 
 to bee uncovered in his presence in any publicke or private 
 place within the precincts of the College. 
 
 'Lambeth, May 16, 1615.' 
 
 No doubt these offenders formed only a section of the 
 community, but 'Seniors' and all would be unwilling to 
 have their cherished customs interfered with by those who 
 might be regarded as mere partisans. Whether the fatal 
 arrow which now pierced the object of their dislike was 
 winged from All Souls must be matter for conjecture, but 
 it is far from improbable. Deferring for a moment the Arch- 
 bishop's Injunctions on the main point in dispute, let us put 
 poor Warden Moket out of his sufferings. 
 
 Moket, like Abbot, belonged to the Calvinistic school which 
 had nourished at Oxford under the influence of a series of 
 Regius Professors of Divinity who held those views, and who 
 were placed in that great office during Elizabethan times. The 
 Visitor had, by the Statutes of All Souls, a choice between 
 two candidates for the Wardenship presented to him by the 
 College after free election. For the vacancy caused by Hove- 
 den's death he naturally preferred his own chaplain. Abbot's 
 selection for the Primacy three years earlier had given a great 
 impetus to the strife of theological parties. It was now 
 thought by his opponents that he might be reached through 
 his friend, and Warden Moket had given them a favourable 
 opening. He had written a book, and it was not his first. 
 He is the only Warden of the College since its foundation 
 if we may except a certain translator of Cornelius Nepos 
 (of whom more by-and-by) who has been so indiscreet.
 
 viii.] 'THE ROASTED WARDEN: . 129 
 
 He had also been, probably by Abbot's influence, a Royal 
 Commissioner on ecclesiastical affairs. He was thus in every 
 respect, as we should say, ' fair game.' 
 
 The particular offence charged against the Warden was 
 that in a somewhat Calvinistic book written with the laudable 
 object of making the English Church better known on the 
 Continent De Politia, Ecclesia Anglicana he had made 
 a curious omission. In recounting the Articles of the Church 
 he had quietly left out that which speaks of ' the authority 
 of the Church.' He was thus caught in flagrante dellcto. The 
 punishment was summary. His unfortunate book was ordered 
 to be publicly burnt; and it was burnt accordingly. The 
 Warden was of too sensitive a nature for the times. The 
 incantations of the Middle Ages, by which an enemy was 
 supposed to be destroyed if you could procure a waxen image 
 of him and slowly melt it away, could not have been more 
 efficacious. Moket was unable to survive the disgrace. He 
 sickened and died of a broken heart, after a Wardenship of 
 only four years. He has thus been spoken of, somewhat 
 unfeelingly, as ' the roasted Warden.' He was buried at the 
 east end of his Chapel ; and the motto selected for his monu- 
 ment a handsome structure which Abbot was doubtless in- 
 strumental in erecting is, it must be confessed, touchingly 
 appropriate ; labor in via, in patria quies. Wood calls him 
 ' an able divine and good churchman, unhappy in nothing but 
 the censure of his books to the fire which soon after ended 
 his life 1 .' This circumstance much affected Abbot. Heylin 
 says : 
 
 'The Archbishop had been off the hooks ever since the 
 affront (as he conceived) was put upon him of burning Moket's 
 book, which had given no small reputation to the Church 
 of England beyond seas, for which severity though many just 
 reasons were alleged yet it was generally conceived that as 
 
 1 History of the University and Colleges of Oxford, original IIS. 
 in Bodleian Library.
 
 130 ALL SOULS UNDER JAMES I. [CHAP. 
 
 the book fared the worse for the author's sake, so the author 
 did not speed the better for the Archbishop's sake V 
 
 Abbot's efforts to remove the abuse as to Fellowships 
 seem to have been checked by the fate of Moket. At any 
 rate we do not hear of his Injunctions for some years. In 
 1625 and 1626 he issues the most precise and positive 
 directions on the subject. The oath is made more stringent ; 
 every loophole for evasion by any the astutest of lawyers is 
 closed up. Nothing was wanting but a Warden on the spot 
 of sufficient probity and courage to carry through the design, 
 and break down the obstinate resistance of men who believed 
 that custom had given them rights not contemplated in the 
 Statutes. Such a Warden Astley was not ; nor was the 
 Archbishop in a condition to support him effectually in so 
 arduous a struggle in such times ; though indeed it may be 
 questioned whether Sancrofb, who finally succeeded, was in 
 any better position. By forestalling our history a little and 
 quoting a letter of the last-mentioned Archbishop, we shall 
 be able to form some idea as to the causes of Abbot's failure. 
 
 This prelate, half a century later than the time of which 
 we are speaking, indignantly declaims against an idea which 
 the College in his time professed to entertain that the oath 
 was a mere invention of Warden Moket's, an illegal stretch 
 of private authority. 
 
 ' That Warden was,' he says, writing to Warden Jeames, 
 ' too wise a man ; it was his patron and Visitor, your co- 
 Founder and Visitor and interpreter of your Statutes, it was 
 Archbishop Abbot, who by his Injunctions of 1626 did most 
 piously and wisely, for the restraint of simoniacal pravity and 
 practice which had broke through all provisions made against 
 it by his predecessors, impose that oath upon your resigners. 
 And that you may no longer disgrace it as the weak act of 
 one of your Wardens, I do hereby let you know that the 
 wise and good Archbishop framed and wrought it off upon 
 the model of the law of the land, the Statute of 31 Eliz. c. 6, 
 which under great penalties and forfeitures is enjoined to be 
 
 1 Life of Laud, p. 70.
 
 viii.] ABBOT'S REFORMS. 131 
 
 read publicly by you at every election. Had you as well 
 considered it as you have often heard it, you would have 
 observed that there are two corrupt practices distinctly men- 
 tioned and condemned in the preamble of that Act and dis- 
 tinctly prohibited in the enacting- part ' . . . [the first as to 
 taking rewards for electing- a candidate, the second as to any 
 covenant made by the nominee] . . . ' and therefore the Arch- 
 bishop, I say again, most piously and wisely by his Injunctions 
 endeavoured to bring- up the practice to the standard of the 
 above-mentioned Statute, which expressly declares that all 
 electors should take a corporal oath to make the elections and 
 nominations freely without any reward, gift, or thing given or 
 taken for the same. How this excellent and necessary pro- 
 vision came to be neglected and forgotten, or rather, I fear, 
 supprest and degraded into the weak attempt of an over- 
 busy Warden, is easy enough to conjecture ; but it is not 
 to be done without much sad reflection, which I have now 
 no leisure for. Only I cannot omit to add my severe censure 
 of the wicked and profane speech, whoever he was that said 
 it, that if this oath obtained they must resign to the Devil ; 
 which I rather express my displeasure against because I have 
 heard it thrice mentioned by several persons of your College 
 with seeming approbation, whether as an argument or piece 
 of wit I know not. God Almighty preserve us from making 
 a mock of sin, and deliver us from every evil work, and 
 preserve us unto his Heavenly Kingdom. 
 
 ' I am, Sir, your affectionate friend, 
 'Oct. 14, 1680. <W. 
 
 The course of our story will shew that Warden Astley 
 allowed Abbot's Oath to be shelved; so that it came to be 
 totally forgotten ; and when Sheldon succeeded him the Civil 
 War was already impending. But it may be remarked here 
 that such praise as the above of men who were on the side of 
 the Puritans from Sancroft, the stiffest of High Churchmen 
 and a Nonjuror, is very expressive. The heat of that particular 
 phase of controversy had by his time passed away, and such a 
 man could do justice to those who differed with him. And 
 it is observable that the merit of courageous energy in deal- 
 ing with corrupt elections is very evenly divided between 
 
 1 Archives of All Souls. 
 K 3
 
 132 ALL SOULS UNDER JAMES I. [CHAP. 
 
 the two parties. The Parliamentary Visitors of the Inter- 
 regnum, though indeed we can hardly class them with Abbot 
 and Moket, were as earnest in the affair as these officials ; 
 while to Sheldon, Sancroft, and Warden Jeames, an old cavalier, 
 but to Sancroft in particular, must be assigned the final vic- 
 tory. It should be noticed that this letter makes no mention 
 of the previous efforts of Cranmer, Parker, and Whitgift. 
 Probably the writer felt that Abbot's form of oath could 
 alone be effectually worked. 
 
 The College was also indebted to Abbot for the resolution 
 with which he insisted on the Fellows proceeding to their 
 Degrees according to Statute, instead of lingering idly in 
 residence. The University Commissioners of 1852 compare 
 All Souls with other Colleges most favourably on this 
 point, and Abbot must have the main credit of it. He also 
 restrains with characteristic vigour the waste of revenue 
 which had come to be associated with the annual Progresses. 
 These had become no longer necessary for large portions of 
 the College property. The rapid march of civilisation during 
 the sixteenth century had changed the face of the country. 
 
 'Your land,' says the Archbishop, 'should sometimes be 
 visited, but not to do it with a wanton charge, in sending 
 too many of your company, and in travelling from town to 
 town to get acquaintance and to see novelties 1 . 3 
 
 The last point which demands our attention in Abbot's 
 Visitorship is his upright and courageous conduct with 
 reference to ' recommending ' or forcing Fellows upon the 
 College. The celebrated Brian Duppa does indeed seem to 
 have been put in by his special ' recommendation,' and well 
 he justified the selection; but it must have been done in 
 a statutable manner, and with the free consent of the 
 College ; for we find the Archbishop writing thus in 1626 : 
 
 ' I have been much pressed to write to your Society and 
 to recommend towardly young men to those rooms, but 
 
 1 Tanner MSS. vol. 340.
 
 viii.] ABBOT'S PROBITY. 133 
 
 according 1 to a rule which I have put unto myself, I have 
 given way to no importunity, but have kept me to that 
 custom and strictly observed it. For I well know that you 
 must make your elections upon oath according to your 
 Founder's Statutes, and you are or should be best acquainted 
 with those persons who stand for those places, whereas I 
 may recommend to you those who are not so worthy or may 
 less agree with the ordinances of your Founder.' 
 
 And again, writing in 1628 : 
 
 ' My care hath been such for the public welfare of your 
 House that I have not taken on me those things which my 
 predecessors did usually perform. I have not drawn you to 
 Lambeth ; I have not disturbed your elections ; I have not 
 sought anything to me or mine ; I have quelled that faction 
 which was wont to disquiet your College V 
 
 It is remarkable that in the one case of Brian Duppa, for 
 whose election Abbot seems to have statutably interfered, we 
 find him at a subsequent period in difficulty. Duppa, like 
 Sheldon at a later date, shewed himself a man of independent 
 character. He refused to be bound by any combination of 
 the Fellows to vote for a particular person as Proctor for the 
 University. To our ideas nothing could be more natural ; 
 but neither Abbot nor the Fellows would brook such conduct. 
 Abbot pronounced him guilty of a breach of the Statutes 
 which provide for the peace and harmony of the College, and 
 the Warden and Fellows suspended him from the enjoyment 
 of all College privileges for three months ! This admirable 
 man, whose whole life seems to have been, if we may say so, 
 faultless, could not possibly have been one of the c faction' 
 Abbot here mentions. No doubt the reference is to those 
 opponents of Moket whom he obliged to pay ' debitam 
 reverential to their Warden. Abbot's disapproval of Brian 
 Duppa probably formed a favourable introduction for him to 
 the notice of Laud, with whom he was to be so intimately 
 associated at a later date as Dean of Christ Church, Vice- 
 
 1 Tanner MSS. vol. 340.
 
 134 ALL SOULS UNDER JAMES /. [CHAP. 
 
 Chancellor, and Bishop. He was early known for his 
 adoption of Arminianism, and was satirised by his opponents 
 for his action in that respect as Vice-Chancellor in 1632 l . 
 
 Abbot, in the above letter, might have stated his claims 
 to the respect of the College still more strongly; for he 
 stood in the gap when James was bent on a more glaring 
 attack on the College privileges than had ever yet been 
 attempted. We must preface this transaction by a few 
 words. 
 
 We have seen that Queen Elizabeth tried her hand upon 
 the Warden and Fellows of her day, and was on the 
 whole successfully resisted. The growing wealth of the 
 College naturally attracted the attention of James, eagerly 
 looking around in all directions for means of gratifying 
 the herd of courtiers who surrounded him. The adulation 
 of the Bishops, and of Bancroft in particular, set him on 
 the track of Church preferment ; and of course All Souls, 
 to the imperious eye of the King, appeared the most natural 
 prey in the world. With the Crown and the Visitor against 
 them the College had a hard fight. Not that we can 
 afford to bestow unlimited sympathy on the College of 
 that day. Their own proceedings gave a fair handle to 
 their oppressors. If they had not sinned against the Sta- 
 tutes notoriously enough to bring down on them a con- 
 tinuous fire from Lambeth they might have escaped more 
 easily from the attacks on their liberties which proceeded 
 from the side of Westminster. 
 
 One of the worst cases of this kind is the gross breach 
 of the Statutes, effected by James and Bancroft between 
 them, in forcing upon the College Robert Gentilis, a son 
 of the celebrated civilian, Albericus Gentilis. He was below 
 the statutable age, and Bancroft at first backed up the 
 College in its resistance ; but both he and the College 
 succumbed to the Court. A collusive devolution of the 
 
 1 Wood's Annals.
 
 viii.] JAMES'S MANDATES. 135 
 
 election to the Visitor took place, and Bancroft put in the 
 youth. Two other equally distinct invasions of the Statutes 
 the College succeeded in resisting- ; they were Mandates 
 from the King- to elect two Scotchmen. But their courage 
 gave way in the case of an Englishman, in consequence, 
 it seems, of a letter from a friend at Court assuring them 
 that the King felt himself ' slighted, since his recommenda- 
 tion had not been received with the honour due to so 
 gracious an interference 1 .' The King's Mandamus for a 
 presentation to an All Souls living was also obeyed. The 
 following letter seems however to shew that though the 
 College found it necessary to bend to the storm, and 
 though their own private methods of election were ' cor- 
 rupt,' they still contrived to secure that those elected 
 should come up to a fair standard of attainments ; and 
 we shall observe in the reign of Charles the Second, 
 before the reform was effected, great strictness in examina- 
 tions. The number of distinguished men the College 
 produced points to the same fact ; and even in the case 
 of these youths, forced on them from without, there is a 
 probability that, being sons of men of eminence, their 
 education had not been neglected. As the letter is charac- 
 teristic of the times it may be given in full. It has been 
 supplied for this book by the kindness of the present Lord 
 Salisbury, a former Fellow of All Souls. 
 
 ' The Warden and Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford, to 
 the Earl of Salisbury. 
 
 ' Bight honorable and our very good Lo. (our dueties most 
 humbly premised). Whereas it pleased the King's most 
 excellent Ma tie and yo r Lo. to recomende unto us one S r 
 Yeo, a Bachelor of Arts, to be chosen at our last election 
 Probationer of our College. Insomuch as the said Yeo was 
 not chosen to the said place we thought it our duety to 
 acquainte yo r Hono r with the true cause and reason which 
 hindred us to make choice of him, hopeing thereby to 
 
 1 Book of Coll. Estates, F. P. penes custodem, p. 180.
 
 136 ALL SOULS UNDER JAMES I. [CHAP. 
 
 avoid all sinister opinion that otherwise might perhaps 
 justly be conceaved against us. May it therefore please 
 yo r LOP. be advertized that by an Injunction it is ordered 
 that suche Schollers as expect a place or rome in the said 
 Colledge shoulde three dayes before the Feast of All Saints 
 make their apparance in the chapell of the saide Colledge 
 there to be tried for their sufficiency in learnyng. Con- 
 trary to which Injunction the said Yeo did not submytt 
 hymself to any examinacon at all. Also wee had uppon 
 due examinacon passed our consents to other Schollers 
 (before the said Yeo delyvered unto us his Ma ts and yo r 
 Ho rs I/res) not expecting any other Competitor. And 
 further it pleased his Ma tie very earnestly and with a 
 clause of derogation to any future lTres to recomende unto 
 our choice S r Cesar, second sonn to S r Julius Cesar, his 
 Ma ts M r of Requests, who we elected accordingly. Thus 
 beseeching yor good LOP. in regard of the premysses to 
 houlde us excused herein, wee humblie take our leave, 
 directing our prayers to Almightie God for the contynu- 
 aunce of yo r health with increase of hono r . 
 
 'Yo r Ho. most humblie to be comaunded; The Warden 
 and Fellowes of All Souls Colledge in Oxford. 
 
 ' From All Soules Colledge in Oxon this nyneth of No- 
 vember, 1605. To the Right Honorable o r singuler good 
 Lo. the Erie of Salisburye V 
 
 There is some excuse for the servility of this letter, since 
 it was written four days after the discovery of Gunpowder 
 Plot ; but when the College had given up its independence 
 so far, it is not surprising that the King should think he 
 could do what he liked with it. He determined to fill up 
 the vacancy in the Wardenship, caused (in 1618) by the 
 death of the unfortunate Moket, by imposing on the College 
 one Dr. Beaumont, a friend of his own. So far from anti- 
 cipating any difficulty, his Mandate informs the Fellows that 
 
 ' We intend to continue our favour towards you and the 
 chosen Warden of your College at the time of your election 
 notwithstanding he be a married man, which we hold to 
 be no impediment to bar him, having no children nor ever 
 likely to have any. And further, we, tendering the good 
 
 1 Cecil Papers, 112. 167. Hatfield House.
 
 viii.] ABBOT RESISTS THE KING. 137 
 
 of your College, conceive that lie will be fitter governor 
 among you by reason of his years and long experience in 
 the state of your House.' 
 
 James had gone in this letter one step too far. The 
 College was now touched upon its tenderest point, the free 
 election of a Warden ; and they gathered, not without reason, 
 that the Visitor, whose chaplain they had elected on a former 
 occasion, would feel the blow as well as themselves. They 
 throw themselves upon his protection, and beseech him to 
 intercede for them. In this letter they say that they are 
 
 ' bound by oath and by general clauses of Statutes, to 
 elect not for entreaty, fear, or reward, but such an one as 
 our consciences shall tell us, and we firmly believe, to be 
 more fit and sufficient than others. And forasmuch as 
 Dr. Beaumont is a man known but to a very few of our 
 Society by reason of his long discontinuance from us and 
 the University, we could not have such certain knowledge 
 of him as of others, and as our most honourable Founder 
 strictly requireth of us.' 
 
 We are in the dark as to the influences which prevailed 
 on James to give way. We only know the result. Dr. Beau- 
 mont did not become Warden of All Souls, and Abbot's 
 chaplain, Astley, did. It must have cost the Archbishop 
 a severe struggle ; but want of courage was not one of his 
 faults. This was the very year in which he refused to allow 
 the ' Book of Sports ' to be read in churches, the very year 
 in which James shewed his vindictive disposition by the 
 execution of Sir Walter Raleigh. Abbot soon fell into dis- 
 grace. He was persecuted by Laud and Charles the First; 
 his memory has been bitterly pursued by Collier, Clarendon, 
 and their followers ; his ' moroseness ' towards all except the 
 Puritans which, however, Well wood, quoted by Le Neve 1 , 
 only calls an ' unseasonable stiffness,' has left him few advo- 
 cates ; but his fearless resistance to what he thought wrong 
 
 1 Lives of the Bishops.
 
 138 ALL SOULS UNDER JAMES I. [CHAP. 
 
 has scarcely ever been allowed to weigh sufficiently against 
 his less amiable qualities. He was certainly as much sinned 
 against in those violent times as sinning. It should never 
 be forgotten that he did not quail, as stronger men did, 
 before James the First at the iniquitous trial of Lady Essex, 
 nor before Charles the First, when to refuse a licence to 
 Sibthorp's unworthy sermons was to subject himself to that 
 ill treatment at the hands of the martyr-King which must 
 ever form one of the most serious blots on Charles's escutcheon. 
 The assistance he rendered All Souls at a critical moment, 
 illustrates the better side of his character. 
 
 One of his Injunctions ( 1 626) is sealed with his favourite 
 device, ' Abba Pater,' the same which is found in the windows 
 of his munificent foundation, ' Abbot's Hospital/ still usefully 
 flourishing at his native town of Guildford. He has been 
 thought open to some ridicule for the vanity or profanity 
 of this rebus, but in condemning it we must remember the 
 taste of the age, and at least must acknowledge that he has 
 some claim to be remembered with filial reverence both at 
 All Souls and his beautiful birth-place in Surrey, to which 
 he owed also a quiet retreat during his disgrace. 
 
 In weighing the praise and blame which attach to all 
 parties concerned in these transactions we shall derive some 
 assistance from observing how great must have been the 
 influence of the party which supported the King's exagger- 
 ated notions of his prerogative, and therefore how great 
 the temptation to himself to exceed Constitutional limits, 
 when Oxford University, in 1623, could publicly censure 
 Knight for teaching doctrines on the royal authority which 
 we should now call most entirely moderate and reasonable l . 
 
 A more pleasing aspect of College elections is presented 
 by the following letter from Dr. King, Bishop of London, in 
 1620; and it may conclude the notices which come under 
 the reign of James the First. This worthy Prelate thus 
 
 1 Wood's Annals.
 
 vm.] A GRATEFUL BISHOP. 139 
 
 expresses his thanks for the election of his son to a 
 Fellowship : 
 
 ' Good Mr. Warden ; I heartily commend my love to you. 
 I shall now commit one of my sons to your care and pro- 
 tection. I beseech you let him not want such ordinary 
 favours in your House as you may doe to, him. Amongst 
 and above the rest I should be glad if any religious, studious, 
 and stayed man of your House might but have an eye over 
 him, and help him with direction and advice in his studies. 
 I should not be unthankful to him. I have for the present 
 sent unto you by Dr. lies a brace of does to be serv'd out 
 of Woodstock Park and the fees to be discharg'd by Dr. lies, 
 tog-ether with .^5 which he shall deliver into your hands for 
 wine, pepper and flour; likewise a standing- guilt cup for 
 the College for memorial of my thankfulness, and a lesser 
 guilt cup to yourself upon the same motive as taking myself 
 much beholden for your kindness. This I doe not either to 
 prejudice any local order in your House, or to prevent any 
 dues either of plate or gawdies usually to be paid, but, without 
 relation to my son's admission, abstractly and simply to tes- 
 tify that love which I owe to you all for your love to me and 
 mine. Elections cannot be made without general concurrence. 
 I cannot thank you all singly and apart, and therefore desire 
 that this poore present may be accounted by you all in lieu 
 thereof. And albeit I drinke not wine, yet in such drinke 
 as my infirmity will admitt I have out of the College cup 
 drunk to you all, wishing all happiness and welfare to your 
 Colledge and every member thereof. 
 
 f Your assured loving friend, JOHN LONDON V 
 
 The reference in this letter to the ' dues of gawdies usually 
 to be paid ' shews that the practice of All Souls in that 
 respect had come to be recognised outside the College. The 
 custom of the newly-elected Fellows giving a feast to the 
 rest had been long established, and forms the subject of more 
 than one complaint from Lambeth. It was not confined to 
 All Souls, being common enough in English institutions ; 
 but it passed away from the College practice before the end 
 of the century ; or, at least, no later traces of it are observable. 
 
 1 Book of Coll. Estates, F. P. penes custodem, p. 180.
 
 140 ALL SOULS UNDER JAMES 7. 
 
 It fell in with the convivial habits of the age ; but the Bishop 
 evidently saw no incongruity between such good cheer as his 
 liberality could provide, and the ' religious, studious, and 
 stayed ' habits which he desired to find in the tutor for his 
 son. He could drink no wine himself, but he did not see 
 why others should not. He represented the true old English 
 spirit of moderation and liberality; but the age was de- 
 veloping into one of excess on both sides ; the golden mean 
 was lost. High-minded reformers ruined their influence by 
 descending to censoriousness, and then to cant. Their op- 
 ponents, out of bravado, threw away restraint, and gloried 
 in wrong. Nothing but a period of suffering could cure the 
 evils of English society ! 
 
 Whether such a generous recognition of the ' love ' of the 
 College for the Bishop and his son may not have been some- 
 what demoralising to the Society in reference to future 
 elections, is open to question ; but at any rate an election 
 of this sort, which evidently was not ' corrupt,' is far more 
 satisfactory to contemplate than those which had become the 
 general rule, or than those which were superseded by devo- 
 lution to the Visitor ; still more than those which were not 
 elections at all, but improper interferences on the part of 
 kings and nobles.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 touring % 
 1633-1642. 
 
 Brian Duppa ; Steward ; Sheldon as Fellow and Warden Laud 
 and Jeremy Taylor ; criticism of Heber's treatment of the 
 subject Laud's Letters and Reforms Laudian Revival at 
 All Souls Duck and Digges College Gaudy Pressure 
 of hard times Sheldon at Great Tew His politics iden- 
 tical with those of Hyde and Falkland Comparative place 
 of All Souls among Oxford Colleges and Halls. 
 
 WHILE the Calvinistic section of the Church, gradually 
 becoming' more and more identified with the assertors of 
 civil liberty politically, and with the Puritans religiously, 
 had thus, under Abbot as Visitor and his two Chaplains as 
 Wardens, been the party in high places at All Souls, 
 the school of Bancroft and Laud was gradually obtaining 
 a more and more secure footing among the Fellows of the 
 College. Such men as Duppa, Steward, and Sheldon, during 
 the many years of their residence, could not but exercise an 
 enormous influence, all the more no doubt as representatives 
 of a school of thought which had become fashionable amongst 
 the upper classes, but which their immediate superiors did 
 their best to depress. Laud was becoming more powerful 
 as Abbot became more obnoxious at Court ; and these All 
 Souls men were his intimate friends. Soon after Duppa, 
 who had remained seventeen years at the College, became
 
 142 ALL SOULS IN THE L AUDI AN PERIOD. [CHAP. 
 
 Dean of Christ Church, Jeremy Taylor became a Fellow. 
 By the time Sheldon was elected Warden in 1635, Laud 
 as Archbishop having succeeded to the post of Visitor in 
 1633, the complexion of the College was entirely fixed. 
 We hear no more of their opponents till the government of 
 the sword superseded for a time the free working of all 
 English institutions. 
 
 The history of Gilbert Sheldon, the most distinguished 
 on the roll of the Wardens of All Souls, is in many respects, 
 before and after his forcible expulsion from his post, the 
 history of the College. No man was more influential in 
 promoting his views of Church and State within his Uni- 
 versity. No man was more fully in the confidence of Charles 
 the First during the later years of that monarch's life. No 
 man had a greater share in keeping his party together 
 during their adversity. No man exercised more authority 
 than Sheldon in the re-settlement of affairs at the Restora- 
 tion. Consequently no man's memory has been more bitterly 
 attacked by the opponents of his principles. No man has 
 been so successfully deprived of his just title to respect, if 
 not to admiration. No man has been so completely de- 
 serted by modern writers of his own party. It may seem 
 Quixotic to attempt to rehabilitate such a character, and 
 to place it on the historic stage in any different light. It 
 will certainly seem presumptuous. It will be best then to 
 give merely such unquestionable facts and documents as pre- 
 sent themselves, and to leave them to tell their own story, 
 with only such commentary as is absolutely necessary. At 
 the end of his career the chief authors who have success- 
 fully conspired to depose him from the place which he 
 'occupied in the view of the men of his own time, shall give 
 their statements. It may perhaps open our eyes as to the 
 way in which the ' history of England ' has in too many cases 
 come down to modern times. 
 
 For the thirteen years of Sheldon's life as Fellow we have
 
 ix.] SHELDON AS FELLOW AND WARDEN. 143 
 
 only a few notices, but those are suggestive. We may 
 gather from the scenes enacting around him, and in which he 
 was already a conspicuous actor, how he was preparing himself 
 for the arduous labours which were awaiting him. In the 
 private struggles of the College to which we have referred 
 in the last Chapter we are, indeed, left to conjecture how 
 far his Laudian proclivities interfered with the support which 
 he was morally bound to contribute towards Abbot's efforts 
 to reform abuses ; but the following statements seem to in- 
 dicate that he was from the first a fearless and independent 
 man; and in the very first year of his Wardenship he re- 
 fused to be forced to do a wrong even by his friend and 
 patron, Laud himself. Wood tells us 1 that in the year 
 1623 a body of Oxford men met to discuss the great Ar- 
 minian controversy, and that Sheldon opposed the doctrine 
 which went by that name. This was just when it had be- 
 come fashionable, when the King had become a convert, 
 and Laud was rising to power. In the absence of further 
 evidence on this point we may suppose that his strong good 
 sense revolted from either extreme of the controversialists, 
 and adopted the via media which the Articles of the Church 
 exhibit. Again, in Kennett's Register, we find that Sheldon 
 was ' the first who publicly denied the Pope to be Anti- 
 Christ,' to the extreme astonishment of Dr. Prideaux, who 
 was ' Doctor of the Chair' at the disputation. 
 
 His opposition to Laud took place on the well-known 
 occasion when the Primate, as Visitor, intruded Jeremy 
 Taylor on the College. That transaction must now come 
 under our consideration. Those who have followed the 
 previous notices of All Souls elections to Fellowships will be 
 in a position to understand the conduct of the Archbishop 
 better than the biographers of Taylor. Bishop Heber in his 
 admirable ' Life' of that divine, though a Fellow of the 
 College, has, from want of acquaintance with its past history, 
 
 Annals.
 
 144 ALL SOULS IN THE L AUDI AN PERIOD. [CHAP. 
 
 been led into serious errors ; and his excellent Editor, the 
 Rev. C. P. Eden, not being a Fellow of the College, could 
 not be expected to correct them. It is an unpleasant task 
 to reopen the charge against Laud when such a man as 
 Heber had condoned it ; but we gain nothing by resting 
 satisfied with anything short of the whole truth. 
 
 The matter stands thus. One of the Fellows, named 
 Osborne, handed over his Fellowship to Laud, who ' recom- 
 mended ' Taylor to the College for the vacancy. The Fellows 
 ' almost unanimously' elected him; but Warden Sheldon 
 exercised his Veto. He had good reason ; since Taylor was 
 a Cambridge man of nine years' standing, of which the last 
 two had been spent as a Fellow of Caius College. He had 
 indeed, ten days previous to the election, been entered, under 
 Laud's orders, by way of colourable pretext, on the books 
 of University College. Sheldon did not consider that he 
 thus became an eligible candidate ; for the Statutes of All 
 Souls require that a candidate must have three years' standing 
 as an Oxford student. Laud persuaded himself that this 
 was no difficulty; and on the election devolving to him as 
 Visitor, in consequence of the disagreement of Warden and 
 Fellows, he at once appointed Taylor to the vacancy. There 
 cannot be two opinions on this transaction ; and Wood, who, 
 however, believed Taylor to be under age as well as a 
 Cambridge man, in relating it condemned it in the decided 
 manner which it deserved. 
 
 Bishop Heber, anxious to remove a blot from the memory 
 of the Visitor and his nominee as well as from the College, 
 thought he discovered in Laud's original letter deposited in 
 the archives, and in a contemporary statement that the 
 Fellows were almost unanimous in the election, a sufficient 
 defence against Wood's censure. He considers that his is 
 ' the true statement of a transaction which Wood has con- 
 siderably misrepresented, as if Laud 'had by an irregular and 
 unwarrantable exercise of authority intruded Taylor into a
 
 ix.] LAUD AND JEREMY TAYLOR. 145 
 
 College which was neither disposed, nor statutably able, to 
 receive him ; ' and sums up with observing 1 that ' it is plain 
 the Archbishop had at least a plausible excuse for his recom- 
 mendation of a candidate, and a ground, whether tenable 
 or not, which might justify his recommendation of Taylor.' 
 It is sufficient to remark upon this unfortunate attempt -to 
 exculpate Laud, that colourable pretexts and 'plausible ex- 
 cuses ' in order to evade Statutes leave as bad a stain on those 
 who make them as absolute violence, if not worse ; and that 
 the ' disposition ' of the Fellows to receive Laud's nominee, 
 so far from affording an excuse, is the worst feature of the 
 affair. Before shewing the true meaning of this 'almost 
 unanimous' consent, it may be well to print Laud's letter 
 on which Heber bases the chief part of his defence. 
 
 1 To the Warden and Fellows of All Souls Coll., Oxford. 
 ' Salutem in Christo. 
 
 ' These are on behalf of an honest man and good scholar. 
 Mr. Osborne being to give over his Fellowship was with 
 me at Lambeth, and (I thank him) freely proffered me the 
 nomination of a Scholar to succeed him in that place. Now 
 having seriously deliberated with myself touching this 
 business, and being willing to recommend such a one to you 
 as you might thank me for, I am resolved to pitch upon 
 Mr. Jeremy Taylor, of whose abilities and sufficiencies every 
 ways I have received very good assurances; and do hereby 
 heartily pray you to give him all furtherance by yourself and 
 your Fellows at your next election, not doubting but that he 
 will approve himself a worthy and learned member of that 
 Society. And though he had his breeding for the most 
 part in the other University, yet I hope that shall be no 
 prejudice to him in regard he is incorporated into Oxford, 
 ut sit eodem gradw et online, &c., and admitted into University 
 College. Neither can I learn that there is anything in your 
 local Statutes against it. I doubt not but you will use 
 him with your fair respects as befits a man of his rank and 
 learning, for which I shall give you thanks. So I leave 
 him to your kindness, and rest, 
 
 ' Your very loving friend, W. CANT.' 
 
 One might be tempted to make light of such a splendid
 
 146 ALL SOULS IN THE L AUDI AN PERIOD. [CHAP. 
 
 wrong as the intrusion into All Souls of a man like Jeremy 
 Taylor ; but the course of our history will shew what a vital 
 principle was involved in the purity of elections. The Visitor 
 had an excellent end in view, but his means were ' unstatut- 
 able and unwarrantable/ His headlong method of proceeding 
 in spite of all obstacles was only too characteristic. What 
 could be the effect on a College which had already received 
 so many grave admonitions for its ingenious and obstinate 
 evasions of its Statutes ! The Archbishop's error was twofold. 
 Besides the incredible blindness which prevented him from 
 seeing 'anything in your local Statutes against 7 putting a 
 Cambridge Fellow, who had been incorporated into Oxford 
 University for only ten days, into a place for which the Statutes 
 required an Oxford standing of three years, what can we say 
 to his receiving a vacancy at the hands of a resigning Fellow ? 
 Bishop Heber is astonished at Osborne's offer of his Fellow- 
 ship to Laud, and finds it 'not easy to conjecture' what autho- 
 rity he could have for making it. It is really more difficult 
 to conjecture how the Bishop could have been unaware that 
 the practice of filling up vacancies by a nominee of the re- 
 signing Fellow had long before this time fallen into a regular 
 system. It is thus described in Warden Jeames' correspon- 
 dence with his Visitors 1 . He says it is 'a custom which hath 
 held ever since the time of Dr. Astley, who, as I have heard, 
 was a very easy Warden, and this custom was for the Warden 
 to fill up the dead places, and the Fellows to nominate into 
 their own places on their resignation.' No doubt the 'custom,' 
 judging from the efforts of so many Visitors to put a stop 
 to the abuse, dated very much further back, but there is no 
 doubt about its having been fully established in Laud's time. 
 The power of filling up his own vacancy had come to be 
 regarded as an indefeasible right by every Fellow. 
 
 1 Tanner MSS. vol. 340. A MS. copy of many of the papers 
 relating to All Souls, including the above letter, had been deposited 
 iu the Codrington Library many years before Heber wrote.
 
 ix.] HEBER ON LA UD AND TA TLOR. 147 
 
 Thus Osborne made an offer to Laud (not of course for any 
 money equivalent) which was looked upon as perfectly natural 
 by his brother Fellows, and which they would not oppose for 
 fear of their own nominees being opposed when their turn came. 
 That on this occasion they were only ' almost unanimous ' was 
 probably due to the ' less pliant or more scrupulous ' attitude, 
 as the Bishop terms it, assumed by Sheldon. Heber does, 
 however, a little later in his narrative, give Sheldon the praise 
 of ' a conduct throughout the affair at once spirited and con- 
 scientious ; ' but if so, what shall we say of Laud's part in the 
 matter ? Laud knew all that Sheldon knew. There was no 
 'reasonable doubt' whatever in this case. It was what we 
 should nowadays call ' a barefaced job/ all the worse because 
 it sanctioned a ' custom ' which four at least of Laud's prede- 
 cessors had done their utmost to destroy, which defeated those 
 very Statutes of the Founder the Visitor was expressly 
 appointed to see executed, and accompanied, as it was, by 
 almost every circumstance which could encourage future 
 evasion of law, was absolutely demoralising to the College. 
 
 We may try in vain to understand how so good a man 
 could have laid himself open to such a judgment. We can 
 only imagine he had persuaded himself that as his prede- 
 cessors had failed to grapple with a custom which had 
 rendered the Statutes obsolete, and as, under such a system, 
 it was a mere chance if a superior man found his way into 
 the College, he was doing his best for the real good of the 
 institution by putting in, when the opportunity offered itself, 
 such a man as Taylor. This is not to say much ; but the 
 influence Laud was now exercising both in Church and State 
 was so enormous that it would seem he gave little weight to 
 the finer considerations which under other circumstances would 
 have guided him. 
 
 From Laud's other letters in the archives of All Souls we 
 may extract a few sentences which tell much more to his 
 credit, and which may enable us to conclude what has to 
 
 L a
 
 148 ALL SOULS IN THE LAUDIAN PERIOD. [CHAP. 
 
 be said on the connection of the Archbishop with the College, 
 before we resume the notices of his friend the Warden. 
 
 Soon after he became Visitor he writes (Dec. 20, 1633) 
 in a manner which shews his considerate regard for the 
 convenience of the College officers. If the College will 
 send him its accounts every year 'he will not cause two 
 of the Fellows to take such a dirty journey as these two 
 have done.' He has, however, a couple of complaints to 
 make already; 'one that the scholastic exercises required 
 by Statute are not duly kept; and the other, that the 
 Fellows, divers of them, are too chargeable in their clothes 
 and follow the fashions too much.' But the next year he 
 writes (Aug. i, 1634): 'I do find that some things are 
 very much out of order.' He specifies the election of the 
 younger instead of the senior Fellows to the office of Dean, 
 inasmuch as they demur to punish offences 'because them- 
 selves are equally culpable with the offenders, and so might 
 be thought to punish themselves in others.' And again : 
 
 'This charge I require you, Mr. Warden, to deliver to 
 all the Fellows, but especially the officers, that they use 
 not long, undecent hair, nor wear large falling bands, nor 
 boots under their gowns, nor any other like unstatutable 
 novelty in their apparel.' And he ends with threatening 
 to use all his power if he is not obeyed, as he will not ' suffer 
 either the discipline or the thrift of that College to decay 
 or be impaired, but I hope this fair admonition will amongst 
 such ingenious men produce all such good effects as are 
 desired. In which hope I leave you to the grace of God, 
 and shall ever rest, 
 
 ' Your very loving friend and Visitor, 
 
 < W. CANT.' 
 
 Finally, he makes (in March 163!) a special complaint of 
 the management of a portion of the College property, partly 
 because it injured the property of his own See, and ' partly 
 because I am a great hater of depopulations in any kind, as 
 being one of the greatest mischiefs in this kingdom and 
 a very ill example from a College or College Tenant;' a
 
 ix.] LAUD'S LETTERS TO ALL SOULS. 149 
 
 sentiment which even his bitterest enemies could hardly have 
 represented as tyrannical. 
 
 There would no doubt have been a far larger collection 
 of letters from which extracts might have been culled, if 
 Laud had not been involved in such a mass of various 
 labours at this time, and if the troubles under which he was 
 so soon to sink had not been gathering up from all sides. 
 After his magnificent reception of Charles and Henrietta at 
 St. John's College in 1636, and the promulgation of his 
 Statutes, he might well cry Nunc Dimittis as far as Oxford 
 was concerned. He had put an end to the disorders of the 
 University, procured a new Charter, entirely reformed its 
 Statutes, established a Cycle of Proctors (which existed until 
 a few years ago), instead of that debased system we have 
 already noticed, instituted a new residence for the Bishop of 
 the diocese, largely encouraged the study of Oriental lan- 
 guages and other hitherto neglected subjects, and given back 
 to the place that ecclesiastical tone which the loose habits of 
 the age had sensibly impaired. For the want of judgment 
 shewn in particular instances, as well as for the violent par- 
 tisanship of his rule, he was now to suffer at the hands of 
 merciless enemies blinded with passion. Against most of the 
 twenty-three projects of reform some of them gigantic 
 noted in his Memoranda, he found himself able, at the ex- 
 piration of only ten years, to write the grateful word 
 ' Done.' Yet even Heylin is obliged to admit the too great 
 haste with which his master pressed on his measures. 
 
 Some entries in the books of All Souls, scanty as they 
 are, will help us to understand the spirit generated by the 
 sort of reforms Laud effected. For the first time since the 
 iconoclastic proceedings of Edward the Sixth's Commissioners 
 we hear of some attempt to restore the Chapel to decency 
 and order. We have seen that the statues, the crosses, the 
 numerous statuettes adorning the reredos (which was left 
 a mere wreck), and the numerous altars, had been destroyed.
 
 150 ALL SOULS IN THE L AUDI AN PERIOD. [CHAP. 
 
 Even the ' Lord's Table,' which was retained, had been 
 moved away from the east end of the Chapel. We do 
 indeed find, as early as 1619, that a 'murrey velvet carpet 
 with gold and silk fringe for the Communion Table ' was 
 procured; and in 1624, 'This year were our Responsaries 
 in MS. used on solemn dayes in our Quire, and our Com n 
 for our Benefactors first fratn'd and plac'd in our 3 Com- 
 munion Books in y e Chaple;' but in 1629, when Abbot 
 was suspended from his functions as Metropolitan, and Laud's 
 influence was supreme, though he was not yet Visitor of the 
 College, we read that ' the Communion Table was advanced 
 from y e midle of the Chancell to y e upper end above the 
 ascending steps.' 
 
 It may be here remarked that it is strange this proceeding 
 should have excited so little attention, while the 'setting 
 up of the altar' at Magdalen, two years later, caused a 
 great disturbance at Oxford. Some preachers who de- 
 nounced the novel ' Ritualism ' which was introduced at 
 Magdalen along with this alteration of the position of the 
 ' altar,' were expelled the University by Laud. So exclu- 
 sively was public attention fixed upon that College in con- 
 sequence of this harsh treatment, that Wood and Calamy 
 are both quoted by the learned author of the ' Register ' of 
 Magdalen for the assertion that it was the first to make 
 the change. All Souls had evidently, under the manage- 
 ment of the able men who then influenced the Society, been 
 more cautious in its method of adopting the Laudian model 
 than its kindred institution. 
 
 The history of the two Colleges has many points in common 
 at this period, arid indeed all through their career. Arch- 
 bishop Chichele touched Wykeham on one side and 
 Waynflete on the other. New College and Magdalen are 
 the elder and younger sisters of All Souls, in many 
 respects very much alike, but in the plan of their fabrics 
 eminently so. They are the three Colleges in which the
 
 ix.] THE L AUDI AN REVIVAL. 151 
 
 position of the Chapel with regard to the hall necessitated 
 a lofty reredos instead of an east window. At Magda- 
 len there seems to have been a more successful effort to 
 restore the Romish rites in the reign of Queen Mary, and, 
 in the reign of Charles the First, a further advance than 
 at All Souls towards the restoration of the Chapel in the 
 direction patronised by Laud; but the desecration or re- 
 forms of the Chapel and Services under Henry the Eighth 
 and Elizabeth, and the general restoration which took 
 place after the Commonwealth, seem to have been as nearly 
 as possible of the same character at both Colleges. At 
 the Restoration, Magdalen, like All Souls, covered the ruins 
 of its defaced reredos with a fresco of the Resurrection ; 
 but the previous destruction had probably been more com- 
 plete ; for when restored in our own day there seems to 
 have been no such discovery of the magnificence of the 
 old work if indeed there was such to discover as at All 
 Souls. 
 
 The slight records which remain of this effort to restore 
 All Souls Chapel in the reign of Charles the First have 
 some value by way of illustration of the times. A sense 
 of shame at the condition of the Chapel comes over the 
 College. In the book containing the 'Acta in Capitulis' 
 of this period occurs an entry, dated 1633, to the effect 
 that ' the auntient Fellows should be spoken unto for their 
 benevolence towards the providing of organs and a quire 
 for the chapel.' The ' auntient Fellows ' seem to have 
 been tardy in their response to this appeal. Perhaps they 
 were waiting for the actual Fellows to begin ; perhaps 
 they saw that the times were not ripe for this vigorous 
 ecclesiastical movement ; perhaps they remembered with 
 misplaced affection the ruined walls and bare services which 
 had been good enough for them, and which had served for 
 many generations of their predecessors, men who had done 
 splendid service in Church and State. At any rate it is
 
 152 ALL SOULS IN THE LAUDIAN PERIOD. [CHAP. 
 
 not for five years that we perceive anything like a prac- 
 tical step in advance. Sheldon had now become Warden, 
 and he made a beginning. 
 
 In 1638 we find another entry in the same College book, 
 where three Fellows are commissioned c to draw articles, 
 contract and bargain in the College name with the Joiner 
 concerning reparation of our Chapel, yet so as these 
 articles and agreements must also be approved by the major 
 part of the Fellows.' 
 
 Further, a little book is still extant containing 'the 
 names of such worthy Benefactors who have contributed 
 to the beautifyinge of the Chapell of All Soulne Colledge 
 in Oxon, and the reestablishinge the Quire in the same 
 left by the Founder.' Duck, who having been elected in 
 1607, was now a senior Fellow, seems to have been the 
 chief agent in collecting the subscriptions noted in this 
 book, commencing it with a handsome donation from him- 
 self of a hundred marks; but the entries cease even 
 before the year 1638. In that year however, correspond- 
 ing to the above entry in the College book, occurs a 
 record in this subscription book by Sheldon, stating that 
 he had disbursed ^200 of the money collected, and handed 
 over the remainder to certain Fellows. Some necessary 
 repairs were no doubt made at this time ; but the funds 
 were small ; and nothing seems to have been done to 
 restore the 'organs,' or the 'quire left by the Founder/ 
 or the ruined reredos. We hear no more of the restora- 
 tion of the Chapel for a whole generation. The blindest 
 must have perceived that the storm which had so long 
 been lowering over the land was about to break in all its 
 fury. To spend money upon Chapels was indeed to throw 
 it away. We may well imagine with what reluctance 
 such men as Sheldon, Jeremy Taylor, and Duck, supported 
 no doubt by Laud, Duppa, and Steward, would give up 
 their darling scheme.
 
 ix.] COLLEGE IMPROVEMENTS. 153 
 
 The name of another junior Fellow besides Taylor may also 
 be safely associated with the guidance of the College in this 
 direction, if we may judge by the works he has left behind 
 him. Dudley Digges, son of the famous patriot, Sir Dudley 
 Digges, was elected at All Souls in 1633, and died at the 
 commencement of the Civil War. His books, long forgotten, 
 and indeed not claiming more than a temporary fame, prove 
 him to have been an unflinching advocate of Divine Right 
 and Passive Obedience. As narrow in their scope as those 
 of his opponents, they at least served to keep alive in their 
 measure the zeal of the persecuted Royalists, and provided 
 them with arguments from the Schools not wanting in 
 ingenuity. 
 
 A much humbler restoration had however been previously 
 effected in the College. We read in the ' Acta' of 1633 that 
 
 ' This yeare our College gates were repaired and lyned 
 faceway towards the streete, and lykwise newly adorned with 
 the Armes of His M tle , of our Prince, and of our Founder; 
 and also the three statues over our gates, of our Saviour, 
 of King Henry the Sixt, and our Founder, were at the same 
 time polished, smothed and renewed with vernishe and guilt 
 as formerly they had bene.' 
 
 This entry is only noticeable as proving that in the age 
 when most of our present University and College buildings 
 were erected or restored to the condition in which we now 
 see them, the grey monotony of the stone fronts was relieved 
 certainly by gilding, and probably by the free use of colour, 
 to which the ' varnish ' was in this case applied. Just before 
 this time the statue of James the First, newly raised aloft 
 on the tower of the Schools Quadrangle, had been covered 
 with gilding, but in such bad taste that it blazed with 
 unmitigated splendour in the western sun, and the whole 
 effect was spoilt. It is to the credit of James's good sense 
 a quality he did not often shew that as soon as the 
 University dignitaries pointed it out to him with pride on
 
 154 ALL SOULS IN THE L AUDI AN PERIOD. [CHAP. 
 
 the occasion of his visit to Oxford, he made an earnest re- 
 quest that the gilding might be removed 1 . It was complied 
 with, of course. A curious superstition has attended this 
 historical statue. The decomposition of its parts by age is 
 said to have coincided with sundry political events. The arm 
 fell on one date ; the sceptre on another. The Bible is said 
 to have dropped on the day when the Roman Catholic Eman- 
 cipation Bill passed into law ! Of the statues mentioned as 
 being over All Souls gate, that of 'our Saviour' must have 
 filled the vacant niche inside the quadrangle. Having given 
 offence to the Puritans, it was never renewed after the 
 Commonwealth desecration. How the quaint representation 
 of the Resurrection over the gateway escaped is surprising. 
 
 A glance at the sumptuary condition of the College is 
 afforded us by the official entries in the College books of the 
 reigns of the first Stuart sovereigns. 
 
 The annual Surplus, as we have seen 2 , was large, and 
 portions of it were spent, as Abbot desired, in building 
 parsonages for College livings, and in converting the cloister 
 green (the present inner quadrangle) into a ' garden with 
 arbours,' in later times called ' the grove.' This was done 
 in 1611. In 1619 the Founder's tomb in Canterbury Cathe- 
 dral was restored at a cost of more than a^ioo. The great 
 Gaudy on All Souls' Day was also made more worthy of 
 these prosperous times, as we find by the following grateful 
 entry in 1618 : 
 
 ' Whereas our Gaudyes on All Soules Day to the Side 
 Tables in the Hall were but five dishes to every Messe, viz*. 
 Pigge, Goose, Capon, Rabet, and Bustard, this yeare our 
 Bursars, viz*. Mr. Aylesworth, now D r of Lawe, and 
 Mr. Winne, Bachelo r of Divinitye (at the incition of the 
 Warden, D r Astley), they affecting more the publick honor 
 of the Colledge that day than the entertainment of their own 
 private friends, did very readyly and willingly condescend 
 that their third Messe usually that day for the Bursar's table 
 
 1 Wood's Annals. 2 p. no.
 
 ix.] TEE AGE OF IRON. 155 
 
 should be conferred in common that day for the augmentation 
 of Gaudyes throughout the Hall. Soe that whereas that 
 day they had but formerly five dishes to a Messe, now it 
 amounteth to eight dishes for every Messe to each Side Table 
 in the Hall.' 
 
 This notice evidently owes its place in the College book 
 to the strong and general feeling that so excellent a precedent 
 should never be allowed to slip out of memory. But the 
 golden age was about to be replaced by one of iron. In 1630 
 the price of provisions had so seriously increased under the 
 growing distress of Charles's unfortunate government that 
 the College ' thought good to abridge y e cost and exceeding 
 of our All Soules Day Feast, and what by that means wee 
 spared wee did designe in pws usus ; vizt. to the House of 
 Correction, newly erected in Oxford, x li , to the Poore of y e 
 Citie xx 11 .' It is interesting to observe the coincidence of the 
 date of this notice with others above-mentioned. The Laudian 
 revival had, as we have seen, just begun to shew itself at 
 the College in a practical form, and it was too strong to 
 be openly resisted ; but it might not have commended itself 
 to the junior Fellows when it touched the vital question of 
 the great College entertainment. Hence perhaps the break- 
 out on the part of these gentlemen which Abbot, in 1632, 
 especially reprehended 1 . Their Gaudy was curtailed; they 
 would take care there should be no mistake about the 
 festivities of the Mallard. 
 
 But in 1636 matters are even worse. For that year the 
 Gaudy was altogether omitted, and j^Pio given to the poor of 
 Oxford instead of it. It was also ' agreed by M r Warden and 
 Fellows that the Commons for every Monday dinner during 
 the publique Fast should bee disposed of to the poore of the 
 Citie, the value thereof in money.' The College charities, 
 all through this period, flow in many directions. Besides a 
 weekly payment of four nobles for the relief of the sick and 
 
 1 p. 126.
 
 156 ALL SOULS IN THE L AUDI AN PERIOD. [CHAP. 
 
 poor, which commenced in 1626, we notice, among other 
 things, in 1631, a sum of thirty shillings given to John 
 Baptista Rena, an Italian convert; in 1633, a sum of fifty 
 shillings hestowed upon ' the reliefe of the Bohemian Minis- 
 ters ;' and in 1635, eighteen shillings to an Armenian priest. 
 We hear of no more disturbances. The College is effectually 
 sobered. Sheldon and his friends are supreme. Perhaps in 
 the relief of these foreigners we may perceive a trace of 
 Laud's peculiar influence. 
 
 Let us now look round us, and observe what other people 
 thought of the Warden, who was soon to be called to play 
 a more important part than we have described from official 
 sources in his own College. His first patron seems to have 
 been the Lord Keeper Coventry, through whom, as Lord 
 Clarendon tells us, he was brought into notice in connection 
 with public affairs. Henry Coventry, Charles the Second's 
 Secretary of State, was probably introduced through Sheldon 
 to All Souls, where he was elected Fellow in 1634, and of 
 which he proved one of the most distinguished ornaments. It 
 was while Sheldon was still a Fellow of the College that 
 Clarendon drew his picture in his happiest manner in a well- 
 known passage. In that famous description of Lord Falk- 
 land's life at Great Tew (which has been so often quoted with 
 admiration and so seldom excited imitation), at that glorious 
 residence which ' looked like the University itself by the com- 
 pany that was always found there,' we find the name of ' Dr. 
 Sheldon ' standing first, along with those of ' Dr. Morley, 
 Dr. Hammond, Dr. Earles, Mr. Chillingworth, and indeed all 
 men of eminent parts and faculties in Oxford, besides those 
 who resorted thither from London/ And in another passage 
 Clarendon tells us that ' Dr. Sheldon's learning, gravity, and 
 prudence had in that time, and when he was afterwards 
 Warden of All Souls College in Oxford, raised him to such a 
 reputation that he then was looked upon as very equal to any 
 preferment the Church could yield or hath since yielded tor
 
 ix.] FALKLAND, CLARENDON, SHELDON. 157 
 
 him ; and Sir Francis Wenman ' [Lord Falkland's most inti- 
 mate friend] 'would often say when the Doctor resorted to 
 the conversation at the Lord Falkland's house, as he fre- 
 quently did, that Dr. Sheldon was born and bred to be 
 Archbishop of Canterbury V 
 
 These extracts fix Sheldon's position in point of ability and 
 moral excellence ; and they convey an idea of him perfectly 
 in keeping 1 with what we have already observed. We have 
 seen also that he was a wise and moderate man in matters 
 of religion. He was now to stand forth as one of Charles's 
 chaplains and chief advisers in his troubles, to take his place 
 among 1 the most important political personages in England. 
 At the Restoration we find him holding a position scarcely 
 second to that of Clarendon. By these two men Church and 
 State were resettled on the basis which has lasted down to 
 our own day. What were the political opinions of the man ? 
 What guidance have we as to the views he held at the out- 
 break of the mighty struggle between King and Parliament ? 
 This has never yet been understood; but the intimacy we 
 have seen to exist between him and the society which 
 gathered round Lord Falkland might lead us to expect some- 
 thing different from the mere slavish doctrines of Divine 
 Right and Passive Obedience which found favour at Court. 
 The man who could hold his own against Laud in the height 
 of his power had already learnt independence of thought and 
 moral courage. 
 
 It is satisfactory to be able to point to a letter from Sheldon 
 himself, which has never yet been published, in confirmation 
 of what would otherwise be mere conjecture. In the ' Cla- 
 rendon Papers,' preserved in the Bodleian, is to be found 
 an original letter of his (No. 1447) to Mr. Hyde, dated from 
 All Souls, November 6, 1640, in which he says, 
 
 ' I am sorry matters doe not move hopefully on w th you. 
 1 Lord Clarendon's Life, p. 25.
 
 158 ALL SOULS IN THE LAUDIAN PERIOD. [CHAP. 
 
 The best service my meannes can contribute is my prayers, 
 w ch I hope will be heard at this distance as well as if I 
 were w th you. If any good successe happen, next under 
 God we are to thank men of your prudence and temper for 
 it. I beseech you present my humble service to my L d 
 Falkland when you see him, and excuse this hast of 
 
 ' Your most affectionate friend and servant, 
 
 ' GILBERT SHELDON.' 
 
 The position taken up by Hyde and Falkland at this date 
 is sufficiently notorious. They were as yet in the full tide 
 of their resistance to the arbitrary policy of the advisers of 
 the Crown. In the Long Parliament, which had met three 
 days before the date of Sheldon's letter, they were foremost 
 in the impeachment of Strafford. It is to 'men of their 
 prudence and temper next under God' that Sheldon looks for 
 ' good successe.' This then marks his place in the great 
 struggle along with Hyde and Falkland against the King, 
 and with the Parliament. With them he would resist vio- 
 lence to the Constitution ; with them, as he soon shewed, 
 he would rally to the side of the unhappy monarch when 
 constitutional resistance changed its form, and assumed the 
 colours of the ' Great Rebellion.' Never again was the social 
 paradise of Great Tew to bloom for its old circle of friends. 
 The fire was lit which was to try what sort of metal had 
 been tempered in that literary forge. The crisis had arrived. 
 Hampden had been condemned ; the Covenant had been 
 signed; the Scotch had risen; Charles's fourth Parliament 
 had been dissolved ; the Long Parliament had commenced 
 its momentous career. How little could any of the three 
 friends have foreseen at the moment of Sheldon's letter what 
 issues were to arise out of the 'prudence and temper' they 
 were each to contribute towards forming the future history of 
 their country ! 
 
 As we shall now have to consider Oxford no longer as a 
 place of learning, but as a strongly fortified camp, a e mili- 
 tary centre/ with its Colleges devoted to the multifarious
 
 ix.] COMPARATIVE PLACE AT OXFORD. 159 
 
 requirements of the chief stronghold of the Royalists, the 
 military balance against the Metropolis, we may conclude this 
 chapter by a notice of the relative position of All Souls to 
 other Colleges as it stood when the gown was relinquished 
 for the sword. The anomalous position it has held in modern 
 times, owing to its having remained a College of Fellows 
 (and four Bible-Clerks), when all its sister institutions have 
 developed more and more as places of education for Under- 
 graduates, makes it difficult to recall the past without an 
 effort. We happen to have some materials for the compari- 
 son during the half-century preceding the Civil War. 
 
 In the number of its ' Servientes,' or Poor Scholars, which, 
 as we have seen 1 , was put down in 1612 as thirty-one, it was 
 only exceeded by Magdalen, Christ Church, and Exeter 2 . 
 But though All Souls, like New College, was even at this 
 time exceptional in not taking Commoners within its walls, 
 it was as full as its space would permit. Of its forty Fel- 
 lows nearly all were resident, permission of absence being as 
 yet quite the exception; and as vacancies occurred very 
 rapidly, many of these were quite young men. The usual 
 age of entering the University was about sixteen ; elec- 
 tions at All Souls took place at latest at twenty or twenty- 
 one. So that the educational functions of the College were 
 at this period a reality. Men entered on their Fellowships 
 either as Undergraduates, or long before they took the supe- 
 rior Degree, and men were far longer than at present under- 
 going the necessary preparation for Degrees. It was as 
 Fellows of the College that they were trained and chiefly 
 influenced for after life. Professorial teaching was as yet 
 but little developed ; and Collegiate tuition was practically 
 superseding the rougher methods of medieval times. This 
 large number of forty Fellows was only exceeded by Christ 
 Church, St. John's, and New College. 
 
 1 P- 115- 
 
 2 Gutch's Collectanea, from Tanner MSS. vol. 338.
 
 160 ALL SOULS IN THE L AUDI AN PERIOD. [CHAP. 
 
 In point of income we find, by the assessment of 1592, 
 that All Souls (bracketed with Corpus) was only exceeded by 
 Christ Church, Magdalen, and New College ; in the value of 
 its Headship by Christ Church, Magdalen, New College, and 
 Merton 1 . 
 
 In the calculation of the Twenty -three year Cycle of 
 Proctors made by Turner of Merton and established by Laud 
 in 1629, three Colleges only are to have more turns for that 
 office than All Souls, viz. Christ Church six, Magdalen five, 
 New College four. Three turns are assigned respectively to 
 Merton, All Souls, Exeter, Brasenose, St. John's, and 
 Wadham ; two turns to Trinity, Queen's, Oriel, and Corpus ; 
 one to University, Balliol, Lincoln, Jesus, and Pembroke 2 . 
 
 Thus the rank of All Souls among the Colleges and Halls 
 of Oxford seems to be about the fourth ; but in numbers, 
 all told, it was not higher than fifteenth. 
 
 There is one other test which we must be cautious how 
 we apply. It has been thought to prove that All Souls 
 contributed to the treasury of Charles the First a sum out 
 of all proportion to its means because its name stands 
 second on the list of the Colleges for whose plate a receipt 
 was given by the King's officers in January, 164!. Mag- 
 dalen heads the list with 296 Ib. ; All Souls supplies 253 Ib. ; 
 Exeter follows with 246 Ib., and the rest in smaller sums 3 . 
 But we shall see, when we come to analyse the various 
 contributions from Oxford, that we have no certain knowledge 
 as to the plate sent previously to this particular loan, though 
 there is strong presumption that the Colleges of Oxford only 
 sent money, and not plate. But even if its place in this list 
 afforded a true index of the College wealth and the zeal of its 
 members, it is after all but little more than its comparative 
 position in the University required. 
 
 1 Gutch's Collectanea, from Tanner MSS. vol. 338. 
 
 2 Wood's Annals. 
 
 8 Gutch's Collectanea, from Tanner MSS. vol. 338.
 
 ix.] COMPARATIVE PLACE AT OXFORD. 161 
 
 Few things are more curious in Oxford history than the 
 fluctuations in the comparative importance of Colleges. Some 
 have exercised an influence far beyond what their size would 
 lead us to expect, in consequence of the success of some re- 
 markable man or set of men who have brought them into 
 notice, and then after a time some of these have again decayed. 
 Some have too frequently belied the imposing appearance 
 they exhibit. Some of the most ancient have only attained 
 to much importance in quite modern times. In every period 
 there has been some one College which has taken a virtual 
 lead; and this has by no means always been the largest. 
 Perhaps nothing has more tended to stimulate progress than 
 the honourable rivalry which has thus been excited. All 
 Souls cannot fairly be placed as the leader of the Laudian 
 period, but it is certainly in the first rank.
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 bwrimj % Cibtl Mar. 
 1642 - 1648. 
 
 Sheldon as Charles's chief ecclesiastical adviser Lord Say in 
 Oxford Insults to All Souls ; Alderman Nixon Oxford as a 
 Fortress and Camp College plate sent to the Mint Charles's 
 letter on this, and recommendation of a friend for a Fellowship 
 Decay of College Estates Charles's Vow ; entrusted to 
 Sheldon and by him buried for thirteen years Surrender of 
 City Sheldon's forcible expulsion from All Souls and impri- 
 sonment Prynne. 
 
 THE rapidity with which the great struggle began to 
 develop itself in London in 1642 was rivalled at Oxford. 
 The University had a very keen presentiment as to the 
 attention which would soon be bestowed upon it, and at 
 the first sound of civil war, August 18, four days before the 
 King set up his standard, its Fellows and Scholars began 
 to drill. Warden Sheldon, like Hyde and Falkland, had 
 some months before this discovered that the time had passed 
 for pressing concessions upon the King. In their belief 
 the nation had already recovered its true Constitutional 
 safeguards. It had now the Control of the Public Money, 
 and the Power of Impeachment, even Triennial Parliaments. 
 Their opponents being evidently involved in a desperate
 
 x.] SHARE OF CLERGY IN THE WAR. 163 
 
 attempt to overthrow Church and Crown, the three friends 
 had no choice but to throw themselves into the breach. 
 Their intelligence pierced through all the flimsy disguises 
 which concealed the real issue; and by the spring of 1642 
 they had become the unhappy monarch's most trusted 
 advisers. 
 
 Neal, the historian of the Puritans, attributes the mis- 
 fortunes and violent death of Charles to those divines whom 
 he took into his counsels during the war, and who would 
 not allow him to make the concessions with respect to the 
 Church which might have saved his life. Of these Sheldon 
 was perhaps on the whole the most prominent. As Chaplain 
 and Clerk of the Closet he attended the King at Oxford ; he 
 gave him powerful assistance during the negotiations with 
 the Parliament at Uxbridge ; when Charles was a prisoner 
 in the Isle of Wight in 1647 he sent for Sheldon, who with 
 Hammond, Morley, and Sanderson, advised him how far he 
 could in conscience comply with the demands of the Parlia- 
 ment at that time ; he was afterwards closely imprisoned at 
 Oxford for fear he should again go to the help of his suffering 
 master, who was now imploring permission for the attend- 
 ance of his friend. But in truth it was no longer possible 
 that either Church or King could give way. The blame 
 must rest with the statesmen and divines of James's and 
 the earlier part of Charles's reign. It was they who preci- 
 pitated the conflict with a nation in arms which had too 
 much cause of complaint. It was for the splendid chivalry 
 of the next generation and the stedfast clergy of England to 
 bear the shock as well as they might. It was their glorious 
 privilege, by suffering awhile, to save in the end those noble 
 institutions for the peril of which they were but little, if at 
 all, responsible. 
 
 Of the Delegacy of twenty-seven (besides the Vice- 
 Chancellor and Proctors) appointed by the University to 
 provide for the defence of the city of Oxford in the King's 
 
 M 2
 
 164 ALL SOULS DURING THE WAR. [CHAP. 
 
 name, All Souls provided three members, no other College 
 having more than two ; a proof perhaps as much of the 
 absence of pressing engagements on the part of the College 
 as of its loyal zeal. To this ' Council of War ' is due no 
 small part of the credit of the excellent arrangements 
 which retained the honour of Oxford inviolate during the 
 war. 
 
 The first sight of hostile troops was exhibited to the 
 Oxford Royalists after a fashion which insulted their senti- 
 ment rather than seriously injured them. The citizens were, 
 as usual, drawn towards the side opposed to that of the 
 University, and Lord Say easily effected a temporary 
 occupation of the place, not yet fortified, with a small 
 body of soldiers in September, 1643. Both the general 
 and his men behaved with singular moderation; but of 
 course some outrages were committed. The statue of the 
 Virgin and Child in the porch of St. Mary's was muti- 
 lated, and All Souls suffered the indignity of having ' the 
 image of our Saviour over the gate,' which we have seen 
 had been beautified not long before, fired at by some of the 
 iconoclastic or drunken soldiers of the newly-raised force. 
 Wood tells us that all its sculptured work would have 
 been destroyed if Alderman Nixon, the leading Puritan of 
 the city, had not used his influence to prevent it; and it 
 seems that his intercession was perhaps due to his con- 
 nection with the College as grocer for the kitchen 1 . As 
 it was this same Alderman who bore the part of chief 
 witness against Laud in the matter of the statue of the 
 Virgin and Child in the porch of St. Mary's Church 2 , and 
 the reverence paid to it, All Souls has especial reason to 
 be grateful to his memory for the service he rendered the 
 College on this occasion. His grim picture is to be seen 
 in the Town Hall of Oxford, and the School he munifi- 
 
 1 Wood's Annals, 1646. 2 Laud's Trial.
 
 x.] LORD SAT: ALDERMAN NIXON. 165 
 
 cently founded for the Oxford poor still bears his name, 
 though the fabric has been allowed to fall into a sad state 
 of neglect at last, it seems, about to be remedied. 
 
 This temporary occupation of Oxford by Lord Say has 
 furnished Neal with a plausible excuse for attacking the 
 honour of the University Royalists ; and in order that we 
 may understand how far he is justified in making the 
 charge, we must attempt to reduce the subject of the 
 Oxford contributions to Charles's wants into some sort of 
 order. Clarendon's confused notices and the meagreness or 
 errors of Wood and Gutch have obscured a very simple 
 matter ; and Neal seems to have made a very unjustifiable 
 use of his materials. 
 
 The Colleges of Oxford made two, and only two, stated 
 contributions to the royal treasury ; the first in answer 
 to the King's letter from York of July 7, 1642, two 
 months before Lord Say's arrival in the city just men- 
 tioned ; the second, when Charles had been some time in 
 the city after the battle of Edgehill, in answer to his 
 letter of January, 164!. That to All Souls is dated 
 January 6. The first letter, requiring loans of money at 
 8 per cent., is given in Wood 1 , who tells us that the Con- 
 vocation of Oxford University, on July II, sent <^?86o; 'but 
 what each College or private person gave I find not.' That 
 plate was sent from Oxford as well as money is inferred by 
 Wood 2 from the Ordinance sent to the University by the 
 Parliament, on the very day after Convocation had given 
 its money to the King's messenger; but that letter only 
 speaks of the Vice-Chancellor and others ' endeavouring 
 against law to take away the plate and treasure of the 
 University and Colleges, and to send the same to York.' 
 It is no proof of any plate having been sent by the 
 Colleges. St. John's College, Cambridge, however made 
 its chief contribution in plate, if Neal is correct in stating 
 1 Annals, 1642. 2 Ibid.
 
 166 ALL SOULS DURING THE WAR. [CHAP. 
 
 that it sent 2065 oz. of plate as well as ^150 in money. 
 Clarendon puts the sum total sent from the University of 
 Oxford, 
 
 'when the troubles first broke out,' at 'above ^10,000, 
 out of the several stocks of the Colleges and the purses of 
 particular persons, many whereof sent him all they had 1 ;' 
 and in a previous passage 2 he says: f the messengers re- 
 turned from the two Universities . . . and brought with 
 them all, or very nearly all, their plate and a considerable 
 sum of money which was sent as a present to His Majesty 
 from several of the Heads of Houses out of their own particular 
 stores, some scholars coming with it, . . . all of which came 
 safe to Nottingham. . . . The plate was presently weighed 
 out and delivered to the several officers.' 
 
 The King's letter of thanks is dated from Beverley 3 . It 
 was, as we know, of the greatest assistance to the King 
 at a critical moment; and soon afterwards he found him- 
 self able to set up his standard at Nottingham, (as Clarendon 
 tells us), 'in the evening of a very stormy and tempestuous 
 day . . . Melancholy men observed many ill presages about 
 that time . . . No conflux of men appeared in obedience to 
 the Proclamation . . . the standard was blown down the 
 same night it had been set up by a very strong and unruly 
 wind, and could not be fixed again in a day or two till the 
 tempest was allayed.' 
 
 Among the 'ill presages observed by melancholy men 5 
 there was nothing that could bode ill from Oxford. The 
 safe advent of its treasure was but an instalment of its 
 unceasing exertions in the cause of the King. 
 
 Gutch, in his notes to Wood 4 , has referred in this place 
 to the list of plate, sent to Charles from different Colleges, 
 and which he had extracted from the Tanner MSS. 5 ; but this 
 is wholly misleading, if not a mistake, as the list he gives 
 
 1 Book vi. p. 88. 2 Ib;d _ p ^ 
 
 3 Rushworth's Collections, iv. 759. 4 Annals, 1642. 
 
 5 Vol. 338. fol. 101 (65 new paging); Gutch's Wood.
 
 x.] COLLEGE CONTRIBUTIONS. 167 
 
 has nothing whatever to do with what was sent in July. 
 We have no evidence of any plate having leen sent from any 
 of the Oxford Colleges in that July ; and Dr. Bliss, who took 
 some trouble to enquire into the facts as to the plate re- 
 tained by different Colleges after the Civil War, has adduced 
 none. In accounting for the non-appearance of the name 
 of St. John's College, Oxford, in the above-mentioned list, 
 he tells us that that College sent ^800 ' to the King in 
 the first instance ; ' but it is clear, from his quotation, that 
 it did not send its plate till 'the King sent to demand it 
 a second time 1 .' 
 
 Neither Christ Church nor University College can well 
 have sent any of their plate, for it was seized by Lord 
 Say, on his occupation of Oxford, a little later in the year, 
 on the ground that it was found by his officers hidden 
 away ; and it is not spoken of as only a portion of their 
 plate, the remainder of what had been already sent. 
 
 All Souls certainly did not send its plate, but a sum of 
 money : and one of its Fellows, Mr. lanson, was of the party 
 which guarded the joint Oxford contribution on its journey 
 to Nottingham. ' He was afterwards,' says Wood, ' made a 
 baronet, but a poor one, God wot 2 .' The College order on 
 the subject runs thus : 
 
 'July u, 1642, which day and yeare it was agreed by 
 Mr. Warden and the Fellows that upon a letter from his Ma tie 
 the Colledge should send all their ready money in their Trea- 
 sury (w ch is 35 1 11 7 s 3 d , and that they should also borrow as 
 much as is owing to the said Treasury upon the Colledge 
 bond, w ch is 300^ (in all 65 1 11 78 3 d ), to His Ma tie 's use, re- 
 ceiving an acquittance for the summe by His Ma^'s direc- 
 tion from Dr. Richard Chaworth, Chancellor of Chichester 3 .' 
 
 Signed ' MARTIN AYLWORTH.' 
 
 1 Dr. Bliss's edition of "Wood's Athense, printed for the Eccle- 
 siastical History Society, vol. i. p. 15. 
 
 2 Fasti, i. 277. 
 
 3 This ' acquittance ' from Dr. Chaworth was certainly extant in
 
 168 ALL SOULS DURING THE WAR. [CHAP. 
 
 And, speaking- generally, we may infer that at this time 
 plate was not sent by Oxford Colleges ; for Lord Say spared 
 the plate of all but Christ Church and University College, 
 * upon condition it should be forthcoming at the Parliament's 
 appointment, and not in the least employed against them.' 
 And in Charles's letter of thanks to Oxford University written 
 from Beverley, July 18, 1642, to which Neal refers, he 
 does not mention plate, but only money, which he says shall 
 be ' employed only upon the defence of Ourself and the true 
 Protestant Religion, and the laws established in this realm V 
 
 The plate mentioned by Clarendon must therefore, it seems, 
 have come either from Cambridge (which perhaps foresaw this 
 would be its last chance, and indeed Cromwell completely 
 stopped that University from sending its contributions to 
 Oxford in the following January), or from Heads of Houses 
 and other Oxford men as private persons. It is certain that 
 the expression ' all or very nearly all their plate' cannot apply 
 to Oxford Colleges in their corporate capacity. They did 
 not yet perceive, two months before the standard was set up 
 at Nottingham, that the time had come when they must 
 sacrifice their all for Church and King. Their surplus money, 
 or money raised on loan, was one thing ; their College pro- 
 perty, which could not be lawfully alienated, was another. 
 
 And this brings us to the charge against the honour of 
 Oxford made with so much righteous indignation by Neal. 
 When Charles demanded in January 164! the plate which 
 Lord Say had spared in the previous September, the Colleges, 
 contrary to their alleged promise, freely gave it him. This 
 is what remains of the complaint when we come to analyse 
 
 recent times (MS. penes custodem, Coll. Estates F. P.) ; and the 
 sum figures as late as 1666 under the head In obligationibus, since 
 it is at that date mentioned in a letter of Warden Jeames to Arch- 
 bishop Sheldon as ' lent to the King before the warres when my 
 Lord's Grace was Warden.' (Sheldon Papers, Bodl. Lib.) 
 1 Rushworth, iv. 759.
 
 x.] THE CHARGE AGAINST OXFORD. 169 
 
 the series of misstateinents made by the writer. The passage 
 runs thus : 
 
 ' The several Colleges sent His Majesty their plate ; 
 the two houses at Westminster being informed of these 
 proceedings, published an ordinance declaring this act of the 
 University " a breach of trust and an alienation of the public 
 money contrary to the intent of the pious donors, and 
 therefore not to be justified by the laws of God nor man ; " 
 that it was also contrary to their engagements, for the Uni- 
 versity being yet in the hands of the Parliament, the Lord 
 Say and his deputy lieutenants had been with the several 
 masters and heads of houses and obtained a solemn promise 
 from each of them that their plate should be forthcoming and 
 should not be made use of by them against the Parliament ; 
 and yet contrary to their engagement they sent it away 
 privately to York, where it arrived July 18, as appeared by 
 His Majesty's most gracious letter of thanks.' 
 
 The only references are to ' Clarendon, vol. ii. p. 88, and 
 Rushworth, p. 759,' to which we have already referred. 
 
 Now there is only one ' ordinance of the two houses at 
 Westminster' on this subject 1 , the Ordinance of July 12, 
 1642, already mentioned. This says no word about 'the 
 engagements ' and ' solemn promise ' to Lord Say, for the 
 very good reason that the said lord's visit had not yet taken 
 place ! It was a visit made two months after Convocation 
 had sent its money to the King, but when, as it seems, no 
 College plate was sent. The charge then is simply a set of 
 blunders. Even the words of the ' ordinance ' given as a 
 quotation are not in the ordinance at all, but an abstract in 
 Neal's own language ! 
 
 There is no complaint then, except in Neal's imagination, 
 against the University or Colleges for sending money in July 
 1642. Plate and money were coming in for the Parliament ; 
 these bodies had a right to send money to the King. The 
 only charge that can be made against them is that, though 
 
 1 Journal of House of Lords, Journal of House of Commons, 
 "Wood, Kushworth.
 
 170 ALL SOULS DURING THE WAR. [CHAP. 
 
 certain conditions were made with Lord Say in September 
 1642 (of which we have no details), against their sending 
 their plate to the King, yet they did give it him on his 
 demand in January 164!. 
 
 This is the true gravamen. But here the mistake lies in 
 treating the College authorities as free agents when Charles 
 demanded their plate. They have often received a commen- 
 dation for this which they little deserve. It is a military 
 question, a question of State, not a question of choice and 
 honour. If Lord Say could have foreseen in September 
 that Oxford would become the Royal head-quarters he would 
 doubtless have carried off all the plate he could lay hands on ; 
 and from a military point of view he would have been per- 
 fectly right ; but we must remember that he may have had 
 excellent reasons for not as yet proceeding to extremities. 
 His occupation of Oxford was precarious, and in reality 
 fugitive 1 . Affairs had not yet reached the point when 
 confiscation of the property of corporations on any such 
 extensive scale, or even forced loans, such as he might 
 have levied had he possessed more sagacity or more time, 
 would have approved themselves to those with whom the Par- 
 liament was still acting. He did the best he could under 
 the circumstances. But when Charles was established in 
 Oxford after a sanguinary battle, a general in his camp, a 
 King in the midst of his Court, neither could he be expected 
 to refrain from issuing a request for a loan which is undis- 
 tinguishable from a command, nor could the Colleges be ex- 
 pected to resist such a command from their lawful sovereign. 
 This was their plea, and it must be allowed. 
 
 The letter sent by Charles the First to All Souls is as 
 follows : 
 
 < Charles R. 
 
 'Trusty and wellbeloved, we grete you well. We are 
 soo well satisfied with your readynesse and affection to our 
 
 1 "Wood's Annals.
 
 x.] CHARLES THE FIRST'S LETTER. 171 
 
 service that we cannot doubt but you will take all occasions 
 to express the same. And as we are ready to sell or engage 
 any of our land, soo we have melted down our plate for the 
 payment of our army raysed for our defence and the preser- 
 vation of the kingdome. And having receyved several! quan- 
 tityes of plate from diverse of our loving subjects, wee have 
 removed our Mint hither to our City of Oxford for the 
 coyning thereof, and we do hereby desire that you will lend 
 unto us all such Plate of what kynde soever w<* belongs to 
 y r College, promising you to see the same justly repayd unto 
 you after the rate of 5 s the ounce for white and 5 s 6 d for 
 guilt plate as soon as God shall enable us ; for assure your- 
 selves we shall never lett persons for whom we have so greate 
 a care to suffer for their affection to us, but shall take speciall 
 order for the repayment of what you have already lent to us, 
 according to our promise, and allsoo of this you now lend in 
 plate, well knowing it to be the goods of your Colledge that 
 you ought not to alien, though no man will doubt but in 
 such a case you may lawfully lend to assist your King in 
 such visible necessity. And we have entrusted our trusty 
 and wellbeloved S r W m Parkhurst K* and Tho s Bushell, 
 Esq., officers of our Mint, or either of them, to receive the 
 same Plate from you, who upon weighing thereof shall give 
 you a receipt under their or one of their hands for the same. 
 And we assure ourselfe of your very greate willingnesse to 
 gratify us herein, since besides the more publique consider- 
 ations you cannot but knowe how much yo r selves are con- 
 cerned in our sufferings. And we shall remember this 
 particular service to your advantage. Given at our Court 
 at Oxford this 6th day of January, 1642.' 
 
