THE DIOCESE OF OXFORD.
Down to our own time, Oxford remained one of the new dioceses of the
English Church, having been set up by Henry VIII. by way of compensation
for his confiscation of the monastic properties. Before 1542 Oxford
belonged to the enormous diocese of Lincoln; but in that year the new see
was created, and Robert King, the last Abbot of Oseney, was made first
Bishop of Oseney, and the Bishop's stool set up in his magnificent abbey
church of St. Mary.
This Abbey of Oseney, which had been founded by Robert D'Oilgi in 1129,
and rebuilt in 1247, was, like St. Frideswide's, a house of Augustinian
Canons, but far larger. It was, indeed, one of the finest abbeys in
England, its principal cloister being as large as Tom Quad, and its
church no less than 352 feet by 100, with double aisles, and twenty-four
altars. Gardens and courts, and comely outbuildings, ran along the side
of the river; in every corner a busy life went on among the orieled
windows and high-pitched roofs, within the fretted cloister, the schools
and libraries, the refectory, and the kitchen, whither a conduit brought
the water from the river side. A great gate looked on to the high road;
and the abbot's lodgings were so spacious that six men could walk abreast
up the steps which led into his hall. Yet others were not forgotten;
besides the guest-house, there was a building reserved for poor clerks.
But Henry's mania for destruction could not let the Abbey stand. In 1546
he moved the see to St. Frideswide's, reconstituting the old Priory,
which Wolsey had turned into a college, as both college and cathedral.
The doom of Oseney was pronounced, and in that year the demolition began.
In 1566 Agar's map represents Oseney Abbey as still standing, but
roofless; in 1644 a good deal remained, but Charles I. used the greater
part to complete the fortifications of Oxford against the Cromwellians;
in 1718 the abbot's chamber and the great stone staircase were all that
was left. In Dr. Johnson's time a few ruins could still be seen, of which
the great man said (at a time when such sentiments were uncommon)--"Sir,
to look upon them fills me with indignation." At the present day the
remains are almost invisible; they consist of a portion of a building
attached to the mill, a fragment of the foundations of the gateway at the
end of the same building, a small portion of the wall near the great gate,
a few loose fragments of masonry, and some encaustic tiles. Bishop King's
window in the cathedral gives one a vague reminder of its former aspect;
and only the bells, which were transferred to Christ Church, remain
intact. Thus perished the first cathedral church of the see of Oxford.
Of it there now remains no memory
Nor any little monument to see;
By which the traveller that fares that way,
That once she was may warned be to say.
Apart from questions of vandalism, the destruction of this the first
cathedral of Oxford was an egregious piece of waste and folly. Such places
have been only too much needed by the University--indeed the need was
felt a few years after the destruction--and vast sums have been spent
in the erection of immeasurably inferior buildings. If Oseney Abbey,
with its crowd of beautiful outbuildings along the water side, had been
converted into a college, it would have been of immense use, and every
other college now extant insignificant compared with it. Of all the
headstrong and wanton actions of an irreverent age, the destruction of
Oseney was one of the most wicked; and, as the train moves into Oxford
railway station, the stranger may remember that the present approach
to the old city is only so hideous because the glorious old abbey has
given place to a collection of gasholders, coal-heaps, railway-sidings,
modern tombstones, and obscene jerry-buildings.
The diocese of Oxford now includes the deaneries of Aston, Burcester,
Chipping-Norton, Cuddesden, Deddington, Dorchester (Oxon), Henley, Witney,
Woodstock, and Oxford City, together with the counties of Berks and Bucks.
=Robert King= (1542-1557), the first Bishop of Oseney and of Oxford,
and the last Abbot of Oseney and of Thame, began life as a Cistercian
monk. On the conversion of his abbey into a cathedral, he continued, as
bishop of the new see, to preside; but he had already, seven years before,
been raised to the episcopate, as suffragan of Lincoln, under the title
(conferred by the Pope) of Bishop of Rheon in the province of Athens. He
seems to have taken the Reformation pretty easily, passing through all
the changes under King Henry, King Edward, and Queen Mary. He died at
an advanced age in 1557, and was buried in Christ Church Cathedral. He
left considerable riches to his nephew Phillip King, "which it seems,"
says Fuller, "was quickly consumed, so that John King, Bishop of London
(son of Phillip), used to say he believed there was a fate in abbey
money no less than in abbey land, which seldom proved fortunate, or of
continuance to the owners." He is supposed to have built "Bishop King's
House" in Rose Place.
