probably the occasion of issuing some further supplementary statutes,
8th December, 1329. The commons or weekly allowance was raised from
twelve to fifteen pence a week for each scholar. The stipend of the
Provost was increased to ten marks. Ten shillings were allowed to
the Dean; five shillings apiece to the two Fellows, “collectores
reddituum,” who collected the income derived from the oblations in St.
Mary’s Church, and the rents of house and other property in Oxford;
five shillings to the collector of the Littlemore tithes; pittances
were allowed to the Fellows at Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide. The
Provost was allowed to keep a separate table, and to maintain a private
servant. By a more important provision, ex-Fellows were made eligible
to the office of Provost. These statutes were confirmed by the Visitor
26th Feb. 1330, and with those of May 1326, by Royal Letters Patent,
18th March, 1330.
The first chapter in the history of the College, recording the birth
and establishment of Adam de Brome’s foundation, closes with the Papal
Bulls ratifying and confirming the acts of the King and the Bishop, and
authorising the appropriation of the three benefices of St. Mary’s,
Aberford, and Coleby. These were obtained in answer to a letter of the
King, dated 4th December, 1330, in which the design of the foundation
is becomingly set forth. In a postscript to this letter the King calls
the Pope’s attention to another matter, the inconvenience arising
from the frequent occurrence of disturbances in St. Mary’s Church and
Churchyard, arising from the gatherings that habitually took place
there, and which led to “effusiones sanguinis” within the consecrated
precincts, calling for the Bishop’s sentence of reconciliation.
This was not always easily to be obtained, the Bishop being engaged
elsewhere in his extensive diocese; and the King suggests that the Pope
should authorise the Bishop to give a standing commission to the Abbots
of Oseney and Rewley to act for him whenever occasion should require,
and effect the necessary reconciliation. The Pope, having taken six
months to consider this application, issued on the 23rd June, 1331,
four separate Bulls, three of which provided for the appropriation to
the College of the three churches, and the fourth dealt with the matter
last referred to, the use of St. Mary’s Church for secular assemblies,
but very differently from the King’s expectations. Instead of acceding
to the proposal that a simple and expeditious machinery should be
provided for the reconciliation of the Church, on the not unusual
occurrence of a riot within its walls, he proceeded to forbid, under
penalty of excommunication, the holding of any meetings whatever,
“mercationes aliquas emendo vel vendendo seu conventiculas illicitas,”
in the church or churchyard. The Bulls authorising the appropriations
asked for were promptly put into execution, and the benefices secured
to the College, though Aberford did not fall vacant till 1341,
and Coleby not till 1346. But the fourth Bull was suffered to lie
unemployed in the College custody, until an opportunity[132] arose in
which it was thought likely to prove serviceable.
Adam de Brome died 16th June, 1332, on which day his obit. was long
observed by the College. By his will, proved in the Mayor of Oxford’s
Court, certain houses in Oxford--Moses Hall in Penyferthyng Street,
and Bauer Hall in St. Mary Magdalen parish--which he had acquired for
the further endowment of his College, were devised to Richard Overton,
clerk, his executor. Overton may have been one of the Fellows; at
all events he was intimately associated with Adam de Brome in the
establishment of the College and in the acquisition of its endowments;
and the property now left to him, and other property afterwards
acquired, were all ultimately secured to Oriel.
Adam de Brome was succeeded in the Provostship by William de Leverton,
Fellow and Master of Arts, unanimously elected by the College, and
instituted by the Bishop, 27th June. Leverton died 21st Nov. 1348, and
William de Hawkesworth, Doctor in Theology, was elected in his place.
The Bishop annulled this election on the ground of informality, and
himself appointed Hawkesworth to be Provost by his own authority.[133]
Hawkesworth’s tenure of the Provostship was short, and it is chiefly
memorable for the part he played in the disputed election to the
Chancellorship of the University, which occurred early in 1349.
