Waynflete’s life was continued after his decease (which took place on
August 11th, 1486), by Henry VII., who visited the College in 1487 or
1488, and is still annually commemorated on May 1st as a benefactor,
on account, as it would seem, of his having secured to the College the
advowsons of Findon in Sussex, and Slymbridge in Gloucestershire, and
having directed that the latter benefice should be charged with an
annual payment for the benefit of the College.[202] Henry also extended
his patronage to the President, Richard Mayew, whom he employed in
many matters of state business, appointing him to be his almoner, and
also to be his Procurator-general at the Court of Rome. Mayew also
held during his Presidentship several ecclesiastical offices. In 1501
he was sent to Spain to conduct the Infanta Katharine, about to be
married to Arthur, Prince of Wales, to England. This marriage forms one
of the subjects depicted in some pieces of tapestry still preserved
in the President’s lodgings, which are believed to have been a gift
bestowed upon Mayew by Prince Arthur, who twice at least took up his
abode in the College, and was entertained by the President on his
visits. Mayew’s non-academical employments must have necessitated his
repeated absence from his duties as President; and at last, after his
election to the See of Hereford, a dispute seems to have arisen as to
the compatibility of his episcopal and academical functions. A party
among the Fellows, headed by Stokesley, afterwards Bishop of London,
who was then Vice-President, declared that by the fact of Mayew’s
consecration the office of President had become vacant, and at last
obtained from Bishop Fox of Winchester, the Visitor of the College,
a decision in favour of their own view. Mayew, in the meantime,
had attempted to assert his authority as President in a manner not
altogether in accordance with the statutes, and it became necessary
for the Bishop of Winchester to hold a formal visitation of the
College. This he did by a Commissary, and the records of the Visitation
contain many extraordinary charges made by the partizans on each side.
Stokesley himself was accused, among other things, of having taken
part in some magical incantations, including the baptizing of a cat,
in order to discover hidden treasure. The cat, it may be remarked, is
sometimes described as _cattus_, sometimes with more elegant Latinity
as _murilegus_. These proceedings were alleged to have taken place
in Yorkshire; concerning the more immediate affairs of the College,
it appears that the strife between the parties had run so high, that
some of the Fellows went about the cloisters with armour offensive and
defensive. The general result of the Visitation was the acquittal of
Stokesley, who cleared himself from all charges to the satisfaction
of the Commissary. Bishop Mayew retired from the Presidentship, and
was succeeded early in 1507 by John Claymond, formerly Fellow, one of
the many distinguished men who were members of the College during the
quarter of a century over which Mayew’s term of office had extended.
Among other members of the College under Mayew’s rule may be mentioned
the celebrated Grocyn, who was Praelector in Divinity, Richard Fox
(already referred to as Bishop of Winchester), John Colet, afterwards
Dean of St. Paul’s, and Thomas Wolsey--the last, perhaps, the most
celebrated man whom the College has produced. It was during Mayew’s
Presidentship that the Tower, sometimes attributed to Wolsey,[203] was
built, and that the cloister on the south side of the quadrangle was
added.
The rise of Wolsey in the King’s favour secured the College a friend
at Court whose influence was for a time more powerful than that of
either Waynflete or Mayew had been. He was appointed one of the King’s
chaplains, and employed by Henry VII. in some important missions.
Soon after the accession of Henry VIII. he became almoner, and “ruled
all under the King.” Throughout the time of his prosperity he kept up
friendly relations with the College, and frequent exchanges of presents
took place between him and its members. The first Dean of his College
in Oxford was John Hygden, who had succeeded Claymond as President of
Magdalen; and several members of Magdalen College were among the first
Canons of Cardinal College.
