Oxford and Its Story

o contemporary scholars like ?neas Sylvius, was destined likewise to perish. In fact, it was but beginning to be diffused. Scholars fled with what MSS. they could save to the hospitable

e Sosii never dreamed. The Italians acquired the Greek language with rapidity and ardour. The student flung aside his scholastic culture; cast away the study of an Aristotle that had been conformed to Christian

fired, their ideas were but coldly welcomed by the followers of Thomas or the disciples of Duns. At Oxford the New Movement took but a momentary hold of only a small part of the University, and then was shaken off by the

The schoolmen were still busily chopping their logic, when the Medicis were ransacking the world for a new play, when Poggio was writing his "Faceti?" or editing Tacitus, and Pope Nicholas was founding the Va

ost reached its perfection abroad. Block books-books printed wholly from carved blocks of wood-had come in and

by Tyrannius Rufinus of Aquileia. The colophon of this book, however, distinctly states that it was printed in 1468: "Impressa Oxonie et ibi finita anno domini M.CCCC.LXVIIJ, XVIJ die decembris." But there is every reason to suppose that an X has been omitted from this date and that the true year was 1478. Such a misprint is not uncommon. Exactly the same error occurs in books published at Veni

embles that used by Gerard ten Raem de Berka or Guldenschaff. Still, it cannot be proved that Rood printed these first three books, or that he ever used the type in which they alone are printed. The colophon of the fourth book, a Latin commentary on the "De Anima" of Aristotle by Alexander de Hales, a folio printed from new type, gives the name of the printer, Theodore Rood, and bears the date 1481. A copy of it was bought in the year of publication for the

Corpus Libraries), has a curious colophon in verse, which describes the printers and their ambition to surpass the Venetians in their work. The partners ceased to produce books after 1486. Rood probably returned to Cologne, and

lers and students to Italy, who could not fail to be impressed by the new

ime when Greek was almost unknown in England. He brought back from his travels in Italy many precious books, which he gave to the library of Lincoln College. William Grey, another of Guarino's pupils, enriched the library of Balliol with many fine manuscript

dy in England. Thomas Linacre was one of his pupils, who, after studying at Oxford under Vitelli, journeyed to Italy with Selling. He was introduced to Politian at Florence. Thence he proceeded to Rome, and there perhaps formed his taste for the scientific writings of Aristotle and his devotion to the study of medicine, which afterwards found expres

as probably that Cornelius who, in company with two other Italians, Cyprian and Nicholas by name, dined with the President of Magdalen on Christmas Day, 1488. And from the lips of this pioneer William Grocyn himself learned Greek. Grocyn was a fellow of New College (1467-1481), but he a

f the Bible had been ousted by the study of the Sentences was taken. A course of lectures by John Cole

ht it at Cambridge is true, if we qualify it by the reminder that he knew a little before he came to England and learned more in the years w

as converted into a hall for students, and then into a charitable institution (Bridewell). The site, on the east side of New Inn Hall Street, is occupied by a house and garden, now called Frewen Hall, which was chosen in 1859 as the residence of the Prince of Wales during his studies at Oxford. The west gateway, a few remains of groining and the wall facing the street north of the gate are practically all that remains of the building as Erasmus saw it, unless we reckon the roof of the chapel of B.N.

ound everybody delightful. The English girls were divinely pretty, and he admired their custom of kissing visito

o accurately that I seem to have lost little in not going to Italy. When Colet speaks I might be listening to Plato. Linacre is as deep and acute a thinker as I have ever met. Grocyn is

eet and amiable friend" Colet, when the latter "spoke with a sacred fury" and Erasmus himself, finding the c

st the authority of Thomas Aquinas, and to apply to the study of the New Testament the knowledge and methods indicated by the study of Greek literature. His "Moria" and his "Novum Instrumentum," therefore, the books which prepared the way for the Reformation, were his protest, and the protest of the Christian laity along with him, against the authority of the clergy and a

