ALL SOULS COLLEGE

History (fn. 1)

1. The college of all the souls of the faithful departed in Oxford, called in its early days 'The College of the Souls' (Collegium animarum), was planned, built, and endowed by Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury (1414–43). The foundation charter was granted by Henry VI on 20 May 1438, (fn. 2) and at the archbishop's request the king accepted the title of co-founder (tanquam alteros fundatores). (fn. 3) In accordance with this, the estates which Chichele and his lawyers had accumulated for the maintenance of the college were surrendered to Henry, who on 24 Apr. 1442 granted them to the new corporate body, (fn. 4) and later, on 28 Jan. 1443, confirmed his charter of foundation and donation. (fn. 5) In its almanacks and calendars the University of Oxford has always regarded 1437 as the date of foundation, perhaps because the end of that year (new style) saw the purchase of Charlton's Inn at the corner of Cat St. and High St., (fn. 6) and the selection by the archbishop of the first fellows; for the Register of Admissions, compiled by Warden Hovenden in 1574, sets the year 1437 against the first entry of twenty-one names. The actual building, along the High St. frontage, was begun on 10 Feb. 1438, and the members of the college already chosen were boarded out until portions of the building were ready for habitation (1442). (fn. 7) In June 1442 the first mass was said in the chapel, (fn. 8) and at Lambeth on 2 Apr. 1443 the founder, within a few days of his death, handed Warden Keyes the approved and authentic copy of the College Statutes. (fn. 9)

The new college lay in the heart of academic Oxford: across Cat St., within St. Mary's, was the meetingplace of the Regent Congregation, and on either side of Charlton's Inn there had been halls or tenements owned by Oriel, St. Frideswide's, or Oseney. These were first leased and then acquired, or else acquired outright by the archbishop. (fn. 10) Oriel relaxed its claims of jurisdiction and any demand it might have for contributions or offerings, as rectors of the parish in which the college was situated, for the sum of 200l., (fn. 11) and Eugenius IV exempted the college from the jurisdiction of the ordinary and from the necessity of receiving the sacraments in St. Mary's. (fn. 12) The ecclesiastical autonomy of All Souls was the object of a special visit to Rome by Warden Andrew in 1439: he succeeded in securing at least nine bulls from Eugenius, guaranteeing the desired liberties: exemption from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Lincoln, and subjection to the Archbishop of Canterbury; permission to have a chapel and a cemetery, and to have mass and other offices celebrated there whenever the city is under an interdict; licence to all present and future scholars to be promoted to all holy orders after attaining their twenty-third year; ordinance giving the probate of the wills of scholars to the Warden, and of the Warden's will to the archbishop: and indult to farm out the fruits of their appropriated churches. These were the normal concessions to seek, and the bulls granting them are in common form. (fn. 13)

Chichele's relations with the University had long been close. In 1432 he gave 200 marks to the University for the foundation of a chest from which both colleges and members of the University, senior and junior, might borrow upon reasonable security. (fn. 14) In March 1437 he founded outside the North Gate a small house dedicated to St. Bernard of Clairvaux where scholars of the Cistercian Order, who came to study at Oxford, might live and perform their offices in common, instead of being dispersed in various lodgings in Oxford. (fn. 15) All Souls was, therefore, Chichele's third benefaction to the University.

It was to be both a Lancastrian chantry and an educational foundation. Under the first aspect it resembled the college for secular canons and chaplains founded by Chichele in 1422 at Higham Ferrers, and dedicated to the B.V.M., St. Thomas of Canterbury, and St. Edward the Confessor, where divine service was celebrated daily for the good estate of Henry V, Queen Catharine, and of the archbishop during their lifetime, and for their souls after their deaths. (fn. 16) The new foundation was to be a place of prayer for (besides the co-founders) the souls of Henry V, Thomas, Duke of Clarence, and the English captains and other subjects who had drunk 'the cup of bitter death' in the French wars; as well as for all souls of the faithful departed, whom in the later Middle Ages every founder of a chantry or an obit invariably associated with the persons so commemorated. It was a Lancastrian war memorial. (fn. 17) In its second aspect, All Souls was to be a college where scholars, living in common, studied and taught for the degrees of the University, with the further intention, expressed in the statutes, that regent masters in arts should pursue the study of theology, and lawyers make themselves proficient in the canon as well as in the civil law. Chichele laid great stress upon the assumption of Holy Orders by artists and jurists alike; for the purpose of the legal and theological studies undertaken by the fellows was the profit of the Church. Thus every master of arts must assume the priesthood within two years from the completion of his necessary regency. Every civilian who is a bachelor of law, and who does not take his doctor's degree within five years after his former degree, must take Holy Orders within a year (to be reckoned from the expiry of the five years). In his prologue to the statutes Chichele speaks of the compassion which he felt for the estate of the unarmed clerical militia that was daily decreasing through lack of resources and the other miseries of this fleeting world. His mind, he said, went back to the time when 'both the services (as he called Church and State) competing with each other in pious emulation, made the kingdom of England formidable to its adversaries, and resplendent and glorious among nations abroad'.

According to the founder's statutes there were to be twenty-four 'artist' and sixteen 'jurist' fellows, who had to submit to a probationary period of a year during which they were termed scolares. The scholars, elected on the morrow of All Souls' Day, were required to have studied at least three years in the faculty of arts, or in civil law, or in both arts and law. They must be persons instructed 'adequately in the rudiments of composition (grammatica) and competently in plain song; (fn. 18) who having the first clerical tonsure are fit and disposed to become priests, are of free condition and born in lawful wedlock, are advantaged by good circumstances and character, and desire to make progress in study and are actually doing well in it'. (fn. 19) The statutes assume that most scolares will already be bachelors of arts; undergraduates so elected would certainly take the degree at an early date. Fellows on their first election were to be between 17 and 26 years of age: but the rule may not have been invariable, since in 1457 Master Philip Polton, nephew of Bishop Thomas Polton of Worcester (d. 1433), appears in the list of admissions, and as Philip was already Archdeacon of Gloucester when his uncle died, he must have been admitted when he was 61, for we know his age from a Papal indult granted to him in 1455. (fn. 20)

The government of the society was in the hands of a Warden, Sub-warden, two bursars, and two deans (each from arts and law). The modern decision of a great variety of matters in full college meeting was not Chichele's intention; in most cases he relied on the judgement of the college officers reinforced by the senior fellows—often three from arts and three from law: but he expressly stipulated that very serious or important matters involving the interests of the college were to be submitted to the verdict of 'the greater part of the jurists and of the senior artists then present'. Residence was strictly enforced. The Warden was allowed up to sixty days' absence except for special reasons which had to be approved by the college as a whole; the Sub-warden had to reside continuously, and to dine in hall with the fellows. His special concern was with the morals and behaviour of the fellows, with their scholastic studies, and with the chaplains and others ministering in the chapel. (fn. 21) He and the appropriate dean had to take disciplinary action against negligent or idle probationers and fellows if the Warden did not choose to deal with them himself. The sanctions which could be used against the erring or recalcitrant were in most cases the docking of commons, the amount of which the founder regulated on a sliding scale according to the price of wheat. Superintendence of studies and the regulation of disputations were in the hands of the deans. The artist and jurist bursars were to be chosen by the Warden, Sub-warden, deans, and six other fellows. Their duty it was to receive from the bailiffs and farmers the rents and dues of the college lands and possessions, and to deposit them in coffers and chests in the treasury; they could undertake no major expenditure without the consent of the Warden, the deans, and the majority of the College. (fn. 22)

To the Warden Chichele entrusted the general government of the college, making him the ordinary in the chapel and supervisor of all the college officials and servants. In his manuscript history of the college Dr. Thomas Wenman lays great stress on his function in the election of fellows. His assent was absolutely necessary to any election, (fn. 23) though throughout the history of the college various attempts were made to circumvent this provision. None, as Archbishop Wake told the college in 1719, (fn. 24) was ever successful. The refusal of consent by the Warden is the explanation of numerous devolutions to the archbishop as Visitor. The Warden was the curator of the lands and possessions of the college, and this is the aspect of his work that finds copious illustration in the early muniments, particularly in inventories that still survive. It should be noted that the early Wardens stood in closest relation to the archbishops and the see of Canterbury. It was Chichele's own Chancellor, Richard Andrew, who, as Warden Stokes wrote in 1471, was 'the headstone in the corner' of the new foundation. (fn. 25) In the Warden's oath the promise is made to submit any matter of dispute in which the Warden is involved, and which cannot be decided within thirty days by a special committee, to the archbishop for his verdict, or, in his absence, to his vicar-general, or, if he fails, to the official of the Court of Arches, or indeed, if the see is vacant, to the Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury. The number and frequency of the archiepiscopal letters and injunctions among the college archives is accounted for by this close relation to the Visitor who had no power of altering or abrogating the statutes, but through his injunctions and mandates possessed, in Dr. Wenman's words, 'a legislative power of making new laws, but under this restriction that they are not inconsistent with or derogatory from those given to us by the founder'. (fn. 26) The period of greatest visitatorial influence was to be the 18th and early 19th centuries.

The early estates of the college fall into three main groups, with a number of outlying units: (fn. 27) in Buckinghamshire at Long Crendon, Foxcote, Maid's Morton, and Padbury; in Middlesex at Edgware and Hendon, (fn. 28) Kingsbury, Harlesden, and Willesden; and in Kent, where they were most numerous, at Googy Hall, Hope All Saints, Ivychurch, Brenset, Halstow, Horsham, Boyworth, Newenton, Reynham, Hartlip, Wade, Bobbing, Deptling, Scotney, Bleching, Okeholt, Lydd, Broomhill, and New Romney. In Oxfordshire there were Lewknor and properties in Oxford itself; in Berkshire, Aston's Eyte. The lands of the Grandmontine house of Alberbury (fn. 29) in Shropshire, and the alien priories of St. Clere (a cell of St. Martin des Près, Paris) and Llangenith in South Wales (belonging to St. Taurin, Évreux) were granted to the new foundation, besides Salford in Bedfordshire and Weedon Pinkney and Whadborough in Northamptonshire. While the College acquired the patronage of a number of the churches on its estates, some of its more fruitful tithe-bearing rectories were not secured till later: e.g. Barking (Essex) in 1557, Welwyn (Herts.) in 1617, Lockinge (Berks.) in 1633, Buckland (Surrey) in 1639, Harpsden (Oxon.) in 1640, Weston Turville (Bucks.) in 1690, Barford St. Martin (Wilts.) in 1718, Chelsfield and Farnborough (Kent) in 1754. The early Building Accounts state that Chichele paid the sum of £4,302 3s. 6½d. for the manors, lands, and advowsons as well as the books for the library and chapel.