Hawkesworth, who had already acted as the Chancellor’s Commissary, was
the candidate of the Northerners, the party with which the College
appears throughout to be connected; John Wylliot, Fellow of Merton,
was the candidate of the Southerners. On the 19th of March 1349,
Hawkesworth, as Chancellor, with his Proctors proceeded to St. Mary’s
for the performance of Divine service, and they were there attacked
by Wylliot and his party. It was then that Hawkesworth had recourse
to the neglected Bull of Pope John XXII., which had hitherto lain
unused in the College Treasury. It was now produced and publicly read
in the Church, with what immediate result does not appear, though
Wylliot’s action was complained of to the King, and a Commission sent
to inquire into the matter. Hawkesworth’s death followed soon after,
April 8th; he was buried in St. Mary’s, where an inscription still
remains to his memory. Before the election of his successor, an order
was received from the Bishop, prescribing the procedure to be followed,
probably with the object of preventing the irregularities which had
vitiated the last election. William de Daventre, who was now chosen,
had been an active member of the College for some years; his name
occurs frequently in deeds relating to the Oxford property. In 1361
the College found itself rich enough to obtain the King’s license to
add to its possessions divers messuages and small pieces of ground in
Oxford, which had been accumulating since the foundation, and which
were, up to this time, held in the name of members of the society in
trust. The earliest roll of College property, the rental for the year
1363-4, was drawn up shortly after the license had been obtained and
acted upon; and as a consequence of this increase in their corporate
revenues, a new ordinance or statute was issued in 1364, augmenting the
weekly commons, and assigning additional stipends to the Provost, and
to certain College servants.
Daventre died in June 1373, and was succeeded by John de Colyntre,
then one of the Fellows, and for some years past one of its leading
members. The entry of his election in the Lincoln Register records
the names of the electing Fellows, eight besides Colyntre himself,
and describes him in eulogistic language, “virum in spiritualibus et
temporalibus plurimum circumspectum literarum sciencia vita et moribus
merito commendandum scientem et valentem jura domus nostrae efficaciter
prosequi et tueri quin immo propter vite sue munditiam et excellentiam
virtutum apud omnes admodum gratiosum.” It was long before the Fellows
were again as completely in harmony upon the choice of their head.
Colyntre’s rule lasted till his death in 1385 or 1386.
All through the latter part of the fourteenth century the College
was engaged in increasing its scanty endowment, by the purchase, as
opportunity offered, of houses, quit-rents, and other property in
Oxford, contiguous to or in the neighbourhood of La Oriole. The chantry
of St. Mary in the church of St. Michael Southgate, founded by Thomas
de la Legh, was annexed to the College in 1357; as was also the chantry
of St. Thomas in the church of St. Mary the Virgin in 1392. Other
acquisitions were secured by successive licenses in mortmain, granted
in 1376, in 1392, and in 1394. In this way the greater part of the
ground lying between La Oriole and St. Mary’s Hall was acquired and
appropriated to the enlargement of the College buildings and garden.
The name of St. Mary’s College, the legal description of the College,
seems to have been little used: the Society is sometimes described
as the King’s Hall, or the King’s College, but it was more generally
known by the old name of the mansion in which it was lodged. The first
instance of the use of the name “Oriel” by the College itself in a
formal document is in 1367; but it was no doubt a popular designation
at a much earlier date.
In 1373 license was granted by the Bishop for the celebration of masses
and other divine offices in a chapel constructed, or to be constructed,
within the College. Previous to this the church of St. Mary had been
resorted to for all purposes. The legends on the painted glass windows
in this chapel, preserved by Wood, record its erection by Richard Earl
of Arundel, and by his son Thomas Arundel, about the year 1379.