After Queen Elizabeth had kept the see vacant for ten years, =Hugh Curwen=
(1567-1568), a "moderate papist," according to Fuller, who had been made
Archbishop of Dublin by Queen Mary, and now wished to end his days in
peace, was translated to Oxford. "Very decrepid, broken with old age and
many state affairs," he died next year. Whereupon Elizabeth kept the see
vacant for twenty-one years more, "out of pure devotion to the leases,
as some writers say."
=John Underhill= (1589), Rector of Lincoln College, and one of Queen
Elizabeth's chaplains, was next appointed, "being persuaded," says Willis,
"on certain considerations, to accept it in the way of a better." But
it proved "very much out of his way; for ere the first-fruits were payed
he died in great discontent and poverty about the beginning of May 1592."
Again Elizabeth, who had already taken away some of the best estates
from the bishopric, kept it in her hands the third time (1592-1604):
"who," says Willis, "constituting no bishop forty-one years of her
forty-four, disposed of its income to her courtiers as she thought fit,
giving whatever they had a mind to ask; though, as some writers remark,
it proved miserably fatal to them, particularly to her great favourite
the Earl of Essex."
With =John Bridges= (1604-1618) commences the unbroken succession of
Bishops of Oxford. It is suggested by Fuller in his "Worthies" that "the
cause that church was so long a widow was the want of a competent estate
to prefer her"; but at this time, Elizabeth being dead, the endowment
of the see had been increased; and henceforward occupants for it were
found. Bridges is known to history mainly from his name appearing at the
head of the title-page of the first two Marprelate tracts. He was then,
1587, Dean of Sarum, and had written a temperate reply to the Puritan
pamphleteers who were pouring violent abuse upon Episcopacy. Martin
Marprelate seized upon his book, "A Defence of the Government Established
in the Church of England," and headed the "Epistle" and the "Epitome"
with, "Oh read over D. John Bridges, for it is a worthy worke." He was
a good Bishop.
=John Howson= (1619-1628) was a great controversialist of the time, his
four sermons against the Pope's supremacy having, according to Fuller,
"made him famous to all posterity." He was one of the original members
of Chelsea College, an institution founded by James I. "to afford
divines leisure and other conveniences to spend their time wholly in
controversy." Mercifully this terrible design soon gave way, and Chelsea
College became Chelsea Hospital. Bishop Howson was translated to Durham
in 1628, where he died at the age of ninety-five.
=Richard Corbet= (1628-1632) was "a distinguished wit in an age of wits,
and a liberal man amongst a race of intolerant partizans." But perhaps
his liberality (which did not prevent him, by-the-way, from carrying out
the Laudian discipline with a high hand) was due to his own easy way
of living: for he and his chaplain were wont to lock themselves in the
wine-cellar and be merry. He seems to have been a genial, kind, generous,
and spirited prelate; sincere and affectionate in private life, he was,
says Gilchrist, "correct, eloquent, and ingenious as a poet." At least
he was a man of character. From 1632 to 1635 he was Bishop of Norwich.
=John Bancroft= (1632-1641), Master of University College, and nephew of
the Archbishop of Canterbury of that name, was a great benefactor to the
see. Being a single man he devoted his money to this purpose; and besides
many financial acquisitions, he built an episcopal palace at Cuddesden
at the suggestion of Archbishop Laud. This palace, the first since the
time of Edward VI., was finished in 1634, and burnt down ten years later
by Colonel Legg, to prevent its becoming useful to the parliamentary
forces. It lay in ruins till the time of Bishop Fell.
=Robert Skinner= (1641-1663) was translated from Bristol. He was
imprisoned in the Tower by the Puritan party, and remained in obscurity
during the Commonwealth; but he was one of the few who continued to
ordain. At the Restoration, being then over seventy, he was translated
to Worcester.
=William Paul= (1663) and =Walter Blandford= (1665) did nothing memorable.