Another new foundation closely connected with Magdalen College was
the College of Corpus Christi, founded by Richard Fox, Bishop of
Winchester, who not only induced Claymond to become the first President
of his new society, but closely imitated Waynflete’s statutes in those
which he gave to Corpus Christi College. These statutes provided
that the students of Theology and Bachelors of Arts of Corpus Christi
College should attend lectures at Magdalen--the lectures intended being
no doubt those of the Praelectors or readers established by Waynflete,
who occupied a position not unlike that of the University Professors of
a later time. It was perhaps with a view to the advantages afforded by
these lectures that a further direction enjoined the members of Corpus
Christi College, if compelled by a visitation of the plague to move
from Oxford, to take up their quarters near the place where the members
of Magdalen College had settled for the time. The second President of
Corpus Christi College, Robert Morwent, had been Vice-President of
Magdalen, and had migrated with Claymond to take charge of Fox’s infant
foundation. These two Presidents of Corpus, with John Hygden, first
Dean of Cardinal College and of Christ Church, joined together in a
benefaction to their former society. They made provision for the yearly
distribution to its members of a sum of money, which was to be, and
still is, distributed by the bursar in the chapel during the singing of
Benedictus on the first Monday of every Lent.
The “revolution under the forms of law,” effected in the reign of Henry
VIII., of which Wolsey’s fall was the beginning, had no great direct
effect upon the College. Indirectly, however, the suppression of the
religious houses was a cause of considerable expense. The College had
permitted the Carmelites of Shoreham, whose house was much decayed,
to occupy their annexed Priory of Sele; and it was perhaps only in
accordance with the justice of the King’s proceedings that the Priory
was in consequence treated as a Carmelite house, and the College
compelled to buy back its own property from the persons to whom Henry
had granted it. A less important expenditure involved by the King’s
proceedings was incurred by the provision of new painted glass, no
doubt to replace portions of the chapel windows which had been defaced
by the King’s commissioners as containing emblems derogatory of his
Majesty’s supremacy. The “linen-fold” panelling of the hall appears
to have been placed in its present position in the year 1541; it is
said to have come from Reading Abbey, but the groups of figures, the
heraldic ornaments, and the not too flattering effigy of Henry VIII.,
which are now inserted in it, were probably designed for the decoration
of the Hall. Except for the acquisition of this wood-work, the College
seems to have received nothing from the spoil of the religious orders.
The accession of Edward VI., and the visitation of the University,
brought serious trouble upon the College. The President, Owen
Oglethorpe, was apparently prepared to accept the earlier stages of
the Reformation movement, but he was not prepared to go so far as
the party in power required. Some members of the College were of the
more advanced school of the Reformers; and much irreverence, with a
good deal of wanton destruction, was committed by them, encouraged by
letters from the Protector inciting the College to the “redress of
religion.” Oglethorpe was removed from the office of President, into
which Walter Haddon, a person not eligible according to the statutes,
was intruded, in spite of a petition from the Fellows, and the work of
reformation proceeded according to the desire of the Council. Haddon is
said to have sold many of the effects of the chapel, valued at about
£1000, for about a twentieth part of that sum, and to have “consumed
on alterations” not only the sum so received, but a larger sum of the
“public money” of the College. It was fortunate for the society that
the scheme of the Council for the total suppression of the choir, and
the alienation of a corresponding part of the College revenue, had been
promulgated while Oglethorpe was still President. Under his guidance,
with considerable difficulty, the College managed to preserve this part
of its foundation unimpaired.
Immediately on the accession of Queen Mary, Walter Haddon received,
as appears from the Vice-President’s register, leave of absence on
urgent private affairs, and his example was soon followed by those
of the Fellows who had been especially notable for their zeal in the
“redress of religion.” Laurence Humphrey, one of this party, obtained
leave for the express purpose of conveying himself _in transmarinas
partes_; and this leave of absence was continued to him at a later time
provided that he did not resort to those towns which were known to be
the refuge of heretics. He took up his abode forthwith at Zürich. As
he was absent from the College during the whole of Mary’s reign, he is
perhaps not a sufficient witness of the events of that time. He asserts
that the Roman party had great difficulty in re-establishing the old
order of things in College, and that the younger members of the society
suffered many things at their hands. Of all this, however, there is no
evidence in the Vice-President’s register, where most of the offences
and almost all the penalties recorded during this period are of an
ordinary kind.[204] Oglethorpe was restored to his Presidency, and was
succeeded on his elevation to the See of Carlisle, by Arthur Cole, a
Canon of Windsor.[205] During the tenure of Cole, and of his successor
Thomas Coveney (whom the College chose in preference to three persons
recommended by the Queen), there appear to have been differences of
opinion on religious matters within the College, and some difficulties
in enforcing the due attendance of its members at the chapel services;
but there is no sign of what might be called a tendency to persecution
on the part of the authorities. The most recalcitrant members of the
society seem to have been the Bachelor Demies and Probationer Fellows.