At first the bailiffs in charge of the estates farmed directly by the college and the farmers who rented lands from the college accounted to the bursars at the annual November audit. Soon it was found convenient to unify the collection in the hands of a receivergeneral, Richard Pykman, who, in the years shortly following the foundation, lived at Croydon, for the simple reason that he was also steward of the archbishop's manors. Pykman had under him the collectors of rents on each estate, whose accounts have in certain cases survived in detailed form. They paid him their monies by Michaelmas each year, and he brought the total, together with his summed account, (fn. 30) to the bursars before 1 Nov. He also brought with him the particulars of payments received from each bailiff or collector on a roll known as the Rent Roll. (fn. 31) The total of the rents and of the sums acquired by sales and leases is the first entry in the chief financial record of the college, the important Computus and Expense Rolls of the artist and jurist bursars.

The two most significant parts of the college were the chapel and the library. In 1444 Archbishop Stafford issued an indulgence to all visiting the chapel of the college 'dedicated to the four chief doctors of the Church' on the first Sunday after the Translation of St. Thomas and at the annual commemoration of All Souls, and there praying for the souls of the faithful departed, repeating the angelic salutation. (fn. 32) The chapel had valuable treasures: a tooth of St. John Baptist held between two angels, relics of St. Bartholomew, St. Jerome, and St. Sebastian, besides various images which included one of the eleven thousand virgins. There were eight altars in all, six in the nave (or ante-chapel), one in the vestry, in addition to the high altar in the choir; and the inventories of chapel property reveal notable sets of vestments including an altar frontal 'with white lambs' and another 'of white worsted steyned with angels holding in their hands Emanuel'. There was an organ, and a bronze eagle lectern given by Thomas Chichele, Archdeacon of Canterbury. (fn. 33) The first register of the college has several entries of admission to the fraternity. The first is that of John Birkhead whom, after his death, the college in view of his services and benefactions claimed as frater quo ad suffragia, undertaking to celebrate his obit. (fn. 34) Preserved among the archives is a leaf from one of the college service books containing the names of important personages and benefactors for whom prayer was made: the list is interesting for it contains the names of the Duke of Bedford, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and, besides those of the archbishop's relations, friends, and helpers, that of Lady Joan Croxford, soror dicti Collegii. (fn. 35) Wives as well as their husbands were admitted to the privilege.

As a loyal New College man Chichele made many borrowings from William of Wykeham's statutes; one of the more obvious concerned the library, then divided into the chained or 'confined' books and the supply for circulation (libri distribuendi), given out annually at the elections. The earliest book-lists illustrate the archbishop's predilection for Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory the Great. (fn. 36) The year after the foundation Thomas Gascoigne gave his copy of Gregory's Register to the college, a fine 12th-century volume, (fn. 37) while the sermons and the moralia are well represented. The letters of Jerome figured prominently; they were kept, when the lectern system was fully developed, in the library (fn. 38) chained, like Lyra's Postils, on the centre desk. Henry VI gave a fine copy of Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History which is still among the college manuscripts, (fn. 39) though the founder's own copy of Innocent IV on the Decretals, which he himself annotated, and which he adjured the college never to alienate, is no longer there, but in Antwerp. (fn. 40) Among the more interesting arts books were Peter of Candia's commentary on the Sentences, Burley on the Ethics, Sharpe on the Physics. and the Doctrinale of Thomas Netter of Walden. The collection of canon law was representative. Besides the usual texts are to be noted works by Godfrey de Fontibus, Antonio de Butrio, Zabarella, and John Calderini; and both canon and civil law profited by the bequests of lawyers in the archbishop's household, notably Henry Penwortham, his registrar, and John Lyndfield, formerly Dean of the Arches. (fn. 41) There was a considerable chained collection of astronomy and medicine, and a large miscellaneous class of theology and medical works for distribution. The early interest of the college in medicine needs more emphasis than it has yet received. Taken as a whole, the books which Chichele and others secured for the communis libraria were a good all-round collection, not an assemblage of specialist theology and philosophy, subjects inwhich the library of Merton abounded. The founder's vision was strictly practical.

2. The life of the college under its early Wardens was peaceful. The first, Richard Andrew, who died between 30 Nov. 1479 and 5 Nov. 1480, as Dean of York, was the Archbishop's Chancellor and held the living of St. Vedast in the City of London. He resigned in 1442 and was appointed next year or early in 1444 (fn. 42) as king's secretary, and was one of the ambassadors chosen to conclude a truce with France and to arrange for the marriage of Henry VI with Margaret of Anjou. (fn. 43) For his fateful part in bringing Margaret to England the former first Warden of All Souls was granted an annuity of £100. (fn. 44) In his will he left the college two silver lavers and £40 on condition that prayer was said for him daily after dinner in hall. (fn. 45) He was succeeded by Roger Keyes, one of the original twenty fellows, who, in 1441, had become clerk of the works in succession to John Druel. It was not a long reign, for Keyes resigned on being appointed to a prebend in St. Paul's in 1445. He was essentially the building Warden for, just as at All Souls in 1441 and 1442, so at Eton from 25 March 1448 till Michaelmas 1450 (when he was appointed archdeacon of Barnstaple), works progressed quickly under his supervision. (fn. 46) Andrew and Keyes were both ad hoc Wardens, so to speak; Andrew to set the college on its legs from a fiscal and territorial point of view, Keyes to expedite the building and settle the fellows in under their new statutes. With Keyes's successor, William Kele (or Kelly), who ruled from 1445 to 1459, the period of experiment was over and the regular life of the college had begun. Under him starts the fine series of Bursars' Rolls, and these two fiscal officers now take over the work formerly given to the receiver-general of the college. From 1449 to 1451 their records reveal an interesting series of payments to exchequer and privy seal officials, as well as to the clerk of the parliament, diversis temporibus, and to a scribe for writing the 'parliamentary bill'. The 6s. 8d. paid to 'attornatus noster in scaccario ut auscultaret super resumpcione' completes the picture. (fn. 47) In the resumption of Crown grants in 1450 the college was threatened with the loss of its possessions, especially those formerly belonging to alien priories; but both now and in 1455 it was successful in securing exemption for these and its other property, and so saving its estates. (fn. 48) The greater crisis was to come in 1460, when Edward IV was intending a much more thorough resumption than those of 1450 and 1455, and was not likely to look with favour on a Lancastrian foundation. (fn. 49) But here as before, and later (1489), (fn. 50) the college escaped, in 1460 in consideration of its willingness to pray 'for the good estate of the king and his mother Cicely, duchess of York, and for their souls after death and the souls of the king's progenitors'. (fn. 51) On this occasion the Oxfordshire knights of parliament were given two gallons of wine by the Warden at their election, and the Chancellor of England had a present of trout. (fn. 52) It has been well pointed out that, even despite the pains taken to secure ratification of the founder's acts and intent, the endowments of the college 'rested on no too sure a basis'. (fn. 53) And even if Henry VIII at the beginning of his reign issued documents confirming the grants and privileges of the college, he made it contribute to the loan raised by the spirituality in 1522 and asked for a loan of £100 in 1524. (fn. 54) By the end of Henry VIII's reign the gross income from the lands and possessions of the college was round about £490–£500. (fn. 55)

These were material crises which may not have greatly affected the academic life of the college during the wardenships of William Potman (fn. 56) (1459–66) and John Stokes (1466–74). But subtler changes were pre paring. By the year 1500 the Ciceranian phase of the Renaissance had become well established, and 'in the last desk' of the library are the Tusculan Disputations, the Speeches, the De Oratore and the Rhetorica, besides Strabo, Nonius Marcellus, Quintilian, Plutarch, Boccaccio, and the Letters of Leonardo Bruni, an interesting jumble, characteristic of the Latin stage of humanism. (fn. 57) The first appearance of Greek books can be dated, Mr. N. R. Ker thinks, 1540–50. A list, in existence by 1556, enumerates five volumes of Aristotle in Greek along with two of Plato, the incipits being given in Greek characters. (fn. 58) Alexander of Aphrodisias, Johannes Grammaticus, and the speeches of Demosthenes also figure. But Greek must have come to the college before that. Thomas Linacre, commonly thought of as the distinguished physician and founder of lectures in medicine both at Oxford and Cambridge, was also the translator of Proclus on the Sphere and the author of important treatises in composition, and his admission as a fellow is dated 1484. By 1576 the major religious change had come about, and the inventory, in Warden Hovenden's own hand, demonstrates the advance of humanism. Most of the medieval theology proper has gone. There is no Nicholas de Lyra or Vincent of Beauvais, and there has been a clearance made of the post-patristic age. The list is defective through the ravages of fire, but there seems to be no copy of St. Augustine, though Ambrose and Jerome have been allowed to stay. (fn. 59) Medicine now holds a large place. In the same year (1576) appears a note to the effect that

'Master Andrew Kingsmill, late fellow, living beyond the seas at Geneva, gave by will five poundes, to be bestowed on bookes to be laied in the librarie, and therewith were bought:
Calvini opuscula
Idem in Evangelia et Acta
Idem in orationes Pauli et canonicas epistolas
Idem in Esaiam et Jeremiam
Idem in Danielem et duodecim prophetas
Petrus Martyr in Judicum et Samuelem
Idem in librum regum
Idem in epistolas ad Romanos et Corinthios
Idem contra Marcum Constantium.'

Andrew Kingsmill, admitted in 1558, drops out of the Bursars' Lists in 1571, and does not reappear. His residence at Geneva and the fact that Calvin and Peter Martyr were bought with his legacy point to his religious complexion. The canons of 1571 may have been the cause of his migration.