Next in importance for the society of students which Adam de Brome had
founded, after providing them with a house to lodge in, a church or
chapel to worship in, and means to maintain them, was books for them
to study; and this he had, as he believed, secured in the infancy of
the foundation, by acquiring the library which Thomas Cobham, Bishop
of Worcester, had brought together, and which he had placed in the
new building he had erected adjoining St. Mary’s Church. The building
and the books placed in it were intended by the Bishop to be made over
to the University for the use of all its students; but his intention
was frustrated by his premature death; and his executors, finding
his estate unequal to the payment of his debts and funeral expenses,
were driven to pawn the books for the sum of fifty pounds. Adam de
Brome, who, as Rector of the church, had allowed the building to be
erected on his ground, pressed for the completion of the Bishop’s
undertaking; and the executors, unable otherwise to help him, told him
to go in God’s name, and redeem the books and hold them for the use
of his College. Acting upon this permission, he redeemed the books,
brought them to Oxford, and gave them, with the building which had
been built for their reception, to his newly founded Society. This
account of the transaction was not acquiesced in by the University;
and in the Long Vacation of 1337, five years after Adam de Brome’s
death, the Chancellor’s Commissary, at the head of a body of students,
made forcible entry into the building, and carried off the books, the
few Fellows who were then in residence not daring, as the College
plaintively records, to offer any resistance. Thirty years later,
proceedings were taken in the Chancellor’s Court to recover possession
of the building itself; and notwithstanding an urgent petition of the
College imploring the Bishop of Lincoln to interfere on its behalf,
the University took possession, and established, in the upper story
of what is still known as the Old Congregation House, the nucleus of
its first library. The College continued for a long time to assert
its claim; and it was not till 1410 that the dispute was finally set
at rest. But although disappointed in this quarter, other donors and
benefactors rapidly came forward to compensate the College for its
loss. Adam de Brome probably gave largely. Master Thomas Cobildik
appears in the earliest catalogue as the donor of a considerable part
of the then recorded collection. William Rede, Bishop of Chichester,
who died in 1385, left ten books to Oriel, and made a similar bequest
to most of the then existing Colleges. Provost Daventre, who died in
1373, left the residue of his books to the College. Two Fellows, Elias
de Trykyngham and John de Ingolnieles, whose names occur together in
a deed of 1356, gave books which are still in the College library.
In 1375 a catalogue was compiled, which is still preserved;[134]
this comprises about one hundred volumes, arranged according to the
divisions of academical study, the Arts, the Philosophies, and lastly,
the higher departments of Law--Civil and Canon--and Theology.
The Society for whose use it was intended was still a small one; the
number of Fellows remained, as Adam de Brome had left it, at no more
than ten. The average tenure of a Fellowship was about ten years. The
requirement to proceed to the higher faculties produced little result;
either it was disregarded, or the Fellowship was vacated from other
causes before the time came for obeying it. By the statutes a vacancy
was caused by entering religion, obtaining a valuable benefice, or
ceasing to reside and study in the College. Marriage must always have
been reckoned as a variety of the last disqualification; and it is
especially enumerated in a deed of 1395 reciting the various causes
which might bring about the avoidance of a Fellowship.
The Provost, on the other hand, generally held his office till his
death. This is the case during the whole of the first century of the
College (1326-1425).
Besides the members of the corporate society, room appears to have
been found in the Oriole for a few other members, graduates, scholars,
bible-clerks, commensales. Thomas Fitzalan, or Arundel, afterwards
Archbishop of Canterbury, is the most eminent name recorded in the
fourteenth century.
It is perhaps worth while here to dispose of the claim of the College
to be connected with the authorship of _Piers Ploughman_. The real name
of the author of this remarkable poem was, no doubt, William Langlande;
but a misunderstanding of a passage in the opening introduction led
Stowe hastily to infer that it was written by one John Malverne; and
a name something like this, John Malleson, or Malvesonere, occurring
as that of one of the Fellows of Oriel in deeds of the year 1387 and
subsequently, was sufficient ground for identification. It is enough
now to say that the poem was not written by any John Malverne, and that
no person of that name was ever Fellow of Oriel; that the only Fellow
with a name at all resembling it first appears some time after the date
of the poem (_c._ 1362); and that the internal evidence makes it highly
improbable that the writer was ever at any University. There has been,
however, this indirect advantage to the College, that, on the ground
of its supposed connexion, a valuable MS. of the poem was presented
to its library in the seventeenth century, which ranks among the best
authorities for the text.
On the death of Provost Colyntre in 1386 began the first of a long
series of disputes concerning the election of a head. The Fellows were
divided in their choice between Dr. John Middleton, Fellow and Canon of
Hereford, and Master Thomas Kirkton. Middleton had the support of five,
Kirkton of four of the Fellows. An attempt was made, though whether
before or after the election does not clearly appear, to deprive Master
Ralph Redruth, B.D., of his Fellowship, though on appeal to the King
he succeeded in retaining his place. Kirkton presented himself to the
Bishop of Lincoln, and was confirmed. From the Bishop appeal was made
to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and to the King. On the 18th of April,
1386, Letters Patent were issued, ordering two of the Fellows, John
Landreyn, D.D., and Master Ralph Redruth, to assume the government
of the College, pending the termination of the dispute; and by other
letters of May 23rd, the Archbishop, Robert Rugge, Chancellor of the
University, and John Bloxham, Warden of Merton, were commissioned to
hear the parties and give final judgment and sentence. Under this
commission some sentence may have been given in favour of Kirkton,
though of this no record has been discovered. At all events the King’s
Sergeant-at-arms was ordered, October 26th, to put him in peaceable
possession of the Provostship. This order was again, January 4th,
1386-7, revoked by Letters Patent, reciting that Kirkton had before
Arundel, then Chancellor and Bishop of Ely, renounced all his claims.