Coveney remained President for some time after Queen Elizabeth’s
coronation by Oglethorpe; and in the interval between that event and
the consecration of Archbishop Parker there are some indications in the
register of religious strife within the College. The end of Coveney’s
term of office was marked by a contest between himself and some of the
Fellows, concerning matters of College business, in which he seems
to have exceeded his power as President. He was deprived by Bishop
Horn at a Visitation in 1561, on the ground, it is said, that he was
a layman; but it might be at least doubtful whether the founder’s
statutes strictly required the President to be in Holy Orders; and it
is probable that the real reason for his deprivation lay in the fact
that Horn regarded him as being too much “addicted to the Popish
superstition.”
This fault at all events could not be laid to the charge of Laurence
Humphrey, who succeeded him. Horn himself had reported that the members
of the College, whom he expected to find of the same school as their
President, were willing to accept the tests he proposed to them--to
acknowledge the Queen’s supremacy, and to accept the Book of Common
Prayer, and the Advertisements. Before Humphrey had been long President
the College had ceased to be “conformable,” but its non-conformity was
of the Puritan, not of the Romanizing, type. Humphrey himself had a
strong objection to wearing a surplice, or using his proper academical
dress, and many of his Fellows followed his example in this matter.
It required more than one Visitation to induce compliance on such
matters. Abuses of another kind, however, were left uncorrected, and
even encouraged, by the Visitors. Many Fellowships were filled up by
nominations from the Queen, or from the Bishop of Winchester, and it
may be added that the persons nominated were not always model members
of a College. There were many contentions between the Fellows, and
between the President and the Fellows. The general impression given
by reading the register of the time of Humphrey and his immediate
successors is, that the College was becoming a home of disorder rather
than of learning. Nicolas Bond, Humphrey’s successor, seems, however,
in 1589 to have made some rather ineffectual efforts to provide for
more regular and systematic study among its members. During his tenure
of office the society received a visit from King James I., accompanied
by his son Henry, then Prince of Wales, who was matriculated as a
member of the College. The King was much impressed by the buildings,
and greatly enjoyed his visit. The grotesque figures or “hieroglyphics”
in the Cloister Quadrangle were painted, as it would seem, in honour of
his coming, Moses in particular being adorned _toga coerulea_.
The College, which was Puritan under Humphrey, was even more Puritan
under Bond, Harding, and Langton; with Langton’s successor, however, in
1626, the tide set in the contrary direction. Accepted Frewen, if, as
his name suggests, he was of Puritan descent, was himself a supporter
of Laud’s ecclesiastical policy, and acted with vigour both as
President in his own College and as Vice-Chancellor in the University,
for the restoration of discipline and good order. The numbers of the
College had been increased during his predecessor’s time by the influx
of a number of so-called “poor scholars,” whose connection with the
College was very slight, and who seem to have in many cases been
entered as members of the society by the mere authority of the person
to whom they had attached themselves. Frewen made regulations on this
subject, and these seem to have been re-inforced a few years later by
a letter from the Visitor. Other matters he also took in hand with
good effect, especially the restoration of the chapel, on which he
seems to have spent large sums of his own, in addition to the corporate
expenditure of the College. The windows of the ante-chapel (except the
great west window) were part of Frewen’s work, the only part which has
been left by the later restoration of 1832.
The outbreak of the Great Rebellion found the College converted from
a nest of Puritans into a nest of Royalists and High Churchmen.