 Addressed ' Warden and Fellowes of All Soules Colledge.' 
 
 This letter of itself proves that no plate had yet been 
 sent from All Souls, and it would seem that the letters sent 
 to all other Colleges were similar l . 
 
 It must be admitted that there is no appearance of any 
 compunction, not even of any sentiment, in the following 
 brief notice of the course pursued by the College, as it ap- 
 pears in the Acta : 
 
 'Jan. 12, 1642, which day and yeare it was agreed by 
 1 "Wood's Annals, Jan. 10, 164! .
 
 172 ALL SOULS DURING THE WAR. [CHAP. 
 
 Mr. Warden and the Fellows that upon the letter received 
 from the King's Ma tie the Colledge should send their plate 
 to be employed for His Ma tie ' 8 . use according to the tenor 
 of the said letter.' 
 
 But it will require no stretch of imagination to conceive 
 the feelings with which the inventory was taken for the 
 last time, and the treasures of art, chiefly the gift of mem- 
 bers of the College, which had been collecting for two 
 centuries, sent off to the melting-pot. This time the 
 ' treasury in the tower ' was clean swept. Of all the 
 'faire basons/ 'faire flagons,' 'faire goblets,' and 'faire 
 salts double guilt,' the ' cupp double guilt with a cover 
 which hath a piece of St. Michael upon it, given by 
 Warden Keyes (1442), and the neste of twelve boles silver, 
 the first having a foote and a gilliflower in the bottom/ 
 and many other equally precious and no doubt beautiful 
 things, of these not one has survived the sacrifice of 
 January 19, 164!. In almost every other College some 
 articles of value were retained among the general wreck, 
 and concealed till the Restoration ; but at All Souls some 
 half dozen fragments, the very purpose of which can hardly 
 now be guessed, alone represent the ancient part of that 
 property of which two Fellows are still annually appointed, 
 according to ancient usage, Custodes Jocalium. Amongst 
 them are the ' silver rodd ' excepted by the Lords High 
 Commissioners in their destruction of ' monuments of super- 
 stition/ and some 'mazers' of no value except to anti- 
 quarians. It is fortunate that 'The Founder's Salt/ a well- 
 known remarkable and very valuable work of the fifteenth 
 century, was not then in the possession of the College. It 
 was a generous gift, in the last century, from a collateral 
 descendant of the Founder. 
 
 One point remains to be noticed about this loan of 253 Ib. 
 of plate from All Souls. The weight is nearly double that 
 noted in the inventory taken in July, 1642, which was much
 
 x.] THE COLLEGE SENDS ITS PLATE. 173 
 
 the same as it had been in former years. At that date, an 
 inspection having been made just after the money loan was 
 granted, the total weight of the College plate amounts only 
 to 1590 oz., or 132 Ib. 6 oz. The difference between this 
 total and the 253 Ib., for which there is a receipt still extant l , 
 signed on Jan. 19, 164!, by Parkhurst and Bushell, must 
 have been contributed by the Warden and Fellows out of 
 their private stocks of plate. Without counting any further 
 gifts of money, which no doubt they made at the same time, 
 this contribution of plate represented about ^800, in addition 
 to the sum of ^651 sent in July, or a total at both times of 
 something like <^P 10,000 of our currency ; and this from one 
 College ! How great an assistance must the whole contribu- 
 tion have been in the absence of those general compulsory 
 assessments of town and country which supplied the coffers 
 of the Parliament ! Lord Clarendon, no doubt truly, tells us 
 that ' the King now found himself in good ease at Oxford,' 
 and ' in a short time his army was recruited ' after the battle 
 of Edgehill. ' Several Colleges,' he says, ' presented His 
 Majesty with all the money they had in their treasuries, 
 which amounted to a good sum 2 ; ' and this must also be the 
 'new present' he mentions in p. 88; for no one could give 
 more than ' all their money/ Both passages refer to the 
 contribution of January 164!. 
 
 As to other Colleges and Halls, Wood tells us they ' all 
 sent [their plate] except New Inn, [where the Mint was 
 established] ; and soon after most householders and private 
 persons.' It was a general movement. The Colleges omitted 
 in the list given from the Tanner MSS. 3 , some of which were 
 strongholds of the Royalists, have dropped out by acci- 
 dent, probably because they did not send in their plate 
 on the same day as the rest; but the sums are otherwise 
 accurate, if that set down to All Souls may be taken as a 
 
 * Archives. 2 Book vi. p. 70. 
 
 3 An abstract of the plate presented to the King's Majesty by
 
 174 ALL SOULS DURING THE WAR. [CHAP. 
 
 test. Wadham is known to have contributed 123 Ib. 5 oz. 
 and 15 dwt. of plate 1 . Christ Church and University had 
 been already mulcted by Lord Say, so the sums sent from 
 thence must have been from private members of those 
 Houses. 
 
 The King's letter on the subject of College plate is not 
 the only one received from him at this time by All Souls. 
 Charles the First was not above issuing a Mandamus for the 
 election to a Fellowship of one who begged his patronage. 
 In the early part of his reign he had issued several ; and 
 some were obeyed, but not all. The tone of the letter he 
 now sent is far less imperious than that of his father, or 
 than those of either of his two sons. It will be observed that 
 he inserts the proviso, if he be ' found fit ;' and it must be 
 noticed that the war is at its height ; he is reduced to 
 extremities ; and the vacancy is made by one ' slain in our 
 service.' The letter is as follows : 
 
 the several Colleges of Oxford and the gentry of the County, the 
 2oth of January, 1642 : 
 
 Ib. oz. d. 
 
 1. The Cathedral Church of Christ . 172 3 14 
 
 2. Jesus Coll 86 ii 5 
 
 3. Oriel Coll 82 o 19 
 
 4. Queen's Coll. . , . . 193 3 I 
 
 5. Lincoln Coll 47 2 5 
 
 6. University Coll 61 6 5 
 
 7. Brazen Nose Coll. . . . 121 2 15 
 
 8. St. Mary Magdalen Coll. . . 296 6 15 
 
 9. All Souls Coll. .... 253 i 19 
 10. Baliol Coll. . . . . 41 4 o 
 n. Merton Coll. . . . . 79 n 10 
 12. Trinity Coll. .... 174 7 10 
 
 Then follows a list of six gentry and clergy whose joint 
 contributions amount to nearly half the aggregate of the above 
 Colleges. 
 
 1 Dr. Bliss's edition of Wood's Athense, printed for the Ecclesias- 
 tical History Society, vol. i. p. 14.
 
 x.] ANOTHER LETTER FROM CHARLES. 175 
 
 ' Charles E. 
 
 ' Trusty and wellbeloved, "Wee greete you well. By 
 former letters [date unknown] We recommended unto you 
 Thomas Standard to be elected Fellow of yo r Colledge in the 
 place of M r S* Johns slain in our service. Wee be since 
 informed that there be two other Fellowships in yo r said 
 Colledge voide and that you are to hold an election speedily. 
 Therefore, at the very earnest request of the said Standard's 
 friends Wee have been graciously pleased to reiterate our 
 Recomendation on his behalfe, to the end that being found 
 a fit competitor he may receave the benefit of Our favour 
 at yo r said election. W cfe Wee shall very well accept. 
 And soe we bid you farewell. 
 
 ' Given at our Court at Oxford the 2nd day of November, 
 in y e Nineteenth yeare of our Reigne, 1643. 
 
 ' By His Ma*' 8 Command, EDW. NICHOLAS. 
 ' Warden and Fellowes of All Soules, Oxford.' * 
 
 Standard, however, did not become a Fellow. We know 
 not the reason. Perhaps, being dated on All Souls' Day, 
 the Mandate did not arrive till the election was over. 
 Perhaps he was not ' found a fit competitor.' But if so, it 
 says something for the spirit of the College that it should 
 thus on a point of duty slight the will of a Sovereign 
 residing within a few yards of them, for whom they had 
 just given their property, and many of them the venture 
 of their lives in the open field. Perhaps Sheldon, whose 
 influence was now very great, interposed, as he did against 
 Laud. It was under Astley that the College had given 
 way earlier in Charles's days. But soon after the Restoration 
 we find a certain Henry Standard is elected a Fellow ; 
 was this a relative of Thomas? Was it in his favour that 
 a vicarious satisfaction is made for any want of loyalty to 
 the martyred King which the College may, at that moment 
 of exuberant zeal, have accused itself of shewing in past 
 times ? 
 
 The College book of Acta in Capitulis betrays the disorder 
 
 1 Archives.
 
 176 ALL SOULS DURING THE WAR. [CHAP. 
 
 into which its estates were falling in consequence of the war, 
 and the efforts which the Warden and resident Fellows were 
 making to do all that was still left in their power for the 
 cause they held sacred. We may quote as examples the fol- 
 lowing extracts : 
 
 'June i, 1643; which day and yeare it was agred by 
 M r Warden and the Fellows upon a letter directed unto us 
 from His Ma tie , that our Colledge should undergoe y charge 
 of maintaining 102 souldiours for the space of a month after 
 the rate of 4 s a week to each souldiour.' 
 
 In the same year the tenants of the College were ^600 
 behindhand in their rents ; and, as this brought matters to a 
 point, we find in 1644 the following entry : 
 
 ' It was unanimously agreed by M r Warden and the 
 Fellows that by reason we could neyther receive money from 
 our tenants nor borrow money to provide necessaries, and 
 because of the troublesomnes and danger of these times and 
 this place, the Warden, Fellows, Probationers, Chapleyns and 
 servants of the College abiding within the Kingdom should 
 be co-ex-co' [the College phrase for receiving allowance for 
 commons without being present] ' from April 26 to Michael- 
 mas, and have liberty to be absent from the Colledge as their 
 occasions and the exigencie of the times require.' 
 
 This permission is periodically renewed during the war. 
 The College next agrees to pay '25 s a week for 5 weeks 
 towards the Bulwarks.' In 1645 ^ P avs <^ 1 5 f r f necessaries 
 against the siege ; ' but the money was restored, not however 
 permanently, as the following somewhat querulous passage 
 indicates. The ^15 was ' restored to the College by reason 
 the siege was plainly raised before the money was employed, 
 but presently thereupon the Lords demanded the sum of \$ 
 (we know not for what use), and 'twas delivered unto them.' 
 The ' Lords ' had by this time become sufficiently unpopular in 
 Oxford. The King was one thing; his Court was another. 
 Wood indignantly remarks that the city was only ordered to 
 be surrendered, when it might well have stood out, in order 
 to save the great people shut up in it. The loss of ^15 was
 
 x.] DECAY OF COLLEGE ESTATES. 177 
 
 now of consequence to the College. The poor of the city had 
 a claim which was allowed more readily. On September 24, 
 1646, we find the College resolving ' that there should be 
 only one meal a day between this and next Christmas, and so 
 longer if we shall see occasion,' and the Sub- Warden and 
 Bursars are granted power to disburse College money to the 
 poor upon occasion ' to the amount of 5 s at a time.' 
 
 A sum of money had previously been divided between such 
 of the Fellows and servants as ' endured the siege.' They were 
 living, as all other Royalists were at this moment, 'from 
 hand to mouth/ but the numbers actually in College were 
 probably few. Lectures and exercises had for the most part 
 ceased, the Schools being employed as granaries for the 
 garrison. Nearly all the members of the University capable 
 of taking arms were serving the King either in or out of 
 Oxford, ' having exchanged the gown for the military coat, 
 the square cap for the helmet.' Wood 1 gives as instances 
 the case of Christ Church, where twenty out of the hundred 
 Students (or Fellows), and Pembroke, of which College fifty 
 members altogether, were regular officers in the Royal army 2 . 
 ( Whenever Charles was called out of Oxford he held himself 
 bound to summon a council of the University troops, and 
 entrusted to their peculiar care the whole command and the 
 dearest pledges he left behind 3 .' There were two exceptions 
 to this almost universal loyalty to the Sovereign. Magdalen 
 Hall and New Inn Hall consistently remained throughout 
 the strongholds of Puritanism and disaffection to Charles. 
 Their turn of prosperity was now to come. The surrender of 
 the city took place on June 24, 1646, on condition that the 
 University should be free from ' sequestrations, fines, taxes, 
 and all other molestations whatever .... provided that this 
 
 1 Annals, 1644. 
 
 2 ' If Pemb. Coll., which is the least Coll. in Oxon., did yield so 
 many officers to serve his Majesty, what did then the other Colleges 
 do?' Ibid. 1646. Gutch's note from Wood's MS. 3 Ibid. 
 
 N
 
 178 ALL SOULS DURING THE WAR. [CHAP. 
 
 shall not extend to retard any reformation there intended by 
 the Parliament, or give them any liberty to intermeddle in 
 the government V One can scarcely wonder at the insertion of 
 this proviso, or that it should have been acted upon. Wood 
 tells us what might well be guessed, that at this time ' there 
 was scarce the face of an University left, all things being out 
 of order and disturbed.' The surviving Royalists described 
 the change after the blunt fashion of those days, ' Hell was 
 broke loose upon them .' 
 
 But before we notice the condition of Oxford after its 
 surrender, we must describe a remarkable event which took 
 place within its walls two months previously. Of the four 
 All Souls men who, as we have seen, had become Chaplains to 
 Charles the First, Sheldon was the one who most enjoyed his 
 confidence. Duppa remained at his post as Bishop of Salis- 
 bury till the Parliament suppressed Episcopacy, then joined 
 his Sovereign, attended Prince Charles, whose religious train- 
 ing was committed to him by Charles the First, and was with 
 the King in the Isle of Wight during a portion of his im- 
 prisonment. f The distressed King used to say that his 
 confinement was much relieved by the good Bishop's con- 
 versation 3 ,' and he is said by Walker 4 to have assisted in the 
 composition of two chapters of the Eikon Basilike. Steward, 
 who was Dean of Chester, Dean of St. Paul's, and Dean of 
 Westminster successively, Provost of Eton, and Chaplain and 
 Clerk of the Closet to Charles the First, was also a Com- 
 missioner for ecclesiastical affairs at the Treaty of Uxbridge. 
 We find him sent with a message of gratitude from the 
 King to the University for its services 5 . He alone of the 
 
 1 Annals, 1646 ; and Rushworth's Collections, vi. 283. 
 
 2 Annals, 1646. 
 
 3 Biographia Britannica, note from Dart's History of the Church 
 of Westminster. 
 
 4 True Account of the Author of Eikon Basilike. 
 6 Wood's Annals, 1642.
 
 x.] CHARLES' FOUR CHAPLAINS. 179 
 
 four did not live to see the Restoration, dying in 1652. 
 Jeremy Taylor had only remained a Fellow of All Souls for 
 three or four years, during which time Wood tells us that 
 ' he gained much of his learning ' there. In 1639 or 1640 he 
 married; but, when the war broke out, returned to Oxford, 
 and preached much before the King and Court, living pro- 
 bably in his old College. He soon, however, undertook the 
 more active labours of a Chaplain to the Royal forces, and 
 underwent many hardships and vicissitudes in that capacity. 
 But Sheldon, as principal coadjutor in Oxford to the brave 
 Dr. Samuel Fell, Dean of Christ Church and Vice-Chancellor 
 of the University, was no doubt, judging by Charles's sub- 
 sequent reliance upon him, and by the remarkable transaction 
 we are now about to relate, his chief adviser and friend. 
 
 The Vow made by Charles the First shortly before he bade 
 his last farewell to Oxford, and which he entrusted to 
 Sheldon for preservation, has strangely enough been lost 
 to history. It is not to be found, as far as the present writer 
 is aware, in any History of England written during the last 
 150 years. His attention was drawn to it by the mention 
 of certain 'buried papers' in a MS. letter of Bishop Duppa's 
 (of 1660) which he found in the Bodleian Library. A re- 
 ference to Le Neve's Lives of the Bishops supplied the clue. 
 This book, written in the early part of the eighteenth century, 
 gave in full the paper which follows as having been just 
 then published for the first time in the Appendix to Echard's 
 History of England ; and in the Clarendon State Papers 1 
 the authentic copy quoted by Echard is still to be seen. 
 The existence of the Vow was found afterwards to be men- 
 tioned in the Biographical Dictionary in the notice of Shel- 
 don. Perhaps, if not wholly forgotten, it has been thought 
 an unimportant fact. And yet we shall see that there is 
 a very great probability that the disclosure of this paper 
 to Charles the Second had a considerable effect on his course 
 
 1 2176 Bodl. Lib. 
 N 2
 
 180 ALL SOULS DURING THE WAR. [CHAP. 
 
 of conduct at one of the most critical periods of our national 
 life. And certainly it throws light on the character and 
 conduct of one over whose memory the battle of eager com- 
 batants has by no means even yet ceased to rage. Charles 
 the First is by no means a faultless prince. There are trans- 
 actions of which we can only say that a high-minded man 
 seems to have been misled by the mischievous casuistry of 
 the times ; but if one who preferred to run any risk rather 
 than sacrifice his Churchand with all deductions it comes 
 to that at last deserves the name of a martyr, that sacred 
 name ought scarcely to be denied him, as it so often is by 
 modern writers ; nor will the impression of his just right 
 to the title be weakened by discovering that he had bound 
 himself in the most solemn manner before a competent witness 
 to perform, if he survived, an act of justice to the Church 
 which no one else, it need hardly be said, has shewn any 
 signs of even meditating. 
 
 THE Vow. 
 
 ' I doe here promise and solemnly vow, in the presence and 
 for the service of Almighty God, that if it shall please his 
 Divine Ma tie of his infinite goodness to restore me to my 
 just kingly rights, and to re-establish mee in my throne, 
 I will wholly give back to his Church all those Impro- 
 priations wh ch are now held by the Crowne ; and what lands 
 soever I now doe or should enjoy which have been taken 
 away either from any Episcopall See or any Cathedrall or 
 Collegiate Church, from any Abbey or other Religious House. 
 I likewise promise for hereafter to hold them from the 
 Church under such reasonable Fines and Rents as shall be 
 set downe by some conscientious persons, whome I promise 
 to choose w th all uprightnes of Heart to direct me in this 
 particular. And I most humbly beseech God to accept of 
 this my Vow, and to blesse me in the designes I have now 
 in hand, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
 'Oxford, the 13 th Aprill, 1646. CHARLES R. 3
 
 x.] CHARLES' VOW BURIED BY SHELDON. 181 
 
 ' This is a true copye of the King's Vow w* was preserved 
 thirteene yeares under ground by mee, 
 
 'Aug. 21 st , 1660. 'GILBERT SHELDON.' 
 
 We must defer any notice of the consequences of this dis- 
 covery of the Vow till we come to speak of the Restoration, 
 as also the letter of Bishop Duppa's which gives such signi- 
 ficant interest to it. It will be enough here to remark that 
 the Vow is dated just a fortnight before Charles, ' early in 
 the morning went out of Oxford, attended only by John 
 Ashburnham and a Divine (one Hudson) who understood 
 the by-ways as well as the common, and was indeed a very 
 skilful guide 1 ,' on his fatal journey to join the Scottish army. 
 It requires no stretch of imagination to bring the picture 
 of the unhappy monarch before us, almost hunted to the 
 death, as he penned that Vow. Three weeks after its date 
 he was a prisoner in the Scottish camp, within the toils from 
 which he was not to escape ! 
 
 All Souls now becomes the College where, alternately with 
 Christ Church, the meetings took place of the Delegates who 
 were appointed by the University to assist Dr. Fell in re-' 
 sisting or evading submission to the victorious Parliament 2 . 
 Sheldon is of course one of these Delegates, along with three 
 of his Fellows, Christ Church alone having an equally large 
 representation ; but he is now frequently absent on the 
 King's affairs. On November 2ist of this year (1646) he 
 obtains from his College ' ten months' cause of absence, either 
 within any of the King's dominions or abroad in any forraign 
 country according to his own will and pleasure V And several 
 letters will be found in the Clarendon State Papers addressed 
 to him' by Hyde, and proving how deeply he was concerned 
 in the politics of the year 1647. 
 
 1 Clarendon's History of the Kebellion, vol. in. p. 22. 
 
 2 "Wood's Annals. 
 
 3 Acta in capitulis.
 
 182 ALL SOULS DURING THE WAR. [CHAP. 
 
 The time was now approaching when the good faith of the 
 victors and the courage of the vanquished was to be put 
 to the test. After vainly endeavouring to preach the Uni- 
 versity into submission, the Parliament determined to hold 
 a Visitation, and to insist on the ' reformation ' of the 
 University. The University answered by a shout of defiance ; 
 and for a time the Vice-Chancellor and his friends were more 
 than a match for the Visitors, the Parliament being un- 
 willing, in view of the conditions of surrender, to proceed 
 to force. Dr. Fell was, however, soon sent prisoner to 
 London, and several Heads of Houses were ordered to be 
 deprived ; but still with no effect. The University persisted 
 in refusing to obey anything short of force. Their Sovereign 
 was a prisoner, and they waited for his commands. 
 
 Parliament had now gone too far to recede, and resolved 
 that the condition of ' no molestation ' was cancelled by the 
 proviso inserted in the Treaty. At the beginning of April, 
 1648, the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, the Parlia- 
 mentary Chancellor, was brought on the stage with a strong 
 guard of soldiers. This was the younger brother of the good 
 Earl of Pembroke, Chancellor of the University in happier 
 times, when the Bodleian and the Schools were erected, and 
 the College which bears his name was founded by King 
 James with his assistance. Of the present Earl, Hallam 
 speaks as ' the basest among the base,' famed for his ' pro- 
 verbial meanness and stupidity 1 .' Sheldon had been with 
 the King at Carisbrooke when the Visitors began their 
 operations, but was at his post when the final measures 
 were adopted. But just returned, fresh from the side of his 
 doomed master, it was not likely that he should flinch from 
 the struggle all the more incumbent on him as Fell was 
 already carried off. He is summoned before the Visitors and 
 asked ' Do you acknowledge our authority ?' He replied, 'I 
 
 1 Constitutional History, ii. 235.
 
 x.] FELL AND SHELDON EXPELLED. 183 
 
 cannot yet satisfy myself that I ought to submit to this Visi- 
 tation.' He was not kept long in suspense. On April i2th 
 an order was made out to the following effect : 
 
 ' The souldiers of this garrison are desired by strength to 
 remove the family of Dr. Fell and all other Heads of Houses 
 and Prebendaries of X* Church, together with all their 
 ffamilies that are ordered by authority of Parliament to 
 remove from their respective places 1 .' 
 
 The notice of ejectment was now affixed to the door of 
 his lodgings in College, and on April 13 the Chancellor and 
 his troops proceeded to act. One little difficulty gave great 
 annoyance to the Chancellor and Visitors. The bedells had 
 concealed the famous University staves, and no power on 
 earth could induce them to give any clue to the hiding- 
 place. They were not in fact found for two years after- 
 wards 2 . What was a Chancellor or Vice-Chancellor without 
 his gold and silver staves carried in time-honoured pomp 
 before him ? For that matter, what is he now ? For the 
 nonce, however, the soldiers had to do duty instead of bedells, 
 halberds instead of staves. In the forenoon Mrs. Fell had 
 to experience the rough hand of these academical reformers. 
 She was carried out of Christ Church on a chair by soldiers 
 and set down in the middle of the great quadrangle, not 
 yet dignified by the familiar name derived from the big 
 Osney bell. What followed in the afternoon must be tran- 
 scribed from Wood's Annals : 
 
 'April 13, 1648. In the afternoon they go to All Souls 
 College, and finding none of the Fellows in the Hall there, 
 were much troubled. At length they send for Dr. Sheldon 
 the Warden (there walking in his garden), who appearing 
 before them, did with great moderation of mind ask them 
 by what authority they summoned him? Upon which the 
 
 1 MS. e MUSJBO 77; or Visitors' Kegister. 
 
 2 Wood's Annals, 1648.
 
 184 ALL SOULS DURING THE WAR. [CHAP. 
 
 authority was shewn, and read. Dr. Sheldon told them that 
 it concerned not him at all, for it was dated March the 8th, 
 and gave the Chancellor and Visitors power to give possession 
 to those which were then voted into the places of such that 
 had been removed by them. Also that he was not so much 
 as there questioned, nor voted out of his place till March 
 3oth, etc. This puzzled the Chancellor and Visitors very 
 much, nor was there any answer for the present given. At 
 length the Chancellor asks Mr. Prynne, who stood by him, 
 what he could say to the matter ; Mr. Prynne answers 
 nothing ; whereupon the Doctor leaves them, and goes into 
 his garden again, into which he could enter without going 
 through his lodgings. They consult almost an hour, and 
 Mr. Prynne confessed that they had no power by their 
 commission to do it, but the Parliament must not be baffled, 
 and that they might do many things ex officlo agreeable to 
 the mind of the Parliament, though not in their commission. 
 Well to it again they go, send for the buttery book, dash 
 out Dr. Sheldon's name, and enter that of Dr. Palmer in its 
 place. Which done, they send to Dr. Sheldon to deliver 
 up the keys of his lodgings ; he refuses ; they break them 
 open, and give Dr. Palmer possession, with an order (directed 
 to the Provost Marshall of the garrison of Oxford or his 
 deputy) for Dr. Sheldon's commitment to prison for refusing 
 to submit to the authority of the Visitors, or as they worded 
 it, for his contempt. The Doctor read it, and finding therein 
 base and aggravative language against him, desired the Chan- 
 cellor to read it, telling him that his lordship was pleased 
 two or three times to say that his answer and carriage was 
 very civil, and desired to know whether that language was 
 fit to be given to one that had so demeaned himself. The 
 Chancellor said, " they were hard words ; " and when 'twas 
 told him that the lawyers drew it (Prynne and Cheynell were 
 the men) the Chancellor answered "Whosoever drew it, it 
 had very hard language in it." In the carriage and debate
 
 x.] SHELDON AND PRYNNE. 185 
 
 of the business the Chancellor asked the Doctor pardon, three 
 or four times, and told him openly that " what he had done 
 in breaking- open doors, he knew not, let the lawyers look to 
 that." Dr. Sheldon was sent forthwith to James Chester- 
 man's house against the Cross Inn, with a guard of mus- 
 queteers followed by a great company of scholars, and blessed 
 by the people as he passed the streets, and there was kept in 
 safe custody till further pleasure.' 
 
 Wood has not given us the document drawn up by the 
 famous Prynne in such a hurry, and at which Sheldon 
 was, or pretended to be, so offended; for we cannot but 
 suspect he a little enjoyed the perplexity of his persecutors. 
 On the other hand, it must have called up all his forti- 
 tude to find himself confronted with the notorious lawyer, 
 the barbarous ' cropping ' of whose ears by Laud and the 
 High Commission Court had done almost as much to 
 bring on the Civil War as the trial of Hampden. Nor 
 can we refuse to speculate on the effect which the scene 
 may have produced on Prynne himself, the relentless foe 
 of Church and King, who before long was to find himself 
 equally offended by the tyranny of the Sects. It should 
 never be forgotten that to his laborious search of English 
 records for proofs of the Constitutional privileges he had 
 learnt to value, we owe the commencement of the great 
 work which is only at this day approaching completion 
 under the hands of Sir Thomas Hardy, Professor Brewer, 
 and their compeers. We extract the paper from the in- 
 teresting MS. in the Bodleian 1 from which Wood drew his 
 materials, and which in the next chapter will be our chief 
 
 1 The Register of the Parliamentary Visitors (known by the 
 name MS. e Musaeo 77), p. 15. Its title in full is, 'The Acts of 
 the Visitation of Oxford Universitie ; by Commissioners authorized 
 by y 6 Long Parliament. Drawn up by Mr. Aubyn, Registrar.' 
 Surely it ought to be published. It will be quoted here as ' Vis. 
 Reg.'
 
 186 ALL SOULS DURING THE WAR. 
 
 guide. The historian of the University was not bound to 
 register the details which only affected All Souls, and so 
 has left something behind for humbler gleaners. 
 
 ' An order for commitment of Dr. Sheldon for refusing 
 to submitt to the authority of the Visitors of the Univer- 
 sitie of Oxon. 
 
 ' Whereas Dr. Gilbert Sheldon, late Warden of All Souls 
 Coll. in the University of Oxford, being several tymes sum- 
 moned to appeare before us appoynted Visitors of the said 
 Universitie by several Ordinances of Parliament and a Com- 
 mission under the Great Seale of England, hath contemptu- 
 ously refused to submitt to the authority conferred upon us 
 by the said Ordinances and Commission, and obstinately 
 denyed to deliver up the Statutes and Register Book as also 
 the Warden's Lodgings of the said College, according to 
 the contents of an order of the Committee of Lords and 
 Commons for regulating the said University, being dated 
 the 3<Dth of March last, for the establishing of Mr. Jo. Palmer, 
 Bach, of Physicke, Warden of the said College, to enjoy and 
 have all the power, rights, emoluments, roomes, and lodg- 
 ings, by any Statute, Custome or Eight belonging to the 
 Warden thereof: These are therefore to will and require 
 you by vertue of the said Ordinances and Commission to 
 take into yo r custodie the bodie of the said Dr. Gilbert 
 Sheldon for his said contempt, and him saffely to keepe till 
 hee shall be delivered by order of law. Whereof you are 
 not to faile as you shall answere the contrary, and for yo r soe 
 doing this shall be yo r Warrant/ 
 
 Is it an indication of the haste with which Prynne drew 
 up the warrant that Palmer, described as Bachelor of Physic, 
 had been admitted to the degree of Doctor that very 
 morning ; or had some formalities not been completed ? On 
 April 2 ist the Report of the above proceedings was read 
 in the House of Lords. It contains these words: 'Dr. 
 Sheldon, the former Warden of All Souls, was committed 
 for his contemptuous carriage 1 .' 
 
 1 Journal of the House of Lords, vol. x. p. 216.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 ouls toittij % 
 1648-1660. 
 
 Palmer, the Pseudo-Gustos Submissions of the Fellows and 
 servants Oxford Colleges compared on this point Sydenham, 
 the physician Sheldon's life at this time; original letter of 
 Jeremy Taylor's to him The Puritan Visitors Their quarrels 
 with the new Fellows, and with the Parliamentary Committee 
 All Souls allowed to elect Fellows in 1653 Sir Christopher 
 Wren College reported to Cromwell for corrupt elections 
 His reply Collapse of the Visitors Death of Pseudo-Gustos. 
 
 THE event with which the last chapter concluded is thus 
 described in the College Records at the Restoration : 
 '1648; Pulso per vim Doctore Sheldon, Joannes Palmer, 
 Med. Dr. a Parliamento Pseudo-Gustos constituitur.' This 
 was technically correct as to tbe title of Palmer or Vaux, for 
 he has an alias; he was neither a member of the College, 
 nor elected by the Fellows, nor approved by a lawful Visitor; 
 nor did he take any oath to govern by the College Statutes. 
 Leaving then the true Warden in the prison to which we 
 have seen him condemned, let us watch the history of All 
 Souls under the ' Pseudo-Custos/ The title of ' Med. Doctor ' 
 held by this functionary hangs by as feeble a thread as that 
 of his Wardenship. He obtained his Degree when none of
 
 188 ' PERIOD OF THE COMMONWEALTH. [CHAP. 
 
 his Faculty were present, and by the mere will of the 
 Chancellor and Visitors. But he appears to have been a man 
 of some merit, and the circumstances of his appointment 
 are only a usual feature in the violence of the times. He 
 shared the political opinions of Taunton, his native town 
 (where his father was an apothecary), was a member of the 
 Rump Parliament, and a personal friend of Cromwell's. Hence 
 the honour or dishonour, as different people may regard it, 
 done to All Souls by Cromwell's taking up his quarters in 
 the Warden's lodgings during Palmer's absence in Parliament, 
 when 'the General' and Fairfax visited Oxford in 1649. On 
 that occasion ' Colonel ' Zanchy was his host, he having been 
 intruded on the College as Senior Fellow of the new Parlia- 
 mentary batch, and created Proctor to carry out the Visitors' 
 reforms. In this latter capacity the Colonel-Proctor presented 
 the two victorious chiefs for the Degree of Doctor in Civil 
 Law. Neal tells us 1 that Palmer was a learned man, on 
 what authority does not appear ; but he had been a Fellow 
 of Queen's, and we shall see that he was at least a man 
 of ability and moderation. All Souls might hare been 
 worse off. 
 
 Shortly after their Warden's expulsion the Fellows of the 
 College were summoned before the Visitors at their head- 
 quarters in Merton College, ' to answer to such questions as 
 shall be propounded to you. ' Their answers are to be found, 
 along with numerous others, in the Visitors' Register, and 
 afford a fair specimen of the painful ingenuity with which 
 the art of composing evasive answers had been studied. Out 
 of the mass of those given in scarcely two are alike ; the 
 efforts to escape from the consequences of direct disobedience, 
 and yet to satisfy the conscience of the respondent, being as 
 varied as the composition of the human mind. No doubt this 
 variety also represents the different shades of opinion regard- 
 ing the fundamental constitution of legal authority, a delicate 
 
 1 ii. 320.
 
 XL] EVASIVE REPLIES OF FELLOWS. 189 
 
 question with which we have not troubled ourselves much 
 in modern times, but which, before the Revolution of 1688, 
 and for some time after, was a matter of life and death. 
 Let us hope then that we shall escape the charge of 
 tediousness if we give the answers of the ten Fellows of All 
 Souls who remained in the College to bear the brunt of the 
 first attack. It seems they were asked whether they would 
 submit to the authority of Parliament in the Visitation. 
 
 ' Dr. Aylworth, Fellow of All Souls Coll., cannot upon the 
 sudden give soe certaine an answer as happily may be 
 expected, and as I could wish, to the question at this time 
 proposed unto mee, but shall doe my best endeavor by 
 advisinge with learned friends to give such satisfaction as 
 that I will by no means appeare guilty of denyinge 
 obedience where I shall learne it may be performed salva 
 conscientia.' 
 
 Henry Barker ' I answere : if by this noe more be 
 ment but whether I submitt to this Visitation I referre you 
 as a Master of Arts to the answere of the Universitie given 
 in by the Delegates ; as fFellow of All Soules to the answere 
 of the Colledge delivered before Christmas : if anything 
 more be in the question I conceive I am not bound to 
 answere to it till I have submitted to this Visitation/ 
 
 John Middleton ' My answere to this question is that 
 for what concernes the Universitie I refer to the answere 
 of the Universitie, and for what concerns the house to the 
 answere of the house/ 
 
 Thomas Dayrell ' To this question whether I will submitt 
 to the authentic of Parliament in this Visitation I give this 
 answere : that I am not satisfied concerning the meaninge 
 of the question ; but if the meaninge be to submitt to this 
 Visitation I doe referre to the answeres given in the name 
 of the Universitie and the Colledge/ 
 
 George Stradling (This answer is almost identical with 
 that of Middleton.) 
 
 Hugh Boham ' To this question, whether or not you will 
 submitt to the authoritie of Parliament in this Visitation, 
 I cannot in common prudence give an answere to a question 
 before I understand the terms wherein it is proposed, and 
 of this I professe I doe not/ 
 
 John Prestwich ' To this question whether you submitt
 
 190 PERIOD OF THE COMMONWEALTH. [CHAP. 
 
 to the authoritie of Parliament in this present Visitation, my 
 answere is I doe : but with this limitation, noe further than I 
 may with a saffe conscience : my hart shall not reproach me 
 soe long- as I live.' 
 
 Thomas Smith ' My answere to this question is the 
 same with those several! answers formerly given in the names 
 of the Universitie and the Colledge.' 
 
 L. Smith ' I ever thought the High Court of Parliament 
 the supream power of England, and shall always submitt to 
 that power and authoritie soe far as I lawfully may.' 
 
 Henry Birkhead 'I doe submitt to the authoritie of 
 Parliament in the Visitation 1 .' 
 
 The Visitors had long- found out what was meant by an- 
 swers of this sort. With unsparing severity, perfectly justi- 
 fiable from their point of view (when they had once pro- 
 ceeded so far), they accepted one only of the respondents, the 
 last. Three were expelled, and two 'removed from their places ;' 
 but five seem to have made their peace at a later date. One 
 of these last we find, as we might expect from the round- 
 about style of his reply, was Martin Aylworth, who was 
 the chief man of business of the College from soon after the 
 date of his election, in 1611, to 1657, when his signatures 
 to leases and other official papers cease. He was already an 
 elderly man, and to tear himself away from the walls where 
 he had spent his life must have been, even had he not dis- 
 covered ' learned friends ' to give him good advice, a harder 
 matter than in ordinary cases. Birkhead's submission be- 
 comes intelligible when we remember that he had gone 
 through such violent fluctuations that one more change could 
 not have seemed extraordinary. He had been perverted 
 from the English Church by the Jesuits, and reclaimed by 
 Laud, who procured him his Fellowship at All Souls 2 . After 
 the Restoration he becomes known by the publication of Latin 
 verses, and deserves the gratitude of posterity for founding 
 the Professorship of Poetry at Oxford. The places of those 
 
 1 Vis. Reg. p. 26. 2 "Wood's Annals, an. 1641.
 
 XL] CONDUCT OF COLLEGE SERVANTS. 191 
 
 expelled at this time and afterwards were filled up by the 
 Visitors, in some cases no doubt, as Wood says, ' from among 
 the candidates who came trooping in from Cambridge, 
 and by poor curates and schoolmasters from the country, of 
 whom some had been married and had buried their wives;' 
 but, from whatever source, many were men of merit. Before 
 however we notice these substituted Fellows, let us pay our 
 tribute of honest admiration to a humbler class of persons 
 at All Souls who were not to be found among the 
 trucklers. 
 
 Five of the College servants were summoned like their 
 masters before the Visitors. Their names are Harding, 
 William Griffin the cook. Gibs the under-cook, Davis the 
 under-butler, and Thomas Griffin the page. Their answer 
 ran thus : 
 
 'Wee whose names are underwritten, being desirouse not 
 to be misunderstood in a matter wee understand not, shall 
 submitt to the authoritie of Parliament in this Visitation soe 
 far forth as our former oathes will permit.' 
 
 The inherent vice of the Cavaliers was however not only 
 discovered in this ingenious reply, but Wood 1 tells us the 
 Visitors voted it a ' saucy ' answer, and expelled the poor 
 fellows without further ceremony. It must be said indeed 
 that the Visitors had no choice. They had been ordered by 
 the Committee of Parliament, on the I5th of May, to accept 
 nothing short of an unconditional answer. But might they 
 not have excused the cooks and butlers? Were the new 
 Fellows afraid that their intrusion might be paid off upon 
 them in some unsavoury manner? In the case of Holling- 
 worth, the butler, we find his expulsion decreed without any 
 examination whatever. He had no doubt compromised him- 
 self on the side of his Sovereign long before, as we may 
 gather from the following grateful inscription placed over 
 
 1 Anuals, an. 1648.
 
 192 PERIOD OF THE COMMONWEALTH. [CHAP. 
 
 his grave in the cloisters, and still to be seen. When he 
 died such memories were precious, and the College did itself 
 honour hy recording them : 
 
 ' H. S. E. Johannes Hollingworth hujus Coll. promus et 
 obsonator, quae officia et juste et generose executus est ; Col- 
 legio simul et Regi (ultra vulgus famulorum) fidus : quo 
 exulante munere utroque caruit haud ante ipsius reditum 
 restitutus : ita se demum in omni fortuna gessit ut palam 
 fuerit vel ad maxima non illi animum defuisse. Ob. prid. 
 Oct. A.D. 1671, setatis suse 63.' 
 
 Whatever our opinions, we must admit that these were 
 heroes. They gave up all for conscience' sake. 
 
 While on this subject of submission to Parliament in 
 1648, it may be interesting to notice the different propor- 
 tions of Submitters to Non-submitters in the Colleges 
 of Oxford, as it may be found in the index of the MS. 
 already mentioned. It has not yet been published. Only 
 fourteen Colleges are registered. Fellows, Chaplains and 
 Servants are here given in the aggregate. 
 
 Submitters. Non-submitters. 
 
 Magdalen College . . 21 . . 55 
 
 Christ Church . . 35 . . 70 
 
 Trinity College . . 20 . . 16 
 
 Brasenose . . . 12 . . 1 1 
 
 St. John's ... 7 . . 36 
 
 Wadham ... 4 . . 10 
 
 University ... 6 4 
 
 Merton 37 * 
 
 Exeter . . . . 1 1 . . 2 1 
 
 Oriel . 3 it 
 
 Corpus .... 3 . . 32 
 
 Queen's . . . . 18 . . 33 
 
 All Souls ... 5 . . 1 3 
 
 New . 5 . 63 
 
 Total . . 187 382
 
 XL] 'SUBMITTERS' IN OTHER COLLEGES. 193 
 
 Hence it appears that New College, St. John's, and Corpus 
 were the most zealously united on the side of the King ; 
 and that Merton, Trinity, and University alone had a 
 majority of men who could bring themselves to submit 
 to the Parliament. Merton of course, under its Warden, 
 Sir Nathaniel Brent, and as the head-quarters of the Visitors, 
 was likely to take the latter line. Of the Non-submitters 
 about five-sixths were Fellows. 
 
 There had been no election of Fellows at All Souls on the 
 proper day in 1647. If the Gaudy was kept it must have 
 been a sad one. The attitude of defiance was but a 
 bravado. The terrible gloom of the storm overclouded Ox- 
 ford. The King was suffering the most rigorous imprison- 
 ment ; the "Warden of the College was attending upon him ; 
 the Society was practically broken up ; the rents uncollected ; 
 ' divers Fellowships void ' says the ' Acta.' ' The Parlia- 
 ment prohibited any election.' ' No schollers appeared.' No 
 wonder ! 
 
 By the time All Souls' Day had broken on the College 
 in 1648, the cloud had burst. The Warden and most of 
 the Fellows were now expelled, and the Visitors had filled 
 up their places. The use of the Prayer-book had been 
 inhibited, and the Directory established in its stead. The 
 College could hardly have known itself. We may gather 
 the sort of feeling with which the intrusion was regarded by 
 the scattered flock from the silent and expressive evidence of 
 the entry made in the College Records at the Restoration. 
 The books were then re-organised, and the old names care- 
 fully copied into a new book. Down to the time of the ex- 
 pulsion of the College authorities every name from the date of 
 the Foundation is placed in its proper year, and accompanied 
 with the name of the county to which the Fellow belonged, 
 and with some remark as to his subsequent career if, as is 
 frequently the case, there is anything to distinguish him from 
 the rest. But the list of the forty-three Fellows intruded
 
 194 PERIOD OF THE COMMONWEALTH. [CHAP. 
 
 by command of the Parliament without election, stands by 
 itself, distinguished from the previous and subsequent entries 
 by the absence of year of admission, birth-place, or remark 
 of any description. It is given in the lump, simply headed 
 'Per Parliament! Commissarios,' and left to tell its own 
 tale! 
 
 Yet, whatever the statutable position of these Fellows, 
 the College has long recognised with pride and gratitude 
 that it owes one of the greatest names on its glorious roll 
 to the Parliamentary Visitors. The name of Thomas Syden- 
 ham spelt ' Siddenham' in the Visitors' Register stands 
 second on the list above-mentioned, immediately after that 
 of the Colonel-Proctor ' Hieron. Sanchy.' It is possible that 
 the new Warden, being a medical man, may have used some 
 influence for his admission ; but he is said to have been 
 nominated through the interest of a cousin. He was as yet 
 little known as we now know him ; but it would seem that 
 his political principles might well have entitled him to the 
 favour of the Visitors without any ' interest ' from without. 
 They must have been thankful to find such a candidate. He 
 had been bred at Magdalen Hall, at that time the strong- 
 hold of Puritanism, had retired from Oxford when it became 
 a Royalist fortress, returned when it fell into the hands of 
 the Parliament, and retired finally just before the Restora- 
 tion. His sympathies were no doubt during his academical 
 life entirely with the party of the Rebellion, and it has been 
 said, though without proof, that he served against the King. 
 All Souls may well be proud of having for several years 
 afforded a home to one who will always rank among the 
 very greatest of physicians, and whose independence and 
 originality were probably strengthened, if not gained, during 
 his residence within its walls, before he became the instructor 
 of England and of Europe for many more generations than 
 his own. 
 
 The name of one who attained eminence of a humbler
 
 XL] SYDENHAM, PETT, WREN. 195 
 
 kind is also enrolled in this list. Joseph Keeble, or Keble, 
 ranks among- the most industrious reporters of law cases and 
 sermons ever known. Several names of course suggest re- 
 lationship to prominent persons on the victorious side. Thus 
 we have a Rouse and a Brent, and Whitelock was certainly 
 the son of the famous Parliamentarian. The name of Kenelm 
 Digby reminds us of the family which was so distinguished 
 at this period, but he does not seem to be claimed as a 
 member of it : Wood mentions him as a violinist, and that 
 he died in 1688. Peter Pett's name will be held in honour 
 by those who remember that he was one of the founders, 
 or at least one of the first Fellows elected by, the Royal 
 Society. He became Advocate- General to Charles the Second, 
 a knight, and a considerable author. Millington also lived 
 to become a knight and the Sedleian Professor of Natural 
 Philosophy. And we must in fairness connect with these 
 men, especially perhaps with the two last-named, the 
 election of the immortal Christopher Wren. When, from 
 causes which we shall presently trace, the College was 
 again allowed, in 1653, its ancient privilege of free elec- 
 tion, Wren was its first choice; and in 1658 we find it 
 electing a man whose career was also in its way an 
 ornament to his College, William, afterwards Sir William 
 Trumbull. He became Ambassador to France and Turkey 
 under James the Second, Secretary of State to William the 
 Third, and a Burgess for Oxford University. He is also 
 known as the friend and correspondent of Pope. 
 
 The change of Government seems to have been specially 
 favourable to the progress of Physical Science. Before the 
 Civil War began the great leaders of that branch of 
 Science had commenced their meetings in London ; and 
 the meetings at Oxford during the Commonwealth were 
 but a continuation and development of the former; but 
 they were so great a development that Bishop Sprat 1 
 
 1 History of the Eoyal Society. 
 O 2
 
 196 PERIOD OF THE COMMONWEALTH. [CHAP. 
 
 considered that the Royal Society took its rise from them. 
 All Souls was the main home and centre of this move- 
 ment, as will appear from the following passage in Wood : 
 
 ' In this yeare, 1655, Arth, Tillyard, apothecary and great 
 royallist, sold coffey publicly in his house against All Soules 
 Coll. He was encouraged so to do by some royallists, now 
 living in Oxon, and by others, who esteem'd themselves either 
 virtuosi or wits ; of which the chiefest number were of Alls. 
 Coll., as Peter Pett, Thorn. Millington (afterwards an eminent 
 physitian and a knight), Tim. Baldwin, Christop. Wren, 
 George Castle, Will. Bull, &c. There were others also, as 
 Job.. Lamphire, a physician lately ejected from New Coll., 
 who was sometimes the natural droll of the company, the 
 two Wrens, sojournors in Oxon, Matthew and Thomas, sons 
 of Dr. Wren, bishop of Ely, &C. 1 ' 
 
 In order that we may be able to pursue without inter- 
 ruption the history of the relations between All Souls and 
 the new Visitors, which forms the main thread of this 
 chapter, let us glance for a moment at the condition in 
 which Sheldon found himself during the Commonwealth ; 
 and this will lead us to a further notice of Jeremy Taylor. 
 
 After an imprisonment of several months, during which 
 an attempt was made to remove him to Wallingford Castle 
 ('since the continuance of Dr. Sheldon in prison might be 
 of dangerous consequence in regard to the great resort of 
 persons to him 2 '), but which failed from the Governor re- 
 fusing to receive him, we find that on September 28, 1648, 
 he was asked by the Visitors ' where hee intended to reside. 
 And having signified his humble desire contained in this 
 enclosed paper under his hand ' (which is not given), ... it is 
 officially noted that ' Dr. Sheldon having divers business 
 committed to his trust, may follow those businesses in any 
 place except within five miles of the Universitie of Oxford 
 or in the Isle of Wight ' (where the King was at that time 
 
 1 Life, sub aim. 1655, 1663. 
 
 2 Wood's Annals, p. 589.
 
 xr.] SHELDON SET FREE. 197 
 
 imprisoned, and begging that Sheldon might be sent to him), 
 Mr. Richard Newdigate of Gray's Inn ' undertaking for his 
 appearance ' if sent for. He is now ' released of his confine- 
 ment, and all restraint by any order or warrant of the 
 Visitors is hereby taken off.' 
 
 But he was not left long in suspense as to his position ; 
 for immediately following the above entry is an order to 
 ' Lieutenant-Colonel Kelsay, Governor of Oxon,' to this 
 effect : 
 
 ' Whereas Dr. Sheldon, since his removeall from All Soules 
 Colledg, hath taken some houses which belong to the said 
 Colledg without the consent of the Bursar or leave from 
 Dr. Palmer, the Warden of the Colledg aforesaid, these are 
 to desire you to send some of your officers to seize the houses 
 and returne them to the present Bursars for the service of 
 the Colledg.' Yet immediately under this order, in a different 
 hand, two months later, we find the following : ' 1 8 Dec r , 
 1648 ; ordered that the order for seizing the houses from 
 Dr. Sheldon is hereby reversed and discharged by and with 
 the consent of Dr. Palmer, Warden of All Soules Colledge. 5 
 
 There is no clue to the manner in which this change was 
 effected. It is a matter of very slight consequence, but it 
 looks like a creditable circumstance in the history of the 
 College that even an ejected Warden should have interest 
 made in his favour to prevent his being disturbed in the 
 occupation of College property now in the undisputed pos- 
 session of his enemies 1 . 
 
 We find but few details as to the life of Sheldon from 
 this time till the Restoration. It were to be wished we 
 knew more. Like Taylor, he became a central figure round 
 which the persecuted Royalists rallied, but with his usual 
 good sense he contrived to escape observation when to be 
 observed was to ruin his chances of usefulness In his 
 ' retirement to his friends in Staffordshire, Nottingham- 
 
 1 Vis. Reg. pp. 204, 218.
 
 198 PERIOD OF THE COMMONWEALTH. [CHAP. 
 
 shire and Derbyshire he was constantly transmitting moneys 
 to the exiled King from his own purse and from others 
 which he made use of 1 / In Gary's 'Memorials of the 
 Civil War 2 ' will be found many indications of the assistance 
 he rendered to the distressed members of his party, such 
 as Bishop Wren, and of the respect paid to his opinion 
 by the chief dignitaries of the Church, many of whom 
 beg him to resolve their doubts on matters affecting 
 politics and religion. By the following letters to him from 
 Jeremy Taylor, in return for pecuniary help and literary 
 assistance, we may trace his generous hand and judicious 
 spirit. 
 
 Between these two good men there had been, it is sup- 
 posed, some coolness at All Souls, occasioned, as Bishop 
 Heber conjectures, by Sheldon's opposition to Laud's ap- 
 pointment of Taylor to the Fellowship 3 ; and he gives as 
 the reason for his suppositions, some expressions in a letter 
 from Taylor which he published 4 . This may be so ; but 
 the discovery of another letter from Taylor to Sheldon, of 
 a date earlier by some years 5 , seems to remove the cause 
 of disagreement, whatever it was, to a later period ; and on 
 the whole it seems probable that Heber's guess is wrong. 
 We give this second letter, which has not yet been printed, 
 first. 
 
 ' Sir, I received your most affectionate and charitable letter 
 and acquittance, and am satisfied because you are pleased to be 
 so, resolving to take up the remaining portion of the debt at 
 the great Audit and accounts of charity ; but, Sir, though (as 
 I have reason for it) I am highly sensible of this great 
 favour, yet I do more value it that you are pleased to give 
 me a portion in your prayers. Sir, I have now sent to 
 the press, but first to my Lord Bishop of Salisbury ' [Brian 
 Duppa] ' to be perused, a discourse of the Real Presence 
 
 1 Wood. 2 e. g. vol. i. pp. 332, 4, 5, 6. 
 
 3 Heber's Life of Taylor, p. xix. 4 Ibid. p. xlix. 
 6 Tanner MSS. vol. 52. fol. 7.
 
 XL] SHELDON AND JEREMY TAYLOR. 199 
 
 occasioned by my conference with a Jesuit in these parts. 
 It hath passed all the Welch censure I could well obtain for 
 it, and I have put so much care and industry upon the 
 question as I could. Its greatest infelicity is it cannot find 
 your leisure and opportunity to peruse, but when it is out 
 I am confident it will find your charity, because I know 
 your charity to me hath a great part in your censures con- 
 cerning- me and mine. Dear Sir, I am with the deepest 
 resentments of the world and for the greatest reasons, your 
 most obliged and most affectionate friend and hearty servant 
 JEREMY TAYLOR. April n, 1653. 
 
 ' To my worthiest friend Dr. Gilbert Sheldon present these 
 with speed/ 
 
 The other letter, printed by Heber, is of the end of the 
 year 1655, and is as follows; 
 
 ' Dear Sir, I received yours dated November 5, in which 
 I find a continued and enlarged expression of that kindness 
 with w r hich you have always assisted my condition and pro- 
 moted my interest. Two debts you are pleased to forgive me; 
 one of money, the other of unkindness. I thank you for 
 both ; but this latter debt was contracted when I understood 
 not you, and less understood myself ; but I dare say there was 
 nothing in it but folly and imprudence. But I will not do it 
 so much favour as to excuse it. If it was displeasing to you 
 then, it is much more to mee now that I know of it.' He goes 
 on to thank him ' for the prudent and friendly advice you were 
 pleased to give me in your other letter relating to my great 
 undertaking in " Cases of Conscience." ... I will strictly 
 observe your caution. Sir, though it hath always been my 
 fortune to be an obliged person to you, and I now have less 
 hope than ever of being free from the great variety of your 
 endearments, yet I beg of you to add this favour ; to think 
 that I am all that to you which you can wish, save only 
 that I cannot express how much I love and how much I 
 honour you.' 
 
 Putting these two letters together it would certainly 
 appear that the ' unkindness ' for which Taylor reproaches 
 himself in the second letter must have occurred since the 
 first was written. Such a ' debt ' could hardly have been 
 running on after the ' affectionate and charitable letter and
 
 200 PERIOD OF THE COMMONWEALTH. [CHAP. 
 
 acquittance ' received from Sheldon long before. There must 
 have been some temporary estrangement between 1653 and 
 1655? occasioned perhaps by pecuniary difficulties. The 
 first letter does indeed refer to ' charitable censures of me 
 and mine ; ' but this does not look like the days of All 
 Souls so long passed away, the period of Taylor's bachelor 
 life. 
 
 One further notice of Sheldon will conclude what we have 
 to say of him before the Restoration. It is in connection with 
 the return of Charles the Second, in which he was taking, as 
 might be expected, an active part. In a letter to a nobleman, 
 preserved by Clarendon, he begs his friend to convey to Lord 
 Clarendon the concern he feels at the reports which reach him 
 from Charles's Court. It is within a few days of the happy 
 event which had all but come at last, yet so suddenly and 
 unexpectedly. He hears that ' the King doth give places to 
 every one almost that is recommended to him, whether they 
 deserve it or no, some of which places, they say, were given 
 to others before 1 .' It would have been well for England had 
 this friendly warning received attention. 
 
 A distinguished Fellow of All Souls must here be men- 
 tioned who had done what he could to stem the tide of 
 revolution in his own way, was expelled in 1648 without any 
 ceremony, and lived to become a knight and Master of 
 Requests in the days of the Restoration. Sir John Birken- 
 head, who had been Reader in Moral Philosophy at Oxford, 
 must be considered one of the earliest newspaper writers, or 
 at any rate a precursor of such. He wrote with great wit 
 and spirit Mercurius Aulicus as early as 1642, a paper which 
 appeared from time to time in the Royalist cause : Heylin 
 conducted the paper at a later date, but in inferior style. 
 After the Restoration ' the Loyal Poet ' was well known as 
 an active pamphleteer. The College sent forth also another 
 
 1 Clarendon State Papers, iii. 736.
 
 XL] BIRKENHEAD AND NEEDHAM. 201 
 
 notorious writer in this age, but his character, making all 
 allowance for Wood's prejudices, does not stand high. March- 
 mont Needham was an All Souls Master of Arts, having been 
 a Chorister, but not a Fellow. He developed great talent in 
 ephemeral literature, changing sides however with the most 
 unblushing readiness. This was not held to be pardonable 
 by his contemporaries ; for opinions were matters of life and 
 death in that age, and secrets fell into the possession of men 
 who in changing sides too often became traitors. Wood 
 calls him ' that most seditious, mutable and railing author.' 
 Aubrey *, however, in a letter to Wood pronounces Mercurius 
 Pragmaticus to be ' full of wit and good remarques of those 
 days ; ' and Thorpe 2 tells Wood that Needham ' obtained a 
 pardon after the Restoration, and practised physic in London 
 the last years of his life with some reputation/ 
 
 We now return to the government of the University, and 
 especially of All Souls, by the new Visitors. They set out 
 with all the zeal of root-and-branch reformers, and they 
 effected much, if not all they intended. They had a very 
 serious task before them, even with the example of Cambridge 
 for their guidance, that University having long been reduced 
 to the new model ; but their difficulties were increased by the 
 dissensions which rapidly sprang up between themselves and 
 the London ' Committee for Reformation of the University.' 
 Both claimed, amongst other things, the appointment to 
 Fellowships ; and All Souls, us usual, seems to have supplied 
 the main bone of contention. The London Committee in- 
 cluded certain Independents within its body, and these of 
 course hated the Presbyterian Visitors as much as they did 
 the Church. Long before the -end, affairs had been almost 
 brought to a dead lock. 
 
 We must by no means follow Wood in his bitter deprecia- 
 tion of the work done by these authorities. He of course gives 
 
 1 Wood's MS. Letters, Bodl. Lib. 2 Ibid.
 
 202 PERIOD OF THE COMMONWEALTH. [CHAP. 
 
 them no quarter. He scoffs at their efforts to introduce order 
 among the motley group of new Fellows, which he calls a 
 ' reform of reformation,' and at their plan, when they began 
 to allow elections, of requiring a testimonial of ' godliness and 
 integrity' to be submitted to themselves beforehand. But 
 the records of All Souls enable us to say a good deal in their 
 favour ; and at this distance of time we can make allowance 
 for a line of general disciplinary conduct which was and is 
 foreign to the ancient customs of the Church and the Uni- 
 versity. The Puritan authorities were forced to use such 
 weapons as were familiar to them ; and, as to the practical 
 result, there is something in Neal's remark that Clarendon has 
 himself supplied an answer to detractors when he dilates on 
 the fund of recuperative power possessed by the Universities, 
 as shewn by the way in which religion and learning still per- 
 tinaciously flourished there in spite of the ejection of all the 
 best elements of their life. It is also true that many who 
 afterwards became the most distinguished ornaments of the 
 Church received their first training during this period. We 
 will give a specimen or two of the methods of the Visitors 
 before we trace the gradual process of their failure and the 
 dissolution of their authority. 
 
 As far as the general Orders addressed to the University are 
 concerned it is scarcely possible to conceive anything more 
 stringent than the following : 
 
 ' July 20, 1649. Wee hereby require the severall Heads 
 and Governors of Colledges and Halls in this Universitie of 
 Oxon that they cause either the Greeke or Latine to be 
 strictly and constantly exercised and spoken in their familiar 
 discourse within the said severall Colledges and Halls respec- 
 tively ; and that no other language be spoken by any fellow, 
 scholar or student whatsoever, and to cause this order to be 
 performed and executed from time to time.' 
 
 The reason for this order is then given as follows : 
 
 ' The complaint made by divers learned men of the defect
 
 XL] THE PARLIAMENTARY VISITORS. 203 
 
 that English scholars labor under both in their primale and 
 home exercises and in their publique discourses with fforagners 
 by their speaking English in their several Colledges and 
 Halls 1 .' 
 
 This order, as might be expected, has to be repeated 
 more than once. Again, stringent orders are to be found 
 in the Register requiring ' all Masters of Arts and Bachelors 
 to be present at all religious exercises, and in particular 
 the Prayers Morning and Evening in them ' [i. e. the 
 Directory] ' observed and appointed 2 .' Also at the weekly 
 catechizing in every College and Hall on Saturdays between 
 five and six in the afternoon, to be performed by the Head 
 of the House, ' all Undergraduates are to attend, in the 
 place appointed, to be instructed 3 / These gentlemen are 
 also to give an account of the sermons they had heard 4 ; 
 an order which Wood says ' was obeyed by all Colleges 
 except one or two ; Oriel, I think, did not obey this order 5 .' 
 
 ' The whirligig of time has brought about its revenges ; ' 
 Oriel alone of all Oxford Colleges was distinguished by the 
 observance of this custom in modern times. 
 
 To come to the communications especially addressed to 
 All Souls; the letters of the Visitors in 1650 and 1651 
 may be abstracted thus. On June 15 of the former year 
 the Visitors are informed that there is a 'great neglect of 
 repairing unto and attending the Worship of God in the 
 Chapel of All Souls;' and they order the Subwarden, the 
 Warden being absent on attendance in Parliament, to look 
 to it. They also complain that the proper scholastic exer- 
 cises are not performed, and that neglect is excused on the 
 ground of the Warden's absence. Therefore, the College 
 being so much out of order they decide that the Fellows 
 are not fit to elect in the statutable way, and announce 
 
 1 Vis. Keg. p. 265. 2 Ibid. p. 442. 3 Ibid. p. 462. 
 
 * Ibid. pp. 395, 437. 5 Annals, p. 654.
 
 204 PERIOD OF THE COMMONWEALTH. [CHAP. 
 
 that they shall put in all the Fellows themselves as vacan- 
 cies arise and assign them their College offices. This they 
 accordingly proceed to do on several occasions ; a method 
 of government not promising for the future. With a 
 non-resident Warden and a new body of Fellows it may 
 have seemed necessary; but it was not wise. The tradi- 
 tions of self-government spoke from the very walls. Old 
 Martin Aylworth and his colleagues of the old regime did 
 not mean exactly this when they brought their consciences 
 into a fit frame for submitting to the Parliamentary Visi- 
 tation. 
 
 Hence an opposition on the part of the College which 
 found various channels for expression. The Warden him- 
 self did not admire being reckoned as nobody. His sym- 
 pathies were with the London Committee for Reformation, 
 and not with the Visitors ; and he was a friend of Oliver 
 Cromwell. When released from his Parliamentary duties, 
 and able to attend to his Oxford office, he becomes the 
 spokesman of a sub-delegacy which was appointed by the 
 malcontent portion of the reformed University for the 
 purpose of limiting the power of the Visitors. This was in 
 1654. Wood tells us that he 'laid open the matter ex- 
 cellently well ;' and the remonstrance had a considerable 
 effect ; for the Visitors were already divided among them- 
 selves as well as opposed from London. 
 
 As early as 1650 the London Committee express their own 
 particular dissatisfaction with the proceedings of the Fellows 
 of the College. When requiring an account of the circum- 
 stances under which ' Mr. Coventrie,' the future Secretary of 
 State, retained his Fellowship though a ' delinquent' (and a 
 'delinquent' of the blackest hue, for he had been absent 
 on the King's service nine years), the College replied that it 
 'can give no account thereof in regard the Colledge books 
 wherein leave for absence is entered cannot be found.' 
 Here we may note that the regular ' Colledge book ' for
 
 XL] QUARRELS BETWEEN REFORMERS. 205 
 
 such entries was very conveniently absent at this moment, 
 inasmuch as there are entries in it all through the period 
 of the Commonwealth; but perhaps the reference is to 
 some other book then existing-. The Visitors make short 
 work of this matter, and the name of the delinquent is 
 forthwith erased 1 . One extract from this book, of 1650, 
 may find a place here in reference to the state of the 
 College affairs. A tenant, Dr. Steed, has ' an easy fine by 
 reason of his extraordinary respect shewed to the College 
 these troublous times in paying all his rents fully and 
 well without any deduction for taxes, and some rents 
 twice both to the Parliament and also to the Collee-e/ 
 
 O 
 
 One can hardly imagine that such model tenants were 
 numerous. 
 
 So far both Parliamentary authorities were agreed as 
 against the College. But soon afterwards most unpleasant 
 letters pass between them with reference to the question 
 of filling up Dr. Wainwright's vacancy, when his name, 
 like Coventry's, is erased from the College books. The 
 Committee, not choosing that all the patronage should be 
 dispensed from Oxford, put in their own man, Brice ; 
 while the Visitors, who did not take the same view of 
 the case, asserting that the London body was only a Com- 
 mittee of Appeal-, put in a certain Osbourne. The Visitors, 
 however, soon discover where might lay, if not right, and 
 propose a happy expedient. They are ' credibly informed 
 by some members ' of the College that Mr. Germy, a 
 Fellow of their own appointment, is married, ' and the 
 gentleman is so ingeniouse as that hee will not deny it;' 
 and for his place they propose Mr. Brice, an arrangement 
 which produces harmony at last. The London Committee 
 did not care much how it was d6ne so long as their 
 nominee got a place. Wood has not shewn here quite all 
 
 1 Vis. Keg. pp. 313, 329. 2 Ibid. p. 340.
 
 206 PERIOD OF THE COMMONWEALTH. [CHAP. 
 
 his usual care in placing the name of 'Taylor' in brackets 
 after that of the above ' Germy.' He misread the word 
 for ' Jeremy,' and concluded it was the celebrated divine ; 
 whereas Taylor had vacated his Fellowship many years 
 previously to the Visitatorial sera, and Germy's appointment 
 had occurred not long before this domestic struggle between 
 the reformers. 
 
 Once more we find the history of Oxford, and of All Souls 
 as one of its Colleges, faithfully reflecting that of England 
 in the change which took place as to the election of Fellows 
 in 1653. The Bump Parliament had been at last dissolved, 
 and with it expired the Commission of the Visitors. Their 
 Register ceases for several weeks. It opens again with a 
 fresh Commission from ' Lord General Cromwell ; ' and one 
 important change is now observable, which we may certainly 
 connect with the rapid elevation of the extraordinary man 
 who was about immediately to become ' Protector,' and who 
 would, so soon after that, have gladly accepted the title of 
 King if he could have found any support amongst his friends. 
 He had now triumphed over all his enemies, domestic and 
 foreign. The victory of his arms over the Dutch had raised 
 his fame to the highest pitch. As Chancellor of the Uni- 
 versity, guided in all probability by his friend Palmer, he 
 would now trust those bodies as Kings had trusted them. 
 The Colleges should elect their own Fellows under certain 
 conditions which might afford a sufficient protection against 
 abuse. 
 
 Wadham receives the first permission of this sort. All 
 Souls' Day is close at hand ; on that day a free election takes 
 place once more after an interval of seven years, and amongst 
 the first batch elected at All Souls was, as we have seen, 
 Christopher Wren. On that very day an order is issued that 
 ' no scholar be eligible or admittible into any place of a Pro- 
 bationer, Fellow or Chaplain, without a Testimonial from 
 four persons known to the Visitors of approved godliness and
 
 xi.] WREN'S ELECTION. 207 
 
 integrity, provided they be not electors/ The candidate is 
 himself to be certified as c truly godly, studious, and for his 
 standing in the University of good proficiency in learning.' 
 On the same day appears an order granting permission to 
 Wren and three other candidates to stand, and it must 
 have been drawn up with haste to save the election on All 
 Souls' Day ; for some informality in this the first use of the 
 new form has occurred which is condoned with alacrity by 
 the Visitors. Against the name of Wren are marked, in 
 the All Souls book, the words, ' Professor of Astronomy/ 
 'Wilts/ the post he soon came to occupy, the county of 
 his birth. The exclusive reign of the intruders, unmarked 
 (in the Records of the College) by any distinction, is at 
 an end. 
 
 A point of some slight interest occurs in this election of 
 Wren, which is only worth notice because everything con- 
 cerning so great a man is important, and because it finds 
 no place in his biographies, which do indeed, as a matter 
 of fact, scarcely bestow any attention whatever on that 
 eight years' intimate connection with All Souls, as Fellow, 
 of which the College is justly proud. As we cannot supply 
 much, let us make the most of that little. As regards the 
 interior history of the College the point was by no means 
 of small importance. 
 
 In a letter from Warden Jeames to Archbishop Sancroffc 
 in 1 68 1 l occurs the following passage : 
 
 ' I am told by Dr. Wallis that in the times of usurpation 
 whilst I was turned out and banished from the College there 
 was one Mr. Heron of Wadham College chose by a majority 
 into Dr. Greaves his place, but Sir Christopher Wren was chose 
 by Dr. Palmer, the then Warden, and confirmed by the 
 power that then was, there being no Archbishop ; J and he 
 goes on to state that ' Heron by a surprisal got a Mandamus 
 and forced the Warden with it, but there being an error in 
 
 1 Tanner MSS. vol. 340.
 
 208 PERIOD OF THE COMMONWEALTH. [CHAP. 
 
 it ... it was nulled, and he could never get out another 
 Mandamus.' 
 
 He died soon afterwards. This exercise of the Warden's 
 power of Veto in refusing- the nominee of the Fellows and 
 obtaining the Fellowship for his own nominee by means of 
 a devolution to the Visitors, was much quoted in the subse- 
 quent College controversies, and a Case founded upon it 
 was laid before the celebrated Maynard. This was his 
 Opinion : 
 
 ' (i) I conceive that there can be no election without the 
 Warden's assent to the elected, as appears by the words "per 
 ipsum et majorem partem Sociorum," &c. So y* he must be 
 assenting, and after y 6 scrutiny of y e major part of the 
 Fellows, " ipse assumat," &c. (2) I conceive the Statutes 
 work nothing in the case.' . . . 
 
 ' MAYNARD.' 
 
 What was the cause of Heron's being preferred to Wren ? 
 It could hardly be that ' corrupt elections' had already begun, 
 though we shall see that in two or three years the Fellows 
 of the Puritan school had learnt the old lesson with sur- 
 prising quickness. Perhaps the name of such a Royalist 
 family as Wren's was anything but popular with the Fellows. 
 It is much to Palmer's credit that he should have perceived 
 the extraordinary merit of the rising genius, and, if the in- 
 fluences which rejected him were ' corrupt/ to the credit of 
 the Visitors that they should have confirmed his choice. 
 Wren in his old age (in 1710) was requested to give infor- 
 mation on this subject. Sixty-seven years had passed since 
 his election, and he had quite forgotten that he came in by 
 the exercise of the Warden's Veto. Against conclusive evi- 
 dence from numerous other quarters he asserted his belief 
 that ' the Warden never claimed a negative vote in elections, 
 but that they were always concluded and determined by a 
 majority of Fellows.' 
 
 The struggle between the College and the Visitors soon
 
 XL] PURITAN FELLOWS CORRUPT. 209 
 
 recommences. Even in August, 1654, the latter body 
 exercise a power which was justifiable under the old Statutes, 
 but which it would have been discreet, so very soon after 
 liberty of election had been granted, to have waived. They 
 discover that the place of Colonel Zanchy was ' voyd at the 
 time of the last election,' and that it was ' not filled up within 
 the time limited in the Statutes.' Accordingly, instead of 
 waiting till next All Souls' Day, they appoint one Robert 
 King into his place. This was of itself enough to set the 
 College on the track of opposition. It was not trusted. 
 In 1657 we find the Visitors exercising the ancient function 
 of the regular Visitor of the College in appointing to offices 
 which had not been filled up. The storm now burst ; and a 
 regular war begins. As far as we can judge by hearing only 
 one side, the College had given just cause of complaint. 
 The old system of corruption is alleged to have reappeared 
 under the new regime as soon as ever the old privileges were 
 regranted. As the Visitors remark, there was no want of 
 tutors, even though there was but a little of the old leaven 
 left. The Puritans in short are accused of exactly the same 
 offence as the Cavaliers ; nor will this surprise us when we 
 reflect on the state of affairs in 1657, and observe how much 
 reason there was why the intruded Fellows should scent the 
 possibility of a change of wind. They might naturally prefer 
 some equivalent for a voluntary resignation to no equivalent 
 at all for one which they saw might very soon be compulsory. 
 All Souls is not the only, though apparently the chief 
 offender. It was determined to put a stop to the whole thing 
 in a summary manner. 
 
 On April 23, 1657, was published a most stringent code 
 of regulations for elections in all Colleges ; and at the same 
 time a special set for the benefit of New College and All 
 Souls. These last were as minute and apparently as difficult 
 to evade as those of any former Visitor : they seem to have 
 been just as resolutely and successfully evaded. At the very
 
 210 PERIOD OF THE COMMONWEALTH. [CHAP. 
 
 next election the Visitors are informed of the infraction of 
 their code, ' forbid the Warden and Fellows from any further 
 procedure whatsoever in reference to the said election/ and 
 enter the following statement of the case J , which we must 
 give in spite of its length: 
 
 ' (i) The Colledg of Alsoules in Oxon hath for a long 
 season to the dishonor of the University suffered under a 
 common reputation of corruption in the buying and selling 
 of ffellowships. (2) Besides the notoriety of sundry particular 
 instances, the constant custome and practice of resignations 
 so ordered that ordinarily none so much as standeth for a 
 ffellowship (unlesse there happen to be a dead place) who 
 hath not the benefit of a resignation from some that leave 
 the society ; and the perpetual choice of them who have 
 such Resignations doth confirme that reputation, the Resigna- 
 tion being not made before the evening next before the 
 Election, whereby none know what places will be voyd. (3) 
 The major part of if ell owes having an intrest in keeping 
 up this corruption agreeing together still to chuse him or 
 them who have obtayned Resignations, expecting the same 
 compliance from others when they come by any means to 
 leave the Colledge, it is not possible for the Warden and 
 the rest of the ffellows that desire reformation to prevent 
 this corrupt practice ; things being carried amongst them 
 by a plurality of suffrages. (4) Some of the leaders in and 
 chief contenders for this way of procedure are some ffellows 
 that were for the non-submission to the Reformation formerly 
 divested of all power of giving their suffrage in any Colledg 
 affairs. (5) Wee shall not neede to say what unmeete persons 
 are brought in to that society by this means ; the maine dore 
 of their entrance being only the obtayning the assistance 
 of the Resigners. (6) To prevent this abuse, Orders and 
 Injunctions have been made by the Visitors, locall and 
 extraordinary in severall seasons, with the prescription of 
 oaths to that purpose, which yet have had no other effect 
 (because of the severall meanes of bargaining invented to 
 evade them) than, as wee feare, to add perjury to the other 
 abuse and corruptions. (7) Not long after the election in 
 the year 1656 it pleased God to load and trouble the 
 conscience of one Mr. Egerton who was then chosen into the 
 Colledg ; among other things this added to his perplexity 
 
 1 Vis. Reg. p. 456.
 
 XL] VISITORS REPORT TO CROMWELL. 211 
 
 that according to the custom hee had given here 150" for 
 the Resignation whereby he obtayned his ^fellowship. The 
 Lord persuing his worke of grace upon his heart, he makes 
 acknowledgment of that corruption, and resigns his ffellow- 
 ship unto the Colledg, as that which he could not hould 
 upon that {foundation after hee had borne an open testimony 
 against that wicked practice, and other abuses against some 
 of the ffellows of that society. (8) Notwithstanding this 
 testimony from heaven against that corrupt practice and 
 bringing to light by the hand of God, the ffellowes this 
 present yeare proceed to a new Election in the same way 
 as formerly ; and in all probability with the same corruption. 
 And whereas the Warden with some of the godly and honest 
 ffellowes agreed that they would chuse Mr. Egerton now 
 againe that he might come in on a cleare accompt, seeing he 
 was likely to be an eminently useful member of that society, 
 not only the major part did refuse him, but also the Sub- 
 warden of the Colledg made a speech publiquely at the 
 Election against him, desiring the Warden to take some 
 course to proceed against him to convict him as one that 
 had brought a scandall on the Colledg. (9) Whereas there 
 were Injunctions and Orders sent unto them by the Visitors 
 drawn up with the advise of most of the Heades of Houses 
 and others in the University, and afterwards confirmed by 
 the Visitors for the preventing this scandalous corruption, 
 they wholly laid them aside, not once taking them into 
 consideration.' 
 
 Next follows a formal avoidance of the election, and then, 
 on November 16, the following letter to Cromwell : 
 
 ' Wee your Highnesse Visitors of the University of Oxon 
 having had occasion to consider and determine a businesse of 
 great importance to the Reformation of this place in reference 
 to a late Election of ffellows at AllSouls College, have made 
 bould humbly to represent unto your Highnesse in these 
 papers the whole affaire with our procedure thereon, and the 
 reasons thereof; humbly craving your Highnesse further con- 
 firmation of our Orders if in your wisdome you shall judg it 
 meete so to doe. 
 
 ' Your Highnesse humble and faithful servants, 
 
 Jo. CONANT. THO. GOODWIN. 
 
 CHRISTOPH. ROGERS. ROB. HARRIS. 
 
 HEN. WILKINSON. TH. OWEN. 
 
 FRAN. HOWELL. JA. BARON.'
 
 212 PERIOD OF THE COMMONWEALTH. [CHAP. 
 
 One remark may interrupt our narrative. Egerton's name 
 does not appear on the list of Fellows. It must have been, 
 cancelled by the College on his resignation. 
 
 To the above letter Cromwell and his Council replied on 
 November 27, 1657 : 
 
 ' Gentlemen, His Highnesse and the Councill have taken 
 consideration of the papers presented from you with your 
 letter to his Highnesse, wherein you give an account of some 
 proceedings of yours as Visitors of that Universitie, and doe 
 take notice of your great care and diligence therein, and like- 
 wise recommend unto you the prosecution of that businesse in 
 discharge of your trust according to the powers given by the 
 ordinance of his Highnesse and the Councell, and since con- 
 firmed by Parliament, to doe therein as may most conduce to 
 the Reformation of the said Universitie in generall, and in 
 particular of AlSoules colledg ; wherein you may be well 
 assured of all due encouragement and countenance from his 
 Highnesse and the Councell. 
 
 ' Signed in the name and by order of his Highnesse and 
 the Councell. 
 
 ' HEN. LAWRENCE, Preset.' 
 
 Other Orders of the Visitors follow, confirming the pre- 
 vious avoidance of the election, after a summons to the 
 rejected Fellows to appear, which they ignore. An Appeal is 
 then made by these gentlemen to Cromwell himself, who 
 refers it to ' the Lord Richard Cromwell, Chancellor of the 
 said University, and to the Lord Fiennes, Lord Commissioner 
 of the Great Seale, to be reported to his Highnesse ; ' and the 
 Visitors fire their last shot in the following words : 
 
 ' Whereas the Statutes of your Colledg are to be produced 
 in the said businesse, wee doe therefore hereby require you to 
 deliver the same to our messenger to be carried up to London 
 on the occasion. Feb. ai, 165!-.' 
 
 Here the Register most significantly comes to a dead stop. 
 With the exception of two merely formal orders concerning 
 another College, these are the last words of the Visitors. 
 
 It was high time. The end was at hand. At the be-
 
 XL] CROMWELL AND ALL SOULS. 213 
 
 ginning of this very month ' his Highnesse ' had dissolved his 
 fourth Parliament in blind, hopeless wrath. An invasion was 
 impending ; his troops were without pay ; Ormond was in 
 London organising a revolt. The tough spirit of the great 
 Protector was breaking under the dread of assassination with 
 which he was now openly threatened. In a few months more 
 he had passed away. It is not surprising that the Visitors 
 of Oxford University pass away also a little before him, 
 leaving ' the Reform of the Reformation ' to other hands. 
 It may be a question whether the alleged obstinate adherence 
 of All Souls to its custom of corrupt elections, which thus, 
 as far as we know, flitted across the soul of Cromwell as 
 his last trouble from Oxford, forms any great matter for 
 complacent reflection; but it is at least a curious fact, 
 worth stating. It is scarcely necessary to add that we hear 
 no more of the Appeal. In justice to the members of the 
 College we must again repeat that we ought to remember 
 that we have not heard their case. 
 