Meanwhile the Archbishop had proceeded independently and more slowly.
On the 4th of May he had commissioned Master John Barnet, official of
the Court of Canterbury, and Master John Baketon, Dean of Arches, to
hear Middleton’s appeal; and a like commission to Barnet alone was
issued on the 21st of November. Under the last commission sentence was
given in favour of Middleton, and an order was sent, 26th February,
1386-7, to the Chancellor of Oxford, and to John Landreyn for his due
induction.
Middleton died at Hereford, 27th June, 1394, and was succeeded by John
Maldon, M.A., B.M., and Scholar in Divinity, “nuper & in ultimis diebus
consocius et conscolaris juratus.” In the record of the election in the
Lincoln Register, the names of twelve other Fellows appear as electors.
The most important memorial of his period of office now preserved is
the Register of College muniments, compiled in 1397, perhaps under
the hand of Thomas Leyntwardyn, Fellow, and afterwards Provost. This
valuable record consists of a carefully arranged catalogue of all the
deeds, charters, and muniments of title then in the College possession.
Prefixed to the Register is a Calendar, noting the anniversaries,
obits, and other days to be observed in the College in commemoration
of its founders and benefactors. Maldon died early in 1401-2. By his
will, dated January 21st, he made various bequests to the College, and
to individual Fellows. One book, at least, belonging to him is still in
the library.
Hitherto the materials for the history of the College have mainly
consisted of the title-deeds relating to the property from time to
time acquired, the purchases being in the first instance made in the
names of a certain number of the Fellows, these again handing it
on to some of their successors, until the College felt itself in a
position to apply for a license in mortmain to enable it to hold the
property in its corporate character. In this way it is possible to
make out a tolerably full list of the early members of the College.
From about the time of the compilation of the earliest Register, in
1397, this source of information is no longer very productive. Compared
with the abundance of deeds of the fourteenth century, which are
catalogued in the Register of 1397, the fifteenth century is singularly
deficient. Fortunately, however, the want is supplied by other sources
of information of more interest. The earliest book of treasurer’s
accounts, still preserved, extends from 1409 to 1415. The income of
the College was made up of the rents of Oxford houses, about £53;
the tithes of its three churches, Aberford, Coleby, and Littlemore,
belonging to St. Mary’s, about £35; and the proceeds of offerings in
St. Mary’s Church, about £28. The net income, after deducting repairs
and other outgoings on property, was between £80 and £90. The principal
items of expenses were (1) the commons of the Provost and Fellows, at
the rate of 1_s._ 3_d._ per week per head; (2) battells, the charge for
allowances in meat and drink to other persons employed in and about
the College, servants, journeymen, labourers, tilers, and the like,
including also the entertainment of College visitors, the clergy of St.
Mary’s, or the city authorities; (3) exceedings, “excrescentiae,” the
cost incurred on any unusual occasion of College festivity, wine drunk
on the feasts of Our Lady, pittances distributed among the members
of the College on certain prescribed days, and similar extraordinary
expenses. The amounts expended are accurately recorded for each week,
the week ending, according to the practice which continues at Oriel
to the present day, between dinner and supper on Friday. The total of
these charges amounted to about £40. The stipends of the Provost and of
the College officers, the payments to the Vicar of St. Mary’s and the
four chaplains, the wages of College servants, and the ordinary cost of
the College fabric, are the principal other items of expenditure.
In 1410, the long-standing dispute with the University as to Cobham’s
library was set at rest, through the mediation of Archbishop Arundel.
Not long afterwards a sum of money was raised by contributions from
members of the College, and from parishioners of St. Mary’s, for
renewing the internal fittings of the church, the University giving
£10 _pro choro_. On the completion of the work, the Chancellor and the
whole congregation of regents and non-regents were regaled with wine,
at a cost of eight shillings, including oysters for the scrutineers.