The King’s demand for loans of money and plate was met with some
difficulty, but without hesitation, by a loan of £1000 in money and
by the delivery of plate to the value of about £1000 more. When the
Parliamentary forces entered Oxford in September 1642 they found at
Magdalen “certain Cavaliers in scholars’ habits,” who had “feathers and
buff-coats” in their chambers. Some of the scholars, being malignant
persons, “scoffed” at the invaders and “at the honourable Houses of
Parliament,” and were accordingly made prisoners. Other members of the
College had left Oxford a few days before with Byron’s horse, to join
the King: among them was John Nourse, Fellow and Doctor of Civil Law,
who fell at Edgehill. After that action the King entered Oxford, and
Prince Rupert took up his quarters at Magdalen. The King’s artillery
was placed in Magdalen College Grove, which served as a drill-ground
for the regiment of scholars and strangers which was raised in 1644;
batteries were erected in the Walks, and gunners exercised in the
College meadows. The timber in the Grove was probably felled for use
in the defensive works.[206] A curious contrast to this military
preparation was furnished by the imposing ceremonial of Frewen’s
consecration as Bishop of Lichfield, which took place in the chapel of
the College in April 1644.[207]
Some members of the College were as active on the side of the
Parliament as those who remained in Oxford were on the side of the
King. A Demy named Lidcott was deprived of his place for having been
in arms against the King, serving in Essex’s army as an “antient” of a
foot company. A far more celebrated member of the Parliamentary party,
John Hampden, had formerly been a member of the College which was the
head-quarters of the commander of the troops against whom he fought at
Chalgrove.
After the surrender of Oxford, considerable havoc was wrought in the
chapel of the College by the Parliamentary troops, who destroyed,
among other things, the glass of many of the windows. The organ was
appropriated by Cromwell to his own use, and removed by him to Hampton
Court, whence it was brought again after the Restoration.[208] The
Parliamentary Visitors of the University found few members of the
College willing to submit to their authority. The President, Dr.
John Oliver, and the greater part of the members were ejected, and
the bursar, who obstinately refused to give up keys or papers, was
imprisoned. The tenants of the College, however, persisted in paying
their rents to him, and special injunctions had to be given to prevent
them from doing so. The places in College rendered vacant by expulsions
were filled up by the importation of Independents and Presbyterians,
Dr. John Wilkinson, a former Fellow, being made President. He
was succeeded two years later by Goodwin, a gloomy person, whose
examination of a candidate for a Demyship has been recounted by
Addison in the _Spectator_.[209] The records of the events in College
during the Commonwealth are very scanty. One of the most remarkable
proceedings of the intruders was the appropriation and division among
themselves of a sum of money which they found in the muniment-room;
this was the fund provided by the Founder for special necessities,
which had remained untouched since 1585, and the existence of which had
perhaps been forgotten. It was for the most part in ancient coinage,
the pieces being of the kind known as “spur royals.” Of these a hundred
fell to the share of Wilkinson, who seems to have been the instigator
of the division; nine hundred more were divided among the thirty
Fellows, and the Demies and others, including the servants, received
portions of the spoil. Before the Restoration, however, some of the
recipients restored the pieces they had obtained, and the greater
part of the money was actually repaid in course of time. The fund,
under more modern financial arrangements, no longer remains in the
muniment-room, but some of the old coins are still preserved there.
On the Restoration the ejected members of the College, or those who
were left, were restored to their home. They included the President,
seventeen Fellows and eight Demies.[210] Dr. Oliver, however, did not
long survive his return; and upon his death began a time of trouble.
Charles II. recommended as his successor Dr. Thomas Pierce, a divine
who had done much service in the defence of the Church against her
assailants, but whom the Fellows, who perhaps knew him better than
the King were unwilling, as it seems, to elect. Charles however
enforced obedience by a letter as peremptory as any communication
which the College afterwards received from his brother, and Dr. Pierce
became President. The result was a long warfare between Pierce, the
Fellows, and the Visitor, Bishop Morley, whose intentions seem to have
been better than his judgment. At last the King interfered, and the
difficulty was solved by the promotion of Dr. Pierce to the Deanery
of Salisbury, where he found scope for his energies in a controversy
with his Bishop. Dr. Henry Clerk was now recommended by the King, and
elected by the Fellows, and the society was at peace for some years.
That peace was again disturbed, on Dr. Clerk’s death, by the action of
James II., who attempted to force upon the College as its President a
man unqualified by statute and disqualified by notorious immorality.