 Before the next scene opens at All Souls we find the stage 
 cleared in a very complete manner. The Pseudo-Gustos sur- 
 vives the mighty Protector but a short time. We are left to 
 our imagination as to the hopes and fears, the struggles and 
 precautions which no doubt agitated him and his Society 
 during the anxious interval which preceded the Restoration ; 
 but he, like so many actors in convulsive periods, was pre- 
 maturely worn out. He lived just long enough to experience 
 the vicissitudes of fortune. On February 15, i6|-, affairs had 
 advanced very far towards a solution of the difficulties which 
 beset the nation. On that day there was ' great rejoycing in 
 Oxford for the news that then was brought that there should 
 be a free Parliament. The bells rang and bonfiers were made, 
 and some rumps and tayles of sheep were flung into a bonfier 
 at Queen's College gate.' Palmer lay a-dying in his lodgings 
 at All Souls hard by. He had been a member of the Rump 
 Parliament, and was therefore specially obnoxious to the
 
 214 PERIOD OF THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 heedless mob. They did not forbear to throw into his win- 
 dows the vulgar symbols of the Government under which 
 they had so long groaned 1 . A very few days later he 
 breathed his last (March 4). With him we close the troubled 
 period of the Commonwealth. 
 
 1 Wood's Life.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ^11 Souls at % $Ustoraii0tt. 
 1660- 1667. 
 
 The Kestoration ; how felt at Oxford and All Souls Sheldon 
 as Bishop of London Duppa's letter to him Recovery of 
 the Vow of Charles the First Effects on Charles the Second 
 Sheldon as Primate Death of Duppa ; and of Jeremy 
 Taylor Sheldonian Theatre Account of Wren First 
 ' restoration ' of the College Chapel. 
 
 THE graphic account given by Clarendon of the circum- 
 stances attending the Restoration forms the chief basis of 
 our general knowledge respecting the exuberant rejoicings of 
 the people of England on that occasion. Historians do little 
 more than quote the eloquent passages of the narrative of one 
 who was also a chief actor in that famous scene. With him 
 we accompany the long-exiled Prince to Dover ; with him we 
 join the joyous Thanksgiving Service at Canterbury Cathedral, 
 with him we find the road from Rochester to London ' so full 
 of people and acclamations as if the whole people had been 
 gathered there ; ' with him we join the procession from the 
 Tower, so long that it extends into Cheapside, and witness the 
 two Houses of Parliament on their knees, ' casting themselves 
 at the King's feet with all vows of affection and fidelity to the 
 world's end : ' with him we hear the witty monarch ' say
 
 216 ALL SOULS AT THE RESTORATION. [CHAP. 
 
 smilingly to those about him " he doubted it had been his 
 own fault he had been absent so long- ; for he saw nobody who 
 did not protest he had ever wished for his return." ' But the 
 quaint notice given by Wood of the change of affairs at 
 Oxford, of which he was an enthusiastic eye-witness, is not 
 so generally known, and it may introduce us to the new 
 state of affairs at All Souls : 
 
 "The scene of all things is now changed, and alteration 
 made in the countenances, actions, manners, and words of 
 all men. Those that for these twelve years last past had 
 governed and carried all things in a manner at their pleasure 
 looked discontented, plucked their hats over their eyes, and 
 were much perplexed, foreseeing that their being here must 
 inevitably vanish. Those that had laid under a cloud for 
 several years behind appear with cheerful looks, while others 
 that had then flourished drooped away or withdrew them- 
 selves privately. . . . The common people hugged themselves 
 up with the thoughts of a King, and of renewing their good 
 old cause, enjoy their sports, especially May games, more this 
 year than hath been since, chiefly in opposition to Presby- 
 terians and Fanatics, who had shewed great anger before 
 towards them. . . . The Common Prayer-book and Surplice 
 were restored in every Church and Chapel, and the Service 
 that had been lately practised, viz., a Psalm or two, two 
 Chapters, and a Prayer of the priest's own making, with a 
 little more, laid aside. All tokens of monarchy that were 
 lately defaced or obscured in the University were also re- 
 stored or new furbished over, and whatsoever was as yet fit 
 to be introduced many did not spare to effect, and some to 
 outrun and overdo the law before the King and Parliament 
 had commanded or put it in force V 
 
 That greater moderation was shewn in the resettlement 
 of the University than is sometimes supposed may be gathered 
 from the fact that eight at least of the new Commissioners 
 were men who had submitted to the Parliamentary Visitation, 
 and held places of authority during the Commonwealth. Of 
 these Baldwin, a Fellow of All Souls, was one. Of those 
 
 1 Wood's Annals, vol. ii. Part ii. sub an. 1660.
 
 xii.] EFFECTS OF THE CHANGE. 217 
 
 members of the University who had been put into Fellow- 
 ships and other places by the late Visitors, none were 
 expelled beyond that small proportion whose room was re- 
 quired for those that remained of the old ejected Royalists. 
 
 'These that they restored, whether Fellows, Scholars, 
 
 servants, &c., did not amount to the sixth part of those 
 
 ejected [in] 1648 and after; they being either dead, or 
 married, or had changed their religion 1 .' 
 
 Of those ejected in their turn at the Restoration some, who 
 were not ' factious and unfit to make Collegiates/ had pro- 
 vision made for them, if they would accept it, as Chaplains 
 and Clerks. At All Souls a large proportion kept their 
 places ; to which a reference is made in a letter from Charles 
 the Second to the College, as will be hereafter noticed 2 . 
 
 Such violent flux and reflux could not, however, but be 
 most prejudicial for a time to the real work of the University. 
 It was a year at least before it settled down. 
 
 ' The Scholars were not only like them that dream, but like 
 them who are out of their wits, mad, stark staring mad. To 
 study was fanaticism ; to be moderate was downright rebellion. 
 And thus it continued for a twelvemonth ; and thus it would 
 have continued till this time if it had not pleased God to raise 
 up some Vice-Chancellors who stemmed the torrent ; . . and 
 from that time the University became sober, modest, and 
 studious as perhaps any University in Europe 3 .' 
 
 This is on the whole a correct statement. The fountains 
 of thought had been set free ; and though we do not observe 
 the full fruits of the changes which were taking place till 
 the period of the Revolution, there are many indications of 
 the excellent work done at the Universities during the reign 
 of Charles the Second. While Theology was earnestly 
 
 1 Wood's Annals, sub an. 1660. 2 See p. 243. 
 
 3 The Guardian's Instructor, 1688; by Stephen Penton, Prin- 
 cipal of St. Edmund Hall ; quoted by Wood, sub an. 1660.
 
 218 ALL SO ULS A T THE RESTORA TION. [CHAP. 
 
 studied, Literature and the Arts were already advancing 
 side by side with the progress of the French under Louis 
 Quatorze. In Physical Science under the Royal Society, in 
 Architecture under Wren, and, soon after, in Mathematics 
 under Newton, England was about to take the foremost place 
 in the civilised world. Oxford as usual palpitates with the 
 political and religious struggles which ended in the Revo- 
 lution ; but able and industrious men gradually raised the 
 standard of education to as high a pitch as perhaps it has 
 ever attained. A religious spirit still pervaded the Uni- 
 versities; and those men who were raised up to leaven the 
 sceptical society of a later date were under training at both 
 of them. No doubt a broad vein of license ran through the 
 University stratum at this period. The manners of the age 
 could not but infect Oxford ; but it may be doubted whether 
 there was more to complain of than in the generations pre- 
 ceding and succeeding it. At any rate, when Neal 1 makes 
 the sweeping statement that ' there was a general licentious- 
 ness of manners among the students,' he adduces no other 
 proof than the speeches of the ' orators and terrae filii } which 
 were always much the same as at this time, and the ' sermons 
 and satires against the Nonconformists/ All Souls certainly 
 had its fair share of dissipated youths, as we shall see. 
 
 If the University of Oxford was happy in its Vice-Chan- 
 cellors, and, we ought to add, its Chancellors, Clarendon, 
 Sheldon, and Ormond, All Souls was fortunate in its Wardens. 
 Sheldon himself only resumed his rightful position in name. 
 Palmer's vacancy was kept open during the few weeks of 
 suspense before the return of Charles, and immediately on 
 that event it was filled as a matter of course by the old 
 Warden ; but he did not reside, as he was called on at once 
 to assist Clarendon and Charles in the resettlement of the 
 nation. Kennett, in his ' Register 2 ,' is wrong in supposing 
 
 1 ii. 669. 2 Sub anno 1660.
 
 XIL] SHELDON'S TASK. 219 
 
 that Sheldon was not repossessed of his old place till the 
 death of Dr. Meredith. On the contrary, having resumed, 
 as we have said, he resigned to Meredith in the following- 
 January ; Meredith was succeeded by Jeames, not by Sheldon. 
 We shall speak of Meredith's short wardenship in its place. 
 It was distinguished in its way ; but we shall find reasons 
 for placing Warden Jeames in one of the very first places 
 among those who have governed the College since its 
 foundation. 
 
 We must turn aside from the College for a moment to 
 follow the career of its restored Warden. Of those three 
 friends of the days of Great Tew, whose identity of political 
 conduct we traced in 1640 and 1642, Falkland had long gone 
 to his account, early wearied of the strife, and longing for 
 the death which he speedily found. Hyde and Sheldon had 
 been reserved for the thankless but glorious task of re- 
 organising the government of Church and State. No 
 Ministers in the whole course of English history have ever 
 had a more difficult or delicate task to perform, whether we 
 regard the Sovereign they served, the courtiers with whom 
 they had to contend, the variety and balance of the interests 
 they had to reconcile, the changes with which the new gene- 
 ration found itself confronted, or the promises and conditions 
 with which the crisis of the Restoration had hampered the 
 facile Prince. Obscured by party spirit, now nearly as much 
 as ever, few parts of our history are less understood. Every 
 ray of light may be of use. 
 
 If this language is thought too strong, let us confirm it 
 by a remark made by Speaker Onslow, endorsing the opinion 
 of Bishop Gibson no mean judges as to one particular 
 incident in this reorganisation, the official relations of the 
 clergy with the State, both as regards Convocation, and as 
 to the franchise. After stating that the suppression of the 
 Convocation of the clergy as a self-taxing body, and the 
 vote given them, by way of compensation, for Members of
 
 220 ALL SOULS AT THE RESTORATION. [CHAP. 
 
 Parliament, were both simply settled by the tacit agreement 
 of Hyde and Sheldon, Onslow tells us that ' Gibson, Bishop 
 of London, said to me that this was the greatest alteration 
 in the Constitution ever made without an express law 1 .' 
 
 We may have our own opinions on the policy of the Savoy 
 Conference and of St. Bartholomew's Day, with both which 
 measures Sheldon was so deeply concerned; these are 
 matters bristling with complicated details into which we 
 cannot now enter ; but we are at least bound to remember 
 that Sheldon and his friend represented the will of the vast 
 majority of the nation ; that they understood at that time 
 the character of the slippery monarch as the people generally 
 only came to understand it many years afterwards ; that the 
 most ' liberal ' statesmen found it necessary to support their 
 policy of Religious Disabilities for many generations ; and 
 above all that it is the first requisite for historical judgment 
 that we fully measure the difference of view produced by 
 the lapse of ages. 
 
 After the restoration of Charles to the throne of his ances- 
 tors we are struck by the length of time which elapsed before 
 he took the affairs of the Church in hand, the Church which 
 had been smitten in his cause, and for which his father suf- 
 fered what some at least consider martyrdom. One would 
 have thought his very first measure would be to fill the vacant 
 Sees. Surrounded by men who were indifferent or secretly hos- 
 tile to the Church, and by representatives of the sects which 
 had so lately triumphed over it, and which yet had borne a 
 part far less than they claimed ! in the Restoration, Charles 
 put off the evil day, and turned a deaf ear to the counsellors 
 whom nevertheless he knew very well he must follow in the 
 end. What brought him to act at last ? 
 
 There seems good reason to believe that the following letter 
 from Bishop Duppa, to which we have already referred 2 , sup- 
 
 1 Note in Burnet's Own Time, i. 321, and iv. 508. 
 
 2 See p. 1 80.
 
 xii.] DUPPA'S LETTER ON THE VOW. 221 
 
 plies the clue. We noticed it in speaking of the late King's 
 Vow, and will now explain its significance. It is dated 
 August ii (1660), and is addressed 'For the Dean of His 
 Majesty's Chapel.' This appointment was conferred on Shel- 
 don by Charles the Second when they met at Canterbury, 
 no doubt at the instigation of Hyde, who knew the im- 
 portance of having him near at hand. The aged Bishop 
 of Salisbury, after lamenting his own inability to do much 
 service at the crisis, and expressing his profound anxiety as 
 to the state of affairs, tells Sheldon : 
 
 ' You are the only person about His Majesty that I have 
 confidence in, and I persuade myself that as none hath his 
 ear more, so none is likely to prevail on his heart more, and 
 there was never more need of it ; for all the professed enemies 
 of our Church look upon this as the critical time to use their 
 dernier resort to shake His Majesty's constancy. But I hope 
 by this time you have recovered those buried papers which 
 can't but have a powerful influence upon so dutiful a soul as 
 his. I shall wait upon you so soon as I hear that my coming 
 may be any way useful. In the mean time I am the more at 
 ease because I know you stand ready upon the place to lay 
 hold upon all opportunities, and are diligently upon your 
 watch ne ecclesia aliquid detriment* capiat. For which and for 
 all your kindness to me in particular I am your most affec- 
 tionate friend, BR. SARUM V 
 
 There cannot be much doubt that the Vow which has been 
 already given is the buried paper to which Duppa refers. 
 Ten days after the date of the above letter, on ' August 2ist, 
 1660,' Sheldon witnesses the copy of the Vow 'preserv'd 
 thirteene years under ground by mee.' He had just recovered 
 it at Duppa's suggestion. What took place between the King 
 and the Dean of the Chapel Royal we know not ; but within 
 a fortnight after Sheldon had affixed his signature to the 
 recovered paper Charles at last commences the process of 
 filling up the vacant bishoprics. On September 3 the conge 
 
 1 Tanner MSS. vol. 49. fol. 17.
 
 222 ALL SOULS AT THE RESTORATION. [CHAP, 
 
 d'elire is issued for the venerable Juxon, whose age and 
 infirmities prevented his being practically useful, but who 
 could not be passed over for the Primacy ; on September 10 
 Duppa is translated to Winchester ; and on September 28 
 Sheldon himself is ' recommended ' by the King- for the 
 bishopric of London. The others soon follow 1 . We can 
 hardly refuse to connect these events with one another in 
 the way of cause and eifect; nor can we exaggerate their 
 importance. 
 
 Sheldon, as Bishop of London, now became virtually the 
 Primate. The Savoy Conference took place in his official 
 apartments, for he retained the Mastership of the Savoy 
 along with the bishopric ; and on the death of the good 
 Archbishop in 1663, he became Primate in fact. His splendid 
 administrative capacity in this great office has been univer- 
 sally admitted even by his enemies. We know how success- 
 fully he healed by his vigilance, his tact, and his generosity 
 the sores which the Church could not but exhibit after such 
 convulsions. We know also how his influence at Court gradu- 
 ally withered along with that of his devoted friend, under 
 the scorching breath of profligate courtiers, and the distaste 
 of a prince sinking into the mire of debauchery. We know 
 how he rebuked his Sovereign for his gross adultery, and so 
 lost his favour even according to Burnet, Sheldon's detractor, 
 or, as Swift tells us, how ' he refused the Sacrament to the 
 King ' on this account 2 . We know how in the time of the 
 great plague 
 
 ' he firmly continued all the time of the greatest danger, 
 and with his diffusive charity preserved great numbers- alive 
 that would have perished in their necessities, and by his 
 affecting letters to all the Bishops procured great sums to be 
 returned out of all parts of his Province 3 .' 
 
 1 See Kennett's Register for the dates. 
 
 2 Burnet's Own Time, vol. i. p. 438; and note. 
 
 3 Echard's Hist, of Eng. iii. 142.
 
 XIL] SHELDON IN OFFICE. 223 
 
 We know from Wood's Athense (passim) how generous and 
 unwearied a patron he was of good men and learned authors. 
 We know how the University of Oxford, on Clarendon's 
 banishment in 1667, elected him as Chancellor, with only one 
 dissentient voice. A letter from the Archbishop declining 
 the office on account of his ' crazy head and infirm health ' is 
 among the Sheldon Papers in the British Museum 1 ; but if 
 sent, it must have been recalled, for he would not give way 
 even to disease, and served the office two years. When 
 obliged by increasing infirmities to resign it, the choice of the 
 Duke of Ormond as his successor was made at his own urgent 
 recommendation 2 . 
 
 At Oxford his munificence can never be forgotten ; and as 
 the Theatre which bears his name brings us back to All Souls, 
 both in relation to donor and architect, we will reserve our 
 concluding remarks on this great man till we have followed 
 the College history a little farther, first saying a word on the 
 careers of Duppa and Taylor, his old All Souls friends, which 
 came to an end before that of their leader. 
 
 Each of these admirable men was employed like Sheldon in 
 the resettlement of affairs at the Restoration, Duppa as Visitor 
 of Oxford University, where he had once been Vice-Chancellor 
 and Laud's chief agent in procuring the remodelling of the 
 Oxford Statutes at the hands of Bryan Twyne 3 ; and Taylor 
 at Dublin. The Bishop of Winchester soon sank under age 
 and infirmities. Looked up to and respected, like Juxon, by 
 all parties, his venerable presence carried no little weight 
 in the settlement of the Church during the first year or 
 two of the Restoration. If he could not do much himself, he 
 could at least, as we have seen, encourage those who had the 
 power. And no doubt he exercised a considerable influence 
 on the unsteady mind of the King who had once been his 
 
 1 Harleian MSS., cod. 3783 T W- 
 2 Carte's Ormond, Appendix, Letter xc. 3 Wood's Annals.
 
 224 ALL SOULS AT THE RESTORATION. [CHAP. 
 
 pupil, but had been ruined by the French society he had kept 
 in his exile. Great allowance must always be made for 
 Charles on this ground. How few would have stood the test 
 of such an education as a camp, a French capital, and the 
 position of a prince were likely to afford! How few would 
 have withstood the evil influences of prosperity after a life of 
 adversity and exile ! 
 
 It is to the credit of the King that he still reverenced his 
 old tutor sufficiently to repair to his sick room when he was 
 dying, to kneel at his bedside, and receive his last blessing. 
 
 ' He died,' says Wood, ' as he had lived, honoured and 
 beloved by all that knew him, being a person of such exem- 
 plary piety, eminent candour, humility and meekness, and of 
 so clear a character, that he left not the least spot upon his 
 life or function. He was a man of excellent parts, a very 
 good preacher, and an ornament to his profession '.' 
 
 This verdict is confirmed by all contemporaries. Evelyn 
 did indeed, in 1660, find him a ' cold preacher,' but he was 
 now old, and fashions had changed. The Commonwealth 
 divines had established a taste for a much more highly-spiced 
 pulpit oratory than that of the laborious and scholarly period 
 in which Duppa was bred. 
 
 The extraordinary estimation in which he was held by 
 Charles the First is shewn by the well-known letters from 
 the King given in Clarendon 2 . The first, dated August 5, 
 1645, commencing, ' Charles, It is very fit for me now to 
 prepare for the worst,' orders the Prince to put himself under 
 the care of his mother, 
 
 ' who is to have the absolute full power of your 
 education in all things except religion; and in that not to 
 meddle at all, but to leave it entirely to the care of your 
 Tutor, the Bishop of Salisbury, or to whom he shall appoint 
 to supply his place, in time of his necessitated absence.' 
 
 1 Wood's Athenae. See also King's Sermon. 
 
 2 Vol. ii. pp. 683, 698.
 
 XIL] BRIAN DUPPA. 225 
 
 And again to Colepepper : 
 
 ' His mother is to have the sole care of him in all things 
 but one, which is his religion, and that must still be under the 
 care of the Bishop of Salisbury.' 
 
 This peculiar and entire confidence cannot of course be attri- 
 buted to any one particular cause. Charles must have had 
 ample opportunity of judging what sort of man the Bishop 
 was ; but we may well believe it was as the representative 
 of Laud after his execution that the King came to love and 
 trust Duppa to such a degree. 
 
 He was no doubt personally well fitted for a Court. Wood 
 tells us l of his ' comeliness of person and gracefulness of 
 deportment.' Perhaps he early gained favour or notice at 
 Court through his travels in Spain at a period when James 
 the First was bent on the Spanish alliance, and not long before 
 the events which so nearly ended in Charles's Spanish mar- 
 riage. It is possible there might even have been some direct 
 connection between those events and his visit. There was 
 much ecclesiastical intrigue behind the scenes throughout the 
 whole of that matter. In the'Leiger' of All Souls of 1617 
 Brian Duppa, then a Fellow of six years' standing from his 
 election, is allowed by the College ' as much as his Livery 
 came to in respect he went into Spaine a fortnight before it 
 was due V There is not the slightest clue to the cause of 
 this journey. Why should he go to Spain, of all places in 
 the world, except for some matter in which the Court was 
 concerned? If it had been in any recognised position as 
 regards the Embassy we should have heard of it. 
 
 Of Jeremy Taylor's life and character so much has been 
 recovered by Heber, and is to be found in so accessible a 
 form, that it is quite unnecessary to say anything here as to 
 his sufferings during the Commonwealth, his share in the 
 Restoration, he was one who joined in the invitation to 
 
 1 Athense. 2 Extract in MS. penes custodem, F. P. p. 137.
 
 226 ALL SOULS AT THE RESTORATION. [CHAP. 
 
 Charles to return, or the position he held after that event. 
 The reconstruction of the Episcopacy was delayed still longer 
 in Ireland than in England, but when it took place at last, 
 he found himself, like Sheldon and Duppa, called upon as the 
 natural person to assist in the restoration of the Irish Church 
 and University. Under Bramhall he performed no small 
 service in the first ; as Vice-Chancellor of Dublin University 
 he did much to place that institution once more on a worthy 
 footing. He did not long survive Duppa, dying at fifty-five 
 with a reputation which has gone on increasing with the 
 lapse of time. 'Even in that age of gigantic talent/ says 
 Heber, ' he stands on an eminence superior to any of his 
 immediate contemporaries ; ' and among all English divines of 
 any age has been placed ' by the almost unanimous voice of 
 posterity on the same lofty elevation with Hooker and with 
 Barrow. Hooker is the object of our reverence, Barrow of 
 our admiration, Jeremy Taylor of our love 1 .' 
 
 His connection with All Souls was not of long duration, 
 but it has supplied us with points of historical importance, 
 and is full of interest. The names of Laud and Sheldon gather 
 round his in this connection, and the College owes its finest 
 picture to a descendant of Jeremy Taylor, who happily thought 
 that there was no other institution which had more right to 
 it. In that picture we can fairly trace the ( comely person ' and 
 expressive features for which he also, like Brian Duppa, was 
 celebrated ; and it is a satisfaction to know that so good a 
 judge as Heber believed its ' originality to be undoubted V 
 
 If Sheldon could not return to his beloved Oxford by reason 
 of a higher call than that of the Wardenship of his old 
 College, he at once took the most effectual means of proving 
 his affection and gratitude to Alma Mater. Evelyn tells us 
 that he was induced to build the famous Theatre which bears 
 his name in consequence of the strong feeling he entertained 
 
 1 Heber's Life of Taylor, p. ccl. 2 Ibid. p. cxxii.
 
 xu.l THE SHELDONIAN THEATRE. 227 
 
 . 
 
 against the profanation of St. Mary's church by the annual 
 
 ' Acts ' (now popularly called ' Commemorations ') which had 
 always been held there. Churches, both before and for long 
 after the Reformation, were, as we know, used for many 
 other purposes than Divine Service. But the University 
 ' Act ' had come to be a very secular affair indeed, and it is 
 only wonderful that it could have gone on in a church so 
 long. There was, however, as yet no other building of 
 sufficient size. 
 
 The abuse of the satirical address made by the Terra? Filius 
 on these occasions was scandalous. Evelyn was present at 
 the first ' Act ' in the Sheldonian Theatre in 1669, and bitterly 
 complains of 'that tedious, abusive, sarcastical rhapsodieV He 
 spoke to the Vice-Chancellor and several Heads of Houses, 
 who were ' quite ashamed of it, and resolved to take care of 
 it in future.' He calls it ' mere licentious lying and railing;' 
 and so it was. Yet the custom continued, with occasional 
 intermissions, for more than sixty years later. Wood calls it a 
 ' very great and splendid Act Y an( i was no doubt present ; 
 but makes no comment on the ' satirical address ' ! So great 
 was the force of habit ! Nevertheless when a Terrse Filius 
 reflected on his book, in 1673, he * s extremely shocked at the 
 performance s . We shall refer once more to the custom at a 
 later date. It will be enough here to say that this outlet 
 for academical discontents was a regular institution of 
 long standing, that the 'Terrae Filii' a sort of medieval 
 Jesters, the origin of whose name is quite unknown were 
 elected for their humour or impudence, and that their licen- 
 tious satires were virtually privileged, though often the 
 subject of complaint. When they passed all bounds the 
 offenders were not unfrequently expelled. The language of 
 the oration was Latin. 
 
 1 Journal, i. 420. See also Dr. Wallis's Letter to Boyle, Neal's 
 Puritans, ii. 669. 
 
 2 Life, sub ann. 1669. 3 Ibid. 1673. 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 ALL SOULS AT THE RESTORATION. [CHAP. 
 
 As soon as Sheldon had disposed of the mass of business 
 attendant on the resettlement of the Church he sent for 
 Wren, and entrusted the erection of the Theatre to his skill. 
 It was his first work, and laid a secure foundation for his 
 future fame. The Warden, of All Souls, though exiled from 
 Oxford, had been evidently well acquainted with the merits of 
 this junior Fellow, and proved his penetration in the selection 
 of the untried architect as well as his munificence in allowing 
 him to spend so large a sum. This is said to have been 
 ^fi 6,000, besides ^2000 for endowment; but Wren told 
 Evelyn it cost a^ 3 25,ooo 1 , which we must multiply by four 
 or five for the present currency. It is said to be the finest 
 room for public purposes possessed even now by any public 
 body in Europe. Sheldon himself never saw it 2 . As to the 
 architectural merits of the building, but especially the roof, 
 which was in those times thought a wonderful achievement, 
 abundant information may be obtained in ' Parentalia,' that 
 most interesting monument of family affection. 
 
 But the numerous frequenters of Oxford Commemorations 
 may find it interesting to observe the changes in the 
 apportionment of seats which have taken place since Wren 
 and Dr. John Fell, Dean of Christ Church, first assigned 
 them. 
 
 ' The Semicircle is for Doctors. Noblemen, and Inceptors 
 in the several Faculties. The enclosure under it within the 
 rail (which rail is set up only in Act times) is the place for 
 the Inceptors in Arts. The Gallery behind the Doctors' 
 Semicircle, which is in the circular part of the Theatre, is 
 the place for Regents and Non- Regents (Masters of Arts). 
 The Side -gallery towards the West is for Cambridge 
 Scholars : that towards the East for strangers. The two 
 Galleries in the front, opposite the Semicircle, for ladies and 
 gentlewomen. The Upper Galleries above the Masters for 
 Gentlemen Commoners and Bachelors of Arts. Those above 
 the Cambridge men and strangers for Commoners and 
 
 1 Journal, i. 419. 2 Ibid.
 
 xii.] SIB CHRISTOPHER WREN. 229 
 
 Scholars of Houses. That above the ladies for performance 
 of music. The Area for persons of promiscuous quality V 
 
 The changes of time and manners have driven the Masters 
 of Arts (including the Professors), the ' Cambridge Scholars,' 
 and the ' strangers ' from their reserved seats, and forced 
 them to stand in the Area with persons of 'promiscuous 
 quality.' The ' ladies and gentlewomen ' have swarmed over 
 from their own two galleries in front into every part of 
 the building except the Area and the Upper Gallery ! The 
 former of these is indeed no longer entirely sacred to 
 the male sex. How long the Undergraduates may be able 
 to withstand invasion remains for some future Wood to 
 tell. 
 
 The period of Wren's sojourn at All Souls was short in 
 comparison with the length of his life eight years out of 9 1 ; 
 but it was just the time of which we should like to have more 
 knowledge. By the time he becomes a Professor, builds the 
 Sheldonian Theatre, is patronised by Charles, is made Sur- 
 veyor to the Crown, and by the force of his sole, unas- 
 sisted genius, whatever we may now think of it, begins to 
 change the whole face of English architecture, he had 
 already lived several ordinary lives in one. He was then 
 only 29, but he was already looked upon as a 'miracle.' 
 Men cannot find words to express their sense of his ability. 
 He came up to Wadham with a scientific reputation at 16, 
 and owed much to the famous Warden, Dr. Wilkins, one 
 of the most eminent founders of the Royal Society. Even 
 during that early period at Wadham, a mere boy, Evelyn 
 speaks of Wren as ' that miracle of a youth,' ' that rare and 
 early prodigy of universal science,' ' that incomparable ge- 
 nius 2 .' Few even of scientific students know how much the 
 world is indebted to him for inventions of all sorts and 
 kinds, some of which he perfected, but the greater part of 
 
 1 Wood, vol. ii. Part ii. p. 796. 2 Journal, i. p. 276, &c.
 
 230 ALL SOULS AT THE RESTOEATION. [CHAP. 
 
 which have connected themselves with other names, the 
 names of men who have carried further the hints thrown out 
 by his boundless inventive fertility 1 . His attention seems 
 chiefly to have been turned to astronomy and anatomy while 
 he was at All Souls, where he was elected at the age of 21. 
 For this College he was no doubt early destined while he 
 assisted at the meetings of the future Royal Society, at ' an 
 apothecary's house against All Souls V along with his friends 
 Peter Pett and Thomas Millington, who were already Fellows, 
 Through them we may well suppose the young philosopher 
 was brought so opportunely before the notice of the Warden, 
 Dr. Palmer. 
 
 Wren's tract upon the Laws of Motion came out, after 
 he had left All Souls, at the same moment with those of 
 Huygens and Dr. Wallis. ' These three great men, without 
 knowing anything of one another's thoughts, agreed 
 exactly in the same Propositions 3 .' Newton himself mentions 
 these three together as ' kujus cstatis Geometrarum facile 
 principes 4 ; ' and Hooke, the mathematician, says : ' I must 
 affirm that since the time of Archimedes there scarcely ever 
 has met in one man in so great a perfection, such a 
 mechanical hand and so philosophical a mind 5 .' This view 
 of Wren's surpassing genius in other lines besides that of 
 architecture is confirmed by a passage in Hearne's Diary 
 
 ' Some years since I heard an eminent mathematician, since 
 deceased, say that he could mention another person then 
 living every way equal in mathematics to Sir Isaac Newton, 
 though he had not published. We asked him who this 
 should be. He answered, Sir Christopher Wren, who was 
 indeed a very extraordinary man, being an admirable 
 
 1 Parentalia ; Chalmers' Biographical Dictionary. 
 
 2 Wood, vol. ii. Pt. ii. p. 63. 
 
 8 Mist's Journal in Hearne's Diary, vol. 96. p. 7 ; Parentalia. 
 
 4 Principia. 
 
 5 Quoted in Biographical Dictionary.
 
 xii.] WREN'S SURPASSING GENIUS. 231 
 
 architect, a profound mathematician, and well versed, what 
 Sir Isaac was not, in classical learning- V 
 
 This was a common complaint against Wren ' he never 
 could be prevailed upon to publish anything 2 .' How was 
 it possible after he became the one architect of the whole 
 country ? 
 
 In this latter capacity it is already less difficult than 
 it was a year or two ago to measure his position. The 
 attention which has just been called, in consequence of the 
 attempt to restore its interior, to his great masterpiece, 
 St. Paul's Cathedral, has once more impressed the public 
 with the merits of a man whose name has not of late years 
 been held in the highest honour. The last half-century 
 has witnessed such a wonderful revival of the Gothic, or, 
 as he called it, Saracenic, style of architecture, the reign 
 of which he with almost supernatural force completely for 
 a time destroyed, that Wren had come to be looked upon 
 among 1 us as some evil genius whose wings had too long 1 
 shamefully overshadowed the land, and whom the splendid 
 Gothic artists of our own day had at last overcome. 
 We need not value the merits of our latest school the less 
 if we learn to look back with a little more respect upon the 
 work of Wren. This is not the place to enter upon a re- 
 view of that work. Let us content ourselves with the briefest 
 notice of it at the hands of his biographer : 
 
 ' The man from whose comprehensive mind arose the 
 majestic Cathedral of St. Paul's and the fifty [one] paro- 
 chial churches of London, the royal and magnificent 
 Hospital of Greenwich, the no less appropriate and useful 
 one at Chelsea, the most splendid ornaments of our metro- 
 polis' [such as the Monument and the two Theatres], ' the 
 most useful structures of our two Universities . . . at 
 once our greatest architect, mathematician and philosopher, 
 the most learned man of his day, who may be justly 
 
 1 Diary 116. 31. 2 Ibid. 42. 140.
 
 232 ALL SOULS AT THE RESTORATION. [CHAP. 
 
 termed the British Archimedes, . . . died [in 1723] an un- 
 noticed death. He was old, the victim of political intrigue, 
 and had no longer the countenance of Royalty which had 
 smiled on him for nearly three quarters of a century 1 .' 
 
 This last statement refers to the well-known fact that 
 he was ' Surveyor to the Crown in the reigns of Charles the 
 Second, James the Second, William and Mary, William 
 the Third, Queen Anne, and George the First,' by all but 
 the last of whom he was honoured and trusted; or, as 
 Horace Walpole neatly put it, 'the length of whose life 
 enriched the reigns of several princes, and disgraced the 
 last of them.' 
 
 Becoming, one might say by acclamation, Professor of 
 Astronomy in 1661, the direct connection between this 
 great man and his College ceased. Fellowships at All Souls 
 could not then be held with Professorships, a useful pro- 
 vision in his case, for even his greatest detractors can hardly 
 wish that he had been tempted to confine himself to the 
 narrow sphere of Oxford. But we can hardly suppose that 
 such enthusiasm, such activity, such success read no lesson to 
 his Society. We cannot refuse to associate his name with 
 the gradual rise of a superior class of Fellows, with the fine 
 burst of cultivated taste and enlightened munificence which 
 displayed itself in the College before he died. On the two 
 actual 'restorations ' of the Chapel which took place during 
 the earlier and later portions of his career we can only 
 trace the indirect influence of his hand. In neither case 
 was there any, even the slightest, attempt at restoration in 
 the true sense, recovered in our own day. They were 
 both of them Italianising efforts to obliterate the old 
 Gothic features of the building ; but in those days anything 
 else was impossible. Wren was but the exponent, original 
 
 1 Memoir of the Life and "Works of Sir Christopher Wren, by 
 James Elmes : 1823.
 
 XIL] WREN AT ALL SOULS. 233 
 
 in a great measure, but still the exponent of the European 
 movement which had been creeping forward surely and 
 steadily ever since the Renaissance. 
 
 The only points on which he directly touches All Souls 
 in a manner which we can, or but lately could, appreciate 
 with our eyes, are, curiously enough, connected with the 
 first year of his election and the last act of his life. In 
 1653 we find in the College 'Acta' that the just-elected 
 Fellow erected the great sun-dial over the chapel, at a cost 
 to the College of ^32 us. 6d. It was so large and so 
 carefully constructed that the Oxford watchmakers continued 
 to regulate their time-pieces by it up to a few years ago \ 
 Its admirably- chosen motto from Martial ' Pereunt et im- 
 putantur ' instructed many a generation. It at last fell out 
 of repair, and being also out of harmony with the present 
 restoration of the Chapel, has lately been removed. By his 
 Will he left his celebrated architectural drawings to his old 
 College. They have been bound and catalogued with due 
 veneration for his memory, and have lately been much used 
 in connection with St. Paul's. His picture and his bust still 
 bring his expressive features before each generation of his 
 successors 2 . 
 
 1 Information from Mr. Kowell, the well-known Oxford watch- 
 maker. 
 
 2 Men of genius were content to work in those days on a very 
 small scale of remuneration, or else Wren was peculiarly dis- 
 interested. The famous inscription on his tomb says 
 
 ' Qui vixit annos ultra nonaginta 
 Non sibi sed bono publico.' 
 
 We hear of no portion of Sheldon's 25,000 reaching the architect, 
 though that is no positive proof it did not. We do hear of the Arch- 
 bishop presenting him with a gold cup when his work was completed. 
 ' The Surveyor's salary for building St. Paul's from the foundation 
 to the finishing thereof as appears from the public accounts 
 was no more than 200 per annum. His allowance for building 
 all the [51] parochial churches of the City of London was about 
 100 per annum, and the same for the repairs of Westminster
 
 234 ALL SOULS AT THE RESTORATION. [CHAP. 
 
 Why was he not allowed to have a hand in restoring 1 the 
 College Chapel in which he so often worshipped? He was 
 no longer Fellow, it is true, when Warden Meredith's re- 
 storation was effected in 1663-4, and which is thus described 
 on that Warden's monument : ' Hoc in sacello quod a situ 
 vindicavit et marmorenm effeceraf (sic) ; but he was building 
 the Sheldonian Theatre, and chiefly residing at Oxford then, 
 and for many years afterwards. At the time of the general 
 reconstruction of the College in Queen Anne's reign he was 
 no doubt too old for such a work; Thornhill and Hawks- 
 moor might very naturally be accepted as his representatives ; 
 but we are left with less guidance for our conjectures in the 
 first case. One thing we certainly know, that he designed 
 a handsome screen for the Chapel, for it is amongst his 
 drawings ; not so labelled, indeed, but with Chichele's arms 
 in the centre. It was never adopted by the College. 
 
 The probability is that the College affairs were only slowly 
 recovering from the confusion of the Commonwealth period, 
 and yet that the Warden and Fellows were impatient to do 
 something to repair the ruins in which they found themselves. 
 Their reredos was probably not in a much worse condition 
 than when the ruthless Commissioners of 1549 tore down 
 its distinctive ornaments ; nor do we know how much of their 
 
 Abbey.' (Parentalia, p. 344.) Perhaps the reader may not object 
 to one sentence from his own vigorous pen on a subject much 
 discussed in our day. ' It were to be wished,' says he, ' there were 
 no pews but benches [in churches] ; but there is no stemming the 
 tide of profit and the advantage of pew-keepers, especially too since 
 by pews in the Chapels of Ease the Minister is chiefly supported.' 
 (Ibid. p. 321.) The following bit of gossip from Hearne may also 
 be acceptable. Sir Christopher, in his eighty-fifth year, told a 
 friend of Hearne's ' that there were no masons in London when 
 he was a young man,' and that ' the way of making mortar with 
 haire came into fashion in Q. Eliz.'s time.' (Diary, 59 ; 140, 141.) We 
 have seen what Evelyn and others said of him in his earlier life. 
 The famous Isaac Barrow thus speaks of him at a later date : ' Pro- 
 digium olimpueri, nunc miraculum viri, immo dcemonium hominis.'
 
 XIL] CHAPEL NOT 'RESTORED' B7 WREN. 235 
 
 splendid painted glass was destroyed at that date, nor how 
 much had been knocked out by the soldiers of the Common- 
 wealth ; but the College pays ^18 at this time for the 
 repair of its windows. How the Ante-chapel windows in 
 the east wall came to survive both iconoclastic periods, and 
 to remain, as good judges declare, the best specimens of 
 fifteenth-century glass now in England, is a mystery. Be- 
 yond the above small sum we hear of no more contributions, 
 collegiate or other. The rest came out of private purses, 
 chiefly no doubt from that of Warden Meredith, whose 
 monument claims all the credit for him. Sheldon seems 
 to have contributed nothing. As Primate he wished to pay 
 his grateful recognition of the splendid services performed by 
 Oxford rather to the whole University than to his own 
 College, to which, however, he left ^300 in his Will. 
 
 Wren may not have found the College prepared to enter on 
 the work in a sufficiently energetic spirit, though to its credit 
 we find an entry in 1663 that the Founder's tomb at Canter- 
 bury is to be repaired, ' whatever it cost ;' for we shall see 
 that it was a very mean ' restoration ;' or the Fellows may not 
 altogether have forgotten the circumstances of the young phi- 
 losopher's election. Perhaps the Warden was not quite sympa- 
 thetic. We find by his monument that he was a very clever 
 man, for he contrived to do that very rare thing, perform 
 two duties in different places at once, as Provost of Eton 
 and Warden of All Souls JEtona ut viros efficeret, Oxonia 
 ut viros regeret V He was doubtless a representative of the 
 ' old school ' of his day, an old-fashioned Cavalier who 
 had suffered much in the ' good old cause ' ' blandis moribus 
 quanquam et antiquis*.' Possibly he did not appreciate 
 Wren's young, impulsive, soaring, innovating, and, to 
 patrons, expensive genius. 
 
 From the discoveries lately made we may certainly be 
 thankful that, whatever the cause, we cannot connect the 
 
 1 Monument in Ante-chapel. 2 Ibid.
 
 236 ALL SOULS AT THE RESTORATION. [CHAP. 
 
 great name of Wren with this first ' restoration ' of All Souls 
 College chapel. We need not bestow much space upon it 
 here. The most interesting point about it is the contrast 
 presented between the treatment at that time of the magni- 
 ficent ruins, with which many generations of the College had 
 been familiar, and their treatment at the present time, when 
 the discovery of the same ruins has broken upon the College 
 as an unsuspected revelation. The resolution then taken was 
 to chip off all projecting fragments of the reredos till it was 
 reduced to a flat level, filling in the niches with mortar and 
 rubbish, to cover it with lath and plaster, and paint upon it a 
 fresco of the Last Judgment. The resolution of to-day has been 
 to get rid of the two frescoes (for another had been placed 
 above it in the ' restoration' of Queen Anne's reign), to pick 
 out the mortar and rubbish, during which process so large 
 a number of the projecting fragments which had been 
 chipped off were found embedded, that complete authority 
 has been obtained for every part of the restoration, and to 
 bring back each portion of the work to the state in which 
 it was left by the munificence of Chichele and his immediate 
 successors. 
 
 The painting of the fresco was entrusted to Streater, 
 Serjeant-Painter to Charles the Second. The beautiful ham- 
 mer-beam roof was also concealed by a panelled ceiling, the 
 figures rudely painted on which corresponded with the subject 
 of the fresco. Evelyn noticed the latter in his Journal -, and 
 says : ' It is the largest piece of fresco painting, or rather 
 imitation of it, for it is in oil of turpentine, in England/ but 
 it is ' too full of nakeds for a Chapel.' When exposed, or 
 rather as much of it as could be seen on removing the last 
 fresco, it appeared not only to be 'too full of nakeds,' but of 
 very inferior execution ; and the ceiling was, if possible, worse. 
 Their discovery is almost as curious as that of the ruined 
 
 1 i. 368.
 
 xii.] MUSIC AT ALL SOULS. 237 
 
 reredos itself. It had been supposed that each previous work 
 had been destroyed to make way for its successor ; and all 
 tradition to the contrary had passed away with the lapse of 
 two centuries. It appeared that they had only been covered 
 up, waiting 1 , like other records of antiquity, for the advent 
 of a discoverer. 
 
 This chapter may conclude with the remark that we may 
 gather both from Wood l and Evelyn 2 that a taste for music 
 had become characteristic of the College. Wood finds Pett, 
 Digby, and Bull, all Fellows of All Souls, his most constant 
 associates in performances on the violin ; and in 1 656 and 
 1658 he notices no less than six Fellows of All Souls who 
 were distinguished for their skill upon the violin, viol, or 
 lute. In the musical society of the latter year four out 
 of its sixteen members were All Souls men ; one of the 
 sixteen was Ken, of New College, the future saintly Bishop. 
 Oxford had become the great musical centre of England 
 during the Commonwealth, in consequence of the abolition 
 of musical Services in Cathedrals and other churches, and 
 the resort thither of many musicians who had thus lost 
 their employment. Pernaps it has not even yet lost its 
 distinction as a musical centre. Evelyn, in 1664, goes 
 ' to All Souls, where we heard music, voices, and theorbos 
 performed by some ingenious Scholars.' The theorbo was 
 a kind of lute introduced into England not very long before 
 this date. 
 
 1 Life. 2 Journal, i. 276.
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 CJrarUs % Stconfo mifc 
 
 1666-1677. 
 
 Warden Jeames Sheldon on ' corrupt resignations ' Letter of 
 Charles the Second and the ' Dispensing Power' Scramble for 
 All Souls Fellowships The Duke of Ormond Rise of prefer- 
 ence for old families at All Souls Sheldon in his old age 
 Clarendon's Will Sheldon's Will His munificence Samuel 
 Parker's account of him Sheldon and Chillingworth Attacks 
 of Burnet, Kennett, Neal, and Hallam on Sheldon's memory. 
 
 OUR notices of Sheldon are now drawing to an end. 
 His letters to the College on the old subject of elections 
 will supply us with an opportunity for summing up his 
 career and dealing with his detractors ; but we must first 
 introduce the new Warden, who has the arduous task before 
 him of putting an .end to the corruptions of past generations. 
 He and his Visitor, Charles the Second, and the Duke of 
 Ormond form the dramatis persona of this chapter. 
 
 Former attempts on the part of Visitors to purify 
 the College on the above - mentioned point had failed 
 from different causes, but chiefly from want of a Warden 
 who would or could give sufficient support to the 
 Visitatorial authority. The right man had come at last. 
 Warden Jeames was, like Meredith, a hearty Cavalier, 
 but the war having broken out soon after his election, 
 he had no preferments to lose like the older Fellow. 
 Thus, very naturally, we find from a letter of his that
 
 SCRAMBLE FOR FELLOWSHIPS. 239 
 
 he 'bore arms for the good King 1 .' He was in so doing 
 preparing for the labour he was now to undergo. The 
 steady energy proper to a man who has learnt to resist 
 even to death was now to be taxed. From 1665, when 
 he was elected Warden, to 1686, when he died, he was 
 engaged in a perpetual struggle with the Court on the 
 one hand, the Fellows of the College on the other, to 
 preserve from the first, to recover from the last, that 
 freedom of elections which the Founder had ordained. 
 After his death we hear no more of this abuse. The battle 
 was won. Hence we may assign him a place after Warner, 
 Hoveden, and Sheldon, as the fourth of those who, since 
 the foundation of the College, have governed it with high 
 distinction. But he could never have succeeded without 
 the Visitors. Indeed, as we have said, if every one is to have 
 his due in the long history of the matter, the name of 
 Archbishop Bancroft must stand at the head of the list. 
 
 The position held by Sheldon as Visitor of All Souls 
 was more delicate in its relations to the Sovereign than 
 perhaps at any former period. Charles, with his easy 
 disposition, his loose ideas of right and wrong, surrounded 
 by innumerable petitioners for place, many of whom had 
 the strongest possible claims upon him, was perpetually 
 attempting to make use of the Fellowships of All Souls 
 and other Colleges as mere sops which he might throw to 
 stop the mouths of hungry dogs. Some gallant Cavalier 
 who had perhaps lost his all for the ' good King' had a 
 son or a nephew, or a creditor, or a creditor's son, for whom 
 provision might thus be cheaply and conveniently made. 
 He had waylaid or overtaken the rapid steps of the active 
 monarch in spite of every effort on his part to escape. 
 Sometimes the King's vices or necessities may have engaged 
 him in such attempts more heartily than any claim of 
 service. At any rate when a vacancy occurred he was sure 
 
 1 Tanner MSS. vol. 340.
 
 240 ALL SOULS UNDER CHARLES II. [CHAP. 
 
 to be reminded of it. He then had recourse to the Visitor of 
 the College or the Chancellor of the University, or would 
 write direct to the College, and persevere till he succeeded. 
 
 To an Archbishop whose popularity at Court had declined 
 with Clarendon's power, and who found himself and his 
 government of the Church confronted by the most unprinci- 
 pled of all Ministries, the Cabal, the refusal to gratify 
 Charles, must have been more difficult than we can imagine. 
 What made the matter worse was that Sheldon, as a former 
 Warden, knew well how the old. system of defeating 
 any real election by means of stipulated payments on 
 resignation had successfully defied repression, and even 
 reasserted itself while he was in exile. To judge by his 
 conduct in the case of Laud and Taylor, he would cer- 
 tainly have tried his own hand had he not found the 
 Civil War upon him almost as soon as he succeeded to 
 the Wardenship. But the opportunity was past. The 
 times were hard. Why should not the King be served 
 before a private man? Who could blame him for allowing 
 what even the ' sainted Laud ' had actually used for the 
 promotion of a good object ? Was this a time to be so very 
 particular ? 
 
 Happily for the future of the University, Sheldon declined 
 to listen to such sophistries. He resolved to stand in the 
 gap before Charles in the full flush of his prosperity, as 
 he had stood before the soldiers of the Parliament in the 
 deepest adversity of Charles's father. He would see right 
 done on all sides. If the College would not give up its old 
 evil practices he would not protect it from the King, whose 
 nominees might be as good or better than mere purchasers 
 of the place. If he followed the custom of his predecessors 
 in occasionally recommending for a Fellowship he would 
 take care that his candidate should only have fair play, 
 along with others, after a strict examination. His letters 
 tell their own story.
 
 XIIL] SHELDON AS VISITOR. 241 
 
 The first is dated Oct. 9, 1666 : 
 
 Mr. Warden ; I understand there is a Fellowship void in 
 the College by the death of one of your Society ; an account 
 thereof, though I thought I might rather expect from your- 
 self or some of the College, yet I heard it first hy those that 
 are now in Town and suitors for it and petitioners for His 
 Majesty's letters. This I thought good to give you notice of, 
 and to take this occasion not only for this time but in all your 
 elections to mind you of your duties and give you my. advice 
 and charge. I would therefore have you to admit all com- 
 petitors that will stand, keeping off none. But then I do 
 conjure you by the duty you owe to God, the King, and the 
 Church, by the obedience you ought to preserve to me your 
 Visitor, as you regard the oath you have taken and tender 
 your own souls, that laying aside all interest and partiality 
 you still make choice of such persons as in your consciences 
 you shall think the most fit and best qualified for the place, 
 such as may be most likely to be of reputation to the College 
 and of use hereafter to the public. His Majesty will not 
 be over-pressing with you for any but with respect to the good 
 of the College. And therefore if you amongst yourselves out 
 of self-ends and affections shall go about to bring in any that 
 is not the best, I for my part shall never beg His Majesty to 
 hold his hand, but shall rather desire His Majesty may be 
 gratified than any of you. This I desire you will impart 
 to the officers and the rest of the Fellows, and that you 
 preserve it by you as a continual remembrancer in all such 
 cases. And so I bid you heartily farewell. 
 
 'Your very loving friend, GILB. CANTERBURY 1 .' 
 
 The second, dated Lambeth House, Feb. 2, i66f, com- 
 mences with his decision on the question of the Surplus 
 which has been given above a . He continues : 
 
 ' Having done my part for you in this point I must now 
 remind you of your duties for the future in the business of the 
 election, that you be careful ever to choose the best, wherein 
 if you fail, it will not be reasonable for me to go about and 
 desire the King to withhold his letters of command from you, 
 from which hitherto I have kept you free. And if any of you 
 shall do contrary to this out of any private interest or affection, 
 
 1 Archives. 2 p. 113.
 
 242 ALL SOULS UNDER CHARLES II. [CHAP. 
 
 I cannot but think it much more reasonable that the King 
 should be gratified than any of you. And so I bid you 
 heartily farewell, and am 
 
 ' Your very loving friend, GILB. CANTERBURY V 
 
 Somewhat later than this Sheldon finds that the College 
 has made an unstatutable election, and demands in the most 
 peremptory language that the intruder shall be either at once 
 expelled, or else make his appearance at Lambeth. The 
 College is at the same time to send him the name of 
 ( the person whom you thought the best and did design 
 for.' 
 
 This vigilant method of proceeding no doubt produced an 
 excellent effect. We shall see in the next chapter that the 
 system of examinations was at this time strict and real. 
 Still the system of resigning in favour of a particular person 
 was left untouched. The only difference was that under a 
 good Visitor and Warden care was taken that the nominee 
 was, as we should say, ' up to the mark.' Sheldon's letters 
 applied only to elections into ' dead places ' (death vacancies) 
 and to grossly unstatutable proceedings 2 . It was left for 
 Sancroft to cut the canker out at the core. 
 
 In a very few years we perceive the inability of the Visitor 
 to ' hold ' Charles's hand, whether from his own loss of power, 
 or the persistence of the College in practices which under- 
 mined his defence. The letters from the King are still extant 
 in which he imposes his nominee on the College in the most 
 imperious manner of which we have any record. On February 
 35, 1670, he 'wills and requires the College to elect to a 
 Fellowship, ' any Canon, Statute, Custom or Constitution of 
 the College notwithstanding/ (all of which he 'graciously dis- 
 penses with/) Peter Prydiaulx, on account of the services done 
 
 1 Archives. 
 
 2 See letter from "Warden Jeames to Sancroft, Nov. 20, 1680. 
 Tanner MSS. vol. 340.
 
 xiii.] THE KING'S MANDATE. 243 
 
 by his father ' to us and the Church,' and the good promise of 
 the youth. On March 13 he writes again, spelling the name 
 right this time, ' Prideaux ' (he is of the family which will 
 ever be distinguished by the authorship of ' The Connexion '), 
 announcing his pleasure that he be admitted ( without dif- 
 ficulty or delay.' Then follows in April a third letter, in 
 which the King is still more astonished that ' the Fellows 
 forget the duty they owe to us.' 
 
 ' We can by no means allow of this contempt for our 
 authority in interpositions of this kind. . . . We are offended 
 at the undutiful proceedings of the Fellows in this matter, 
 especially of such of them as having been intruders with 
 notorious violence and injustice into the places of honest and 
 loyal persons during the late usurpations, forget with how 
 little right they live there to oppose our letters.' 
 
 These letters l are signed ' Arlington,' and superscribed 
 < Charles ft.' 
 
 We have here a clear indication of the fatal course openly 
 adopted at this period, which was so soon to cost James the 
 Second his Crown. The ' dispensing power ' had indeed been 
 claimed by James the First in the ease of All Souls, but he 
 was too much surrounded by the traditions of freedom to 
 venture on such an open avowal as the above, or to push 
 matters against a vigorous opposition. He gives way before 
 one Visitor, and only succeeds by the collusion of another. 
 Charles the First, we have seen, puts his request in the 
 mildest form. But the reign of violence had intervened. 
 One wrong led to another. The thunder-storms had cleared 
 the atmosphere, but they had left their mark. The suspension 
 of all Canons, Statutes, Customs, or Constitutions for so many 
 years by the Long Parliament and Cromwell had suggested 
 strong measures and strong language to the restored Govern- 
 ment. It is indeed remarkable that, under the circumstances, 
 so little invasion of the liberties of the subject took place; 
 
 1 Archives.
 
 244 ALL SOULS UNDER CHARLES II. [CHAP. 
 
 a moderation attributable to Clarendon and Sheldon in the 
 first instance, as well as to Charles himself, and still more 
 exclusively to Charles's own credit when their influence was 
 gone. Perhaps even the above letters were the work of his 
 unscrupulous Secretary, and scarcely received a thought 
 from the careless monarch. For though he carried his 
 point in the case of Prideaux, there is evidence that he 
 listened to reason, and acted differently afterwards. On a 
 subsequent occasion, when hard pressed to repeat his Mandate 
 to the College, he pleaded a promise he had made never to 
 interfere again. And the archive-chests of All Souls have 
 somehow obtained possession of a letter addressed by the 
 King to Oriel College in favour of a Mr. Twitty, and couched 
 in much the same terms as the above ; but there is also a 
 second letter, handsomely withdrawing the Mandate on a 
 representation of the unfitness of the candidate, and even 
 apologising for his interference. The King dispensed with 
 Dr. Browne's ' never yet having been a member of the 
 foundation ' when he ' recommended ' him for the Provost- 
 ship of Eton in December, 1661 ; but on ' further informa- 
 tion' in February, 1662, revokes the request, and substi- 
 tutes the name of Dr. Meredith (who was already Warden 
 of All Souls), and he is elected accordingly in the following 
 May 1 . 
 
 The College did not elect Prideaux without a struggle, 
 which is best described in the following extract from the 
 'Acta': 
 
 ' Agreed by the Warden and all the Fellows present that 
 Dr. Millington be desired to draw up a petition to the 
 King's Majesty in the College name therein setting forth 
 that free election is granted to the College by their Charter 
 and confirmed unto them by a Private Act of Parliament, 
 and that by it the Warden and Fellows are bound by their 
 oaths to maintain the rights and privileges of the College, 
 
 1 Calendar of State Papers.
 
 xiii.] DUKE OF ORMOND'S CONDUCT. 245 
 
 that thereby the King's Majesty may be satisfied in the 
 cause why the College had not put his letters in favour of 
 Mr. Prideaux into execution.' 
 
 These sentiments were worthy of Hampden, but unfortu- 
 nately, as subsequent events proved, they were hollow. The 
 ground for maintaining the ' rights and privileges of the 
 College' was cut from under the Fellows by their own 
 customary gloss upon the Statutes, which was in reality an 
 habitual disregard of right. The petition came to nothing, 
 except so far as it checked the King in the future. 
 Prideaux was elected. It must be said there was no allega- 
 tion of unfitness. 
 
 The Duke of Ormond's letter, in 1676, gives us a further 
 indication of the low position into which the College had 
 fallen. He would protect them from the King, but he 
 makes them understand that he will not do it for nothing : 
 he puts it very clearly to them that they must pay him 
 something by way of black-mail. 
 
 His letter is dated from Euston, Sept. 25, 1676, and 
 after requiring the College to take notice of the efforts he 
 has made to prevent the King from forcing their Fellow- 
 ships, he says : 
 
 ' While I do this on my part, you must look to be troubled 
 sometimes with my recommendations upon extraordinary 
 occasions, and that I expect you must comply with them 
 if you look I should still stand in the gap for you ; and of 
 this nature I present one to you now. Mr. Gervais Scroope, 
 son of Sir Adrian Scroope and grandson of Sir Gervais 
 Scroope, who both so eminently served the Crown in the 
 late unhappy times, and suffered so much for their loyalty 
 therein, is now a candidate to be chosen Fellow of your 
 College. Now being so qualified for that election, and 
 besides a young man of great hopes in his studies, and as 
 I am informed, virtuously inclined, I could not refuse the 
 giving him this my recommendatory letter to you, as well 
 for his sake as to prevent the interposition of His Majesty's 
 positive command in his favour, not doubting but you will
 
 246 ALL SOULS UNDER CHARLES II. [CHAP. 
 
 gratify me in the choice of him, wherein you will both en- 
 courage and oblige me to serve you in all your concerns, 
 which I desire you to communicate to the Fellows of your 
 Society, and am always 
 
 ' Your very affectionate servant, ORJIOND ' .' 
 
 How the Duke, and the Sovereign in the background, 
 were resisted on this occasion we do not find, but the name 
 of the youth in question does not appear on the' Register. 
 Perhaps the College found on examination that the ' hopes ' 
 entertained by his patron ' in his studies' were of an un- 
 substantial character. Perhaps their aged Visitor carried 
 more weight for the candidates he himself recommends, 
 inasmuch as we shall now see that he at last departs from 
 his former course, wearied out with failures on all sides, 
 perceiving that the King and Court were now openly 
 attacking the Constitution, and apparently thinking he had 
 as good a right to recommend as they, or the Chancellor, or 
 a ' corruptly-resigning' Fellow. 
 
 There are no letters extant from Sheldon to the College 
 on this subject for several years after 1666 ; but he resumes 
 in 1675, when he 'recommends' certain persons to the 
 Warden, of whom he says: 
 
 ' Their characters are better understood amongst you than 
 at this distance, and experience will make the truest discovery 
 of their abilities, and how far they are qualified for such an 
 encouragement. I leave them therefore to their trial, and in- 
 tercede no further for either your's or the College's favour and 
 kindness towards any of them than as they shall approve 
 themselves by their real deserts most worthy of the Society 
 and place for which they are suitors.' 
 
 This tone of recommendation is not of itself objection- 
 able if there were to be any interference at all; but in 
 a later letter of the same year he begs that f if the can- 
 didate's learning be in any degree answerable to his be- 
 
 1 Archives.
 
 XIIL] SHELDON GIVES WAY. 247 
 
 haviour in College, all possible favour and kindness be 
 shewed to him.' He seems also to have stretched a point 
 in directing that a particular Fellow's ' Faculty ' might be 
 ' commuted,' since commutation of Faculties was a mode 
 of evading Chichele's provision as to the Fellows who 
 must take Holy Orders. At any rate the College only 
 complied under protest 1 . 
 
 Whether these proofs of weakness in extreme old age 
 ought to cancel Sheldon's previous commendable action in the 
 matter of College elections must be left to the judgment 
 of the reader. They at least afford a proof, if any were 
 needed, that if a system of self-renewal by free elections 
 is a valuable one in any institution it must be kept pure 
 at the fountain-head. If tendencies to abuse can make 
 such way and spread so widely as to sweep away at last 
 those who had most earnestly resisted them, the first 
 declension from consistency must be watched with extreme 
 jealousy. 
 
 It has been said that, in spite of all, the College standard 
 of examination was reasonably high. Some clever recruits 
 were at any rate enlisted at this very period. In 1668 
 Godolphin, afterwards Provost of Eton, was elected; and 
 in 1673 William Guise, an Oriental scholar of the very 
 highest reputation, whose early death ten years later was 
 deplored by the learned society of all Europe. In 1678 the 
 famous deist, Matthew Tindal, began his long career at 
 All Souls. The number of distinguished men who appear 
 upon the Ilegister immediately after a real freedom of election 
 is secured, is however much greater than before, and can 
 scarcely be the result of accident. 
 
 Another aspect of these efforts to impose Fellows on the 
 College from without may also be regarded in this place. The 
 University Commissioners of 1852 tell us in their Report 2 
 
 1 Tanner MSS. vol. 340. 2 p. 1-81.
 
 248 ALL SOULS UNDER CHARLES II. [CHAP. 
 
 that in All Souls ' birth and general social qualifications 
 seem to have given preference as far back as 1686 to 
 Wardens, and to Fellows at least as far as the commence- 
 ment of the present century.' They might have ascended 
 far higher in the latter case. The origin of the preference 
 mentioned may really be attributed to the Stuart period, 
 to the Mandates and Recommendations of Kings, Chancellors, 
 and Visitors, to the intimate connection between Kings 
 and Primates all through this period, to the replacing of 
 the Parliamentary Fellows by members of Cavalier families. 
 The respect for old families and their ancient merits in 
 the cause of Church and Crown gradually took root and 
 reproduced itself. The freedom of elections which Sancroft 
 carried, and which the principles of the Revolution per- 
 petuated, only gave the more scope to this feeling, till the 
 preference for noble birth came, by the commencement of 
 the present century, to be recognised as the one prominent 
 feature of the College, and so to occasion the remark of 
 the Commissioners. No doubt the privileges of Founder's 
 Kin were a powerful element in producing collegiate exclu- 
 siveness in modern times ; but this had been in operation 
 long before. In 1714 'the preference for birth and general 
 social qualifications ' seems to have been as notorious as a 
 century and a half later, if we may believe only a portion 
 of the acrid criticism of Hearne, who hated All Souls for 
 reasons of his own. 'They generally/ he says, 'pick out 
 those that have no need of a Fellowship, persons of great 
 fortunes and high birth and little morals and less learning ; 
 and those that are remarkable for their industry and learning 
 and probity, and would prove ornaments both to the College 
 and University, are very rarely regarded by them 1 .' Thus, 
 on the point of preference for birth, we connect once more the 
 specialty of the College with the political exigencies of the 
 
 1 Diary; 49. 188 (Ap. 24, 1714).
 
 xiii.] PREFERENCE FOR BIRTH. 249 
 
 seventeenth century, and so far with the general history of 
 England. 
 
 The venerable Archbishop whose life has been touched 
 upon in so many of the past Chapters died in 1677, in his 
 eightieth year. One of the later glimpses we obtain of him 
 is reflected through the last Will of Lord Clarendon, dated 
 from 'Rouen, Dec. u, 1674.' The fastest of friendships, 
 maintained in prosperity and adversity for half a century, in 
 the classic society of Lord Falkland's open mansion, the 
 martial excitement of the University fortress, the vicissitudes 
 of exile, the guidance of two kings, the reorganisation of a 
 shattered nation, the struggle with high-placed vice, the 
 common loss of Court favour, the second exile, and the 
 quiet preparation for death, finds its last expression in these 
 directions to his sons. Bequeathing to them ' all his papers 
 and writings of what kind soever,' he leaves these ' entirely 
 to their disposal as they shall be advised, either by sup- 
 pressing or publishing, by the advice and approbation of my 
 Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Win- 
 chester, whom I do intreat to be the overseers of this my 
 Will ; and that they would be both suitors to His Majesty 
 on my children's behalf, who have all possible need of His 
 Majesty's charity, being children of a father who never com- 
 mitted fault against His Majesty V The resolution taken 
 by his sons not to publish the one great classical history 
 in our language for so many years was no doubt due to 
 these ' overseers of the Will.' It was probably judicious. 
 Too many persons were implicated. The effect which the 
 publication produced in the reign of Queen Anne was 
 enormous 2 . 
 
 From Anthony Wood we obtain a momentary view of the 
 Archbishop, where the eccentric antiquarian describes how he 
 saw him in London, received his encouragement in his great 
 
 1 Clarendon State Papers, iii. 736. 
 
 2 Lord Stanhope's Hist, of England, vol. ii. p. 50.
 
 250 ALL SOULS UNDER CHARLES II. [CHAP. 
 
 literary work, and knelt for his blessing l . Few letters are 
 more creditable to any writer than one of the last Sheldon 
 wrote, but which was sent by Sancroft, after Sheldon's death, 
 to an obstinately non-resident Bishop, with whom he most 
 touchingly remonstrates on his neglect of duty 2 . But we 
 shall perhaps obtain a clearer notion of the mind of one who 
 has left little or nothing behind him but his actions, by 
 quoting his Will, which has not yet been printed 3 . We 
 cannot always judge of men even by this class of documents, 
 but the present seems an exceptional case. It is as follows : 
 
 ( I, Gilbert Sheldon, Archbishop of Canterbury, being in 
 good health of body and sound and perfect in memory and 
 understanding (God be praised for it) doe make and ordaine 
 this my last Will and Testament in manner and forme fol- 
 lowing. First I recommend my soule into the mercifull hands 
 of my gracious Redeemer, my only Lord, Saviour and Master 
 Jesus Christ, relying wholly upon his goodness and mercy 
 for my salvation, giving him most humble thanks for calling 
 mee by his Gospel and grace to his knowledge and obedi- 
 ence, abhorring all sects, sidings and tyranny in religion, 
 holding fast the true orthodox profession of the Catholique 
 faith of Christ, foretold by the prophets and preached to the 
 world by Christ himself, his blessed Apostles and their suc- 
 cessors, being a true member of his Catholique Church within 
 the Communion of a living part thereof, the present Church 
 of England, desiring God to confirme mee in this fiaith and in 
 all Christian charity and his holy feare to my lives end. 
 My body I desire may be devoutly buried, but very privately 
 and speedily, that my funerall may not wast much of what I 
 leave behind me for better uses.' 
 
 These last words may be illustrated by the remark that we 
 have scarcely any record of such munificence towards good 
 and charitable objects as he shewed all through his life. 
 We have no record of the sums he spent in the relief of 
 two Kings, and of their friends in exile ; but his gifts to 
 'public, pious and charitable uses' are usually reckoned at 
 
 1 Life, p. Ixv. 2 Tanner MSS. vol. 86. fol. 190. 
 
 '* Collection of MSS. in Codrington's Library, All Souls College.
 
 xiii.] SHELDON'S WILL AND EPITAPH. 251 
 
 .^66,000. His treasurer, who ought to know, put them at 
 j^7 2,000 1 , a sum representing in material value some three 
 or four hundred thousand pounds of our money ! He came 
 of an old Staffordshire family, and no doubt some of these 
 funds came out of fortunes which he shared. Unmarried, 
 he lived for the public. ' He was buried, the 16 Nov. 1677, 
 at Croydon with little solemnity, for soe he desired 2 .' His 
 appropriate motto was ' Fortiter et suaviter? His epitaph 
 contains the following words : 
 
 ' Omnibus negotiis par, omnibus titulis superior, in rebus ad- 
 versis magnus, in prosperis bonus, utriusque fortune Dominus, 
 pauperum parens, literatorum patronus, ecclesite stator : De 
 tanto viro pauca dicere non expedit, multa non opus est : nomnt 
 prcesentes, posteri viao credent: Octogenarius animam piam et 
 ccelo maturam Leo reddidit V. Id. ioP 1677.' 
 
 There is but one contemporaneous evidence, at all in full, 
 of the manner in which the life and character of the 
 Archbishop struck competent observers in his later days. 
 It has already been translated from the Latin and printed, 
 but cannot be omitted in this place. Samuel Parker, James 
 the Second's Bishop of Oxford and pseudo-President of 
 Magdalen College, does not come down to us with the 
 best of characters ; but he was an able man, with the best 
 opportunities of judging concerning Sheldon ; and his 
 Commentarii de rebus sui temporis, which contain much 
 valuable information, were only published long after his 
 death. Let the passage be taken for what it is worth. 
 
 ' Archbishop Sheldon/ says he, ' was a man of undoubted 
 piety, but though he was very assiduous at prayers, yet he 
 did not set so great a value on them as others did, nor 
 regarded so much worship as the use of worship, placing 
 the chief point of religion in the practice of a good life. 
 In his daily discourse he cautioned those about him not to 
 deceive themselves with an half religion, nor to think that 
 
 1 Le Neve's Lives of the Bishops. 
 
 2 Ashmole MSS., Bodleian Library, 860. 400.
 
 252 ALL SOULS UNDER CHARLES II. [CHAP. 
 
 Divine Worship was confined within the walls of the church, 
 the principal part of it being- without doors, and consisting 
 in being- conversant with mankind. If men led an upright, 
 sober, chaste life, then and not till then, they might look 
 upon themselves as religious; otherwise it would signify 
 nothing what form of religion bad men followed, or to 
 what Church they belonged. Then having spoken to this 
 effect he added with a kind of exultation and joy : " Do 
 well and rejoice." 
 
 ' His advice to young noblemen and gentlemen who by 
 their parents' commands resorted daily to him was always 
 this: "Let it be your principal care to become honest 
 men, and afterwards be as devout and religious as you 
 will. No piety will be of any advantage to yourselves 
 or anybody else unless you are honest and moral men." 
 He had a great aversion to all pretences to extraordinary 
 piety which covered real dishonesty ; but had a sincere 
 affection for those whose religion was attended with 
 integrity of manners. His worthy notions of religion 
 meeting with an excellent temper in him gave him that 
 even tranquillity of mind by which he was ever himself and 
 always the same in adversity and prosperity, neither over- 
 valued nor despised life, nor feared nor wished for death ; 
 but lived agreeably to himself and others.' 
 
 It is easy to see how the species of exhortation here 
 ascribed to Sheldon might be misinterpreted and perverted ; 
 but there is nothing even in this extract (which is, after 
 all, only Parker's statement) to justify the opinion that he 
 encouraged carelessness about religion. What he had learnt 
 by sad experience, acquired in times when religious pro- 
 fessions had been full surely brought to the test, was to 
 discourage unreality and cant. Parker's account of the pre- 
 eminent affection borne by Charles the First to Sheldon is 
 entirely consistent with all we may gather from the indi- 
 cations given in these pages. 
 
 One other ray of light has been thrown on Sheldon's 
 religious opinions, but at a much earlier date. It is in 
 connection with the celebrated Chillingworth, one of the 
 circle which frequented Great Tew. The question of signa- 
 ture to the Articles of the Church of England was in those
 
 xiii.] SHELDON'S M ALIGNERS. 253 
 
 days, as in modern times, hotly debated. Chillingworth went 
 over for a time to the Roman Communion ; Sheldon was the 
 means of bringing him back to our own, and of persuading 
 him to sign the Articles in a sense which Chillingworth 
 has explained as follows, and which Laud also held. 
 
 ' For the Church of England I am persuaded that the 
 constant doctrine of it is so pure and orthodox that whosoever 
 believes it and lives according to it undoubtedly he shall be 
 saved ; and that there is no error in it which may necessitate 
 or warrant any man to disturb the peace or renounce the 
 Communion of it V 
 
 If Sheldon had not been so grossly misrepresented by 
 Burnet and Neal, these latter remarks and quotations would 
 not have been inserted; since a mere reference would have 
 better suited the plan of this book. The reader has now 
 before him in a very condensed form, indeed the career 
 and character of an eminent man. He will judge how far 
 any differences of view which might fairly be entertained 
 as to his political conduct or religious opinions justify what 
 follows. 
 
 . ' Sheldon,' says Burnet, ' was accounted a learned man 
 before the wars, but he was now engaged so deep in politics 
 that scarce any prints of what he had been remained. He 
 was a very dextrous man in business, had a great quickness 
 of apprehension, and a very true judgment. He was a 
 generous and charitable man. He had a great pleasant- 
 ness in conversation, perhaps too great. He had an art 
 that was peculiar to him of treating all that came to him 
 in a most obliging manner; but few depended much on his 
 professions of friendship. He seemed not to have a deep 
 sense of religion, if any at all, and spoke of it most commonly 
 as of an engine oT government and a matter of policy. By 
 this means the King came to look on him as a wise and 
 "honest clergyman 2 .' 
 
 So far alone appeared in the editions of Burnet published 
 before Dr. Routh's Oxford Edition, when various suppressed 
 
 1 Preface to ' Eeligion of Protestants a Safe Way to Salvation.' 
 
 2 Burnet's History of his Own Time, vol. i. p. 303.
 
 254 ALL SOULS UNDER CHARLES II. [CHAP. 
 
 passages, which the former editors had cautiously omitted, 
 were inserted in brackets. The following appendage to the 
 above statement was one of these : ' though he had 
 little virtue and less religion.' This paragraph was so 
 outrageously malicious that the editors no doubt refused 
 to insert it for fear it should invalidate other statements 
 in the book; but this was, and always is, a mistake. We 
 see plainly by the light of the whole passage, what we 
 might have suspected before, that Burnet drew his informa- 
 tion from untrustworthy sources, from Sheldon's political 
 enemies, even if he had not ' evolved it,' as we now 
 say, ' out of his own consciousness.' Some echoes of the 
 Royalist dissatisfaction at the measures of the Restoration 
 in which Sheldon was concerned perhaps reached his ears, 
 and supplied part of this veracious ' character ;' but one would 
 have thought, to charge with ' little virtue and less religion ' 
 the intimate friend and constant associate of Clarendon, Falk- 
 land, Sanderson, Hammond and Morley, the fellow-w r orker 
 with Laud, the adviser of Jeremy Taylor, the chosen spiritual 
 counsellor of Charles the First, the rebuker of Charles the 
 Second, the man whose actions we have traced (and which 
 must have been well known to Burnet, for he w r as born in 
 1643), an( ^ f wnom such words have been written as we 
 have quoted, would have been a little too much even for 
 one whose ' characters' of his opponents are proverbially 
 untrustworthy. 
 
 Yet this statement as far as the early editors gave it 
 was copied verbatim into Kenneths ' Register,' from 
 whence (if not from Burnet) those who have written our 
 ' English Histories ' have unenquiringly taken it ! And the 
 Nonconformist, Neal, has made a little improvement on it 
 in these words : ' He made a jest of religion any further 
 than it was a political engine of State 1 !' For this Neal 
 
 1 Hist, of the Puritans, ii. 708.
 
 xiii.] GENESIS OF THE SLANDER. 255 
 
 had no shadow of authority beyond Burnet's statement as 
 originally published. The art of blackening an opponent's 
 memory could hardly reach a higher perfection. But even 
 Hallam so little remembered his professed wish to be fair, 
 as to say without further comment 'Sheldon is represented 
 as a man who considered religion chiefly as an engine of 
 policy 1 .' Yes ; he is ' represented ' so by Burnet and Neal, 
 authors whom Hallam quotes with marked approbation 
 throughout ! 
 
 Some, and at least All Souls men, will recognise the few 
 words placed against Sheldon's name at the foot of Loggan's 
 print of All Souls a contemporary document, be it observed 
 as more correctly expressing the facts : : Divino animo 
 mac/ni Chichley e KTV TIOS.' 
 
 1 Const. Hist. ii. 351.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ,rrMs0 Smttrofi 
 
 attir % 
 1678-1680. 
 
 The final struggle on ' Corrupt Resignations ' History of the Tan- 
 ner MSS. Sancroft's vigorous Reform Coincidence of struggle 
 with the national crisis on Exclusion Bill The superior class of 
 Fellows put in by Bancroft and Jeames Defence made by 
 Fellows Visitor and Warden fairly embarked against the 
 Fellows. 
 
 THE battle with the dragon of corruption now begins in 
 earnest. It is short, sharp, and decisive. For the previous 
 struggles have been mere skirmishes ; the monster has reared 
 his head with all the more vigour after each wound ; and yet 
 those wounds were given by men who were no unsuccessful 
 combatants in the battle of life. A St. George at last appeared 
 on the scene. Who would have thought that conquest was 
 reserved for one whom Bishop Burnet tells us was preferred 
 by the Court as 'a man who might be entirely gained to 
 serve all their ends ... an unactive, speculative man 1 ?' 
 Perhaps the line of conduct which we shall find Bancroft 
 pursuing at All Souls may lead us to suspect once more the 
 burly Prelate's impartiality. 
 
 As this and the next chapter will be occupied in bringing 
 the question of corrupt Resignations to a conclusion, some 
 apology is necessary for an attention to details which has been 
 
 1 History of his Own Time, vol. ii. p. 90.
 
 THE TANNER MANUSCRIPTS. 257 
 
 elsewhere avoided. Independently of the light thrown from 
 such an unexpected quarter on Sancroft's character, and the 
 curious coincidence between this and the great struggle of the 
 nation now raging, more than a coincidence, since they inter- 
 penetrate one another, those who are interested in observing 
 the painful process by which a great moral victory is obtained, 
 will not, it is hoped, object to have a picture presented to them 
 which time never fails to reproduce in one sphere or another. 
 It so happens that the whole, or nearly the whole, of the cor- 
 respondence bearing on the subject is available for our pur- 
 pose, let not the reader be alarmed; we shall present him 
 with the briefest abstracts of it ; these papers may plead for 
 themselves that they have gone through one of the most 
 remarkable histories on record. 
 
 Archbishop Sancroft was not only an antiquarian who 
 made collections of important documents, but a methodical 
 man, who carefully preserved every letter he received, as well 
 as, in all important cases, copies of those he sent. This, we 
 may hope, is not uncommon ; nor is it uncommon that the 
 most precious collections should come to the hammer. San- 
 croft's nephew sold the Archbishop's MSS. to a bookseller 1 , 
 from whom, most fortunately, Bishop Tanner purchased them. 
 His connection with All Souls as one of its most loyal Fellows 
 led him to collect in one volume all Sancroft's papers relating 
 to the College, and to send it, along with the rest of his price- 
 less collection of books and manuscripts, to Oxford. They 
 were the result of the labour of forty years, such labour as 
 only two or three other persons have perhaps ever bestowed 
 on antiquarian research. He sent them from Norwich to 
 Oxford in a barge, as, it must be supposed, the safest method 
 of carriage. The barge upset in the Thames. 
 
 The cases of books and papers lay ' twenty hours below 
 water ; and there were as many of them when opened as 
 loaded seven waggons, among which were between two and 
 
 1 Hearne's Diary, 134. 165. 
 
 s
 
 258 VISITOR AND FELLOWS AT WAR. [CHAP. 
 
 three hundred volumes of MSS. which his Lordship hath 
 been collecting 1 near these forty years. They are so much 
 damaged they are obliged to take them to pieces and dry 
 them on lines. Several of them are lost, and many of them 
 so much damaged as to be useless V 
 
 1 The revenues of Canterbury,' says Hearne, ' would not make 
 him [Bishop Tanner] or the world amends for the loss of part 
 of Archbishop Sancroft's MSS. which are irreparable 2 .' 
 