ings, and, seeing what came of the study of Greek, declared that they would have no more of it. Oxford divided itself into two bodies, who called themselves Greeks and Trojans, the Trojans enormously preponderating. The "Greeks,

schoolmasters that taught the true Latin tongue had with them, some beating the pulpit with their fists for madness, and roaring out with open and foaming mouth, that if th

e the intemperance of the Trojan clique. But the Heads of Houses were sleeping over a volcano, and More's letter could not rouse them from

ncellor, was on the side of the New Learning. He defrayed the expenses of many lectures, for which the University repeatedly thanked him. He engaged a famous Spanis

ll "barbarism" from the "bee-hive," as the founder fondly called his college, by lecturing daily on the Classics. Tradition says that the professor wa

al, Corpus Ch

uct of the Renaissance. He had been Bishop of Exeter, of Bath and Wells and of Durham before he was translated to Winchester; he had been Keeper of the Privy Seal and Secretary of State, and had playe

nastery of S. Swithun at Winchester. But before the building was completed, he determined to make it a college for secular students. Holinshed gives us the words in which Hugh

all we ourselves may live to see? No, no. It is more meet a great deal that we should have care to provide f

nt. The verdict of his contemporaries with regard to his work and intentions is expressed by Erasmus, who wrote that "Just as Rhodes was once famous for the Colossus, and Caria for the

rasmus declared would attract more students than Rome had done hitherto; so also, in addition to the twenty fellows and twenty scholars of his college, he endowed three Readers, in Greek, in Latin, and in Theology. Natives of Greece and Italy were to be specially eligible for these offices; Greek a

umanity. The works of Lorenzo Valla, Aulus Gellius and Politian are recommended as suitable subjects of study during the three vacations. The Professor of Greek, an officer unknown in any earlier college, was required to lecture,

ternate years. He was not, however, to be content with the comments of the schoolmen, b

gy was to be restored to the place of honour whence the quibbles of the schoolmen had banished it; the masterpieces of the

ront quadrangle, was erected by a fellow in 1581. As at All Souls' and elsewhere, the name of the college is indicated by sculpture over the gateway-a group of angels bearing a pyx, the receptacle of the sacramental

C. was always close. Foxe, indeed, is sa

gle Corpus Ch

bage had been allowed to accumulate in the ill-made, unswept streets. And though the King might write to the burghers and command them to remove the nuisances of this sort from before their doors, the efforts to deal with them were only spasmodic. Brewers and bakers, again, were forbidden by the King's edict (1293) to make use of the foul waters of Trill Mill Strea

the Trill Mill Stream with offal. Inundations from the Cherwell and the Thames, not yet regulated and confined by the

3 most of the members of Oriel removed to a farm at Dean; in 1522 the inmates of New College fled on the outbreak of some illness, and the fellows of University College dispersed on the same account in 1525. From Magdalen, in unhealthy seasons, there were frequent migrations of a large portion of the society to Witney or to Brackley, where the hospital had been indicated by the founder as a place to which such mi

seized and sent to London for railing against the Commonwealth and the established religion. His house was searched for "bulls, libels, and suchlike things against the Queen and religion." He was returned to O

ed not many hours after. Above 600 sickened in one night; and the day after, the infectious air being carried into the next villages, sickened there an hundred more. The number of persons

atholics, who were said to have used magic to revenge themselves for the cropping of Jencks' ears, but the explanation suggested by a remark of Bacon is mo

nitary conditions of the place. Regulations were introduced, which do not greatly di

heir ground reacheth and cause the same to be carried away twice every week. All privies & hogsties set or made over upon or adjoining to any the waters or streames leading to any brew-house shall be removed & taken away. No person shall keep any hogs or swine within the said City but o

the sixteenth century. But ordinances are one thing and effective street-police is another. A hundred years later S. James's Square was still the receptacle for all offal and cinders, for all the dead cats and d

hit that they petitioned the University for aid. A weekly contribution from the colleges alleviated the distress that arose from this doleful sickness. The town was almost deserted; the shops were closed; and only the keepers of the sick or the collectors of relief appeared in the streets-"no not so much as dog or cat." The churches were seldom opened, and grass grew in the common market-pl

is benefactions to learning, and the University, it was an Oxford Laureate, one of our earliest satirists, who, when the C

ts Laureate. John Skelton, who was perhaps Court Poet to Henry VIII., was certainly tutor to Prince Henry and Laureate of both Universities.