The history of the struggle which followed is too well known to need
repetition here.[211] The Fellows almost unanimously chose one of their
own number, and supported him, when duly elected, against the King’s
second nominee. In the end, after a year’s exile, they were restored to
their College, under Dr. John Hough, the President of their own choice,
by the Bishop of Winchester, acting on instructions from the King.
The Revolution brought with it new causes of disquiet, and some members
of the College were again ejected as Nonjurors. The great majority,
however, of those who had contended against the usurpation of James
were content to submit themselves to the new Sovereigns, and retained
their places. The most notable member who was thus lost to the College
was Dr. Thomas Smith, a man of much learning and ability, and a steady
and uncompromising Royalist. In 1689 occurred what was afterwards known
as the “Golden Election” of Demies, which included, besides others
less known, Hugh Boulter, afterwards Archbishop of Armagh, Smallbrook,
afterwards Bishop of St. David’s and later of Lichfield, the notorious
Henry Sacheverell, and Joseph Addison, the most celebrated member of
the College since the Revolution. The residence of Addison in College
was not prolonged beyond his year of probation as Fellow; but he has
left a memory of himself in the fact that his name has been attached to
a portion of the Walks. These it would seem in his time did not extend
beyond what is now called Addison’s Walk, but was formerly known as
“Dover Pier.”
The members of the College who remained seem to have maintained
friendly relations with those who had withdrawn from it as Nonjurors,
and even at this time, and certainly after the accession of George I.,
the sympathy of many among the Fellows was with the exiled rather than
with the reigning branch of the Royal House. During the first half of
the eighteenth century, indeed, politics flourished in the society
more than learning; and although Gibbon’s picture of the condition
of the College during his brief residence is rather highly coloured,
it cannot be doubted that the general decline of academic activity
which affected many of the Colleges in Oxford during the last century,
affected Magdalen in no slight degree. A large part of the attention of
the society seems to have been given to plans for the rearrangement or
the destruction of the College buildings, and for the re-construction
of the College on the pattern adopted in what are known as the “New
Buildings,” erected in 1735. Some amazing designs for “College
improvements” remain in the library, as a memorial of the architectural
ambitions of this period. Among the Presidents of the eighteenth
century, if we except Dr. Routh, whose lengthened tenure extended over
the last years of that century and the first half of the nineteenth,
there is but one name of mark--that of George Horne, afterwards Bishop
of Norwich, once widely-known by his Commentary on the Psalms. Nor are
there many names of mark among the other members of the College in the
same century. The learning of Dr. Routh does not seem to have been
shared in any conspicuous degree by more than a small proportion of
those who passed through the College in his long Presidentship--though
towards the end of that period Magdalen numbered among its members
several men of note in different ways--James Mozley and William Palmer
among theologians, Ferrier among philosophers, Roundell Palmer, now
Lord Selborne, among lawyers, Conington among scholars, Charles Reade
among novelists, Goldwin Smith among essayists, Charles Daubeny among
those who laboured to advance the study of natural science.
Of the changes which have been brought about in the College since the
days of Routh, of its transformation from a small society of Fellows
and Demies into one of the larger among the Colleges in Oxford, it is
hardly possible to speak as of history. They are changes of the present
day. But it is a matter of history, which ought not to be forgotten,
that the College, which has owed much to its Presidents in the past,
owes much in this matter to its last President, who governed it during
the trying times of two University Commissions, and of the changes
which resulted from them. By his own example of the loyal acceptance
of what was necessary, even when it was uncongenial to his tastes,
and by the kindly sympathy which enabled him to reconcile conflicting
interests, he did more to preserve the peace of his College, and to
promote its progress, than he would himself have thought possible, or
than those to whom he was less well known than to the members of his
own College would have been inclined to imagine.
XI.
BRASENOSE COLLEGE.
(_Aula Regia et Collegium de Brasenose, Collegium Aenei Nasi._)
BY FALCONER MADAN, M.A., FELLOW OF BRASENOSE.
I. THE KING’S HALL OF BRAZEN-NOSE.
(_Aula Regia de Brasinnose._)