dreds of others. They even summoned within the gates a savage mob of countrymen who paraded the streets with black banners and cries of "Slay! slay! Havoc! havoc!" But this time both the papal legate and the king inflicted condign punishment on aggressors. The town was laid under an interdict which was not removed for three years. The townsmen were heavily fined and surrendered many of their rights and privileges to the University; the mayor and bailiffs were committed to the Tower and afterwards had to do public penance at St Mary's, on the anniversary of the outbreak, with halters round their necks -indicating the fate which they assuredly deserved. From this date the University held its own. Wars of the Roses-flores inscripti nomina regum-for it was founded by Henry VI.'s most trusted friend and Chancellor, William of Waynflete, who discarded his family name of Patten for that of his birthplace in Lincolnshire. No attempt is made in these pages to give a detailed history of the Founder and his work. Two admirable histories already exist - one written by Mr Harrison, the librarian of the College, and the other by the present President. Generally speaking, the annals of a college are-and indeed ought to be-uneventful. There are no startling episodes or picturesque incidents. Life flows on as smoothly and methodically hours of sober study alternating with decorous festivity as in the village of the Vicar of Wakefield; and in term time the only "migrations," if not exactly "from the blue room to the brown," are equally staid and prosaic-from the lecture-room to the chapel or from the hall to the Common Room. But it has more than once happened in the past history of Magdalen that the College has come into active contact with the history of the nation, and on one occasion played a leading part in a great National crisis. Meanwhile, other colleges had been founded,-most of them recalling-as has often been pointed out-some event or crisis in our national history. Thus, Oriel is the outcome of a VOW made by Edward II. on his flight from Bannockburn; Queen's Queen's was founded by Queen Philippa's chaplain; All Souls by Archbishop Chichele, as a chantry where prayers should be offered for the souls of those "who died fighting for the crown of But to return to "Master France"; New College-most William," as Henry VI. used elaborate of all-was built by to call his Chancellor. We the great prelate and architect know little of his early life of Windsor to counteract the except that he was educated influence of Wickliffe and up- at Oxford, was appointed hold the authority of the Master of Winchester School Church; while Magdalen it- in 1429, where he attracted self is associated with the the king's notice and became Master and then Provost of Eton College. From this time his advancement was rapid. He became the king's most trusted friend and adviser, and on the very day of Cardinal Beaufort's death in 1447, Waynflete was appointed by a special congé d'élire to the vacant see of Winchester. In the following year he began what was to be from henceforth his life's work; life's work; and, looking at the facts and circumstances, nothing is more remarkable than his singlehearted devotion to this noble task, sacrificing time and money and using his great influence towards founding a college which was to rival Wykeham's foundation at Oxford and Henry VI.'s at Cambridge. He bided his time with inexhaustible patience, never hurrying the work and taking no risks; basing his foundation, as it were, upon a rock of adamant; each step in its progress being sanctioned by royal charters, confirmed by successive monarchs and by Papal Bulls. He thus avoided the dangers which had threatened the existence of Oriel and for a time eclipsed the glories of Christ Church. In the same cautious spirit, he procured the formal sanction of King and Pope to the "annexation" of the various Priories, from which, in addition to private benefactions, the revenues of his College were mainly derived, and whose names are still familiar to us in the list of the College benefices-Shoreham, Brackley, Aynho, Romney, Selborne. Then again, one must recognise the tact shown by Waynflete in conciliating four sovereigns of different dynasties and dissimilar characters, and securing their goodwill towards his new foundation. It is clear that his lofty aims and disinterested munificence gained him respect even in that turbulent and unscrupulous age. His first step was to purchase some land, near the site of the present examination schools, from the Hospital of St John, in 1448; and there he founded Magdalen Hall, consisting of a president and fifty scholars. During the next ten yearsalmost the most troubled period of our history-Waynflete, as Bishop of Winchester, was greatly occupied with affairs of State; but when he became Lord Chancellor in 1457 he reverted to his original plan, which had evidently been long maturing in his mind. He obtained Henry's consent (afterwards ratified by the Pope) to annex the whole of the domains belonging to St John's Hospital, which occupied the site of the present College buildings. There was no injustice in this, for the hospital, founded by Henry III. for the entertainment of pilgrims to St Frideswyde's shrine and "the relief of poor scholars and other miserable (sic) persons," had long since fallen into decay and disrepute. Waynflete pensioned off the few remaining brethren, took possession of the domain, and formally incorporated the hospital with Magdalen Hall and subsequently with the College. To use his own words, his de- commenced. Hitherto all had gone well with Waynflete's scheme, thanks to his tact and energy, but now a long delay ensued before the building of his new College was actually commenced. The country was still distracted by rival factions, and the civil war, then raging, made life and property insecure. Waynflete continued Chancellor, but in 1460 he gave up the Great Seal to Henry in his tent, pitched in the meadow near De la Prè Abbey, on the eve of the fatal battle of Northampton. On the following day the Lancastrians were utterly routed, and Henry himself was a prisoner in the hands of the Yorkists. Waynflete, however, procured a full pardon from the new King, as well as the confirmation of the charters of his College; and a significant document is preserved in the muniment-room showing that Waynflete had paid King Edward five thousand marks "for continuance