o me myn h

th the U

ed to t

nsent of t

e Poete L

d admitted him (1493) to a corresponding degree, and

a short while, as we have seen; for six months he acted as master of Magdalen School, and in 1500 he was instituted to the Rectory of Lymington, thanks to the favour of the Marquis of Dorset, whose three sons had been his pupils at the school. It is not every man who is given even one chance in life, but at last to Wolsey, as to Wykeham, the opportunity came. He pleased th

nours to make him forget the University which had given him his s

y this time composed, had long been felt. Some efforts had indeed already (1518) been made in this direction, but they had come to nothing. Graduates who swore to ob

ded a solemn meeting of the graduates at S. Mary's and informed them of his design to establish certain daily lectures for the benefit of the University at large. For this purpose it was necessary to alter existing regulations. The graduates seized the opportunity of inviting the Cardinal, their "M?cenas," whom t

m having to apply to the city for permission to carry on business. Many minor rights and immunities were granted to the Chancellor, and no appeal was allowed from his court. "Any sentence, just or unjust, by the Chancellor against any pe

er places of the University had been exempted from the subsidies charged upon the town. The jealousy which had been slumbering now burst into flames. The bailiffs flatly refused to summ

t. The city bailiffs closed the door of the Guildhall, so that the court thus summoned could not be held. This device they adopted repeatedly.

y & procters & their officers of the University hath usurped & daily us

to maintain the privileges of the University. Proceedings were instituted against him. His answer, when he was summoned to appea

the King's Grace's lieutenant for lack of a better, and I know no ca

did not abate the firmness of his attitude when he obtained it, for he flatly refused to promise "to stand to the law and

against the University, in which the chief incidents in the hard-fought battl

him a pint of wine of every hogshead that he did set a-broach, for his taste. And the said William answered and said that he knew no such duty to be had, if he knew it he would gladly give it. And thereupon the said Commissary said he would m

of the city, the mayor and twenty of the

ne of them, neither eat nor drink in their houses, under pain of for

t was procured which confirmed the old obnoxious charter of 1523, but with a clause of all the liberties of the mayor and town. This clause led the way to fresh acts of aggression on either side, and renewed recriminations and disputes until, on the report of two judges, a series of orders was promulgated by the Privy Council (1575), intended to set at rest the differences between the two bodies for ever. But the

nd a college which, in splendour and resources, should eclipse even the noble foundations of Wykeham and Waynflete, a college where the secular clergy should study the New Learning and use it as a handmaid of Theology and in the

y and nobly ordered minds and characters." At Oxford, at Winchester and at Windsor he had lived under the shadow of the great monuments of Wykeham's genius, and learned to discern "the true nature of the beautiful and graceful, the simplicity of beauty in style, harmony and grace." So that in the architecture of his college-and Architecture, as Plato tells us, as all the other Arts, is full of grace and harmony, which are the two sisters of goodness and virtue-he was enabled to fulfil the Platonic

inished, ye

in art and

m shall ever sp

othing mean could ente

e, whatever the piety of an occasional Abbot Samson, or the popularity of a monkish institution which did its duty of charity and instruction in this or that part of the country, the monks as a rule had ceased to live up to their original standard. They had accumulated wealth and lost their hold on the people. And where they were popular, it was in many cases with the pe

ouse and revenues, amounting to nearly ￡300, were assigned to the proposed college of secular clerks. The scale of that college is indicated by the fact that it was to consist of a dean and sixty canons, forty cano

en professed members, empowered Wolsey to suppress any number of such small religious houses all over the country. This he proceeded to do, and t