The Reformation cost the college most of its ornaments, many of its manuscripts, and, both before and during the Marian reaction, several of its fellows along with its Warden. Of the spiritual changes that took place there is little evidence; but there is no doubt that the first period of Warden Warner's rule was a time of relaxation and frank enjoyment of life, as the injunctions of Archbishop Cranmer make clear, (fn. 60) and that it was not till the wardenship of Hovenden that the college was disciplined again, both intellectually and administratively. (fn. 61) It was a time of order and counterorder, but the laxity which affected the college was due less to religious divisions and perplexities than to factiousness within as well as the breath of Tudor aestheticism from without. (fn. 62) The greater religious changes began quietly. Soon after the king's ecclesiastical supremacy had been acknowledged by Convocation, the University of Oxford was asked its opinion about the abrogation of Papal jurisdiction, whether the Bishop of Rome had any greater authority in England than any other foreign bishop. After the University had decided in the negative (27 July 1534) the opinion of each college was sought, and, among others, All Souls now unanimously denounced the Papal authority. (fn. 63) In the instrument recording this, they promise fidelity to the king and Queen Anne and her issue, acknowledge Henry to be head of ecclesia Anglicana, abjure the primacy of the Roman bishop and his decrees, laws, and canons that are against divine law and holy scripture, and regard as their only norm and rule in preaching 'the clear and open sense of scripture and the truly Catholic and orthodox doctors'. Soon after this came the inquiry into the lands and possessions of the colleges, and All Souls had to make its 'royal books' recording them; (fn. 64) the next year (1535) Dr. Leighton, on his visitation, made inquiries 'into the election of scholars' at the college which paid his expenses while in the city. (fn. 65) Wood records that he established lecturerships in Greek and Latin, (fn. 66) and in 1538 and 1539 the accounts read 22s. 8d. paid to Dr. (Thomas) Smith, successor to John Cheek in the professorship of Greek, pro prelectione regia; the first reference to a Greek lecture is in the Bursars' Accounts of 1540–1, when Mr. Reve was paid 53s. 4d. Grece prelegenti. (fn. 67)

In 1538 the name of the Roman pontiff was expunged from the service books in the chapel, (fn. 68) but it was in the next reign that the defacement of the building took place. In 1547 the college bought a copy of the contemporary Injunctions (fn. 69) which instructed the clergy 'to take away, utterly extinct and destroy all shrines, candlesticks, pictures, and all other monuments of feyned miracles, pilgrimages, idolatry and superstition'. In 1548 the college accordingly pulled down the Crucifixion group (imagines Salvatoris, Marie et Johannis) and the images over the high altar, the gold upon them fetching 8s. (fn. 70) It sold its copy of St. Augustine's works for £4, its Galen for £10, while Erasmus's paraphrase of the New Testament made 12s. 8d. (fn. 71) In 1550 £27 3s. 4d. was realized by the sale of'copes, vestments and other old and superfluous ornaments of the chapel'; and the nextyear the high altar was completely destroyed, the choir whitewashed, and a communion table placed in the choir. (fn. 72) The other altars had been destroyed during the previous year. (fn. 73) Psalters were now acquired and a clerk was paid to write out cantica communionis. (fn. 74) The item of 34s. 8d. pro ministerio in capella, for which the bursars accounted, would suggest a salaried chaplaincy in the new rite. (fn. 75) Under Mary this policy was reversed. Vestments and censers were bought, the tabernacle for the Host was repaired and choir books purchased, and no payments are accounted for to the prelectors in theology or law who were the result of the Henrician reforms. (fn. 76) In 1555 the altars were replaced and consecrated, and vestments not parted with were repaired. (fn. 77) The Marian reaction proved too much for Warden Warner, who had been ViceChancellor in 1555. In Jan. 1556 he resigned his wardenship into the hands of the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury (sede vacante) and took a rectory in Middlesex. (fn. 78) Soon after the death of Queen Mary (1558) the wardenship was vacant, and as neither of the candidates secured a majority of votes from each faculty, there was a devolution to the Visitor, who put in Warner. His tenure was not long, for he died in 1565. (fn. 79) Two and possibly three fellows had to resign for the same reasons as Warner. But while the Warden trimmed his sails to the wind, both Richard Bisley a quondam fellow and Richard Bullingham (later Bishop of Lincoln, then of Worcester) went into exile, the one at Frankfort, (fn. 80) the other at Emden, (fn. 81) while the more distinguished William Whittingham is found first at Frankfort and then at Geneva. (fn. 82)

In the Visitation that quickly followed Elizabeth's accession (Warner was one of the Visitors) two fellows, Thomas Dorman and Thomas Dolman, refused to take the Oath of Supremacy and were expelled, and Jasper Heywood, poeta et philosophus haud incelebris, resigned, went a broad and became a Jesuit. (fn. 83) Part of the Visitors' task was to banish from college chapels 'superstitious' ornaments and monuments; All Souls appears to have kept what it had purchased under Mary—and possibly some of its earlier possessions—for in 1567 an order came down from Lambeth for the dispatch of 'divers monuments of superstition' which the college was reported to have retained and ordering the Warden and certain fellows to appear before the Court of High Commission; they had, in fact, refused to deface the chapel plate, as they had been ordered to do. (fn. 84) The college did not obey very heartily, for in 1572 fresh orders for the defacement of all 'copes, vestments, albs, mass-books, crosses and such other idolatrous monuments' were received. The Warden and fellows were ordered to appear personally before the commissioners (who were staying in Magdalen) and to bring at their peril a certificate of the execution of this order. (fn. 85) There is some likelihood that this was obeyed: only very few jocalia henceforth remained from the chapel.

In Warden Hovenden, who succeeded Richard Barber in 1571, the college had a man who was both humanist and administrator. His power of organization is stamped upon all he did, his building, his defence of the college properties, (fn. 86) the splendid strip maps which he made of the college estates, his arrangement of the college archives, his beautification of the library. He had a very unruly college to handle when he succeeded to the wardenship at the age of 27. There was much internal strife. In 1598 Archbishop Whitgift had to censure the college for its divisions and to say that in the interpretation of the statutes he would not be influenced by the opinion of any lawyers, but by the meaning of the founder and the custom of the college. (fn. 87) The cause of the archbishop's displeasure was the practice of corrupt resignations. He expressed his great suspicion 'that resigned places pass to scholars designed by the resigners, at a very excessive cost to their parents'. (fn. 88) 'Suspicion' was certainly a euphemism. The practice of such purchased resignations had been growing since the latter days of Henry VIII. 'The Fellows', as Dr. Wenman wrote, 'for great length of time set at defiance the act of Elizabeth (31 Eliz. c. 6), the injunctions of Parker, Whitgift, Abbot, and, if I may call them such, those of the Parliamentary Visitors.' He adds that Laud himself consented to the practice, and that the Warden had become a partaker of the corruption. It was not till Jeames became Warden in 1665 that, in co-operation with Archbishop Sheldon (and none knew the college better), a firm stand was made, and the scandal terminated.

Indeed, as Wenman unflinchingly put it, 'their (the College's) freedom (of election) has been often violated by the rude interposition of royal arbitrary power, by the forcible and almost authoritative recommendations of our Visitors, by urgent entreaties of men high in rank or in office, and by that which of all other evils was most difficult to be cured, the corruption and sordid vices of the electors themselves'. (fn. 89) The latter apart, pressure from above was liable to come in a dangerous form when king and Visitor combined, (fn. 90) though on one occasion they combined to put in no less a scholar than Robert Gentili. (fn. 91) Archbishop Bancroft, the least scrupulous of Visitors in this respect, was not above urging the Warden to secure a devolution when he wanted to insert one of his nominees. (fn. 92) Yet abuses may prove useful. Premature resignation brought into the college Jeremy Taylor and Brian Duppa, later Bishop of Winchester.

With two exceptions the 17th-century Wardens after Hovenden were not men to command respect in a litigious and disrespectful age. We hear of verba ignominiosa, verba brigosa being used to the officers of the college, and Archbishop Abbot must have been sorely tried. In 1632 there was a drunken riot, when gates and doors were torn off, and the archbishop had to remind the college that 'Civil men should never so far forget themselves, under pretence of a foolish mallard, as to do things barbarously unbeseeming', and he went on to point out that more persons had died recently in All Souls than in other colleges. (fn. 93) Abbot's reference was to the celebrations that surrounded the college totem, the mallard, which was traditionally supposed to have flown out from an ancient drain when the foundations were being dug. The Mallard procession, for which a medal was struck, was held in 1700, 1800, and 1900 (possibly for the last time). But the age saw no incongruity in the coexistence within a college of such Caroline roystering and the more staid and studious habits of life in men like Arthur Duck, the civilian who eventually became Dean of the Arches and wrote a Latin life of Chichele, Dudley Digges, the advocate of Divine Right, and Gilbert Sheldon, who became Warden in 1635. Sheldon's career is bound up with the history of the Restoration Settlement, and his thought directed for generations the current of the relations between Church and State.

In 1642 the Civil War began, and the college had to assist Charles I by giving up the bulk of its plate and by undertaking in 1643 to maintain 120 soldiers for four months at the rate of 4s. a man. Rents fell, and in 1646 the college could only provide one meal a day. On 24 June the city surrendered to the parliamentary forces, and along with other colleges All Souls had to face a parliamentary Visitation. This involved the removal of the Warden and thirteen fellows who refused to submit to the authority of the Visitation: and the college officers were appointed by the Commissioners. During the period of the Commonwealth forty-four fellows were 'intruded'; (fn. 94) in the register of admissions the fellows appointed between 1648 and 1653 are separately listed as the Per Parliamenti Commissarios, without note of the year of admission, birthplace, &c. In 1654 the college was allowed to select from a list approved by the Visitors and the entries are headed Per Collegium. Along with the changes of personnel went disciplinary injunctions which were not exclusively concerned to make the college godly and puritan, but aimed at the improvement of scholarship and learning. Yet in the next century when Pastor Moritz visited Oxford he was to find Oxford dons drinking with the chaplain of All Souls (fn. 95) at the Mitre.

The intrusions and regulations of the Commonwealth, if they interrupted the normal life of the college, were not bad medicine for a college that at times was both rowdy and factious. But the new regime deserves gratitude for introducing into the college Thomas Sydenham and Christopher Wren. Wren, who cooperated with Warden Sheldon in the Theatre, and designed the sundial now upon the Codrington Library, has been called by Evelyn 'a rare and early prodigy of universal science': and it is as scientist (the genus) rather than as architect (the species) that he is to be remembered in his own college. 'How near', observes Dr. Gunther, 'he came to being one of the first of Oxford anatomists! As a pupil with the training of a scholar he studied under Professor Willis and drew with fine draughtsmanship the illustrations of the anatomy of the brain which were the making of Willis's book.' (fn. 96) He was admitted a fellow in 1655, was in residence for two years till in 1657, when, at the age of 25, he was chosen for the Chair of Astronomy at Gresham College, London; then in Feb. 1661 he was elected to the Savilian Chair of Astronomy, and returned to Oxford. The college possesses several portfolios of his original drawings, including his 'warrant' design for St. Paul's, the plan originally approved by Charles II as 'more artificial and useful' than that of the others.