=Hon. Nathaniel Crewe= (1671-1674) entered into holy orders in 1664; in
the short space of five years he was Dean of Chichester, and two years
after that Bishop of Oxford. He was an ambitious and restless man: in
1673 he had the boldness to perform the marriage ceremony between the
Duke of York and Mary of Este, in defiance of the House of Commons. As
a reward for this act, the Duke procured him the see of Durham, whither
he was translated in 1674. At the Revolution, as a consequence of his
political intrigues, he was excepted from the general pardon, and obliged
to fly to Holland. But he afterwards made his peace; and, on the death
of his elder brother, becoming Lord Crewe, he was the first man to be
summoned to Parliament both as baron and bishop. He lived on till 1722.
=Hon. Henry Compton= (1674-1675), son of the Earl of Northampton, who died
fighting by the king at Hopton Heath in 1644, was after the Restoration
a cornet in the army before he took orders. He was conspicuous throughout
his long life for his efforts to reconcile the dissenters with the Church
of England, and for his opposition to Rome; he was the first to sign the
declaration for the Prince of Orange on William's arrival in London. But
at Oxford he was a bird of passage, being translated to London in 1675.
=John Fell= (1676-1686), the best known, and also the best of the Bishops
of Oxford, was well-fitted to restore the traditions of the place; for
his father Samuel Fell was Dean of Christ Church from 1637-1649, and had
been elected student of the House as far back as 1601: thus John Fell must
have had an intimate knowledge of the traditions of Christ Church as far
back as the third interregnum of Elizabeth. A strong royalist, Fell kept
in seclusion till the Restoration, when, in 1660, he was made Dean. He
at once commenced to restore both the discipline and the buildings of
the College. On his appointment to the Bishopric, he was permitted to
retain the Deanery as well, in order "that he might better carry on his
noble designs, which were so many that they contributed to wear him quite
out and shorten his life." He employed Sir Christopher Wren to build
Tom Tower, and finished the north side of Tom Quadrangle; he also built
a new episcopal palace upon the ruins of the old one at Cuddesden. He
founded ten exhibitions, and caused the University Theatre to be erected,
and the Printing Press to be "advanced to a glory superior to any place
in Christendom." He showed exemplary care in governing his diocese, and
established daily prayers at St. Martin's (as the principal city church
of Oxford) at eight in the morning and eight at night. His most important
book is the "Life of Dr. Henry Hammond," 1660; he also wrote several
theological books, edited St. Cyprian's works, and produced a well-known
edition of the New Testament. He died in 1686, "having by a most pious
unspotted single life left behind him an everlasting character," and was
buried in the cathedral, where, in the ante-chapel, there is a monument
to him. There is also a beautiful statue of him over the archway that
leads past the deanery into Peckwater Quadrangle, by Mr. Bodley.
Anthony à Wood records of him that he was "the most zealous man of his
time for the Church of England." Still John Fell had his weak points,
as this same Anthony Wood had cause to know. For it so happened that
Wood had mentioned Hobbes, the redoubtable author of the "Leviathan,"
in terms of great admiration, in his History and Antiquities of the
University. Wood was himself a strong high-churchman, with (it had been
said) a weakness for popery; in praising Hobbes he therefore acted with a
generosity and fairness beyond his age. Fell, however, was not so liberal;
he considered Hobbes no better than an atheist or a deist, and when one
Peers was employed by Wood to translate his book into Latin, Fell got on
the right side of the man, and made him alter all Wood's praises of Hobbes
to expressions of abuse. The author of the "Leviathan," meeting the King
in Pall Mall, got leave to reply, and hit the Bishop rather hard. Fell
retorted with an answer that contained the famous description of Hobbes as
_irritabile illud et vanissimum Malmesburiense animal_. Wood, of course,
was furious, and the wretched Peers suffered at the hands of the muscular
old Antiquary, so that "as Peers alway cometh off with a bloody nose or
a black eye, he was a long time afraid to goe anywhere where he might
chance to meet his too powerful adversary, for fear of another drubbing."