of his good grace and favour." At length, in 1467, when England was more or less at peace under the new régime, the actual work of building was First were built the enclosing walls-massive As in the general design of his buildings, so in his statutes first promulgated in 1482Waynflete closely copied the model set him by William of Wykeham at New College, often, indeed, using the very words and phrases employed by his great predecessor. These statutes have a fine flavour of medievalism. They are partly academical, partly monastic and ascetic, and might have been framed by St Francis of Assisi or John Henry Newman. They enter into the minutest details of the organisation of the College, from the president to the choirmaster. be the strictest discipline; the scholars are to sleep three or four in a room; their dress is to be rough, and their diet frugal; there are to be no luxuries or There is to superfluities, no games or amusements; there must be silence at meals; ordinary conversation must be in Latin, and for this purpose there is to be a preparatory school, where Grammatica is to be taught. There is to be a full choir and daily Mass, and above all, to quote the Founder's words, "Holy Scripture must spread her tents wider, that philosophy may militate under the banner of theology." But Waynflete's liberal scheme of education extended far beyond the limits of his own College, for every poor scholar in the University was free to attend the lectures and disputations. The College was now in full working order, and it was not long before there was a succession of royal visitors. In 1481, while the buildings were still incomplete, Edward IV. came over with a large cavalcade from Woodstock, and was hospitably entertained at Magdalen. It was probably on this occasion that the red Lancastrian rose in the cloisters was painted white in honour of the Yorkist king. Two years later Richard III. visited Oxford on a royal progress from London to York, and was received in state at Magdalen by Waynflete himself. That crafty monarch-in whom dissimulation was a second nature -dined in hall, listened to disputations by learned scholars, and so fascinated his hosts that the chronicler of his visit ends with the pious aspiration, Vivat rex in æternum! though Waynflete had thought it prudent to conciliate Richard with a loan of £100, he was probably by no means displeased at the result of the battle of Bosworth; and, by his orders, the President of Magdalen (Dr Mayew) attended the coronation of Henry VII. This king himself visited Magdalen in 1487, and with characteristic meanness offered a single rose-noble as an oblation on the high altar. His eldest son, Prince Arthur, when a boy of nine or ten, stayed twice in the College, probably in the Founder's state-rooms, where there may still be seen some tapestry representing his marriage with Katharine of Aragon. That unhappy queen herself visited Magdalen in 1517, in company with Cardinal Wolsey, and must have gazed with mingled feelings on this memorial of her first marriage. But Waynflete himself did not live to welcome either Henry or Prince Arthur at his College. He had died in the previous year-felix opportunitate mortis, for he had seen his life's work well advanced towards completion in the foundation of this noble College which he had left secure and prosperous after thirtyseven years of unremitting care and vigilance. He was buried not, as might have been expected, within the precincts of his own College, but in one of the beautiful side chapels of the cathedral at Winchester. But The foundation of Magdalen 1 Chandler's Life of Waynflete,' p. 201. He coincides with what has been matist"-and now in his old called the "New Learning' age he founded a college which at Oxford. The reign of the was to be the chosen home of Schoolmen, with their pedantic the Litera Humaniores.1 and barren controversies, was singled out his intimate friend, rapidly passing away, and John Claymond, who had sucthe tardy English renaissance, ceeded Dr Mayew as President which had been chilled and of Magdalen, to be the first blighted by the long con- President of Corpus; and with tinuance of civil and foreign Claymond several Magdalen wars, was at length begin- Fellows migrated to Fox's colning. "Greek had crossed the lege, including Henry VIII.'s Alps," and there is a signi- cousin, Reginald Pole, the ficant entry in Anthony Wood's future Cardinal. Diary that on Christmas Day, 1483, Cyprianus and Nicolaus "Italici" dined with the Vice-President at Magdalen. William Grocyn, the young disputant who had argued before Richard III. on his visit to the College, had studied Greek in Florence along with Linacre; and Lily and Colet, both connected with Magdalen, had also visited Italy and attended the lectures of "the great Politian." Some years later, Erasmus-too poor to study at Rome as he intended -had gone to Oxford, where he sat at the feet of Colet and declared that listening to his lectures was like listening to Plato himself. And while Cambridge had to hire the services of an Italian to write Latin speeches at twopence for each speech, at Oxford two Professorships in Greek and Latin were founded by Bishop Fox in 1517 in his new college of Corpus Christi. Fox had played many parts in his time 'prelate, statesman, architect, soldier, herald, and diplo Six years after Waynflete's death, in 1492, the corner-stone of the great bell-tower was solemnly laid by the President, Dr Mayew, and in 1504 the tunable and melodious bells, as Anthony Wood calls them, were placed in it. This tower is the crowning glory of the picturesque group of buildings, and its singularly graceful outline and proportions give the finishing touch to the stately curve of the High Street. According to Dean Stanley, the tower "owes its creation to the genius of Wolsey," but he certainly was not the designer or architect, and it is doubtful if he was even a Fellow when the building began. Still less is it true that he misappropriated money from the Bursary and had to leave the College in consequence. This is one of the stories circulated after his death to the discredit of the great Cardinal. It has always been the popular instinct to trample on a fallen favourite: "Dum jacet in ripâ, calcemus Cæsaris hostem." 1 Dr Ingram's 'Memorials of Oxford.' Bishop Fox was a benefactor to both Universities, and was Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, from 1507 to 1519. |