The history of the college after the Restoration probably reads neither better nor worse than that of other societies in Oxford during the later 17th and early 18th centuries. If Warden Jeames was able to conquer the system of corrupt resignations, there were other sources of lawlessness that took longer to subdue and, as might be said of most academic bodies, there was very little public conscience. The election of Leopold William Finch, Lord Winchester's fifth son, to a fellowship in the college showed patronage and factious opposition to the Warden at their worst. Finch, besides being supported in his candidature by the king and the Bishop of Oxford, had obtained (to quote Dr. Wenman) 'a great Interest among the fellows of All Souls by the sociability of his Temper and by approving of their opposition to the Warden'. Jeames was hostile, on the ground of Finch's dissipation and extravagance, and negatived the young man's election, which therefore devolved upon the Visitor, Archbishop Sancroft. The archbishop refused to nominate Finch, and upbraided the Bishop of Oxford for supporting the young man. The bishop replied that he was aware that Finch had many small failings, 'but I do not take him to be that flagitious man which he is represented to be'. Finch was a candidate the following year (1682) and by this time had so strong a following among the fellows that the Warden 'yielded, and, on his promise of amendment, consented to the choice'. Upon Dr. Jeames's death King James II sent a mandamus to the college for the election of Finch. This exercise of the dispensing power was against the statutes, and the college, however pleased to have such a man as their Warden, could only admit him without previous election (21 Jan. 1687). His position was not legalized till 1698 when the fellows by agreement made a devolution and the Visitor appointed Finch Warden of All Souls; till then he was liable to be called (as by the dismissed chaplain Jonas Proast) Pseudo-Custos, and the uncertainty of his position did the college little good. A college governed, if governed is the word, by an extravagant man, deeply in debt, was not likely to respect its own statutes, above all the statute enjoining Holy Orders upon resident masters of arts. Many of the troubles that came upon Bernard Gardiner, appointed Warden in succession to Finch (1703), came from this source.

There were other difficulties besides, but most of them were connected with evasions of this statutory duty: for instance, how many fellowships should be allowed to physicians, and was the so-called study of physic to be a method of getting round the obligation ? Was 'service under the Crown' a sufficient reason for a dispensation from taking Orders? The general trend of opinion within the college was against both Orders and continuous residence. Gardiner, the new Warden, had to face a society partially corrupted by his predecessor and very different in spirit from the ideals of the founder. Gardiner was an earnest, conscientious, and rather intolerant man with a capacity for acrid comment and bitter repartee when his anger was aroused. Hearne, who cordially disliked him, called him insidious and tricky, as well as despotic. (fn. 97) Yet no man who had the friendship of George Clarke or Dr. Charlett can have been devoid of high qualities, and Gardiner had a truer conception of his office than Finch, and a determination to give no ground before irregularities and licence. His correspondence is long and wearisome: the Visitors certainly found it so. But in all the cases when appeal was lodged against his monitions to fellows to take Holy Orders or when he is defending his attempts to enforce residence, he was, however tactlessly, defending a principle. The only matter on which Gardiner seems to have enjoyed the support of a frequently mutinous and politically divided college was over his resistance to a claim for election as founder's kin. On this he was defeated by the verdict of the Visitor, who was for putting in one of his relatives. No wonder that Gardiner, never to be broken in spirit, had vehement things to say about the power of Visitors. In 1711 he took legal opinion upon his ability to resist the Visitor, and even considered getting an Act of Parliament to explain it; but from the lawyers he derived small comfort. (fn. 98) Nor were legal disputes the only cause of Gardiner's troubles: the college archives possess some extraordinary pages 'concerning the riotous behaviour of Mr. Richardson, Mr. Brotherton and Mr. Greenaway', fellows of the college, who in 1725 broke the Warden's windows and assaulted the porter. Last February, Gardiner reported to Archbishop Wake, Richardson became 'directly mad' and was under keepers for about two months. He has now been elected dean, and the Warden refuses to admit him. (fn. 99) The college that could elect Leopold Finch was not above electing another sporting character as Dean of Arts. (fn. 100)

There is another and happier side to the story, and it is concerned with fine men and noble buildings. Faction was endemic in the Oxford of Hearne, an Oxford seamed with petty personal strifes as well as with the larger dissensions of Whig and Jacobite; yet the names of Thomas Tanner, Bishop of St. Asaph, George Clarke, Sir Nathaniel Lloyd, and Christopher Codrington would distinguish any academic society, and remind us not to take too seriously the disagreements of clever men living (save for Gardiner) celibate lives within the narrow walls of a college. Tanner, perhaps greatest antiquary of the college after Leland (who was chaplain, but never fellow), a scholar as erudite as, and much more judicious than, Hearne, the college owed to Warden Finch, his solitary good deed. To that strange Warden the first edition of the Notitia Monastica is dedicated. George Clarke, who held office under five sovereigns from Charles II to Queen Anne, a level-headed Tory, was a fellow for fifty-six years and the critical intelligence guiding the great building programme undertaken by the college between 1703 and his death in 1737. To him is due the Warden's Lodging (1706), and the planning of the Hall and Great Quadrangle, which Nicholas Hawksmoor carried out. Clarke lives in the memory of Worcester College also, for his bequests to the library, chapel, and hall of that college, and for his subsidizing of additional fellowships and scholarships. Connoisseur and bibliophile, almost a late-born figure of the Renaissance, he was of the kin of Bishop Goldwell, Arthur Duck, Sir William Blackstone, and George Nathaniel Curzon: versatile men of affairs whose hearts were deep in the life of study and learning. Nathaniel Lloyd, as Sir Charles Grant Robertson has remarked, 'is a worthy second in distinction as well as loyalty to his College'. (fn. 101) He was a lawyer, who began by practising in Doctors' Commons and became Advocate-General to Queen Anne; in 1710 he was made Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, which he resigned in 1735. He contributed generously to the new buildings as well as lending large sums, though his bequests must have been made under difficulties caused by opposition from factious fellows and by the dislike in which the Warden was held. If some of his suggestions were a little too imaginative, he was, at any rate, not afraid of innovation. But the money of which the college disposed for their most famous extension came from a man who in present parlance would be termed a sugar magnate—Christopher Codrington (elected in 1690), Governor of the West Indies, and founder of Barbados College. Before Codrington left Oxford he had already amassed a notable collection of books (Hearne in 1706 put them at 12,000), and after he had gone to the West Indies Alexander Cunningham, upon whom Codrington had settled an annuity, collected on his behalf. (fn. 102) To All Souls Codrington left £10,000, £6,000 of which were to be expended 'for Building of a Library', the remainder being for books: to which he added his already existing collection. The Codrington Library, planned by Hawksmoor, was finally completed in 1756. In the central recess stands its founder in a Roman toga.

In completing the library, the work on which was interrupted for some years, the figure of Sir William Blackstone is prominent. When only twenty the author of the Commentaries on the Laws of England had written a little book on The Elements of Architecture, the manuscript of which is in the possession of the college. (fn. 103) Blackstone was deeply interested in making the Codrington Library as fine an instrument as possible for legal and humane studies. To it he gave a number of his legal works, including an early copy of Littleton's Tenures, printed by Machlinia and Lettou, with copious notes of his own on the fly-leaves. The library also possessed the little itinerary which he later used on circuit. Very appropriately he sits in his chair at the eastern end surveying, in calm expressive features modelled by Bacon, the work of his foresight and economy. For in the college Blackstone filled the position of steward of the manors and, in his time, of bursar. His ten years' stewardship was fruitful for the college finances, and the increased revenue enabled Codrington's design to be finished. Was it at his suggestion that a committee was established for the purchase of books? The orders for the library were drawn up on 8 Nov. 1751, and order 3 reads: 'that the Warden, Sub-warden, Deans and Bursars, the Senior Artists and the Senior Jurists then resident in College, if graduates, shall be at all times a standing Committee for the Library. …' On 25 Apr. 1752 Blackstone was asked by the committee to 'treat for' two law books. His first appearance on the committee was on 23 Oct. 1754; his last on 23 Dec. 1760. (fn. 104) In the life of the college Blackstone, with his orderly mind and inspired common sense, played a leading part.

3. The last eighty years of the college's existence may be termed, from one point of view, the period of the Royal Commissions and progressive statutory change; from another, a time of the exceptional creative activity and adaptation to modern ideals and methods in University education. From an attitude (like that of other Oxford societies) of polite but not more than conventional responsiveness to the claims of the University, the college has taken the lead in the foundation and endowment of new University chairs and readerships, and from its increased resources has made substantial contributions to the University of the present and future.

The Commissioners of 1852 were on the whole conservative in intention. They wished 'to restore so noble an institution to the cause of learning and education without altogether sacrificing the peculiar character that belongs to All Souls'. They appear to have agreed with Lord Hugh Cecil's observations in the House of Commons in 1920, that an ancient university resembles a specially fine cheese whose distinctive flavour can easily be lost irrevocably under over-zealous reform. By the Statutes of 1858 the fellows were freed from their obligation to take Orders, or to prefer founder's kinsmen in elections, or (the lawyers) to study Civil and Canon Law exclusively, or to speak Latin and hear the Bible read in hall: provisions that sanctioned the passing, years previously, of what was medieval and out of date. More drastic steps came with the suppression of ten fellowships and the creation of two new 'Chichele' chairs of International Law and Modern History. The rest of the fellowships, which were tenable for life, but were to be vacated on marriage, were to be filled from candidates 'who had either taken a first class or obtained a University Prize or Scholarship in the subjects recognised in the University School for the combined studies of Law and Modern History'. Nothing was said about fellows being obliged to follow any particular line of study. This was but the beginning of reform. But while the word 'research' was not yet commonly heard in the college, from 1865 onwards there was much speculation among the fellows as to how the college might be made of greater utility to the University, whether along undergraduate or graduate lines. Apart from its four Bible Clerks, a little community of undergraduates who on weekdays read the lessons in chapel, were taught and batteled within the college, and in more recent days took their recreation with Trinity, (fn. 105) the essential graduate character of the society was to stand. In 1877 another and more searching Royal Commission passed the University and its colleges under review. The Statutes of 1881 concentrated primarily on the recruitment of the personnel, and made the first revolutionary change by introducing the system of Prize Fellowships by examination, tenable for the limited period of seven years. The fourteen ordinary fellowships were to be filled up in this way: they were renewable, but at a stipend of £50 only, and by a 'self-denying ordinance' a fellow who married resigned his 'fifty-pound' fellowship. Two further chairs, the Regius Chair of Civil Law and the Vinerian Chair of English Law, were added to the college, along with two readerships; and a sum was to be set aside for the purpose of undergraduate education and the subsidizing of non-collegiate studies. In these new statutes occurs the first mention of Research Fellows, whom the college was empowered to elect for a period of seven years; and an annual sum of £1,000 was assigned for payment to the Bodleian Library. With the Research Fellowships the College was to make a fortunate beginning with the distinguished figure of S. R. Gardiner and his disciple, Sir Charles Harding Firth.