nd statesmanlike. But, in its execution, it gave rise to fear and irritation, of which Wolsey's political enem

in England to shake, justly fearing the King would finish to f

ll satisfaction, recompense and joyous contentation" of all concerned. The King complained that some of the monasteries would not contribute to his necessities as much as they had contributed to the Cardinal's scheme. Wolsey replied that he had indeed receiv

oved to make way for the great quadrangle. The Chapel of S. Michael at South Gate was demolished, and part of the old town wall was thrown down. Room was thus made for the buildings on the south side of the quadrangle. These, the first portion of the college to be

is iste instituit Colleg

m, which being fre

labour once, and fort

ege planned, and bui

y it was, so men afterwards complained, who first introduced the taint of heresy into Oxford. For at first the University was as strictly orthodox as her powerful patron, who hated "the Helli

s, Chris

an reformer. A committee of theologians was also held at Oxford, and their condemnation of Luther's teaching won the warm approval of the University. But the leaven of Lutheranism had already been introduced. The Cambridge students whom

f obliged to take notice of the growing

ers," he explains, "have induced no small number of young and incircumspect fools to give ear unto them," and he proposes th

nity was wont to meet. Garret was not detained in Bocardo, but in a cellar underneath the lodgings of the commissary, Dr Cottisford, Rector of Lincoln. Whilst the commissary was at evensong he managed to escape, and made his way to the rooms of Anthony Dalaber, one of the "brotherhood," at Gloucester College. Dalaber has left an account-it is a most tearful tale-of the events which ensued. He had previously had some share in getting Garret away from Oxford, and was greatly surprised to see him back. He provided him with a coat in place

don, the Warden of New College, "puffing, blustering and blowing, like a hungry and greedy lion seeking his prey." The commissary was so much blamed, that he wept for sorrow. Spies were sent out in every direction; and when Dalaber returned to his rooms next morning, he found that they had been thoroughly searched. He had spent the night with the "brethren," supping at Corpus ("at which supper we were not very merry"), sleeping at S. Alban Hall, consulting together and praying for the wisdom of the serpent, and the harmlessness of the dove. This request would appear to have been in some measure vouchsafed to him, for, when he was interrogated by the prior as to his own movements and those of Garret, he was e

amed to inform the bishop of the astrologer's saying, or afraid to ask him to inform the Cardinal, Archbishop of York, concerning it. Luckily for him the commissary did not rely wholly on the information either of Dalaber or the astrologer. The more practical method of watching the seaport towns resulted a few days later in Garret's recapture near Bristol. Many of the Oxford brotherhood were also imprisoned and excommunicated. Garret, who had written a piteous letter to Wolsey, praying for

g sickness then raging, or, as Foxe asserts, from the hardships they endured. For they were kept, he says, for nearly six mon

ry determined to proscribe all books that savoured of heresy. A joint committee of Oxford and Cambridge theologians was summoned to meet in London. They examined and condemned the suspected books which were submitt

s marriage. It was a failure fraught with enormous consequences. The fortunes of Oxford were involved in it. The King gladly availed himself of the suggestion of a Cambridge scholar, Thomas Cranmer, that the Universities should be called on for their judgment. They were thus placed in a position analogous to that of an ?cumenical coun

he marriage was declared illegal, if it could be proved that Catherine's marriage with Prince Arthur had been consummated. Cambridge was praised by the King for h

er, in which the King called upon the University to declare their minds "sincerely and truly without any abuse," a

may be assured that we, not without great cause, shall so quickly and sharply look to you

fused to entrust the matter wholly to the Faculty of Theology. They claimed to nominate a certain numb

to play masters, or they would soon learn tha

was no doubt about the popular feeling on the question. Pieces of hemp and rough drawings of gallows were affixed to the gate of the bishop's lodging; both he and Father Nicholas were pelted with stones in the open street; the women of Oxford supported Catherine with such vehemence, that thi