 At Tanner's death the whole collection was, in obedience to 
 his Will of 1733, sent to the Bodleian Library, (1736). The 
 restoration by a chemical process of some of these damaged 
 treasures is at this moment in progress at the Bodleian ; but 
 the volume containing the All Souls papers was only dis- 
 coloured, and was copied in part by a chaplain of the 
 College, more than a hundred years ago, and lodged in the 
 Codrington Library. 
 
 The series of letters now introduced opens with some cautious 
 approaches to the new Visitor on the part of the Warden. 
 They evidently express the feeling, ' What sort of a man 
 have we now at our head? Will he look into our affairs? 
 Will he interfere to protect us, as Sheldon was once able 
 to do, from the degradation to which we are now becoming 
 almost callous?' In this spirit the earliest opportunity is 
 embraced to thank the Archbishop for not having 'recom- 
 mended ' any candidates at the election, and at the same time 
 to offer him a choice among the candidates whose ' themes ' 
 are transmitted, a species of bribery which, under the cir- 
 cumstances, we must not perhaps be too hasty to condemn. 
 We shall soon see the Warden taking a higher tone. 
 
 Then follow letters from various persons pursuing the 
 old trade of begging and praying the Visitor to grant 
 them Fellowships at All Souls ; in one of which letters 
 we find mention of some female who is about to 'dispose 
 
 1 Northampton Mercury, January 10, 1731, quoted by Hearne 
 (and probably written by himself), Diary, 134. 132. 
 
 2 Diary, 134. 165.
 
 xiv.] FIRST SIGNS OF THE STORM. 259 
 
 of this as she has done of other Fellowships ' ! Well might 
 good men long for some change 1 ! The College on its 
 part makes a great merit of having contributed 100 
 towards the rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral, an object 
 well known to be very near the heart of the man whom 
 Wren found (along with Evelyn) his earliest and most 
 constant friend in that grand undertaking. There is evi- 
 dently a shrewd suspicion that a storm is brewing. 
 
 Sancroft had, indeed, already expressed his mind in some 
 letter which neither appea'rs in the Tanner MSS. nor in the 
 Archives; for just before the election on All Souls' Day, 
 1679, the Warden informs the Visitor of the difficulty he 
 is in with regard to one Mr. Morley's vacancy, and the 
 election of Mr. Morley's nominee, Mr. Stanley. He thanks 
 the Archbishop for his 
 
 ' fatherly care in preserving the College in its just liberties 
 in our free elections and in due obedience to the Statutes of 
 our pious Founder ; and we should very much forget our 
 duty if we did not thankfully submit and hearken to your 
 admonitions and readily obey your commands. The sense 
 I have of this duty obligeth me not to consent to the elec- 
 tion of the person recommended to us by Mr. Morley. . . 
 The young man whom Mr. Morley proposeth to us is one 
 Mr. Stanley, a Demy of Magdalene College, one who hath 
 performed at the Examination as well as any of the nine 
 that stood, considering his standing and years. Mr. Morley, 
 as I am certainly informed, came down to Oxford with a 
 resolution of resigning to one Mr. Coney of that House, 
 and pitched upon this young man but the night before he 
 was to appear to be examined, so that he had little time or 
 opportunity to make any contract with him ; and to free him- 
 self from that suspicion offers to take the usual oath which we 
 administer to Resigners, which is full enough for that purpose. 
 ... I must say something for my own clearing, and that is 
 that I never promised my vote beforehand to any man, nor 
 ever shall do it. ... 
 
 ' Your Grace's most obedient servant, THO. JEAMES V 
 
 1 Tanner MSS. vol. 340. 
 
 2 This and the following letters, to the end of Chap. xv.,are from 
 the Tanner MSS. vol. 340. 
 
 s 2
 
 260 VISITOR AND FELLOWS AT WAR. [CHAP. 
 
 But immediately after the election the poor Warden 
 finds himself in a scrape. He thus reports : 
 
 ' We have finished our election, and have chosen very hope- 
 ful young men into the void places, and among the rest 
 Stanley of Magdalene College, not as a person commended 
 to us by Mr. Morley, but as one who deserved as well as any 
 of the candidates ; but, my lord, I had not presumed to con- 
 sent to his election but that I had grounds to believe he was 
 not the person your Grace meant when you forbid me to 
 accept Mr. Morley's man, and was withal assured that your 
 Grace was well satisfied that there was no trucking in the case 
 and accordingly had declared yourself.' 
 
 It is evident from these earlier letters that Warden 
 Jeames, however much he had tried to make the exa- 
 minations strict, and resist unfit nominees either from 
 within or without, had been too long mixed up with the 
 proceedings of the College to strike a decisive blow at the 
 root of the evil. It could not be done from within. If 
 the nominee had passed a good examination, and there was 
 no absolute proof of corrupt dealing, the Warden was not 
 yet prepared to bring the College about his ears by re- 
 fusing a man because he was a nominee. But this was the 
 point ; and Sancroft saw it. With characteristic resolution 
 he prepares to deal with it ; with characteristic pertinacity 
 he perseveres till he succeeds. There is always at least 
 in England some one to follow when a gallant leader is 
 found. The Warden soon discovers he has a Visitor whom 
 he can trust. He rises to the occasion ; at once, to his 
 great credit, he casts aside the half-measures with which he 
 had been hitherto contented, and throws himself into the 
 breach. On one occasion when even Sancroft was for a 
 moment staggered, the old Cavalier, who had ' borne arms 
 for the good King/ tells him pretty plainly they had gone 
 too far to retreat, and that they must now conquer or die. 
 The struggle does indeed, as a matter of fact, bring him 
 prematurely to the grave.
 
 xiv.] SOME USEFUL DISCOVERIES. 261 
 
 Some correspondence, which we have not before us, has 
 followed the above letters; for on May 9, 1680, the Warden 
 sends the Visitor a full account of the existing- state of 
 things as regards oaths and elections. A scientific inves- 
 tigation is commenced ; and the Warden suggests that the 
 Archbishop should make his own chaplain's case the first 
 example, since this functionary, one Mr. Trumbull, a 
 Fellow of the College, was at this very time intriguing, 
 under the Primate's very nose, for a nominee. No doubt 
 the gentleman saw the necessity of speed in the matter. 
 If this were made 'the leading case ... no one will have 
 cause to complain in future.' He then supplies the forms 
 of Oath taken by Petitioners, Fellows on admission, and Re- 
 signers. The two first of these are Whitgiffc's Oaths \ but 
 the third is not. Nor is it Abbot's, of which it turns out 
 that the College is absolutely ignorant. It had been evi- 
 dently substituted for Abbot's Oath. As more lax than his, 
 it was not likely to excite unpleasant enquiries. It seems 
 to have admitted of easy evasion; and yet it appears at 
 first sight strict enough. Here it is : 
 
 f l, A. B., do swear that neither I, or any other for me, 
 by my consent or knowledge, have contracted to receive 
 money or money-worth for that my departure or resigning 
 whereby any other should be chosen or elected into my place.' 
 
 It will be seen, however, that this only speaks in the 
 past tense. An ' understanding ' might still take place by 
 which, when the resignation was completed and the nominee 
 elected, the quid pro quo might find its way to the right 
 quarter. There is no clue to the date of this substitution. 
 The gap caused by the Civil War in the continuity of 
 College arrangements makes itself felt in such ways as this. 
 
 Warden Jeames at any rate knew nothing about this 
 oath. It was fortunate that the Archiepiscopal Archives of 
 
 1 See p. 107.
 
 262 VISITOR AND FELLOWS AT WAR. [CHAP. 
 
 Lambeth were more available than those of All Souls. The 
 Warden had only 'heard' of some better provision against 
 corruption. 
 
 ' I have heard that Dr. Moket, who was Warden in King- 
 James's reign, would have imposed an oath upon the 
 designers whereby they should have been obliged never to 
 have received any gratuity from their successors or their 
 friends in case it should be offered ; but that the Fellows 
 refused to take any such oath, saying that if they were 
 obliged to resign to nobody that might be grateful they 
 must then resign to the Devil.' 
 
 He also suggests that collusion would be made more 
 difficult by obliging Resigners to declare themselves ten 
 days before the election, and thus to give time for 'looking 
 out fit persons to succeed, and to examine them three days 
 before the election.' 
 
 It was this passage about Moket and the ' resignation 
 to the Devil ' which produced the Archbishop's indignant 
 letter, given in Chapter VIII, and introduced out of its 
 place for the purpose of its illustration of Abbot's position. 
 But the date of that letter is a few months later than the 
 above. The Visitor had in the mean time ordered a search 
 to be made in his Registry, had lighted upon Abbot's 
 Injunctions, and concluded, quite rightly, that the oaths, 
 as Abbot had enjoined them, being sufficient for his purpose, 
 it would be best to recur to them rather than to any new 
 expedient. Those oaths dealt with the future reception of 
 an equivalent for a Fellowship as well as with any past 
 transaction ; and so could not be evaded without absolute 
 perjury. He now therefore incorporates these oaths into 
 his ' Injunction, 1 adding the Warden's suggestion, and 
 severely rebuking the College for having ' for many years 
 supinely neglected, or openly and obstinately broken, 
 Injunctions so piously provided and firmly fortified, and 
 substituted for those prescribed and stricter forms others
 
 xiv.] THE NEW ORDINANCES. 263 
 
 much more loose and long obsolete, and so having introduced 
 into your College as by an open gate sordid and illegal 
 bargainings and simoniacal covenants and promises, or, 
 which is the same thing, rewards and payments 1 .' He 
 follows up this Injunction by an Ordinance 2 , from which 
 a few words may be quoted : 
 
 ' Since those Resignations which pass by the name of 
 " in favor em " or " ad gratiam " j they had obtained a regular 
 name] ' are very properly considered suspicious and odious 
 . . . and at least imply the iniquitous stain of Simony, we 
 therefore by virtue of your oath, and so under the penalty 
 of perjury which you must pay either in this world or at 
 the tremendous tribunal of the Supreme Judge, enjoin that 
 you admit of no Resignation in any way unless it is pure 
 and simple, but reject it as wholly null and void. If any 
 of you, contrary to the tenour of this ordinance, presume 
 to interfere, or offer, or designate any one as a successor 
 for election or admission to his own place which he is 
 vacating, or about to vacate, by word, writing, nod, token, 
 or any other way, we expressly forbid you to pay any 
 attention in your elections to such Resigner or his nominee ; 
 and we will and pronounce by this ordinance that such person 
 shall be altogether incapable of holding the place in the 
 College for which he stands.' 
 
 Several letters from the Warden, dated before and after 
 the public reading of these documents in the Chapel of All 
 Souls, shew him fully prepared to do his part. 
 
 He trusts the Visitor will ' obtain a blessing as well from 
 God as a good report among all honest men in preventing 
 any further abuses and corruptions in our elections, and in 
 taking away that scandal which hath hitherto too justly lain 
 upon us. ... I promise myself your Grace's patronage, being 
 otherwise unable to bear up against the opposition I foresee 
 I shall certainly meet with/ 
 
 And after the Primate's artillery has arrived he still fears 
 the escape of the enemy : 
 
 ' They have been so long accustomed to favour him whom 
 1 From the Latin copy in the Archives. 2 Ibid.
 
 264 VISITOR AND FELLOWS AT WAR. [CHAP. 
 
 the Resigner commends that they will hardly deny him though 
 they may have much better choice.' Yet ' several Parliament 
 men have resolved and threatened to complain of our selling 
 our Fellowships.' As for Abbot's Injunctions, he had ' never 
 heard a syllable of them before, nor have we any record in 
 our College extant that I ever saw.' 
 
 Amongst the letters of this date appears one from a certain 
 Emanuel Thorowgood, who tells the Archbishop that 
 
 ' all honest men do commend your good endeavours to 
 suppress that horrible impiety of selling Resignations which 
 is now practised in All Souls College, which is the occasion 
 of horrid perjuries, and will injime, if not redressed, make 
 Parliament employ College revenues to honester purposes 
 than they are now used.' 
 
 He then informs the Archbishop that his Grace's own 
 chaplain was bargaining to push a nominee into the College 
 for 250 guineas. 
 
 This most eventful of All Souls' Days is now drawing near. 
 The Warden writes that the Fellows desire time for advice 
 before taking the new Oaths. He wishes to know whether 
 he shall refuse their votes if they have not taken the Oaths 
 on the day of election. 
 
 ' With your Grace's encouragement I will run through all 
 opposition in assisting to break off' those sinful and shameful 
 customs which have made us so scandalous. . . All the arts 
 are used imaginable to discourage all candidates appearing 
 besides the four recommended by the Decessors, and yet I 
 think we never had so good a choice as now. . . I doubt 
 not but in all our future elections we shall still have as good 
 choice as the University affords when it shall at last appear 
 that the Fellowships of All Souls be conferred on the most 
 worthy.' 
 
 These extracts reveal the fact that the approaching election 
 was exciting attention in other places besides the College. 
 Political partisanship was running higher at this time than 
 ever before or since, short of civil war. This was the year,
 
 xiv,] THE NATIONAL CRISIS. 265 
 
 and almost the very instant of the Exclusion Bill, which 
 was introduced on November 1 1 . Lord Stafford's iniquitous 
 execution for his supposed concern in the ' Popish Plot ' took 
 place a few days later. The allusions in the correspondence 
 to the Primate's harassed condition, and the regret felt at 
 this additional burden being- imposed on him, are frequent. 
 In such a convulsion even the affairs of All Souls might yield 
 a triumph to the patrons of Titus Gates and Turberville. 
 Writing on November 20, soon after the election, the Warden 
 excuses his past apprehensions by saying that the election 
 took place just ' when the House of Commons went on 
 without the least control to unsettle and overturn all things/ 
 for the Exclusion Bill passed in that House tumultuously, 
 without a division, 'till upon the very day of the date of 
 my letter your Lordships gave them a check by throwing out 
 their Bill.' The difficulties of the position were still further 
 increased by the doubtful character of the Law Courts. 
 From the letter last quoted we find that the Warden's courage 
 was tried not only by fears of Parliament, but according 
 to what was threatened by some, ' that I should have been 
 called in question before such judges, who are against all 
 prerogatives and privileges except their own ; ' and the Fel- 
 lows, with all this on their side, ' did here beforehand pro- 
 claim their victory.' 
 
 We may judge from all this what was the state of the 
 atmosphere at and around All Souls when the 3rd of 
 November, 1680, arrived. It seems no doubt a mere 'storm 
 in a puddle ' when we think of the magnitude and fierceness 
 of the hurricane at this time ravaging Church and State, 
 the mighty questions depending on the issue at Westminster. 
 The succession to the Crown, the future position of Romanism 
 in England, the limits of the royal prerogative, the relations 
 of the two Houses, were only the most prominent out of 
 those which the King's own conduct had brought to a 
 point. The Great Rebellion was still fresh in men's minds,
 
 266 VISITOR AND FELLOWS AT WAR. [CHAP. 
 
 and the Revolution looming- in the distance. But the pool 
 reflects the same heavens as the ocean. The trial to which 
 the stout Warden was exposed proved no less severe than 
 that which Charles himself was at that time undergoing, 
 when he performed one of the few noble acts of his life in 
 standing- firm against his foes on the Exclusion Bill 1 . The 
 part Sancroft played in these transactions marks the man 
 who headed the Seven Bishops in saving the English Con- 
 stitution, nay, more, it doubtless aided materially in steeling 
 his mind for that greater conflict. 
 
 When All Souls' Day came it soon appeared that the re- 
 fractory Fellows had taken counsel's advice on the legality of 
 the Oaths, and were prepared to proceed to extremities. The 
 struggle lasted three days. No one but the Sub-Warden and 
 Senior Fellow would follow the Warden's example and take 
 the Oaths. The rest declared that nothing short of an Act of 
 Parliament should force them. On the second day they deter- 
 mined to resist the Warden's power of stopping an election, 
 the Veto which he had hitherto exercised. 
 
 ( They threw their votes/ says the Warden, ' in several 
 scraps of paper on the table, which I would not so much as 
 look upon, and forbade the Dean to receive them.' They pro- 
 ceeded thus, ' on purpose, as I suppose, to stagger and fright 
 me. I had nobody to advise with. The Common Lawyers 
 were gone to town, and the Civilians being for the most part 
 of New College and our own College, I thought them persons 
 concerned to uphold the practice used in both Houses of 
 recommending their successor.' 
 
 The election had now by Statute ' devolved' on the Visitor, 
 and the Warden says : 
 
 ' I doubt not but your Grace will make the best choice for 
 us. The three first-named are I think as good scholars as the 
 University affords for their standing-. This trouble will, I 
 fear, return every year upon your Grace till they are out 
 of hopes of reviving the ill custom of naming their successors 
 
 i See Quarterly Review, July 1872 ; ' The Stuarts.'
 
 xiv.] THE MUTINY AT ALL SOULS. 267 
 
 which your Injunction takes away. As long as I continue 
 Warden I will faithfully assist your Grace in the confounding 
 of it. God long preserve your Grace an instrument of his 
 glory and our reformation.' 
 
 Next day he writes to warn the Archbishop that he may 
 expect a visit from the malcontents : 
 
 'But I make no question but your Grace will make choice 
 of those whose worth will justify your proceedings, and give 
 me some support and comfort amongst the strivings and 
 oppositions against me. However, I shall have peace in my 
 own heart, since what I do in obedience to your Grace is 
 likewise that which I am persuaded in my conscience is my 
 duty both to God and to that charge and place wherewith I 
 am entrusted. The several exercises of the candidates under 
 their own hands, together with a most impartial account of 
 their other performances in Disputations and rendering of 
 authors, will be brought to your Grace on Tuesday.' 
 
 The reports thus transmitted to Sancroft are missing in the 
 Tanner Collection, but accidentally turned up in searching 
 the Rawlinson Collection l in the Bodleian Library. 
 
 Of one of the candidates the Warden reports that he is ' a 
 good scholar, a hard student, and a very honest poor youth of 
 our College.' Of another (Norris), ' a very excellent scholar 
 who spoke verses in the Theater with very greate applause, a 
 very good Grecian and philosopher, and a young Bachelor of 
 Arts ; he had his education at Winchester School, and is a 
 Wiltshire man and a clergyman's second son.' Of another 
 (Miles Stapylton of University College), ' a very excellent 
 scholar in all the learning in which he was tried, and one 
 of the " pauperiores." ' Of another, ' a very good scholar as 
 to philosophy and classic authors.' Of another (George Clarke), 
 that he was ' a young man who had shown brisk parts in the 
 examination.' 
 
 The Visitor selected three of those above mentioned out of 
 the four which it had become his duty to name. Norris 
 became an ornament to the College. He is known as a 
 
 1 Misc. 1390.
 
 268 VISITOR AND FELLOWS AT WAR. [CHAP. 
 
 ' writer of great repute in his day, who published several 
 treatises in Divinity and Philosophy. His " Miscellanies " 
 are still read and applauded 1 ,' says one who writes in 
 1813; but they are now forgotten. Though they can 
 scarcely be said to deserve any other fate when compared 
 with the writings of that day which have survived, his 
 ' Miscellanies ' shew an admirable tone of mind and amiable 
 character. The spirit of George Herbert still seems to inspire 
 his pious successor at Bemerton. To mention one point; 
 for a writer in 1687 to denounce duelling with the same 
 energy and by the same arguments 2 which have only just 
 subdued the practice in our own day a practice still flourish- 
 ing abroad is no common merit. Another of those selected 
 by the Visitor, Stapylton, was also a man of some distinction 
 in after life ; but the third, George Clarke, will occupy much 
 of our attention in a subsequent chapter. He lived to fill 
 high offices under the Crown, to represent the University in 
 five Parliaments, and to become, next to Codrington, the 
 most liberal benefactor All Souls ever had since its foundation. 
 Certainly at this period it might seem that the only way to 
 get the best men into the College was to leave the matter to 
 the Warden and Visitor. 
 
 We next have before us a very long and very able letter 
 from twenty-four Fellows of the College in defence of their 
 conduct. It is drawn with great legal skill, as might be 
 expected, since some of the best lawyers of the day e. g. 
 Dr. Littleton, who was afterwards Attorney- General were 
 amongst the number. They approach the Visitor with a 
 humility which appears sarcastic. They applaud his 
 
 ' pious zeal in endeavouring to prevent corruption in elec- 
 tions,' and 'we acknowledge ourselves obliged to promote 
 so good a design with our utmost endeavours. Your Grace 
 cannot propose any lawful expedient for freeing us even 
 from the suspicion of it but we are with all cheerfulness 
 
 1 Letters from the Bodleian. 2 Miscellanies, p. 169.
 
 xiv.] DEFENCE OF THE FELLOWS. 269 
 
 ready to comply.' They 'abhor' corruption. They are 
 bound to obey the Visitor's Injunctions if not repugnant 
 to their Statutes ; ' but if they are, we are sworn to resist 
 them,' nor are they to obey anything- ' contrary to the law 
 of the land.' They had been legally advised that the ' im- 
 position of the oath now enjoined' was illegal; the Warden's 
 refusal to proceed unless they took it was therefore a breach 
 of the Statute which requires ' all Fellows Resident " crastlno 
 Animarum" to give their votes, and deprives no man of his 
 vote upon any account, no, not for any crime whatsoever.' 
 Therefore they persisted in giving their votes ; they at any 
 rate would not infringe their Statutes. They always under- 
 stood those Statutes to mean that they ' should not choose 
 an unfit person at the request or recommendation of another, 
 nor for any recompense or reward.' ' That any body ever 
 came in by corruption has not yet been made appear to us. . . 
 We think it unreasonable to suppose any man guilty of so 
 great a crime upon a bare report, and for ought we know, 
 groundless.' They will gladly help the Visitor to prevent 
 any ground of suspicion if it is but a legal way ; for it is a 
 ' noble design which tends to the reputation of our College 
 and the honour of our founder.' ' In the mean time we hope 
 your Grace will not endeavour to debar us of our hitherto 
 undoubted right in a free election which the Founder has 
 given us, the King by his Charter has confirmed to us, and in 
 which we shall always proceed as near as possibly we can 
 according to his Statutes and your Grace's Injunctions.' 
 
 There are only two points of importance in this letter. 
 The question of imposing oaths was one for the Courts, 
 to which it soon came. The assertion that it had never 
 been ' made appear that any one ever came in by corruption,' 
 can only be taken as true in its bare and naked sense. No 
 doubt it had not been made to ' appear,' but its notoriety 
 was beyond dispute ; and these twenty-four Fellows must 
 have been perfectly well aware of what Warden upon Warden, 
 Visitor upon Visitor, writer upon writer, in public papers 
 as well as in letters which have remained all this time 
 unpublished, have agreed in exposing and condemning. It 
 is enough to say that this method of excuse reminds us 
 of the general character of the age, the age of plots and
 
 270 VISITOR AND FELLOWS AT WAR. [CHAP. 
 
 intrigues, of hard swearing and corrupt Courts of Law, the 
 age when Louis Quatorze kept Members of Parliament, of 
 all politics alike, in his pay as well as the King, and when, 
 as a modern historian of the period has said, the affairs 
 of Europe hung suspended on the love-knots of that King's 
 worthless mistresses. 
 
 For a moment, however, Sancroft is staggered. So we 
 gather from the next letter we have of the Warden's. Two 
 of the Fellows have seen the Visitor, and he questions whether 
 the Warden has not gone too far all at once, whether it is 
 not true that he has broken the Statutes in refusing the votes 
 of the Fellows. This doubt the Warden meets with the 
 greatest decision. His Veto has been reckoned absolute 
 from the beginning. There can be no election without his 
 concurrence. He was bound to obey the Visitor's In- 
 junction, which had required the oath previous to election. 
 He could not therefore take the votes from men who had 
 not taken the oaths. 
 
 But ' as to that which your Grace tells me of the Fellows 
 wondering at the scandal fastened on the College of making 
 bargains for their Fellowships, I am afraid they have as little 
 reason as any to make strange of it, for Mr. A.' [it is not 
 worth while to print the names] ' one of the candidates 
 this year, when I informed him at his first application to 
 me, before your Injunctions came, that both he and Dr. C.' 
 [the Kesigner] ' must swear that there was no bargain made 
 between them for money or money's worth, he presently told 
 me that his mother had sent him word that there was to be 
 no dealing between the Dr. and him, but that the whole 
 management of it was referred to his guardian and Mr. W., 
 Dr. C.'s intimate friend. ... As for Dr. L., when he was in 
 hopes of being Chancellor of Lichfield, I have been told, and 
 have greater reason to believe it, that he employed his 
 chamber-fellow, Mr. S., to find out a chapman at 300 
 prize, since which time I am afraid he did the same good 
 turn for Mr. S. at his going off, in proportion to the differ- 
 ence between a Law and an Artist's place. . . . My Lord, it 
 is too evident that there hath been most abominable prac- 
 tices in buying and selling the Founder's bounty and charity,
 
 xiv.] FORTITUDE OF THE WARDEN. 271 
 
 enough to justify against us the Patrons' selling their livings ; 
 and though I have been long grieved at it, yet I was never 
 in hopes of a remedy against it but from your Grace's in- 
 tegrity, piety and justice. 
 
 And soon afterwards : 
 
 ' My Lord, I am sorry that to obtain a remedy from your 
 Grace I am thus forced to lay open our corruptions, and that 
 their stubbornness should betray themselves and divulge their 
 faults at this time when men will be glad of an occasion to 
 ruin us. For my own part I have been once already turned 
 out of the College, and I thank God have learnt and am pre- 
 pared to suffer a second time ; and whatever happens 'twill 
 be some comfort to me that before I am forced to forsake the 
 College I have, under your Grace's conduct and auspices, 
 endeavoured heartily to reform it . . . . My Lord, if I did not 
 do my duty in the election, I have however done it in signi- 
 fying to your Grace that there was no election.' 
 
 Just about the same date there appears a very opportune 
 letter to the Primate, which may have contributed to remove 
 his doubts. It is not signed, but Tanner identifies it as the 
 production of the famous Humphrey Prideaux, then Student 
 of Christ Church. It takes the large view of the matter which 
 might be expected from a man of his stamp. He tells San- 
 croft of the intense interest which the struggle at All Souls is 
 exciting. 
 
 ' The whole body of the University bears a share in the 
 scandal which doth hence arise, and if your Grace's good de- 
 signs take such effect as to remove it for the future, a general 
 benefit will be derived on this place thereby, not only in 
 diverting from us the reproaches and slanders of such as are 
 glad of any opportunity of casting them upon us, but likewise 
 in encouraging virtue and learning, in again restoring those 
 so considerable Fellowships to be the reward of it. That 
 which hath chiefly encouraged the Fellows to oppose your 
 Grace herein is a character they have received of you that 
 you are of a temper which will soon yield when brisk opposi- 
 tion is made. . . . But we hope your Grace will not so easily 
 give up so good a cause.' 
 
 He then recommends his own plan, which is to oblige every
 
 272 VISITOR AND FELLOWS AT WAR. [CHAP. 
 
 Fellow, before admission, to enter into a bond of ^"500 that 
 on resigning he will not 'recommend' a successor directly or 
 indirectly ; ' and then you may be assured nothing will be 
 given for Resignations.' He hopes the Archbishop will not 
 try to find out who he is. He is ' One who heartily desires 
 the success of every good work.' 
 
 A hot fire of legal opinions now takes place. Mr. Roger 
 North, brother of the Lord Keeper, and ' Steward of the Archi- 
 episcopal Courts/ gives a directly opposite opinion to those of 
 the learned Serjeants-at-law who had been consulted by the 
 Fellows, and who, it came out, never had the whole case before 
 them. An elaborate answer to the twenty-four Fellows is sent, 
 drawn up, in the name of the Visitor, by a legal hand, skil- 
 fully taking advantage of their admissions, and exposing their 
 self-contradictions. It accuses the Fellows of ' writing publicly 
 to His Grace in a Praemuuire for imposing the oath/ But 
 ' though private persons may not impose an oath, the Visitor 
 of a Corporation may.' Archbishops of Canterbury impose 
 oaths on Notaries Public : Cranmer and Whitgift imposed 
 oaths on All Souls. The Visitor holds by Statute the veiy 
 place of the Founder, who gave special directions against 
 simony. As to the Fellows declaring that the late Resigners 
 ' forbore to recommend any of the candidates to them, they 
 must excuse me if I give no credit thereto ; it being notorious 
 that a great part of the University some time before the elec- 
 tion knew distinctly what candidates each Resigner did recom- 
 mend, and accordingly these 24 gave their voices.' 
 
 The Warden's letters now assume a more cheerful tone. 
 He is by this time assured of his Visitor's persistence at 
 whatever cost, and will do his part. There is much more 
 to be done. The success of the ' Abhorrers ' the party 
 opposed to the Exclusion Bill in the House of Lords had 
 given fresh spirit to the Archbishop and his lieutenant. 
 
 ' Your last letter,' says the Warden, ' hath put new life and 
 spirit into me, so that I hope to see the good work begun
 
 xiv.] SAN CROFT STANDS HIS GROUND. 273 
 
 among- us happily perfected, and as they call me your Grace's 
 tool so they shall find that I have edge, mettle and temper 
 sufficient never to be blunted nor to fail in your hand.' 
 
 In this letter he describes how ' elections were continued 
 without any choice of candidates presenting themselves to the 
 electors, till your Grace's predecessor, my Lord Archbishop 
 Sheldon, when he was our Visitor and I newly come to be 
 Warden, found the inconveniency of this course, and upon 
 every place void by death commanded us to open our doors 
 and admit all that would be suitors for it and always to choose 
 the best : which command, to the best of my judgment, I 
 always endeavoured to obey, and when I was not complied 
 with, devolved the election. . . But as to the resigned places 
 they have been disposed of to the Resigners till the cry of our 
 corruptions came to your Grace's ears/ 
 
 We have already observed Sheldon's failure to grapple 
 with more than a portion of the evil here exposed by 
 Warden Jeames. Both he and Jeames, as past and present 
 Wardens, had been so imbued with the usages of genera- 
 tions that it was thought a great matter to resign all that 
 interest in death vacancies which the Wardens had so long 
 been suffered to usurp, and for which others vehemently 
 struggled with them. The institution of ex officio Visitors 
 of exalted position thus signally proved its usefulness. 
 They were sure sooner or later to acknowledge their 
 responsibility, and they would possess official documents for 
 reference extending from age to age. Here were Sheldon 
 and Jeames, two men of courage and public spirit, wish- 
 ing to do their duty, yet stopping short at a part of 
 that duty ! At last arises an equally conscientious man, 
 unbiassed by usages. He intervenes with all the force he 
 can command, and cuts the poison-tree down at the root.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Iftdcrrg. 
 
 16801686. 
 
 The College goes to law with the Visitor ' A perfect state of war ' 
 Sancroft's letter to the College The Fellows procure a 
 Mandamus The King's Bench supports Sancroft A Policy 
 of Conciliation Boisterous loyalty of certain Fellows Death 
 of Warden Jeames. 
 
 At the end of the letter given in the preceding chapter 
 the Warden says : 
 
 ' Just now, while I was writing this, three of the candidates 
 interrupted me by coming with a Public Notary with them to 
 demand admission upon their pretence of being elected by a 
 majority, but receiving a peremptory denial from me they pre- 
 sently departed, and left me to make. an end of this long 
 letter.' 
 
 He next asks (Nov. 28, 1680) for an order 
 
 ' that the Bursars and officers shall deliver the money 
 which you allot for the Tower this year, to be intrusted in 
 my hands for the defraying of the charges of the suit, in 
 case I am forced to defend our Statutes, it being one of 
 the ends specified in the Statutes why the money is to be 
 laid up, and this I think will somewhat discourage the 
 Fellows who set on the three Pretenders to see me, when 
 they see I have the College money to make good the 
 Founder's Statutes. My Lord, on Wednesday night the 
 Fellows were much dismayed at the news that your Grace
 
 LEGAL PROCEEDINGS. 275 
 
 had named four into the vacant places, but now they talk 
 of a Prohibition, which they are in hopes to obtain for the 
 hindering of your election.' 
 
 This was soon put beyond doubt. A letter from Mr. 
 Roger North now reports that 
 
 c a Mandamus was moved for at the Court of King's Bench 
 to admit a Fellow to his place in All Souls College at the 
 late election ; the Court deliberated about granting it, because 
 the College hath a Visitor ; but at last, in regard that the 
 Court could not take knowledge of that fact officially, did 
 grant it, with this opinion, that to return upon the Mandamus 
 that there is a Visitor will be sufficient.' 
 
 The next letter (Dec. 2), as might be expected, discloses 
 a 'perfect state of war,' which the Warden, an old soldier, 
 carries into the camp of his enemies by pinching their 
 stomachs. He finds an excuse with much ingenuity, and 
 certainly had no right to be surprised at 'the retort 
 courteous.' 
 
 ' To countenance the Probationers [the four Fellows put in 
 by the Archbishop on the devolution to him] at their first 
 entrance into Commons I dined in the hall myself yesterday, 
 and shall again to-day, and have reduced the Fellows to their 
 ordinary Commons in messes and chops, whereas I have for 
 some years allowed them to be served up in whole joints, but 
 because they abused this liberty into excess, and brought a 
 great charge upon the poorer Fellows, I now thought fit to re- 
 trench it. After dinner, when I was returned to my lodgings, 
 the two Bursars and the two Deans came, with the Library- 
 Statute-Book in their hand, and admonished me (in obedience 
 to an Injunction of Archbishop Whitgift's) to expel the Head 
 Cook, who that day chopped out their Commons, and the 
 groom of the stable, for being married men, that, and their 
 relation to me (one having been my servant and the other 
 having married my wife's maid), being the only crimes they 
 could lay to their charge.' 
 
 He then begs the Visitor to dispense with that Injunc- 
 tion, which had been practically dispensed with for forty 
 
 T 2,
 
 276 BANCROFT'S VICTORT. [CHAP. 
 
 years, both in the College, and throughout the University, and 
 proceeds : 
 
 ' We are now here in a perfect state of war. All the affronts 
 they can with any security they put upon me, and Dr. D. [the 
 Senior Fellow] dare never, since he obeyed your Injunctions, 
 either be with them at the Common fire or dine with them in 
 the Hall but when I am there. As for the Subwarden, who is 
 bound to the Hall, he only sits out meals with them, and then 
 retires to his chamber. Hitherto to avoid contention I have 
 allowed every one in his turn according to seniority to come to 
 offices in the College ; but now, as well for the better discipline 
 of the College as my own peace, I must, by interposing my 
 negative, choose such as are the most deserving and of the 
 most quiet temper, whom I hope your Grace upon a Devolu- 
 tion will be pleased to confirm, for without the assistance of 
 the Deans I cannot punish any man, nor without the concur- 
 rence of the rest of the officers do anything of moment in the 
 House.' 
 
 This request he repeats two days afterwards, and reports 
 that 
 
 ' The Dean of Arts who came in the head of the rest of the 
 officers of the College to admonish me to expel the two mar- 
 ried servants and then behaved himself most insolently, hath 
 publicly abused the Subwarden in gross language, calling 
 him " rogue," for which I convened him before his Fellow 
 Officers, and by the testimony of three of the Probationers 
 (for none of the Fellows or College servants would witness 
 anything) I proved the crime, and we have put him out of 
 Commons for a week, and ordered him publicly to acknow- 
 ledge his fault before the whole Society before he be restored. 
 This I hope will something humble them.' 
 
 He then recurs to the legal proceedings now in hand, and 
 says : 
 
 ' My Lord, I hope our case will be made good at West- 
 minster Hall as well as it is in the Court of conscience; 
 however I should be glad to hear what the lawyers say of 
 it. I am heartily sorry the concerns of your College here 
 should give your Grace such trouble in so busy a time as
 
 xv.] STATE OF WAR. 277 
 
 this is, but in all these difficulties I have no other refuge 
 here upon earth but to your Grace/ 
 
 The Sub- Warden above mentioned, Dr. Wynne, lived to 
 support a later Warden in another College struggle, and 
 no doubt deserved the praise of upright conduct pursued 
 under great difficulties; but he is reported by Hearne as 
 taking to himself the credit of stopping the sale of Fellow- 
 ships, a credit which this correspondence shews was really 
 due to his old Warden and Visitor. One more act of war 
 we must relate. George Clarke has been already mentioned 
 as one of the Probationary Fellows put in by Bancroft, and 
 destined to be a chief ornament of his College and Univer- 
 sity. But the Visitor had accidentally prefixed a wrong 
 Christian name in the official document. In war all weapons 
 are permissible. The Fellows, when the admission took place, 
 1 clamoured/ says the Warden, ' at the misnomer,' but having 
 publicly proved Clarke's identity, ' I presently borrowed their 
 Public Notary's pen and ink, and with it, and before them 
 all rectified the mistake in the Instrument.' 
 
 But the Visitor now intervened with effect. The annual 
 College letter, full as usual of profuse compliments, gave him 
 an opportunity ; and as this characteristic epistle of Sancroft's 
 is the last which we shall quote at any length on the present 
 subject, a longer extract than usual may be excusable. It is 
 addressed to the Warden officially. 
 
 ' Sir, When I look upon the letter you lately sent me I 
 am not so vain or so overweening of myself as to have any 
 temptation to think that the one half you say to me there is 
 in any construction due to me. But when I reflect upon the 
 late actions and proceedings of a greater part of you I cannot 
 consider the fine things you write any otherwise than as so 
 many protestations directly contrary to fact. In almost three 
 years that I have had relation to you, I never asked but one 
 thing of you' [it is not known to what this refers] ' and it 
 was not so great but that it had been often readily granted 
 those who (it may be) had no more reason to expect it from 
 you than I had, and yet you denied me downright. And
 
 278 SANCROFT'S VICTORY. [CHAP. 
 
 though you thought fit upon wiser thought to do the thing, 
 yet [I am well assured] that it was not for my sake, and, how- 
 ever, din noluistis. But then the brisk opposition which you 
 have lately given me in my attempt to do you the greatest 
 good which, for ought I can see, is ever likely to fall within 
 my power, and the daily despite you throw upon those few of 
 your number who pay me better respect, have convinced me 
 that you were not in earnest when you penned that letter nor 
 believed the contents of it. Notwithstanding be assured that 
 I shall not take the measure of my dealing with you from 
 what you say or write or do to me, but from the rules of my 
 duty and the suggestions of my true affection to you, which 
 is as sincere and shall be as invariable as if you were really 
 what in the courtly mode of the world you subscribe your- 
 selves, my own Family. For there is a sort of men who will, 
 if they can, beat the physician that visits them and the guar- 
 dian that keeps them, and yet we must do them all the good 
 we can, even whether they will or no.' [He then orders the 
 disposition of the College revenues for the year, taking care to 
 set aside ^ J ioo] ' to be left in the greater and outward chest 
 "pro litibus et placitis defendendis," &c. [as the Statute 
 directs] to defray the charge of suits which seem to threaten 
 us. ... And now I have named your under-officers I can- 
 not but take notice, though with grief of mind, of a new dif- 
 ference started among you concerning your Head Cook and the 
 Groom of your Stable being married men. And here truly I 
 should highly commend the complainants' zeal for the obser- 
 vation of the College Rules if it were uniform and universal. 
 But when I observe that, where vile gain and interest beckon 
 to you, you swallow camels, and mountainous breaches of so 
 many Statutes pass glibly down, and in the mean time you 
 strain at this gnat, .... I cannot but advise and admonish 
 you to let this matter remain as it is till our great difference 
 be decided, and then all those lesser things will soon be 
 accorded, and in the mean time not to multiply controversies, 
 to do nothing for strife or ill will, or out of affectation of oppo- 
 sition, but to stay for that calm and blessed hour when you 
 may attempt that or any other piece of reformation upon more 
 clear and honourable grounds. If you will allow me to be 
 one of those by-standers who may possibly see more than the 
 gamesters, you will, I hope, hearken to this advice which I 
 give you all on both sides ; not to study to provoke or affront 
 one another, not to raise every day new quarrels and debates, 
 but calmly and without animosity to expect from your supe- 
 riors the determination of the great controversy, and in the
 
 xv.] A POLICY OF STARVATION. 279 
 
 mean time in all other things to live in peace that the GOD of 
 peace may be with you. I affect not to use the power I have 
 to multiply Injunctions ; but if you will compel me I must 
 let you know that I have the same authority to interpret or 
 suspend Archbishop Whitgift's which his immediate successors 
 had to do the same with the aist [concerning College dis- 
 putes] ; but I had much rather owe it to your own good 
 nature that you would let the dispute fall and sleep awhile 
 till a fitter season. GOD Almighty incline all your hearts to 
 follow after the things which make for peace, but withal 
 things wherewith one may edify another. 
 
 ' I am, Sirs, your loving friend 
 < Lambeth, Dec. 7, 1680. ' W. C.' 
 
 This letter produced a good effect. The Warden, a few 
 days later, writes hopefully : 
 
 'I should be glad to turn my complaints into praises 
 of them. The Dean who abused the Sub warden hath 
 undergone his punishment and made a public acknowledg- 
 ment of his fault. . . . Your Grace's putting up ^"300 
 this year pincheth us all ... and now I believe they are 
 all content to be stinted [in their Commons] since their 
 Liveries fall so short. I hope I shall have no more trouble 
 now till after New Year's tide, when we are to choose officers, 
 when I must be forced to take some of the civillest of mine 
 enemies to be sharers in the government with me.' 
 
 The Mandamus is now served ; but action upon it is 
 suspended till the Case can be argued before the Court of 
 King's Bench. A fee of forty shillings is paid Serjeant 
 Holloway for Counsel's opinion. The Visitor uses all his 
 efforts to support his coadjutor while the cause is pending. 
 He engages to confirm the Warden's choice of officers, and 
 the Warden replies : 
 
 1 God in his mercy assist and prosper your endeavours 
 to settle and establish the distracted state of the Church. 
 For without the continuance of your Grace's authority over 
 us I shall have little comfort of my place here, and shall 
 never desire to continue Warden any longer than you are 
 our Visitor. However the iniquity of the times may hinder
 
 280 BANCROFT'S VICTORY. [CHAP. 
 
 your further progress in the reformation of us, yet I bless 
 God that you have proceeded so far where your predecessors 
 for many years have scarce moved a foot. 
 
 " Est (iliqitid prodire tenus si non datur ultra? ! 
 
 And a little later : 
 
 ( I might still have enjoyed an ill-bought quiet if I would 
 have disobeyed your Injunctions and betrayed my trust ; and 
 I doubt not but your Grace will uphold me against a faction 
 that hath no regard of the duty they owe to the Statutes 
 or the lawful interpreter of them, nor any quarrel against 
 me but that I do not join in with them in opposing you, 
 which they shall never obtain from me by their frowardness.' 
 
 Another letter of this date shews how maliciously the 
 majority of the Fellows persecuted the Senior Fellow for 
 his alliance with the Warden and Visitor, by bringing up 
 against him an accidental omission to sign the Renunciation 
 of the Covenant sixteen years previously. He had been in 
 France at the time, and an Act had been passed dispensing 
 with the signature of persons who were abroad! In short, 
 the state of things at All Souls was anything but pleasant 
 during this professed truce ; nor apparently did they mend 
 much till nearly a year later, when the great lawsuit was 
 disposed of. 
 
 The election of November, 1681, took place under much 
 the same circumstances as the last. Again the Warden 
 puts his veto on the nominees of the Fellows, though in 
 only one of the cases is there the same sort of accusation 
 of corruption ; but they decline to elect the Founder's 
 kinsman, for whom the Warden claims a right ; and they 
 insist on the election of Mr. Leopold William Finch, a dis- 
 reputable youth of whom we shall hear more. The Warden's 
 present objection to him may be quoted here : 
 
 ' I cannot have a good account of his sobriety, the Bishop 
 of Oxford [Dr. John Fell, Dean of Christ Church] having 
 several times, as I am informed, threatened to expel him 
 Christ Church, though he seems willing now to have
 
 xv.] FELLOWS LOSE THEIR SUIT. 281 
 
 him preferred to us, where he hath got friends by drinking 
 and swaggering with them till four o'clock in the morning.' 
 
 King Charles had also c recommended ' this youth, who 
 was the son of one of his most trusted friends, the Earl of 
 Winchelsea. 
 
 ' The very tavern over the way was afraid of his coming 
 to be so near a neighbour to them, and the poor woman 
 expressed her trouble at it, who had suffered from his rude- 
 ness. And your Grace hath done me the greatest kindness 
 I could have desired by staving off from me one whom the 
 Faction pitched upon as the fittest person to strengthen them 
 and to break the discipline of the College, of which the sober 
 men were as sensible as myself.' 
 
 The Visitor, it will be thus seen, had once more accepted 
 the devolution ; and he soon after appointed those whom 
 the Warden recommended. 
 
 Light at last breaks in upon the darkness. On November 
 19, 1 68 1, Mr. Roger North writes that 
 
 1 Even now the cause of the Mandamus to the Warden 
 of All Souls came on to be heard, and upon a full debate of 
 it the Court hath adjudged the Return to be good, and dis- 
 missed the complainants. And the Judges took notice of 
 the corrupt custom that hath obtained there to buy and sell 
 Fellowships, not without honourable reflections upon his 
 Grace's pious endeavours to abolish it.' 
 
 And now the Warden (November 2,2,, 1681) sings his 
 psean : 
 
 ' I most heartily thank God that he hath been pleased to 
 make you a blessing to us, even against our own will, in 
 giving you not only a heart, courage, and ability to manage 
 your pious enterprise of reforming us in so corrupt an age 
 as this is, but hath likewise crowned it with success and 
 victory both at Westminster and Whitehall in the midst of 
 the greatest opposition; so that I now trust in God you have 
 done that great work in the attempt whereof so many of 
 your predecessors have hitherto failed and left to you the 
 honour and praise of perfecting it,'
 
 282 SAN CROFT'S VICTORY. [CHAP. 
 
 This allusion to Whitehall is explained in the same letter. 
 The 'faction' had been 'endeavouring to raise up friends at 
 Court.' 
 
 The immediate result of the legal decision was that the 
 Probationers were admitted 'with a full consent of the 
 Fellows. I hope your Grace hath now restored to us 
 righteousness and peace together.' 
 
 ' The sentence given at the King's Bench and your Grace's 
 prevailing to stop the Mandamuses at Court hath so subdued 
 the unruly spirits, that I think there is no fear of the raising 
 of new storms. I am heartily glad that both my Lord 
 Chancellor and my Lord Chief Justice are so well satisfied 
 with your Grace's just and pious proceedings. I am sure 
 that not only all good men, but the whole University in 
 general do bless God and you for the reformation you have 
 wrought among us ; yea, those very persons who struggled 
 so much against it do now seem to me to be satisfied and 
 rejoice in it. . . My Lord, it is your great humility and piety 
 together that makes you condescend to consider us among 
 the multitude of your greater biisinesses, . . .' &c. &c. 3 with 
 more apologies for having so often intruded on him. 
 
 The good Warden's letter here, as in some other instances, 
 strikes the reader as somewhat obsequious; but everything 
 in that age was more pronounced than in modern times, 
 the respect for superiors more demonstrative, the contempt 
 for an opponent more openly expressed ; politics and partisan- 
 ship were but one remove as yet from civil war. But it was 
 impossible to exaggerate the importance of what was now 
 done not only to the College, but as regards other institu- 
 tions which were in much the same condition. At last quirks 
 and quibbles had come to an end, and things were called by 
 their right names. A fresh start had been given to a grand 
 foundation which had sadly fallen below what the Founder 
 intended. A weight was removed from the consciences of 
 many a man who had succumbed to what he could not singly 
 oppose. And this result had been achieved by the action 
 of the very machinery which the Founder had provided for
 
 xv.] BANCROFT'S MODERATION. 283 
 
 such emergencies ! The Courts of Law had also stood to 
 their duty, which was too often not the case in this age, 
 and the King himself had allowed the battle to he fought 
 out without taking advantage of the opportunity, as his suc- 
 cessor would certainly have done. It was just in time. If the 
 struggle had been delayed till Charles was dead, the College 
 would no doubt have been a grievous sufferer at James's 
 hands, and no one can say how long the abuse would have 
 continued. The four years which intervened broke the neck 
 of ' corrupt Resignations ; ' and though we shall see that con- 
 stant vigilance was required, we shall also find conclusive 
 evidence that the victory was complete. It was only neces- 
 sary to get enough fresh blood into the College to provide 
 a mutual support amongst the new-comers ; and it was not 
 likely that the old evil, after such an exposure, should recur. 
 
 Bancroft's letter, written at the end of this year (December 
 29, 1681), in full contemplation of the importance of the 
 victory just won, is creditable to his good sense. He has 
 been asked to interpret the Statute on the election of Bursars, 
 and says : 
 
 ' I require you to consider well beforehand and make a just 
 and impartial estimate what reception 'tis like to meet with 
 from the greater part of your Society. For since we gained 
 the port I find myself so much at ease that I would be very 
 unwilling without great necessity to hazard the raising of 
 new storms and broils, or give the most froward amongst 
 you any cause of just complaint or plausible pretence for it. 
 So long as we are tolerably well, let us sit down and be 
 quiet; and not run a risk of making things much worse 
 by endeavouring to make them a little better 1 .' 
 
 The policy of conciliation is now apparent throughout. 
 The Fellows even hope to regain some of their power by 
 means of seduction. Boreas has failed ; they will try Apollo. 
 The Warden is getting old; his son is i6, just below the 
 statutable age ; they offer to elect him a Fellow, and quote 
 
 1 Archives.
 
 284 SANCROFT'S VICTORY. [CHAP. 
 
 the evil precedent of James the First's reign, when the son 
 of Albericus Gentilis was forced upon the College, though 
 below the required age. But the Warden is firm, and refuses 
 to cause such a scandal. Next year, his son being old 
 enough, he consents. We are not told whether the youth 
 approved himself worthy after examination, but we may 
 charitably hope so. A merciful view is also this year ad- 
 mitted of the resignation of Fellows, which one might think 
 would have been more in place during the struggle ; but 
 possibly it would not then have been appreciated. The 
 Warden reports that it is voted and approved that <^?2O is 
 to be given to each Fellow on resigning, by way of starting 
 him on his new career, and to make him easy for the loss 
 of the ' <^ J 2oo ' he had hitherto had ' on resignation.' By 
 the light of this letter the former one from the twenty-four 
 Fellows receives a painful illustration. The new state of 
 things is also made more tolerable by an arrangement, 
 entered into with the consent of the Visitor, that all Mem- 
 bers of the College shall in future have a rateable propor- 
 tion of their salary and allowances up to the time of their 
 departure ' . 
 
 To judge by an entry in the Life of Wood, the loyalty 
 of the College was conspicuous at this period. The abolition 
 of corrupt Resignations had no effect whatever in checking 
 it; though it might have been demonstrated in a more 
 seemly fashion. Writing on November 27, 1682, Wood 
 tells us : 
 
 ' Bonfires [were] made in several parishes in Oxford by 
 the Tory party after supper, for joy that the lord Norris was 
 made earl of Abingdon, with the ringing of bells ; several 
 Colleges had bonfires, All Souls especially; about n at 
 night they brought out a barrel of beer out of the cellar, 
 and drank it in healths on their knees to the duke of 
 York and earl of Abingdon, out of the buckets that hung 
 
 1 Archives.
 
 xv.] LOYALTY AT ALL SOULS. 285 
 
 up in the hall. They got about twenty of the trained 
 bands of Oxford who discharged at the drinking of every 
 health ; they had wine in great plenty from the tavern over 
 the way, guarded by a file of musqueteers ; they had a 
 drummer that beat round the College quadrangle and at 
 the gate : Dr. Clotterbuck the captain that ordered these 
 matters.' 
 
 A little later in the same year these uproarious habits 
 shewed themselves in a far more objectionable way; three 
 of the Fellows violently insisting upon admission into the 
 Mitre at an untimely hour so frightened the landlady that 
 she ' fell into fits and died at three in the morning V The 
 Warden had evidently a difficult crew to manage. 
 
 Letters of later dates, thanking the Visitor from time 
 to time for interfering to protect the College from the 
 King's Mandamus, continue to shew the consistency of 
 Warden Jeames ; though there seems to be one occasion, 
 in the year before his death, when even he faltered. In 
 a letter to Bancroft, in 1685, he says that he means to 
 favour the Earl of Lindsey's son, as he believes- the College 
 also will, in honour of his uncle, 'that brave general who 
 lost his life in so good a cause ; ' it would be unbeseeming 
 in him to oppose it, ' since I myself was in arms for the 
 same good King.' This is, it must be allowed, a sad falling- 
 off, after such a struggle for purity of elections, and such 
 a victory. But his foot is in the grave. Soon afterwards 
 he tells his friend, the Visitor, that he is so feeble that 
 ' even his horse-litter is useless to him ; he can only stir out 
 to Chapel and St. Mary's/ The memory of the 'good King 
 and his brave general' appears to survive all College struggles 
 and all victories of later days ; it seems a sufficient excuse 
 for anything. 
 
 The last letter he wrote betrays also the extreme pressure 
 that was put upon the College once more in the last days 
 
 1 Life of Wood.
 
 286 BANCROFT'S VICTORY. 
 
 of Charles and the first of James. If internal evils had 
 been suppressed, external tyranny seemed about to be equally 
 fatal. Bancroft's power was now gone, as Sheldon's had 
 departed years before his death. He had refused to be 
 made the tool of the King and had been forbidden the 
 Court. Warden Jeames deplores the loss of his assistance. 
 He had left the College ' forlorn/ The Warden is grateful 
 that he does not act ' as some in greater places do. The 
 King, I fear, has granted a Mandamus for one.' He fears 
 the College must give way. It is a melancholy letter, and 
 leaves the reflection that the old man was ' mercifully taken 
 away from the evil to come.' He was now too old and 
 ill to commence a fresh struggle, and the College required 
 a firm hand. Nor if he had survived the short term of years 
 which were sufficient to enable James to rush upon his 
 destruction, would he have been much consoled by a 
 Revolution which ejected the son, however erring, of the 
 ' good King ' for whom he had, in early manhood, suffered 
 so much. 
 
 Warden Jeames died in 1686, having earned the grateful 
 memory of all reformers. He had had a rough task to 
 perform, and on the whole he performed it well. We 
 connect him with another good man, Dolben, Archbishop 
 of York, whose sister he married. On his monument in 
 All Souls Chapel are the well-deserved words : ' Fere cmtos 
 . . . vivus amicos Jiabuit homines, moriens conscientiam, mortmis 
 Deum.'
 
 CHAPTEE XVL 
 
 Jfatms % Stconb' anfo Wtvabtn Jfhwjr, 
 16861688. 
 
 The Dispensing Power All Souls in dread of a Papist Warden 
 Dryden the Poet Mandate to Finch Finch as a rioter 
 Lord Chancellor Finch Finch as a Volunteer His excuses to 
 Bancroft Sancroft's conduct to James and Finch His cha- 
 racter. 
 
 THE anxiety felt at All Souls by the better class of Fellows 
 as to the appointment of a new Warden was intense. Warden 
 Jeames had died at a most critical moment. James the 
 Second had just been long enough on the throne to mature 
 his schemes. He had triumphed over his enemies at Sedge- 
 moor ; he now felt himself secure, and had already cast away 
 the restraints of prudence. For many years he had been pro- 
 foundly studying the question how to bring the three king- 
 doms under the Papal yoke. The secret was found in the 
 ' Dispensing Power.' No Constitutional changes could be 
 made to effect his purpose ; but the Dispensing Power, though 
 sufficiently condemned by Parliament in 1662 and 1672, had 
 never been definitely abolished. Lawyers had still asserted 
 its efficacy ; and the infatuated monarch could not perceive 
 the difference between a theoretical power which the nation, 
 by a tacit understanding, had left unrepealed because unused, 
 and a practical use of that power which stultified the whole 
 Constitution. By opening this floodgate, inch by inch, the
 
 288 JAMES II AND WARDEN FINCH. [CHAP. 
 
 barrier of British freedom would be undermined, and every 
 -obstacle to his despotic will would be swept away. 
 
 Thus the King seized every opportunity he could find for 
 the exercise of this power, and, where opening's could not be 
 found naturally, he made them. All Souls was only in the 
 same condition as all other institutions, only a small part of a 
 great machine. Oxford itself was, of all places, exactly that 
 which it seemed most desirable to imbue as speedily as pos- 
 sible with the idea that the Crown was the absolute disposer of 
 all appointments great and small, that all independent autho- 
 rities subordinate to itself were temporary and irregular, and 
 that the time had come for the true lawful Governor of the 
 Realm to step in and exercise at last his just rights. Oxford 
 had been the one ever-faithful centre of loyalty towards his 
 father ; why should it not be so to him ? Why should he not 
 from Oxford send forth his officers in all directions and gradu- 
 ally influence the whole country? His father might have 
 done much more with his resources if he had only gone far 
 enough. No such timidity should impede his proceedings. 
 
 There was too much excuse for these self-deceiving schemes. 
 We have seen at All Souls a specimen of truly ' besotted 
 loyalty ; ' it was only a coarse type of what was common 
 enough elsewhere. That loyalty did not in reality express 
 so much the devotion to a person or a family as something 
 deeper and more pungent. It was a vehement party cry, the 
 expression of hatred for the principles which flourished in the 
 Commonwealth, a defiance of those who would, it was be- 
 lieved, once more, in overthrowing Church and King, drown 
 England in blood, and destroy all that was truly national. 
 
 James was the last person to understand this. One may 
 be as far as possible from sympathy with Jacobitism, and yet 
 unable to repress a feeling of pity for the short-sighted prince 
 who found out too late how completely he had mistaken the 
 true state of affairs. To him the conduct of the Church and 
 the Universities, and then, after they had led the way, of
 
 xvi.] THE KING'S SCHEMES. 289 
 
 the aristocracy and the Tory party at large, seemed the mosjb 
 amazing inconsistency, the vilest treachery. Here were 
 people upholding his Divine Bight at one place, drinking his 
 health on their knees at another, fighting for him against 
 Monmouth, and yet when he asked them to give a practical 
 turn to their theories, they turned round and proved them- 
 selves as bad as all the rest ! In the almost-insanity which 
 marked some of James's proceedings we are now learning to 
 trace the distraction caused by such heart-rending disappoint- 
 ments. 
 
 The time, however, had not yet come for even the faint- 
 est perception of the true state of affairs. The Church had 
 indeed, as represented by Sancroft and others, begun to de- 
 clare itself; but there was nothing as yet to shew that the 
 nation would go with the official leaders of the Establishment; 
 while, on the other hand, men like Hcyden, Edward Hales, 
 Obadiah Walker, and scores of less known persons, among 
 others Matthew Tindal of All Souls, were suddenly discover- 
 ing that the religion of the Sovereign was the true one, and 
 attempting to atone, in every fashion suitable to the accom- 
 plishments of each, for their previous blindness and stupidity. 
 Every encouragement was given to the ingenuous persons who 
 were undergoing this process of enlightenment. One obtains 
 the Deanery of Christ Church, others receive ' dispensations ' 
 for establishing Romanist Services in College, or for holding 
 offices hitherto denied to Papists. At the same time monks 
 and friars are openly established in London, Romanist chapels 
 built, Jesuit schools opened. England was to be converted 
 at a leap. 
 
 It was then no wonder that at All Souls, where the 
 Stuart mandates were only too familiar, no one seems to 
 have thought it worth while to attempt to evade inevitable 
 fate. No such infraction of the College liberties had indeed 
 yet taken place, except under the Long Parliament, when 
 Sheldon was expelled by Pembroke and his ' band of mus- 
 
 u
 
 290 JAMES II AND WARDEN FINCH. [CHAP. 
 
 oueteers,' Palmer, the friend of Cromwell, being- substi- 
 tuted in bis place by violence. When James the First 
 attempted to dispense with the Statutes and force his 
 nominee upon the College, Abbot, the Visitor, had con- 
 trived to shake his resolution and save the rights of All 
 Souls. But who could expect anything from Sancroft now ? 
 He was in disgrace, and the King's confidence was given 
 to Petre, Talbot, Castlemaine, and the rest of his secret 
 Council of Papists. The utmost that could be hoped for was 
 that the Mandate might be bestowed upon some member 
 of the Church of England, and not upon a Papist ! Those 
 who have followed the history of the College thus far, 
 and traced with satisfaction its faithful reflection of Eng- 
 lish spirit, even in its worst times, will admit that no 
 condemnation of James's demoralising policy could be 
 more eloquent than the conduct of All Souls on this 
 occasion. 
 
 We do indeed distinguish one faint note of a better 
 kind in a letter from George Clarke to Dr. Paman, San- 
 croft's official, in which he begs him to lose not a mo- 
 ment in informing the Visitor that Dr. Jeames is dying, 
 since 
 
 'we fear that our over- the- way friend Mr. Walker' 
 [Obadiah Walker, Master of University College] ' will make 
 him a successor, and by all that we can guess Mr. Stapleton 
 of our House is the person for whom he designs to get a 
 Mandate. P.S. On Sunday Mr. Bernard of Brasenose had 
 a Mandate to be Moral Philosophy Lecturer, which he 
 shewed the Vice-Chancellor V 
 
 We have mentioned this ' Milo Stapylton ' (as he appears 
 in the Register) before 2 , and as we shall not recur to 
 his name, it may be remarked that though he at this 
 time probably gave grounds for suspicion that he was a 
 concealed, or intending Papist, Finch vindicates him from 
 
 1 Tanner MSS. vol. 30. fol. 171. 2 p. 268.
 
 xvi.] DANGER OF A PAPIST WARDEN. 291 
 
 the charge l , and a notice of him in his old age by Hearne, 
 prejudiced in his favour no doubt, as his Jacobite opinions 
 fell in with the writer's, shews that he was an ornament 
 to his College : ' He is a very worthy, learned Divine,' 
 and speaking of some translations of his made from the 
 Latin in 1684, he says, ' I wish he had published other 
 things, considering his abilities.' He is ' strangely concerned 
 at the woful decay of discipline in our University 2 .' When 
 was it otherwise with ancient Oxonians? And yet their 
 querulous remonstrances ,pass on wholesome traditions, and 
 do real service! 
 
 But even the above expression of Clarke's desire for the 
 interposition of the Visitor must not be taken for more 
 than it is worth, if Finch is to be believed and in this 
 case it seems he may be when he tells Archbishop Teni- 
 son, some years later (1695), that Clarke was one of those 
 who begged him to obtain a Mandate in order to keep out 
 the Papists 3 . In that letter Finch informs Tenison that 
 Dr. Tindal of All Souls, and Dr. Watson (afterwards, in 1687, 
 made Bishop of St. David's), were applicants as well as him- 
 self to the King for a Mandate to become Warden of All 
 Souls ; and in his letter to Sancrofb published by Gutch 
 from the Archives of the College 4 , he says 'the College 
 feared a man of Dryden's sort, since he so lately stood 
 so fair to preside over them.' Dry den, we know, was at this 
 time closely besieging the King, whose cause he had long 
 supported, for pecuniary assistance ; and All Souls would 
 have suited him well. His biographers have not yet noticed 
 that he ' stood so fair ' for this post. Hearne also tells us 
 that Dr. Plot, the antiquarian, who was also a Papist, was 
 a suitor to James for a Mandate to be Warden, but that 
 ' Finch got the start of him V 
 
 1 Tanner MSS. vol. 29. fol. 36. 2 Diary; 127. 27, sub ann. 1730. 
 
 3 Cod. 688. art. 50 : Lambeth Library. 
 
 * Collectanea Curiosa, vol. ii. p. 49. 6 Reliq. Hearn. i. 65. 
 
 U 2
 
 292 JAMES II AND WARDEN FINCH. [CHAP. 
 
 ' Finch got the start of him ! ' It was a race, a most 
 disreputable race ; and a most disreputable man ' got the 
 start.' We must now give some account of him. It is not 
 the fact that several persons made interest with, or made 
 themselves known to, the giver of an office, which excites 
 indignation in the present case, for this every one who 
 stands for an office must do, either through himself or 
 through others, by ' testimonials ' or letters, but that an 
 elective office should be sought at the hands of a non-elector 
 who set aside the electors, that an office which by the laws 
 of the land belonged only to a member of the Church of 
 England should be applied for by Papists avowed or supposed. 
 Clarke no doubt discovered, as soon as his Warden was dead, 
 that it was no time to appeal to Visitors ; the one thing 
 to do was to save the College from a Papist ; and the rest 
 of the Fellows shared his feeling. We read of no opposition 
 to Finch, no appeal to Bancroft, no request to the King to 
 hold his hand ! 
 
 There were reasons for Finch's success with James, and 
 for his popularity with a certain portion of the Fellows. 
 We have already seen that Warden Jeames had been 
 indignant with the Dean of Christ Church for recommending 
 him to favourable consideration for a Fellowship, that the 
 Fellows had given their votes for him, the Warden his Veto, 
 and that Sancroft had not only confirmed the Warden's act, 
 but prevailed on Charles to withhold a Mandate in his favour. 
 There was something to be said for Leopold William Finch. 
 The son of a personal friend of Charles the Second, and 
 born while his father was Ambassador at the Porte, an 
 Emperor and a King had been his sponsors at the font ; 
 his uncle was Lord Chancellor; no young man entered life 
 under higher auspices. He was sent to Christ Church, 
 already, as we say, a ' spoilt child.' While there he was the 
 ready leader of every frolic ; and yet his education and 
 abilities were above the average. He publishes books. A
 
 xvi.] FINCH AS A RIOTER. 293 
 
 Latin poem of his is to be found along with those of the 
 most distinguished persons of the age in Musarum Anglica- 
 narum Analecta ; he wrote a Life of Hannibal, and trans- 
 lated Cornelius Nepos. Perhaps the public did not much 
 recognise the value of his books ; but he is at least the 
 only Warden of All Souls, if we except the unfortunate 
 Moket, who has been so rash as to become an author. His 
 letters are clever, and always plausible ; many of them are 
 to be found scattered about in different collections of the 
 day; and we shall see that he had many warm literary 
 friends. Soon after his election to his All Souls Fellowship, 
 his old opponent, Warden Jeames, tells Sancroft what a 
 capital speech he had made in the name of the College when 
 the Duke and Duchess of York and the Princess Anne paid 
 a visit to All Souls. His manners were no doubt courtly 
 and agreeable. He was undeniably a ' good fellow,' a ' good 
 companion.' We read on his monument the words, con- 
 sidering the history of his whole connection with the College 
 they read like a satire, ' custos dilectissimus.' 
 
 His zeal for the Tory party was excessive. He was no 
 doubt sincere. His manner of shewing it was various. He 
 proved it when drunk and sober, in literary and military 
 exploits. It is in the first of these conditions that he becomes 
 an historical character. The occasion was in 1681, when 
 party feeling was at its utmost height all over England, 
 and especially at Oxford, where the Parliament had just 
 been held, attended by Shaftesbury and his friends with 
 armed followers, and where Charles had thrown himself 
 on the loyalty of England to his House by rejecting the 
 petition of the Exclusionists, and promptly dissolving the 
 Parliament. Some faint excuse then must be made for the 
 rioters, especially as they were very young ; but they might 
 have chosen a more manly mode of shewing their loyalty, 
 even in their cups. Anthony Wood reports the matter 
 thus :
 
 294 JAMES II AND WARDEN FINCH. [CHAP. 
 
 ' The outrage committed on the old Lady Lovelace at 
 Hunt's door against the Crown Tavern between 8 and 9 
 at night by Mr. Leopold Finch, son of the Earl of Winchel- 
 sea, Lord Buckeley, and 2 gentlemen commoners, Luttrell 
 one, and 4 scholars, all of Christ Church : they plucked 
 her out of her coach, and called her old protesting 
 broke windows that night, and did many other misde- 
 meanours. . . . The Bishop [Fell, Dean of Christ Church] 
 extremely troubled at it. They had been drinking at the 
 Crown Tavern V 
 
 Warden Jeames gives precisely the same account of the 
 matter to Bancroft, and adds, 
 
 ' that Mr. Finch, the ringleader, was sent to the Lady's 
 house at Water Eaton, to beg her pardon : he hath been 
 revelling all nights here in the College (whilst I was in the 
 country) to the great disturbance of the soberer party; and 
 on All Souls Day he was ranting with the faction both day 
 and night till morning at the Tavern over against my lodg- 
 ings, where, on purpose to affront me, they made such rude, 
 triumphant shouts that (till I sent them word I would fetch 
 the Vice-Chancellor to pull them out) I could have no rest 
 in my house. All this I can certainly prove. ... It is 
 apparent enough that he expected to be brought in with a 
 high hand V 
 
 Finch's election was, however, only delayed for a year, and 
 the process by which the Archbishop and the Warden came 
 to a better feeling about the loyal rioter is interesting. . The 
 correspondence between the former and the Dean of Christ 
 Church has been preserved ; but is not worth reproducing. 
 From it we simply gather that the penitent youth had found 
 the soft place in the Dean's heart, and was forgiven. ' Mr. 
 Finch,' says he, ' is liable to many and no small failings, yet 
 I do not despair of him, nor take him to be that flagitious 
 man which he is represented to be.' Warden Jeames is also 
 propitiated. ' Before I would consent to choose him,' he tells 
 Bancroft, ' he did solemnly promise to live studiously and 
 
 1 Life, sub. arm. 1681. 2 Tanner MSS. vol. 340.
 
 xvi.] A PENITENT YOUTH. 295 
 
 regularly in the College, and professed that he did wholly 
 devote himself to the clergy 1 .' But we might still have 
 been surprised at the Archbishop's accepting this new-born 
 devotion to the ' clergy' as a guarantee of sobriety if we 
 did not possess a very characteristic letter and reply which 
 passed upon the subject between Sancroft and the Earl of 
 Nottingham. From the first may be taken the following 
 extract : 
 
 ' Upon the whole matter, my lord, 'tis evident to me that 
 I have very little share in your affection or esteem. Most 
 certainly you must perfectly despise the man whom you could 
 think fit to use at this rate. I will only desire you to turn 
 the tables, and to take the Golden Rule into your hands 
 quod tibi non vis fyc,, and then for once give me leave to put 
 the case. If there be a place in your Chancery within your 
 donation into which I should desire to bring a kinsman of 
 mine really as unfit for it as I really believe and I cannot 
 help it your kinsman to be for what he pretended to from 
 me, and if I were as great and as high and as powerful as 
 you are now, and should make use of those advantages to 
 force you first to make it void and then to confer it upon a 
 person unqualified which I am assured I should no more 
 have attempted than to break into an house or rob upon a 
 highway I will not ask you, ask your own heart if you 
 please, how you would have taken it. Not so calmly, I 
 doubt, nor so patiently as, I thank God, I do. For I have 
 always, and have still that honour and esteem, and if you 
 will allow me to use a word I never throw away that love 
 for your person which keeps me still in preparation to do you 
 all that service which may fall justly and decently within the 
 poor powers of, my Lord, 
 
 ' Your Lordship's affectionate friend and servant, 
 
 ' W. C. 2 ' 
 
 ' Dec. 2, 1681.' 
 
 On the same day the Lord Chancellor replied as follows : 
 
 ' My Lord, I was never in my life more surprised than 
 with your Grace's letter ; and when I call myself to the 
 
 1 Tanner MSS. vol. 340. 
 
 2 Rough draught in Tanner MSS. vol. 36. fol. 182.
 
 296 JAMES II AND WARDEN FINCH. [CHAP. 
 
 strictest account I cannot charge myself with anything- that 
 deserves so severe a reprehension as to be told that I want 
 either affection or esteem for your person and place, or that I 
 have hehaved myself like one that perfectly despises you. 
 
 ' My Lord, this is a high crime, and such a crime as I 
 would not forgive my own son if he were guilty of it. I 
 thank God I never treated any man so, much less should I do 
 it to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Let us examine the 
 grounds of this misapprehension. It seems I did importune 
 your Grace in conjunction with my Lord Halifax, and in 
 presence of the King, for a Fellowship in All Souls, and 
 your Grace, for the most allowable reasons in the world, 
 refused it. Hath the King ever been moved in it again? 
 Have any inconveniences happened to your Grace by this re- 
 fusal ? Do not all men acquiesce under it ? For my part I do 
 so much that if the place were in my donation I would not 
 give it him. Where then is the disrespect ? My Lord, there 
 is no living at Court if we may not be allowed to be im- 
 portunate for a relation, even then when upon better reasons 
 given we are content to be denied. And yet after all this, 
 if your Grace think I have offended you I ask you pardon 
 with all my heart. For no man alive is more devoted to 
 your person and order than I am, and I beg your Grace's 
 blessing so and no otherwise than as I am, my Lord, 
 ' Your Grace's most affectionate, humble servant, 
 
 ' NOTTINGHAM, C. 1 ' 
 
 Bancroft's heart must have been made of stone if he had 
 not, after this eloquent and generous letter, been disposed 
 to take a favourable view of the recommendations from 
 Christ Church and All Souls which have been noticed. On 
 the view taken at Court as to the method by which All 
 Souls Fellowships might be obtained we need not further 
 enlarge, as previous chapters have sufficiently prepared us 
 for it. Enough that Finch obtained twenty-five votes out 
 of the thirty-five available at the election of 1682, and 
 that no further obstruction occurred. 
 
 The young Fellow lost no portion of his loyalty as yet. 
 We have seen how well he made his oration on the occasion 
 
 1 Tanner MSS. vol. 36. fol. 184.
 
 xvi.] FINCH AS A VOLUNTEER. 297 
 
 of the royal visit to his new College. In the Dedication 
 of his Cornelius Nepos in 1683, he asserts the strongest 
 attachment to the reigning family, rejoices that it 'comes 
 to the Fanatics' turn to hang,' laments the 'plague of Re- 
 publican principles,' and glories in the gownsmen's ' assertion 
 of one of the most essential principles of the government, 
 the lineal succession, which could neither by the dispensa- 
 tion of the Pope or the power of the Parliament be 
 altered '.' 
 
 Before long he had an opportunity of proving his loyalty 
 in a more practical form. 
 
 MonmoutVs Rebellion, in 1685, electrified Oxford as it 
 did the rest of England. Once more there was ' mustering 
 in hot haste ' and enthusiastic exchanging of the gown for 
 the sword. The University lost not a moment in raising 
 a Troop of Horse and Regiment of Foot under command 
 of Lord Abingdon, the Tory Lord- Lieutenant. Finch 
 instantly stepped to the front, and became Captain 
 of a Company of Scholars, chiefly from All Souls and 
 Merton. These he drilled privately in the quadrangle of 
 the former College for four or five days, after which they 
 were drilled with the rest in Christ Church Meadow. They 
 were probably more forward than the rest, or Finch may 
 have been thought the best officer, or it may have been 
 accident, but Wood, from whom we get this account, tells 
 us that this ' seems to have been the only Company em- 
 ployed 2 .' As it happened, the employment was not very 
 arduous ; but that was not their fault. 
 
 On July 8, Captain Finch sent his drum at 1 2 at night to 
 summon his men to All Souls ; and, soon after, they marched, 
 by the command of Lord Abingdon, to Islip to secure the 
 road to London, and to stop all suspicious persons going 
 thither. They returned on the tenth day, after the news of 
 
 1 Birch's Life of Tillotson, p. 222. 2 Life ; sub ann. 1685.
 
 298 JAMES II AND WARDEN FINCH. [CHAP. 
 
 Monmouth's defeat had arrived. The troops were at once 
 disbanded. Rejoicing 1 and jollity succeeded to the fatigues of 
 their short labours. Lord Abingdon invited the University 
 troop to dine with him at Ricot, . . . and they ' came home 
 well fuz'd.' This charge against the gallant ' scholars ' is, 
 it must be feared, only too probably just, but certainly we 
 need not assume that the Captain of the All Souls Company 
 failed to set them the example of inebriation. Perhaps we 
 may go out of our way to remark that the City was as loyal 
 as the University; for, 
 
 ' Having received certainty of the rebell's defeat, the Mayor 
 and his brethren met at Penny less Bench about 8 at night, 
 went to prayers in their scarlet at Carfax church, afterwards 
 retired to Pennyless Bench, where there was a bonfire and 
 entertainment for the E. of Abendon and the officers of the 
 militia ! .' 
 
 The drum used by Captain Finch is still in the Bursary of 
 All Souls. That and another cost ^3. The two drummers 
 received d^i igs. 
 
 With such claims and such advocates Finch presented him- 
 self, on the death of his Warden, a year and a half later, before 
 King James. His letter, excusing himself to Sancroft, gives 
 some account of his proceedings ; but it has been printed by 
 Gutch 2 , and would be out of place here. It is impossible to 
 read it without a smile. Nothing can be so plausible. It 
 was with the greatest pain and grief that he put such violence 
 on himself as to ask for a Mandate. If he had not obtained it 
 a Papist would. His sole object was ' the good service of the 
 Church and College.' He would not first appear before his 
 College Visitor, for fear of compromising him, but having 
 heard from a friend that ' your Grace was pleased to wink at 
 my proceedings,' he had ' at last possessed himself of that 
 Mandate for which so many particular greate interests had so 
 
 1 Life, sub ann. 1685. 2 Coll. Cur. ii. 49.
 
 xvi.] FINCH BECOMES WARDEN. 299 
 
 fiercely contested/ He then dilates on the delicacy of feeling 
 he had displayed towards the College after he had obtained 
 his 'preferment.' He has done no 'mean, dishonourable 
 thing,' and he hopes the Primate will ' vouchsafe his good 
 opinion and approbation.' 
 
 Nor is the Mandate itself worth giving in detail, since 
 that also was printed from the Archives by Gutch. It is 
 dated January 15, i68f, just a month later than the still more 
 audacious document infringing English liberties, the Dispen- 
 sation granted to Massey as Dean of Christ Church l ; but as 
 Finch was not a Papist, it was only necessary to follow the 
 too well accustomed form, ' any statute, custom or constitu- 
 tion of Our College notwithstanding ; with all which we are 
 graciously pleased to dispense in his behalf/ No doubt it 
 must have required all Finch's interest to induce James to 
 forego his cherished scheme of appointing Papists to these 
 posts ; but it was much the same thing to accustom Oxford 
 to receive Mandates. 
 
 The King was quite safe in assuming the ' ready compli- 
 ance ' of the Fellows. We have seen that there were many 
 reasons why they should make no objection. But it was 
 quite another thing to enable the Warden to assume 
 a legal position. This was a difficulty, fatal, as it turned 
 out, to the fortunate place-man's peace of mind in the end ; 
 for the Fellows plainly saw they could not go through the 
 form of election. That, after the Mandate, would be to 
 violate the College Statutes by their own act, make them- 
 selves liable to perjury, and imperil their Fellowships. So 
 they resolve, as the best present solution of the difficulty, 
 to admit their youthful Warden without election, and to 
 trust to the chapter of accidents for the rfest. This was 
 accordingly done. With the rashness of his nature Finch, 
 no doubt, anticipated little difficulty in obtaining help from 
 
 1 Gutch's Coll. Cur. i. 294.
 
 300 JAMES II AND WARDEN FINCH. [CHAP. 
 
 the Visitor to rectify a mere trifling informality. If Arch- 
 bishop Sancroft would but confirm the appointment all 
 would be easily set right. He had taken no active step 
 against it. He ought to be satisfied that a Papist had 
 been excluded, and a Warden presented to the College of 
 whom it did not disapprove. 
 