Thus after 1881 the college had on its books a certain number of Professorial Fellows, fellows of the pre-1858 type as well as those more highly qualified elected in the period between the first and second commissions; the Prize Fellows, the 'fifty-pounders', and the 'official' fellows who held a college office, either the bursars or the librarian. That the new statutes were wisely and liberally applied, that the examination system invigorated the college through the influx of the best young graduates in Law and History, and that All Souls was able to fulfil its immediate obligations and at the same time to maintain its fundamental character were happy results largely due to the forethought, munificence, and wise guidance of Sir William Reynell Anson, who succeeded Dr. Leighton as Warden (1881). In him, for many years a University Burgess and Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education, was exemplified the traditional connexion of the college with the public service, the felicitous union of academic and practical studies in the spirit of the founder.

By the end of the Great War, when the University requested the Treasury for an increased annual grant, the problem was not how to move forward, but how to maintain equipoise amid the claims and competition of new branches of study and new trends in university education. The expansion of historical studies that now included imperial and dominion affairs; the establishment of politics as a subject in its own right; and the advances in economic theory and statistical analysis, suggested a widening of the existing spheres of college interest; while the projected formation of a combined Honours School of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics turned people's minds in a similar direction. At the same time the London suburban estates of the college, as new housing schemes came into being, produced increasing resources which the college now prepared to utilize. The Royal Commission of 1920 recommended that the research enactments of the 1881 Statutes for the college should be further implemented by the creation of two new categories of Research Fellows, the senior of professorial status, the junior a class into which it has been found possible, provided that the college makes the recommendation, for a Prize Fellow to pass on the completion of his period of tenure, if he wishes to devote himself to research. The stipend of the actual Prize Fellows was to be raised, but with the proviso that, if after two years the holder did not wish to continue researching or teaching in the university, he was to receive not more than £50 annually for the remainder of his tenure of the fellowship. These and other recommendations were embodied in the legislation of the Statutory Commission (1924–5), presided over by Viscount Chelmsford (successor to Dr. Francis Pember as Warden in 1932).

Pictures

Notable pictures in the college include those of Jeremy Taylor (fellow, 1635), Gilbert Sheldon (Warden, 1636), and Thomas Sydenham (fellow, 1645), all unattributed; Charles I by Edward Bower (inscribed on the back 'King Charles the first as he satt at his Tryall in Westminster Hall, 1648, an originall, G.C.'); Edward Young (fellow, 1728) by Joseph Highmore; John, Viscount Tracy of Rathcoole (Warden, 1766), and Sir Charles Richard Vaughan (fellow, 1798), by Sir Thomas Lawrence. The college possesses Roubiliac's bust of Henry Chichele, and statues of Christopher Codrington (fellow, 1690) by Sir Henry Cheere, and of Sir William Blackstone (fellow, 1744) by John Bacon. In the antechapel is the monumental bust of Nicholas Hawksmoor (d. 1736), architect of the library and Great Quadrangle of the college.

Library

The library is rich in manuscripts. Principal donors, beside the Founder, were Henry VI, Archbishop Warham, and Narcissus Luttrell. Among early psalters are MS. VI (the illuminated 'Amesbury Psalter', probably of Salisbury origin, c. 1250), and MS. VII (E. Anglian, early 14th cent.); notable biblical manuscripts are MS. V (13th cent.), VIII (14th cent.), and IX (11th cent.); and among other codices of importance are MS. XVII (Capgrave), XVIII (Letters of Gregory I, given by Thomas Gascoigne in 1439); XXV (Scala perfectionis, 15th cent.); XXX (St. Bernard on the Song of Songs, 12th cent.); XXXIII, XXXIV, and XXXV (William of Malmesbury); XXXVI (Roger Hoveden); XXXI and XXXVI (Henry of Huntingdon); XXXVIII (the Pseudo-Elmham, early 16th cent.); XLVI (Eusebius, 12th cent.); LXXXVI (Burley on Aristotle, 14th cent.); XCII (Aegidius Colonna, 14th cent.); XCIV (Coluccio Salutati, early 15th cent.); XCVIII (John Gower, 15th cent.); CIII (Libelle of Englische Polycie, 15th cent.); and CLXXXII (Anglo-Norman letters, 15th cent.). There are notable Canon and Civil Law manuscripts: for Canon Law, cf. especially XLII (Constitutiones, 14th cent.); XLVIII (The Sext, c. 1300); LIII (Chiselden on the Clementines, 15th cent.); and LIV (Zabarella on the Clementines, 1417); for civil law, XLIX (Digest, 14th cent.); L (Codex, 14th cent.); LV (Azo and Roffredus, early 14th cent.); and LVII (Cino of Pistoia, late 14th cent.). At the end of the 18th century the college received a bequest of more than a hundred volumes of parliamentary journals and state papers collected by Narcissus Luttrell and Owen Wynne. It possesses the papers of Sir Charles Vaughan, Secretary of Embassy at Madrid, 1810–20. It has also a considerable number of early medical manuscripts.

Among the incunabula of the library are Durandus, Rationale Divinorum Officiorum (Mainz, Schoeffer, 1459, purchased at Hamburg by James Goldwell in 1465); Gower's Confessio Amantis (Caxton, 1483); Lyndwood's Liber Provincialis (1483); John of Westphalia's Grammatica Decani (1485); and the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493, with Wohlgemuth's woodcuts). Early theology and philosophy are represented by The Treatise of Tyrannius Rufinus of Aquileia on the Apostles Creed (c. 1478); Aretino's Translation of the Nikomachean Ethics of Aristotle (1479); and John Lathbury's Commentary on the Lamentations of Jeremiah (1482). The first and third of this group are productions of the Early Oxford Press.

The Archives are notable. Among them are: a charter of King John, exempting the Order of Grandmont from tallage and pontage, 1203; the Foundation Charter of Henry VI, 1438, and the Bull of Eugenius IV licensing All Souls College to have a chapel, 1439; the early Building Accounts, 1438–43; the earliest copy of the statutes, sealed with Chichele's seal 'of the Trinity of the Martyr' (Becket), 1443; and a vellum inventory of the possessions and books of the college (15th and 16th cents.). There are numerous letters and injunctions from the successive Archbishops of Canterbury, Visitors of the college. The administrative records date from 1446 and the estate rolls from 1443.

Seal

Matrix original, 15th cent., diam. 8 cm. Under three canopies, c. the Christ of the Last Judgement, displaying His wounds, adored by, l. Henry VI, co-founder, kneeling, attended by St. Anselm and St. Gregory; r. Archbishop Chichele, Founder, kneeling, attended by St. Jerome and St. Augustine. Beneath, l., arms of Henry VI; c., souls arising at Last Trump; r., arms of See of Canterbury impaling Chichele. Legend: Sigillum commune Collegii animarum omnium fidelium defunctorum de Oxonia.

Plate

Pre-Civil War domestic plate of English origin is represented by a crystal and silver Salt of the 15th century (left to the college in 1799), and by the four Mazer Bowls and a Mazer Cup, 1450–1530, fully described and illustrated in H. C. Moffatt's Old Oxford Plate (1906); pre-Civil War ecclesiastical plate by a silver-gilt Chalice with paten cover (London, 1564–5), a small silver circular dish of 1619–20, and two silver-gilt heavy oval flat bottles, decorated with spiral fluting (probably French, 17th cent.). From Charles II's time onwards, the college possesses English drinking tumblers, a series of tankards (from 1676–7), and a cup and cover, silver-gilt, 1690–5, given by Dr. George Clarke; besides a great quantity of English domestic silver of the 18th century.

Wardens

Site and Buildings (fn. 106)

The site acquired by Archbishop Chichele for his college comprised nine tenements in the angle between Cat St. and High St. On the corner was Berford Hall, known in 1370 as Charlton's Inn, acquired 14 Dec. 1437. Next on the east was a property of St. Frideswide's; then a property of the parishioners of St. Mary; then Skibbow's, acquired 4 July 1438. North of Berford Hall was St. Thomas' Hall (of Oseney), on the site of which the college chapel stands; then Grampound Hall, acquired 5 May 1439 from John Berford by an exchange; then Godknave Hall, St. John's Entry, and Tingwick's Inn, owned by St. Frideswide's, St. John's Hospital, and the University respectively. The north boundary of the site was thus brought up to the line of the south wall of the Codrington Library. Some of the tenements were perpetual leasehold, but practically the archbishop was the owner by 1440. (fn. 107)

The accounts for the original buildings are preserved in the college archives. (fn. 108) From them may be selected the following facts. The work was begun on 10 Feb. 1438. The supervisor of the works was at first John Druell, later a fellow of the college. On 25 Sept. 1441 he was succeeded by Roger Keyes, who became Warden next year. The clerk of the works was till April 1440 John Clerk, thereafter John Medehill. The chapel was consecrated in June 1442 and the college seems to have been occupied in the latter part of the same year. The total expenditure (on the buildings alone exclusive of site) was up to the end of 1442 £4,156 5s. 3¼d. The accounts continue till 30 Nov. 1443, but even then the work was far from complete. In 1447 tiles were bought for the Chapel floor, marble for the altar-steps, and glass for the great west window. Work was continuing 'circa reredos' and John Medehill was still on the college payroll. (fn. 109)

The stone was obtained from Sunningwell and Hinksey (rag), Headington (rag, freestone, and ashlar), Taynton and Sherborne (freestone, ashlar, and magni lapides for the statuary), and 'Rysborgh', presumably Princes Risborough (a few magni lapides). The stone was normally bought from the quarrymen, but sometimes a quarry was leased and worked directly. The principal mason's yard was at Burford, where the stone of better quality from the neighbouring quarries was dressed before transport to Oxford. Timber was obtained from Shotover, Stow Wood, Eynsham, Beckley, Minster Lovell, and Horsham. It was sawn in a garden belonging to the Trinitarians outside the East Gate, leased by the college for the purpose. Here also the lime and sand from 'le Brokenhays' was dumped and the iron wrought. Other purchases included lead, from Roger att Mill, leadman of the Peak, mud (for the interior partitions), slates, nails, hinges, and clamps.

