12. THE COLLEGE OF ST. BERNARD, OXFORD
In 1437, (fn. 1) Archbishop Chicheley founded
a college near Oxford for Cistercian monks
in honour of St. Mary and St. Bernard. As
the college of this order at Paris had long
been known as the Studium beati Bernardi, the
same title was naturally adopted in England.
The founder probably gave little more than the
site, part of which was acquired from Durham
College. (fn. 2) The buildings, no doubt, were erected
by the order, and were still unfinished in 1483. (fn. 3)
In 1449 the abbot of Morimond, commissioned
by the general chapter of the Cistercians to hold
a visitation 'of the college of our order,' gave
certain injunctions to 'the college of St. Bernard
near Oxford,' which are preserved in a mutilated
record; (fn. 4) none but Cistercians were to stay in
the college; the seniors were not to have more
than one servant apiece; there was to be reading
at meal times; the gates of the college were to
be shut early; in one place it is described as
endowed (dotatum), but what the endowments
were is unknown. In 1482 the chapter of the
Cistercians decreed that in every monastery of
twelve monks one was to be sent to the college of
St. Bernard at Oxford; if there were twenty-six
monks, then two were to be sent. Monasteries
with two or three monks were to unite so as to
make up the necessary allowance for one scholar, (fn. 5)
and in 1490 the abbot of Cîteaux ordered the
abbots of Fountain and Stratford, as his commissaries, to enforce this decree. (fn. 6)
In May, 1530, permission was given by the
Bishop of Lincoln that Robert, bishop of Rheon,
should consecrate the chapel in Bernard College. (fn. 7)
There is reason for thinking that Bernard
College, like Durham College, survived the dissolution of the monasteries, at least for a few
years. In a grant concerning Thedge Grange,
made in the year 1542, it is stated that there
was a rent due to St. Bernard's College, as
though it were still in existence. (fn. 8) There is a
survey of the buildings of Bernard College, preserved at the Record Office, evidently drawn up
when it was in the hands of the crown, but it is
undated. (fn. 9)
The head of the college was styled 'provisor.'
Heads of Bernard College (fn. 10)
John Staynbourne, occurs 1461
James Kepas, occurs 1498
Thomas Stoknay, occurs 1502
John Ford, occurs 1514
Arnold Gye, alias Buckfast, occurs 1528
Robert Cumbe, occurs 1532
Philip Acton, c. 1535