ity. A verdict was obtained which corresponded to the Cambridge decree. The important reservation, "if the marriage had been con

he foregone decision in favour of separation from Rome. The authority of the Pope in England was abolished, and the monasteries were rendered liable to visitation by commission under th

ellent thing there was in the whole realm." The rich vestments and ornaments with which he had furnished S. Frideswide's Church were quickly "disposed" by the King. The disposal of this and other property, lands, offices, plate and tapestries forfeited under the statute of Praemunire, and carefully catalogued for his royal master by the fallen minister, had

at of his great foundation at Ipswich, caused Wolsey infinite sorrow. To Thomas Cromwell he wrote that he could not sleep for the thought of it, and could not write unto him for weeping and sorrow. He appealed with all the passion of despair to the King and those

ave, for it is not thought meet for the common weal of our realm. Yet we wi

he creation of the see and diocese of Oxford (1542). The way was thus cleared for the final arrangement by which (4th November 1546) the episcopal see was transferred from Osney and united with the collegiate corporation under the title it bears to-day, Ecclesia Christi Cathedralis Oxon; ex fundatione Regis Henrici Octavi. Thus S. Frideswide's C

lands belonging to the Colleges." They urged Henry to treat

onasteries, you have a desire also to overthrow all goodness by subversion of Colleges. I tell you, sirs, that I judge no land in England better bestowed than that which is given to our Universities; f

el with the University. It had proved subservient to his will; the colleges were nurseries of the secular clergy, who ad

n suffered severely from both causes. The halls and hostels stood empty; very few degrees were taken. Religious controversy usurped the place of education. The University became a centre of politics and ecclesiasticism. The schools were deserted or occupied by laundresses; and, whilst commissioners were busy applying tests, expelling honest fellows, destroying MSS. and smashing organs, men began to discover that, through the invention of printing, it had become possible for them to educate themselves. They no longer needed to go to a monastery or college library to obtain a boo

scholastic teaching and to promote classical learning. They confirmed the public lectures in Greek and Latin which they found, and established others, at Magdalen, New College, and C.C.C., and they settled other lectures of the kind at Merton and Queen's. The other colleges, they found, could not afford to have such lectures, and accordingly they directed the students of these to attend the courses at the others daily. The study

d your injunctions we found all the great Quadrant Court full of the leaves of Dunse, the wind blowing them into every corner. And there we found one Mr. Greenfield, a gentleman of Bu

f scholasticism in Engl

the new Anglican Church. Theologians were invited from the Continent, and in default of Melancthon, Peter Martyr arrived and lectured in the Divinity Schools on the Epistles of S. Paul and the Eucharist. His teaching roused protest from the Roman Catholics, and polemical divinity, if no other study, flourished fo

and replaced by rigid Calvinists. "All things," the Roman Catholics thought, "were turned topsy turvy." The disciplinary injunctions and a

e uses, whilst those wherein angles or mathematical diagrams appeared were destroyed because accounted Popish or diabolical or both." The works of the schoolmen were carried about the city "by certain rude young men" on biers and finally burnt in the mark

eyed. But everywhere the statues crashed from their niches, rood and rood-loft were laid low and the sun-light stared in white and stainless on the whitened aisles. At Magdalen the high altar and various images and paintings were destroyed, the organ burnt and th

is a conjectural restoration, was smashed; most of the stained glass there was

chools founded in connection with the colleges. The city, how

at grammar.... There be in danger to be cast out of some college thirty, some other forty or fifty, some other more or fewer, & the most part of them children of your poor orators, having of the said college meat, drink, cloth & lodging & were verie well brought up in learning in the common grammar scoole at the College of S

essful, though some s

ool, thus preserved,

Hall Magda

uilding and in part (including the south portion and the little bell-tower) to other buildings that were added to it (1614). All these buildings, save the fragment that remains to be used as undergraduates' rooms, were removed in 1845 together with the houses that faced the gravel walk between them and Long Wall. The present school-room, facing the High, was erected shortly afterwards (Buckler), in t