"There the kindly fates allowed
Me too room, and made me proud,
Prouder name I have not wist,
With the name of Wykehamist."
L. JOHNSON.
[Plate X. New College : The Entrance Gateway]
Among the "Founders" of Oxford colleges, three stand out pre-eminent
--all three bishops of Winchester and great public servants. If
Wolsey has undisputed claims for first place, there can be little
doubt that, in spite of the great public services of Bishop Foxe, the
Founder of Corpus, the second place must be assigned to William of
Wykeham, "sometime Lord High Chancellor of England, the sole and
munificent founder of the two St. Mary Winton colleges." Others,
beside Wykehamists, hear with pleasure the magnificent roll of the
titles of the Founder of New College, when one of his intellectual
sons occupies the University pulpit, and gives thanks for "founders
and benefactors, such as were William of Wykeham."
In Oxford, without doubt, his great claim to be remembered will be
held to be his college with the school at Winchester, which he linked
to it. But he was also a reformer and a champion of Parliamentary
privilege in the days when the "Good Parliament" set to work to check
the misgovernment of Edward III in his dotage, and, as an architect,
he is equally famous as having given to Windsor Castle its present
shape, and as having secured the final triumph of the Perpendicular
style by his glorious nave at Winchester.
William of Wykeham is a very striking instance of what is too often
Forgotten--viz., that in the Mediaeval Church all professional men,
and not simply spiritual pastors, found their work and their reward
in the ranks of the clergy. As "supervisor of the king's works," he
earned the royal favour, which, after sixteen years of service,
rewarded him with the rich bishopric of Winchester. Such a career and
such a reward seem to modern ideas incongruous, even as they did to
John Wycliffe, his great contemporary, who complained of men being
made bishops because they were "wise in building castles." But many
forms of service were needed to create England; Wykeham and Wycliffe
both have a place in the roll of its "Makers." At all events, if
Wykeham obtained his wealth by secular service, he spent it for the
promoting of the welfare of the Church, as he conceived it. The
purpose of his two colleges was to remedy the shortness of clergy in
his day, and to assist the /militia clericalis/, which had been
grievously reduced /pestilentiis, guerris et aliis mundi miseriis/
(an obvious reference to the Black Death).
New College was planned on a scale of magnificence which far exceeded
any of the earlier colleges. It was emphatically the "New College,"
[1] and its foundation (it was opened in 1386) marks the final
triumph of the college system.
[1] The popular name has entirety displaced its official style.
Rather more than a generation ago, an historically minded Wykehamist
tried to revive the proper style of his college, and headed all his
letters "The College, of St. Mary of Winchester, Oxford." The result
was disastrous for him; the replies came to the Vicar of St. Mary's,
to St. Mary's Hall, to Winchester, anywhere but to him; and very soon
practical necessity overcame antiquarian, propriety.
Its Warden was to have a state corresponding to that of the great
mitred abbots; the stables, where he kept his six horses, on the
south side of New College Lane (to be seen in Plate X on the right),
show, by their perfect masonry, how well the architect-bishop chose
his materials and how skilfully they were worked.
The entrance tower, in the centre of the picture, with its statues of
the Blessed Virgin and of the Founder in adoration below on her left,
was the abode of the Warden; but his lodgings, still the most
magnificent home in Oxford, extended in both directions from the
tower.
Behind this front lay Wykeham's Quad, nestling under the shadow of
the towering chapel and hall on the north side. Here also, as in the
stables, the technical knowledge of the Founder is seen; his
"chambers," after more than 500 years, have still their old stone
unrenewed; while the third story, added 300 years later on (1674-5),
has had to be entirely refaced.
But it is in the public buildings, and especially in the chapel, that
the greatness of Wykeham, as an architect, is best seen. In spite of
the destructive fanaticism of the Reformation, and the almost equally
destructive "restorations" of the notorious Wyatt, and of Sir Gilbert
Scott (who inexcusably raised the height of the roof), the chapel
still is indisputably the finest in Oxford. And its glass may
challenge a still wider field. The eight great windows in the ante-
chapel, dating from the Founder's time, rival the glories of the
French cathedrals; the windows of the chapel proper, whatever be
thought of their artistic success, are a unique instance of what
English glass-makers could do in the eighteenth century; and Sir
Joshua Reynolds' west window (the outside of which is seen in the
centre of the next picture) has at all events the suffrages of the
majority, who agree with Horace Walpole that it is "glorious," and
that "the sun shining through the transparencies has a magic effect."
It must be added, however, that Walpole soon changed his mind, and
was very severe on Sir Joshua's "washy virtues," which have been
compared to "seven chambermaids."
Not the least interesting feature of the Founder's chapel is its
detached bell-tower, seen in the next picture, on the north side of
the cloisters. He obtained leave to place this on the city wall, a
large section of which the College undertook to maintain-thus adding
a permanent charm to their own garden.
The magnificence of the Founder Bishop is well seen in his splendid
crozier, bequeathed to him by his college, and still preserved on the
north side of the chapel. The results of his work, for Oxford and for
learning, will be briefly told of in the next chapter.
[Plate XI. New College : The Tower]