The chief mason was Richard Chevynton: he directed the yard at Burford. At Oxford the chief mason, who was paid at a lower rate, was Robert Jannyns. The masons seem for the most part to have been local men, but in July 1441 seven men were imported from London, and later eight more followed from London and nine from Norfolk and Suffolk; these men were paid at a higher rate. The chief stone carver was John Massyngham; he carved the 'magnas ymagines lapideas situatas super summum altare'. The chief carpenter was John Branche. The joiners were Giles, William Kyrkeby, William Bate, and Richard Tyllock. The last carved 'le deskes in libraria' and 'angelos in tecto capelle'. John Glazier is recorded to have glazed eight windows in chapel and six in antechapel. Robert Venge made the paving tiles for the library and vestry.

The accounts give no information as to the plan or appearance of the buildings. In order to reconstruct these we must examine the surviving buildings assisted by the early pictures of the college. The oldest view is the Typus Collegii (in the college archives), drawn between 1594 and 1606. The only other ancient view of importance is Loggan's (1675).

The Chapel

The north side of the quadrangle is occupied by the chapel. Its invocation is to the four Doctors of the Church. It follows the plan initiated by William of Wykeham at New College, consisting of a choir of five bays and an aisled nave (usually called antechapel) of two bays; the latter is, owing to the curve of Cat St. on which it fronts, of a very irregular plan. The main fabric, including the fine hammerbeam roof with its angels, is original. The building is embattled and pinnacled; at the NW. corner of antechapel is a stair turret giving access to the leads. The main entrance is through a vestibule, fan vaulted in four bays, along the south side of antechapel. This vestibule has two doors, one on to the quadrangle, the other (blocked in 1784) (fn. 110) on to Cat St., and contains the remains of a stoop (defaced in 1561). (fn. 111) Another door on the north of antechapel gives access to the cloister. The east wall of chapel was, as at New College, a party wall with hall. It was similarly covered by a reredos. The centre piece of the reredos was probably the Trinity alluded to in the building accounts ('pro coloribus emptis pro pictura ymaginis Trinitatis'). The niches seem to have been filled gradually; in 1493 Robert Este left £22 13s. 4d. for images over the high altar. (fn. 112) The present reredos incorporates much of the niche work of the original reredos; traces of the colouring remain. Of the ancient stained glass only the four eastern windows of antechapel survive, but we possess a full description of all the glass (except the great west window and one of the other west windows, which had already perished), made by Richard Symonds in 1644. (fn. 113) Of the tiles with which the floor was paved only two rows survive in chapel, immediately in front of the stalls: others were dug up in the Great Quadrangle in 1940 and are now in the Ashmolean. All the medieval stalls (42 in number) except the return stalls survive with their carved misericords, intact save for the loss of their cresting. The desks with their 'poppy heads' are also intact, including the returns. The screen, given by James Goldwell, bishop of Norwich, has vanished. (fn. 114) So also has the roodloft and unum par organorum, given by the founder, (fn. 115) which probably stood upon it. There were in the Middle Ages, besides the high altar, six altars in antechapel. (fn. 116) No trace survives of their piscinae; portions of the present piscina and sedilia of the high altar appear to be ancient.

Adjoining the chapel on the north, covering the third, second, and half the easternmost bays, was a vestry. It projected northwards about 16 feet. (fn. 117) It was paved with encaustic tiles and contained an altar. (fn. 118) It was demolished c. 1730 and only the blocked door communicating with the chapel remains.

It will be convenient to complete the history of the chapel before passing on to the other buildings. At the Reformation the usual work of destruction was done. In 1548 6s. 8d. was paid to Mr. Plummer 'dejicienti imagines Salvatoris Marie et Johnis'(from the roodbeam) and 30s. to him 'detrudenti imagines super altari summo'. In 1550 52s. 9d. was paid 'pro destructione altarium', and in 1551 24s. 8d. to Jefferye Whyte 'destruenti summam altare in capella' and 5s. to him 'dealbanti chorum'. In 1562 'le Rode Lofte' was destroyed and the organ removed, never to reappear. (fn. 119) In 1633 it was resolved 'that Auntient fellowes should bee spoken unto for their benevolence towards providing of organs', but nothing came of the appeal. (fn. 120)

In 1658–9 an elaborate sundial was erected in the middle of the south side of chapel; the builder was Mr. Bird and the cost was £54. Christopher Wren was bursar this year, and from this fact and the ingenuity of the dial, which records the minutes, it has been deduced that he was the designer. (fn. 121) No attempt was made to decorate the interior of chapel till 1664, when the east wall was boarded over and painted with a Last Judgement by Isaac Fuller; the picture is said by Evelyn to have been 'too full of nakeds for a college Chapel'. At the same time the floor was repaved in black and white marble and a new screen in the classical style erected. It was ordered that 'the seates in the Chappell should be altered and made suitable to the skreene'. (fn. 122) This probably alludes to the substitution of a classical entablature, continuous with that of the screen, for the old cresting. All this work, excluding the screen, which cost £200 19s. 1d. and was presented by Sir William Portman, bart., came to £149 16s. 4d.; the greater part of this sum was covered by donations of £80 from Mr. Watkins, and £50 from Dr. Astley. (fn. 123) The college also spent £18 'for repairing ye old glass in ye outward Chappel' and 'for new glass reserved towards reparation of ye windows in ye inner Chappel'. (fn. 124) The medieval glass in chapel, which was still intact in 1644, had apparently perished, perhaps during the Parliamentarian occupation.

In 1713 Dr. Clarke presented a 'noble ornament of marble att ye East end and north and south sides of ye Chappell'. In the following year Fuller's painting was removed (parts survive in the Codrington cellars), the reredos was plastered over and Sir James Thornhill was commissioned to paint a 'Resurrectio Vestita' of the founder. Henry Portman, esq., paid £200 towards this work. At the same time a general scheme of redecoration was carried through under Thornhill's direction. 'Ye Roof of ye Inner Chappell was richly adorn'd with Gilded Roses and Network, being done upon Canvass sett in Frames and also ye Sides Painted and adorn'd with Figures' of the four Doctors, the founder, Henry VI, Thomas, Duke of Clarence, and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. 'The space between the wainscot and marble Altar' was also 'painted with Neiches, Vases etc., heighten'd with Gold'. The Hon. Dodington Greville paid the £262 10s. charged for this work. The screen was radically remodelled, the panels on either side being reduced from three to two and a wide and lofty arch substituted for the former door. The stalls and screen were 'New painted in clean Stone Colour in Oyle' and the walls and roof of antechapel painted the same colour in size. In 1716 the two north windows of antechapel were blocked (nothing is said of their glass, which still survived in 1644). In the next year it was agreed 'that the painted Glass in ye great West window of ye Chappell should be taken down and that white painted glass of ye same sort with that in ye windows of ye Inner Chapel should be putt in its place'. (fn. 125) The ancient glass removed was perhaps only a patchwork of fragments; for Richard Symonds records no figures as surviving in 1644.

ALL SOULS COLLEGE

In 1769 Raphael Mengs was commissioned to paint a picture, the 'Noli me tangere', which was hung over the altar; the bill was 300 guineas. (fn. 126) In 1773 Mr. Lovegrove of Marlowe, a coach painter, painted the chapel windows in 'chiara oscura' at the cost of £500; they were ordered to be 'of a tint or colour similar to the windows of Magdalen College Chappel'. (fn. 127) The chapel thus assumed the appearance which it bears in Ackermann's print (1814). Very little was done after this for nearly a century. (fn. 128) The great west window was glazed by Hardman of Birmingham in 1861. (fn. 129) Then in 1870 a thorough restoration was undertaken. Much structural repair was required, especially to the south walls. In the course of the work Wren's sundial was removed, to be moved a few years later to its present position in the centre of the Codrington Library. The roof also required repair and in the process Thornhill's canvas panels were removed. The floor was also repaired. This work was done under the supervision of Mr. Clutton. The college then discovered to its surprise that considerable remains of the original reredos survived under Thornhill's painting. This was removed (considerable portions of it survive in the cellars and on the SW. stair of the Codrington) together with Clarke's altar-piece (now in the Codrington cellars), and with the aid of a munificent donation from Lord Bathurst the ancient reredos was restored under the direction of Sir Gilbert Scott. The stalls were restored, but a design for a Gothic screen by Scott was happily rejected. The old glass in antechapel was restored and ten new windows in chapel glazed by Clayton & Bell. By 1879 the work was finished and the chapel assumed its present appearance. The total cost had been £10,638 18s. 6d. (fn. 130)

The Old Hall

The medieval hall occupied the NE. angle of the quadrangle and projected north, its axis being at right angles to that of the chapel. It was about 30 ft. in breadth by 60 ft. in length and was covered by a high-pitched roof, crowned by a louver. It was in four bays, lit by two-light windows on the east; there was a small north window. (fn. 131) The only surviving portions are the party walls with chapel and with the east range of the quadrangle. At the west end of the latter wall is an original door, opening into a small fan-vaulted vestibule, which in turn opens on to the quadrangle. Of the medieval offices the only surviving portion is the buttery cellar, which is curiously placed under the east end of chapel. It has a plain cross vault, resting on octagonal pillars. The original entry was by a porch against the west side of the easternmost buttress. This was demolished and the present door in the centre of the east bay cut in 1806. (fn. 132) The general appearance of the other offices can be seen in the Typus and in Loggan, and their dimensions estimated from two early 18th-century plans. (fn. 133) The kitchen is distinguished by its chimneys and conical roof. The larder projected north from the kitchen. (fn. 134) The buttery was perhaps the low building between the kitchen and hall. The building east of the kitchen was probably the wood-and storehouse. The lower extension northwards was the boghouse; (fn. 135) the well-worn path leading to it is shown in the Typus. The date and purpose of the half-timbered building is unknown; it was probably a stable.