 This leads us to consider what Archbishop Bancroft's 
 part in the affair was. Eveiy possible effort was made 
 to obtain his Confirmation. A ' Case' is extant in which 
 it is assumed that the very fact of there having been 
 no 'election' lays an obligation on the Visitor to supply 
 the College with a Warden ; and a legal document, pur- 
 porting to be a Confirmation of Finch by Sancroft, is to 
 be found in the copy of All Souls papers from the Tanner 
 MSS. lodged in the College. But the original has been 
 endorsed by Bishop Tanner himself, ' A proposal of Sir Thomas 
 Clarges ] .' And when the whole matter came, as it did sub- 
 sequently, before various Courts of Law, we find in the 
 Tenison correspondence 2 that Finch himself does not claim 
 any Confirmation or overt act of any kind from the Arch- 
 bishop. This very Sir Thomas Clarges, a person of some 
 importance, writes to Finch that the Visitor ' considered it 
 a cams omissus, and could do nothing in it 3 / which Finch, 
 in his plausible manner, quotes as proving that His Grace's 
 non- Confirmation did not proceed from an unwillingness, but, 
 as he thought, an incapacity of giving it, as 'supposing he 
 had no jurisdiction in the case.' And he declares he 
 could prove that the Archbishop ' much wished the Fellows 
 had chose another man with me' [according to Statute], 
 'that he might have had an opportunity of complimenting 
 the King in the confirmation of the man he was pleased to 
 name.' Finally, he infers from the fact that he had received 
 
 1 Tanner MSS. vol. 340. 
 2 Bibl. Lamb. cod. 688. 3 Ibid.
 
 xvi.] BANCROFT'S CONDUCT. 301 
 
 Bancroft's dispensation to be ordained both deacon and priest 
 per saltum that the Visitor had virtually ratified and con- 
 firmed his official position. 
 
 On the other hand, his opponent, Proast, dwells on the 
 resistance of the Visitor to Lord Weymouth's solicitations 
 that he would confirm Finch, and accounts for his taking 
 no further step in the matter by its having been f dangerous 
 to question him in King James's time, and at the Revolution 
 he was not capable of doing it 1 .' 
 
 Both sides thus agree that Sancroft ' did nothing in it.' 
 It would be contrary to all we know of him if he had suffered 
 himself to be persuaded or pressed into confirming an illegal 
 act of James the Second's. The only question is what 
 were his motives for taking no further steps in the matter ? 
 As he so soon afterwards shewed himself insensible to danger 
 when he headed the resistance to James, it could hardly be 
 from fear, as Proast suggests. At the same time we may 
 dismiss the glosses of the pseudo- Warden himself. They 
 are not entitled to much respect. 
 
 The Visitor was no doubt resolved to ' wink at it,' to do 
 ' nothing in it.' He was at this time in disgrace, and thus 
 powerless with James, who had but just commenced his 
 overt policy of Dispensations. No one knew how far he 
 would go. The safety of the whole Church was trembling 
 in the balance. There was a worse thing than using the 
 Dispensing Power to force a Protestant into a place. Sup- 
 pose the King went on to fill up every place with Papists ! 
 as he subsequently did. Was it wise to exasperate him at 
 this moment ? Perhaps the best thing would be to leave it 
 quite alone. The time had not yet come. The country 
 would not yet have backed him up in resisting such an 
 appointment as that of Finch. He could not undertake to 
 enter on a fresh struggle with the College without a faithful 
 
 1 Bibl. Lamb. cod. 688.
 
 302 JAMES II AND WARDEN FINCH. [CHAP. 
 
 Warden, like Jeames, to support him. This time the battle 
 would be with the King as well ; whereas Charles had stood 
 aside on the last occasion. Nor could he now expect any help 
 from the Law Courts as before. Jeffries had but just been 
 appointed Lord Chancellor as a reward for the ' Bloody 
 Assizes.' What hope was there now for justice ? 
 
 Such, judging by Bancroft's past transactions with the Col- 
 lege as well as by his subsequent conduct, was in all proba- 
 bility his line of reasoning. His forbearance to act was 
 dictated by his characteristic caution and moderation, not by 
 fear. We may believe it would have been nobler, as well as 
 more useful in the end, both to James and the College, if 
 he had at least sent in his protest as Visitor against the 
 infatuated King's high-handed act. To do right at any cost 
 generally turns out well. But those who are not called upon 
 
 to face the 
 
 'Vultus instantis tyranni' 
 
 have not much right to condemn one who soon found himself 
 imprisoned by the furious King for leading the resistance 
 to his unconstitutional proceedings at a moment when loud- 
 voiced patriots shrank from the uncomfortable lot of mar- 
 tyrdom. It may be hoped that Englishmen have not even 
 yet ceased to remember what they owe to the Church of 
 England, to Sancroft and his six Suffragans who saved the 
 liberties of their fellow-countrymen. 
 
 We shall obtain in the next Chapter one slight passing 
 glance at the Archbishop as he endeavours to save the reckless 
 Warden from the consequences of his erratic conduct, but 
 his connection with his College is now practically at an end. 
 The last link between him and All Souls is the Latin letter 
 from his ' family' addressed to him in prison. Its abundant 
 expressions of profound sympathy are so eloquently rendered 
 that it seems hardly fair to the College to omit it, but space 
 compels. If enthusiastic admiration for a pastor who could 
 brave ' the insults of enemies, the reproaches of courtiers, and
 
 xvi.] SAN CROFT'S CHARACTER. 303 
 
 the fierce anger of a King ' in defence of his flock, could 
 encourage the Primate, if quotations from Scripture could 
 nerve him for the conflict, he is supplied to overflowing. 
 He was no doubt better pleased with this letter than he was 
 with a former one 1 ; and we may well believe it was some- 
 what more genuine. 
 
 As we now part with Archbishop Sancroft, we may remark 
 that his behaviour in reference to All Souls, hitherto unknown 
 to the public, may fairly be held to bear out the character 
 given of him by his biographer, who himself knew next to 
 nothing of these circumstances. D'Oyly tells us 2 , in oppo- 
 sition to the disparaging judgment of Burnet already quoted, 
 that Sancroft owed his selection for the Primacy 
 
 ' entirely to his character, which pointed him out as the 
 person best qualified to adorn the station. ... It was after- 
 wards sufficiently proved that the government of the Church 
 could not have been entrusted to one more firm and temperate 
 in the exercise of his authority, more watchful over its general 
 interests, or more intrepid in the defence of its rights and 
 privileges.' 
 
 We are not concerned here to discuss the Archbishop's line 
 of conduct at the Revolution. Of any unworthy action in the 
 matter his character has long been cleared. As to the Non- 
 juring Schism, for which perilous step he, from his position, 
 was mainly responsible, the adhesion of Bishop Ken will 
 always check too harsh a judgment. We can scarcely form 
 a notion in this day of the difficulties under which con- 
 scientious men then laboured. Resistance was one thing, 
 resistance at any cost. . The transfer of sovereignty may well 
 have seemed to them quite another, and a different thing. 
 Happily for England there were men who took a more 
 statesmanlike view of the question than Sancroft and Ken ! 
 But we must not on that account refuse his just meed of 
 approbation to one who was certainly no unworthy successor 
 
 1 pp. 269, 272. 2 Life of Sancroft, p. 158.
 
 304 JAMES II AND WARDEN FINCH. 
 
 of St. Augustine and St. .ZElphege, of St. Anselm and 
 Stephen Langton. 
 
 Bancroft's is the last case in English history of a Primate 
 whose tenure of office was prematurely or temporarily ter- 
 minated in consequence of the exigencies of the State, the 
 caprice of Sovereigns, or the violence of Revolutions. He 
 makes the balance even between the Reformed Church of 
 England and the Unreformed Church, as established by the 
 Concordat of William the Conqueror and Lanfranc. Over 
 against Anselm, Becket, Edmund Rich, Winchelsey, and 
 Sudbury, to mention only the cases \vhere persecution 
 for principles, or mob-violence took place, stand Cranmer, 
 Grindal, Abbot, Laud, and Sancroft. ' Such indignities, 
 painful as they are to contemplate, and shameful as the 
 pages of English history too often are which chronicle 
 them, are the price paid by Englishmen for the preserva- 
 tion of the spiritual inheritance received from primitive 
 times, for the happy Constitution of Church and State 
 which they now enjoy !
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 at % 
 1688-1702. 
 
 Finch as "Warden All Souls accepts the Revolution Finch's 
 conflict with Proast The better side of Finch's character 
 His account of Queen Mary's death Dr. George Clarke 
 His influence at All Souls Creech, the poet Tanner, the 
 antiquarian His connection with Wood His affection for All 
 Souls The state of Christ Church and of Oxford generally. 
 
 THE relation of the College to the general history of the 
 country during the reign of James the Second has not been 
 a very satisfactory object of contemplation. Retribution 
 followed all the actors alike in the matter of Finch's 
 Mandate. As far as one small success could encourage the 
 King to press forward, and we know how anxiously he 
 watched even the smallest indications of the success of his 
 policy, he found himself just so far on his way towards 
 the gulf of disappointment and distress into which he was 
 about to plunge. The clever Warden had not long to 
 wait before he found himself engaged by his own act in 
 a struggle with one whom he entirely despised, but who, 
 in consequence of this very success of his in obtaining 
 a Mandate from James, brought him, after a bitter conflict 
 of ten years, on his knees. Not long before he died he
 
 306 ALL SOULS AT THE REVOLUTION. [CHAP. 
 
 was forced to undergo the humiliation of an absolute re- 
 signation of his ill- got Wardenship in order to procure 
 a legal title to it. The Fellows who had promoted his 
 success either from fear of the alternative of a Papist, or 
 from sympathy with a boon companion, found themselves 
 disgraced by a superior officer who, besides other scandals, 
 forgot to pay his debts to the College ! Even Sancroft's 
 reputation would have stood higher if he had made some 
 resistance in the case instead of leaving it alone. 
 
 In point of fact the three years which preceded the 
 Revolution are the real Revolution. Panic had seized the 
 good ; violence and shameless cupidity revelled in their 
 opportunity. But men's eyes were soon opened as they could 
 scarcely have been opened by any other process. The panic 
 was momentary ; the gathering cloud of indignation swept 
 all before it, and the eifect of the struggle was permanent. 
 It was well for the College of All Souls as for the nation 
 that the ill-treatment which they both received occurred 
 just when and how it did. James's despotic invasion of the 
 rights of the College was the last. Since the Revolution 
 there has been no attempt to interfere with the College 
 elections. Internal freedom from corruption was followed 
 by freedom from external tyranny. 
 
 All Souls had experienced the national change of feeling 
 with respect to James in a very decided manner. Jacobitism, 
 however tenaciously rooted in Oxford generally, kept but 
 little hold on the College where some of the noisiest demon- 
 strations in favour of James had taken place. The close 
 connections which had been established for generations 
 between it and the Court exposed it to exactly the same 
 fluctuations as the society of the metropolis ; and the Warden 
 whom James had created was not the man to support a falling 
 cause. "We cannot indeed blame him any more than multi- 
 tudes of greater persons at that crisis, but his position 
 exposed him to many bitter observations. Not only had
 
 xvii.] FINCH DESERTS JAMES. 307 
 
 he owed his place to James, hut he had taken a prominent 
 part in the King's reception at Oxford, only a year before 
 the Revolution. We find him, hy the side of the Vice- 
 Chancellor, preceding all the rest of the University, in the 
 cavalcade which rode forth to meet the King on his way 
 from Woodstock 1 . Yet we have no reason to doubt the 
 truth of Hearne's remark : 
 
 ' This said Finch, who had so great obligations to King 
 James, was one of those heads of Colleges in Oxford who 
 signed an association to stand by the Prince of Orange; 
 and 'tis moreover credibly reported that he was one of the 
 three or four heads who intended, if they could have prevailed 
 with Colleges, to deliver up all the College plate to the said 
 Prince, in order to be employed against their undoubted 
 lord and sovereign King James, who had not then left 
 England V 
 
 Whether this last 'report' was more correct than many 
 which reached Hearne, we cannot say ; but it is likely 
 enough; and at any rate Finch was rewarded in 1689 for 
 his conduct at the Revolution by a Prebendal Stall at 
 Canterbury, and speedily became a favourite at Court. At 
 the risk of censure for dwelling so long on the career of 
 Warden Finch we must pursue his history a little further, 
 for the sake of the illustration it throws upon the times; 
 and so bring it to an end. 
 
 The habits of the Warden were expensive, and he cast 
 about in various directions for means of gratifying them. 
 He had not long been admitted to the Wardenship of 
 All Souls when the Camden Professorship of Ancient His- 
 tory fell vacant, and he determined to stand for it against 
 the celebrated Dodwell; who however obtained it by a 
 narrow majority. So narrow was the majority that the 
 Warden could put his hand on the very man who had 
 
 1 Wood's Life, sub ann. 1687. 
 
 2 Diary, 5. 262; Beliq. Hearn. i. 65. 
 
 x 2,
 
 308 ALL SOULS AT THE REVOLUTION. [CHAP. 
 
 robbed him of his prize. He had made sure of his own 
 College at least; but one Jonas Proast, a Chaplain of All 
 Souls, had actually voted against him, and persuaded, as 
 Finch asserted, two of the Fellows to do the same ! This 
 last accusation Proast denied, but surely one would suppose 
 that even in James's reign a man's l vote and interest ' 
 were his own. Not so. With a promptitude more be- 
 fitting the camp than the cloister, Finch, on the very- 
 evening of his defeat, then and there summarily dismissed 
 the Chaplain from his office for having taken part against 
 his Warden. He declared afterwards, by way of excuse, 
 that he was instigated to this act by some of the Fellows ; 
 and no doubt he had a majority with him in the affair; 
 but what did that matter? 
 
 He had however acted unwisely as well as unjustly. 
 Proast was a man of high character and resolute spirit, 
 a far superior man to his Warden, though poor. He 
 appeals to Sancroft, who requests two Bishops then in 
 Oxford to investigate the matter. These are Lloyd, of St. 
 Asaph, one of the ablest of the ' Seven Bishops/ just then 
 about to be put to the test; the other, the Bishop 
 of Sodor and Man. Both report against Finch, having 
 failed to make the slightest impression on him. The last- 
 named Prelate says, ' I carried your Grace's message to 
 the Warden,' but in vain. The Bishop of St. Asaph re- 
 marks that the case of the Chaplains of All Souls is 
 indeed wretched if they are nothing but ' conductitii' hired 
 men of the Warden's, and that it would be especially 
 hard, in the instance of the present Warden, if they are 
 to be turned out into the wide world whenever they vote 
 against him on his standing for a Professorship, ' as he 
 must stand for all, to supply the necessities into which he 
 has brought himself, not altogether by buying books 1 .' 
 The Warden himself on his part tells Sancroft that he 
 1 Tanner MSS. vol. 340.
 
 xvii.] THE WARDEN AND CHAPLAIN. 309 
 
 cannot reinstate a man who has heen so unmannerly as to 
 call him pratensum custodem, nor put such an affront upon 
 the College as to look over his taking part against his 
 Warden. 'If he is our Chaplaine I cannot be his Warden 1 .' 
 It was an irreconcilable quarrel. 
 
 Sancroft was soon afterwards sent to the Tower; and in 
 the vicissitudes of the times the poor Chaplain found it 
 an extremely hard matter to obtain justice. 
 
 We should feel less interest in the case if we did not 
 discover from every quarter but his own College (though he 
 had friends there) the highest testimony to Proast's worth. 
 Bishop Lloyd speaks of him as ' a most exemplary man, a 
 learned man and industrious, an ornament to his College 2 .' 1 
 Tanner speaks of him affectionately 3 . Hearne calls him 
 ' a worthy, learned, and conscientious man,' ' a truly honest, 
 wise man and a good scholar 4 .' He wrote a good ' Defence ' 
 of the Fellows of Magdalen in their resistance to James ; 
 he afterwards became Archdeacon of Berks, and was one 
 of the first promoters of the Society for the Propagation 
 of the Gospel. Bishop Burnet recommended him for 
 Deputy of that Society in the Sarum diocese 5 . 
 
 The Dean and Chapter of Canterbury are the Visitors 
 of All Souls in a vacancy of the Primacy. To them 
 Proast appealed in vain. As soon as Tillotson succeeds to 
 the Metropolitan See the Chaplain lays his case before 
 him ; but the new Primate is most dilatory in the mat- 
 ter. It is not till 1694 that he decides; and then in 
 Proast's favour. He is to be reinstated. Hearne justly 
 makes this delay a charge against the Archbishop. In one 
 of the last entries made by Wood in his ' Life ' he men- 
 tions the restoration of the Chaplain 'to his chamber and 
 commons, from which, for some years before, he had been 
 
 1 Tanner MSS. vol. 340. 2 Ibid. 
 
 3 Ballard MSS. 4. 55. 4 Diary, 5. 265; 24. 97. 
 
 5 Minutes of S. P. G.
 
 310 ALL SOULS AT THE REVOLUTION. [CHAP. 
 
 unjustly deprived by the new Warden 1 .' Tillotson how- 
 ever would make no order for payment of arrears; and 
 this, together with his delay, leads us to suspect that there 
 was some political partisanship in the case. Probably 
 Proast laboured under suspicion of being a Nonjuror in 
 sentiment; and Finch's interest was undoubtedly great. 
 The undaunted Chaplain now took his case before the 
 Civil tribunals, but could obtain no redress either from the 
 Privy Council or at Westminster. At last, on Tenison's 
 succeeding Tillotson, a fresh appeal to his Visitor was suc- 
 cessful. It had taken him ten years to get the most 
 obvious justice! But by this time (1698) Finch was well 
 understood. From the ' Case of Proast,' and from the cor- 
 respondence at Lambeth 2 , we perceive that the strong 
 point for the Chaplain was not so much the injustice of 
 the expulsion itself, on which he had at first very natur- 
 ally insisted, nor the Warden's power to expel him, which 
 he disputed; but that Finch was no Warden at all. He 
 was simply pseudo-custos, and, instead of expelling his Chap- 
 lain, should be himself turned out of doors for accepting 
 James's Mandate ! 
 
 Times have changed indeed ! Finch can no longer hold out. 
 The affair is now no longer scandalous only, but dangerous. 
 He is at last willing to accept a compromise. Proast is to 
 receive 100, and his rights are to remain unquestioned : on 
 the other hand the Warden's false position is to be remedied. 
 It is effected as follows. The office of Warden is declared 
 vacant, and the Fellows proceed to election, but by previous 
 arrangement do not elect. Thereupon the appointment de- 
 volves upon the Visitor, who nominates Finch 3 . The foul 
 stain of the Mandate is at length wiped out ! The memory 
 of Archdeacon Proast ought surely to be held sacred by 
 the College ! 
 
 1 Life, sub ann. 1694. 2 Cod. 688. 
 
 3 College Records.
 
 xvn.] ' GUSTOS DILECTISSIMUS! 311 
 
 The Warden has reached a port of safety, but his troubles 
 increase. The very next year the Visitor is obliged to take 
 notice of the serious fact that the Warden of All Souls is 
 hopelessly in debt to the College ; and finds it necessary to 
 interfere in a manner not usual, we may charitably hope, in 
 the case of Heads of Houses. He subjects him to the igno- 
 miny of a forced limitation of his Battels to a very moderate 
 amount until his debts are paid 1 ! 
 
 He survives the disgrace three years, dying in 1702, while 
 as yet scarcely in the prime of life, worn out, it would 
 seem, with complaints brought on by his way of living. A 
 well-authenticated tradition reports that bailiffs were in the 
 Lodgings at the time of his decease. A subscription was 
 promptly raised among his friends to bury him, but his 
 family intervened 2 . The College had, it is plain, pecuniary 
 as well as other reasons for remembering their { Gustos dilec- 
 tissimus.' Thus ended the career of one whose case is as 
 exceptional among the Wardens of All Souls as that of 
 certain soldier-prelates who might be named in the august 
 lists of English Diocesans. 
 
 And yet though these facts stand out against Leopold 
 Finch, and though letters may be seen which speak of his 
 intemperance and excesses while Warden 3 , it is but right to 
 remark that he did not appear in this light to many of his 
 contemporaries. The exceptionally high respectability of 
 his family, the position he held at Court (he was named as a 
 probable Chaplain to Queen Anne 4 ), the friendship of some of 
 the most distinguished men of the day, his agreeable manners 
 and decided abilities procured forgiveness for what passed no 
 doubt in that convivial age for little more than weak irregu- 
 larity. Past Fellows of the College like Norris dedicate books 
 to him with praise of his ' personal worth.' He prides him- 
 self on withstanding in the matter of elections the ' highest 
 
 1 College Records. 2 Ballard MSS. 32. 170. 
 
 3 Tanner MSS. vol. 21. * Ballard MSS. 7. 54.
 
 312 ALL SOULS AT THE REVOLUTION. [CHAP. 
 
 temptations to be corrupted/ and we may believe him. He 
 is indeed accused to Tenison of ' overawing and packing the 
 Fellows Y but he maintains that he only tried to prevent 
 the Seniors ' awing ' the Juniors. At any rate he makes 
 every exertion for the election of the famous Tanner 2 from 
 a Chaplaincy to a Fellowship, a case of pure merit, and 
 a favour Tanner always most gratefully acknowledged 3 . 
 His letters to the celebrated Dr. Charlett, Master of Uni- 
 sity, the centre of the antiquarian correspondence of the day, 
 are most creditable to his activity and intelligence. At one 
 time he is assisting Sir Henry Sheers, ' who is about to prove 
 the rotation of the earth round its axis and the gravitation 
 of bodies proceeding from that hypothesis 4 ;' at another taking 
 the lead in procuring a splendid edition of Euclid. A Mr. 
 Worseley speaks of him as a ' worthy gentleman whose loss 
 would be felt by the whole nation V since he is a ' man of 
 courage, integrity, learning and religion ; ' and a Mr. Moore 
 laments his death in much the same terms 6 . 
 
 We may conclude our notice of Finch by transcribing his 
 interesting letter on the death of Queen Mary. He had 
 apparently only taken Holy Orders because he was obliged 
 by the Statutes, having put it off till he had been Warden 
 very nearly the whole of the year of grace permitted by 
 Statute, and then persuading Sancroft, as we have seen, to 
 ordain him deacon and priest at once. But he was none 
 the less acceptable as a Court clergyman, and he seems to 
 have been a Proctor in Convocation during one or other of 
 its Sessions in William's reign. He was selected to preach 
 the University Sermon on the King's visit to Oxford, and 
 was so much in his confidence as to be present at the scene 
 which Macauiay has graphically reproduced for us in modern 
 times. 
 
 1 Lamb. Lib., cod. 939. 20. 2 Ballard MSS. 5. 60. 
 
 3 Ballard MSS. 4. 73. * Ibid. 20. i. 
 
 5 Ibid. 39. 15. 6 Ibid. 33. 170.
 
 xvn.] QUEEN MARTS DEATHBED. 313 
 
 ' I am a very unfortunate man in giving you the worst news 
 in the world, for I can tell you that before this can come to 
 you the best Queen England ever had will be dead. The 
 King's concern for her condition is so great that it is near 
 distraction. Our friend' [Dr. Radcliffe no doubt] f has done 
 all that man can do, and I believe His Majesty is well satis- 
 fied with his skill and diligence, though his concern for the 
 great loss disturbs him to the last degree. In fine, never was 
 so universal a melancholy known. The Queen has behaved 
 herself with all the courage and calmness imaginable, never 
 being in any concern but when she found the King in his 
 great passions of grief, as she often told him, being herself as 
 easy and contented as ever anybody was. She received the 
 Sacrament this afternoon, and had done so yesterday while I 
 was there, all things being prepared by the Archbishop, but 
 she was a little light-headed, and it was judged impracticable. 
 I shall soon see you, and shall be able to add more melancholy 
 circumstances. God preserve the King, and under him us ! 
 1 Yours, affectionately, L. G. FINCH V 
 
 His heart, as we should now say, was evidently 'in the 
 right place,' when he could write so good a letter as this ; 
 and it quite enables us to understand how it was he had so 
 many friends. His two-sided character neither was indeed, 
 nor is, any isolated phenomenon ; and it at least helps us 
 to understand how difficult it is to get at the truth in dealing 
 with the past. But the original mistake of thrusting a 
 young man of this sort into the Headship of a College could 
 not but produce effects which were beyond the cure of a mere 
 rectification of his legal position. A brilliant man of convivial 
 habits, impulsive disposition, and a ' tendency to indebtedness, 3 
 could not be expected either to reform abuses, or to infuse 
 a high tone into a Society which was still heaving with many 
 a struggle, and naturally on the watch for inconsistencies on 
 the part of its superior. It was exactly the occasion for the 
 formation of a regular party of men of loose habits, and in 
 which the doctrines of a man like Matthew Tindal, who soon 
 exchanged his short and suspicious adherence to Romanism 
 
 1 Ballard MSS. 20. 2.
 
 314 ALL SOULS AT THE REVOLUTION. [CHAP. 
 
 for the peculiar tenets with which his name is connected, 
 would find supporters. A severe task was left to his successor 
 by the custos dilectlssimus. 
 
 And yet, as the College has a very distinguished history 
 during the reigns of William and Mary and of Anne, we 
 shall naturally look about for the men who supplied the 
 steadying balance, the influences which kept the superior 
 class of Fellows together. We have seen that the College 
 made a bound the moment it was set free from the self- 
 imposed fetters of corrupt elections, and how in the very pro- 
 cess of the struggle with Bancroft it was fortunate enough 
 to enrol George Clarke, John Norris, and Miles Stapylton 
 among its members. It soon afterwards elected Thomas 
 Creech, Bernard Gardiner, Nathaniel Lloyd, Christopher Cod- 
 rington, Thomas Tanner, and Dodington G revile. These all 
 became men of distinction ; no other period of twenty years 
 in the College history, except perhaps at the Renaissance 
 and in the reign of Elizabeth, has anything to compare with 
 it. Scions of well-known families Digges, Bertie, Powys, 
 Rivers, Luttrell, Mews, Vernon, Norreys, Chicheley, Adder- 
 ley, Kinaston crowd in during the age of the Revolution. 
 
 We cannot assign the place of each of these in the College 
 divisions, which we shall have to trace in two distinct streams 
 hereafter; but it was no doubt among some of the Fellows 
 whose names have been mentioned that the beneficent influence 
 of George Clarke chiefly prevailed. It is to him, during his 
 long tenure of his Fellowship fifty-six years that we turn 
 for an opinion, wherever we can find it, on College difficulties. 
 His benefactions have still kept his memory green and fresh 
 in the minds of his successors. This will be therefore the 
 place to say something about so good and wise a man. 
 
 We connect George Clarke, the All Souls ' Jurist ' and 
 D.C.L., commonly known as ' Dr. Clarke,' with a more 
 various experience of public official life than any member of 
 the College in the whole of its history, except perhaps the
 
 xvii.] DOCTOR GEORGE CLARKE. 315 
 
 first Warden, Andre we, who contrived to be equally useful 
 to monarchs whose families were not only at variance, but in 
 deadly conflict, and Sir John Mason and Sir William Petre, 
 who served four Tudor Sovereigns continuously through every 
 fluctuation of the Reformation. George Clarke was the 
 Minister of the two Kings who preceded the Revolution, and 
 of all the rest of the Stuart family who were placed by that 
 Revolution on the English throne. He was Judge-Advocate- 
 General to Charles the Second, James the Second, and William 
 and Mary, Secretary of War to William the Third, Secretary 
 to Prince George of Denmark, and a Lord of the Admiralty 
 in Queen Anne's reign. Nor have we any ground for accusing 
 him of want of principle in this continuity of public service 
 in such times. Party government had commenced, and a 
 statesman could hold office without sacrifice of principle under 
 Sovereigns the most opposed. 
 
 George Clarke was the son of Sir William Clarke, of 
 whom we only know that he was buried at Harwich. The 
 Fellow of All Souls entered public life very soon after his 
 admission to the College, and sat in Parliament for more 
 places than one before he became Member for the University. 
 To the latter office he was elected no less than five different 
 times, once at least, if not oftener, unanimously. He was no 
 doubt recommended to both Charles and James by his courtly 
 manners, moribus elegantissimus, as we read on his monu- 
 ment, as well as by the opinion entertained of his abilities 
 and high character. He was all through his life devoted 
 to the cause of ' Church and King/ but he was nevertheless 
 an ardent well-wisher to the Revolution. James's conduct 
 settled the question with all lovers of the Constitution who 
 were not blinded by invincible prejudices or over-scrupulous- 
 ness of conscience; and that King must himself have felt 
 that he had no chance of support from Clarke in his attempt 
 to Romanise England, if we may judge by his selecting him 
 for a sorry joke about his connection with All Souls. It
 
 316 ALL SOULS AT THE REVOLUTION. [CHAP. 
 
 happened on the occasion of James's visit to Oxford in 1687, 
 for the purpose of supporting his Papist friends, and is thus 
 related by Wood ] : 
 
 'Sunday morn, when the K. was in dressing, in came 
 Clark (the same who was parliament man) of Alls. Coll. 
 in his square cap the King asked him of what Coll. he 
 was ? He said of Alls. Coll. Are not you, said the King, 
 bound by statute to pray for the dead ? No, Sir, said Clark ; 
 not that I know of. Why, said another that stood by, 
 Chichley was your founder and founded your Coll. for such 
 that were slain in the battle at Agincourt.' 
 
 We are not told of any further explanation given by 
 Clarke. Probably it would not have been of much use in 
 the present temper of James's mind to have reminded him 
 of the Act for the Suppression of Chantries. He was just 
 then at the very crisis of his frantic effort to turn back 
 the whole tide of English history, and no doubt enjoyed 
 his momentary triumph. It might have been well if he 
 had been led to ponder over Clarke's curt answer. Whatever 
 else Clarke was, he was always, as he said on the occasion 
 of Finch's appointment to be Warden of All Souls, a decided 
 anti-Papist. 
 
 All through the subsequent reigns we find evidence that 
 he was also a consistent and ardent anti-Jacobite ; and he 
 is followed by Hearne's displeasure in consequence, especially 
 as he beat Hearne's friend, Dr. King, the famous Jacobite, 
 in the contest of 1721 for Oxford University 2 . We have 
 not so many records of his political life as we could wish ; 
 for he was evidently rather the dexterous and necessary 
 man of business than a politician in the usual sense. But 
 we find him, in the early years of Anne's reign, taking a 
 leading part both at Court and in Parliament against the 
 Occasional Conformity Bill. This connected him with the 
 Whigs ; and later in the reign we find him in agreement 
 with the Tories on the subject of the Peace of Utrecht. 
 1 Life, sub ann. 1687. 2 Hearne's Diary, 93. 203.
 
 xvii.] CLARKE'S POLITICS. 317 
 
 His immense public experience led him to form judgments 
 superior to those of the mere partisan, and friendships which 
 embraced men of the most opposite opinions. We have to 
 search the unpublished correspondence of the times if we 
 would discover the place he held among his contemporaries. 
 He is full of zeal and good taste in his patronage of 
 literature. A quiet good sense and thorough knowledge of 
 the world pervade his letters; and his friends write to him 
 as to a man of whom they feel sure as to his friendship, 
 his disinterested judgment, and his generous philanthropy. 
 
 Perhaps, though forestalling our history a little, an extract 
 or two from Clarke's letters to the indefatigable Dr. Charlett, 
 on the Peace of Utrecht, may not be unacceptable even now, 
 when, after the lapse of so many years, party politics still 
 appear to obscure the opinions of some modern writers on the 
 Subject. The means by which that famous Treaty was pro- 
 cured were bad ; the Treaty itself, though far from perfect, 
 good. This was Clarke's opinion, and no one could be a 
 better judge. His letters also confirm the statement, not 
 thought unworthy of mention by grave historians, that one 
 among the influences which weighed with the upper classes 
 of society was the longing for the taste once more of those 
 French wines which the wars of Maryborough had so long 
 prevented from appearing at table. We have a glimpse too 
 of a Member for Oxford City from the pen of the Member 
 for the University. 
 
 ' I have all my life/ says Clarke, ' hated a trick, and think 
 nothing can be worth playing one. ... I wish the peace of 
 Europe, the peace of my country, and of the University in 
 particular, and can never bring myself to be fond of those 
 who would disturb any of them. Sir John Walter (M.P. for 
 the City of Oxford) is sanguine enough to hope that the Par- 
 liament will come in, so allowing us some French wine di- 
 rectly from France : you are sure of his wishes and endeavour 
 to bring it about.' 
 
 And on October 2, 1711, he writes thus :
 
 318 ALL SOULS AT THE REVOLUTION. [CHAP. 
 
 ' I can tell you nothing 1 from here which will be so accept- 
 able to you, as I am sure it is to me, as that all the world 
 talks of the great probability there is of peace. The City of 
 London most certainly believes it, for all the stocks rise ex- 
 tremely upon that supposition, and interest, you know, will 
 not lie. There are a parcel of people who industriously run 
 down public credit, and yet at the same time are for carrying 
 on the war, which requires credit as well as money. It would 
 make you laugh to hear the several reports of the King of 
 France's Ministers being in England. Mr. Pryor was walking 
 t'other day in Gray's Inn Walks, and the mob fancied M. 
 Polignac was with him, and gathered round him as they 
 used to do about Dr. SacheverellV 
 
 'He retired from official life at the end of Queen Anne's 
 reign, but continued to represent his University for some 
 time longer. Oxford is the home of his middle and old age. 
 Surrounded by friends, he makes the good of his College and 
 University the main employment of his time and of his wealth. 
 When we come to the history of All Souls in the reign of 
 Anne and George the First we shall see how much is due to 
 him, and also how much more All Souls lost of what he 
 would probably have left to that foundation had he not taken 
 an alarm, and found another channel for his munificence in 
 the endowment of Worcester College. 
 
 Thomas Creech will require a shorter notice, but his name 
 ought not to be forgotten. He had a considerable reputation 
 in his day, but not great enough to preserve his name. Even 
 the well-informed University resident will stop at his picture 
 in the 'Poet's Corner' of the Bodleian Galleries, and wonder 
 who it was that bore the name of ' Thomas Creech, Poet.' 
 
 This clever and industrious man was one of the first to 
 benefit by Bancroft's reform of the All Souls elections. He 
 had nothing to recommend him but his talents ; and it was 
 creditable to the Fellows who had just elected Finch that they 
 accepted the poor student perhaps by way of atonement. 
 
 1 Ballard MSS. 20. 40, 43, 47.
 
 xvii.] CREECH THE POET. 319 
 
 Hearne l speaks of him as c one of the most applauded wits 
 we had, and one who for several curious pieces deserved well 
 of the commonwealth of learning.' He finds a prominent 
 place in Gibber's 'Lives of the Poets.' His translation of 
 Manilius had not much circulation, but he is chiefly known 
 by his edition of Lucretius, which ran through six editions 
 in twenty -eight years 2 . His devotion to this particular 
 author was no doubt the origin of the report, which is 
 mentioned more than once in contemporary letters, that he 
 deliberately committed suicide out of sympathy with the 
 principles of his author. But happily an entry in Hearne's 
 Diary refutes the slander : ' By the Coroner's Inquest he 
 was found non compos mentis ; the evidence for it was very 
 good V Creech was assisted in some of his literary under- 
 takings by friends, and chiefly by Codrington, who shews, in 
 almost the only letter we have of his 4 , that he was much 
 pained at the treatment he had received from his client, whose 
 mind was already giving way. Creech was employed on an 
 edition of Justin the historian, a task which Codrington 
 himself appears to have contemplated, but in the end it was 
 left to the all-editing Hearne. 
 
 Tanner's name is so much more known than any of the 
 three which have been noticed in this chapter that scarcely 
 anything need be said about him except as far as he 
 touches the College which honoured itself in electing him. 
 Few great men in the literary world have emerged into 
 deserved celebrity at an earlier age than Tanner. While 
 an Undergraduate at Queen's College he had amassed the 
 materials for his gigantic work, the Notitia Monastica, and 
 even before he was appointed Chaplain to All Souls in 1693, 
 had attracted the attention of all learned men. Amongst these 
 was Wood. In the two last years of the great antiquarian's 
 
 1 Diary, 114. 13. 2 Ibid. 130. 81. 3 Ibid. 114. 13. 
 
 4 Ballurd MSS. 20. 33 ; Letters from the Bodleian Library.
 
 320 ALL SOULS AT THE REVOLUTION. [CHAP. 
 
 Life we find notices of the young man who was to follow 
 in his steps. A month before his death he says : 
 
 ' With S r . Tanner of All Souls, at Binsey Chapel, where, 
 in the porch, I read and told him the whole history of 
 St. Frideswide and the antiquity of that chapel ; thence to 
 Godstow, where I told him the . antiquities of that place and 
 all matter of Lady Edyve and Rosamond ; so eat a dish of 
 fish, and went through part of Wolvercote home 1 .' 
 
 How vividly does this entry reproduce the scene ! It 
 would be spoilt by another word. Old Anthony Wood was 
 no doubt sounding his young friend, with some presentiment 
 of that illness which soon came on him so suddenly and 
 distressingly. It prepares us for what then took place. Of 
 the circumstances of his death Tanner himself 2 , as well as 
 Dr. Charlett 3 , has given an excellent account. The latter, 
 who was the person most respected of all his friends by the 
 eccentric author, pressed him to settle who should be the 
 Editor of his papers. 
 
 'I advised him,' says Charlett, 'to Mr. Tanner of All 
 Souls, for whose fidelity I could be responsible. His answer 
 was, he thought so too, and that he would in this and in 
 all other particulars follow my advice.' 
 
 This is of course authentic ; but Hearne adds some touches 
 which had reached him, and are too characteristic not to 
 be true. When Tanner was recommended by Charlett, 
 ' Wood vehemently asked " Hath he courage ? will he be 
 honest?" repeating the words over and over. And when he 
 was assured he had both qualifications he committed the 
 papers to him 4 .' Hearne, Tanner's rival and political opponent, 
 
 1 Life, subann. 1695. 2 Ballard MSS. 4. 13. 
 
 3 Hearne's Johannis Glastoniensis Chronica, vol. ii. p. 455. 
 (Both this letter and Tanner's are given in Dr. Bliss's edition of 
 "Wood's Athense printed for the Eccl. Hist. Society.) 
 
 4 Diary, 92. 191.
 
 xvii.] BISHOP TANNER. 321 
 
 loudly condemned Tanner for having ' betrayed his trust ' 
 in editing Wood ; but this may well be disputed. It was 
 a matter requiring extreme delicacy, and he at any rate 
 acted in strict accord with Dr. Charlett. In later years 
 Hearne found he had much to learn from Tanner ' . It is 
 difficult to imagine three greater monuments of research 
 than the Notitia Monastica, the edition of Wood's Athene, 
 and the Bibliotheca Britannica. His collection of papers 
 and books, now in the Bodleian, has been already men- 
 tioned. His industry and ability were only exceeded by the 
 generosity and charity of his life and character; the in- 
 scription on his monument at Christ Church, of which he 
 was a Canon, is no mere sepulchral commonplace. The 
 friend of Bishop Gibson, Archbishop Wake, and Bishop 
 Moore, he became in due time himself the Bishop of St. 
 Asaph ; but his place among English Worthies is due to 
 the literary labours of which as a youth Queen's College 
 was the scene, and subsequently, for eight years as Chaplain 
 and Fellow, All Souls. 
 
 His affection for the Society which had thus nurtured him 
 is well exhibited in the following characteristic letter to 
 Dr. Charlett from Norwich, of which diocese he was Arch- 
 deacon, dated October 38, 1719 : 
 
 ' It would be scarce pardonable in one that had lived eleven 
 or twelve years in Oxford, and been a little observer of days 
 and times, not to remember, upon St. Simon and St. Jude, 
 University College and the flourishing state of it. This I 
 believe I have scarce ever omitted, though I have not always 
 been so happy as to have an hour to spare to send dutiful 
 respects and good wishes to my worthy friend who has so long 
 happily presided over that Society. The following six days 
 are usually very busy ones among your neighbours at All Souls. 
 Since I left them [in 1701] I have never sent one letter upon 
 an Election account, nor think ever to do it. The use I ought 
 to make at the return of this season is to thank the Almighty 
 Disposer of all events for giving so happy an issue to the 
 election 1696, and for turning the hearts of the then Warden 
 
 1 Diary passim. 
 Y
 
 322 ALL SOULS AT THE REVOLUTION. [CHAP. 
 
 and a majority of the Fellows in favour of a poor, friendless 
 Chaplain. Pray God reward all those who were instrumental 
 thereunto, and this year and ever direct for the best the filling 
 up the vacant places in that excellent Foundation. I shall be 
 a little interested on Monday in my usual celebration of All 
 Souls' Day, it being 1 unluckily appointed for a Session Day upon 
 a Commission we have down for Charitable Uses, of which 
 we have too much occasion in this County. ... I hope we 
 shall be able to do much good. . . . However I hope to 
 dispatch by four of the clock, and then to fill my table with 
 such as wish well to the University, though I never yet could 
 do it here with Oxford men.' 
 
 He then goes on to mention that the Caius College men 
 Caius being a great Norfolk College had met and publicly 
 dined on Caius Day, August 26, to the number of ninety-two. 
 
 c This was the first year of their keeping their Founder's 
 Day here in this City 1 ." 
 
 It is hoped that these personal touches will not be out of 
 place, where so little is personally known of a truly good 
 man. They help to prove that the College was recognised as 
 doing useful work by one capable of judging. It was bringing 
 into a focus, and so intensifying, the better influences of the 
 time, the literary activity, the religious principles, the social 
 graces of that stirring period. All through Oxford there was 
 a great movement in progress. Anthony Wood had imbued 
 a large number of men with his enthusiastic zeal for anti- 
 quarian research in the records of their own country and 
 University. Dr. Charlett was nursing a thousand schemes 
 for literary enterprise. We have seen that even Warden Finch 
 had caught the infection. Dr. RadcliflVs immense London 
 practice was made to contribute to the advancement of men 
 of learning, and especially of Oxford students. The researches 
 of the great Dutch scholars were exciting eager emulation 
 at both Universities. At Cambridge Bentley was grandly 
 elevating the standard of Classical scholarship, Newton of 
 
 1 Ballard MSS. 4. 73.
 
 XVIL] CONDITION OF OXFORD. 323 
 
 Mathematical eminence. At Oxford, Christ Church, under 
 Dr. Fell, had made a wonderful progress since the Eestoration. 
 The example of the great Boyle and the saintly Hammond 
 had not been lost. Locke, indeed, owing to Fell's subser- 
 viency to Charles the Second, had been expelled the Univer- 
 sity, but not till he had planted there seed which was to bear 
 abundant fruit, good for those who knew how to use it, bad 
 for the bad. Wake and Atterbury were maturing, under 
 the influence of that kindly temperature, their great powers 
 for the coming struggle upon ecclesiastical politics. South 
 had learnt there to give a better tone to the pungent wit of 
 the Terrse Filius. The all-accomplished Aldrich was com- 
 posing glees and catches, building quadrangles and churches, 
 and publishing manuals of logic, editions of the Classics, and 
 sermons against Rome, though apparently he had not made 
 as much effort as even the Fellows of All Souls to keep 
 out a Papist from the Headship of his House. Many other 
 divines of only less eminence gathered round the giants of 
 Christ Church in those palmy days ; nor will other Colleges 
 be found to have been altogether behindhand in the race 
 when the history of Oxford during those times comes to be 
 written. It was under the influences of Christ Church and 
 All Souls at this period that a remarkable man was educated, 
 who must have a chapter to himself. Christopher Cod- 
 rington is sometimes called the Second Founder of All 
 Souls, on account of his splendid benefaction. He was but 
 the most distinguished of many superior men formed in 
 this age who gave the College almost a fresh existence. 
 We must attempt to understand the process by which he 
 became what he was.
 
 CHAPTEE XVIII. 
 
 1690-1710. 
 
 Codrington's family His father His Oxford education 
 Campaigns in Flanders Public oration at Oxford Sent 
 to command in the West Indies Opinions of contemporaries 
 Career as Captain-General Learned retirement His Will 
 -Bequests to All Souls and the Society for Propagation 
 of the Gospel His character Addison's verses. 
 
 SINCE Great Britain has become the basis of an Empire 
 embracing India, Canada, Australia, and a multitude of other 
 dependencies, it requires an effort to imagine the importance 
 of the West Indian Islands in the seventeenth century. Be- 
 sides the North American colonies, several of which afforded in 
 their early days but a barren return for the labour and danger 
 undergone by emigrants, there was no other field open to 
 British enterprise. To the beautiful Antilles the brightest 
 jewel in the British Crown were attracted many of the best 
 families in the land. Negroes imported from Africa were 
 already largely employed in cultivating the sugar cane, and 
 wealth rapidly rewarded energy and ability. All the Western 
 nations of Europe competed for a share in the growing profits 
 of the trade, and the struggles of the Continent were repro- 
 duced in the Tropics. The state of society in the islands was 
 unsettled, not to say, too often lawless. The Buccaneers
 
 HIS FAMILY HISTORY. 325 
 
 flourished and were put down, rose again more than once, 
 and were again put down. There was too much sympathy 
 with them in many a West Indian society. 
 
 Of one of the best of the Colonial families the subject of 
 this chapter was the representative. They were the de- 
 scendants of no unimportant members of those knightly races 
 which have been the glory and strength of England. An 
 ancestor had been standard-bearer to Henry the Fifth in 
 battle; and they had been settled for many generations at 
 Dodington in Gloucestershire. After a lapse of nearly three 
 centuries, the descendant of the brave Lancastrian knight 
 came from the Antilles to be a Fellow and Benefactor of 
 the Lancastrian Foundation. 
 
 The father of this Christopher Codrington was also a 
 Christopher Codrington, also a British Colonel, also Captain- 
 General of the Caribbean, or more properly speaking, 
 Leeward, Islands, also a man of mark. 
 
 ' To the enterprising spirit and extensive views of Colonel 
 Codrington of Barbadoes,' says Bryan Edwards, the historian 
 of the West Indies, ' Antigua was indebted for its growing 
 prosperity and subsequent opulence. Deriving from his ap- 
 pointment as Captain-General the power of giving greater 
 energy to his benevolent purposes, he had soon the happiness 
 of beholding the good effects of his humanity and wisdom in 
 the flourishing condition of the several islands under his 
 government.' 
 
 He commanded with success an important expedition 
 against the French in the West Indies, and was concerned 
 in extinguishing a revival of Buccaneer license. So much 
 it seems as well to state, as it accounts for the resolution he 
 formed of sending his son to England that he might receive 
 the best education the old country could afford. So able and 
 prosperous a man would be satisfied with nothing short of 
 this. The property he left was so considerable that, with 
 the additions made by his son, it was spoken of by that sou
 
 326 CODRINGTON. [CHAP. 
 
 as 'the greatest estate of any man in the West Indies 1 .' 
 The highest praise Bryan Edwards can give the younger 
 Christopher is that he ' trod the same paths as his illustrious 
 father 2 .' He evidently owed much to that father. 
 
 The youth of whom we are now to speak was sent to school 
 at Enfield, and then to Christ Church ; from whence he was 
 elected to All Souls, somewhat later than the usual age, in 
 1690. He followed King William to Flanders, still keeping 
 his Fellowship, in 1694. Even by this time he had achieved 
 a high reputation. We come across him in various contem- 
 porary recolds as a sort of Admirable Crichton. Yet he has 
 left next to nothing behind him, and the printed accounts 
 of him are meagre in the extreme ; nor have his family 
 at the present day anything further to tell us. His Will, 
 dated 1702, was so remarkable in all respects that his name 
 will be handed down to remote posterity. It is little more 
 than a name to this generation. An attempt will be made 
 here to restore such life to that name as is still possible. 
 Would that it had been done when his memory was more 
 fresh ! 
 
 At Christ Church Codrington must have found himself 
 under the full influences of the remarkable men we have 
 noticed in the last chapter, and been witness to the most 
 exciting scenes presented within the House since the Com- 
 monwealth. Massey, the Romanist Dean, must have been 
 both intruded and superseded during his residence, and all the 
 great questions of Religion and the Constitution been prac- 
 tically dealt with before his eyes. We can only guess at 
 the immediate effect upon him of the struggle ; but it is 
 certain that we find him in after life a devoted adherent 
 to the principles of the Revolution, and a true son of the 
 Church of England. Of his residence at All Souls we have, 
 
 1 Copy of Petition against Colonel Christopher Codrington, 1)02. 
 
 2 History of the West Indies, vol. i. 438, 439.
 
 xviii.] HIS REPUTATION AS A WIT. 327 
 
 on the other hand, a direct and distinct trace in the report 
 of a friend with whom he had much intercourse before his 
 death. 
 
 ' At All Souls/ says Gordon, e he was convinced of the 
 true value of learning- and piety ; and that he had his 
 education there, among- so many learned and pious men as 
 that Royal Colledge abounds in, whose names he frequently 
 mention'd with peculiar esteem and veneration, he ever 
 accounted one of the greatest blessings of his life. The 
 happy opportunity which Providence indulg'd him of being 
 bred up in that fruitful seminary of good literature, he in- 
 dustriously improved to the storing of his understanding 
 with all sorts of learning, with logick, history, the learned 
 and modern languages, poetry, physick and divinity. . . . 
 Nor was he less careful of those politer exercises and accom- 
 plishments which might qualifie him to appear in the world 
 and at the nicest Courts with reputation and advantage, 
 insomuch that he soon acquir'd the deserv'd character 
 of an accomplished, well-bred gentleman, and .an universal 
 scholar V 
 
 This very high praise comes from a suspicious quarter 
 a funeral sermon. We are bound then to examine the 
 matter a little further. What further light have we as to 
 the opinion of his contemporaries? 
 
 We turn to Gibber's ' Lives of the Poets ' the standard 
 work of that kind in its day and we find he says of 
 Codrington, ' this gentleman was of the first rank of wit ;' 
 to Tindal's History of England, and we see him called 
 ' a man of learning and wit as well as gallantry.' We 
 examine the Analecta, in which indeed we found some verses 
 of Finch's, but into which collection all the best Latin poets 
 of the day were glad to find admission. Some of Codrington's 
 verses are there. We find Addison, the accepted critic of 
 his time, exhausting the vocabulary of poetical eulogy in 
 singing the praises of his friend. We find Edward Young, 
 the poet, in his funeral oration, describing the ardour with 
 
 1 Gordon's Funeral Sermon.
 
 328 CODRINGTON. [CHAP. 
 
 which he pursued his studies, as he did in war his enemies, 
 ' vehementer doctus? Digby Cotes, the Public Orator, on 
 the same occasion dilates on his heroic appearance, his 
 personal accomplishments, his Christian death-bed. But 
 perhaps his greatest praise is that Hearne l , who never has 
 a good word for any who were not more or less of his own 
 Jacobite principles, can say no worse thing of him than 
 that ( this gentleman had many good qualities, though they 
 were all slurred over by his complying with the rebels in 
 opposition to King James.' 
 
 There must have been something more than the mere 
 promise of excellence to excite this general opinion of Cod- 
 rington's abilities. He must have been a hard student, a 
 good scholar, and gifted with a vein of poetry which 
 distinguished him among his fellows. Very little of the 
 latter has come down to our times. His verses to Sir Samuel 
 Garth, on that author's 'Dispensary,' alone find a place in 
 modern or quasi-modern collections. A few lines have been 
 often quoted, and may be quoted once again : 
 
 ' Ask me not, friend, what I approve or blame, 
 Perhaps I know not why I like or damn ; 
 I can be pleased and I dare own I am. 
 I read thee over with a lover's eye, 
 Thou hast no faults or I no faults can spy, 
 Thou art all beauty or all blindness I.' 
 
 Such fragments do not of themselves entitle a man to 
 ' the first rank of wit,' but we may remember, if he appears 
 to us a somewhat obscure luminary in that galaxy of 
 excellence which we recognise in ' the age of Queen Anne,' 
 that the constellation had not yet reached its zenith, and 
 that a reputation is sometimes made, and justly made, 
 without much to shew for it in. print. 
 
 He was while at All Souls an enthusiastic collector of 
 
 1 Diary, 58. 200.
 
 xvni.] HIS ZEAL FOR LITERATURE. 329 
 
 books, as might be expected from the companion of Creech, 
 Tanner, and the able men who at this time flourished at 
 the College. A few years after he left Oxford he wrote 
 to Dr. Charlett as follows : 
 
 ' As to the latter part of your letter I shall only say 
 I had once some public designs; they were good, I think, 
 but I am sure I was in earnest. Whatever they were they 
 are at an end, and I shall never reassume them. However, 
 I shall proceed in my collection, and though it will not be 
 so large as I at first intended, I hope to make it as curious as 
 any private one in Europe, particularly in some sort of books 
 which I believe are not known in Oxford. Mr. Cunningham 
 is going into France, and from thence into Italy, and will 
 miss nothing that is curious. If ever I return from the 
 Indies I shall make that tour myself, and nothing shall 
 escape me that is valuable in any way, though it is possible, 
 considering my circumstances, that I may make very little 
 use of them myself, and am not yet resolved what to do with 
 them at my death, though I am very fully determined I will 
 not dispose of them as I at first intended V 
 
 These words may refer to Codrington's supposed idea of 
 leaving his books to the Bodleian Library, which Hearne, 
 writing in I7o6 3 , believed to be their destination. He 
 reckoned them at 12,000 in number, and they were valued 
 at ^6,000. Or, as the date is only a few months before that 
 of his Will, Codrington may have been in doubt whether 
 to apply them for the benefit of his West Indian College. 
 At any rate the books here mentioned formed a part, and 
 a very valuable part, of his legacy to All Souls. The 
 imminence of the war in which he was about to engage 
 accounts for the rest of the letter. He could hardly have 
 foreseen that he should yet spend six years, free from the 
 cares of Government, in the midst of his beloved pursuits. 
 
 Some years before this date he had however exchanged 
 
 1 Ballard MSS. 20. 33 ; Letters from the Bodleian Library. 
 - Hearne's Letters ; in Bodleian Library.
 
 330 CODRINGTON'. [CHAP. 
 
 the society of Clarke and RadclifFe and Addison and Garth 
 for the camp of Kinjg William in Flanders. As in the case 
 of Sir Anthony Sherley 1 , the College was unwilling to with- 
 draw its assistance from one who carried with him all its 
 sympathies in the great .struggle. It is hardly necessary 
 to look far for a reason why a man of Codrington's spirit 
 and opinions should rush to the assistance of his Sovereign 
 in his gallant effort to humble the imperious enemy of 
 England and religious liberty ; but war with France must 
 almost have seemed an hereditary duty to the son of the 
 Captain-General of the Caribbean Islands. Among the 
 chief causes assigned for that war was the cruel and trea- 
 cherous conduct of the French planters at St. Christopher's, 
 which it was the fortune of Codrington's father to avenge 2 . 
 
 His was no undistinguished service. At the sieges of 
 Huy and of Namur he behaved with such gallantry that 
 he attracted the attention of King William no mean 
 judge. It were to be wished there were some details of this 
 service, but at any rate we know that the King then and 
 there made him Captain of the First Regiment of Foot 
 Guards. Almost immediately after the close of the war 
 the elder Codrington died. The King now still further 
 marked his approval of the services of this young man 
 little more than thirty years old by giving him the suc- 
 cession to his father's great office in the West Indies. 
 
 A characteristic point of connection between Codrington's 
 military and literary life occurs at this period. Returning 
 to England with the King he attended him on his visit 
 to Oxford. The Public Orator was indisposed 3 , and the 
 University paid Codrington the compliment of selecting 
 him to deliver the University Oration instead of their own 
 officer. This production is, again, unfortunately lost ; but 
 
 1 p. 98. 2 Edwards' History of the "West Indies, i. 427. 
 
 3 Tindal's History of England, iii. 301.
 
 xvm.] A SOLDIER AND ORATOR. 331 
 
 the famous Dr. Gibson, afterwards Bishop of London, calls 
 it, in a contemporary letter, ' a very elegant oration J ; ' and 
 it is referred to as follows by Dr. Hudson, Bodley's Libra- 
 rian, who dedicated (in Latin) to Codrington, then in the 
 West Indies, the second volume of his edition of Dionysius 
 of Halicarnassus. 
 
 In the high-flown rhetoric, not altogether peculiar to the 
 dedications of those days, he remarks that 
 
 ' people might wonder why he sought the patronage of 
 a general engaged in war, but their surprise would cease if 
 they knew that the Muses were the comrades of that general, 
 if they had witnessed the incredible avidity and vigour with 
 which he had made literature his own^ how he had left nothing 
 unattempted which might aid the cultivation of his mind, 
 how he had carried off the laurel from all in the gentler con- 
 tests of poetry, as well as in the subtleties of philosophy and 
 mathematics, how profoundly the assembled University ad- 
 mired his manly eloquence when he made his magnificent 
 oration before the King, and narrated the noble deeds of the 
 war with the same courage as he had shown in their perform- 
 ance. He might well receive the dedication of the author's 
 
 1 Some extracts from this letter may find their place in a 
 note. 
 
 ' The King received the University in state at the Theatre, 
 where a large banquet was provided with variety of musick during 
 His Majesty's stay. Mr. Codrington of All Souls, in a very 
 elegant oration, expressed the publick joy of the University to 
 see His Majesty. The Chancellor [Duke of Ormond] on his knees 
 presented His Majesty with a large English Bible, a large Common 
 Prayerbook, and the cutts of y e University, all richly bound and 
 printed in folio at the Theatre, with a pair of gold-fringed gloves.' 
 The King was however, we know, coldly received, and left hastily. 
 The Chancellor, who staid behind, lodged at All Souls, and on 
 Sunday morning heard at St. Mary's ' an excellent sermon preached 
 by Dr. Finch, Warden of All Souls.' After the afternoon sermon 
 ' the Chancellor and such of y e nobility and gentry as staid in 
 town were entertained by the University at a dinner in the publick 
 Hall of All Souls College, the Noblemen, Heads of Houses, Pro- 
 fessors and Proctors present.' Ballard MSS. 5. 53.
 
 332 CODRINGTON. [CHAP. 
 
 works, as he of all men could best understand them. So 
 formed was he by the hand of a superior nature that under 
 the guidance of a master like Dionysius he might well become 
 in eloquence the rival of Pericles, as he had already sur- 
 passed him in the science of war and the greatness of his 
 exploits.' 
 
 As the mouth-piece of Britannia the learned Editor im- 
 plores the return of his patron to England, ' not only that 
 the loss of those whom the dire struggle for the liberties of 
 Europe had carried off might be the better borne, but because 
 some hope might then be entertained of terminating the war 
 raging in the vitals of Germany.' 
 
 It is evident from this, and other indications which present 
 themselves, that Oxford was not a little proud of the versatile 
 talents of her hero, and that Marlborough himself was as yet, 
 in her partial eyes, held cheap in comparison. Creech, 
 dedicating to Codrington, at an earlier date, his Lucre- 
 tius, dwells even more than Hudson on the loss sustained 
 by learning in the abstraction of his friend from Oxford to 
 military pursuits ; war had sacrilegiously carried off a genuine 
 child of the Muses. 
 
 We follow him then to the West Indies, to Barbadoes, 
 where his chief estates lay, to Antigua, where he had pro- 
 perty, and which was the seat of the Governor or Captain- 
 General of the Leeward Islands, to Nevis, St. Kitt's, and 
 the rest of that group of the Antilles which were included 
 in his government. 
 
 Some mention has been made of the unsettled state of 
 society in the Leeward Islands ; and some striking details 
 of their condition in this respect both before and after 
 Codrington's term of office may be found in works upon 
 the West Indies. But we gain further insight into the 
 subject by means of an Appeal which was made by some 
 inhabitants of Antigua in 1702 against Codrington's pro- 
 ceedings. It was first carried to the Commissioners of Trade
 
 xviii.] THE CAPTAIN-GENERAL. 333 
 
 and Plantations, then to the King in Council, and finally 
 (the promoters being- impatient of delays unjustly imposed, 
 as they alleged) to the House of Commons. To the ' articles 
 exhibited ' against him before this latter tribunal Codrington 
 replied by publishing them himself with his own comments 
 attached; and they are still to be seen 1 . At the end are 
 appended some very honourable testimonies to his character 
 as Governor, from the authorities of the Island of Nevis. 
 The charges against the General are concocted with legal 
 skill, but are evidently frivolous enough ; and so the House 
 must have thought, since it summarily 'dismissed' them. 
 
 Nevertheless the impression remains, on a study of the 
 document, that he ruled his islands after a somewhat 
 military fashion, salutary no doubt under the circumstances, 
 but not altogether agreeable. War with France was again 
 at hand, and the Commander-in-Chief had to prepare for 
 it. The first requisite for success was the establishment of 
 a firm rule over the people themselves. 
 
 In the Calendar of Treasury Papers may be seen an 
 official report from Codrington, a short time previous to 
 this affair, in which he says, speaking of Colonel Norton's 
 regiment, that he 'had reason to believe there was a vast 
 difference between the rolls he sent home and the true 
 state of his company. He had been forced to suspend 
 Colonel Norton from his government for the many great 
 crimes he had been guilty of. He would give a more parti- 
 cular account of 's friends/ ' If any knavery or quirks 
 
 of law, they may expect to find them in this island,' says 
 a very competent witness, of Barbadoes, writing in 1711 -. 
 
 It was fortunate that he had had three or four years of 
 peace in which to establish his position. With the com- 
 mencement of Queen Anne's reign the war broke out with 
 
 1 Codrington Library at All Souls. 
 
 2 MS. Letters, 67, Office of the Society for the Propagation of 
 the Gospel.
 
 334 CODRINGTON. [CHAP. 
 
 fury ; and the West Indian islands were among- the earliest 
 to feel its ravages. The General's first operations were 
 successful. It was at this time that the famous Benbow 
 commanded the naval forces in those seas, and died more 
 of a broken heart at the conduct of his captains than 
 of his wounds. With him Codrington might well have 
 succeeded in sweeping the French from the islands ; but 
 Benbow's successor was incompetent ; and the grand expe- 
 dition against Guadaloupe, planned by the General and 
 Admiral, failed for want of proper support from the latter, 
 partly also from the sickness of the troops, who were at 
 first successful. This was in 1703. There were as many 
 as 6000 soldiers embarked under Codrington's personal com- 
 mand ; and his gallantry was as usual conspicuous ; but in 
 vain 1 . 
 
 To a man of his disposition such a check was no doubt 
 more than ordinarily distressing. Next year he resigned his 
 appointment, ' was superseded,' as Mr. Edwards tells us 2 ; 
 but he seems to have resigned 3 . At any rate he retired 
 to his estates in Barbadoes, where he lived for the rest 
 of his life in great seclusion, and ' spent most of his time 
 in contemplation and study.' It is for this period that we 
 are obliged to rely upon the testimony of Mr. Gordon, and 
 can only quote his words ; words, however, which the writer 
 tells us he has carefully weighed : 
 
 ' I shall be particularly careful that what I shall say of 
 him shall be, to the best of my information and knowledge, 
 strictly true. 
 
 ' Nature had blessed him with vast capacious parts exceed- 
 ingly above the common level of mankind. He had a great 
 soul of a fiery genius, happily united to a body of a subtle and 
 flexible composition, in which the blood and animal spirits 
 
 1 Diary of Narcissus Luttrell ; Soutliey's History of the West 
 Indies. 
 
 a Vol. i. p. 439. 
 
 3 Gordon's Sermon, p. 2 1 ; ' Letters from the Bodleian.'
 
 xviii.] GORDON'S ACCOUNT OF HIM. 335 
 
 moved with vigour and rapidity and rendered it rather a spur 
 than a hindrance to the operations of his mind. He had a 
 quick and piercing apprehension, a strong, solid, distinguish- 
 ing judgment, a retentive memory, a warm imagination, a 
 fruitful, sagacious invention, a bold, pregnant wit, a sublime 
 way of thinking, a methodical, persuasive way of reasoning, 
 and a voluble, distinct utterance upon the most unexpected 
 occasions. These wonderful perfections which nature had 
 adorned him with were enlarged and cultivated with all the 
 art and care that this polite age is master of. 
 
 ' Of late he chiefly applied himself to Church History and 
 Metaphysics. If in anything he excelled it was in Meta- 
 physical learning, of which he was perhaps the greatest 
 master in the world. He w r as a great admirer of the Fathers, 
 particularly of St. Basil, whom he seems not a little to have 
 resembled in the universality of his genius, the warmth and 
 activity of his temper, and an affection for a monastic life, but 
 chiefly in his sublime way of speaking and writing. 
 
 ' He was particularly careful to form his style upon the 
 great models of antiquity ; some of them he equalled, most of 
 them he excelled. His style was plain and easy, yet powerful 
 and lofty, fluent but not turgid, florid yet natural and 
 unaffected, elegant but not overwrought or forced. In his 
 studied and elaborate composures there was an inimitable 
 beauty and efficacy, whereby he would at once charm the 
 affections, move the passions, and convince the understanding 
 with such surprising turns, such impetuous force, such solid 
 reasons that (as was said of his forementioned pattern) he 
 spoke nothing but life and breathed a soul into the dullest 
 argument he treated of. And yet his care of his style did 
 not at all cramp the exactness or interrupt the chain of his 
 most refined and abstracted enquiries ; for every thought was 
 placed in the most advantageous light, as well as dressed in 
 the gayest manner, and every period was just, and had a 
 natural cadence. In the same discourse he would display the 
 orator and th'e philosopher to so great perfection that it was 
 hard to determine in which he most excelled, so much did 
 he excel in both. 
 
 ' In a word, he had in this West India retirement made 
 so wonderful a progress in his studies, that had Providence 
 spared him to have returned to his beloved University, he 
 would have been as much the object of their admiration as he 
 deserved to be the object of their delight. Great part of his 
 estate he designed for the advancement of learning and piety ; 
 and indeed he was so great a lover of learning and learned
 
 336 CODRINGTON. [CHAP. 
 
 men, that wherever he met with an ingenious person he 
 courted his acquaintance, and readily received him into his 
 friendship.' 
 
 So long a quotation would be perfectly inexcusable if, 
 on the one hand, there were any remains of this ' master- 
 piece of nature ' to present by way of specimen, or if, on the 
 other, there were not grounds for believing that, after making 
 ample allowance for the partiality of his friend, the account 
 he gives is substantially correct. It is scarcely conceivable 
 that not one of these ' discourses ' or { composures ' which 
 so impressed Mr. Gordon, no fragment of this ' perfect style,' 
 should have survived, but so it is. Beyond the trifling 
 contributions to literature above noticed, no research has 
 yielded any fruit. Private enquiries among his descendants 
 reveal no store such as one would suppose might have been 
 preserved. But Addison's lines, in his Pax Gulielmi auspiciis 
 Europe reddita, three of which are inscribed on Codrington's 
 monument, take quite as high a line of praise ; and the 
 funeral orations spoken at his grave, when his body was 
 brought over the Atlantic for burial at All Souls, rise even 
 higher in their somewhat fulsome eulogy. Of these orations 
 that by Cotes at the interment, that by Young on laying 
 the first stone of the Library much cannot indeed be said 
 that is favourable in point of taste. Hearne : denounced 
 them as ' most wretched stuff, being neither Latin nor sense ; ' 
 but though they ought scarcely to have been printed, we have 
 seen that Hearne was not an impartial judge of Codrington. 
 He is more just in his protest against the body being 
 interred without any species of religious service 2 . 
 
 The Public Orator's reference in his oration to the unique 
 glory of Codrington in diffusing his munificence to the 
 farthest bounds of East and West, uniting both hemispheres 
 in his praises, barbarian and polished student alike, intro- 
 duces us to the Will which has been already mentioned. 
 
 1 Diary, 62. 83. 2 Ib. 58. 201.
 
 xvm.] BEQUEST TO ALL SOULS. 337 
 
 The noble use to which Codrington put so large a portion 
 of his estate serves to throw a further light on the character 
 of the man. Indeed, except for this it would have been 
 scarcely worth our while to have tracked his course so fully. 
 Two institutions of to-day date, if not their origin, their 
 chief development from his far-sighted wisdom. Of his gift 
 to All Souls enough has been said to shew that it was a 
 natural one for him to make. Ten thousand pounds, which 
 by good husbandry was raised to ^12,000, along with 
 ^6000 worth of valuable books, a sum worth perhaps 
 j^OjOOO of our currency, not only sufficed to erect, 
 furnish, and endow a magnificent Library for the College 
 he loved so well, but tended greatly to assist that process 
 of enlargement and improvement which will be presently 
 traced. 
 
 The College shewed every mark of gratitude for this 
 bequest; as well it might. The feeling of others may be 
 measured by the Visitor's letter to the Warden, of September 
 i, 1710: 
 
 'The news/ says Archbishop Tenison, f of Colonel Cod- 
 rington's noble bounty to the College is very agreeable to 
 me. If all other matters shall be well and amicably settled 
 at the Visitation it will be one of the most glorious luminaries 
 in the world. Such is the hearty wish, and in some degree 
 expectation, of your loving brother,' 
 
 ' T. CANTERBUKY V 
 
 Some details relating to the progress of this Library will 
 be found in a subsequent chapter. 
 
 We here close the connection of Codrington with All 
 Souls. His wishes were faithfully executed with respect to 
 his tomb. It was to be plain to cost only ^20 ; while 
 for a monument to his father in Westminster Abbey he 
 left ^1500. On the stone which covers his remains was 
 inscribed, with honourable simplicity, the single word 
 
 1 Archives. 
 z
 
 338 CODRINGTON. [CHAP. 
 
 'Codrington.' The statue which adorns his Library is by 
 Sir Henry Cheere. The picture in the Hall is not supposed 
 to be an authentic likeness. 
 
 But this notice would be very far from complete if we 
 did not devote a few pages to the other institution which 
 has carried down his name as a ' propagator of the Gospel ' 
 through many grateful generations. 
 
 Codrington seems to have been in England, in the matter 
 of his Appeal, almost at the very moment of the foundation 
 of the venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. 
 The first efforts of the noble-hearted men who conceived the 
 scheme made a profound impression on his mind, for they 
 were directed to the West Indies. It would be interesting 
 if we could discover how far he himself had been a fellow- 
 worker with them; but there is no record. However that 
 may be, it was not only that the benevolent objects of the 
 new Society fell in with his own ; it had been ' erected and 
 established by my late good master, King William the 
 Third V It had also at once received the hearty support of 
 Queen Anne. ' I shall always be ready,' said that Sovereign, 
 when addressed by the Society on her Accession, ' to do my 
 part towards promoting and encouraging so good a work ; ' 
 and she had ' beforehand declared her approbation of what 
 they are now doing by her princely munificence when the 
 affair was in private hands 2 .' Thus satisfied that a sound 
 foundation had been laid, Codrington made up his mind. He 
 kept his secret. No one in his lifetime guessed what he had 
 done. In less than two years after the Society was incor- 
 porated he made the munificent bequest which has placed 
 him in the front rank of contributors to such objects. ' The 
 Plantations have been computed to upwards of ^2000 a year 
 clear of all charges,' says the Report of the Society. Mr. 
 Gordon calls it an estate of ^30,000 value. It was at least 
 worth ^100,000 of our money. 
 
 1 Codrington's Will. 2 First Eeport of S.P.G., 1703.
 
 xviii.] BEQUEST TO THE S.P.G. 339 
 
 Here are the words of the testator, which have never yet 
 been given in their complete form : 
 
 'Item, I give and bequeath my two plantations in the 
 Island of Barbadoes to the Society for the Propagation of 
 the Christian Religion in Forraigne Parts, erected and estab- 
 lished by my late good master, William the Third ; and my 
 desire is to leave the plantations contained therein entire, and 
 three hundred negroes at least always kept thereon : and a 
 convenient number of Professors and Scholars maintained 
 there, all of them to be under the vowes of poverty, chastity, 
 and obedience, who shall be obliged to study and practise 
 physick and chirurgery, as well as divinity, that by the 
 apparent usefulness of the former to all mankind they may 
 both endear themselves to the people, and have the better 
 opportunities of doing good to men's souls whilst they are 
 taking care of their bodies ; but the particulars of the Consti- 
 tution I leave to the Society composed of good and wise men.' 
 
 He also leaves to the Society an estate in Barbuda. 
 
 The above words are copied from the original Will in 
 Doctors' Commons j but the words, ' all of them to be under 
 the vowes of poverty, chastity, and obedience,' do not occur 
 in any printed copy whatever belonging to the Society for 
 the Propagation of the Gospel ; and no wonder, for in their 
 Report of the very year when they received the bequest, a 
 copy of this portion of the Will is given, but without the 
 above words ! All subsequent books and papers copy the 
 first Report, and consequently it had been wholly and com- 
 pletely lost to memory that Codrington intended his Professors 
 and Scholars to be a monastic body under the government 
 of the Archbishops, Bishops, and others of the English 
 Church incorporated by his 'good master, William the 
 Third'! 
 
 A letter of Bishop Tanner's, which the writer of these 
 pages accidentally came across in searching the Bodleian 
 MSS., led to this curious discovery. It is addressed to 
 Dr. Charlett, dated July 21, 1710, and runs as follows: 
 
 ' As no one has nearer at heart the peace and prosperity of 
 
 z 2
 
 340 CODRINGTON. [CHAP. 
 
 All Souls than myself, so your confirmation of what the public 
 prints mentioned of Colonel Codrington's benefaction was 
 most welcome. I have since seen the clause in his Will re- 
 lating- to the Propagation of the Gospel, where his ordering 
 all his Professors and Scholars [at Barbadoes] to be under 
 vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, is very monastic.' 
 
 As it seemed important to trace the matter further, with 
 a view to a full comprehension of the character and opinions 
 of the All Souls benefactor, enquiry was made of the 
 officers of the Society, to whom the writer would here 
 render his thanks for kind assistance, but in vain. Not 
 even an echo of the story had been prolonged down to the 
 present day. No particular meaning had been supposed to 
 attach to the only passage which might have led to investiga- 
 tion, and which has been quoted above from Mr. Gordon's 
 sermon. The ' affection for a monastic life,' if any one ever 
 thought of it, passed for a dream. But it was only necessary 
 to go to Doctors' Commons, there was the passage in the 
 Will ; only necessary to examine the original conveyance of 
 the property in the Archives of the Society, and there it was 
 again ! Perhaps the date of that conveyance may throw 
 some light on the history of the matter. It is 1742. It had 
 taken thirty-two years to get rid of the difficulties attending 
 the peaceable possession of the legacy ! An entire generation 
 had passed away. The deed was deposited in the Archives 
 of the S. P. G., and no one but the lawyer of the Society by 
 that time cared to examine it very narrowly ; and why should 
 any one examine it again when the disputes were settled ? 
 
 But how did the passage come to be erased so promptly and 
 conclusively ? This is a curious question, and no examination 
 of the ancient records of the Society throws the least light 
 upon it. No debate, no motion, no legal opinion, no state- 
 ment, appears either in the Reports, the Journal of the Board 
 Meetings, or the Journal of the Committee Meetings. And 
 yet this remarkable condition in the Will was notorious. The 
 executor, Colonel William Codrington, first cousin and heir of
 
 xviii.] THE MISSING CLAUSE. 341 
 
 Christopher, was advised that he might dispute the Will on 
 this very ground that it was ' Popish ] ; ' and the fact that 
 so large an estate was left away from the family, though the 
 elder line died out in Christopher Codrington, gave a very 
 natural excuse for any amount of legal obstruction. Even 
 the bequest to All Souls afforded matter for litigation. 
 
 We are left to conjecture. The Archbishops of those days 
 were autocratic in the affairs of the Society. Tenison, advised 
 no doubt by the Lord Chancellor, or some great legal autho- 
 rity, simply scratched his pen through the clause, and took 
 his chance as to the future. He chose to consider this as one 
 of the ' particulars of the Constitution ' left to the ' wise and 
 good men of which the Society is composed.' And yet, as 
 the condition precedes the clause in which option is permitted, 
 it might apparently be argued that the condition was para- 
 mount, and not by any means open to any such interference. 
 If technically that opinion might be held, a larger view of 
 the case would certainly justify the course of the Society. It 
 was a ' particular of the Constitution ' which, if retained, 
 would have vitiated the whole bequest ; and that the testator 
 could not have desired. Whatever might have been possible 
 in other times and places, any attempt to put the condition 
 into execution at that time, and in the West Indies, would 
 have been fatal ; or, at any rate, the Society may well have 
 thought so. The difficulties they met with from all quarters 
 were enormous as it was ; but there was not the slightest 
 element of sympathy with the ' monastic design/ either at 
 home or abroad, which could have saved the infant institu- 
 tion from shipwreck. Some of the English Nonjurors, 
 indeed, might have accepted the notion ; but that was all 
 the more reason in the eyes of the Bench of Bishops why 
 it should not be thought of for a moment. As the point 
 seems never to have been pressed in a Court of Law it 
 would appear that they were legally as well as morally 
 
 right. 
 
 1 See Mr. Gordon's letter, infra.
 
 342 CODEINGTON. [CHAP. 
 
 The question remains what could have influenced Cod- 
 rington to insert the condition? It forms an authentic 
 portion of the opinions of the man, and so deserves respect. 
 It was deliberate. Formed eight years before his death, it 
 was never rescinded. This ' affection for a monastic life ' was 
 not bred of solitary, studious habits in the learned retirement 
 of his later days ; but here it finds expression in the very 
 midst of the cares of government, the public defence of his 
 character, and the preparation for a very serious war. Happily 
 the search for documents at the Society's office led to the dis- 
 covery of a letter which conveys some information from the 
 same Mr. Gordon whose Funeral Sermon has been quoted. It 
 is addressed to the Society on July 25, 1710, very shortly 
 after the General's death : 
 
 Mr. Gordon ' makes bold to write some account of the 
 Plantations and the Testator's design for the information 
 of the Society. . . . The design of the bequest was the 
 maintenance of monks and missionaries, to be employed in 
 the conversion of negroes and Indians, which design he took 
 from the conversation of a learned Jesuit of St. Christopher's, 
 between whom and him there passed several letters upon the 
 antiquity, usefulness and excellence of a monastic life ; but 
 these, with some other rules and directions of his which he 
 communicated to me whilst alive, are not now to be found. Of 
 the missionaries, he proposed that there should be constantly 
 kept abroad three Visitors, who would be obliged to travel 
 from colony to colony and from country to country, to 
 transmit to the Society a large historical account of the 
 state of Christianity in such country, of the genius of the 
 people, and what means were most probable to advance re- 
 ligion and piety, but these, with a great many other directions, 
 I shall forbear enlarging upon as being superfluous. 
 
 1 Colonel William Codrington, the residuary legatee and 
 heir-at-law, has been at Antigua ever since the Will was 
 found, and by some letters I have received from him I find 
 lhat his advisers there have been buzzing in his ear that the 
 Society are not legally qualified to take the estates, that the 
 conditions of the bequest are Popish, and consequently tne 
 bequest void.' [Then follows a notice of sundry other claims 
 on the property.] ' Whether Col. W. Codrington will insist
 
 xvin.] MONASTIC IDEAS. 343 
 
 upon all these fancied advantages, and thereby give the So- 
 ciety trouble, I know not.' 
 
 It were much to be wished that Mr. Gordon, ' the happy 
 companion of the General's studies and retirements for the 
 two last years of his life,' had added to the services he has 
 rendered an account of those ' other directions' which he 
 considered ' superfluous' ! Would if the ' monastic design' 
 was impracticable, and, as many of us will think, unwise 
 that some of the other large conceptions entertained by this 
 remarkable man, and here mentioned by Mr. Gordon, had 
 been put in execution ! For it is abundantly evident that 
 we have in the present case a great mind brought to bear 
 on a subject which has been too much 'passed by on the 
 other side' at the hands of really great men. A peculiar 
 Providence had brought back a man, whose early youth 
 had been spent among colonists, negroes, and Indians, 
 in the full vigour of manhood, to his old haunts. Once 
 more he finds himself among colonists, negroes and Indians, 
 now no longer the eager, wondering boy, but endowed with 
 European learning and refinement pitched at the highest 
 standard of that exuberant age, and placed by the discerning 
 eye of his Sovereign in a lofty situation from whence he 
 could take extended views of men and things. His heart 
 was touched with the degradation of his fellow-creatures, 
 and his mind filled with the idea of benefiting them in a 
 way which had never yet been attempted. He would strike 
 out a new path. He would not merely send out Mission- 
 aries from England, he would have young men collected 
 in a College on the spot, on an estate of his own an estate 
 worked by negroes ; and thus, surrounded by those whom 
 not even he, or the Society to whom he entrusted the work, 
 as yet thought of emancipating, his trained Missionaries, 
 carefully providing for the spiritual good of the slaves, 
 should gradually learn the task before them. Nor should 
 they be only divines ; they should also, as we have seen,
 
 344 CODRINGTON. [CHAP. 
 
 be, for the best of reasons, trained in medicine and physical 
 science. 
 