=Samuel Parker= (1686-1687) was a typical specimen, of the place-hunter
of the period. He was brought up a strict Puritan at Northampton, and,
coming to Wadham College in 1656, when the Puritans were in power,
he distinguished himself as "one of the most godly young men in the
University," and was under the tuition of a rigid Presbyterian. Shortly
after the Restoration, however, he changed his mind, and in 1663 he took
orders, becoming "a zealous advocate of the Church of England." By 1686,
however, he was the creature of James II., and was forced by that monarch
upon Magdalen College, Oxford, as its President, in 1687, in the place
of the lawful President, John Hough. At the installation only two of the
Magdalen Fellows attended; the porter threw down his keys, the butler
had to be dismissed because he would not scratch Hough's name from the
buttery list, no blacksmith even could be found in Oxford to force the
lock of the President's lodgings; and the whole University, which had
suffered so much for the Stuarts, was alienated at last. Parker himself
died very soon after, in the lodgings that he had unlawfully occupied. He
lies buried in the ante-chapel of Magdalen, but no monument marks his
grave. Antony Wood intimates that he would have become a Papist, but
for his wife, who was unwilling to be parted from him; and he certainty
wrote in defence of transubstantiation. Still, Parker, according to
Mr. W.H. Hutton (_Social England_, iv. 421), was by no means a despicable
man. As a philosopher in his _Disputationes de Deo_, and _Censure of the
Platonick Philosophie_, as a satirist in his _Discourse of Ecclesiastical
Polity_, and an ecclesiastical historian, he is eminent. "But most of all
is he commended to modern thinkers by his little tract containing reasons
for the abolition of the Test Act."
=Timothy Hall= (1688-1690), another of James II.'s creatures, was also
originally a Nonconformist, but afterwards, "getting nothing," says
Willis, "for his loss of a small living in Middlesex, he complied."
Being a very obscure and inconsiderable person, and on no account for
learning, no one took any notice of him. At the Revolution he fled from
Oxford, and died "miserably poor at Hackney near London, and was buried
in the church there without any memorial."
=John Hough= (1690-1699), the President of Magdalen whom King James
had ejected, was the next bishop. He retained the Presidency during
his episcopate. In 1699 he was translated to Lichfield, thence in 1717
to Worcester, where he died in 1743. He was, says Macaulay, "a man of
eminent virtue and prudence, who, having borne persecution with fortitude
and prosperity with meekness, having risen to high honours, and having
modestly declined honours higher still, died in extreme old age, yet
in full vigour of mind," fifty-six years after the eventful struggle
with James.
=William Talbot= (1669-1715), father of Lord Chancellor Talbot, was
translated to Salisbury in 1715, and to Durham in 1721.
=John Potter= (1715-1737), son of a linen-draper in Wakefield, wrote a
well-known book on the "Antiquities of Greece." He was "a learned and
exemplary divine, but of a character by no means amiable, being strongly
tinctured with a kind of haughtiness and severity of manners." He became
Archbishop of Canterbury in 1737.
=Thomas Secker= (1737-1758) came of dissenting parents, but was persuaded
by the great Bishop Butler to abandon the study of medicine and to take
orders in the Church. He was an estimable and able person, and in 1758
became Archbishop of Canterbury. His portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds
is at Lambeth.
=John Hume= (1758-1766), Bishop of Bristol 1756: translated to Salisbury
1766.
=Robert Lowth= (1766-1777) was the author of a variety of works, including
a "Life of William of Wykeham," and a "Short Introduction to English
Grammar." His controversy with Warburton, and the "Letters" to which
it gave rise, are well known. Of his "Isaiah" Philip Skelton said that
"Lowth on the Prophecies of Isaiah is the best book in the world, next to
the Bible." He was moved to London 1777, and he refused the Archbishopric
of Canterbury.
=John Butler= (1777-1788) was a popular preacher and political
pamphleteer; in reward apparently for his efforts in the latter function,
Lord North advanced him to see of Oxford, though he was not a university
man. Translated to Hereford 1788.
=Edward Smallwell= (1788-1799), St. David's 1783. The first bishop since
Dr. Fell to remain faithful to the diocese.
=John Randolph= (1799-1807), regius professor of Greek and a trustee
of the British Museum, was the author of many sermons and charges. One
of his last works was a report of the progress of the National School
Society. Translated to Bangor 1807, and to London 1809.
=Charles Moss= (1807-1811) avoided translation, and died shortly in the
palace at Cuddesden, and "leaving his splendid furniture for the use of
his successors."
=William Jackson= (1812-1815) was a prominent Oxford man, being regius
professor of Greek and curator of the Clarendon Press.
=Hon. Henry Legge= (1816-1827) was a son of the Earl of Dartmouth;
he had been Dean of Windsor, and in 1817 became Warden of All Souls,
retaining the bishopric.
