But the great events that go to the making of England's history have
been contributed by men whose names are inscribed upon the books of the
various colleges of Oxford. The Cathedral College, Christ Church, claims
the three great English revivalists: Wycliffe; the chief of the
Lollards; John Wesley, founder of Methodism; and Pusey.
Samuel Wesley, the father of Samuel, John, and Charles, entered Exeter
College as a "pauper scholaris," and was an eminent divine. His son
Samuel, the intimate associate of Pope, Swift, and Prior, wrote squibs
against Sir Robert Walpole, the Whigs, and the Low Church divines, and
was a member of Christ Church, as well as Charles. These three brothers
compiled the "Book of Psalms and Hymns," Charles alone composed and
published some four thousand hymns, besides leaving about two thousand
in manuscript.
Pusey, born near Oxford in 1800, entered as a commoner and died as a
canon of Christ Church, at the age of eighty-two.
The great scholar of Corpus Christi, John Keble, became member of that
college at the age of fifteen, and when nineteen was elected Fellow of
Oriel,--a very proud distinction, for Oriel was then the great centre of
the most famous intellects in Oxford.
To this society belonged Copleston, Davison, Whately, and soon after
Keble's election Arnold, Pusey, and Newman became members. Newman, whose
tendencies were in turn Evangelical and Calvinistic, to become finally
cardinal, matriculated at Trinity College. Amongst other famous members
of Wolsey's foundation must be included the statesmen William Gladstone
and the late Marquis of Salisbury.
Other distinguished inmates of this college are Anthony Ashley Cooper,
the seventh earl of Shaftesbury, who interested himself in the practical
welfare of the working classes; and John Ruskin, author of "The Stones
of Venice," whose father had at first conceived the ambition of seeing
him become bishop; Cecil Rhodes, the Imperialist, whose health was so
uncertain that at one time his doctor gave him only six months to live,
acquired wealth in South Africa, and came home to be admitted to Oriel,
Oxford.
The author of "Alice in Wonderland," under the _nom de plume_ of "Lewis
Carroll," was also a student of Christ Church. As Charles Lutridge
Dodgson he wrote many important works on mathematics.
These, with a host of other celebrated men of all the various colleges,
have all shed lustre upon their _alma mater_; and, as long as old
traditions be revered and followed, Oxford need never fear a decline.
The beautiful buildings, collegiate and ecclesiastical, the wonderful
university libraries, "The Bodleian" and "The Ashmolean," the sumptuous
plate and silver of the colleges, are some of the great features of this
cathedral city.
Such, in brief, is the history of this prominent seat of learning.