 They should also be monks. He was ' a great admirer 
 of the Fathers, particularly of St. Basil 1 .' He had himself 
 embraced a celibate life. He was perhaps dissatisfied with 
 the ministerial standard of the West Indian clergy. Mr. 
 Gordon was a friend of only his last two years. His lot 
 had cast him on shores distant by some thousand miles from 
 his beloved College. He recurred with the partial eye of the 
 banished student, now immersed in business, and tortured 
 with the coarse ways of the world, to the happy, celibate 
 life of classic Oxford. Unmindful of the sad experience of 
 the Middle Ages, the corruptions of the monks and friars 
 of the unreformed Church, he flung himself on the early, 
 fresh, ideal of primitive enthusiasm. A skilful Jesuit had 
 persuaded him that Protestant prejudice alone distorted the 
 facts and rejected the theory. He would give it a fresh 
 trial in a new world, and yet under the Reformed Church, 
 which no Jesuit had persuaded him to forsake. The man 
 who, with all his faculties at full stretch, had contrasted 
 King James with King William, Massey with Aldrich, 
 Dryden and Obadiah Walker with Addison and Wake, 
 Jeffries and Tyrconnel with Holt and Maryborough, could 
 not listen to the voice of the Pope; but he would extract 
 from the early Church some portion of its primitive wisdom, 
 and see if it could not be made to bear a purer fruit than 
 that of Rome. So no doubt he argued. So others have 
 argued. It remains yet to be seen whether they have not 
 disregarded the conclusive commentary of centuries on an 
 experiment which was once doubtful, but is really no longer 
 a matter of speculation. 
 
 One more extract from Mr. Gordon's writings may be 
 inserted here : 
 
 ' I am upon good grounds persuaded,' says he, ' that had he 
 1 Gordon's Sermon.
 
 xviii.] HIS LOSS TO LITERATURE. 345 
 
 been sooner apprehensive of his death he had done yet greater 
 things for the advancement of learning- and piety. He hath 
 set a noble pattern to all those whom Providence hath blessed 
 with plentiful fortunes arising- from their commerce w r ith the 
 yet dark and unbelieving- parts of the world. May it excite 
 them to make a grateful return to Heaven, by consecrating 
 some part of their great estates to the conversion and instruc- 
 tion of those infidels to whose labour under Providence they 
 owe their wealth and affluence l ! ' 
 
 We cannot doubt that much more yet would have come 
 forth from the mind of such a man, cut off at the age of forty- 
 four. Religion and philanthropy mourned his early loss ; 
 literature might well believe that she was deprived of some 
 great classical work which would have matched the pages 
 of antiquity some history of the Revolution and William's 
 wars perhaps, free from the modern exigencies of brilliant 
 composition, graced with the style of Thucydides or 
 Clarendon, and commanding the admiration and assent of 
 ages, since it would have been the relation of an actor and 
 eye-witness. 
 
 It was not to be. He died as he had lived, the death 
 of faith and courage. The West Indian climate and severe 
 study wore him out, just when some men begin to live. 
 But his institutions have continued the life thus cut short. 
 We shall now watch the progress of All Souls, henceforth 
 inseparably connected with his benefaction. The history of 
 Codrington College, Barbadoes, would interrupt too much 
 the process of our narrative. A brief sketch of it will be 
 found in an Appendix. 
 
 The following lines from the pen of Addison 2 are not to 
 be found in all editions of his works. They have already 
 been noticed, but may perhaps not be unacceptable in con- 
 cluding this necessarily most imperfect sketch of a true 
 Worthy of All Souls. They contain a prophecy, towards 
 the further fulfilment of which it may be hoped that even 
 this feeble effort may contribute. 
 
 1 Dedication of Gordon's Sermon. 2 Works, vol. i. p. 399.
 
 346 CODRINGTON. 
 
 ' Te tamen e mediis, Ductor fortissime, turmis 
 Exere : Tu vitam (si quid mea carmina possunt) 
 Accipies, populique encomia sera futuri : 
 Quern varias edoctum artes studiisque Minervse 
 Omnibus ornatum, Marti Rhedicyna furenti 
 Credidit invita, et tanto se jactat alumno. 
 Hunc nempe ardorem atque immensos pectoris sestus 
 Non jubar Arctoum, aut nostri penuria cceli, 
 Sed plaga torridior, qua sol intentius omnes 
 Effundit radios, totique obnoxia Phoabo 
 India progenuit, tenerisque incoxit ab annis 
 Virtutem immodicam et generosse incendia mentis.' 
 
 The family has occupied a distinguished position in modern 
 times. A baronetcy was in some sort a recognition of the 
 West Indian services of the two Christophers. Another 
 branch of the family has produced one of the best of modern 
 naval heroes, the famous Sir Edward Codrington, who 
 (if a retired naval officer may be allowed an opinion) 
 certainly ought to have been made a peer, who has lately 
 found an able biographer in his daughter, and whose sons 
 are covered with distinctions gained in the military and naval 
 Services. The descendant of another branch, a Fellow, like 
 Christopher, of an Oxford College 1 , is even now pursuing 
 his collateral ancestor's great example in developing a 
 Melanesian College in the Pacific. But, not excepting from 
 the comparison even the knightly standard-bearer of Henry 
 the Fifth, Christopher of All Souls must fairly take his place 
 as the chief of the race. 
 
 1 Wadham.
 
 CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 in % UIQU 0f 
 1702-1714. 
 
 The settlement of All Souls a type of that of the nation 
 Character of Warden Gardiner His effort to revive the 
 Statutes Opposition of Archbishop Tenison The case of 
 Blencowe Queen Anne's share in the affair Tenison's Visi- 
 tation Non-Residence of Fellows established 'Restoration' of 
 College Chapel. ^ 
 
 FKOM the very commencement of Queen Anne's reign, 
 which was also the commencement of Bernard Gardiner's 
 Wardenship, we observe a gradual change in the material 
 condition of All Souls. One portion of the College after 
 another is taken in hand ; first the Chapel, then the Warden's 
 Lodgings, then the Codrington Library, then the Hall, and 
 finally the new Quadrangle. The old buildings are almost 
 lost in the new. An air of magnificence arid elegance 
 pervades the institution. Before the middle of the century 
 it was placed in the condition in which we now see it. 
 
 Side by side with this change we find in the history of 
 the College a gradual settlement of questions which bad 
 long been waiting for solution, a gradual adjustment of 
 many old subjects of contention ; till at last that complexion 
 was given to the general condition and objects of the 
 College which it has retained ever since. The Whig Arch- 
 bishops, Tenison and Wake, the influential Senior Fellows 
 like Clarke, the energetic Tory Warden, and the ' faction '
 
 348 ALL SOULS IN THE REIGN OF ANNE. [CHAP. 
 
 of refractory Fellows, between them, but not till after many a 
 storm, shaped out the modern All Souls. The storms indeed 
 are so furious that we might imagine there was nothing 
 else going on ; but this is far from being the case. There 
 seem to be two distinct atmospheres. On one side we see 
 Warden Gardiner and Dr. Clarke, assisted by many Fellows 
 and friends, successfully engaged on the improvement of the 
 College in its material aspect. On the other we see the 
 same Warden engaged in furious conflict with the ' faction,' 
 struggling with one Visitor after another, and meeting 
 their efforts to obtain a victory by means of Court influence 
 with similar tactics. He realises the idea of the Jewish 
 builders of the ruined Jerusalem ; his sword is in one hand, 
 his trowel in the other; nor could those Jewish builders 
 have been a whit more thoroughly convinced of the sacredness 
 of their cause. The College seems to live in the Courts 
 of the Visitors. Irregular young Fellows take advantage 
 of their opportunity. They remind us of their contem- 
 poraries, the London ' Mohocks,' who figure in the pages 
 of Addison ; and they are led by the men who have imbibed 
 the principles of Tindal. Religion and irreligion, Whiggery 
 and Toryism, faction and public spirit, refinement and 
 coarseness, seem to be thrown together into the caldron in 
 a confused way which has no parallel in any previous or 
 subsequent period of the College history. Yet order is 
 gradually educed ; and these struggles are the last. They 
 were not only the consequence of the accidental meeting 
 of ' stern opposites,' but the natural result of what had 
 taken place previously, the example of Warden Finch, the 
 long abeyance of efficient government, the seething elements 
 of discord which had been the legacy of the Restoration and 
 Revolution, the changes of life and manners. 
 
 In all this we find once more a faithful picture on a 
 small scale of the state of the nation. The reigns of William 
 and Mary and of Anne were periods of great perturbation,
 
 xix.] WARDEN GARDINER. 349 
 
 social, religious, and political ; yet they gave free scope to 
 the energies of good, high-minded men who felt that the 
 time had come at last when they might hope for a permanent 
 result of their labours. On all sides men were sounding the 
 depths and shallows of the Constitution, and testing the 
 limits within which the law forced them to confine them- 
 selves ; but no one any longer seriously thought of setting 
 law at defiance. The problem of Constitutional government 
 had been solved, not only for England but the world. 
 Instances enough of the litigious character of the times 
 might be quoted if necessary ; but as far as Oxford is 
 concerned, the bitterness of the struggle which took place 
 in 1702 between the University and City on a question of 
 precedence, at the reception of Queen Anne, is suggestive l . 
 On the other hand, this was, as we have seen, a period of 
 great mental activity, of the foundation of the noble religious 
 Societies which exist to our own day, of the revival of 
 ecclesiastical principles and practice. Political and religious 
 questions intersect one another in every direction. 
 
 Bernard Gardiner is more than a Warden of All Souls. 
 He is a public character of whom a good deal is to be 
 said, in his capacity of Vice -Chancellor and Pro-Vice- 
 Chancellor, at the most critical period of Oxford history in 
 modern times. On him it fell to guide the University 
 through the furious conflicts which took place during the 
 end of Queen Anne's reign and the commencement of that 
 of her successor. Oxford, as the very centre of Jacobitism, 
 required a firm hand and a stout heart. If the Vice- 
 Chancellor had been either a Jacobite or a vehement Whig 
 the most serious consequences might have ensued. He was 
 of the party which in reality represented the nation. A 
 decided adherent of the principles of the Revolution, he 
 belonged to the Tory section of that party, the party of 
 Church and Queen, the party of order before all things, 
 
 1 Smith's Oxford Collections, Bibl. Soc. Ant., vol. xi. pp. 293-368.
 
 350 ALL SOULS IN THE REIGN OF ANNE. [CHAP. 
 
 and Constitutional government. He was the enemy of any 
 further changes than were absolutely necessary, and yet the 
 steady supporter of the Hanoverian Succession, an ardent 
 champion of the rights of the clergy, but by no means 
 disposed to recur to the dangerous principles with which 
 the clergy had too long identified the University. He had 
 been early led to form his opinions ; having been one of the 
 members of Magdalen who ' suffered by King James's 
 attempt to force his Dispensations' on that College 1 . As 
 Sub -Warden of All Souls he had done his best to keep 
 the College together in the days of Finch, and to work 
 along with the distinguished men whose names have been 
 already mentioned. He was Keeper of the Archives, an 
 office of importance in the University, and Curator of the 
 Sheldonian Theatre, which gave him a chief voice in the 
 delicate affairs of the University Press. There are several 
 traces of his interest in antiquarian pursuits to be found in 
 Hearne's Diary, almost up to the time of his quarrel with 
 the writer, when he begins to be recorded as 'illiterate.' 
 His family connections 2 gave him considerable influence both 
 in and. out of Oxford, and no doubt formed an element in 
 the success of his Vice-Chancellorship. 
 
 To that Vice-Chancellorship we shall recur presently. It 
 will be proper to remark here that however vigorous and 
 firm his conduct appears both in and out of his College, 
 he was certainly deficient in the suaviter in modo. He made 
 
 1 Letter to Archbishop Wake ; Wake MSS., Ch. Ch. Lib., vol. ii. 
 Univ. 
 
 2 He is mentioned in College books as a member of 'an ancient 
 family in Hants.' He was the brother of Sir William Gardiner, of 
 Roche Court, near Fareham, Hants, third Baronet of the First 
 Creation, but the family, though settled in Hants for some genera- 
 tions, was from Lancashire. He married, just before he became 
 Vice-Chancellor, the daughter of Sir Sebastian Smythe of Cud- 
 desdon and Oxford, a cousin of Dr. Clarke of All Souls. Hearne's 
 Diary; 32. 179.
 
 xix.] GARDINER A REFORMER. 351 
 
 many enemies, and is lampooned in several contemporary 
 letters and pamphlets; though, as might be expected from 
 his pursuit of a middle course in such violent times, the 
 abuse comes from heated partisans on opposite sides, and 
 one species may be held to neutralise the other. He appears 
 to have been as conscientious as he was able, persevering 
 and indomitable ; but stern and uncompromising to a degree 
 which kept his public life in one continual state of efferves- 
 cence. With the ' faction ' at All Souls he was in perpetual 
 war. To all whom he believed to be doing injury to the 
 cause of order in the University outside All Souls he was 
 no less hostile. The best proof that he was not far wrong 
 is to be found in the fact that in University matters he 
 was supported by such men as Delaune, President of St. 
 John's, Baron, Master of Balliol, and Charlett, Master of 
 University ; while in All Souls he gathered round him in 
 the improvement of the College all the best names of that 
 date. While this last fact is indisputable, it must, however, 
 be suspected that Clarke, Dodington Grevile, and others of 
 the superior class of Fellows by no means gave him their 
 support in the leading struggle of his Wardenship; and 
 for a very good reason ; they themselves were benefiting by 
 the encroachments on the ancient Statutes of the College 
 which had crept in of late years; and they gave at least 
 a tacit, perhaps a pronounced, assistance to the Visitors, 
 who in the end virtually bestowed on some of these en- 
 croachments the force of law. 
 
 Gardiner early announced himself a reformer. ' I have 
 reduced the number' [of ' Physic places '] as I promised to 
 do before the whole College in 1 703,' says he, in a letter to 
 Tenison of 1709. ' I find the College,' says he, at a later 
 date, ' reduced to a very ill state.' He holds it to be ' his 
 duty to retrieve what he judges amiss by the most probable 
 and gentle methods he can use 1 .' He had witnessed the 
 
 1 Letter to Wake, in Wake MSS., Cli. Ch. Lib., vol. ii. Univ.
 
 352 ALL SOULS IN THE REIGN OF ANNE. [CHAP. 
 
 changes in the College with distress. He knew the history 
 of All Souls ; no one better. He had observed, and indeed 
 had been himself an instance of, the good effect of the fresh 
 impulse which had been given by the purification of the 
 elections ; but no sooner had the reform been effected than 
 he found another abuse, that of Non-residence, gradually 
 carrying off' these superior men one after another, and de- 
 priving Oxford and All Souls of their services. The younger 
 residents betrayed the want of a constant steadying power ; 
 and the learning of the Society was suffering in consequence. 
 Above all, the clerical element was gradually disappearing; 
 and under various pretexts the College was becoming a sort 
 of thinly-inhabited Club, the occasional resort of non-resi- 
 dent laymen. There were no Undergraduates to afford edu- 
 cational employment to the Fellows; nor did he, it would 
 seem, ever think of introducing them ; how could the 
 College be considered as fulfilling the intentions of the 
 Founder who contemplated forty resident Fellows, all pur- 
 suing their studies in College, with an occasional exception 
 perhaps for the Service of the Crown, under the idea of the 
 Fellowship being resigned if that Service became perpetual ? 
 
 ' My Lord,' says Gardiner to Wake, ' I apprehend the 
 Statutes of a College to be the Founder's Will, and may 
 not be distinguished away by every man's arbitrary opinion 
 for his own advantage upon a pretence of alteration of times 
 or such fallacious arguments. 5 
 
 In I / 1 6 he writes again to Wake : 
 
 ' Out of the twenty-four Artists ' [designed by the Founder 
 for Holy Orders] ' ten are not arrived to the time when the 
 Founder requires them to be priests ; one is lately dead ; 
 thirteen are arrived to the time of being priests ; of which 
 number nine are dispensed with from Holy Orders, viz. four 
 perpetually and five annually, and only four are in Holy 
 Orders, as required by the Statutes 1 .' 
 
 1 Wake MSS., Ch. Ch. Lib., vol. ii. Univ.
 
 xix.] THE SYSTEM OF DISPENSATIONS. 353 
 
 The change of the All Souls Jurists from Oxford Civil and 
 Canon Lawyers to London Common Lawyers has been already 
 noticed 1 . Their freedom from the obligation to take Orders 
 had become by long custom legitimate (though even this 
 Gardiner disputed), and the system of Dispensations which 
 had crept in everywhere before the Revolution, under the 
 example of the Stuart Sovereigns, enabled them to pursue 
 their profession tolerably undisturbed. Physicians, Members 
 of Parliament, Public Servants, such as Commissioners of 
 various kinds, were numerous both among the Artists and 
 Jurists. All wanted to retain their Fellowships while they 
 performed their respective functions as non-residents ; each 
 Dispensation diminished the number of clergymen, and 
 strengthened the growing dislike to take Holy Orders. 
 
 It was certainly high time that there should be some clear 
 understanding as to the future. Could a Warden, sworn to 
 observe the Statutes, wink at their entire subversion ? As we 
 take leave of the subject in this chapter we may put the 
 case still more in detail. By the Statutes the whole forty 
 Fellows were to be ' clericales,' to have the 'prima tonsura? 
 and be ' ad sacerdotium Tiabiles et dispositi ; ' the twenty-four 
 Artists were to take Holy Orders in two years ; and as many 
 of the sixteen Jurists as did not publicly give proof of their 
 embracing the study of Civil Law and take degrees in that 
 Faculty, were under the same obligation. Could the gloss 
 which interpreted ' clericales ' as synonymous with ' the whole 
 learned part of the nation,' be admitted ? Gardiner thought 
 not. Could the College altogether cease to be a nursery of 
 the clergy, that ' inermis militia* for whose especial 'increase' 
 and improvement the very terms of the Charter declared it 
 to be founded ? He resolved to try the issue. 
 
 Whether the Warden could have obtained any amicable 
 settlement by the help of the Visitor, no one can say. 
 There does not appear any trace of such effort on his part 
 
 1 p. 1 06. 
 
 A a
 
 354 ALL SOULS IN THE REIGN OF ANNE. [CHAP. 
 
 in the early stage of his proceedings. At any rate his 
 method was characteristic. It was not exactly ' gentle.' 
 He resolved to engage in conflict with the whole College 
 single-handed. He entered upon it, not with the sorrowful 
 resolution of Warden Jeames, who in the matter of elections 
 had indeed Bancroft at his back, but with the true joy 
 of battle ; *it was a combat all the more glorious because 
 he had no support from the Visitor. He relied upon the 
 trusty weapon which Whitgift had secured to Warden 
 Hoveden the Veto. This he flourished with all the zeal 
 of a Crusader. He applied it on every occasion when a 
 Dispensation was requested. But unfortunately for his object, 
 he used it too freely. The Fellows challenged his right. 
 He wounded himself instead of his foes. The sword was 
 at last wrenched from his hands by the officer who had 
 bestowed it. It may be well questioned whether the Visitor 
 was right in the matter, but Gardiner, as a matter of fact, 
 left the Wardenship to his successors bereft of a power 
 which the Visitors would no longer entrust to them ! 
 
 A certain amount of success in his struggle against 
 unlimited evasion of the Statutes did indeed reward the 
 Warden's efforts. The commonest and easiest mode of 
 escaping from the obligation to resjde upon a Fellowship 
 and take Holy Orders was to obtain a ' Physic place.' 
 Successive Visitors had encouraged the study of medicine, 
 and the College already boasted of some distinguished orna- 
 ments of that profession. But it looked rather like a joke 
 when a ' Physic place ' became a mere synonym for a non- 
 resident Member of Parliament or Commissioner. Gardiner, 
 however, was willing to admit that there might be four 
 of these places. An elaborate and very able argument is 
 still extant under his hand to prove that there could not 
 be more than four. In sending this paper to Tenison he 
 makes the remark already quoted, 'I have reduced the 
 number as I promised to do before the whole College in
 
 xix.] GARDINER'S PARTIAL SUCCESS. 355 
 
 1703.' The Visitor was convinced by his arguments, and 
 accepted this compromise in the Injunctions which we shall 
 presently notice. The following letter l to Gardiner, however, 
 was prior in date, July 23, 1709 : 
 
 'Sir, 
 
 ' Though I have had two letters . . . upon the whole 
 it is my opinion that it was never intended by the Founder 
 that you should have so many physicians as you have already. 
 The provision he made was for the encouragement of students 
 in Divinity and Law. Therefore although I have a great 
 respect for Lord Brook and his family, yet I cannot, because 
 I think I cannot justly, advise the shewing favour to Mr. 
 Grevile by approving his having a Physic Fellowship.' 
 
 While Archbishop Tenison was thus prepared to meet 
 the Warden halfway as to the Physic places (and to stop 
 the non-residence of the lawyers, as his Injunctions shewed), 
 he entirely disapproved of Gardiner's rigid method of putting 
 his Veto upon all other Dispensations. He would leave 
 matters as to the Service of the Crown where they were. 
 The College should exercise its own discretion as to 
 Non-residence. Indeed his predecessor, Tillotson, had already 
 shown a desire to relax the strictness of the Statutes, or 
 rather to confirm a practice which had frequently obtained, 
 and his letter 2 of November 17,1 694, may be quoted here : 
 
 ' Whereas there are several clauses in your Statutes and 
 Injunctions which deprive those of your Fellows-who are out 
 of the kingdom, or absent from the College, of divers emolu- 
 ments of their Fellowships, it is my opinion that such clauses 
 shall be construed with a tacit exception for those which are 
 abroad in His Majesty's immediate service, whose attendance 
 on his Majesty ought not to be to their prejudice, but they 
 ought to be esteemed as present in the said College.' 
 
 It was in accordance with this recommendation that 
 Codrington had retained his Fellowship ; and some Fellows 
 had been similarly treated when absent as Chaplains in the 
 
 1 Archives. 2 Ibid. 
 
 A a 2,
 
 356 ALL SOULS IN THE REIGN OF ANNE. [CHAP. 
 
 Royal Navy ; one also when attending Sir William Trumbull 
 on an embassy l . The door had been opened by these prece- 
 dents ; but it was now flung wide open indeed. Whether 
 Tenison would not have been eventually disposed to assist 
 Gardiner in shutting it to some extent, may be questioned 
 when we see his decision on the ' Physic places/ But now a 
 case occurred which does not set him before us in the best 
 .possible light, and which seems to have settled his course 
 on the subject. As it involved exalted personages, and 
 brought the matter of Non-residence into public notice, we 
 must give the proceeding somewhat in detail. It affords 
 another illustration also of the way in which politics came 
 to be mixed up with the affairs of Colleges, or at least of 
 All Souls. 
 
 A son of Judge Blencowe ' a very great Whig 2 ' had 
 obtained an All Souls Fellowship through the interposition 
 of Archbishop Tenison 3 . He was the grandson of the famous 
 Dr. Wallis, the acknowledged chief of the then very im- 
 portant art of Decyphering, and from his grandfather had no 
 doubt inherited many of the secrets which made him useful 
 as a servant to the Crown in the capacity of Decypherer. For 
 that service he had no less a salary than ,200 a year, a large 
 sum in those days. The Warden considered this one of the 
 cases which afforded ground for scandal. Blencowe held a 
 good and permanent situation, not abroad, but at Court ; 
 why should he not make way for some other deserving person 
 in the College ? Was this the kind of Service of the Crown 
 for which exceptions had sometimes been made ? He thought 
 not. Blencowe was an ' Artist/ and should be made to take 
 Orders, according to the Statutes, or resign. When he de- 
 clined to take either course, the Warden interposed his Veto 
 on the Dispensation which the Fellows were anxious to 
 grant him. 
 
 1 Letter from Warden Jeames to Sancroft, Tanner MSS. vol. 340. 
 
 2 Hearne's Diary, 53. 205. 3 Bibl. Lamb., cod. 930. 52.
 
 xix.] THE BLENCOWE CASE. 357 
 
 Blencowe took the step of bringing the Crown into action 
 on the subject, not without the collusion of his patron, the 
 Archbishop, as we must infer from what followed. He ob- 
 tains a letter from Lord Sunderland, Secretary of State, 
 addressed not to the College, but to the Visitor. On No- 
 vember 19, 1709, Sunderland informs Tenison that it is 
 
 ' Her Majesty's pleasure that his Grace should restrain 
 the Warden of All Souls, by such means as he should find 
 effectual and proper, from any further vexation of Mr. 
 Blencowe ; so that during his attendance in her Service 
 he might quietly enjoy his Fellowship as fully as if he 
 were in Orders and resident in the College.' 
 
 The Visitor was certainly bound to deal with this com- 
 munication in an official manner. It was his duty to commu- 
 nicate with the Warden, to require a statement of his reasons 
 in the case, to examine the power of Veto which he claimed, 
 and to decide as Visitor in the end upon the whole matter. 
 From what we have seen of their transactions with the 
 College we may certainly infer that Abbot, Sheldon, or San- 
 croft would have done so. But Tenison takes no further step 
 than simply to write off to the Warden with all dispatch, 
 declaring and pronouncing Blencowe's service under the 
 Crown a good and lawful impediment to his taking Holy 
 Orders, and commanding the College to permit him to enjoy 
 his Fellowship fully and freely. His own letter and Lord 
 Sunderland's are to be entered on the College books. 
 
 This was a very tyrannical proceeding, worthy of the days 
 of James the Second. Nor did it come with any the more 
 recommendation to Bernard Gardiner because Sunderland 
 was a Whig, Tenison a Whig, and the Blencowes, father and 
 son, Whigs. The collusion between the parties made it 
 worse. Blencowe had also told Gardiner 'to his face that 
 they' [the Fellows] 'had made a common purse against 
 him 1 / His indignation reached boiling-point. 
 
 1 Letter to Wake : Wake MSS., Ch. Ch, Lib., vol. ii. Univ.
 
 358 ALL SOULS IN THE REIGN OF ANNE. [CHAP. 
 
 Tenison, however, was soon led by the force of circum- 
 stances to take. a more Constitutional step. When he acted 
 in the manner just described his political party was so 
 triumphant that they might well think their lease of power 
 perpetual. Nothing could be further from the thoughts of 
 the Whigs in November, 1709, than that the imposing 
 fabric of their power, built on the magnificent success of 
 Marlboroughj should be shaken to pieces by an obscure, 
 fanatical preacher in the course of one month from that 
 date. In December of that year Sacheverell's sermon had 
 sold to the number of forty thousand 1 ; and Sunderland 
 himself, as a main agent in procuring his trial, became the 
 author of his own political death-blow.! In June of the 
 next year the seals of his office were transferred to Lord 
 Dartmouth. 
 
 Gardiner now saw his opportunity. He had good reason 
 to suspect that the Queen had allowed her name to be 
 used in the matter of Blencowe without much consideration. 
 She had been told that an obstinate Head of an Oxford 
 College had interfered with one of her servants; and she 
 gave her consent to Sunderland's action accordingly. But 
 the turn of events had pretty well exhibited her real 
 sentiments. ' God bless the Queen and Dr. Sacheverell ' 
 had resounded through the streets of London. She had 
 been led to identify the Church with a man whom she, 
 with her natural good sense, instinctively disliked ; for she 
 found that the whole clergy of the realm, except the Whig 
 Bishops, stood by him when it once became a party matter 2 . 
 She had especial cause to turn her attention to Oxford, 
 for the Vice -Chancellor of that University stood surety 
 for the audacious priest 3 ; Atterbury defended him with 
 all his ability, and Sir Simon Harcourt was his consum- 
 mately-able counsel. Some of the most moderate men in 
 
 1 Lord Stanhope's Queen Anne, p. 405. 
 2 Ibid. p. 413. 3 Ibid. p. 409.
 
 xix.] QUEEN ANNE'S CONDUCT. 359 
 
 Church and State, Shrewsbury, Sharp, Compton, had in fact 
 rallied to the side of Sacheverell, though none had taken a 
 more decided part in the Revolution 1 . It seemed a great 
 national crisis, mixed up with a thousand other issues ; the 
 Queen had decisively taken- her side, and, as events shewed, 
 the nation was with her. The Warden of All Souls, as soon 
 as the Whigs had been dismissed from office, resolved to 
 see whether he could move Her Majesty by way of Petition. 
 
 In this Petition Gardiner states the bearing of the All 
 Souls Statutes on the subject of Fellowships, and prays 
 that ' he may execute them without incurring Her Majesty's 
 displeasure. He trusts she will not allow the pretensions 
 of Mr. Blencowe to be the occasion of suspending the 
 authority of Statutes to the observance of which both he 
 and Mr. Blencowe are equally bound by oath V He had not 
 miscalculated. The matter comes before the Queen in quite 
 a new light, but she will not act hastily. She ' graciously 
 receives ' the Petition, and hands it over to the Law Officers 
 of the Crown for an opinion. In December of that year 
 they return that the Queen should be advised to leave the 
 whole matter to the Visitor. In the following March, how- 
 ever, she takes a more decided step. She will follow the 
 advice of her Lawyers; but she will express her opinion 
 that the error into which she had been formerly led by 
 Sunderland should not prejudice the case ; she would do all 
 in her power to remedy the mischief. Lord Dartmouth, the 
 Secretary, is instructed to tell the Visitor ' that she did 
 not approve Mr. Blencowe 's insisting on his being in her 
 service to excuse him from conforming to the Statutes of 
 his College, nor that the letter of Lord Sunderland should 
 be used for that purpose. As the said letter of the late 
 Secretary was transmitted to the said College by you, your 
 Grace will be pleased likewise to transmit Her Majesty's 
 
 1 Lord Stanhope's Queen Anne, p. 415. 
 
 2 Gardiner Papers, penes custodem.
 
 360 ALL SOULS IN THE REIGN OF ANNE. [CHAP. 
 
 Declaration herein to the said College with all convenient 
 speed, to the end that all persons may know and take 
 notice of Her Majesty's intentions and pleasure in this 
 behalf.' We may be safe in conjecturing that however much 
 or little the Queen may have been personally concerned in 
 the former letter of Sunderland's, she conveyed her own 
 decided sentiments in this letter of Lord Dartmouth's. 
 
 If Gardiner's authority may be accepted on this point 
 we have it in the following letter written to Wake a 
 few years afterwards, (Dec. 4, 1719): 
 
 ' My Lord ; As to any favour procured by Mr. Blencowe 
 from the Queen relating to a Dispensation from Holy Orders 
 it was not granted by advice of Her Majesty's Privy Council, 
 but it was formally revoked by Her in open Council, after a 
 public hearing before Her Attorney and Solicitor General. It 
 cost me sixty pounds to have the trial ; but I who had suffered 
 by King James's attempting to force his Dispensations on 
 Magdalen College, thought it my duty to hinder such a pre- 
 cedent here V 
 
 Archbishop Tenison, however, treated the last letter in a 
 very different manner from the first. That first letter had 
 been ordered by him to be entered on the College books. This 
 one he is indeed obliged to transmit ; but no such order 
 accompanies it. It is formally sent to the College by his 
 Secretary, without note or comment. That Her Majesty's 
 gracious communications should be treated with such respect 
 when they told against the Warden, and with such neglect 
 when they were in his favour, was more than Gardiner could 
 bear. He determined to write out the letter himself in the 
 same ' Chained Statute Book ' where the previous letters 
 had been formally inserted. The Fellows took their revenge. 
 Underneath the letter, which may still be seen written in 
 Gardiner's beautiful hand, the two Deans of the College, 
 Littleton and Willes, the last of whom became Attorney 
 General, registered the statement that the Warden had 
 1 Wake MSS., ut supra.
 
 xix.] TEN ISDN'S VISITATION. 361 
 
 entered the letter ' without any order from the Visitor, and 
 against the opinion of the Fellows and Officers.' A distorted 
 account of this affair reached Hearne 1 , who makes it the 
 subject of a bitter charge against Gardiner. 
 
 This particular act of the Fellows was never forgiven or 
 forgotten by the Warden. It is one of his formal complaints, 
 in 1719, at Wake's Visitation. Dr. Bettesworth, the Visitor's 
 Commissary, replies on that occasion : ' You can write again 
 under them.' Gardiner rejoins with dignity : ' I was not 
 up to such proceedings.' 
 
 This was at the second Visitation of Gardiner's era ; we 
 have not yet come to the first. That there have been only 
 four regular Visitations in more than four centuries has been 
 noticed above 2 , but that two of these should take place in 
 the course of one, not very long, Wardenship, is remarkable. 
 The mere fact is a sufficient commentary on the condition 
 of the College, and a justification, it may be hoped, for the 
 length of these details. This was one of the critical periods 
 of the College. Cranmer's Visitation was no doubt necessary 
 on all grounds, moral and religious. Whitgift's shewed that 
 Elizabeth's beneficent reign, while it had quieted religious 
 differences, had added to the social irregularities which called 
 for the Visitor's interference. Teni son's and Wake's betrayed 
 the necessity for fresh interpretations of the ancient Statutes. 
 Law and custom were vehemently invoked on either side by 
 the disputants. Neither would be satisfied without a settle- 
 ment. Yet nothing could be so unpopular with those whose 
 presumed fault called down upon the College such an 
 expensive operation. The Visitor's Commissary was the 
 Dean of Arches, or some other legal magnate, whose enquiry 
 involved many days' time, the hearing of many witnesses, 
 expensive entertainments, and various accessory items. Even 
 though Tenison's Visitation was avowedly in the interest of 
 the Fellows, Hearne describes the excitement it caused, and 
 
 1 Diary, 29. 119. 2 p. 62.
 
 362 ALL SOULS IN THE REIGN OF ANNE. [CHAP. 
 
 tells us that the Citation was torn down off the gate of 
 the College l ! 
 
 The date of the Visitation affords a clue to this otherwise 
 unaccountable excitement, as also to Tenison's reasons for 
 making it at all. It is in September, i/io, not long after the 
 change of Ministry had been completed, Sunderland dismissed 
 from office, and a fair field opened for the indomitable Warden 
 to make his interest with Anne and her new Ministers, 
 as we have seen he did, for the abrogation of the Whig 
 decisions. Whatever Gardiner may do, the Visitor will settle 
 this question of the Veto upon College Dispensations sum- 
 marily. The Citation may be torn down by the party, which 
 no doubt was strong on the side of politics all the time, 
 though equally strong against the Warden's interference with 
 their customs ; but he will proceed. The strife had produced 
 of course a crop of minor complaints, and he had quite suffi- 
 cient excuse. 
 
 To make a long story short, the result was that the 
 Warden's Veto upon Dispensations was abolished, and the 
 College was left to do what it liked. The arguments on 
 both sides may be consulted in the Lambeth Library 2 . It 
 is clear that the Warden's Veto or Negative had never been 
 seriously questioned till now. Even as late as 1699, when 
 the Fellows disputed Warden Finch's power to exercise the 
 office of Scrutator at elections, they say that ' no prejudice 
 is hereby designed to the Warden, whose negative is still left 
 entire.' The Veto on elections to Fellowships had been held to 
 cover the Veto upon Dispensations as well as that which had 
 been specially guarded by Whitgift, the Veto on the election 
 of officers. This was no longer to be so. The Visitor acts 
 officially upon a foregone conclusion. On the other hand, as 
 we have seen, he limits the number of ' Physic places ' to four ; 
 they must be all bona fide ' students of Physic ; ' and if, after 
 having obtained Dispensation from Holy Orders on this 
 
 1 Diary, 26. 125. 2 Cod. 939. 21.
 
 xix.] NON-RESIDENCE ESTABLISHED. 363 
 
 ground, they take to practice at the bar, they forfeit their 
 Fellowships. The principle of Non-residence had thus been 
 in reality carried. The Blencowe case had been settled under 
 the general formula. It did not much signify what the Queen 
 might write, or Gardiner insert in the e Chained Statute 
 Book/ He might record his dissent to Dispensations, as 
 he constantly did year after year ; but the College could 
 always override that dissent. Nor, when the Public Service 
 was thus so widely thrown open to non-resident Fellows, 
 could the non-residence of the Common Lawyers, which was 
 forbidden by implication in the Injunctions of the Visitor, 
 be long retained. The Veto on Dispensations was gone. 
 From that day forward the Non-residence of the Fellows 
 of All Souls has been one leading characteristic of the 
 College. 
 
 Only one more Dispensation was necessary for Mr. Blen- 
 cowe, and to that the Warden of course registered his 
 dissent. The Decypherer to the Queen committed suicide 
 soon afterwards 1 . Perhaps, however, the resistance of the 
 Warden was not altogether without effect during his life- 
 time, and for some years subsequently. Some sort of check 
 was given to indiscriminate evasion of the Statutes. The 
 Dispensations were still granted only from year to year ; 
 and many of them were simply to enable a Fellow to hold 
 a temporary office, as ' because Mr. is Parliament Man.' 
 The College is at least delivered from the anomaly of having 
 any number of its Fellows without limitation reckoned as 
 quasi-Physicians. 
 
 This chapter may conclude with a notice of the material 
 improvements of the College in which Warden "Gardiner was 
 perfectly successful. From the first year of his appointment 
 he began to collect funds for the restoration of the Chapel, 
 and he registers with becoming pride the contributions which 
 
 1 Hearne's Diary, 38. 246 ; Gardiner to "Wake, Wake MSS., 
 ut supra.
 
 364 ALL SOULS IN THE REIGN OF ANNE. [CHAP. 
 
 annually come in. But Dr. Clarke was the first to complete 
 any portion of the new work of Queen Anne's reign. ' God 
 send us more such noble benefactors ! ' is the Warden's entry 
 in 1703, when Clarke makes his offer to build new Lodgings 
 for the Warden, on the sole condition that he might himself 
 inhabit them till his death. The offer was accepted, and the 
 present house completed by 1706. It is not the least in- 
 teresting circumstance of its erection that the greater part of 
 the site was purchased with a sum of ^200, the gift of 
 Mr. Snow, an ancient servant of Sheldon's at All Souls 
 before the Civil War, and who, after the Kestoration, 
 became Treasurer of the Household to his old master at 
 Lambeth, continuing in the same capacity with Sancroft, 
 Tillotson, and Tenison. In his extreme old age his memory 
 reverted to the inconvenient abode of the Wardens of early 
 days, and, long accustomed to the conveniences of Lambeth, 
 he would shew his gratitude for the past by assisting the 
 future successors of his beloved patron. 
 
 Dr. Clarke also bears an important part in the affairs of 
 the new Chapel. He, like so many other cultivated men of 
 that age, was an able amateur architect. Every part of the 
 plan was submitted to him, and we shall see that he had a 
 great share, along with Hawksmoor, in all the rest of the 
 new work. His particular contribution to the Chapel was 
 the costly marble entablature, ' that noble ornament of 
 marble,' as Warden Gardiner calls it, which, nearly sixty 
 years later, was filled in with Mengs' picture of the ' Noli 
 me tangere,' painted for the College at Rome. The interior 
 of the Chapel under these auspices assumed quite a new 
 form. We have seen that it had been made decent in one 
 sense, but according to Evelyn, not in another, at the Restora- 
 tion ; but to men of taste and liberality its mean con- 
 dition must have been painful. With Wren, still even in 
 his old age the architectural monarch of the time, nothing 
 else could be done with it but to entrust it to Thornhill,
 
 xix.] SECOND 'RESTORATION* OF CHAPEL. 365 
 
 the great painter and decorator of the day; and in 1715 
 Gardiner obtains leave from the College to complete the 
 work according to the scheme which the contributors had 
 agreed upon. Grevile undertakes the expense of transforming 
 the body of the Chapel on the Italian model, and it ac- 
 cordingly dons its mantle of gold and green, with a canvas 
 ceiling of the same colour to hide Streater's wooden panels. 
 Mr. Palmer pays for Thornhill's fresco of the Assumption 
 of Chichele, which covers Streater's painting of the Last 
 Judgment, and which even Hearne admits to be ' very 
 fine V Sir William Portman, Mr. Portman, Mr. Webb., and 
 others provide the new screen, or rather for its ' alteration 
 both in respect to beauty and convenience ; ' and the College 
 makes grants of its own, especially from the ' College savings 
 in Gaudyes ' and from sconces (or fines), for other parts of the 
 work. 
 
 Such an Italianisation of a beautiful Gothic Chapel seems 
 scarcely comprehensible in the present day ; but the result was 
 greatly admired at the time; and even as late as the com- 
 mencement of the present century, Chalmers 2 speaks of All 
 Souls Chapel as one of which the visitor carries away a more 
 agreeable impression than of any other in the University. 
 This, to be sure, was written long before the modern re- 
 storations were made which have now affected nearly every 
 College Chapel, and before the increasing dimness of the 
 decorations at All Souls had produced that dreary ap- 
 pearance with which our own times became familiar. Hap- 
 pily, a spirit equal to that of the Warden and Fellows of 
 Queen Anne's reign in munificence, and superior in taste, is 
 already engaged in a true restoration worthy of the reign 
 of Queen Victoria. 
 
 1 Diary, 77. 15. 2 History of Oxford Colleges.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 $Eake mtfr Mmftm 
 1714-1726. 
 
 Opposition of the Whig Visitor and Tory Warden Gardiner as 
 Vice-Chancellor Ayliffe Hearne Wake saves the Uni- 
 versity after the death of Anne Trelawny, Bishop of Exeter 
 "Wake's Visitation of All Souls Appeal to Wake against the 
 College Dr. Clarke. 
 
 IT is remarkable that no one should yet have thought it 
 worth while to give the world a detailed Life of Archbishop 
 Wake. It will be difficult to find a Primate of the Reformed 
 Church, if we except Parker, who more deserves our respect 
 for his learning and industry, his government of the Church 
 at home in a time of extreme difficulty, or his extended views 
 of the duty incumbent on the Primate of all England in 
 reference to the Christian world. The mere inspection of 
 his voluminous MSS. in the Wake Library at Christ Church 
 cannot but leave a vivid impression of the greatness of the 
 man. The many volumes of letters addressed to him on eccle- 
 siastical matters from the various Continental Churches of 
 the West, the Oriental Churches, and the British Colonies, 
 suggest the title of Papa alterius orlis given by ancient 
 Popes of Rome to English Primates. The masses of anno- 
 tations in his own hand betray the process by which Wake 
 became the acknowledged chief of all writers on the Consti- 
 tutional position of the Church of England.
 
 GREATNESS OF WAKE. 367 
 
 It is not- so easy to arrive at a correct estimate of the 
 character of his relation to All Souls in the capacity 
 of Visitor. We find Warden Gardiner at war with him 
 pretty much as he was with Tenison. He, like Tenison, 
 holds a Visitation of the College, and carries still further 
 the process of reducing- the influence of the Warden in pro- 
 tecting the observance of the Statutes. In his second conflict 
 with Gardiner he is apparently in the wrong, and that too 
 in a matter in which his own interests are promoted by 
 the cause which he adopts. The Warden must, however, 
 have been a very difficult person to deal with, and it may 
 be questioned whether the Visitor could, in the first case 
 at least, have pursued any different course. Both knew one 
 another too well before their All Souls struggles. They 
 had each been intimately concerned in the delicate task of 
 governing Oxford during the critical years of the Hanoverian 
 Succession. Wake was. a decided Whig; Gardiner an equally 
 decided Tory. The last had been more mixed up with Uni- 
 versity affairs ; the first was far more conversant with the 
 world at large. 
 
 Perhaps as the danger which the liberties of Oxford 
 University incurred, and the narrow escape it effected, under 
 the guidance of Wake, Gardiner, Delaune, Smalridge, Baron, 
 and others, have never yet been presented to the public, a few 
 extracts from letters of the period may not be unacceptable. 
 By watching Gardiner's and Wake's parts respectively in the 
 politics of Oxford we shall understand better their more do- 
 mestic broils. And first we may briefly dismiss the Warden's 
 Vice-Chancellorship by a notice of a few salient points. 
 
 Gardiner was Vice-Chancellor from 1712 to 1715, the 
 years when the Tories were in the ascendant, when the 
 Peace of Utrecht brought both parties out into the keenest 
 conflict known since the time of the Exclusion Bill, when 
 the death of Queen Anne brought forward once again the 
 Whigs, and when the question of the succession was peace-
 
 368 ARCHBP. WAKE & WARDEN GARDINER. [CHAP. 
 
 fully settled by the patriotic sacrifice of Tory prejudice to the 
 felt necessity for resisting the return of the Roman Catholic 
 Stuarts. The Jacobite sentiment, which had been more 
 or less suppressed for upwards of twenty years, now flamed 
 in Oxford to its highest. Every Oxford man was obliged 
 to take a side. The opposition of the anti-Jacobites very 
 naturally expressed itself in accents as wild as those of their 
 opponents. Moderation was an unheard-of word. Nor can 
 any one wonder at this when he remembers the bitterness 
 and ability of the pamphlet writers in the Metropolis, the 
 coarse vehemence of the Swifts and Priors, the Arbuthnots 
 and Defoes. 
 
 It was Gardiner's fortune to distinguish his term of office 
 by three distinct acts of the most irritating kind to either 
 set of combatants. He was chiefly instrumental in the 
 expulsion of Ayliffe, the author of the ' Ancient and Present 
 State of the University of Oxford,' for matter contained in 
 that book. In the course of the narrative advantage had 
 been taken of the numerous abuses which had crept into the 
 University and Colleges for the purpose of reflecting upon 
 the authorities, and, amongst other things, on the Stuarts 
 and their government. In the present day we should not 
 have thought of dealing harshly with the author; and even 
 under the delicate circumstances of the year 1714, the treat- 
 ment of Ayliffe must be allowed to be harsh. But the Convo- 
 cation of Oxford supported the Vice-Chancellor, and must share 
 such blame as attaches to him. The book was in their eyes 
 libellous and dangerous. The war of pamphlets which ensued 
 is suggestive as to the state of the University. 
 
 Before this, however, the part which Gardiner had taken 
 in putting a stop to the annual oration of the Terrte Filius, 
 had rendered him sufficiently unpopular, chiefly perhaps with 
 the Jacobites, for this oration afforded the grand opportunity 
 for a party triumph, and their party was strong. The 
 scurrility and grossness of these orations have been previously
 
 xx.] GARDINER AS VICE-CHANCELLOR. 369 
 
 noticed \ We have seen that the Heads of Houses were as 
 shocked at it as Evelyn himself in 1669, but no one had 
 been found during the subsequent half-century of sufficient 
 spirit to deal with the monstrous abuse. When political 
 virulence was at its height we may conceive what these 
 orations had become. Gardiner understood the crisis, and 
 resolutely prohibited the speech. We may judge of the 
 sensation produced by this act from the entry of Hearne 
 in his Diary 2 , where he describes with exultation how the 
 undelivered speech had been circulated in print, and how it 
 had annoyed the Vice-Chancellor and Heads of Houses so 
 much that it was publicly burnt by the vote of Convocation ; 
 but he had heard that some foul play had taken place ! If 
 the votes of Convocation had only been properly taken, it 
 would have gone the other way! Sensible men, however, 
 as devoted as Hearne to the preservation of all that was old 
 and venerable, looked on in a different spirit. Tanner 3 
 rejoices at the cessation of a flagrant scandal, and even 
 Carte 4 approves of the act of the Vice-Chancellor and his 
 friends. It was many years before an ' Act ' was held again, 
 as the omission of the ceremony was thought the best way 
 of suppressing the inveterate abuse which had clung to it. 
 The check given by Gardiner was decisive; the custom de- 
 cayed, and soon disappeared. 
 
 Hearne was still further offended at Gardiner's conduct 
 at this time as Curator of the Theatre, for in the exercise 
 of his office he transferred the University Press from the 
 Theatre to the newly-erected Clarendon Buildings, and, being 
 also Vice-Chancellor, was responsible for substituting the 
 name of Clarendon for that of Sheldon, e the true benefactor 
 of Oxford printing 5 .' No one, we may be sure, would have 
 rejoiced more than Sheldon that the name of Clarendon should 
 
 1 p. 227. 2 Oct. 3, 1713. 
 
 3 Ballard MSS., 4. 60. * Letters from the Bodleian. 
 
 6 Diary, Oct. 28, 1713. 
 Bb
 
 370 ARCHBP. WAKE $ WARDEN GARDINER. [CHAP. 
 
 be perpetuated in the stately buildings erected out of the 
 profits of the ' History of the Great Rebellion,' and that his 
 own undoubted claim to be the father of the Oxford Press 
 should be forgotten in favour of his dearest friend. 
 
 The cup of the poor antiquarian's wrath was soon, however, 
 to be filled to overflowing 1 . Both as Vice -Chancellor and 
 Pro- Vice -Chancellor Gardiner had much to do with Hearne's 
 expulsion from his offices in the Bodleian Library. They 
 were inferior offices, but suitable for his antiquarian pur- 
 suits. A very full and particular account of this affair 
 has been given by himself in his Autobiography and Diary, 
 and to those sources of information, as the subject is much 
 too minute for our present purpose, the reader must refer. 
 We only hear one side in Hearne's pages, but enough comes 
 out to shew that the fiery Jacobite was far from sufficiently 
 cautious in the use of his public office at such an excitable 
 period. The crisis of the Hanoverian Succession was at its 
 height, and Oxford, as we know, required the presence of 
 the famous ' troop of horse,' which figures in the well-known 
 epigram, to keep it straight. 
 
 If the incendiarism of any Jacobite might be overlooked, 
 it ought to have been in the case of one of the most learned 
 and industrious men England has produced ; but a very little 
 knowledge of his numerous prefaces, as well as unprinted 
 papers, will shew that the governors of the University may 
 have had reasonable ground for their proceedings. In his 
 Diary he generally calls the Pretender ' James the Third.' 
 The Hanoverian family are never mentioned except with 
 bitter contempt ; and he inserts anonymous verses upon 
 them of the most indecent character, which may or may 
 not have been his own. Dr. Charlett reports to Wake l that 
 Hearne was used ' with all the lenity and gentleness imagi- 
 nable,' and Charlett was himself accused to the Archbishop 
 by David Wilkins of being a Jacobite falsely no doubt ; 
 
 1 Wake MSS., ut supra.
 
 xx.] HEARNE THE ANTIQUARIAN. 371 
 
 but the mere fact that he was open to the charge shews 
 he was not a mere partisan. Few people are more abused 
 by Hearne. Dr. Clarke again calls Hearne 'that perverse 
 Editor/ and says, 
 
 ' I think it very right to forbid him the use of the Univer- 
 sity Press if he will not subject what he puts out to the 
 inspection of his superiors, who have already suffered enough 
 for his follies 1 .' 
 
 This was no doubt the official view. At the same time 
 literature owes much to Hearne's independence and courage. 
 His faults were very much the product of the times. The 
 studious child of a parish clerk, he had been patronised by 
 the most vehement and eminent Nonjurors, and he con- 
 scientiously adhered to his principles. He declined various 
 offices, among others a Chaplaincy at All Souls which 
 Gardiner offered him, and refused to stand for Professor- 
 ships because he would not, in the days of the new dynasty, 
 take the necessary oaths. 
 
 Against All Souls he had cherished a special grudge from 
 the first ; and now, the Warden having, as he conceived, 
 become his persecutor, he had no mercy upon that College 
 in his Diary. One of his earliest charges against it is in 
 1706, when he tells with a profound gravity, most amusing 
 under the circumstances, how some members of the College 
 shewed their anti-Jacobite principles. 
 
 On the sacred 3oth of January two of the Fellows of 
 All Souls were joined at dinner in the College by two of 
 the Pro-Proctors and two Fellows of Oriel. ' An abominable 
 riot' took place. On the table were some woodcocks, the 
 heads of which were cut off ' in contempt of the memory of 
 the blessed martyr.' They had been 'for having calves' 
 heads, but the cook refused to dress them 2 1 ' Again : 
 ' The matter is kept as secret as possible, and I cannot learn 
 whether the Warden inflicted any punishment, or what repri- 
 
 3 Ballard MSS. 20.- 60. 2 Beliq. Hearn. i. 121. 
 
 B b 2
 
 372 ARCHBP. WAKE WARDEN GARDINER. [CHAP. 
 
 mand the two Pro-Proctors had from the Vice-Chancellor ] .' 
 It does not seem likely that, if iihe tables had been turned 
 and Hearne in power, much mercy would have been shewn 
 to these audacious offenders. And on another occasion he 
 remarks of the Fellows of All Souls : ' 'Tis stuff for men 
 to pretend oaths that have no respect to them in matters 
 of a higher nature, their duty to Rightful Soveraigns V 
 
 To this disgust with All Souls we owe many a useful 
 notice ; but it is evident that we must take his depreciation 
 of the College with some allowance. The evil spell seems 
 to have been on him to the last; for towards the end of 
 Hearne's career he had apparently very real reason to com- 
 plain of the usage he received from Bilstone, a Chaplain 
 of All Souls, assisted by persons of more importance in other 
 Colleges 3 . 
 
 This is not the only occasion when the persecuted anti- 
 quarian demands our sympathy. The following case, and 
 even here, though All Souls is not said to be concerned, 
 the name of one of its Fellows occupies a suspicious place, 
 occurs in a letter written to Archbishop Wake by the 
 famous David Wilkins, the author of the ' Concilia.' Wilkins 
 does not come out well in his Oxford character of a sort 
 of spy for Archbishop Wake ; and indeed he soon made the 
 place too hot for him, as we might guess from the following, 
 dated January 17, 171^ : 
 
 ' Mr. Chicheley, of All Souls, is reckoned a very ingenious 
 man, an honest, steddy and hearty Whig. That sorry wretch, 
 Hearne, has lately struck his name out of the buttery in 
 Edmund Hall and battels there without it, on purpose that 
 the oaths might not be tendered to him ; but I have made 
 interest by Mr. Bradshaw to have him called before a Justice 
 of Peace for to make him a Papist convict, or to burthen his 
 conscience, if he have any at all, with perjury 4 .' 
 
 1 Letters from the Bodleian. 2 Diary, 120. 41. 
 
 3 IIS. Autobiography, pp. 73-76. 
 
 * Wake MSS., Ch. Ch. Lib., Miscellaneous Letters, vol. iv.
 
 xx.] DANGER OF THE UNIVERSITIES. 373 
 
 This brings us to Wake's share in Oxford affairs. The 
 employment of his learned and low-minded agent in the 
 office of a delator we have no reason indeed to connect the 
 Primate's name with the act just mentioned does not seem 
 creditable ; but we must now shew how profoundly the whole 
 University was indebted to him for the preservation of its 
 rights and privileges at a time when its affairs were in such a 
 state that expedients of this kind seemed necessary. Amongst 
 his MSS. may be found a letter from an irate Whig 1 , of this 
 date, asserting that ' rebellion is avowedly owned and en- 
 couraged' (at Oxford), ' and that the principles of rebellion 
 are diffused from hence through the whole nation. There 
 are several Houses where there is not so much as one (what 
 they please to call a) Whig.' In the same place the Draught 
 of a Bill may be read by which the King in Parliament was 
 to suspend the whole constitution of both Universities, and 
 ' to nominate and appoint all and every the Chancellor, Vice- 
 Chancellor, Proctors, and other officers of the said Univer- 
 sities, and all Heads of Houses, Fellows, Students, Chaplains, 
 Scholars and Exhibitioners, and all members of and in all 
 and every the College and Colleges, Hall and Halls in the 
 said Universities, or either of them, upon all and every 
 vacancy and vacancies,' &c. No less than fifteen Bishops 
 had supported this proposition, which they desired should 
 hold good for seven years 2 . 
 
 Side by side with these violent proposals, the product of 
 alarm and despair, appear letters from old Jonathan Trelawny, 
 Bishop of Winchester, who as Visitor of several Colleges 
 uses his very utmost efforts to dissuade Wake from listening 
 to his brother Bishops. As one of the famous Seven he re- 
 membered well the days when ' Shall Trelawny die ? ' had 
 well nigh brought ' thirty thousand Cornishmen ' to London. 
 
 1 Ibid. vol. ii. Univ. 
 
 2 Letter from the Bishop of Ely to Archbishop "Wake ; Ibid.
 
 374 ARCHBP. WAKE $ WARDEN GARDINER. [CHAP. 
 
 He was well aware how very little more was required to 
 bring on a civil war more formidable than the Pretender's 
 ill-starred enterprise. 
 
 ' I doe stil agre,' says he, ' that both Universityes ought 
 to be scourged into perfect duty and better manners to the 
 King and his family, in whose hands I pray God the sceptre 
 of these kingdoms may continue for ever, but I must be ex- 
 cused from giving my vote for altering the methods of elec- 
 tions into Westminster School and thence into Christ Church, 
 in which College I had my bread for more than twenty years. 
 ... I would rather see my son Edward a link-boy than a 
 Student of Christ Church in such a manner as tears up by the 
 roots that Constitution.' 
 
 And again : 
 
 ' I don't doubt but the Government will find this' [the 
 power of the several Visitors] ( of itself effectual for the sub- 
 duing the University to their duty to the King and with- 
 drawing their affections from the snivel of a Pretender/ 
 
 And again : 
 
 ' I shall humbly hope that your Grace by your great influ- 
 ence, I am sure of your strongest inclination, will prevent 
 destructive violence to the University by a new law, or a 
 forced interpretation, and make yourself a greater founder 
 than Wickham or Chicheley by keeping your Colleges firm on 
 the foot they left 'em. Each of them gave but one College, 
 but your Grace by preserving gives all to both Universities. 
 ... I beg, I beg, I beseech your Grace to have no hand in 
 the Bill 1 . 5 
 
 Of the conduct of the Archbishop referred to in the first 
 of these three extracts it would be well if we had some 
 explanation, as it has a suspicious appearance ; but, speaking 
 generally, the correspondence shews that he held the rod in 
 terrorem over the peccant Universities with much skill; he 
 rebukes, he threatens, he encourages and persuades. 
 
 ' I have not been wanting,' he tells Gardiner, after the riot 
 which took place on the Prince's birthday, ' in my endeavours 
 to prevent that storm which has lately seemed to threaten 
 
 1 Wake MSS., ut supra.
 
 xx.] BISHOP TRELAWNY. 375 
 
 you. . . Nothing shall be wanting that I can do to testify my 
 respect to the University that is consistent with that higher 
 duty which I am sure you will always esteem me obliged to 
 pay to the security of our present happy establishment in 
 Church and State 1 .' 
 
 Even in 1717 the danger was not past. Trelawny begs 
 for only 
 
 ' one year longer to try whether they will make their 
 promise good. The unfruitful tree can but be cut down 
 then, and the defence of every College at our Bar and that 
 cannot be denied will take up at least that time. ... If 
 your Grace can get this proposed execution reprieved for a 
 year I will venture all I am worth and my head that the 
 University shall strictly behave themselves with that duty 
 they ought, and I hope my word may be taken since I went 
 so early into the interest of King George, and will, by God's 
 blessing, even do my utmost to continue him and his family 
 on the throne for ever V 
 
 The importance of such a Primate as Wake at this crisis 
 cannot be exaggerated. Atterbury was now a Bishop, but 
 his influence at Oxford was immense ; and Wake knew that 
 only too well. It was perfectly understood that the Arch- 
 bishop's advice would be considered decisive in all matters 
 relating to the Universities. He weathered the storm by 
 keeping up the alarm of Trelawny, Gardiner, Baron, and the 
 rest till the danger was over. They alone could influence 
 the mass of the Tory party, and prevent the old-fashioned 
 Churchmen, who hated the new Government, from desperately 
 throwing in their lot with the Pretender. They might them- 
 selves regret the days of Queen Anne, but they loved the 
 Church of England and their Alma Mater too well to hesitate 
 at the crisis. They could be trusted to do their utmost ; they 
 acted with decision and ability. Wake was able to prevent 
 the Bill from going further. 
 
 Gardiner incurred the wrath of Hearne once more when 
 he publicly notified, as Vice- Chancellor, that the first anni- 
 
 \ Wake MSS, ut supra. 2 Ibid.
 
 376 ARC HBP. WAKE $ WARDEN GARDINER. [CHAP. 
 
 versary of King George's reign was ' a just occasion of re- 
 joycing.' ' Dr. Gardiner, our present pharisaical Vice-Chan- 
 cellor 1 ,' is the scornful epithet bestowed upon him hy the stern 
 Nonjuror for such flagrant disloyalty to 'James the Third.' 
 But the University was with Gardiner on the whole, in 
 spite of his enemies. On his relinquishment of office he 
 received the grateful thanks of the new Vice-Chancellor and 
 Proctors. The approbation of such men as Dr. Charlett and 
 Tanner followed him. He and his friends, under Wake, 
 saved the University. The same thing was going on all 
 over the land. Out of these complicated hopes and fears 
 arose the England of to-day! 
 
 The experience Gardiner obtained as Vice-Chancellor did 
 not improve his position as Warden. So many University 
 conflicts of various kinds must have brought out in one form 
 or other the party-action of the Fellows, and we left the 
 Warden after Tenison's Visitation in a sufficiently painful 
 relation to them, without any additional fuel added to the 
 fire. From Gardiner's letters it would appear that the Visitor 
 had listened to ex parte statements of his opponents. 
 
 ' A College must be destroyed if the chief Governor of it 
 is by ill arts kept at a distance from the Visitor, and none 
 admitted to him but those who are liable to punishment 
 below, as was our case 2 .' 
 
 ' Your Grace is the father of our family, and 'tis not fit that 
 what is so obvious to every one else should be concealed from 
 yourself only V 
 
 A scandal had occurred among the Fellows. It seems to 
 have been a gross case, and that the Warden was justified in 
 insisting on its punishment : the offenders found support in 
 the College. The Warden resorts to his old weapon, the 
 Veto, in order to secure support on his side. This was the 
 
 1 Diary, 53. 202. 
 
 2 Wake MSS., ut supra; Letter to Wake, June 8, 1716. 
 
 3 Ibid. Dec. 22, i*ji6.
 
 xx.] WAKE'S VISITATION. 377 
 
 branch of his prerogative which Whitgift had specially con- 
 firmed, and even Tenison had not abolished the Veto upon 
 the annual election of ' officers/ bursars, deans, and the like. 
 Gardiner had never, he says, used it till now l ; but, as in the 
 former case, his trenchant method proves too violent. The 
 College is brought to a dead-lock. The war between "Warden 
 and Fellows is internecine. It becomes notorious and avowed. 
 Both sides found it absolutely necessary to call in the Visitor 
 once more. Indeed on the very day preceding the Visita- 
 tion the Visitor has to send down a special message to put a 
 summary stop to the Sub- Warden's proceedings, as he was 
 insisting on the employment of certain workmen whom the 
 Warden was ordering to desist. The College is in rank 
 mutiny 2 ! 
 
 The Commissary, Dr. Bettes worth, now finds it necessary 
 to lose no time, and the mutual complaints of the combatants 
 may still be read. The Fellows have much to say against the 
 Warden's provoking and litigious ways, but the Warden's 
 own account of the 'faction' is enough to explain his troubles, 
 if only half of it were true ; and after all deductions more 
 than half remains. One of them has absconded with the 
 College chest ; three have neglected to take Holy Orders 
 without any Dispensation ; Chapel is ill attended ; the Ser- 
 vices ill performed ; the Sub- Warden himself scarcely ever 
 present. One Fellow ' alleges that he cannot agree with our 
 Service. He follows Mr. Howell's book 3 .' The Divinity 
 disputations are ill kept. Some of the Fellows insist on 
 standing covered in his presence; but this they deny, de- 
 claring that they only stand covered in his presence when 
 on the step outside the College gate, a nice distinction ! 
 Some ' lie constantly outside the College ;' some lounge about 
 
 1 Wake MSS., ut supra; Letter to "Wake, Dec. 21, 1716. 
 
 2 Gardiner Papers penes custodem. 
 
 3 A book on Schism was published by Lawrence Howell, the 
 Nonjuror, for which he was degraded and imprisoned in 1717. 
 Hearne notices hia case.
 
 378 ARCHBP. WAKE $ WARDEN GARDINER. [CHAP. 
 
 in College half-dressed ; some ' keep dogs to the great dis- 
 turbance of the Society, or beat the College servants, or 
 sconce them unreasonably, or when the Warden or Sub- 
 Warden is in Town, punish them.' 
 
 The Commissary evidently found it hard to keep his 
 countenance in hearing the evidence on both sides in this 
 domestic lawsuit ; but it was no laughing matter to the 
 College. The expense of the process cured the propensity 
 to litigation ; and the judgment, by some sort of rough justice, 
 certainly brought peace. But it does appear at this distance 
 of time to go somewhat harder against the Warden than the 
 evidence warrants. Either there were aggravating circum- 
 stances in his conduct which we do not get at through the 
 accounts he has transmitted, or the feud between him and 
 the Visitor found some sort of expression through the 
 Visitor's Commissary. None of his opponents appear to 
 receive any punishment, except indeed that the gentleman 
 who ran off with the College money is expelled, and the 
 Warden's power in granting rooms to Fellows is confirmed 
 as against the Sub- Warden ; but the Warden is deprived 
 of the Veto with which he had fought his battle. A great 
 effort was made to deprive him also of the Veto upon elec- 
 tion of Fellows ; but whether from the overwhelming evi- 
 dence in favour of its retention, or fear of the return of 
 ( corrupt resignations,' this last and most important part of 
 the prerogative survived intact. The little Monarchy was 
 changed by the two Whig Visitors into a Republican form of 
 society ; but the President still continued in possession of a 
 very strictly limited sovereignty. On a small scale Gardiner 
 had acted the part of the Stuarts ; and All Souls, like the 
 nation, passed, through a revolutionary period, into a free, 
 self-governing corporation under monarchical forms. Enough 
 was retained of the old regime to become effective, if neces- 
 sary, for checking anarchy. 
 
 At any rate the Commissary believed he had settled the
 
 xx.] LAWLESS STATE OF THE COLLEGE. 379 
 
 new constitution on a most perfect basis. He reports to 
 the Archbishop that he had told the Fellows it would be 
 ' their fault, if under your protection, considering- how much 
 their great Founder had distinguished them from other 
 Colleges, they were not the most flourishing society in the 
 world l . ' But Dr. Clarke, who was now living in the 
 house he had built for the future Wardens, and whose judg- 
 ment we have seen reason to respect, gives a more qualified 
 praise to Wake's settlement. 
 
 ' I cannot,' he writes from London to Charlett, ' but be glad 
 to hear that his Grace of Canterbury has sent his Injunctions 
 to our College, though I cannot say that I wish them exactly 
 as they are ; however in the great points they are undoubtedly 
 right, and if the authority of the College is supported in the 
 execution of them, will tend to the restoring of some sort of 
 discipline, and put an end to many unwarrantable evils V 
 
 ' It is unlucky that his Grace was of opinion that the Warden 
 should not be allowed to inspect the Scrutiny' [of votes], 'as 
 was ever the custom since the Foundation of the College for 
 ought that is known to the contrary 3 .' 
 
 One of the first results of the settlement is that the Warden 
 fails to prevent Harrison, a Fellow of the College, from 
 holding his Fellowship along with an Oxford Professorship 
 to which he is elected. But he now gives up the struggle. 
 He becomes afflicted with the gout, which perhaps is some 
 excuse for his testiness ; and obtains leave from the College 
 given no doubt with hearty good-will 'to goe to y e 
 Bath V From that place many of the later letters of the 
 wearied valetudinarian are directed. He thus (on October 
 30, 1719) pours his griefs into the ears of the Visitor, who 
 was not, it must be feared, likely to pay much attention to 
 them. 
 
 ' I believe there is hardly such another instance of trouble 
 given to any Head of a House in either University as has 
 
 1 Wake MSS., ut supra. 2 Letters from the Bodleian. 
 
 3 Ballard MSS. 20. 103. 4 College Order Book.
 
 380 ARCHBP. WAKE $ WARDEN GARDINER. [CHAP. 
 
 been given me for these many years ; and for no immorality, 
 I thank God, no neglect of duty, as non-residence, or the like, 
 with any of which I have ever defy'd my most inveterate 
 enemies to charge me ; but to speak plainly, my Lord, 'tis for 
 pursuing the violatours of the Statutes of Holy Orders and 
 the Common Lawyers V 
 
 He even contemplated resignation, but thought better 
 of it. 
 
 ' Now that I have stood the test of two Visitations without 
 any accusations, as I verily believe, of neglect of my duty or 
 of any conduct but what becomes an uncorrupt governor and 
 a good Christian, I am not without hopes that your Grace 
 will bestow some marks of your favour upon me. If anything 
 offers itself to make my family some amends for parting with 
 my Headship I purpose to make room for some one who may 
 do that good here which I have attempted to do but have 
 failed of it. The truth is the expense I have been put to 
 several times has been so very burthensome as to make the 
 place hardly worth my keeping for some years past, if I could 
 with reputation have quitted it till these trials were over V 
 
 Another letter in the Wake correspondence of this period 
 proves that the trials of the Warden were not only from 
 within the College. There was still something of the same 
 pressure on the part of great people which we have witnessed 
 in Stuart times. Lord Abingdon complains to the Arch- 
 bishop 3 of the ' usual obstinacy of the Warden of All Souls 
 in denying the scrutiny of votes ' (on an election to a Fellow- 
 ship) in the case of a person in whom the Earl was interested, 
 and who would otherwise have been elected. It turns out 
 that this favoured candidate was ' grossly ignorant.' 
 
 On a review of the Warden's whole conduct, we cannot but 
 give him credit for trying to do his best. It is impossible to 
 imagine a greater variety of impediments in the way of a 
 reformer. Visitors, hostile from political causes ; Senior Fel- 
 lows of the highest character interested in the success of the 
 
 1 Wake MSS., ut supra. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid.
 
 xx.] REVIEW OF GARDINER'S CONDUCT. 381 
 
 effort to secure non-residence ; and a ' faction ' of whom a 
 large proportion evidently consisted of the same sort of dis- 
 sipated young 1 men of family and fortune whom we meet with 
 in the London society of that period. The influence of Tindal 
 was all against the Warden, as we gather from many inci- 
 dental hints. He had several followers in the College, though 
 his habits were as disagreeable as his character was tainted. 
 The contemporary pamphlets, making all allowance for po- 
 lemical bitterness, are conclusive on this point, and he was 
 certainly once subjected to a public ' admonition ' from the 
 College for immoral conduct. The Warden's ' failure ' under 
 all the circumstances was by no means so great as might 
 have been expected. 
 
 At any rate, at the expense of his own purse and his own 
 ease Gardiner brought the affairs of the College to a settle- 
 ment ; and succeeding Wardens find nothing left for them to 
 do. He is the last who has stamped his mark on the history 
 of All Souls. Perhaps a greater compliment could not be paid 
 him, the greater because undesigned, than one that occurs 
 in a letter from one of his chief opponents who had occasion 
 to mention Warden Hoveden. That excellent Warden is 
 spoken of as the { Gardiner of his day 1 .' The likeness consisted 
 in their common resistance to the license of certain of the 
 Fellows in the reigns of Elizabeth and Anne respectively ! 
 
 Another point comes out clearly from a review of these 
 intestine struggles. If there had been the slightest relic or 
 revival of ' corrupt resignations ' we may be absolutely sure 
 that the lynx-eyed Warden would have brought it to light. 
 But not only does he bear witness by his silence ; he says in 
 reply to Wake's official question, ' I know of no corruptions 
 either in resignations or elections 2 ;' and Dr. Kinaston, a 
 Fellow 'statutably absent,' makes the same answer 3 . The 
 
 1 Mr. Stead to Archbishop Wake. "Wake MSS., vol. i. Univ. 
 
 2 Gardiner Papers penes custodem, 3 Archives.
 
 382 ARCHBP. WAKE $ WARDEN GARDINER. [CHAP. 
 
 work of Bancroft and Jeames had stood the test of forty years, 
 and was now secure. Gardiner's jealous care that the abuse 
 should not be revived under his Wardenship, and, indeed, 
 many other instances of his public spirit, may be traced in 
 letters of his now at Lambeth *. How much longer the said 
 abuse lingered on in at least one other College may be 
 gathered from the pages of Hearne ; and even long after the 
 death of that caustic observer, as late as 1759, Bishop 
 Lowth speaks of it in a tone of utter despair : 
 
 ' The laws of the realm have since endeavoured to remedy 
 all abuses of this kind, but in vain. ... It behoves all such ' 
 [as are concerned] ( to exert their utmost diligence and resolu- 
 tion in putting an effectual stop to so scandalous a practice if 
 they have any regard for the honour of their Society or for 
 their own reputation V 
 
 His eloquent exposure had, no doubt, some effect in pro- 
 ducing the cure which followed ! 
 
 We must not on any account omit the one last notice 
 of stout old Warden Gardiner which we have before his 
 death in 1726. In his last struggle he must have been 
 surprised to find himself supported by somebody. He could 
 hardly have known himself in the Archbishop's Court repre- 
 senting the whole College against the Visitor. It was in 
 the case of an Appeal by a Mr. Wood who claimed to be 
 elected as- Founder's kin. The College would not accept 
 the claim, but the Visitor supported Wood and forced him 
 on the College ; thus ruling the case in favour of an anti- 
 quated Statute, the abuse of which soon afterwards called for 
 redress and resettlement. Wake was technically right, but, 
 as Blackstone afterwards shewed 3 , in reality wrong ; and as 
 he made use of the expression more than once that his 
 wife was of Founder's kin, and placed his own son in the 
 College on that account, he has been accused of partiality. 
 
 1 Bibl. Lamb., cod. 931. 2 Life of Wykeham, 2nd Edition. 
 8 Preface to Essay on Collateral Consanguinity.
 
 xx.] A SCENE AT LAMBETH. 383 
 
 Certainly he proceeded on opposite principles from those 
 which had guided him in the recent Visitation. 
 
 The best counsel were retained on either side at the 
 Visitor's Court in Lambeth Palace; but the College could 
 hardly have been well advised to make so strong a point 
 against the Visitor's jurisdiction where it was the Visitor 
 who had himself to decide the case. Gardiner has left a 
 full, able, and very racy account of the proceedings ; and a 
 pamphlet by a ( Senior Fellow of All Souls V believed to 
 be Dr. Brooke, tells much the same story. Both of these 
 are ex parte statements, and through such a medium it is 
 hard to see what grounds the Visitor had for his decision. 
 But the chief trial for the poor gouty Warden was that he 
 was kept so long waiting in an ante-room while the Visitor 
 decided in favour of his own jurisdiction, and was condemned 
 to hear the household of the Archbishop, when his decision 
 was known, shouting along the passages, ' My Lord hath 
 it, My Lord hath it ; ' or, as the pamphlet bitterly tells 
 us : 
 
 8 No sooner was the import of this sapient Decree, that 
 the Visitor pronounces for his own jurisdiction, communi- 
 cated to a crowd of purple slaves attending in the Ante- 
 chamber but mutual and cordial congratulations ensued, 
 because, as they rightly observed, " My Lord hath got his 
 cause" ' 
 
 And we may suspect a little sly satisfaction in the tone 
 of the "Warden's remark that, ' here his Grace had a fit of 
 the gravel, and was obliged to leave the Court for a while.' 
 
 The above caustic pamphlet gives us a portion of the 
 conversation which took place on this occasion between the 
 two ancient champions ; and as it puts the case on both sides 
 with much force it may conclude the subject. 
 
 8 " I am your Visitor, I am in the place of your Founder/' 
 once I heard one of these local monarchs say, "and if I 
 should think it proper to send you an Injunction or new 
 Statute directly repugnant to any of your Statutes now in 
 
 1 Gough, Oxford, 60.
 
 384 ARC HBP. WAKE $ WARDEN GARDINER. [CHAP. 
 
 force, you would be obliged sub pcena perjurii to obey it." 
 " My Lord," said the Head of this College, with a manly, 
 becoming spirit, " that is a case we will not dread while your 
 Lordship's justice is our security; but should we ever be so 
 unfortunate as to receive from our Visitor such an Injunction 
 as your Lordship is pleased to suppose, we should think our- 
 selves obliged sub pcena perjurii peremptorily to disobey it, and 
 by the grace of God, so we would." ' 
 
 This Appeal cost the College joo, a large sum consider- 
 ing the value of money in that age ; and it excited the keenest 
 displeasure in the minds of every member of the Society. One 
 of its effects was a gain to another College, if it was a loss 
 to All Souls. Dr. Clarke was so annoyed at the lawsuit, that 
 in the disposition of his munificent bequest to Worcester 
 College he put in a special clause against any Appeal from 
 the election of a Fellow, ' to Visitors or any one else, to 
 avoid the shameful and unnecessary expenses which I have 
 seen some Visitors put some Colleges to upon such occasions, 
 and prevent their arbitrary and partial proceedings.' The 
 bequest itself was one of the effects. The previous Visitations, 
 added to the odium of this last suit, decided him against 
 leaving his fortune to All Souls. Instead of so doing, he 
 left the bulk of it to assist Worcester in raising itself from 
 the poor condition of an old Hall into that of a flourishing 
 College, and in so doing, like his predecessor, Petre, so many 
 years before, in the case of Exeter College, made himself 
 a sort of second Founder. He added by his Will nine sets 
 of rooms to that institution, founded six Fellowships and 
 three Scholarships, and completed the new Library and 
 Chapel. To his own College he left 1000 to restore the 
 front of it ; to Stone's Hospital in Oxford 1000 for six 
 poor widows. 
 
 This may be the place to conclude Clarke's history. His 
 influence was used for good all through his career, and when 
 he came to live altogether at Oxford, more than ever. He 
 was of course consulted on every matter concerning the
 
 xx.] LAST DA TS OF DR. CLARKE. 385 
 
 interest of the University in Parliament, and was the universal 
 referee in all that concerned its architectural and literary im- 
 provement ] . He generously assists impoverished Nonjurors 
 like the famous Dr. Hickes, whose letters are full of gratitude 
 and respect 2 . We find him adorning his old College, Brase- 
 nose, with the statues which still figure in its quadrangle, 
 and (at an earlier period) assisting his friend Charlett in 
 placing the statues of Queens Mary and Anne in the front 
 of University College 3 . He takes in hand, after the Chapel 
 is completed, the new works of his own College, the Hall, 
 the Library, the new Quadrangle ; and as he survived 
 Gardiner by ten years, carried forward among fresh genera- 
 tions of Fellows the impulse which he had himself, along 
 with the Warden and Codrington, been, from the beginning 
 of the century, so instrumental in affording. Sarah, Duchess 
 of Marlborough, and Sir Simon Harcourt were, we are told, 
 amongst the assiduous friends of his old age ; Badcliffe and 
 Charlett had passed away with Aldrich and Gardiner, and 
 many another of the friends of his long life. The ' cheerful 
 countenance ' which was attributed to him by his admirers 
 may be traced in the picture which adorns the Hall he 
 assisted to build ; and his handsome monument in the 
 Ante-chapel of the College bestows no more than due praise 
 on one whose proudest boast was that he had been a Fellow" 
 of his College for fifty-six years, and five times Burgess 
 for his University. 
 
 When he marked out the place of his burial and assigned 
 in his Will an annual sum for the repair of his tomb, we may 
 well imagine that his thoughts reverted to the imposing 
 scene he had witnessed in that Chapel immediately after his 
 election to a Fellowship. It was there that Archbishop 
 Sancroft, by whose courage and public spirit he had him- 
 self benefited, consecrated Frampton, Bishop of Gloucester, 
 afterwards the Nonjuror. It was on the occasion of the 
 
 1 Ballard MSS., passim. 2 Ibid. 12. 3 Ibid. 20. 79. 
 
 c c
 
 386 ARCHEP. WAKE & WARDEN GARDINER. 
 
 Primate's residence at All Souls during Charles the Second's 
 brief Oxford Parliament, in March, 1681. What a history 
 had England made for itself in the interval which separated 
 that event from the tenth year of George the Second ! Who 
 had been more mixed up with that history than he in his 
 own not obscure sphere! He had left no children to carry 
 down his name : would that name soon be a mere unmeaning 
 thing? 
 
 It ought not to be so. These ' childless men,' these Sheldons 
 and Codringtons and Clarkes, are among the greatest orna- 
 ments of the University. No inadequate representatives of 
 the Wykehams and Chicheles of an earlier age, they passed on 
 to our times in forms eloquent of their own contemporary 
 influences, the traditions of industry, probity, far-sighted- 
 ness, and munificence. We are reminded of their labours 
 whenever we walk through the streets of Oxford. Nor, 
 if we benefit so greatly by their abhorrence of matrimony, 
 can we grudge them their jokes at the expense of their 
 married friends. Clarke, the most agreeable and virtuous 
 of men, never has a word to say in favour of marriage, 
 especially when speaking of Oxford dignitaries. 
 