=Charles Lloyd= (1827-1829). Had he not died at the early age of
forty-five, Lloyd would have played a great part in the stirring times
that were in store for the Church. He was, says Mr. Gladstone, "a man
of powerful talents, and of character both winning and decided." He was
Student and Tutor, then Regius Professor of Divinity and Canon of Christ
Church, and had Sir R. Peel among his pupils and constant friends. Lloyd
warmly supported the Roman Catholic Relief Bill in 1829. He was the first
to publish the Prayer Book with red lettered rubrics.
=Hon. Richard Bagot= (1829-1845), translated to Bath and Wells. He
graduated in 1803, and it is characteristic of his times that in 1804 he
was fellow of All Souls, in 1806 rector of Leigh, and in 1807 canon of
Windsor,--all within seven years of his matriculation at Christ Church.
He was bishop at the time of the Oxford movement, and was reluctantly
obliged to play a part in its history. He did not exactly please either
side, but he behaved with great fairness and courtesy, as Newman bears
witness in his _Apologia_. In 1845, being ruined in health by the worry
of previous years, he was translated to Bath and Wells.
=Samuel Wilberforce= (1845-1870), translated to Winchester. This famous
bishop was the third son of William Wilberforce, the great slave
emancipator. At the early age of forty he was made bishop of Oxford,
and he administered the diocese with wonderful ability for a quarter of a
century, guiding it through the most difficult period, when the Tractarian
storm was at its height, without offending either party. His extraordinary
tact and charm enabled him to perform a valuable work for the Church
by binding the various sections together at a time when party-feeling
ran high. He was the most accomplished preacher in the English Church,
one of the fore-most parliamentary orators of his day; "the most witty
and genial of companions, he was the favourite of social life, and
was equally irresistible in the drawing room or on the platform." As a
theologian he was the inferior of his brother the Archdeacon; he wrote,
however, several books, of which the best remembered are "Agathos" and
"Rocky Island." He was killed by a fall from his horse when riding with
Lord Granville in 1873.
=John Fielder Mackarness= (1870-1888) was recommended to the bishopric
by Mr. Gladstone, having lost his seat in convocation through refusing to
oppose the disestablishment of the Irish Church. He was a hard-working
prelate of great courage and independence. When an attempt was made to
force him to take proceedings against the rector of Clewer, he argued the
case in person before the judges of the Queen's Bench, and at last won his
case on appeal. On surrendering to the ecclesiastical commissioners the
management of the Oxford bishopric estates, Dr. Mackarness paid them the
sum of £1729, which he estimated that he had received in excess of his
statutory income during the previous nine years. He had been made a fellow
of Exeter College on taking his degree; he wrote several pamphlets, among
them "A Plea for Toleration, in Answer to the 'No Popery' Cry, 1850." He
resigned, owing to failing health, in 1888, and died in the next year.
=William Stubbs=, the present bishop, was translated from Chester in
1888, being already an Honorary Student of Christ Church. He is one of
the leading historians of our time, and his Constitutional History has
long been the standard work upon the subject.
[Illustration: ARMS OF CHRIST CHURCH.]
* * * * *
Printed by Neill and Co., Ltd., Edinburgh.
FOOTNOTES
[Footnote 1: S. _Skeletons_; B. _Bones_; P. _Drain-pipe_.]
[Footnote 2: Mr. Park Harrison has collected some very interesting
drawings from various Anglo-Saxon MSS., which afford striking parallels
to the ornament on these and other capitals in the church. A reproduction
of the drawing here referred to, and of others equally important, will
be found in his "Pre-Norman Date."]
[Footnote 3: St. Frideswide: Two sermons preached in the Cathedral Church
of Christ in Oxford, by H.G. Liddell, Dean of Christ Church, pp. 21-24.]
[Footnote 4: Mr. Rashdall's theory has, however, already been called
in question by Mr. A.F. Leach, who (_National Review_, September 1896)
asserts decisively that there were schools at Oxford even before Guimond's
time, and that "Oxford is as much, there is every reason to believe, a
natural growth from the schools and schoolmasters of St. Frideswide's as
Paris from those of Notre Dame."]
[Footnote 5: Prior Robert published an abridgment of Pliny, addressed
"to the studious, and especially to those in cloisters and schools." He
also published another work on _Jacob's Marriage_, which he said he had
written when he was himself a scholar and "a regent master."]
End of Project Gutenberg's The Cathedral Church of Oxford, by Percy Dearmer