The Quadrangle

The east, south, and west ranges of the quadrangle are, with the exception of the gate tower of two stories, covered with a high-pitched roof. The masonry of the inner faces of the quadrangle and of the east front is substantially medieval. The High St. and Cat St. fronts were ruthlessly restored in 1826–7 under the direction of Mr. Robertson; (fn. 136) the windows were at this time exuberantly regothicized and the oriels and chimneys made more Gothic than they had ever been. In general appearance the quadrangle has been but little altered since it was built. The battlement is structurally clearly an addition; it was probably added c. 1510, when a legacy of £3 was left 'pro edificacione ly batylments'. (fn. 137) Most of the windows except those of the library and tower have been altered, the arched and cusped heads of the lights having been removed for convenience of sashing. Many windows originally single have been doubled and some new windows inserted. On the High St. front the successive changes can be traced in the Typus, Loggan, and a number of 18th-century engravings. The earliest view of the interior of the quadrangle is that in Williams's Oxonia Depicta, but here and on the east front the mouldings of the windows form a clue. The original double windows have a different moulding from the single windows, but where a single window has been doubled the original mouldings have often been retained. For the Cat St. front there is no evidence, there being no old views and the masonry being modern.

The Old Library

Adjoining the hall on the south and entered from the hall vestibule is the bursary; it was in 1585 the 'bursar house' (fn. 138) and probably had always been the 'domus bursariorum'. Its two east windows, originally single, have been doubled but retain their arched and cusped heads. It was ceiled in 1459, (fn. 139) but this ceiling has disappeared; the present panelling dates from 1837. Over the next two chambers and the intervening passage (formerly called Stafford's Lane) (fn. 140) lies the old library. It is approached by a stone stair at the north end, the foot of which projects into the quadrangle. The object of this ar rangement is that the top landing and the door of the library may be on the central axis of the building. The room is in eight bays; the windows (except for two on the east blocked by fire-places) are intact. The floor was anciently tiled. Of the medieval fittings only the oak door-frame survives in situ. In 1598 'Our Librarye (was) newly vaulted with plaister of Paris and furnished with new Deskes'. (fn. 141) The handsome coved plaster ceiling is intact. Portions of the desks were reused for panelling in 1750. In this year, the Codrington being at last finished, the old library was partitioned into two rooms, two fire-places inserted, and the floor planked. The rooms were fitted up 'in a very elegant manner in the Gothick Taste' and were 'deservedly esteem'd one of the Curiosities of the House'. Much of the Gothic woodwork, together with the reused panels of 1598, still decorates the walls. 'Ye Portraits in ye Windows' were at the same time removed. (fn. 142) They were sent to Rowell of Reading who pronounced only twenty out of the thirty-two worth keeping. (fn. 143) He put up six in 'inclosed neech(es) of Gothick ornaments capped with contracted fig leaves in memory of our first parents degeneracy (when sin had brought forth shame)' in the anteroom of the Codrington. Luckily the college then broke with him, and a local glazier put up the remaining twenty-six figures in the two rooms over the anteroom. (fn. 144) Here they remained till in 1821 W. R. Eginton of Birmingham glazed the two small west windows of antechapel with twenty-two figures (four had perished or were now scrapped). (fn. 145) In 1876 these windows were reglazed by Clayton & Bell, who added two modern figures, and the six figures in the anteroom were set up in the north half window of antechapel, also by Clayton & Bell. (fn. 146)

The Gate Tower

Over the gateway, which is lierne vaulted in two bays, rises an embattled tower containing three rooms, all originally accessible only from a spiral stair in the NW. corner-turret. The two upper rooms, which the founder designated to be muniment rooms, are very little changed, retaining their ancient doors and window shutters. (fn. 147) The original use of the lowest room, of whose existence the founder seems to be unaware, is unknown. In 1653 it was annexed to the adjacent chamber on the east; (fn. 148) it was presumably at this date that the door on the spiral stair was blocked and the present doorway in the east wall cut. The room was barrel vaulted in brick in 1728 in order to safeguard the muniments above. (fn. 149) On the north face of the tower there is a single niche, filled by a modern figure. On the south face there are three niches. The history of the figures which filled these niches is mysterious. In the Typus the niches appear empty, but in 1633 'the three statues over our gates of our Saviour, of King Henry the sixt and our founder were … polished, smothed and renewed with varnishe and guilt as formerly they had beene'. (fn. 150) How the medieval figures survived the Reformation is suggested by the following entry in the Computus Roll of 1548 (rep. infra), 'pro clavi et reparacione sere ostii domus in qua imagines reponebantur'. In 1642 the Parliamentarian soldiers 'discharged at the image of our Saviour over All Soules gate and would have defaced all the worke there had it not byn for some townesmen who entreated them to forbeare'. (fn. 151) Loggan shows the big central niche, where our Saviour had stood, empty save for the souls at its foot, but the two lower niches filled by statues. The 18th-and early-19th-century views do the same. The angel and souls in the upper niche were 'reworked in Bath stone' in the restoration of 1826–7, and the two lower figures were 'repaired and cleaned' at the same time. (fn. 152) The niches were recarved and the statues replaced by modern sculptures by Mr. W. C. H. King in 1939–40.

The Chambers

The remainder of the quadrangle is devoted to chambers, one over the bursary, approached by the library stair, two under the library, entered from Stafford's Lane, and five staircases of four chambers each. The stairs, with the exception of that in the SE. angle, replaced in 1727 by a new stair in double flights, (fn. 153) are all on the original lines. The internal arrangements of the chambers have all been altered. The original plan of a normal staircase is shown below. The two chambers under the library were planned like normal groundfloor chambers, as was also, owing to the peculiar position of the library stair, the chamber over the bursary. The upper chamber next the chapel had the advantage of the space over the chapel vestibule. The corner chambers, with their main windows facing outwards on to the High, were perforce abnormal. It will be seen that the chambers are all planned for three studies (the lower corner chambers for four). So many studies actually were not needed, but the founder does not seem to have planned out the disposition of chambers in detail. It was left for his successor, Archbishop Stafford, to issue an injunction on the subject. He allotted the SE. corner chamber (on the first floor) and the adjoining chamber to the west to the Warden. The former is of normal plan. The latter had an oriel on the street, two large windows on the quadrangle, and only one study window, over the stair; it was probably designed for the Warden. Eight seniors each with one companion were to occupy eight 'meliores et principales camerae', that is first-floor rooms. The remaining twenty-four fellows were to be disposed by threes in eight other chambers. The five remaining chambers were to be occupied by the chaplains, clerks, choristers, and servants. One of the servants' chambers was certainly that east of the gateway, which served as 'barbour house' and porter's lodge; the doorway opening on to the gateway seems to be original.

Of the internal fittings only the oak door-frames of the 8th and 9th lower chambers survive. There are allusions to studia in the medieval accounts; they had locks and keys. (fn. 154) I have found no reference to fireplaces earlier than 1514, (fn. 155) and no reference to glazing except in the Warden's chamber. (fn. 156) The upper chambers were probably open to the roof, which is of the braced collar-beam type; the curved braces and the moulded brackets on which they rest were obviously meant to be visible.

Three inventories of college furniture, dated 1585, 1618, and 1666, give detailed information as to changes during the late 16th and the 17th centuries. The Warden had surrendered his chamber next the tower in 1553; the chaplains and choristers had been moved out into a new building in 1572. The vacated chambers were used to ease the ground-floor chambers, and by 1585 only two of them, those in the corners, had three occupants. The only chambers not occupied by fellows were by now the remaining Warden's chamber, the 'barbour house' (occupied by the porter and third cook) and the 9th and 11th lower chambers, occupied by the two butlers and the three clerks (the two upper cooks probably already occupied the chamber over the larder which was theirs in 1724, and perhaps always had). (fn. 157) In 1615 the butlers moved into a chamber in the new stone woodhouse and the corner chambers were made double. (fn. 158) For the lower chambers no further easing was possible without new buildings. The upper chambers could, on the other hand, expand into the roof; it was only necessary to put in a floor, throw out a few dormers on the outer side of the roof and insert a little stair, and each upper chamber had a 'cockloft'. This process was gradually and sporadically carried out—it depended on the initiative of the occupants of each chamber. It had begun in 1585: by this time one study was usually upstairs, sometimes both; sometimes there was also a loft in which slept poor scholars and other personal servants of the fellows. By 1618 the process had gone further; sometimes one fellow had moved upstairs, each floor becoming a single set of chamber and study. By 1666 private bedrooms were coming in; separate bedchambers were contrived in the cocklofts, and in the ground-floor chambers beds were sometimes moved into studies.

During the same period the upper chambers were panelled. The movement began in the last decade of the 16th century. It was checked in 1602 by a severe injunction, 'ne praetextu reparationum camerae custodis aut sociorum … opere intestino et ad parietes coassatione vel abacis aut fulchris curiose junctis ac elaboratis ornentur'. It revived in the 1630's. Of the panelling which survives that in No. 7 dates from 1591 and that in Nos. 1, 2, and 11 from about the same date. The panelling in No. 4 seems to have been put up by Warden Mokett (1614–18), perhaps at his own expense. Nos. 5, 9, and 8 were panelled in 1631, 1633, and 1635 respectively, No. 3 at about the same time. (fn. 159)

In the 18th century, as the new buildings became available the chambers in the old quadrangle mostly became single and their internal arrangements were freely remodelled. The windows were sashed and many of them enlarged. Many rooms were panelled. The panelling in upper chamber No. 6 and lower chambers Nos. 3, 4, 7, and 8 dates from this period.