 ' I don't know,' says he, ' how to be answerable for the 
 follies of women, and 'twas one of the reasons of my con- 
 tinuing a Bachelor that I might not be obliged to do it. . . 
 I have no great joy in hearing of your conjugal pro- 
 ceedings, for I think Colleges were not designed for women. . . 
 If all my friends marry, I shall have little encouragement 
 to come to Oxford.'
 
 CHAPTEE XXI. 
 
 HJI j^0uls anir 
 
 1726-1792. 
 
 Codrington Library Selection of Worthies History of Ortho- 
 graphy from Archives Hawksmoor on Modern Architecture 
 Young, the poet Duke of Wharton Judge Blackstone 
 His influence on All Souls Struggles on question of Founder's 
 Kin. 
 
 THE completion of the College buildings will bring us into 
 contact with the few remaining names of importance which 
 we connect with the earlier reigns of the House of Brunswick. 
 The vessel has now drifted out of the stormy waves of the 
 Jacobite struggle into the tranquil waters of the Hanoverian 
 age. The College has no longer a history, in any sense of that 
 word which includes exciting or even interesting matter for the 
 public. The days of corrupt elections and Royal interferences, 
 of Archiepiscopal Visitations and faction-fights, have passed 
 away. A notice of one or two comparatively amicable con- 
 troversies will alone break the even flow of the century and 
 a half which have elapsed since the days of Warden Gardiner. 
 If a sense of weariness steals over us in the contemplation 
 of such a change to dulness and monotony, we cannot but 
 experience a certain feeling of shame in treating with so 
 much ingratitude the blessings of internal peace, order and 
 prosperity, which are in a College history the mere reflec- 
 tion of the happy state of the nation. But however this 
 
 c c 2,
 
 388 ALL SOULS AND JUDGE BLACKSTONE. [CHAP. 
 
 may strike us, it is clearly desirable in such a sketch as the 
 present to pass lightly over modern times. 
 
 And first a few words must be bestowed on the Codrington 
 Library, since, from its commencement in 1716, when Edward 
 Young delivered an oration on the occasion of laying the 
 first stone, to its completion in 1756, under the fostering care 
 of Blackstone, it is the chief subject of interest in the College, 
 and that by which the importance of the institution has been 
 chiefly sustained to our own day. 
 
 The old library had been superior to those of most other 
 Colleges, but excelled by some ; Codrington's benefaction 
 placed All Souls in the next rank after the Bodleian. In 
 1724 Hearne visited the ancient rooms before their treasures 
 were transferred to the new building. He thought it { a very 
 pretty place and venerable for its antiquity, being as old as 
 the College V With his accustomed care he noted down all 
 the ancient glass in the windows, the figures from which 
 were afterwards placed (in questionable style) in the windows 
 of the Ante-Chapel and Ante-Library, remarking that 
 Archbishop Stratford's name is probably a mistake for 
 Stafford's, and Edward the Martyr's (as he could not have 
 had a long beard) for Edward the Confessor's. He was 
 much struck with the richness of the College in MSS. 
 Such a scholar could well appreciate the gifts of Chichele 
 and Henry the Sixth, of Goldwell, Pole, and the numerous 
 learned men who had adorned the College in old times. 
 
 But Codrington's lavish expenditure on books from all 
 parts of Europe made his legacy a splendid accretion round 
 this nucleus ; and with such men as Tanner to give advice, 
 and Clarke and Sir Nathaniel Lloyd bringing to . bear on 
 its progress the wealth of their great literary acquaintance, 
 the Library soon acquired celebrity. It was they who under- 
 took the responsibility of superintending the erection of the 
 fabric. There was a stoppage for some years before its actual 
 
 t Diary, 103. 135-158.
 
 xxi.] BLACKSTONE AND THE LIBRARY. 389 
 
 completion, owing partly to the death of these men. The 
 Library was waiting- for the advent of a man of genius and 
 energy, worthy to complete the work of such a benefactor. 
 Blackstone was precisely the person. His enormous capacity 
 for work, his accurate judgment, his great learning, and his 
 devotion to his College, pointed him out as preeminently fit 
 for the business, and he devoted many years of assiduous 
 labour to it. To him the Library owes the excellent 
 arrangements which distinguish it to the present day. By 
 judicious management Codrington's ^i 0,000 was increased 
 to <^ J i2,ooo, and an endowment formed for the future in- 
 crease and care of the books out of the surplus left when 
 the building was completed. Many valuable additions have 
 accrued by benefactions since that date, besides the accu- 
 mulating treasures procured by the handsome endowment ; 
 and to make a leap of 150 years a very successful move- 
 ment has lately been made to extend the advantages of the 
 Library to the whole University by building a large Reading- 
 room and Law Library in connection with it, with a Sub- 
 Librarian in constant attendance. Thus the literary treasures 
 provided by the benefactors of All Souls are no longer con- 
 fined to members of the College and the few scholars who 
 might occasionally obtain formal permission to inspect some 
 precious document. 
 
 It may be interesting to those who have followed the course 
 of this history to observe who of all the Worthies of All Souls 
 were thought most deserving of commemoration when the 
 Codrington Library was approaching completion. The selec- 
 tion must have been chiefly due to Blackstone, and was evi- 
 dently made with the greatest care ; yet there are some 
 curious omissions. The chief sculptor of the day, Sir Henry 
 Cheere, had already been engaged to supply the statue of 
 Codrington, which stands in the centre of the building, and 
 the College placed a graceful crown upon the whole work 
 by employing him on the busts of twenty-four of the former
 
 390 ALL SOULS AND JUDGE BLACKSTONE. [CHAP. 
 
 Fellows. All but one of these, Lord Talbot, have found 
 their places already in the preceding pages of this work. 
 The list may be given here in the original order and spell- 
 ing, as it appears in the College books, defiant of chrono- 
 logical sequence : 
 
 Sir Daniel Dunn. Archbishop Sheldon. 
 
 Sir William Byrde. Bishop Duppa. 
 
 Sir William Petre. Bishop Pole. 
 
 Dr. George Clarke. Bishop Jeremy Taylor. 
 
 Secretary Coventry. Mr. Norris. 
 
 Sir William Trumbull. Dr. Lynaker. 
 
 Lord Chancellor Weston. Dr. Sydenham. 
 
 Lord Chancellor Talbot. Dr. Godolphin. 
 
 Dr. Steward. Sir Nathaniel Lloyd. 
 
 Sir Christopher Wren. Sir Clement Edmonds. 
 
 Bishop Tanner. Warden Hoveden. 
 
 Bishop Goldwell. Sir John Mason. 
 
 There is some reason to think that, however well selected, 
 the list was a good deal influenced by the feasibility of ob- 
 taining likenesses for the sculptor's guidance, since we find 
 that Dr. Godolphin's place was afterwards taken by Sir 
 Anthony Sherley, no picture of the first being discoverable. 
 This will perhaps account for the omission of some Wardens 
 who certainly deserved to be commemorated, as well as of 
 William Latymer, Arthur Duck, Sir Richard Napier (Doctor 
 of Medicine, admitted 1628), Sir Charles Caesar (Master of 
 the Rolls, admitted 1 606), Bishop Hanmer, Sir Richard Lloyd 
 (Advocate- General and Judge of the Admiralty Court, admitted 
 1 655), and the Hon. Dodington Greville. Lord Northington 
 was still alive, as also was Young. Blackstone himself, whom 
 the College ' empowered to order these bustoes,' finds his 
 place in the Library in a still more worthy manner, though 
 only within the last few years. His noble statue by Bacon 
 was at first placed by his admiring contemporaries in the Hall 
 where he delivered his immortal ' Commentaries/ but after-
 
 XXL] SELECTION OF WORTHIES. 391 
 
 wards, as it took up too much space, it was moved to the 
 Ante-chapel, where however it was still more out of place. It 
 has at last become one of the chief ornaments of the building 
 in which he took almost a paternal interest. The delay may 
 be fancifully accepted as a sort of ' poetical justice ' upon 
 him for having hoisted up the ' bustoes' of former Worthies 
 to such a height that no one can distinguish their features, 
 or scarcely even read their gilt-letter names. It may be 
 worth notice that the said ' bustoes J cost .^200, the statue 
 of Codrington about j^i^o, and Blackstone's own (without 
 the pedestal) 450 guineas. 
 
 This may be the place to make a remark upon the 
 documents which have formed our chief guide in estimating 
 the title of these and other "Worthies of All Souls to our 
 respect or admiration. The study of the Archives of a 
 medieval institution affords some interesting experience both 
 as to the history of English orthography and the connection 
 which so often, though not universally, obtains between 
 hand -writing and personal character. This is much too 
 common a subject to justify more than a sentence or two ; 
 but it may be observed that in the All Souls documents a 
 special study of the letter -forms used is necessary before 
 the writing of the Plantagenet and Tudor times can be 
 read with anything like ease, and that the difficulty con- 
 tinues throughout the reign of James the First, though an 
 occasional ' hand ' is intelligible enough to ordinary readers. 
 This is the case, as early as 1606, with, for example, Arthur 
 Duck. He was a scholar and an able man, and had caught 
 the first glimpses of orthographical improvement. By 1640 
 hand-writing in general is easy to read without any special 
 study ; and by 1680 it is like our own of the present day ; 
 though, even as late as 1700, lawyers and others sometimes 
 use archaic letter-forms which are provoking enough. The 
 seventeenth century in short just spans the change from 
 old to modern English ; and this is much the same as to
 
 392 ALL SOULS AND JUDGE BLACKSTONE. [CHAP. 
 
 spelling. Very little change has taken place in this latter 
 respect since the reign of Queen Anne. 
 
 As to deeds and strictly legal documents, it is observable 
 that those of the Tudor reigns are far harder to decypher 
 than those of a much earlier date, indeed they are clearer 
 still in earlier centuries than the fifteenth. The legal fashions 
 in this respect had come by degrees to be an insupportable 
 burden. Fortunately the general growth of an improved 
 orthography which took place in the seventeenth century 
 produced some slight effect upon the lawyers at last. 
 
 There is no doubt that we must attribute the improve- 
 ment of the English language mainly to the great men 
 who translated the Bible under James the First's patronage, 
 to Shakspeare, and to Bacon. These and their minor con- 
 temporaries made the English language what it is ; the 
 swarm of pamphlets and newspapers which the conflicts of 
 Charles the First's reign brought into existence, an effect 
 like that of early summer heat and damp on insect-life, 
 fixed it for ever. The Continental influences of the Stuart 
 period were thrown in just before the last effervescence 
 subsided. The men of Queen Anne's age write as we write 
 now, only much better, with far more elegance, force, and 
 propriety. 
 
 In point of handwriting the Primates bear away the palm. 
 They nearly all write good ' hands.' Sancroft's is remarkable 
 for its formal and cramped, but very clear, style; it can 
 hardly be called, as the Steward of his Courts, Roger North, 
 designates it, ' exquisite orthography V Many of these are 
 known by fac-similes. Warden Hoveden, Warden Jeames, and 
 Codrington write good readable hands ; but those of Finch, 
 Gardiner, Clarke, Tanner, Young, and Blackstone are excellent. 
 These were all men of high cultivation, to say the least, 
 and nearly all of them men of accurate habits and superior 
 character. 
 
 1 Gutch's Coll. Cur., Preface.
 
 xxi.] THE NEW QUADRANGLE. 393 
 
 The progressive architectural improvement of the College 
 now began to excite emulation among the Fellows, past 
 and present, and their friends. The Library, succeeding 
 the Warden's Lodgings and the ' restoration } of the Chapel, 
 was laid out on a plan which involved the future junction 
 of the buildings by the sides of an immense quadrangle, 
 four times the size of the original one built by Chichele. 
 The new Hall was to take its place in continuation of the 
 line of the Chapel, and Gardiner provided for it and the 
 sides of the new quadrangle as he best could. Some of the 
 answers to his numerous letters are preserved *, and are 
 not a little diverting. There are many refusals ; some of 
 his correspondents have 'teeming wives,' others 'ruined 
 fortunes ; ' but the response, on the whole, is noble. Up- 
 wards of ^SOOQ some ^20,000 or ^30,000 of our currency 
 was spent upon the sides of the quadrangle. Sir Nathaniel 
 Lloyd, a very useful member of the College, who afterwards 
 became Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and Vice- 
 Chancellor of that University, gave .3^1350 for one portion, 
 the Duke of Wharton ^1183 for another; the Hon. General 
 Stuart built one of the towers for ^786 ; Mr. Dodington 
 Greville gave ^750 for the gateway in the cloisters ; Lord 
 Carnarvon gave 2,00, Bishop Tanner $o, the Warden and 
 Fellows 400. Hawksmoor is responsible for the general 
 plan of the whole of the new buildings, but Dr. Clarke perhaps 
 almost as much. Hawksmoor submits his plans to him ; he 
 marks on the margin what part of them he hopes the College 
 will adopt; and his suggestions are for the most part fol- 
 lowed. Thus, for example, Hawksmoor designed a turret 
 over the centre of the Library, and a corresponding one be- 
 tween the Chapel and the Hall ; but Clarke ' hopes the Col- 
 lege will not build this oblong turret, which will be expensive, 
 and I fear, look very heavy 2 ;' and some other parts of Hawks- 
 
 1 Gardiner Papers, penes custodem. 
 
 2 Explanation of the Designes for All Souls : Archives.
 
 394 ALL SOULS AND JUDGE BLACKSTONE. [CHAP. 
 
 moor's plans are, like these, omitted. There is nothing said 
 in Hawksmoor's ' Designes ' about the conspicuous central 
 towers of the east side of the quadrangle, which have been so 
 criticised, and for which the architect is probably directly 
 responsible ; but as every one admits the good general 
 effect of this noble square, it is possible that moderns 
 have sometimes shown themselves hypercritical. At any 
 rate, the following extracts from the above paper may not 
 only prove that the College was much indebted to Hawks- 
 moor, but be useful to the public even now. If his hints 
 had reached some of our architects a few years ago we 
 might not now be mourning the loss of many an ancient 
 monument designed in better taste than our own. 
 
 It appears there had been some proposals let us hope not 
 from Dr. Clarke for a modern renovation of the old quad- 
 rangle. Hawksmoor Wren's favourite pupil, be it observed 
 can hardly contain his indignation; though, indeed, it 
 must have required some courage to speak so plainly to his 
 employers. 
 
 'I must ask leave,' says he, in a letter dated February 17, 
 1 7 1 , ' to say something in favour of y 6 old Quadrangle, 
 built by your most Rev d . Founder, for although it may have 
 some faults yet it is not without its virtues. This building 
 is strong and durable, much more firm than any of your new 
 buildings because they have not y e substance nor workman- 
 ship, and I am confident that much convenience and beauty 
 may be added to it, whereas utterly destroying or barbarously 
 altering or mangling it would be useing y e Founder cruelly 
 and a loss to y e present possessours. Whatever is good in its 
 kind ought to be preserved in respect to antiquity as well 
 as our present advantage, for destruction can be profitable to 
 none but such as live by it. 
 
 * Never suffer y 6 outward moldings on y e Jaumbs of y e 
 windows and S unite to be cut away, for that takes off all y 6 
 ornament and strength of y 6 Designe. You may see the 
 scandalous effect that Chap Windows have by putting them 
 flush (as workmen call it) to the outside of the wall, in y e 
 Quadrangle of New College and most other places in Oxford, 
 and at Trinity College, in Cambridge, most shamefully. What
 
 XXL] TRUE WAY OF RESTORATION. 395 
 
 I am offering at in this article is for the preservation of an- 
 tient durable Public Buildings, that are strong and usefull, 
 instead of erecting new fantasticall perishable trash, or alter- 
 ing and wounding y e old by unskilfull knavish workmen ; 
 and this leads me to say something further by way of en- 
 couragement towards generall Designes and proper forcast 
 in this affair architectonicall that may regard both old and 
 new erections. 
 
 ' When London was burnt in 1666, out of that fatall ac- 
 cidentall mischief one might have expected some good when 
 y e Phenix was to rise again, viz*, a convenient, regular, well- 
 built City, excellent, skillful, honest artificers, made by y e 
 greatness and quantity of y e worke in rebuilding such a 
 Capital. But instead of these we have noe City, nor streets, 
 nor houses, but a Chaos of dirty, rotten sheds, always tumbling 
 or takeing fire, with winding crooked passages, scarce prac- 
 ticable, lakes of mud and rills of stinking mire running 
 through them. 
 
 ' The workmen soe far from skill or honesty that y e generall 
 part of 'em are more brutall and stupid than in y e remotest 
 part of Britain, and the longer they worke the worse they 
 grow, as you may see in all the additionall scoundrell streets 
 they are continually cobling up, to sell by wholesale, and 
 this is not all in London, for this sort of vermin has run and 
 spread all over y e country, and as they have ruin'd y e Capitall 
 soe have they all the other Citys and Townes in England 
 more or less, together with working y e destruction of many 
 a good old Mansion house and durable castle, &c. Soe that 
 it is a question which was y e worst calamity, y e burning, or 
 rebuilding by these villains, for y e first was quick and soon 
 over, the later slow but perpetual/ 
 
 He then lays the blame upon the Government, who ought 
 ' for ye Publick good to have guided the rebuilding into a 
 regular and commodious form, and not to have suffered it to 
 run into an ugly, inconvenient, self-destroying, unwieldy 
 monster,' and hopes the University may take warning : 
 
 ' It cannot be improper to lay downe such Draughts and 
 Designes for repairing the old and erecting new fabricks for 
 y e embellishment and use of y e University as may in time 
 come to perfection, altho' not soe quickly as we might wish ; 
 for when we survey what we have done beyond expectation, 
 and if we consider our noble Benefactions given, and y e
 
 396 ALL SOULS AND JUDGE BLACKSTONE. [CHAP. 
 
 genius that now seems to govern, we need not despair of 
 accomplishing anything that may render this Seat of y e Muses 
 admired at home and renowned abroad : but running on with- 
 out any rule and well-digested Designes will produce nothing 
 but chaos and tumult.' 
 
 The question may have already occurred to some reader, 
 Why should the famous libertine, the Duke of Wharton, 
 have given a large contribution to the buildings of All 
 Souls ? He had nothing to do with the College, was not 
 the man to spend money in such a work, and was hopelessly 
 in debt. The answer is supposed to be found in the following 
 passage from Dr. Johnson's Lives of the Poets : 
 
 ( His Grace the Duke of Wharton's regard for Young, added 
 to his lust of praise, procured to All Souls College a donation 
 which is not forgotten in the Dedication of " The Revenge." ' 
 
 This Dedication was so quickly and thoroughly suppressed 
 by Young that, except for the passage in Johnson's popular 
 book, it would have been forgotten. The words referred to 
 are these : 
 
 ' But there are still superior qualities which I am obliged to 
 remember, as is the Society to which I belong, and to return 
 him our thanks for his late donation to it, which is so noble 
 that it had laid us under the greatest obligation though it 
 had been from another, though it had been from one whose 
 quality and character would have made a far less addition to 
 it, and who had not by the most grateful and engaging 
 manner of conferring it, more than doubled its value.' 
 
 Further on he says, ' My present fortune is his bounty ; ' 
 so that this brilliant, versatile, and profligate nobleman did 
 for the world at least something which outlived his own 
 reputation. Young has been blamed for stooping to be 
 patronised by such a man, but the extraordinary character 
 of this most curious of all human compounds must be 
 remembered. He deceived friends and foes alike ; and led 
 every one to expect that his character would develop in the 
 direction they desired. Bishop Tanner writes :
 
 XXL] THE DUKE OF WHARTON. 397 
 
 ' The Lord Duke of Wharton's benefaction to ours, or indeed 
 any other, was not expected. It gives promising- hopes of a 
 new turn in which that young- nobleman of excellent parts 
 as I have heard may outshine his ancestors 1 .' 
 
 It is needless to enquire how long this c new turn ' lasted, 
 since no brilliant youth ever made more turns, or more 
 terribly disappointed his friends : 
 
 ' Wharton, the scorn and wonder of our days V 
 
 As for patronage, the system was almost universal in those 
 days; and the families of the Duke and the poet had been 
 friends. There is nothing dishonourable in Young's short 
 period of clientship ; indeed he probably did some good to 
 his young patron while it lasted ; but no one who knows 
 Wharton's career can wonder at the rising poet's anxiety to 
 suppress the evidence of his too great facility in crediting the 
 Duke with so much virtue. 
 
 It seems probable, however, that Young's remarks in the 
 Dedication on the gift to All Souls have been made to bear 
 more weight than they can carry. The date is 1721. There 
 is nothing in the words to shew that the gift was made 
 through Young. Perhaps the following letter, dated August 
 4, 1720, from Hawarden, of which place Warden Gardiner 
 was Rector, may throw some light on the subject. It will 
 be observed that it is earlier in date than Young's Dedica- 
 tion. It is addressed to Dr. Charlett : 
 
 < Good Sir, 
 
 ' Being in your debt at Harden I hope to satisfy you for all 
 at once by telling you that the Duke of Wharton did me the 
 honour to call upon me there on Saturday was sennight ; and 
 in his discourse about our Benefactions his Grace was pleased 
 to promise to All Souls 600 or if necessary 800 towards a 
 pile to join Codrington's Library and Stewart's Tower. By 
 his order I sent off Mr. Townsend to his Grace on Monday, 
 and yesterday he returned with a contract under his hand and 
 seal to pay 1 1 83 for finishing the pile by Midsummer next. 
 
 1 Letters from the Bodleian. 
 
 2 Pope's Knowledge and Character of Man.
 
 398 ALL SOULS AND JUDGE BLACKSTONE. [CHAP. 
 
 This great bounty was given with all the civility and readiness 
 imaginable, and with the kindest expressions of his regard to 
 the University, of whom his Grace intends shortly to receive a 
 Doctor's Degree 1 .' 
 
 There would, one would suppose, have been some mention 
 of Young in connection with the gift, in either Gardiner's 
 or Tanner's letter, if the Duke had really given it at Young's 
 request or out of special regard for him. However, it is quite 
 possible that it was through Young that he was induced to 
 think of the benefaction ; and the desire to obtain a Doctor's 
 degree and to stand well with the University may have 
 been to him, at the moment of his visit to Gardiner, a matter 
 of importance. His affairs soon fell into extreme disorder, 
 and whether he ever intended to pay the money or not is 
 a matter of little consequence. It was not paid during 
 his lifetime ; and the tradition has consequently obtained in 
 the College that it was never paid. But this is a mistake. 
 Thanks to Gardiner's wise precautions and Blackstone's per- 
 severance, the sum was recovered from the Duke's Executors ; 
 so that his name stands with perfect justice inscribed on his 
 ' Pile.' It might have been well if more of his estate had 
 been secured for equally good objects ! 
 
 The College has a right to be proud of Edward Young, 
 whose name appears in its records accompanied with the 
 words Poeta celehemmus. He lived much at All Souls, and 
 was in a great degree its true and legitimate product. We 
 have seen that he was selected to make the Latin oration 
 when the foundation of the Codrington Library was laid. 
 He had not then been long a Fellow. Towards the close 
 of his long life he presented the last edition of his works 
 to that Library, containing, as the Preface says, his 'most 
 excusable ' poems. Between the two periods he had passed 
 many an hour in the performance of a task not so showy 
 as writing poetry, but perhaps as useful. All Souls was 
 the arena for constant argument on the great and vital 
 
 1 Ballard MSS. 20. 17.
 
 XXL] EDWARD YOUNG. 399 
 
 questions of human belief. The disreputable Matthew Tindal, 
 the chief champion of the Deists, or, as his opponents 
 violently called them, Atheists, after having gone through 
 various changes, had settled down into the opinions expressed 
 in his ' Christianity as Old as the Creation/ and volume after 
 volume came forth from All Souls in rapid succession. Young 
 was the champion of Christianity. 
 
 ' The other boys,' said the Atheist, ' I can always answer, 
 because I always know whence they have their arguments, 
 which I have read a hundred times ; but that fellow, Young, 
 is continually pestering me with something of his own 1 .' 
 
 It were to be wished we had these ' somethings of his own' 
 before us ; but we have only his poems, which were no doubt 
 his way of answering his opponents ; while he left to Butler 
 the task of scattering them in prose. It would be out of 
 place to say anything here of these poems. They have long 
 ceased to form a portion of the stock of poetry commonly 
 read in our day. Yet Young was to his generation what 
 Tennyson is to ours, always sending out some new poem 
 or new edition, which it was absolutely necessary that every 
 one should have read if he were to keep his place in society. 
 Succeeding the poets of the age of Anne, and preceding the 
 burst of modern poetry which Cowper heralded, he filled the 
 vacuum as no one else did ; and Dr. Johnson's testimony 
 to his genius must take the place of authority with those 
 who have never studied the ' Night Thoughts.' Some of the 
 portraits which find a place in those immortal lines are no 
 doubt pictures from All Souls. 
 
 The traditions of Young's connection with his College have 
 not, however, been kept up by his relations with Wharton 
 and Tindal, still less by his picture in the Hall, which is any- 
 thing but flattering, (it was said he would never sit for one ; 
 this, however, was presented by a relative after his death,) 
 but by the ever-green memory which he left behind him at 
 
 1 Johnson's Lives of the Poets.
 
 400 ALL SOULS AND JUDGE BLACKSTONE. [CHAP. 
 
 Welwyn, the All Souls living where he passed the evening 
 of his days. Successive Rectors from the College still rejoice 
 in the beautiful shades he planted, and read on the monu- 
 ment erected under his avenue the words in which one of 
 his early successors embodied his character while it was yet 
 known to living men : Yitia insectabatur non homines, erran- 
 tes emendabat non castlgabat. It was here that Dr. Johnson 
 paid his tribute to the memory of his old friend, and Boswell 
 took down from the lips of his master the words which told 
 how one of these great men appreciated the other 1 . 
 
 Judge Blackstone's name has come across our path already. 
 Of all the Worthies of All Souls whose fame connects the 
 history of England with that of his College, there is no one, 
 except perhaps Sheldon, who more identified himself with its 
 interests. For a great part of eighteen years during all his 
 middle life he made All Souls the object of his laborious 
 care. For ten years he was Steward of the College, applying 
 his legal mind to the examination of all the documents 
 bearing on the College property, rearranging its Archives, 
 and leaving at the close of that period a characteristic record 
 of the labour he had bestowed on its accounts in a special 
 MS. book for the benefit of his successors. In this he tells 
 us he had been, thanks to his ' good fortune,' ' Accomptant, 
 Assistant, and Auditor' of these accounts ; and he had served 
 his turn as Bursar. No name appears in the College order- 
 book more frequently than his as writing out, in the capacity 
 of Senior Jurist, the Resolutions of the College Meetings. 
 He was the ' willing horse ' whom the College worked hard, 
 but most gratefully thanked. A sentence or two of the 
 little College book above mentioned may be quoted as 
 characteristic of the man. It is written out by himself in 
 1753, an( ^ addressed to his friend and successor in office, 
 Dr. Benjamin Buckler. It commences thus : 
 
 1 Boswell's Life of Johnson, sub anno 1781. See also other 
 passages in the ' Life/ and the ' Lives of the Poets.'
 
 xxi.] BLACKSTONE AS BURSAR. 401 
 
 ' I cannot but think that you will enjoy some pleasure in 
 contemplating a structure the rudiments and foundation of 
 which are at least of as high antiquity as the invention of 
 the Mallard itself. You may here frame a complete idea 
 of that old English system of hospitable ceconomy for which 
 our ancestors were so justly famous.' 
 
 And it ends with the following : 
 
 ' And thus, good Mr. Bursar, having accompanied you 
 from your entrance on this important office to your final dis- 
 mission, through all the intricacies of our domestic ceconomy, 
 a sort of maze, I confess, yet not without a plan, I must 
 refer to your own sagacity to supply the deficiencies of my 
 experience, and shall now take my leave of you till I am in 
 my turn a petitioner for your kind assistance, when you may 
 depend upon my paying you my respects in person. And 
 meanwhile, my hearty wishes, and I dare answer, those of the 
 whole Society, are that your year may be rich and peaceable, 
 attended with a moderate Expense Boll, with good, though 
 not extravagant Price-days, large fines and cheerfully paid, 
 pleasant Progresses and many alienations, a comfortable share 
 of underwood, and abundance of timber that will not improve 
 by standing. And for your own particular I wish you large 
 Rags and small Tres Billse, many leases and few letters, a 
 prodigious increase of bread and a mighty consumption of 
 ale, and, to crown all, a clear exoneration without fear of 
 drawbacks, and a sociable evening to celebrate the End of 
 All Things.' 
 
 The enthusiasm which could thus extract the notion of 
 enjoyment out of the driest and most complicated mass of 
 details conceivable, is as pleasant as the humour with which 
 the great Judge concludes his homily, and well illustrates 
 what we gather from many Collegiate sources, that he was 
 an excellent companion. This is the more worth noticing 
 since he was thought by some to be ill-natured. No one was 
 in reality less open to the charge, which gathered perhaps 
 some plausibility from the appearance of his contracted 
 eyebrows ; but that appearance was the result of extreme 
 near-sightedness. It is true that he became in his old 
 
 D d
 
 402 ALL SOULS AND JUDGE BLACKSTONE. [CHAP. 
 
 age somewhat irritable ; but we are told that the only 
 occasions when this was allowed to be perceptible were when 
 people tried his patience beyond bearing- by unpunctuality. 
 No portion of his time was ever wasted, and he resented the 
 carelessness of those who did not understand the value 
 of minutes. 
 
 Besides the services he performed with respect to the Cod- 
 rington Library, and the recovery of the Duke of Wharton's 
 gift, the College, and indeed all English institutions which 
 gave preference to Founder's Kin, received the greatest benefit 
 from Blackstone's legal ability. His famous Treatise on 
 Consanguinity, prompted by College experiences, was the 
 means of procuring, what had long become necessary, an 
 authoritative settlement of the number of Fellows to whom 
 the College should be obliged to give the coveted preference. 
 Finally, as we have said, the College has reason to remem- 
 ber with pride and pleasure the famous Lectures which 
 he honoured the College by giving in its new Hall as first 
 Vinerian Professor, and which, under the form and title 
 of ( Blackstone's Commentaries,' have been designated as 
 ' perhaps the most correct and beautiful outline that ever was 
 exhibited of any human science 1 .' Lord Campbell pro- 
 nounces that ' Bracton had been rivalled by no English 
 juridical writer till Blackstone arose, five centuries after- 
 wards ' 2 ; ' and that ' after Bacon, Blackstone was the first 
 practising lawyer at the English bar who in writing paid 
 the slightest attention to the selection or collocation of 
 words 3 .' 
 
 It would not have been needful even a few years ago 
 to fortify any eulogy of this great man by the quotation 
 of authorities ; but reputations die quickly in our day. Per- 
 haps it has not generally attracted observation that King 
 
 1 Life by Archbold in his edition of the Commentaries, 1811. 
 
 2 Lives of the Chief Justices, i. 62. 
 
 3 Ibid. ii. 566.
 
 xxi.] GEORGE THE THIRD. 403 
 
 George the Third must in all probability have owed an im- 
 portant part of his education to Blackstone 1 . Many problems 
 in relation to the personal part taken by that Sovereign in the 
 first half of his reign are still unsolved, and none but the 
 prejudiced will think them unworthy of attention. The 
 influences which are chiefly supposed to have been exerted 
 on his eager and enthusiastic temperament as a youth are 
 for the most part attributed to Bolingbroke ; but one may 
 well believe that much was also due to the wise and moderate 
 writer who has framed the picture of our Constitutional Law 
 as only a genius, here and there in successive ages, can. 
 Blackstone indeed declined to read his Lectures to the young 
 Prince of Wales on the ground that he could not leave his 
 pupils ; but he sent copies of them to the Prince, and, famous 
 as they immediately became, they could not but bear fruit 
 in the mind of one who possessed a far larger fund of 
 common sense than he obtains credit for in modern days. 
 Is it not true that he is still viewed almost exclusively 
 through party spectacles, and chiefly in relation to times 
 when his intellect had given way as much perhaps from 
 over-work and responsibility as from any other cause ? We 
 listen to literary caricatures and jokes bred from the struggles 
 of recent times ; we forget what Great Britain owed, at 
 a critical period, to one who reigned in the hearts of his 
 people. 
 
 It may not be amiss here also to follow in the briefest 
 form Lord Campbell's explanation of the connection between 
 Blackstone's prolonged Oxford life and his career in the 
 great world 2 . That residence at Oxford was the happy 
 
 1 Blackstone retired to Oxford in 1753, and soon commenced 
 his lectures, which were largely attended from the first. The first 
 volume of the Commentaries was published in 1755; the re- 
 mainder in 1756-1759. In 1758 they were 'read in the form 
 they now bear.' (Life by Archbold.) 
 
 2 Lives of the Chief Justices, ii. 378. 
 
 D d 2
 
 404 ALL SOULS AND JUDGE BLACKSTONE. [CHAP. 
 
 result of his early failure at the Bar. We read of no difficulties 
 made by his College as to non-residence while he was 
 determining his future life in London practice ; but it seems 
 that his practice was not promising-. His language and 
 delivery were faulty ; but his merits as a scientific lawyer 
 did not escape the acute observation of that prince of lawyers, 
 Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield. Though Blackstone was 
 as yet quite unknown to the world, Murray determined to 
 bring him forward, and persuaded the Duke of Newcastle to 
 put him into the then vacant office of Regius Professor of 
 Civil Law at Oxford. The Duke, however, when he found 
 that the upright young lawyer would make no political en- 
 gagements, characteristically forgot to fulfil his promise. On 
 this Murray advised Blackstone to settle in Oxford, and read 
 law-lectures on his own account. This was the foundation 
 of his splendid success. This success led Mr. Viner to 
 establish the Professorship of Common Law for the express 
 purpose of providing a Chair for Blackstone. On such 
 trivial circumstances depended a great issue ! Whatever this 
 great man might have done had he been an ordinary Pro- 
 fessor of Civil Law, the feeble Duke's unblushing partisan- 
 ship gave the world Blackstone's Commentaries, and Oxford 
 a new Professorship ! 
 
 We ought not to part with Sir William Blackstone with- 
 out observing that during his Oxford career he by no means 
 confined his energies within the limits of his College. He 
 was the ' reformer of the Clarendon Press.' As a Visitor of 
 the Michel Foundation at Queen's College he organised that 
 important portion of the institution ; and the street front of 
 the College, which had long lain in a neglected state, was 
 mainly by his means brought to its present condition 1 . He 
 was also Assessor of the Vice-Chancellor's Court, and before 
 
 1 Life of Blackstone by Clitherow ; prefixed to Blackstone's 
 Reports.
 
 XXL] BLACKSTONE' S DEBT TO ALL SOULS. 405 
 
 he finally left Oxford for the Judicial Bench, became Principal 
 of New Inn Hall. How excellently he fulfilled his duties 
 as a Judge, how the world discovered him to be as wise and 
 religious a man in office as he had been in private life, may 
 be gathered from various quarters. We have only space here 
 to characterise the culture of his mind in the words of his 
 biographer, who tells us, without exaggeration, that ' there 
 was hardly any branch of literature with which he was not 
 acquainted/ and to quote the opinion of a great Judge, Lord 
 Ellenborough, who was not one of his warmest admirers, but 
 who admits that Blackstone made the law of England to be 
 studied in other countries, and thus threw a dignity round 
 the wisdom of his own 1 . 
 
 We can hardly refuse to connect this excellence with Cod- 
 rington's gift to All Souls. What distinguished this great 
 man from all his predecessors at the famous English bar? 
 His philosophical treatment of legal subjects, his splendid 
 style, the breadth and cultivation of the powers he brought 
 to bear on his work. Who ever had a finer opportunity 
 for obtaining these qualities as far as study can assist 
 great natural capacity than Blackstone possessed in the 
 course of his preparation of the Codrington Library for 
 future use? 
 
 Two other All Souls lawyers of the same period attained 
 higher distinction in their profession, but occupy a place very 
 far below that of Blackstone, Lord Chancellor Talbot and 
 Lord Chancellor Northington. The first, however, if he had 
 lived longer, might have attained the highest fame. Lord 
 Campbell calls him ' a consummate judge V and Lord Stan- 
 hope speaks of him as ' a man of the highest legal talents, of 
 unimpeachable character, and of most winning gentleness of 
 manners 3 / He was Bishop Butler's fast friend and power- 
 
 1 Townsend's Lives of Twelve Eminent Judges, i. 383. 
 
 2 Lives of the Chancellors, p. 659. 
 
 3 Hist, of England, ii. 257.
 
 406 ALL SOULS AND JUDGE BLACKSTONE. [CHAP. 
 
 ful patron. The last only requires a word in this place in 
 connection with Lord Campbell's sweeping- condemnation of 
 All Souls. The lively imagination of the noble biographer has 
 attributed young Henley's election at All Souls ' solely to his 
 convivial talents.' This can hardly be so. Two years after 
 Gardiner's death there was no doubt a strong convivial 
 element still left in the College, but we have seen already 
 that merit tested by examination was by no means dispensed 
 with. Elections in later times came to be less carefully made ; 
 but scarcely yet. The Warden's Veto was still a reality on 
 this point, in spite of the changes made by Tenison and 
 Wake. Whether, as we are further told, his lordship owed 
 his ' habitual addiction to conviviality' in later life to the 
 encouragement he received at his College, may or may not 
 be true. It can be little more than a guess. 
 
 Richard Trevor, who became Bishop of Winchester, 
 entered the College along with Henley ; and later on the 
 Register appears the name of Spencer, who followed Duck 
 in writing a history of Chichele, but in English. The con- 
 nection of the College with its Founder was still further 
 illustrated by Dr. Benjamin Buckler, whose name has al- 
 ready come before us, in the ' Stemmata Chichleiana,' which 
 has long been known as an important genealogical work. 
 This was continued (in MS.) in the present century by the 
 Rev. C. Annesley. 
 
 The mention of Buckler's genealogical labours brings us 
 to the vexed and tedious question of Founder's Kin, the 
 struggles on which at All Souls may be grouped together 
 in one short notice in this place. The great Anstiss law- 
 suit leads the way. Mr. Anstiss was Garter Principal King 
 of Arms. His son, though of Founder's Kin, failed of 
 election to All Souls in 1728. This, it will be remembered, 
 was five years after Archbishop Wake had decided against 
 the College in favour of Wood, on the ground that the 
 Statutes which gave preference to Founder's Kin must be
 
 xxi.] FOUNDERS KIN. 407 
 
 literally obeyed. But the College had long ceased to con- 
 sider the Statute obligatory. The theory that the privileges 
 of Founder's Kin did not extend beyond ten degrees and 
 a majority of the College once even considered that they 
 ceased at five degrees had been very commonly held. 
 During the period of corrupt elections and Royal Mandates 
 it is obvious that such claims would not be likely to receive 
 much attention; Warden Jeames on one occasion thought 
 it his duty to veto an election by the Fellows which excluded 
 a candidate who claimed on this ground. When the reform 
 of Sancroft took effect the College would therefore have had 
 to retrace its steps if it elected Founder's Kin whenever they 
 presented themselves, and this it was naturally most un- 
 willing to do. 
 
 Hence, partly, the exasperation with Archbishop Wake when 
 he insisted on Wood's election ; and the College now alleged 
 a special reason for refusing Anstiss which the father would 
 by no means tolerate. It was that the son was already in 
 possession of a patent place and pension under Government, 
 which incapacitated him by Statute. By means of the War- 
 den's Veto the election devolved on the Visitor, to whom Mr. 
 Anstiss appealed, and from whom he claimed the nomination 
 of his son. In order to meet the argument of incapacity, 
 having failed to prove that the pension in question was not 
 of the sort contemplated in the Statutes, he took ground 
 which had not been heard of since the days of York and 
 Lancaster. He maintained that there had been all along a 
 mistake as to the real Founder of the College. It was not 
 Archbishop Chichele, but Henry the Sixth, as the grantor 
 of the Alien Priories, and as having been formally invested 
 with the College property by the Archbishop. A place under 
 the Crown would not invalidate a candidate for a Royal 
 Fellowship. The Visitor easily disposed of this flimsy argu- 
 ment ; but the College was so thoroughly offended that, when 
 another son stood for a Fellowship in 1/32, he also was
 
 408 ALL SOULS AND JUDGE BLAGKSTONE. [CHAP. 
 
 rejected. Anstiss, now furious, charged the Visitor and the 
 College with direct perjury, and printed so many elaborate 
 books and papers on the subject as to suggest the idea of 
 a vast amount of leisure in his official situation. He was 
 an intimate friend of Hearne's, and found sympathy in the 
 breast of that hater of All Souls. ' Oaths,' says Hearne, 
 speaking of this case, and not forgetting the Revolution, ' are 
 become too feeble to bind, and the notion of Judgment is 
 a scarecrow 1 / It certainly does not appear why, if Wood 
 was to be forced on the College because he was of Founder's 
 Kin, the younger Anstiss should not have been forced 
 likewise. 
 
 No immediate effect was produced by this explosion ; but 
 public attention was called to the matter, and it led 
 to the scientific consideration of the question at large. For 
 the present the College, being left to itself, pursued its usual 
 plan of only occasionally electing one who claimed as Founder's 
 Kin. For the first half of the eighteenth century there are 
 but twelve such elected out of 130 Fellows, and two of these 
 are of the Bathurst family, which appears more frequently on 
 the roll than any other in the history of the College. No 
 doubt the principle had practically been long established that 
 'the Founder could never have intended to fill the College 
 with one blood to the exclusion of all other learned and 
 deserving candidates ; ' and as yet candidates came freely in 
 for election. In 1724 there were sixteen candidates for five 
 vacancies, which were all filled up by the unanimous vote 
 of the Fellows, and in 1725 there were, as always, a great 
 many candidates 2 . 
 
 The experience of other Colleges was brought to bear 
 upon All Souls. New College had been harassed by the 
 same difficulties. The decision long before arrived at by 
 
 1 Diary, 135. 116; cf. 55. 24. 
 
 2 Hearne's Diary, 105. 29 ; no. 34.
 
 XXL] THE CORNWALLIS SETTLEMENT. 409 
 
 the Visitor of that institution justified All Souls in its 
 conduct. In that case it had been decided that out of the 
 whole number of seventy Fellows the number of eighteen 
 Founder's Kin should be the limit. Blackstone's conclusive 
 Treatise, shewing how the blood became worn out after a 
 certain number of generations, was soon established as a 
 standard authority on the side of restriction ; while at the 
 same time the rush made by Founder's Kin for All Souls 
 Fellowships from and after the year 1762 rendered the 
 Visitor's interference necessary. A great change came over 
 the College. For many years after that date the elections 
 are made wholly, or all but wholly, out of candidates who 
 claim on this ground. Out of the fifty-eight Fellows elected 
 in twenty years, thirty-nine are of Founder's Kin. But 
 Archbishop Cornwallis now rules (in 1777), under Black- 
 stone's advice, that the number of ten Fellows of Founder's 
 Kin should be the limit, which the College might indeed, if it 
 pleased, exceed, but more than which it was not obliged to 
 elect. The proof of kinship was also no longer to be neces- 
 sarily strictly legal, but such as to satisfy the electors in their 
 consciences, a proviso which seems to have chiefly grown 
 out of a sense of the injustice done to two grandsons of 
 Warden Gardiner, named Whalley, whose case was admitted 
 to be clear after they had lost their election. 
 
 This authoritative interpretation of the Statutes checked 
 the almost exclusive election of these candidates in a very 
 marked manner for a time ; but early in the present century 
 the preference came again to be shown almost as decidedly as 
 in the twenty years which resulted in Cornwallis' decision. It 
 had now become the fixed desire of the College itself to elect 
 Founder's Kin, and the practice fell in with some of its old 
 traditions. The fact is that since the number of families 
 which could claim from the Founder kept on multiplying 
 in geometrical progression, there came to be by this time a 
 considerable choice among candidates from these families
 
 410 ALL SOULS AND JUDGE BLACKSTONE. 
 
 alone, a large proportion of which had been placed in the 
 ranks of the peerage in the eighteenth century. 
 
 Lastly, there was a very vigorous attempt made to set 
 aside Cornwallis' decision, in 1793, by Mr. John Whalley 
 Master, of Brasenose. The two Scotts, afterwards Lords 
 Eldon and Stowell, and other eminent counsel, were retained 
 on either side ; but the Visitor confirmed his predecessor's 
 judgment, and we hear no more of the subject. That, 
 perhaps, will not be matter of regret on the part of the 
 reader of these pages.
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 1792-1874. 
 
 Ancient and modern All Souls The University Commission of 
 1852 The Eighteenth Century a period of Stagnation The 
 modern Wardens Distinguished Men of Modern Times 
 Bishops Heber and Stuart All Souls Burgesses for the Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 IT may be some excuse for the presumption involved in 
 undertaking- to sketch the history of All Souls that, without 
 some such narrative as the above, it is not easy to give 
 an intelligible answer to the question so often asked, 
 Why does the College present such an entire contrast to 
 every other Collegiate institution, not only in Oxford or 
 Cambridge, but in the world? Even the members of the 
 College are often fain to be content with the reply, ' It has 
 always been so.' And yet the early history of the Foundation 
 is well enough known to suggest some doubts on the subject. 
 But then, again, the mere fact of transition from medieval 
 manners and ecclesiastical functions so as to become an 
 institution suited to modern wants, affords no explanation, 
 since scores of similar institutions have done the same, and 
 yet are wholly different from All Souls. 
 
 The course of our narrative has shewn that the germ of 
 this peculiar and distinct modern character is to be found
 
 4 1 2 CONCL USION. [CHAP. 
 
 in the provision made by the Founder, an experienced 
 statesman, for the service of the State by a portion of his 
 Fellows. His body of 'Jurists' were intended to be a 
 nursery of apt officers for purposes both of Church and 
 State. Even the ' Artists/ the larger portion of the Fel- 
 lows, were intended not only to study at Oxford or re- 
 plenish the ranks of the parochial clergy, but also to be 
 professional men, such as physicians. At least so it was 
 ruled in very early times. Thus while All Souls, before the 
 Reformation, was more remarkable than others for its con- 
 nection with the functions of a quasi-chantry, it was also 
 peculiarly devoted to pursuits which soon grew to be exclu- 
 sively secular. After the Reformation we have observed a 
 strong development of the educational element, extending, 
 beyond the limits of the body of Fellows, to poor scholars 
 within, and to grammar scholars without the College. All 
 other Colleges except New College and All Souls felt this 
 educational movement so strongly that they became at once, 
 some more, some less, what they are now ; but from various 
 circumstances it took no abiding hold of All Souls. Even 
 the earnest religious revival of the early Stuart period failed 
 to effect more than to strike a fairly even balance between 
 the secular and strictly clerical portions of the College Society. 
 During the period of the later Stuarts the secular element 
 prevails. The Public Service and the Bar draw off so large 
 and influential a portion of the Fellows, and Non-residence be- 
 comes so common under the system of Dispensations, that it 
 becomes necessary to refer the whole question to the Visitors, 
 Archbishops Tenison and Wake. It is to their decision that 
 we turn for an answer to the question as to the condition 
 of All Souls since the Accession of the House of Hanover. 
 As they left the College, so it has, on all substantial points, 
 remained. They were called upon to deal with every portion 
 of the constitution of All Souls. Its prevailing lay character, 
 the Non-residence of the Fellows, and the neglect to under-
 
 XXIL] SETTLEMENT OF ANNE'S REIGN. 413 
 
 take, or rather resume, educational functions, must be laid 
 at their doors. 
 
 To say this is not necessarily to blame those Visitors. They 
 found a prolonged history and numerous precedents placed 
 before them, and the question argued by consummate lawyers. 
 The peace of the College seemed to require that it should 
 be left to deal with these matters as it pleased. Nor did 
 they perhaps contemplate the full effect of their decisions, 
 the full consequence of their making it impossible for any 
 Warden to interfere effectively in the future. 
 
 Nor, again, could subsequent changes have been easily in- 
 troduced, had they been ever so desirable. Successive gene- 
 rations of Fellows found an ever-increasing, compact body 
 of custom and precedent raised as a barrier against any 
 organic change after such a settlement as Tenison's and 
 Wake's. Still more, they found themselves part of a system 
 provided for them in a very marked and elaborate manner 
 by Clarke and the other public-spirited men of Queen Anne's 
 reign, a system which took a wholly different direction 
 from that of the education of youth. The restoration, im- 
 provement, and enlargement of the College due to those 
 men never included rooms for Undergraduates, or even 
 any revival of the limited educational function developed 
 in Elizabethan and early Stuart times. Such a thing seems 
 never to have been thought of. We meet with no single 
 trace of the idea either in their correspondence or in their 
 bequests. Dr. Clarke, by providing for the educational de- 
 velopment of Worcester College, but not for his own, which 
 he yet loved so well, spoke with practical eloquence on the 
 other side. Blackstone's influential career gave permanence 
 and solidity to the plans of his predecessors. 
 
 The notion of these men was to elevate and improve what 
 was already existing ; to make All Souls a real ' Temple of 
 the Muses,' as they loved to call it ; to provide for the 
 pursuit of learning, the cultivation of professional excellence,
 
 414 CONCLUSION. [CHAP, 
 
 the material comfort and elegance of the College life, the 
 occasional enjoyment, at the stated College gatherings, of 
 the Non-resident Fellows. They looked to that future con- 
 nection between Oxford and London which had so long ob- 
 tained, to the continued employment of the Fellows in the 
 Public Service and the Bar, as well as in Holy Orders. They 
 looked, in short, to National or Professional usefulness rather 
 than the training of young men. They made no allow- 
 ance for the change which had deprived the early years of 
 the Fellows of that educational character which was origin- 
 ally a part of the system, and did not care to revive the 
 idea by the adoption of ' Scholars' or other Undergraduates 
 into the Society. That might be very well for other Col- 
 leges. All Souls should treat its Fellows after the modern 
 system. At the same time it should make no attempt to fill 
 up the educational void ! 
 
 Hence it came to pass that All Souls remained in statu 
 quo when even New College, which, from its great body of 
 Fellows, had up to our own times excused itself from adopting 
 the general customs of the University, at last threw open 
 its splendid courts for the general education of Under- 
 graduates. 
 
 This then is the history of the subject. It was this history 
 with which the University Commissioners of 1852 found 
 themselves confronted. Their Report, and the Evidence they 
 took, have been long before the public. From an inspection 
 of those authoritative sources of information it will be seen 
 that the College had come to be comparatively poor, that 
 its Fellows were receiving considerably less than j^ioo a 
 year, and that no great improvement could be expected till 
 the system of Fines and Renewals, then pursued in the 
 University, could be gradually superseded by the more 
 profitable system of letting landed property, already general 
 elsewhere. The Warden of that day, it will be observed, 
 reported strongly against any change whatever, however
 
 XXIL] THE UNIVERSITY COMMISSION. 415 
 
 slight, in the educational direction. The Commissioners 
 viewed the case much as he did. They decided against any 
 organic change, any further alteration than the suppression 
 of a portion of the Fellowships for the foundation of new 
 Professorships ; and the Ordinances which followed upon 
 their Report confirmed their recommendation. Ten Fellow- 
 ships were suppressed to found two ' Chichele Professorships/ 
 one of International Law, and the other of Modern History ; 
 the election being placed in the hands of a Board consisting 
 of the Visitor, the Lord Chancellor, the Secretary of State 
 for Foreign Affairs, the Judge of the Admiralty Court, and 
 the Warden of the College. No limitation of time was 
 imposed upon the tenure of Fellowships ; but the Fellows 
 were to be elected only from among candidates who had 
 either taken a First Class in one of the Public Examina- 
 tions, or obtained a University Prize or Scholarship. The 
 functions of the College as a place of ' religion and learning ' 
 were to be recognised in their selection, and all other re- 
 strictions implied or expressed, snch as those relating to age, 
 place of birth, possession of income, obligation to take Holy 
 Orders, or Founder's Kin, were abolished. The Examina- 
 tions for these Fellowships were to be in 'subjects recog- 
 nised in the School of Law and Modern History.' 
 
 It will therefore be seen that the reform of the Com- 
 missioners, rightly or wrongly, proceeded strictly on the lines 
 of Queen Anne's time. The encouragement of a new School 
 in the University which seemed to represent as nearly as 
 possible the ancient direction given to the pursuits of the 
 Fellows, was made the most prominent feature of their 
 scheme. Such eminence in legal and historical acquirements 
 as could be expected from young men, tested both in the 
 University and in the College Examinations, was to be 
 recognised by the prize of a Fellowship ; such pursuit of 
 these subjects in after life was to be stimulated as mutual 
 assistance and rivalry, the resources of a great library, and
 
 416 CONCLUSION. [CHAP. 
 
 the unexpressed obligation due to the connection with a 
 great historical institution, could promote. Once more it 
 must be remarked that no opinion is offered here on the 
 question whether all was done to increase the usefulness of 
 the College that might have been done by the Commis- 
 sioners, or as to any further reforms, whether of the same 
 or a different kind, which may have become desirable since 
 the improvement of the College property has commenced. 
 That would be improper. The object of these pages is to 
 illustrate four centuries of English History by a sketch of 
 the history of one of the numerous factors of English national 
 life. Towards the reform or improvement of that noble 
 inheritance of national life to which the men of to-day have 
 succeeded nothing can be effectually done without a thorough 
 knowledge of the past, and a calm, judicial consideration 
 of the whole of the facts of every case as they bear upon 
 the present and future. 
 
 Having thus noticed from the historical point of view 
 the general settlement of the position of All Souls, a very 
 few words will be sufficient as to its history in modern 
 times. It cannot be said, that the modes of election described 
 in the last chapter produced many men of genius or great 
 distinction; but it is only fair to remember that the age 
 itself was not fertile in such till towards the close of the 
 last century. Nor have other Colleges very much tq boast 
 of during the eighteenth century. The general stagnation 
 of all such institutions, till the influences of the French 
 Revolution and the prolonged wars which followed it affected 
 every class of society, is notorious enough. 
 
 But there can be no doubt that such a period of stagnation 
 was peculiarly unfavourable to the growth of those habits of 
 intellectual earnestness and activity which the re-founders of 
 Queen Anne's time fondly anticipated. They did not, they 
 could not, foresee that so many years were to elapse before 
 the old impulses of the seventeenth century were to be revived
 
 xxii.] STAGNATION OF LAST CENTURY. 417 
 
 in the nation. Men like Blackstone or Young might fulfil 
 their idea, but as a rule it remained unfulfilled. Without 
 educational duties on the one hand, and without on the other 
 producing a crop of men of high distinction who might 
 justify the use made of the Founder's bounty, it was natural 
 that it should come to be regarded from without as a 
 mere Club, open to envy and detraction by the fact of 
 its exclusiveness. Thus whatever ground it afforded for 
 these attacks, it did not obtain even its fair share of credit 
 for such good work as it did in a quiet and unobtrusive way, 
 for the excellent Members of Parliament, county magistrates, 
 clergy, Public Servants, and lawyers it sent forth, or for the 
 high standard of social cultivation and good manners which 
 it presented during an age of coarse and boisterous habits 
 not very far removed from those of the previous century, 
 while they were less relieved by wit and brilliancy. 
 
 It is thus that we may account for the extraordinary 
 circulation of that gross libel on Chichele's wisdom which 
 represented the qualification for All Souls Fellowships as 
 simply that candidates should be ' bene nati, lene vestiti, et 
 mediocriter docti. ' It is a remarkable instance of the vitality 
 of a good joke that this clever juxtaposition of certain 
 words separated from their context, and the invention of 
 others, should have come to be generally accepted by people 
 not altogether ill-informed in other matters 1 . The only 
 authority for ' dene nati 'is ' de legitimo matrimonio nati,' 
 a common provision in College Statutes ! The words ' bene 
 vestiti ' are not found at all, but seem to be taken from 
 the Statute that the Fellows should dress as becomes the 
 
 i Lord Campbell, writing of All Souls even as late as 1846, makes 
 the following remark : ' By the Statutes of this College those to be 
 elected Fellows are required to be " bene nati, bene vestiti, et medio- 
 criter docti," but in modern times the Fellows have often been dis- 
 tinguished for their learning as well as their social qualities.' 
 Lives of the Lord Chancellors, vol. iv. p. 650. 
 
 e
 
 418 CONCLUSION. [CHAP. 
 
 Clerical Order, ' sicut eorum honestati convenit clerical^ and 
 that when in Oxford or its suburbs they should wear the 
 customary Academical dress. The ' mediocriter docfi,' which 
 was the unkindest cut of all, as conveying the idea of an 
 unlearned body of Fellows, was simply obtained by leaving 
 out the remainder of the original sentence, and even for the 
 words themselves there is no authority. The expression is 
 ' grammatica svfficienter, et in piano cantu competenler eruditi* \ 
 
 Whether the prevalence of this witticism did really exercise 
 in any degree the influence of the old proverb, and the 
 College, seeing it had obtained a bad name in this respect, 
 grew to be careless as to examinations during the last half 
 of the last century and beginning of the present, can only 
 be matter of conjecture ; but, certainly, several years be- 
 fore the Commission of 1852, many men of literary merit 
 or promise were elected, and the writer has been informed 
 on the best living authority that no instance is known of 
 any candidate being rejected who had obtained a First Class 
 in the Public Examinations of the University. 
 
 It was at least something that good order and tranquillity 
 were obtained. As far as can be gathered from the College 
 records or contemporary literature, the influence of the College 
 ' Mohocks ' of Gardiner's time seems to have died out soon 
 after his death. When political excitement had subsided and 
 the game of baiting the Warden was played out, when Non- 
 residence had become less difficult, and the men who had 
 kept up the agitation were dead, the better influences of the 
 College began to prevail. Hearne remarks in 1726 of one of 
 the Fellows, Sedgwick Harrison, Camden Professor of Ancient 
 History, a great opponent of Gardiner's, and a follower of 
 TindaFs, that his ' interest is wholly sunk in the College, as 
 well as in most other places 1 .' We hear of no disturbances, no 
 appeals (other than those as to Founder's Kin above-mentioned), 
 no interferences of any kind. In 1 740 and 1 744 respectively, 
 1 Diary, 114. 20.
 
 xxii.] THE MODERN WARDENS. 419 
 
 the two great friends, Buckler and Blackstone, appeared on 
 the scene, and gave an excellent tone to the College. The 
 former was, in his own way, one of the most useful of its 
 members. The harsh discords of the earlier portion of 
 the century were completely overpowered. Perhaps it was 
 discovered that the ' factions ' of past times were not alto- 
 gether 'gentlemanlike.' 
 
 The Wardens who succeeded Gardiner were eminently cal- 
 culated to preserve the College in a state of tranquillity. 
 Warden Niblett was the first. In accordance with the then ex- 
 isting requirements of the Statutes two names were presented 
 by the College to the Visitor, one of whom he was bound to 
 select. Custom had almost confined that selection to the 
 candidate whom the College really preferred, the other being 
 merely sent up pro forma. The Hon. Dr. Bertie was the 
 selection of the Fellows, but Wake appointed Niblett on the 
 ground, it is said, that his competitor, being a man of family, 
 was sure to obtain preferment, while Niblett was destitute of 
 a patron. We may believe that Wake had some better reason 
 than this ; it may have been that Bertie was already Sedleian 
 Professor of Natural Philosophy ; perhaps some may have 
 suspected a worse one, some political bias; at any rate the 
 result justified his selection, for Warden Niblett governed 
 the College successfully for forty years. His successors, Lord 
 Tracy, Dr. Isham, the Hon. Edward Leg'ge, who held the 
 Bishopric of Oxford along with his office, and Warden Sneyd, 
 faithfully followed in his footsteps. 
 
 Once indeed, in 1763, we hear of a complaint against a 
 Fellow by the Proctor of that year for harbouring some 
 fugitives from his jurisdiction 1 , and this complaint having 
 found its way into print, has formed a precedent in Proctorial 
 law ; but it is not of the slightest historical importance. In 
 that year Brownlow North entered the College, the future 
 Bishop of Winchester, and in the next the Hon. Dr. Wenman, 
 
 1 Ashmole Tracts, G. 2253. 
 E e a
 
 420 CONCL USTON. [CHAP. 
 
 Regius Professor of Civil Law and Keeper of the Archives, 
 who makes the eighth Professor of Civil Law from All Souls 
 out of the first fifteen on the University rolls ; and not 
 long afterwards Vernon, afterwards Vernon Harcourt, the 
 future Archbishop of York. In 1799 Sir Charles Vaughan 
 was admitted, the future Minister Plenipotentiary to the 
 United States ; and in 1 802 an ornament to the College, 
 who has left quite lately, even in extreme old age, a sen- 
 sible gap in the public life of the nation, the Right Honour- 
 able Stephen Lushington. Two names of this period may be 
 mentioned together with peculiar reverence, as they bore forth 
 from All Souls the high cultivation for which it was dis- 
 tinguished to the farthest borders of the earth as Missionary 
 Bishops, the Hon. Charles James Stewart and Reginald Heber. 
 The first was admitted in 1795, and became Bishop of Quebec 
 in 1826; the last in 1804, becoming Bishop of Calcutta in 
 1823. 
 
 Heber, the delight of his generation, will always take rank 
 among the best Worthies of All Souls. His brilliant career 
 is too recent, his excellent Life, by his widow, too well 
 known, his memory even yet too fresh among living men, 
 to make this the place for any detailed mention of him. 
 All that need be quoted here from his Life is the passage 
 in which he speaks of All Souls. He at least did not 
 find its atmosphere unfavourable to the highest pursuits. In 
 1806 he writes : 
 
 ' With regard to my studies I am now post varios casus set 
 down to them again in good earnest, and I am delightfully 
 situated in All Souls ; the very air of the place breathes study. 
 While I write I am enjoying the luxuries of a bright coal 
 fire, a green desk, and a tea-kettle bubbling. What should 
 we have thought of such a situation at Tcherkask or at 
 Taganrog ? I have just had a long conversation with Bishop 
 Cleaver about Orders and the course of study and preparation 
 of mind necessary for them V 
 
 1 Life, i. 324.
 
 xxii.] THE TWO MISSIONARY BISHOPS. 421 
 
 As a witness from Brasenose of the festivities of the College 
 at the centenary Mallard Feast we shall summon him in the 
 Appendix. Traditions of his genial disposition and fund of 
 elegant and playful humour are still handed down from his 
 contemporaries. In him they were compatible with the 
 earnestness of a martyr and the enthusiasm of the scholar. 
 His excellent edition of Jeremy Taylor was dedicated to 
 Bishop Legge, his Warden, with ' the sincerest wishes for 
 the prosperity of the College of Linacre, of Sheldon, of Cod- 
 rington, of Wren, of Young, and of Jeremy Taylor.' 
 
 The fame of Bishop Stewart is of a different kind. He is 
 only known as one of the most devoted of missionaries who gave 
 up a life of comfort and elegance at home to labour in Canada. 
 With unexampled zeal and devotion he worked for many 
 years in the midst of a poor, scattered population, and then 
 gradually became the means of exciting the lagging interest 
 of England in the work of effectually planting the Church 
 throughout that great colony. In 1826 he was consecrated 
 Bishop of Quebec. He spent his life and whole fortune in 
 attempting to overtake the neglect of past years, to work, in 
 concert with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 
 for the evangelization of the crowds of emigrants who poured 
 forth from England at that date. In some phases of his 
 work he seems to have fulfilled Codrington's idea of a visiting 
 missionary, reporting home the results of his inspection, and 
 pushing the work of the Church on a careful, well-conceived 
 system. He died, quite worn out with his labours, in 1837. 
 Few have left behind a more grateful memory, as several 
 memoirs of him testify. It is unfortunate that the only 
 picture the College possesses of so good a man is an un- 
 finished portrait. It is more happy in the possession of 
 Heber's well-known picture, which is an excellent likeness, 
 and of Chantrey's bust of that admirable man. 
 
 One more link which connects All Souls with the literary 
 world at this period must conclude our list. Gutch, the anti-
 
 422 CONCLUSION. [CHAP. 
 
 quarian, was Chaplain to the College during a prolonged life, 
 and made excellent use of his opportunities both in that 
 capacity and as Registrar of the University. His edition of 
 Wood is a monument of his industry, and his Collectanea 
 Curiosa has done good service for the history of All Souls as 
 well as for other fields of literature. Like Tanner, and, in his 
 degree, Proast, he has added lustre to an honourable office. 
 
 It may be in connection with some of the names we have 
 mentioned, or it may not, but an interesting fact is ob- 
 servable from an inspection of the College books at the 
 beginning of the present century. From that date the 
 College gifts and charities begin to flow in a most remarkable 
 manner, considering the resources of the institution. Not 
 a call seems to have been disregarded. ^ J 2OO are granted 
 to equip the Oxford Volunteers, ^50 for relief of French 
 prisoners, j^ioo for the National Society, J^oo for the 
 Oxford Lunatic Asylum, large sums for the building and 
 restoring of Oxford churches, for the families of the heroes 
 slain at Waterloo, for ' distressed Irish,' 'distressed manu- 
 facturers,' ' promotion of study of mathematics in the Uni- 
 versity, 1 and larger gifts still to the great Church Societies 
 at later dates. 
 
 But to say even as much as this is to draw somewhat 
 near our own times ! It reminds us that the task is completed ! 
 It is agreeable to leave off with a record of the generous 
 habits of the College in generations not very remote. They 
 are in full accordance with all else that is known of the 
 College in those times, and with the official remark of 
 Sir John Taylor Coleridge and his colleagues the Assessors 
 in 1 86 1 to the Visitor on an Appeal, who notices 'the 
 harmony for which this distinguished College has been 
 remarkable.' That upright Judge is not the man to use 
 words without a meaning. 
 
 The connection of the College with the Public Service 
 and the Bar has been retained to our own days very much
 
 xxn.] SUMMARY OF COLLEGE HISTORY. 423 
 
 in the same degree as in previous times, while the clerical 
 element has somewhat diminished. Quite recently All Souls 
 afforded at the same moment to the University a Chancellor 
 and a Vice-Chancellor ; while if one of the two University 
 Burgesses had not been obliged to relinquish his post from 
 ill-health just before that date, the College would have had 
 the unprecedented honour of contributing three of the chief 
 public officers to whom the interests of the University are 
 consigned. That burgess, the Bight Honourable Sir 
 William Heathcote, was the last of the long list of 
 Members of Parliament for the University who had been 
 Fellows of All Souls, and certainly not the least respected and 
 beloved. With the exception of Christ Church, no other Col- 
 lege has contributed so many in the course of its history. 
 
 This sketch of the Worthies of All Souls cannot end with 
 a better name than Sir William Heathcote's, of whom to 
 say more, while he is still alive, would be in bad taste. If it 
 is thought that the list here produced should have been 
 still longer, if success has not ^ always been commensurate 
 with the costliness of the machinery, let us not commit 
 the folly of expecting any human invention to be perfect. 
 
 No doubt, as the College through most of its existence 
 has not professed to be an educational institution for Under- 
 graduates, it will be judged by the men it has enrolled 
 on its lists, and cannot complain of criticism on this head. 
 At the same time it is fair to remember that every one 
 cannot be distinguished ; and that eminent persons in a 
 community are to be taken as in some sort typical of the 
 rest, unless, indeed, they appear only very occasionally, and 
 as it were accidentally, among their contemporaries. Run- 
 ning down our narrative and judging by this test, we have 
 seen All Souls doing as good or better work than other 
 Colleges during its early days, marching in the van of 
 the Renaissance, and rising with the Reformation to the 
 new wants of the age. We have seen it suffering under
 
 424 CONCLUSION. 
 
 king's and nobles as well as under its own corruptions, but 
 gradually emerging 1 , after many a struggle, from those depths. 
 Meanwhile we watched it as second to none in the Laudian 
 revival, and under the banners of Charles the First ; then 
 anon the centre of the nascent Royal Society, the chief 
 Oxford home of music, the nursery of the legal studies 
 of its age, and no unworthy partner in the leadership of 
 the literary race ushered in by the Revolution and ending 
 with the reign of Queen Anne. It shares the general 
 somnolence arid exhaustion of the succeeding age, which 
 oppressed it at the very time when its modern position had 
 just been definitely established, and when life and vigour 
 were most needed. We have suggested that its good in- 
 fluences may even then have been underrated, and noticed 
 some indications of an increased vitality corresponding to 
 that which the nation itself experienced in the present 
 century. This has been happily quickened at least in one 
 direction by the hand of authority in 1853. 
 
 Let us not make too much of what has been done, neither 
 too little. The best machinery will sometimes run down, 
 and require winding up or repair. If it is thought that 
 sufficient time has been given for the last reform to de- 
 velop itself, and that further measures are required, these 
 pages may well conclude with the expression of an earnest 
 hope that such measures of reform may not be unworthy 
 of the past history of the College, not such as its great 
 Founder would disapprove if he were still here to adapt his 
 institution to modern wants, not such as to be inconsistent 
 with old Sir Anthony Sherley's notion of the ' endes for which 
 men are brought forth uppon the earth, the principallest 
 of which is the glory of GOD, and then to better the 
 world 1 '! 
 
 1 p. 100.
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 (PP- 33 8 ~345)- 
 
 CODRINGTON'S bequest reached the Society for the Propa- 
 gation of the Gospel at the right moment. In 1710 they 
 were casting about for some means of training missionaries 
 for the Colonies, and the Bishop of Man had proposed a 
 plan for ' breeding up young persons ' for this purpose in 
 his own island ; but the expense deterred the Society. Just 
 at this moment the death of their benefactor occurred ; and 
 the very thing they wanted was found to be provided for 
 in his Will. It was the first donation of importance they 
 had received, and absolutely the first in land ; great were 
 the rejoicings of the ' wise and good men ' who directed 
 their affairs. 
 
 But the difficulties, as might be supposed, in utilising 
 the bequest were also great. The negro slaves were an 
 essential part of the gift ; but what was to be done with 
 them ? No time was lost by the Society in sending out 
 orders that ' their slaves should be used with greater huma- 
 nity and tenderness than is commonly practised by planters 1 ;' 
 and a Catechist goes forth at once for their instruction. ' If 
 all the slaves in America/ said Bishop Fleetwood, ' were to 
 continue infidels for ever, yet ours alone must needs be 
 Christians.' Disputes arose also on the part of Codrington's 
 heir, and in consequence of the unwise conduct of the agents 
 
 1 Journal of S. P. G., Feb. 16, 171$.
 
 426 APPENDIX I. 
 
 of the S. P. G. l ; and the colonists were suspicious into the 
 bargain. On the other hand, Queen Anne helped the Society 
 to the utmost ; she gave them a ' Royal licence for the 
 foundation/ and the services of Her Majesty's ships were 
 actively rendered in felling and transporting timber from 
 the adjacent islands for building the College 2 . The Crown 
 in those days threw in its lot with a great scheme of 
 missionary enterprise ! 
 
 By 1714 the Society is able to state that a 'perpetual 
 seminary is erecting on those estates which General Cod- 
 rington like Araunah, as a king, gave to the Society for the 
 sake of the King his master, and of God, the King of Kings.' 
 A scheme of Professors and Teachers of the future College 
 was drawn out in 1717. The inhabitants of the Islands were 
 to form a native Ministry. The income of the Headship 
 of the College was to form part of the provision for one 
 of two West Indian Bishoprics, and two more Bishoprics 
 were to be formed for the American Continent. To effect 
 this arrangement as to Bishops, a Petition was drawn up 
 to George the First; but the effects of the Queen's death 
 were now apparent enough; no attention could be obtained 
 for such a request at the new Court. 
 
 If the effort could but have been made three years earlier, 
 how different might have been the course of events both in 
 East and West ! Could Bishops have been planted along 
 with the rise of the American Colonies the people of that 
 Continent, organised ecclesiastically as in England, might 
 have grown up too much in union with the mother country 
 to have desired separation, even after abundant provocation 
 from home ; and, if separation came, it might have been of 
 a very different kind from that which took place. But as 
 we cannot know all, such speculations are useless. It remains 
 that the Society in their proposed application of Codrington's 
 bequest were just a century in advance of their age ! 
 
 1 Wake MSS., Ch. Ch. Lib., vol. xv. 2 Ibid.
 
 CODRINGTON COLLEGE. 427 
 
 Checked and chilled by the growing coldness of the 
 nation in religious matters, and opposed in many directions, 
 it was not till 1742 that the Society had 'the long-wished- 
 for satisfaction to acquaint the public that they have actually 
 begun to settle the College in Barbados/ The Chapel was 
 now opened, and a considerable work was done in the 
 education of West Indian boys, many of whom became the 
 clergy of the Islands, and a good example was set in the 
 care of the little Christian colony of negroes. But hurri- 
 canes on two different occasions almost destroyed the original 
 building ; and various misfortunes prevented the establish- 
 ment of a Training College for Missionaries, till our own 
 day. 
 
 At length a movement took place. Just as Codrington's 
 age witnessed a reaction from the carelessness of the pre- 
 ceding period, a reaction which showed itself in an 
 awakened zeal for the welfare of the West Indian colonists 
 and heathen, so the movement of our own century, suc- 
 ceeding an equally unsatisfactory period, found almost its 
 earliest expression in the revival of religious activity in 
 the West Indies. It was mainly due to the genius and 
 energy of Bishop Coleridge. Under his fostering care, and 
 that of Bishop Parry, and under the guidance of Principals 
 Pinder and Rawle, the Training College of Christopher Cod- 
 rington was at last instituted. The College assumed, as 
 he and they desired, something of ' the character of a Univer- 
 sity/ After 1830 it gradually began to attain the position of 
 the Alma Mater of the West India Clergy ; more than ninety 
 of whom were trained there between that date and 1851. 
 Not long ago the Christian world was astonished by the 
 vigour with which an independent mission was planted 
 from Codrington College on the West Coast of Africa. 
 The story of the Pongas forms one of the romances of 
 missionary chivalry. The school for boys is also flourishing, 
 though no longer the one object of the institution.
 
 428 APPENDIX I. 
 
 Even this brief sketch cannot be concluded without calling 
 attention once more to the remarkable sagacity of the 
 Founder of Codrington College. Success attends the in- 
 stitution as soon as it is worked in the form, or nearly in 
 the form 1 , which he contemplated from the first. The ex- 
 perience of a whole century in using his bequest only for a 
 school of boys, which he did not contemplate, since by itself 
 it would never be made successful, justifies on the other 
 side the foresight with which he acted. If the age which 
 succeeded that of Queen Anne, by failing to take up the work 
 committed to it, has much to answer for, it at least proved 
 that the previous period produced a man capable of laying 
 great foundations for the future. 
 
 1 See p. 339.
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 As nothing has been admitted into the preceding pages 
 which is not either historical or already public, Murray's 
 ' Handbook for Oxford ' must be taken as an authority that 
 the ceremony of singing the ancient song of ' the Mallard ' 
 at the All Souls Gaudy had not yet died out when the last 
 edition was printed. The local guide-books also mention the 
 custom ; and thus a few words on its origin seem necessary. 
 
 The reader will have observed a notice of it as far back 
 as 1632. Nearly two centuries and a half ago Archbishop 
 Abbot reproves the College for an outrageous riot ' under 
 pretence of a foolish Mallard.' This is the first mention we 
 have of it. Fifty years later Finch, the future Warden, 
 was an enthusiastic actor in a debauch to which the cere- 
 mony led. Thus far history. Tradition refers it to the 
 foundation of the College, to the story of an overgrown 
 Mallard being found in a drain when the foundations were 
 laid. There is of course no reason why a ceremony of 
 which we only first hear by an accidental letter in the early 
 part of the seventeenth century may not date from a much 
 earlier period. But be this as it may, the actual ' Song of the 
 Mallard ' does not seem to be of any greater antiquity than 
 the historical notices above mentioned. This may be gathered 
 partly from internal and partly from external evidence.
 
 430 APPENDIX II. 
 
 In the Tanner MSS. 1 will be found the old copy of the song 
 which follows, from which have been omitted in this place two 
 verses, sung no doubt in early times, but not found in modern 
 copies. The important point is that at the back of the copy 
 is a note in Anthony Wood's hand, execrably written, but 
 doubtless his, and found among his papers by Tanner, his 
 executor. As Tanner enters the copy of the song in his 
 book with this note, and makes no comment of his own, 
 though he, as a Fellow of the College, must have frequently 
 assisted at the ceremony, and would be sure to have an 
 opinion as to the antiquity of it, he may reasonably be held 
 to endorse what follows. It may be added that Dr. Buckler, 
 in his coarse but humorous ' Vindication of the Mallard,' 
 reproachfully refers to Tanner as one who might have thrown 
 light on the subject, but omitted to do so. ' He was fre- 
 quently heard to express great veneration for the Mallard.' 
 He amusingly makes it a touchstone of orthodoxy. ' The 
 first marks of infidelity which shewed themselves in the 
 famous Dr. Tindal were his speaking disrespectfully of the 
 Mallard.' 
 
 THE MALLAKD SONG. 
 
 ' The Griffin, Bustard, Turkey and Capon 
 Lett other hungry mortals gape on, 
 And on their bones with stomach fall hard, 
 But lett All Souls men have their Mallard. 
 
 The Romans once admired a gander 
 More than they did their best Comander, 
 Because bee saved, if some don't fooll us, 
 The place named from the scull of Tolus. 
 
 The poets faind Jove turnd a Swan, 
 But lett them prove it if they can ; 
 To mak't appeare it's not att all hard, 
 Hee was a swapping, swapping Mallard. 
 
 1 Vol. 306. fol. 378.
 
 THE ALL SOULS MALLARD. 431 
 
 Then lett us drink and dance a Galliard 
 In the rememhrance of the Mallard, 
 And as the Mallard doth in poole 
 Lett's dabble, dive, and duck in bowle. 
 
 The refrain is absent from this copy, but in all others 
 which are known the following words occur at the end of 
 each verse : 
 
 '0 by the blood of King Edward, 
 
 O by the blood of King Edward, 
 
 It was a swapping, swapping Mallard ! ' 
 
 The third line of the third verse was also much improved 
 quite a century and a half ago, as follows : 
 
 ' As for our proof it's not at all hard.' 
 
 Wood's note is as follows : 
 
 ' 14 Jan. at night, used formerly to be called All Souls 
 Mallard night, that is, I suppose, no other than the Feast 
 night. For that day those candidates they had chosen on 
 All Souls day going before were admitted, and that day or 
 soon after the Probationers for the year before going were 
 admitted Fellows. Those that were thus to be admitted 
 Fellows were brought from their chambers in the middle of 
 the night (having neither gown or band on) sometimes on 
 a bent staff, and so led in the Hall and about the College, 
 before whom some of the Junior Fellows (sometimes dis- 
 guised) would sing a song in praise of the Mallard. This 
 following I take to be made much about the restauration 
 of Ch. 2.' 
 
 The handwriting and spelling of the song is doubtless 
 about the period assigned to it by Wood in this note, though 
 the note itself was written later. It will be seen l that 
 among the dishes served up in the College Hall in 1618 
 two of those considered worthy of a Feast were Capon and 
 Bustard, dishes which find a place, along with the fabulous 
 
 1 P- 154-
 
 432 APPENDIX II. 
 
 Griffin, in the first line of the song ; but the Bustard did 
 not disappear from table till later than this, so that it does 
 not afford us much clue. The structure of the song- would 
 certainly suggest a date quite as early as the ' Restau ration,' 
 if not as early as the jovial days of Elizabeth or James the 
 First. 
 
 But though the existing song may not be older than the 
 historical notice of the ceremony, it is quite possible that 
 there was ' a song in praise of the Mallard ' much, earlier ; 
 and it is possible that the custom of singing ' canti- 
 lena?,' which the Statutes, as we have seen, encouraged on 
 Feast Days, and which, after the Reformation, doubtless 
 fell into disuse in their ancient form, may have led the way 
 for a modernised drinking-song in honour of an ancient 
 tradition. 
 
 The most mysterious part of the song points to antiquity. 
 How came ' the blood of King Edward ' to be introduced 
 into its refrain ? No one has yet ventured to interpret 
 this mock-solemn oath. Pointer, in the first draught of his 
 Oxoniensis Academia (now in the Bodleian Library), wrote 
 ' Edward IV, who refounded the College,' against the word ; 
 but he subsequently erased it. It is just possible that King 
 might be intended. His name comes down to us in popular 
 ballads, but it is scarcely likely that the King who deposed 
 and perhaps murdered the Co-founder and godson of the 
 Founder, and the Founder was always held in the highest 
 reverence by the College, should be thus noticed only because 
 he restored, in return for a sum of money, what he had unjustly 
 seized. The murder of his son, Edward the Fifth, might 
 seem to afford a more likely clue, and the Lancastrian College 
 might recognise in this manner the retribution which had at 
 last overtaken the enemies of their Founder's dynasty. But 
 this seems almost too ingenious. Either Henry the Sixth 
 or Edward the Confessor might well have been introduced as 
 a popular King or Saint, but it is neither ' Saint Edward '
 
 THE ALL SOULS MALLARD. 433 
 
 nor ' King Henry.' Edward the Sixth was the last person 
 likely to be intended. We can see no particular reason for 
 Edward the Second or Edward the Third, except that the 
 former was, like Edward the Eifth, murdered ; but why 
 should the College commemorate him ? We come, by a 
 process of exhaustion, to Edward the First, whose exploits 
 and death form the subject of several historical ' eantilenae,' 
 one of which is given by Warton in his History of Poetry. 
 The 'good King Edward' was to Englishmen of the fourteenth 
 and fifteenth centuries the embodiment of all that was kingly, 
 knightly, noble, and national. Scotch historians had not 
 as yet blasted his fame, nor Humes and Hallams echoed 
 their slanders. His name, introduced into some early form 
 of the song, when it may well have been the natural one 
 in the common oaths and asseverations of the day, may 
 have been perpetuated in the modern form without any one 
 exactly knowing why. 
 
 However, this can be only conjecture. No such oath is 
 found on record in medieval times, and there may be no real 
 foundation for any very great antiquity in the song. 
 
 Hearne also gives a copy of the song, slightly modernised, 
 and the refrain differing from the usual form by the omission 
 of the form of an oath : ' O the bloude of King Edward.' 
 This much distressed the antiquarian. He remarks in a note : 
 ' It should be " O' by the Bloude, &c." 'Twas changed 
 by the ffanaticks in the late Rebellion, who forsooth were 
 enemies to oaths 1 .' But tempting as the subject must have 
 been to Hearne, he makes no attempt at solving any of 
 the problems connected with the ceremony. 
 
 It is more to our purpose to remark that the ancient 
 tradition about the discovery of the Mallard is thought to 
 be so far borne out by the nature of the ceremony at an 
 early date, that it consisted of a pretended search for the 
 
 1 Rawlinson MSS. C. 876. 59. 
 v f
 
 434 APPENDIX II. 
 
 creature in different parts of the College, even on the leads, 
 by a torch-bearing procession, headed by an elected ' Lord 
 Mallard,' and six officers appointed by him ' with white 
 staves in their hands and medals banging upon their 
 breasts, tied with large blue ribband. Upon the medals is 
 cut on the one side the Lord Mallard with his officers, 
 and on the other the Mallard as he is carried upon a long 
 pole.' The Senior Fellows had to pay a crown by way of 
 forfeiture for not assisting at the ceremony, and the orgies 
 lasted ' till daybreak.' This is from ' an ancient MS.,' which 
 describes the orgies with great minuteness, and will be 
 found in Alderman Fletcher's handwriting in that anti- 
 quarian's illustrated copy of Gutch's Wood, in the Bod- 
 leian. So gross an abuse of what may have been an 
 innocent old ceremony smacks strongly of the Stuart period. 
 It probably, like ' corrupt resignations/ defied the hand of 
 Visitors and Wardens till the improvement of manners 
 reduced it to the mere ceremonious singing of the song, 
 by way of not parting altogether with antiquity, at the 
 Gaudy on All Souls' Day. 
 
 The question of the day on which the ceremony took place 
 is itself a curious one. Wood, it will be observed, speaks 
 of January 14, and gives a good reason for the selection, 
 but the 'ancient MS.' says 'the time is always within a night 
 or two of All Souls/ Hearne, on the other hand, agrees 
 with Wood. Writing on January 1 8, 1722, he says: 
 
 ' Last Monday the I4th inst. (the T4th being always the 
 day) was All Souls College Mallard, at which time 'tis usual 
 with the Fellows and their friends to have a supper and to sit 
 up all night drinking and singing. Their song is the Mallard, 
 and formerly they used to ramble about the College with sticks 
 and poles, &c., in quest of the Mallard, and they had a Lord of 
 the Mallard, but this hath been left off many years. They 
 tell you the custom arose from a swinging old Mallard that 
 had been lost at the foundation of the College and found many 
 years after in the sink V 
 
 1 Diary, 95. 98.
 
 THE ALL SOULS MALLARD. 435 
 
 Elsewhere he describes the legend thus : 
 
 f The Mallard was found in the sink when the workmen 
 were repairing- it. It had continued there for several years, I 
 think almost from the first foundation of the College for about 
 2O years current or more V 
 
 Bishop Heber, who was soon afterwards to become a Fellow 
 of All Souls, and so to assist at subsequent Gaudies, witnessed 
 the following scene in his second term of residence at Brase- 
 uose, and thus graphically describes it : 
 
 'Oxford, Jan. 15, 1801. 
 
 I write under the bondage of a very severe cold which I 
 caught by getting out of bed at four in the morning to see 
 the celebration of the famous All Souls mallard feast. All 
 Souls is on the opposite side of Ratcliffe Square to Brazen 
 Nose, so that their battlements are in some degree commanded 
 by my garret. I had thus a full view of the Lord Mallard and 
 about forty fellows in a kind of procession on the' library roof, 
 with immense lighted torches, which had a singular effect. I 
 know not if their orgies were overlooked by any uninitiated 
 eyes except my own ; but I am sure that all who had the gift 
 of hearing within half a mile, must have been awakened by 
 the manner in which they thundered their chorus, " O, by the 
 blood of King Edward." I know not whether you have any 
 similar strange customs in Cambridge, so that perhaps such 
 ceremonies as the All Souls' mallard, the Queen's boar's head, 
 &c. will strike you as more absurd than they do an Oxford 
 man; but I own I am of opinion that these remnants of 
 Gothicism tend very much to keep us in a sound consistent 
 track ; and that one cause of the declension of the foreign 
 universities was their compliance in such points as these with 
 the variation of manners V 
 
 The tradition of the College is that the elaborate ceremonial 
 Heber witnessed in 1801, and which Hearne reports in 1722 
 as having been 'formerly used/ has, in modern times, only 
 taken place once in the first year of each century. Thus 
 January 14, 1801, would be the proper day according to the 
 old style; and the totally independent authority of Wood, 
 
 1 Rawlinson MSB. C. 876. 59. 
 
 2 Life of Heber, by his Widow, p. 25. 
 
 F f 2
 
 436 APPENDIX TI. 
 
 Hearne, and Heber, to which Tanner by silence gives con- 
 sent, must be taken as superior to that of the anonymous 
 'ancient MS.' of Alderman Fletcher. The medal struck upon 
 the occasion of the ceremonial in 1801 exactly answers to the 
 description given above. The Lord Mallard and his six officers 
 are represented in gowns and full-bottomed wigs, with staves 
 in their hands ; while on the obverse is seen the Mallard- 
 bearer with a staff, on the flat head of which the Mallard 
 stands in pomp. Why the beginning of a century should 
 be the year chosen to commemorate an event supposed to 
 have taken place when the College was founded in 1437, 
 has never yet been explained. 
 
 Indeed there are so many mysteries about this Mallard 
 that, even at the risk of being classed by some future Buckler 
 with Matthew Tindal, the writer of these pages cannot 
 forbear to offer a rationalistic interpretation of his own, 
 or rather a joint one of his own and a learned officer of 
 the Bodleian, both being simultaneously struck with the 
 idea. There is an impression of a seal given in the said 
 Alderman Fletcher's copy of Anthony Wood which was 
 the cause of the temptation. This seal represents a griffin, 
 a creature with four legs, outstretched wings, a long curly tail, 
 and vulture-beak, half-beast, half-bird. The legend is this : 
 S. Guil. Malardi clici or (when expanded), Sigillum Guil- 
 lielmi Malardi Clerici. The character of the letters is of the 
 thirteenth century. Underneath this seal Alderman Fletcher 
 has written : ( Impression of a seal found by some workmen 
 in digging a drain on the site of All Souls College east- 
 ward of the Warden's lodgings.' There is no hint that 
 it could be supposed to have anything to do with the 
 legendary Mallard ; nor perhaps has it. But in the entire 
 absence of all authority for the discovery of a Mallard in 
 a drain when the College was founded, may we not imagine 
 it possible that this seal, found in a drain, of a certain 
 Malard, clerk, with a nondescript animal for a device, may
 
 THE ALL SOULS MALLARD. 437 
 
 have prompted some wit of the College to invent a real 
 Mallard found in a drain, and make a song upon it in 
 which a griffin is the first word? The antiquity of the 
 letters may have suggested the name of Edward the First, 
 the great king of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, as 
 said above. Thus we could account for our hearing nothing 
 of the legend till the seventeenth century a somewhat sus- 
 picious fact in itself. In the beginning of that, or end of the 
 preceding age, Warden Hoveden was digging about plentifully, 
 ' eastward of the Warden's lodgings.' The structure of the 
 song would fit in with that late Elizabethan or Jacobean 
 period. 
 
 At any rate, if any one can give a better guess let him 
 try his hand !
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Abbas (Shab of Persia), p. 102, 103. 
 Abendon (William of), 2. 
 Abingdon (Earls of), 284, 297, 298, 380. 
 Adam de Broine (co-Founder of Oriel), 
 
 9. 27- 
 Addison (the poet), 327, 336, 344, 345, 
 
 348. 
 
 Agincourt (Battle of), 2, 34, 316. 
 Aldrich (Dean of Ch. Ch.), 323, 344, 
 
 385- 
 
 Alien Priories, 14, 23, 33. 
 
 All Souls College, founded, i, 8. 9, 10; 
 idea and objects of the Foundation, 
 9 ; Charter, 9, 15, 24, 28 ; Jurists at, 
 (see 'Lawyers'); Title of, 10 ; a 
 peculiar and distinct Foundation, 10, 
 411, 423; Statutes of, I, 12, 23, 
 45, 46, 68, 73, 106, 109, 128, 132, 135, 
 144, 146, 148, 171, 187, 242, 243, 
 259, 269, 270, 278, 280, 290, 300, 
 312, 351, 352, 354, 355, 359, 360, 
 383, 407, 417 ; light thrown by its 
 foundation on Chichele's career and 
 character, 15-23 ; Chapel, 15, 30, 
 68, 69, 151, 152, 153, 234, 235, 236, 
 364, 365 ; Reredos in Chapel, 32, 89, 
 150, 234; 'Altar or Lord's Table," 
 ?2, 89, 150; monks and friars excluded 
 from, 23, 57, 58; Computus, 26 ; cost 
 of foundation, 27; King made co- 
 Founder of, 27 ; first Fellows of, 29 ; 
 first Warden of, 30 ; Charter of Privi- 
 leges, 31 ; a place of pilgrimage, 31 ; 
 ' pardoned ' by Edward IV, 33 ; 
 robbed by Archbishops, 34 ; a me- 
 morial of Agincourt, 34 ; petitions 
 Henry VII, 35 ; refuses loan to 
 Henry VII, 36 ; royal attempts on 
 Fellowships of, 37 ; letter from Prince 
 Arthur to, 38 ; Archives, 38, 53, 
 94 ; confratres and consorores, e.g. 
 Nuns of Syon, 42; condition of 
 Fellows in, and management of Col- 
 lege property, 44, 45, 46 ; old Library, 
 47 ; distinguished men at Renaissance, 
 48-53 ; Livings not to be held with 
 
 All Souls College : 
 
 Fellowships, 54 ; rapid succession to 
 Fellowships, and to office of Warden, 
 55 ; why spared at Reformation, 56- 
 58 ; renounces Papal Supremacy, 59, 
 60; the five chief Wardens, 61 ; 
 Cranmer's Visitation, 62; Corrupt 
 
 " v Elections at, 62, 83, 107, 130, 131, 
 132, 147, 209-213, Chaps, xiv, xv, 
 311, 3i4,-38i,407, 424 ; in the hands 
 of Edward VI's Commissioners, 68- 
 73 ; organs and organist, 69, 70, 71 ; 
 bells, 71 ; dress of Fellows, 63, 71, 
 109, 148, 417; improvements under 
 Warner, 82 ; struggle on 'monu- 
 ments of superstition,' 83-88 ; settle- 
 ment by Queen Elizabeth, Parker, 
 and Hoveden, 83-96; great men at, 
 96-104; increasing luxury at, 109; 
 Whitgift's Visitation at, 108-110; 
 surplus income, its history, 110-114 '> 
 Poor Scholars at, 115, 116, 159; the 
 Warden's Veto, 108, 266, 354, 362, 
 378, 413; lawsuits, no, 274, 276, 
 279,282,382,383, 406-410; grammar- 
 schools, 115; close contact with Kings 
 and Primates in seventeenth century, 
 118; feasting at, 63, 108, 123, 155, 
 431-435; 'pretence of a mallard,' 
 1 26 ; relations of, with James I and 
 Abbot, 126-139; school of Laud 
 triumphant in, 141, 142 ; under Shel- 
 don, 142-255 ; the four Chaplains 
 to Charles I at, 119, 178 ; the 'Age 
 of Iron' at, 155, 156 ; charities, 156, 
 1 66, 422; comparison with other 
 Colleges, 159, 160, 161 ; income of 
 College, 1 60, 414; income of Head- 
 ship, 160; insult to All Souls, 164; 
 Nixon's aid in the case, 164; plate 
 and money sent to Charles I, 165- 
 174; letters from Charles I, 165, 
 I 7> I 75! Treasury clean swept, 
 172; Custodes Jocalium, 172; the 
 Founder's Salt, 172; during the siege 
 of Oxford, 176, 177, 178; after the
 
 440 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 All Souls College : 
 
 surrender, 181-186; Sheldon's expul- 
 sion, 183-186; Cromwell at, 188; 
 'Submitters' among Fellows and 
 servants, 188-192 ; gloomy state of, 
 193 ; superior Fellows put in by 
 Visitors, 194, 195; Physical Science 
 flourishes at, 195: Royal Society 
 chiefly formed at, 196; RoyalistFellow 
 of, 201; struggle of, with Visitors, 20 1 - 
 213 ; reported to Cromwell, 210, 21 1, 
 212; allowed free elections, 207; 
 last Oxford trouble to Cromwell 
 from, 213; royalist mob at, 214; 
 at the Restoration, 217; Wren's 
 connection with, 229-236; a centre 
 of music, 237 ; suffers under Charles 
 II and Duke of Orrnond, 243, 244, 
 245 ; origin of preference for birth, 
 248 ; struggle of Fellows with San- 
 croft, Chaps, xiv and xv; examina- 
 tions for Fellowships, 267, 268 ; 
 effects of Bancroft's victory, 283 ; 
 boisterous loyalty of, 284 ; Finch 
 and the Wardenship, 289-292; the 
 Volunteers at, against Monmouth, 
 299, 300, 301 ; accepts James IPs 
 Mandate, 299 ; favours the Revo- 
 lution, 306 ; superior set of Fellows at, 
 314; Clarke's useful career at, 314- 
 318 ; Tanner's useful career at, 319- 
 322 ; Codrington's connection with, 
 326-337 ; miniature picture of nation, 
 348, 349 ; Gardiner's efforts to reform, 
 351-382 ; its lay character, and non- 
 residence at, 353, 354, 355, 356, 363, 
 412; Public Servants at, 315, 356, 
 357. 3 62 ' 363. 4 12 > 422, 423; Teni- 
 son's Visitation of, 361, 362 ; second 
 'restoration ' of Chapel, 363, 364, 365 ; 
 Hearne's hatred of, 248, 371, 372 ; 
 Wake's Visitation of, 377-382; ap- 
 peal against, re Founder's Kin, 382, 
 383 ; consecration of a Bishop at, 
 385; Codrington Library at, 388-391 ; 
 busts of College Worthies, 390 ; new 
 buildings at, 393-398 ; an arena for 
 religious controversy, 399, 400; 
 Blackstone's identification with, 400- 
 406 ; settlement of Founder's Kin 
 controversies, 407-410; idea of 
 modern College fixed in Anne's reign, 
 411-414; reform of Commissioners of 
 1852, 414, 415; stagnation in eight- 
 eenth century, 416-420; Missionary 
 Bishops from, 420, 421 ; review of 
 history, 423, 424. 
 
 Ambrose (St.), one of the ' four Latin 
 Fathers,' 32. 
 
 America, 99, 425. 
 
 Andre (Bernard), 39, 40. 
 
 Andrewes (Bp.), 121. 
 
 Annesley (Fellow of All Souls), 406. 
 
 Anstiss (Garter King of Arms), 406, 
 
 407, 408. 
 
 Antigua (Island of), 325, 332. 
 Archbishops of Canterbury : - 
 
 Abbot, follows Whitgift as to govern- 
 ment of All Souls, 107 ; in relation 
 to Surplus, 112; position as to 
 doctrine, 122 ; patron of Puritans, 
 125; general government of All 
 Souls, 127-134; high character, and 
 ill-treatment by Charles I, 137, 138; 
 fall of power led to rise of Laud, 141; 
 encourages College to buy livings, 
 112, 154; unpopular with junior 
 Fellows, 155 ; imposition of oath, 
 127-131, 261, 264 ; resistance to 
 James I, 137, 290; a persecuted 
 Primate, 304 ; connection with Song 
 of Mallard, 1 26, 429. 
 
 ^Elphege (St.), 304. 
 
 Anselm, a persecuted Primate, 304. 
 
 Augustine (St.), 18, 304. 
 
 Bancroft, repeals prohibition against 
 lawyers going to London for prac- 
 tice, 106 ; on the Surplus, in ; 
 school of, 1 20; sycophancy of, 
 121, 134; reforms in University 
 and All Souls, 123, 124, 125. 
 
 Becket, a persecuted Primate, 304. 
 
 Bowrchier, suspected of having taken 
 property from All Souls, 34. 
 
 Chichele, Founder of All Souls, I ; 
 University benefactor, 8 ; founds 
 St. Bernard's and Higham Ferrers, 
 8; his education, 12; career, 13, 
 14; policy as to French war, 15- 
 18 ; policy as to Papacy, 18-21 ; 
 Supporters to arms of, 22 ; sum- 
 mary of character, 22, 23; bust, 
 pictures, monument, 23; his archi- 
 tects, 31. 
 
 Cornu-allif, gives judgment on Foun- 
 der's Kin, 409. 
 
 Cranmer, his influence at All Souls, 
 58 ; his Visitation, 62-64; tenta- 
 tive reforms, 63 ; sends to College 
 for a Demy-Launce, 65 ; not one 
 of Edward VI's Commissioners, 68 ; 
 martyrdom, 76 ; a persecuted Pri- 
 mate, 304. 
 
 Grindal, his decisive action as to 
 lawyers at All Souls, 105, 106; a 
 persecuted Primate, 304. 
 
 Juxon, becomes Primate, and dies,
 
 INDEX. 
 
 441 
 
 Archbishops of Canterbury : 
 
 Kemp, takes precedence when Car- 
 dinal-Archbishop of York over 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, 21 ; sus- 
 pected of having taken property 
 from All Souls, 34. 
 
 Lanfranc, 304. 
 
 Langton, 304. 
 
 Laud, on the College Surplus, 112, 
 113; his school, 1 20; leader of 
 opposition to Abbot, 123; genesis 
 of Laudian polity, 120, 121, 122; 
 unpopularity with middle classes, 
 125 ; influence at All Souls and at 
 Court, 141, 142, 156; intrudes 
 Jeremy Taylor on All Souls, 143- 
 148; refi.rms at All Souls and of 
 the Church generally, 148, 149, 
 150, 151 ; Sheldon's opposition to, 
 147, 175; cropping of Prynne's 
 ears, 1 85 ; Birkhead reclaimed from 
 Rome by, 190; Duppa his chief 
 agent at Oxford, 223; sense in 
 which he signed the Articles, 253 ; 
 a persecuted Primate, 304. 
 
 Moore, confirms his predecessor's 
 judgment on Founder's Kin, 409. 
 
 Morton, noticed in Prince Arthur's 
 letter, 39. 
 
 Parker, resumes independence of 
 English Church, 21 ; settles the 
 Elizabethan Establishment, 78, 88, 
 90 ; struggle with All Souls on 
 'monuments of superstition,' 83- 
 88 ; Injunctions and letters to All 
 Souls, 83, 89, 90; his Chaplain 
 Warden of All Souls, 93 ; effort 
 to establish Scholars at All Souls, 
 n 6 ; his doctrines, 120; his great- 
 ness, 366. 
 
 Pole, donor to All Souls Library, 47 ; 
 pupil of Latymer, 50; commences 
 Papist reaction, 74; his Chaplain 
 Warden of All Souls, 75 ; his 
 official style, 76; gives Stanton 
 Harcourt to All Souls, 95 ; death, 77. 
 
 Rich, a persecuted Primate, 304. 
 
 Sancroft, success in abolishing cor- 
 rupt elections at All Souls, 83, 107, 
 130, 131, 132, 242; his struggle 
 with Fellows, 256-286; his modera- 
 tion, 283 ; an antiquarian, 257 ; 
 history of his MSS., 257, 258; in 
 relation to Warden Finch, 291- 
 302 ; at head of the Seven Bishops, 
 302 ; College letter to him in pri- 
 son, 302, 303 ; as a Nonjuror, 303; 
 a persecuted Primate, 304 ; in the 
 affair of Proast, 308 ; one effect of 
 
 Archbishops of Canterbury : 
 
 his reform, 318; his work stood 
 the test of time, 382 ; consecration 
 of a Bishop at All Souls, 385. 
 Sheldon, one of five chief Wardens of 
 All Souls, 6 1 ; settles question of 
 Surplus at All Souls, 113; share in 
 suppressing corrupt elections at 
 All Souls, 132, 240, 241, 242, 273; 
 as Fellow and Warden, 141-145; 
 resistance to Laud re Jeremy Tay- 
 lor, 147 ; attempt to restore College 
 Chapel, 152,153; influence supreme 
 at All Souls, 156; Clarendon on, 
 156, 157; politics identical with 
 those of Hyde and Falkland, 158 ; 
 chief adviser to Charles I, 162, 163, 
 178, 179, 181, 252 ; witness to 
 Charles I's Vow, 1 8 1 ; delegate after 
 the surrender of Oxford, 181 ; with 
 Charles I at Carisbrooke, 182 ; ex- 
 pelled from All Souls and im- 
 prisoned, 183-187; released from 
 prison, 196 ; life during Common- 
 wealth, 197-200; correspondence 
 with Jeremy Taylor, 198, 199, 200; 
 restored as Warden, 218, 219; im- 
 portance at Restoration, 219, 220 ; 
 use of Charles I's Vow, 221, 222 ; 
 as Bishop of London and Primate, 
 222; rebukes Charles II, 222; in 
 the plague, as patron of learning, as 
 Chancellor of Oxford University, 
 
 222, 223; munificence of, 223, 
 251 ; builds Sheldonian Theatre, 
 
 223, 227, 228, 229; as Visitor of 
 All Souls, 238-247; resists Charles 
 II, 241, 242 ; gives way at last on 
 elections, 247 ; place in Clarendon's 
 Will, 249 ; his own Will, 250 ; epi- 
 taph, 251 ; Samuel Parker's ac- 
 count of him, 251, 252 ; burial, 251 ; 
 in relation to Laud and Chilling- 
 worth, 253 ; summary of character, 
 254; attacks on his memory by 
 Burnet, Kennett, Neal, and Hal- 
 lam, 255 ; father of University 
 Press, 369 ; benefactor, 385 ; bust, 
 390 ; he and Blackstone most of 
 all Worthies identified with All 
 Souls, 400. 
 
 Stafford, claims to promulgate new- 
 Statutes for All Souls, 28 ; pro- 
 claims Indulgences for pilgrimages 
 to All Souls, 31 ; suspected of taking 
 property of College, 34; his por- 
 trait in College Library, 388. 
 
 Sudbury, a persecuted Primate, 304. 
 
 Tenison, as to Statutes of All Souls,
 
 442 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Archbishops of Canterbury : 
 
 28 ; one of the four Primates to 
 visit the College, 62 ; Finch's 
 letters to, 291, 300; Pmast's appeal 
 to, 310 ; stops Finch's battels, 311 ; 
 on Codrington's bequest, 337; as to 
 clause in Codrington's Will, 341 ; 
 share in eliciting the modern All 
 Souls, 347, 41 2, 41 3 ; Gardiner's let- 
 ter to, 351 ; on ' Physic places,' 355, 
 356; puts Blenclowe into a Fellow- 
 ship, 356 ; proceedings as to Blen- 
 cowe's Fellowship, 357, 358; re- 
 sisted by Gardiner, 358 ; treatment 
 of Queen Anne's letter, 360 ; his 
 Visitation, 361, 362 ; annuls War- 
 den's Veto on Dispensations, 362, 
 
 363- 
 
 Tillotson, his delay in the case of 
 Proast's Appeal, 310; relaxes strict- 
 ness of Statutes in the matter of 
 residence, 355. 
 
 Wake, as to Statutes of All Souls, 28 ; 
 one of the four Primates to visit the 
 College, 62 ; large number of docu- 
 ments from, 104; as to Warden's 
 Veto, 109; friend of Tanner, 321 ; 
 education at Christ Church, 323; 
 share in eliciting the modern All 
 Souls, 347 ; letters to, 352, 360, 
 370 ; an incident at his Visitation, 
 361 ; his great place as Primate, 
 366 ; his line of conduct at All 
 Souls, 367 ; uses David Wilkins 
 against the Oxford Tories, 372, 373; 
 his clever treatment of the Univer- 
 sities, 3 75 ; conflict with Warden 
 of All Souls, 376 ; his Visitation, 
 377. 37 8 . 379; its results, 381,382, 
 406, 412, 413;' conduct in Appeal 
 on Founder's Kin, 383, 415 ; choice 
 of Warden, 419. 
 
 Warham, promotes resort to foreign 
 Universities, 52; letter to All 
 Souls, 54 ; last Visitor to be ' Con- 
 frater ' to All Souls, 54. 
 
 Whitgift, as to Statutes of All Souls, 
 28; one of four Visitors to ' visit,' 
 62 ; oath imposed by, 83, 261, 272 ; 
 influence with Elizabeth, 95 ; in 
 relation to Sherley, 98 ; Visitation 
 and reorganization of All Souls, 
 104-110, 361 ; moderate doctrines, 
 1 20; adulation of James I, 121; 
 his example quoted, 275, 279; the 
 Warden's Veto secured by him, 
 354. 362, 377- 
 
 Winclielney, a persecuted Primate, 
 
 34- 
 
 Archbishops of York : 
 
 Dolben, 286. 
 
 Kemp (Cardinal), 21, 34. 
 
 Sharp, 359. 
 
 Vernon Harcourt, 420. 
 
 Wolsey (Cardinal), n, 23, 76. 
 Arlington (Earl of), 243. 
 Arminianism, 122, 134, 143. 
 Arras (Treaty of), 2. 
 Arthur, Prince of Wales, 38, 39, 40, 
 
 4 S, 6 7 . 
 
 Asaph, St. (Bishops of), 308, 321. 
 Ashburnham, 181. 
 Atterbury (Bp.), 323. 35 8 . 375- 
 Augustine (St.), one of the ' four Latin 
 
 Fathers," 32. 
 Ayliffe, a writer on the University of 
 
 Oxford, 368. 
 Aylworth (Fellow), 155, 189, 190, 204. 
 
 Bacon (Lord), 125, 402. 
 
 Bacon (the sculptor), 390. 
 
 Bagley Wood, Oxford, 44. 
 
 Baldwin (Fellow of All Souls), 196, 
 
 216. 
 
 Balliol College, 6, 48, 160. 
 Barbadoes (Island of), 325, 332, 333, 
 
 339. 345. 425. 427- 
 Barker (Fellow of All Souls), 189. 
 Baron (Master of Balliol), 351, 367, 
 
 375- 
 
 Barrow (Dr. Isaac), 226, 234. 
 Bartholomew's Day (St.), 88, 220. 
 Basil (St.), 335, 344. 
 Battmrst (family of), most numerous on 
 
 Register, 408. 
 
 Beaufort (Cardinal), 2, 3, 19, 32. 
 Beaumont (Dr., Fellow of All Souls), 
 
 136, 137- 
 
 Bedford (John Duke of), I, 2, 3. 
 Benbow (Admiral), 334. 
 Bentley (Master of Trinity, Cambridge), 
 
 322. 
 
 Berkhampstead, Grammar School, 115. 
 Bernard's (St.) College, 8. 
 Bertie (the Hon. Dr., Fellow of All 
 
 Souls), 314, 419. 
 Bettesworth (Dr., Wake's Commissary), 
 
 36i,377.379- 
 Beverley, contributions sent to, 166, 
 
 167. 
 
 Bilstone (Chaplain of All Souls), 372. 
 Binsey, Wood and Tanner at, 3 20. 
 Birkenhead (Sir John, Fellow of All 
 
 Souls), 200. 
 Birkhead (Fellow of All Souls), founds 
 
 Professorship of Poetry, 190. 
 Blackstone (Sir William, Fellow of All 
 
 Souls), 382, 388-409, 413, 417, 419.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 443 
 
 Blencowe (Fellow of All Souls), 356- 
 
 36o, 363. 
 Bliss (Dr.), 167. 
 Bocardo (prison-gateway), 37. ' 
 Bodleian Library, 8, 50, 258, 388. 
 Boham (Hugh, Fellow of All Souls), 
 
 189. 
 
 Bohemian Ministers, 406. 
 Bolingbioke (Lord), 403. 
 Botley (near Oxford), 44. 
 Boulogne, Henry VIII's expedition to, 
 
 65- 
 
 Boyle (the philosopher), 323. 
 Bracton (Judge), 402. 
 Bradford (the martyr), 81. 
 Bramhall (Archbishop), 226. 
 Brasenose College, 25, 174, 192, 385, 
 
 410, 421,435- 
 
 Brent (Sir Nathanael), 193. 
 Brewer (Professor), 185. 
 Buckler (Dr. Benjamin, Fellow of All 
 
 Souls), 12, 400, 406, 419, 430, 436. 
 Burleigh (Cecil, Lord), 78, 96, ill. 
 Butler (Bishop), 399, 405. 
 Byrde (Sir William), 96, 390. 
 
 Cassar (Sir Julius), 136. 
 
 (Sir Charles), 390. 
 
 Caius College, Cambridge, 322. 
 
 Calvinism, 120, 121, 122. 
 
 Cambridge University, a picture of 
 nation, 4 ; Parker's influence at, 90 ; 
 Elizabeth's patronage of, 91 ; her 
 ecclesiastical polity worked by men 
 from, 122 ; prosperity of, 125; plate 
 and money sent to Charles I from, 
 166, 168 ; intruders into Oxford from, 
 191 ; reduced to new model, 201 ; 
 scholars in Sheldonian Theatre, 229 ; 
 literary eminence of, 322 ; Lloyd, 
 Vice-Chancellor of, 393. 
 
 Campbell (Lord), 402, 403, 417. 
 
 Canterbury, 23, 1 16, 154, 215, 221, 235, 
 258. 
 
 precedency of the See, 19. 
 
 (Archbishops of), see ' Archbishops.' 
 
 Dean and Chapter of, 309. 
 Cardinal (see ' Beaufort,' ' Bourchier,' 
 
 ' Kemp,' ' Morton,' ' Pole,' ' Wolsey '). 
 Cardinals, Papal government by, 75, 
 
 76. 
 
 Caribbean Islands, 325, 330. 
 Carisbrooke Castle, 182. 
 Carnarvon (Lord), 393. 
 Caroline Divines, 118. 
 Carte (the historian), 370. 
 Castle (George, Fellow of All Souls), 
 
 196. 
 Castlemaine (Lord), 290. 
 
 Cat Street, Oxford, 116. 
 Catharine of Aragon, 38, 48. 
 Chamberdekyns (or pseudo-scholars), 
 
 7- 
 Charlett (Dr., Master of University 
 
 College), 312, 317, 320, 321, 322, 
 
 339- 35L 370. 376, 379. 385, 397- 
 
 Chaworth (Dr. R.), 167. 
 
 Cheere (Sir Henry), 338, 389. 
 
 Chelsea Hospital, 232. 
 
 Chillingworth (the author), 156. 
 
 Christ Church, Oxford, 23, 159, 160, 
 177, 181, 183, 228, 280, 323, 326, 
 366, 374, 423. 
 
 Christendom, a reformed, 3 ; the pro- 
 vinces of, 97 ; Turks in relation to, 
 103. 
 
 Christopher's (St., Island of), 330, 332. 
 
 Church (reform of), 2, 3. 
 
 Church of England, Colleges loyal to, 
 7 ; three successive stages in reform- 
 ing, 88 ; as reformed by Henry VIII 
 and Edward VI, Chap, v ; settled by 
 Elizabeth, Chap, vi ; position taken 
 up by James I, Chap, vii ; Bancroft 
 on the, 107 ; Articles of, to be read 
 publicly in Colleges, 125 ; School of 
 Bancroft and Laud in, 120-125; 
 Moket on the, 129; 'Church and 
 King,' 1 68; Charles I a martyr to, 
 1 80, 220; delay in settling affairs 
 of, 2 20 ; Sheldon's government of, 
 222 ; Chillingworth on the, 253 ; 
 subscription to Articles of, 253 ; 
 declares against James II, 291 ; 
 persecuted Primates in, 304 ; monas- 
 tic bodies in, 339, 344 ; Queen Anne, 
 Sacheverel and the, 358 ; affection of 
 Tories for, 375. 
 
 Clarence (Thomas Duke of), 2, 9. 
 
 Clarendon (Edward Hyde, Earl of), 
 121, 124, 138, 156, 158, 162, 166, 
 168, 169, 173, 182, 218, 219, 220, 
 221, 223, 240, 244, 249, 254, 369. 
 
 Clarges (Sir Thomas), 300. 
 
 Clarke (Dr. G., Fellow of All Souls), 
 82, 267, 268, 277, 290, 291, 292, 314- 
 
 3i8, 33, 34 8 . 35, 35L 3H 37i. 
 384, 385, 386, 388, 390, 392, 393, 
 
 394. 4i3- 
 
 Cleaver (Bishop), 420. 
 Clotterbuck (Dr.), 285. 
 Cockerel (Professor), 30. 
 Codrington (Christopher, Fellow of All 
 
 Souls), 119, 268, 314, 319, 323, 325- 
 
 347. 355, 388, 389, 391, 392, 405, 
 
 421, 425-428. 
 (the elder Christopher, of Barba- 
 
 does), 325, 326, 337.
 
 444 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Codrington (Sir Edward), 346. 
 
 (the Standard-bearer to Heniy V), 
 
 325. 347- 
 
 (R. H., Fellow of Wadham), 347. 
 
 College, Barbadoes, 338-345, 425- 
 428. 
 
 Cole (Dr., President of Corpus), 87. 
 Colepepper (Secretary of State to 
 
 Charles I), 225. 
 Coleridge (Sir J. Taylor), 422. 
 
 (Bishop), 427. 
 Colet (Dean), 48. 
 
 Collegiate system, on its trial, 6, 7; 
 effect on Chichele, 12 ; details of, 
 44, 45, 46 ; preservation of, from ruin, 
 
 73- 
 
 Compton (Bishop), 359. 
 
 Conant (John, Parliamentary Visitor), 
 an. 
 
 Constitution (the English), provided 
 for national independence of Papacy, 
 60; temporary overthrow of, 162, 
 163, 243; true defenders of, 162, 
 163; greatest alteration of, without 
 express law, 2 20 : saved by Seven 
 Bishops, 265 ; sapped by Caroline 
 Dispensations, 287, 288 ; happily pre- 
 served, 304 ; Anne's reign a time of 
 testing the, 349 ; settled by struggles 
 at the accession of House of Bruns- 
 wick, 376 ; expounded by Black- 
 stone, 403. 
 
 Cornmarket Street, Oxford, 37. 
 
 Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 192, 
 
 193- 
 
 Cotes (Digby, Fellow of All Souls and 
 
 Public Orator), 328, 336. 
 Councils of the West, 19, 75. 
 Cowley, Oxford, 44. 
 Cox (Dean of Christ Church), 68, 79. 
 Cromwell (Oliver, Protector), 1 68, 188, 
 
 206, 212, 213. 
 
 Cromwell (Richard), 213. 
 
 Cromwell (Thomas, Earl of Essex), 42. 
 
 Cunningham (agent to Codrington), 
 
 329- 
 
 Cyprus (Island of), lor. 
 
 Dartmouth (Lord, Secretary of State to 
 Queen Anne), 359, 360. 
 
 Davis (servant at All Souls), 191. 
 
 Dayrell (Fellow of All Souls), 189. 
 
 Decyphering, art of, 356. 
 
 Delaune (President of St. John's Col- 
 lege, Oxford), 351. 
 
 Digby (Kenelm, 'Fellow of All Souls), 
 
 195, 237- 
 Digges (Dudley, Fellow of AH Souls), 
 
 153- 
 
 Dispensing Power, acted upon by 
 James I, 137; and by Charles II, 
 243 ; principle of, the same as that of 
 Commonwealth, 243 ; ostentatiously 
 used by James II, 288-292 ; fatal 
 example set by, in matter of Fellow- 
 ships, 353- 
 
 Dodwell (the Nonjuror), 307. 
 
 Dolman (Fellow of All Souls), 79. 
 
 Dorman (Fellow of All Souls), 79. 
 
 D'Oyly (the biographer of Sancroft), 
 
 303- 
 Druel (John, overseer of the works at 
 
 the foundation of the College), 26, 70. 
 Dryden (the poet), -289, 291, 344. 
 Dublin University, reformed by Bishop 
 
 Jeremy Taylor, 226. 
 Duck (Dr. Arthur, Fellow of All Souls), 
 
 n, 82, 119, 152, 390, 391. 
 Dugdale (the author of the Monasti- 
 
 con), 51. 
 Dunn (Sir Daniel, Fellow of All Souls), 
 
 96, 108, 390. 
 Duns Scotus, 2. 
 Duppa (Brian, Bishop of Salisbury, 
 
 afterwards of Winton, Fellow of All 
 
 Souls), 119, 133, 134, 141, 152, 179, 
 
 198, 220, 236, 390. 
 
 Earles (Dr.), at Great Tew, 156. 
 
 Eaton (Water, Lady Lovelace's re- 
 sidence), 294. 
 
 Edgehill (Charles I's army after the 
 battle of), 173. 
 
 Edmonds (Sir Clement, Fellow of All 
 Souls), 96, 390. 
 
 Egertoii, (Mr.), at All Souls, 211, 212. 
 
 Eglesfield (Founder of Queen's College), 
 
 9- 
 
 Eikon Basilike, 178. 
 
 Eldon (Lord), 410. 
 
 Ely (Bishopric of), 21. 
 
 Enfield School, 326. 
 
 England, depressed condition of, I ; 
 temporary greatness, -2 ; feeling of, 
 under Papal aggression, 4 ; degrada- 
 tion of, 20, 2 r ; change in, during Wars 
 of Roses, 28 ; history of, illustrated 
 from All Souls, passim; laity of, 121 ; 
 new chapter in history of, 122; 
 vigorous society of, 125 ; middle 
 classes of, 1 2 5 ; history of , ho w too often 
 written, 142 ; chivalry and clergy of, 
 163 ; at the Restoration, 215 ; rapid 
 progress, 218; during Monmouth's 
 rebellion, 297 ; growth of, out of civil 
 conflict, 376 ; stagnation of, in last 
 century, 416 ; lagging interest of, in 
 its Colonies, 421.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 445 
 
 English, people take readily to fighting, 
 2 ; painful pages of history, 3 ; pa- 
 triotism, 3; liberties, 21; inde- 
 pendence, 76; civilisation, 118, 132 ; 
 music, 237 ; people only require a 
 good leader, 260; language, 392. 
 
 Erasmus, 49. 
 
 Essex (Earl of, reign of Elizabeth), 95, 
 99, 100, 101, 103. 
 
 Este (Eobert, Fellow of All Souls), 32. 
 
 Eton College, 178, 235, 244. 
 
 Eugenius IV (Pope), 18, 20, 21, 24. 
 
 Evelyn (John), 224, 227, 228, 229, 236, 
 
 2 37. 259' 3 6 6, 369- 
 Exeter College, 6, 81, 94, 160, 192, 
 
 384- 
 
 Fairfax (General Sir Thomas), 188. 
 Falkland (Lord), 118, 156, 157, 158, 
 
 162, 219, 249. 
 
 Fareham (Roche Court, near), 350. 
 Faversham School, 115. 
 Fell (Dr. John, Dean of Christ Church 
 
 and Bishop of Oxford), 228, 280, 294, 
 
 323. 
 Fell (Dr. Samuel, Dean of Christ 
 
 Church), 179, 182. 
 Fell (Mrs.), 183. 
 Ferdinand and Isabella (the ' Catholic 
 
 Kings'), 40. 
 Ferrara (Duke of), 100. 
 Fiennes (Lord), 212. 
 Flanders, 98, 326, 330. 
 Fleetwood (Bishop), 425. 
 Fletcher (Alderman of Oxford), 434, 
 
 435. 436. 
 
 Florence, 24. 
 
 Founder's Kin, at New College, 408 ; 
 at All Souls, see ' All Souls.' 
 
 Foxcote, 34. 
 
 France, expulsion of English from, 3 ; 
 failure of war with, 17; Henry VIII 
 invades, 65 ; Sherley fights in, 99 ; 
 effect of exile in, on Charles II, 224; 
 Louis XIV, King of, 2 70 ; wine from, 
 317 ; Codrington sends to, for books, 
 329 ; Codrington engaged in war 
 with, 330, 333 ; influences of Revolu- 
 tion in, 416. 
 
 Frideswide (St.), Wood tells history of, 
 322. 
 
 Gardiner (Stephen, Bishop of Winches- 
 ter), 60, 74, 95. 
 Garth (Sir Samuel), 328, 330. 
 Gentilis (Albericus), 135, 285. 
 Gentilis (Robert, Fellow of All Souls), 
 
 135- 
 George (Prince of Denmark), 315. 
 
 Germy (Fellow of All Souls), 205, 206. 
 Gibs (servant at All Souls), 191. 
 Gibson (Bishop of London), 220, 321, 
 
 331- 
 Gloucester (Humphrey Duke of), 3 ; 
 
 his Library, 7, 8, 50. 
 Godolphin (Provost of Eton), 247, 390. 
 Godstowe, near Oxford, 322. 
 Gold (Henry), 58. 
 Goldwell (Bishop, Fellow of All Souls), 
 
 22, 388, 390. 
 
 Goodwin (Thomas, Parliamentary Visi- 
 tor of Oxford), 212. 
 
 Gordon (the Rev. W. of Barbadoes), 
 327. 334. 335. 336, 342, 343. 344. 
 345- 
 
 Greaves (Fellow of All Souls), 207. 
 
 Gregory (St.), one of the ' four Latin 
 Fathers,' 32. 
 
 Greenditch Fosse, Oxford, 44. 
 
 Greenwich Hospital, 232. 
 
 Grevile (the Hon. Dodington), 314, 
 
 351, 355. 365. 39. 393- 
 Grocyn (of New College and Magdalen), 
 
 48, 49- 
 
 Guadaloupe (the Island of), 334. 
 Guise (Fellow of All Souls), 247. 
 Gutch (the Antiquarian), 421, 422. 
 
 Hales (Sir Edward), 289. 
 
 Hallam (Bishop of Salisbury), 2, 4. 
 
 Hallam (the historian), 27, 255, 433. 
 
 Hambden (High Steward of the Uni- 
 versity), 36. 
 
 Hammond (Dr., of Christ Church), 156, 
 163, 254, 323. 
 
 Hampden (the Patriot), 158, 185. 
 
 Hanmer (Bishop, Fellow of All Souls), 
 
 39- 
 
 Harcourt (Sir Simon), 358, 385. 
 Harden, or Hawarden, 397. 
 Harding (servant at All Souls), 191. 
 Hardy (Sir Thomas Duffus), 185. 
 Harris (Parliamentary Visitor), 212. 
 Harrison (Professor, and Fellow of All 
 
 Souls), 379, 418. 
 Hawksmoor (the architect), 234, 364, 
 
 393. 394. 395- 
 
 Headington (Oxford), 44. 
 
 Hearne (the antiquarian), 69, 127, 230, 
 234, 248, 258, 291, 309, 316, 319, 
 320, 328, 329, 336, 350, 361, 365, 
 369, 376, 382, 388, 408, 418, 433, 
 
 434, 435- 
 
 Heathcote (Sir William), 423. 
 Heber (Bishop, Fellow of All Souls), 
 
 143, 144, 147, 198, 199, 226, 420, 
 
 421, 435.43 6 - 
 Henley (Lord Northington), 406.
 
 446 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Henry (of Navarre), 99. 
 
 Herbert (George), 97, 118, 268. 
 
 Heron (Fellow of All Souls) 207, 208. 
 
 Heylin (Peter), 129, 140, 200. 
 
 Hickes (Dr., the Nonjuror), 385. 
 
 Higham Ferrars, Chichele'a Founda- 
 tion at, 9. 
 
 Hinksey (Oxford"), 44. 
 
 Hollingworth (servant at All Souls), 
 191, 192. 
 
 Holloway (Serjeant), 279. 
 
 Holt (Judge), 344. 
 
 Hook (Dr., Dean of Chichester), II, 
 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 21, 22, 27, 
 
 75- 
 
 Hooke (the mathematician), 230. 
 Hooker (the judicious), 120, 122, 
 
 226. 
 
 Howell (Parliamentary Visitor), 212. 
 Ho well (the Nonjuror), 377. 
 Hudson (guide to Charles I), 181. 
 Hudson (Dr., Bodley's Librarian), 332, 
 
 333- 
 
 Humfrey (Lawrence, Oxford Com- 
 missioner). 87, 88. 
 
 Hungary, Turks in, 100. 
 
 Huy, Codrington at, 330. 
 
 Huygens (the philosopher), 230. 
 
 lanson (Fellow of All Souls), 167. 
 Iconoclasm, indiscriminate at All Souls, 
 
 68, 69, 70 ; proved to be complete, 
 
 89. 
 
 lies (Dr.), 139. 
 Imperialist army, IOI. 
 Indyes, f^herley opens up the, 103. 
 Ireland, invasion of, 99. 
 Irish, higher education of, 72. 
 Isle of Wight, Charles I in the, 178. 
 Isleworth, Monastery of Syon at, 43. 
 Islip (near Oxford), 297. 
 Italy, 31, 100, 101. 
 
 Jacobitism, 288, 306, 368, 370. 
 
 Jamaica, 99. 
 
 'James III' (the Pretender), 370, 
 
 376. 
 
 James IV (of Scotland), 35. 
 Jeffries (Judge), 302, 344. 
 Jenkinson (Envoy to Persia), 107. 
 Jerome (St.), one of the ' four Latin 
 
 Fathers,' 32. 
 Jerusalem, Henry V's intention to 
 
 march to, 3. 
 
 Jesus College, Oxford, 160, 174. 
 Jesuits, 99, 190, 342, 344. 
 Jewel (Bishop), 120. 
 John XXIII (Pope), 9. 
 John's (St., College, Cambridge), 165. 
 
 John's (St., College, Oxford), 8, 149, 
 
 160, 167, 192. 
 
 Johnson (Dr. Samuel), 399, 400. 
 Justin (the historian), 319. 
 
 Keeble, or Keble (Joseph), 195. 
 Kelsey (Governor of Oxford), 197. 
 Ken (Bishop), 237, 303. 
 Kent (Holy Maid of), 42, 58. 
 Kinaston (Dr., Fellow of All Souls), 
 
 3I4> 3 8 '- 
 
 King (Dr., Bishop of London), 139. 
 Kings and Queens of England : 
 
 William the Conqueror, his Concordat, 
 
 3<M- 
 
 Edward I, 433. 
 Edward II, 433. 
 Edward III, 14, 433. 
 Richard II, Lollards in reign of. 5 ; 
 
 Chichele in reign of, 13 ; his French 
 
 alliance, 16. 
 Henry IV, Chichele as bis Minister, 
 
 13- 
 
 Henry V, conqueror and reformer, 3, 
 4; Chichele his Prime Minister, 
 13 ; death, 19. 
 
 Henry VI, early manhood, 2 ; Chi- 
 chele his godfather, 14; his policy 
 of French alliance, 16 ; co-founder 
 of All Souls with Chichele, 27; all 
 but canonised, 34 ; not the Sove- 
 reign of Mallard Song, 433. 
 
 Margaret of Anjou, Queen of Henry 
 
 vi, 2, 30. 
 
 Edward IV, pardons All Souls, 33, 
 432. 
 
 Edward V, 432, 433. 
 
 Henry VII, grants College Petition, 
 35 ; demands a loan, 36 ; en- 
 courages resort to foreign Univer- 
 sities, 52. 
 
 Elizabeth, wife of Henry VII, 39. 
 
 Henry VIII, early steps of Reforma- 
 tion, 42, 51, 63; preserves the 
 Universities, 57, 58 ; ' Head of the 
 Church,' 60 ; his war with France, 
 65 ; conduct as to clergy and the 
 Act of Prsemunire, 76. 
 
 Anne Boleyn (wife of Henry VIII), 
 60. 
 
 Edward VI, his Visitation of All 
 Souls, 62 ; is resisted by All Souls, 
 67 ; his ultra-Protestant Commis- 
 sioners, 73, 74 ; their iconoclastic 
 proceedings, 68, 160. 
 
 Mary, reaction of her reign, 72 ; last 
 message from Cardinal Pole to, 
 
 77- 
 Elizabeth, moderation of her eccle-
 
 INDEX. 
 
 447 
 
 Kings and Queens of England : 
 
 siastical policy, 74 ; episcopal va- 
 cancies at accession of, 77 ; her 
 position as to ceremonial, 79, 83, 
 85, 87 ; as to Anglo-Catholic via 
 media, 83, 88, 90 ; her war with 
 Romanist powers, 88, 98 ; patron- 
 age of Universities, 91 ; gives up 
 some All Souls property, 95, 96 ; 
 in relation to Sir A. Sherley, 99, 
 100, TO i ; success of her general 
 policy, 109 ; prosperity of reign 
 and luxury of times, 109 ; in rela- 
 tion to Sir W. Raleigh and All 
 Souls, no, in; recommends to 
 Fellowships, 114, 134; healthy 
 state of University elections under 
 her, 124; educational movement 
 of reign, 114, 115; which affects 
 All Souls, 115. 
 
 James I, recalls Sherley, 104 ; Di- 
 vine Right, 121 ; Calvinist, then 
 Arminian, 122; commences Stuart 
 policy of Dispensations as to Fel- 
 lowships and Wardens, 134-138, 
 243 ; his statue in Schools Quad- 
 rangle, 153 ; greatly responsible 
 for Civil War, 163 ; founder of 
 Pembroke College, 182; Spanish 
 alliance, 225 ; patron of transla- 
 tors of Bible, 393. 
 
 Charles I, has four All Souls men 
 for Chaplains, 119; ill treats 
 Abbot, 138- at St. John's Col- 
 lege, 149 ; at the commencement 
 of the Great Rebellion, 158 ; Shel- 
 don his chief adviser, 163, 178, 
 2 53> 2 54 > receives contributions 
 from Oxford, 165-174; writes to 
 All Souls, 1 70, 1 75 ; his confidence 
 in University troops, 1/7 ; his Vow, 
 179, 1 80, 221 ; his confidence in 
 Duppa, 225 ; place of All Souls in 
 the service of, 423. 
 
 Henrietta, wife of Charles I, 149, 
 225. 
 
 Charles II, Oxford in days of, 5 ; 
 attended by Duppa, 178 ; effect 
 of his father's Vow upon, 1 80, 2 20, 
 221, 222; Restoration, 215, 216; 
 rebuked by Sheldon, 222 ; attends 
 Duppa's death-bed, 224; treat- 
 ment of All Souls, 239, 240, 241, 
 242, 243, 244 ; conduct on Exclu- 
 sion Bill, 266 ; recommends Finch, 
 281 ; Finch's zeal for, 294 ; Fell's 
 subserviency to, 323. 
 
 James II, his political short-sighted- 
 ness, 288 ; his tyrannical Mandate 
 
 Kings and Queens of England : 
 
 to All Souls, 291, 292, 299, 300, 
 301, 302 ; and the Revolution, 305, 
 306 ; his interview with Dr. Clarke, 
 316 ; Gardiner a sufferer from, 350, 
 360. 
 
 William and Mary, King's distress 
 at death of Queen, 313 ; Codring- 
 ton serves under William, 330, 
 331 ; William's visit to Oxford, 
 331 ; Codrington's affection for, 
 338, 339 ; his reign a period of 
 great perturbation, 348, 349. 
 
 Queen Mary, account of her death, 
 313 ; her statue, 385. 
 
 Anne, improvements of College in 
 reign of, 82, 234, 236, 348, 413 ; 
 effect of publication of Clarendon's 
 History in her reign, 249 ; as Prin- 
 cess, visits All Souls, 293 ; Finch 
 named as her Chaplain, 31 2 ; Clarke 
 serves under, 315; the 'age of,' 
 328; French war of, 333; her 
 patronage of S. P. G., 338 ; her 
 reign a period of perturbation, 
 348 ; reception in Oxford at ac- 
 cession, 349 ; her conduct to All 
 Souls, 357, 358, 359, 360 ; state 
 of Oxford at death of, 367, 368- 
 3?6. 
 
 George I, ill-treatment of Wren in 
 his reign, 232 ; Bishop Trelawny 
 and, 375 ; first anniversary of 
 reign, 375, 376; in the matter of 
 S. P. G., 426. 
 
 George III, probable influence of 
 Blackstone on, 403. 
 
 Victoria, restoration of All Souls 
 Chapel worthy of her reign, 365. 
 
 Lambeth, 54, 63, 85, 133, 135, 242, 
 262, 310, 364. 
 
 Lamphire (John), 190. 
 
 Lancaster (House of), 3, 13, 14, 16, 43. 
 
 Langherne (Fellow of All Souls), no. 
 
 Latymer (Fellow of All Souls), 48, 49, 
 50. 
 
 Law (Canon and Civil), a speciality of 
 All Souls, 9 ; Chichele's mind influ- 
 enced by, 21 ; flourishes at All Souls, 
 
 53. 42- 
 
 Law (Common), Courts, 19, 283, 302 ; 
 impulse given to, by the Reformation, 
 104; All Souls a nursery of legal 
 students, 424. 
 
 Lawyers (Canon and Civil), Whitgift 
 stops London practice of, 106 ; Ban- 
 croft permits it, 1 06 ; great names of, 
 from All Souls, 96.
 
 448 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Lawyers (Common), All Souls men be- 
 come, 105 ; practice stopped by Grin- 
 dal, 105; 'gone to Town,' 267 ; reform 
 demanded as to position, 353 ; non- 
 residence of, the rule, 363 ; great 
 names of, from All Souls, 405, 406. 
 
 Lawrence (President of Cromwell's 
 Council), 212. 
 
 Legge (Bishop of Oxford), 419, 421. 
 
 Leicester (Earl of), 86, 90, 91, 95, 98. 
 
 Leland (the antiquarian), 48, 49, 50, 51, 
 
 58. 
 
 Lily (the grammarian), 48. 
 Lincoln College, 160, 174. 
 Lindsey (Earl of), 287. 
 Lisbon, 43, 44. 
 
 Littleton (Fellow of All Souls), 268. 
 Livery, provided by Founder, 44 ; not 
 
 to be commuted for money, 63 ; 
 
 Whitgift allows to be commuted for 
 
 money, 107. 
 
 Lloyd (Bishop of St. Asaph), 308, 309. 
 Lloyd (Sir Nathaniel, Fellow of All 
 
 Souls), 314, 388, 390, 393. 
 Lloyd (Sir Richard, Fellow of All 
 
 Souls), 390. 
 
 Locke (the philosopher), 323. 
 Lollards, 5, 16. 
 London, 106, 108, 156, 162, 201, 215, 
 
 234. 2 97. 395- 
 Lovelace (Lady), 294. 
 Lowth (Bishop), 382. 
 Lushington (Right Hon. Dr., Fellow 
 
 of All Souls), 420. 
 Lyhert, Walter, Provost of King's 
 
 College or Hall (Oriel), 25. 
 Lynacre (Fellow of All Souls), 40, 48, 
 
 49, 50, 54, 81, 390. 
 Lyndwood (the civilian), 12. 
 
 Madox (Fellow of All Souls), 93. 
 Magdalen College, 48, 70, 74, 150, 151, 
 159, 160, 192, 259, 260, 309, 350, 360. 
 Magdalen Hall, 124, 177, 194. 
 Mallard (the All Souls), 126, 127, 
 
 429-437- 
 
 Man (see ' Sodor and Man '). 
 Mansfield (Lord), 404. 
 Marco Polo, 47. 
 Marlborough (John, Duke of), 317, 332, 
 
 344. 358. 
 
 Martin V (Pope), 20, 75. 
 Mary (Queen of Scots), 79. 
 Mary's, St., Church (Oxford), 2O, 25, 
 
 164, 227, 285. 
 Mason (Sir John, Fellow of All Souls), 
 
 81, 315. 390. 
 
 Massey (Dean of Christ Church), 299, 
 326, 344- 
 
 Master (Mr. John "Whalley, of Brase- 
 nose), 410. 
 
 Maynard (Sir John), 208. 
 
 Mendye (Dr.), 66. 
 
 Mengs (Raffael, the painter), 364. 
 
 Mercurius Aulicus, 200. 
 
 Merton College, 6, 160, 174, 192, 193. 
 
 Middleton (Fellow of All Souls), 189. 
 
 Millington (Sir Thomas, Fellow of All 
 Souls), 196, 244. 
 
 Monks and Friars, prominence at Ox- 
 ford in fifteenth century, 5 ; excluded 
 from most medieval Colleges at the 
 Universities, 7 ; excluded from All 
 Souls, 9 ; Pope's body-guard, 57, 58; 
 why suppressed, 57; question as to 
 Anglican monks, 344. 
 
 Monmouth (Duke of), his rebellion, 
 297, 298. 
 
 More (Sir Thomas), 49. 
 
 Morley (Bishop), 156, 163, 254. 
 
 Morocco, 103. 
 
 Namur, 330. 
 
 Napier (Sir Richard, Fellow of All 
 
 Souls), 390. 
 Naples, 104. 
 Neal (the historian), 165, 169, 188, 218, 
 
 253, 255. 
 
 Needham (Marchmont), 201. 
 Nevis (Island of), 332, 333. 
 Newcastle (Duke of), 404. 
 New College, 6, 8, 12, 27, 48, 70, 72, 
 
 115, 159, 160, 192, 193, 196, 209, 
 
 266, 394,412, 414. 
 Newdigate (Richard), 197, 412, 414. 
 New Inn Hall, 173, 177. 
 Newlands (in Romney Marsh), no. 
 Newton (Sir Isaac), 218, 230, 231, 
 
 322. 
 Nicholas (Edward, Secretary of State 
 
 to Charles I), 175. 
 Nixon (Alderman), 164. 
 Nonjurors, 303, 341, 371, 385. 
 Norfolk (County of), in relation to 
 
 Caius College, 322. 
 Norris (John, Fellow of All Souls), 267, 
 
 268,311, 314, 390. 
 
 (Lord), 284. 
 
 North (Roger), 272, 275, 281, 392. 
 Northington (Lord), ( see ' Henley'). 
 Norton (Colonel), 333. 
 Norwich (city of), 257, 321. 
 Nottingham, 166. 
 
 (Earl of), 295, 297. 
 
 Ockham (William of), 2. 
 Onslow (Mr. Speaker), 219, 220. 
 Orange (William, Prince of), 307.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 449 
 
 Oriel College, 6, 25, 26, 160, 174, 192, 
 203, 244, 371. 
 
 Orleans (Maid of), 2. 
 
 Orinond (Duke of), 213, 218, 238, 245, 
 246. 
 
 Orthography, 391, 392. 
 
 Osborne (Fellow of All Souls), 144- 
 147. 
 
 Ottoman Empire, 101, 103. 
 
 Owen (Parliamentary Visitor), 24. 
 
 Oxford (City of), aspect of, in fifteenth 
 and seventeenth centuries, 5, 6 ; 
 Prince Arthur visits, 40 ; limits of 
 Fellows' walks in, 44; boys of, taught 
 in Monasteries and Colleges, 72 ; edu- 
 cation of boys in Colleges stopped, 
 72, 116; Cranmer burnt at, 76; its 
 handsome buildings, 153; James I 
 visits, 154; House of Correction at, 
 155; a 'military centre,' 159, 162- 
 178; the poor of Oxford, 155, 156, 
 177; occupied by Lord Say, 164; 
 Alderman Nixon during Lord Says 
 occupation, 164; his school at, 165; 
 King Charles I at, 170, 173, 175, 
 177, 179, 180, 181 ; 'Bulwarks' at, 
 1 76 ; the ' Lords ' at, 1 7 7 ; surrender, 
 178; soldiers at, 183, 370; Crom- 
 well at, 1 88; bonfires at Restoration 
 in, 214; a musical centre, 237 ; train- 
 bands of, 286; Parliament at, 295; 
 loyalty during Monmouth's Rebel- 
 lion, 298 ; James II visits, 316; M.P. 
 for the City, 317; William III visits, 
 331 ; Queen Anne visits, 349 ; pre- 
 cedency of University, 349 ; streets 
 
 of, 385- 
 
 Oxford University, picture of nation, 4 ; 
 rise of Collegiate system at, 5 ; con- 
 dition of, in fifteenth and seventeenth 
 centuries, 5, 6, 7 ; Fellows and Scholars 
 at. 7, 8; Chicheli as benefactor to, 
 8 ; impoverishment, 41 ; why saved by 
 Tudors, 58, 61 ; Collegiate system at, 
 73 ; re-assertion of Anglo-Catholic 
 character, 78 ; men who befriended 
 it at Court, 8l ; election of Proc- 
 tors at, 124, 149, 160 ; intemper- 
 ance at, 124; prosperity of, 125; 
 servility of, in 1623, 139 ; Laudian 
 reform at, 149, 150; buildings erected 
 or restored, 153; dignitaries, 153; 
 age of entering the, 159 ; changes of 
 educational methods at, 160 ; be- 
 gins to drill, 162; impeachment of 
 Royalists in, 165 ; and defence, 168, 
 169, 170 ; sends money to Charles I, 
 165; a mere camp, 177, 178; mes- 
 sage from King to, 1 79 ; surren- 
 
 Oxford University : 
 
 der and conditions, 177, 178, 182; 
 defiance of Parliament, 182; be- 
 dells' staves, 183 ; historians of, 185 ; 
 government of, by new Visitors, 
 200 ; work of Visitors unduly de- 
 preciated, 202 ; Richard Cromwell, 
 Chancellor, 213; Visitors pass away, 
 213 ; effects of Restoration, 216, 217, 
 218; moderate re-settlement of, 216 ; 
 Sheldon and Duppa in relation with, 
 at Restoration, 222, 223 ; Act in 
 St. Mary's and Sheldonian Theatre, 
 227, 228, 229; Terrse Filius, 227, 
 
 , 228, 368, 369; a musical centre, 
 237 ; share in scandal of All Souls 
 elections, 247, 291 ; James II's de- 
 signs on, 288 ; during Monmouth's 
 Rebellion, 297, 298 ; representation 
 of, 315, 316, 423; pictures in Bodleian, 
 318 ; modern history of, not yet writ- 
 ten, 323 ; appoints Codrington to de- 
 liver oration, 330 ; William Ill's 
 reception by, 331 ; precedence of, as 
 against the City, on visit of Queen 
 Anne, 349 ; centre of Jacobitism, 
 349 ; condition and danger of, in last 
 years of Anne and first of George I, 
 349-351, 366-376; Vice-Chancellor 
 of, and Sacheverel, 358 ; abuses of, 
 368 ; greatest ornaments of, 385 ; 
 Codrington Library thrown open to, 
 389- 
 
 Padua (University of), 47, 48. 
 Palmer (Mr., benefactor to All Souls), 
 
 365- 
 
 Paman (Dr.), 290. 
 Papacy (the), 4 ; Chichele a champion 
 
 of, 1 8 ; policy of, towards England, 
 
 20. 75- 
 
 Papal, system, 4 ; aggression, 4 ; Bulls, 
 18, 24, 59; partisan of, Chichele a, 
 19 ; Dispensations and Provisions, 19 ; 
 Court, 1 8, 19; Supremacy renounced, 
 and Renunciation defended, 57, 59, 
 60 ; reaction in Mary's reign, 73-77 ; 
 effort of James II to reimpose yoke, 
 289-293 ; religious services, 291 ; ex- 
 cuse of Finch that he was to keep 
 out a Papal Warden, 293, 300, 301. 
 
 Parkhurst (Sir William), 171, 173. 
 
 Parry (Bishop), 427. 
 
 Paul's, St., Cathedral, 259. 
 
 Pembroke (Earl of), 182. 
 
 Pembroke and Montgomery (Earl of), 
 182-185. 
 
 Pembroke College, 160, 177, 182. 
 
 Persia, 97-104. 
 
 Gg
 
 450 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Petre (Sir William, Fellow of All Souls), 
 81, 116, 315, 390. 
 
 (the Jesuit), 292. 
 
 Pett (Sir Peter, Fellow of All Souls), 
 
 195, 196, 230, 237. 
 ' Physic places ' at All Souls, 354, 356, 
 
 362, 363- 
 Physicians, College of, founded, 48, 81. 
 
 at All Souls, 48, 53, 79, 187, 194, 
 3*3. 355.412. 
 
 Pickering (Sir William), 38, 40. 
 Pinder (Canon, Principal of Codrington 
 
 College), 427. 
 Pisa, Council of, 13. 
 Plot (Dr.), 291. 
 
 Pointer (a writer on Oxford), 432. 
 Pole (Bishop of Peterborough), 47, 
 
 388, 390. 
 
 Pongas (mission to the), 427. 
 Pope (the poet), 195. 
 Popes, (see 'Gregory (St.),' 'John 
 
 XXIII,' 'Martin V,' ' Eugenius IV.') 
 Portman (Sir William, benefactor to 
 
 All Souls), 365. 
 Portman (Mr., benefactor to All Souls), 
 
 365- 
 
 Poynet (Bishop), 95. 
 
 Prayers for the Departed, established, 
 9; suppressed, 68, 73; Whitgift's sub- 
 stitute as to Benefactors, 107; James 
 II and Clarke on the subject, 318. 
 
 Prestwych (Fellow of All Souls), 190. 
 
 Pretender (the), (see ' James III.') 
 
 Prideaux (Fellow of All Souls), 243, 
 244, 245. 
 
 Prideaux (Humphrey), 143, 271. 
 
 Primates (see ' Archbishops '). 
 
 Prior (Matthew), 369. 
 
 Proast (Archdeacon), 303, 310, 311, 
 312, 421. 
 
 Professorships Greek, 48 ; Canon Law, 
 52 ; Civil Law, 53, 404, 420 ; Medi- 
 cine, 53, 79 j Natural Philosophy, 
 195, 419 ; Astronomy, 207 ; Ancient 
 History, 307, 379 ; Vinerian, of Com- 
 mon Law, 404; Hearne refuses to 
 stand for any, 371 ; tenure of a, 
 with All Souls Fellowship, 232, 379; 
 Chichele, of International Law and 
 Modern History, 415. 
 
 ' Protestant,' word used by Parker, 83 ; 
 and by Charles I, 168. 
 
 Prynne, 184, 185. 
 
 Puritans (the), in Oxford, 86, 87 ; 
 Anglo-Catholicism as against, 83, 
 1 20 ; favoured by middle classes, 
 125; the historian of, 163; Calvin- 
 ists identified with, 141 ; Puritan 
 government of Universities, 187-212. 
 
 Queen's College, 6, 174, 192, 405, 
 435- 
 
 Eadcliffe (Dr., the physician), 322, 
 
 33, 3 8 5- 
 
 Raleigh (Sir Walter), 99, 104, no, 
 in, 125, 137. 
 
 Rawle (Bishop, Principal of Codring- 
 ton College), 427. 
 
 Reformation (the), (see ' All Souls Col- 
 lege,' ' Henry VIII,' ' Edward VI,' 
 'Cranmer'). 
 
 Ricot (the seat of Lord Abingdon), 
 300. 
 
 Ridley (Bishop and martyr), 81, 89, 
 
 120. 
 
 Rogers (the martyr), 81. 
 
 Rogers (the Parliamentary Visitor), 
 
 212. 
 
 Rome (see 'Papacy,' 'Papal'). 
 
 Roses (Wars of the), England harassed 
 
 by, 2 ; causes of, 3 ; affect All Souls, 
 
 27. 
 Royal Society, 196, 230, 421. 
 
 Sacheverell, 358, 359. 
 Salisbury (Thomas Montacute, Earl 
 of), 2. 
 
 (Robert Cecil, Earl of), 136, 137. 
 
 Robert, Marquis of, Fellow of All 
 Souls, 1 36 ; Chancellor of Oxford 
 University, 422. 
 
 Sanchy (or Zanchy, Hieron., the Colo- 
 nel-Proctor), 194. 
 Sanderson (Bishop), 163, 254. 
 Savoy Conference (the), 220, 222. 
 Say (Lord), 164, 165, 168, 170, 174. 
 School Street (Oxford), 6. 
 Scotland, 30, 35, 36, 52. 
 Scrope (Gervais), 245, 246. 
 Shaftesbury (Earl of, at Oxford), 293. 
 Shakspeare, 16, 17, 125, 392. 
 Sheers (Sir Henry), 312. 
 Sherley (Sir Anthony, Fellow of All 
 
 Souls), 97, 98, 100-104, 330, 390, 
 
 424. 
 
 Shottesbrooke (Lady Isabella), 31. 
 Shrewsbury (Duke of), 359. 
 Sidney (Sir Philip), 98. 
 Sigismund (Emperor, so-called), 4. 
 Sitvatorok (Treaty of), 103. 
 Smalridge (Bishop, and Dean of Christ 
 
 Church), 367. 
 Smith (L., Fellow of All Souls), 
 
 190. 
 Smith (Thomas, Fellow of All Souls), 
 
 190. 
 Snow (Mr., benefactor to All Souls), 
 
 364-
 
 INDEX. 
 
 451 
 
 Society for Propagation of the Gospel, 
 
 338, 342, 421, App. I. 
 Sodor and Man (Bishops of), 310, 425. 
 Somerset (Protector), 68. 
 South (Bishop), 323. 
 Spain, IOT, 103, 225. 
 Spencer (Fellow of All Souls), 405. 
 Sprat (Bishop), 195. 
 Stafford (Lady), in. 
 Stafford's (Lord) iniquitous execution, 
 
 265. 
 
 Staffordshire, 44, 197, 251. 
 Standard (Thomas), 175. 
 Stanton Harcourt, 95. 
 Stapylton (Fellow of All Souls), 267, 
 
 290,314. 
 
 States (United), 410. 
 Statutes (Parliamentary) : 
 
 Provisors, &c., 20. 
 
 Suppression of Chantries, 73. 
 
 Acts of Uniformity, 85, 88. 
 
 Incorporation of Universities, 90. 
 
 Augmentation of Commons, 109. 
 Steed (Dr.), 205. 
 Steward (Dean, Fellow of All Souls), 
 
 119, 141, 152, 390. 
 Stowell (Lord), 410. 
 Stradling (Fellow of All Souls), 189. 
 Streater (Serjeant-Painter), 236, 365. 
 Suffolk (Duke of), 30. 
 Sunderland (Earl of), 357-360. 
 Sunninghill, 38, 40. 
 Surnames, creation of, 26. 
 Sydenham (the physician, Fellow of 
 
 All Souls), 119, 194, 390. 
 Syon (Monastery of), 42, 43, 66. 
 Syria, 101. 
 
 Talbot (Earl), 2. 
 
 (Earl of Tyrconnel), 290, 345. 
 
 (Lord Chancellor), 390, 405. 
 Tamasp (Shah of Persia), 101. 
 Tanner (Bishop, Fellow of All Souls), 
 
 119, 127, 257, 258, 271, 300, 309, 
 312, 314, 319, 322, 339, 369, 388, 
 
 39. 39 2 . 39 6 > 39 8 . 43- 
 Taunton, 188. 
 Taylor (Bishop Jeremy), 118, 119, 142- 
 
 147, 153, 179, 196-200, 206, 223, 
 
 226, 254, 390, 421. 
 Tew (Great, Lord Falkland's seat), 
 
 156, 158, 219, 252. 
 Teying (Parsonage, Bucks), 34. 
 Theatre (Sheldonian), 5, 226-229, 2 34> 
 
 331, 350, 369- 
 Thornhill (Sir James, the artist), 234, 
 
 364, 365. 
 
 Thorowgood (Mr.), 264. 
 Tillyard (apothecary), 196. 
 
 Tindal (Matthew, Fellow of All Souls), 
 
 247, 289, 291, 313, 348, 381, 399, 
 
 418, 430, 436. 
 Transylvania, 103. 
 Trelawny (Bishop), 373, 374, 375. 
 Trevor (Bishop, Fellow of All Souls), 
 
 406. 
 
 Trinity College, Oxford, 71, 174, 192. 
 Trinity Hall, Cambridge, 393. 
 Trumbull (Rev. C.), 364. 
 Trumbull (Sir W., Fellow of All Souls), 
 
 195. 356, 39- 
 Tunstall, 48. 
 
 Turkey (see ' Ottoman Empire'). 
 Twitty (Mr., of Oriel), 244. 
 Twyne (Bryan), 223. 
 
 University College, 6, 123, 174, 192, 
 
 193. 321. 
 University Commissioners of 1852, 
 
 15. 56, 132, 4*4- 
 Utrecht (Peace of), 317, 367. 
 Uxbridge (Treaty of), 163, 178. 
 
 Value of money (comparative), 2 7. 
 
 Vaughan (Sir Charles, Fellow of All 
 Souls), 420. 
 
 Venice, 101. 
 
 Vestiarian controversy,- 84, 85. 
 
 Viner (founder of Vinerian Professor- 
 ship), 405. 
 
 Visitations of All Souls, four regular, 
 two irregular, 62 ; Cranmer's, 62, 63, 
 64 ; Edward VI's Commissioners, 68- 
 73; Whitgift's, 108-110; the Com- 
 monwealth, 182-214; Tenison's, 361, 
 362 ; Wake's, 377, 378, 379, 384. 
 
 Visitors (see 'Archbishops of Canter- 
 bury '). 
 
 Wadham College, 160, 192, 206, 207, 
 
 229, 346. 
 Wainwright (Dr., Fellow of All Souls), 
 
 205. 
 
 Walker (Obadiah), 291, 344. 
 Wallingford Castle, 196. 
 Wallis (Dr.), 230, 356. 
 Walter (Sir John, M.P. for Oxford 
 
 ty), 3 1 7. 
 
 Walter de Merton, 9, n. 
 Walton (Tzaak), 106, 1 1 8. 
 Warbeck (Perkin), 35. 
 Wardens of All Souls : 
 
 Richard Andrewe, 29, 30, 52, 315. 
 
 Roger Keyes, 26, 172. 
 
 William Kele, 69. 
 
 William Poteman, 52. 
 
 John Stokys, 35. 
 
 Thomas Hobbys, 36, 37, 65.
 
 452 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Wardens of All Souls : 
 William Broke, 54. 
 John Coale, 115 (see Errata). 
 Robert Woodward, 42. 
 Roger StoTcely, 59. 
 John Warner, 34, 35, 44, 52, 61, 65, 
 
 67, 78-83, 94. 115,239- 
 Seth Holland, 75. 
 John Pope, 77. 
 Richard Barber, 83, 116. 
 Robert Hoveden, 61, 93, 95, 96, 105, 
 
 108, 116, 119, 128, 239, 354, 381, 
 
 390, 392, 436. 
 Richard Moket, 119, 127-130, 132, 
 
 133, 136, 262. 
 
 Richard Astley, 130, 146, 175. 
 Gilbert Sheldon, (see ' Archbishops of 
 
 Canterbury'). 
 John Palmer (or Vaux), 184, 186, 
 
 187, 188, 197, 206, 207, 211, 213, 
 
 214, 218, 230, 290. 
 John Meredith, 219, 234, 235, 238, 
 
 244. 
 Thomas Jeam.es, 6 1, 64, 94, 132, 146, 
 
 168, 207, 219, 238, 260-287, 289, 
 
 290-295, 302, 354, 382, 392, 407. 
 Hon. Leopold William Finch, 280, 
 
 29!-3i4, 34 8 , 350, 362, 392, 429. 
 Bernard Gardiner, 61, 314, 347-385, 
 
 39 2 - 393, 397, 39 8 , 46, 49. 4 l8 - 
 Stephen Niblett, 419. 
 Hon. John, afterwards Viscount, 
 
 Tracy, 419. 
 Edmund Isham, 419. 
 If on. Edward Leyge, Bishop of Ox- 
 ford, 419, 421. 
 Lewis Sneyd, 414, 419. 
 Francis Knyvett Leighton, 423. 
 Warton (Thomas), 46, 433. 
 Watson (Bishop), 291. 
 Waynflete (Bishop), 31, 150. 
 Webb (Mr., benefactor to All Souls), 
 
 365- 
 
 Wedon-Weston, 66. 
 Welwyn, 400. 
 Wenman (the Hon. Dr., Fellow of All 
 
 Souls), 419. 
 West Indies, 99, 324, 325, 332-335, 
 
 338-345.426, 427. 
 
 Weston (Lord Chancellor, Fellow of 
 
 All Souls), 53, 96, 390. 
 Weymouth (Lord), 301. 
 Whalley (Founder's Kin of All Souls), 
 
 409. 
 Wharton (Duke of), 393, 396, 397, 
 
 398. 
 
 White (Sir Thomas), 9. 
 
 Wilkins (David), 370, 372, 373. 
 
 Wilkins (Dr., Warden of Wadham), 
 229. 
 
 Wilkinson (the Parliamentary Com- 
 missioner), 311. 
 
 Willes (Sir John, Fellow of All Souls), 
 360. 
 
 Winchelsea (E.vrl of), 294. 
 
 Winchester (Bishops of), 95, 96, 222, 
 224, 249, 373, 374, 375, 406, 419. 
 
 (College of), 9, 56. 
 
 (Dean of ), 53, 79. 
 
 Wood (Anthony), 94, 127, 165, '185, 
 206, 216, 227, 237, 249, 284, 294, 
 298, 309, 316, 320, 322, 430, 431, 
 
 434- 
 
 Wood' (Eobert, Fellow of All Souls),382. 
 
 Woodstock, 36, 139, 307. 
 
 Worcester College, 318, 384, 413. 
 
 Worcester (Dean of), 76. 
 
 Wren (Sir Christopher, Fellow of All 
 Souls), 119, 195, 196, 207, 208, 218, 
 228-236, 364, 390, 394, 421. 
 
 Wykeham (William of, Bishop of Win- 
 chester), 8, 9, n, 12, 29, 30, 31, 150, 
 
 374, 385- 
 Wynne (Fellow of All Souls), 277. 
 
 York (Anne Duchess of), 293. 
 
 (Archbishops of), see 'Archbishops.' 
 
 (Cecilia Duchess of), 33. 
 
 (city of), 169. 
 
 (Dean of), 30. 
 
 (House of), 3, 28, 33, 34, 407, 
 
 432- 
 
 (James Duke of), 293. 
 
 Young (Edward, the poet, Fellow of 
 All Souls), 327, 336, 390, 392, 396- 
 400, 417, 421. 
 
 Yule (Colonel, his edition of Marco 
 Polo), 47.
 
 '.'': I 
 
 i I . ''''" -''.\'.