The Old Cloister

The only recorded medieval addition to the founder's buildings was the cloister. In the earliest surviving college register (1574) it is stated under 1491: 'Hoc circiter tempus collegii claustra aedificantur impensis partim collegii partim Jacobi Goldwel episcopi Norvic. Mri. Thomae Colfoxe et aliorum.' The earliest reference to the cloister in the Computus Rolls which I have found is in 1494–5 (rep. infra) 'pro dealbacione claustri', but it must have long remained unfinished, for in 1509–10 there is an entry 'pro mundacione claustri finito opere'. The cloister lay along Cat St., north of and detached from chapel; it was connected with antechapel by a passage. It had six windows on its north and south sides, seven or perhaps eight (only seven are shown on the Typus, but in general plan the building is very distinctly oblong) on the east and west sides; there was a turret on the NE. corner. Adjoining the cloister on the NE. was a building which (I quote Warden Hovenden) 'was, as it is said, proposed to builde a steeple uppon at the beginning but it was a store house unto the yere of our Lord 1571, when the Archbyshop, Matthew Parker, meanyng to convert the Coristers roomes into schollerships to be elected out of Canterberie schole caused Doctor Barber and the companie to build that Lodging'. It was completed in 1572 by Warden Hovenden as a block of'4 chambers towe above and two beneth', which, as Parker's scheme never materialized, were allotted to the chaplains (above) and the choristers (below). (fn. 160)

The Old Warden's Lodgings

The next step was 'the buyldyng up and finysshyng of the lodgyngs upon the backsyde of the college from the square of the same college weste unto a voyd place east and frontynge along by the hyghe Streat sowthe, the whych lodgyngs were fynyssched in the yere of our lord god Mcccccliii'. They cost £36 16s. 8d., of which £10 was given by 'John Warner doctor of physike and warden of the college at the same tyme and the setter on of the sayd worke', the rest by 'sometyme felows of the college'. (fn. 161) The new lodgings occupied land which had, in part at any rate, long been in the possession of the college. On 29 Sept. 1472 the college had acquired from the Prioress of Studley a tenement east of Skibbow's which it had apparently leased for some time previously, (fn. 162) and another small tenement to the east of it seems to have been acquired about the same time. (fn. 163) The lodgings, or their later extensions, also impinged on a large tenement called the Rose or the Red House which was conveyed to the college partly in 1537 and partly in 1558, and which formed—and still forms—the Warden's garden. (fn. 164)

The principal room in the new lodgings was a hall on the first floor, approached by a wide staircase next the college. It had an oriel on the High, destroyed in 1687 by Warden Finch, who started the fashion for sash windows. (fn. 165) It was panelled not long after 1585 by Warden Hovenden. Under it were a kitchen, larder, and 'a roome for poultrye'. East of the hall was a chamber over the archway—required to give direct access to the kitchen from the street—and east of the archway a parlour and a chamber over it. Over the whole lodging ran a gallery. The Warden surrendered the chamber next the tower but retained the corner chamber. This is the arrangement given in the inventory of 1585. In 1606 'the warden's studdye' (the halftimbered room with two gables which appears in Loggan at the east end of the lodgings) was built 'and the roome under fitted for a kitchen'. (fn. 166) In 1618 the now superfluous offices under the hall were converted into a parlour; the present panelling and fire-place probably date from this change. Adjoining this parlour was a closet (under the hall stairs?) of which we learn; '1629, the pavement in the Warden's parlour closet was first layd with a voydinge channell into ye streete; 1630, the Carfax conduit water was conveyed from ye streete into ye sayd closet by pype and cocke'. (fn. 167) An inventory of 1631 (fn. 168) records in addition a cellar (its window is already to be seen in the Typus) and a lobby and a chamber over it. The lobby was probably partitioned off the old parlour (now known as the Green Parlour); its front door already appears in the Typus. Furthermore, upper chambers had been contrived over the corner chamber and the hall stair. Later the gallery was subdivided into small rooms, some of which bore the ill-omened name of 'ye Creep Hole Garrets'. (fn. 169)

ALL SOULS, Medieval Staircase Plan

In 1594 'the faire stone Woodhouse at the end of the warden's garden was builded'. It is correctly shown in the Typus (incorrectly in Loggan). The butlers were given a chamber in the west end of this building in 1616 and in 1617 'the watercocke and conduite under the Butlers windowe, whose springe head is at Comner' [i.e. Hinksey] was erected. The east end of the woodhouse still survives as the college brewhouse. (fn. 170)

After the Restoration the college felt the need of common rooms. In 1669 various sums usually spent on entertainments were set apart for this purpose, (fn. 171) but the next year the archbishop allowed the college to use £200 of the 'Tower money' (the accumulated surplus stored in the tower) 'towards the building of two common rooms'. (fn. 172) They were erected at the far end of the garden NW. of the cloister. (fn. 173) In 1675 Mr. Gillingham left the college £200 with which to build two chambers and two attics over the common rooms. The chambers were by the donor's request allotted to the choristers and the attics to the six senior servitors; the vacated choristers' chamber was allotted to four other servitors. (fn. 174)

The Warden's Lodgings

At the beginning of the 18th century more ambitious schemes for new buildings began to be considered. In 1703 Dr. Clarke proposed to the college that he should build at his own expense on college ground a house for himself, which should on his death revert to the college. The original idea was that he should build 'in ye garden toward Hart Hall or where ye cloister now is' and the college to facilitate this scheme promptly demolished all the cloister except the wall along Cat St. against which a new cloister was built. (fn. 175) It was in the Ionic order, of nine bays separated by eight pairs of columns. (fn. 176) Some of the columns are still in existence, having been reused in the hall screen and in the passage between hall and chapel. (fn. 177) Clarke had a design drawn for a range of buildings which were to stand immediately south of where the Codrington now is. They were in two stories in a modest 'Queen Anne' style and were to comprise his house (eventually to form two fellows' sets), two common rooms, and five fellows' sets. (fn. 178) The scheme was at once abandoned and the present lodging begun in 1704. The site, which included that of the Warden's study and kitchen, was mostly already owned by the college, but a small tenement (18 ft. east to west and 26 ft. north to south) which jutted into the SE. corner of the Rose had to be acquired from the churchwardens of St. Peter's in the East. (fn. 179) The lodging is an oblong house of two stories, with attics and cellars, two rooms deep, with a north and south frontage of six windows. It is built in a plain classical style, but the south front was originally embattled to harmonize with the rest of the college. The front door was originally in the eastern-most bay. The SW. corner, which replaced the Warden's study and kitchen, was built at the college charge and retained by the then Warden: the huge stack of his kitchen chimney survives on the east side of the SW. room of the lodging. The whole lodging lapsed to the Warden in 1736, when he surrendered to the college 'all ye present warden's lodgings betwixt ye lowe Gatehouse and ye stone Quadrangle' (inclusive) 'except ye Great Dining Room'. (fn. 180) This was also later surrendered. A hideous Gothic block was added in 1858, filling the corner between the new lodging and the old, and a study was added to the NE. by Warden Anson.

Meanwhile, despite the diversion of Dr. Clarke's generosity, schemes were brewing for new buildings on the site he had originally proposed. In 1704 a building fund was started by the suppression of gaudies and other college entertainments. (fn. 181) The idea had by now firmly taken root that to make a satisfactory back quadrangle the hall must be turned, that is rebuilt to correspond with chapel and antechapel. Another cloister was then to be built to answer that erected in 1703 and facing chapel and hall was to rise a new block of buildings. In Worcester College library there survive various schemes for these buildings, all in a classical style: there is a rather fantastic design by Mr. Talman (dated 9 Mar. 1708/9), a pedestrian design by Townesend the builder (dated 30 June 1709) and an undated design by Mr. Wilcocks. Hawksmoor also produced a design for 'the Grand Dormitory' in a grandiose manner. All these plans show one or two common rooms in centre, flanked by fellows' sets. It may be noted that the sets envisaged are most luxurious, each comprising an 'outward room', an 'entertaining room', a 'library' and a 'bedchamber', to which is often added a 'closet'; the function of the last appears from the seats marked in Mr. Talman's design. (fn. 182)

In 1710 the situation was revolutionized by Christopher Codrington's legacy of £6,000 for a new library. Elated by this windfall, the college formed yet more ambitious building schemes. Hawksmoor was chosen as architect and sent in his designs (fn. 183) on 16 Feb. 1714/15. From his covering letter it appears that the college proposed not merely to turn the hall and build a new back quadrangle comprising a library on the north, a grand dormitory on the east, and a cloister on the west, but to rebuild its front quadrangle. Against the latter scheme, it may be noted, Hawksmoor protested vigorously. It further appears from Hawksmoor's letter that the college had decided to build in Gothic, to harmonize with the chapel and the hall which was to be built to answer it. Hawksmoor, it is true, enclosed in addition to his Gothic designs 'two scetches of Rebuilding after ye Antique, keeping ye Hall and Chapell Gothick only', but these sketches were apparently an unsolicited offer and were disregarded.

Hawksmoor's Gothic designs were, with some modifications, approved, and on 23 Nov. 1716 it was resolved 'that Mr. Hawksmoor should be desired to make a draft of New buildings as now to be built and a cut of ye sd. buildings to be shewn to future Benefactors'. The college possesses six copperplates, signed by Hawksmoor, which were probably made under this resolution. They comprise (1) a general plan of the college rebuilt (undated), (2) a plan and elevation of the grand dormitory (1717), (3) a plan and elevation of chapel and hall, kitchen, &c., turned (1717), (4) a plan and elevation of the cloister (1721), (5) and (6) designs for the rebuilding of the front quadrangle (1721). Hawksmoor had thus overcome his scruples against pulling down the founder's quadrangle.

Codrington Library

The general idea of the library was adopted with extraordinary promptitude, though Hawksmoor's original design, which included a huge 'Turret' or 'Gothick lantern' in the centre of the building, balancing a similar turret to be built over the junction of chapel and hall, was radically simplified. On 19 Feb. 1714/5 it was agreed 'that the library of Col. Codrington should be built as ye Coll. Chappell was according to ye model that was then shown to ye society and that Dr. Clarke and Sir Nat. Lloyd be desired to be inspectors and take care of ye sayd buildings'. The exterior of the library is on the west and south sides almost an exact replica of the chapel and the rebuilt hall. Even the irregular plan of antechapel and the stair turret are reproduced. The north windows of antechapel were blocked to match the corresponding blank wall of the library. It was even proposed to remove the mullions from the chapel windows and remodel the tracery of the west window in order to make the correspondence complete. (fn. 184) Inside, the spaces corresponding to the aisles of antechapel housed each a staircase and three small rooms. The rest of the building forms one vast gallery, broken in the centre by a bay projecting north. The site for the library was acquired from the parishioners of St. Mary's in 1714, (fn. 185) and work was begun, according to Gutch, in May 1715. This was presumably clearance only, for a scale of prices was not agreed with Townesend till 12 Mar. 1715/6, (fn. 186) and the foundation stone was laid on 30 June 1716. Hawksmoor personally supervised the work. In 1721 'Townsend and Peisley ye Masons were abated in their great bill by Mr. Hawksmoor ye sum of £245 10s.', and Hawksmoor was paid £100 'for his trouble about Cod. buildings' (this sum is entered in the accounts 'for the surveys'). (fn. 187) In 1734 a marble statue of Codrington 'habited in the Roman sagum' by Sir Henry Cheere was erected in the bay, (fn. 188) but the library was far from finished. The bookcases were probably not begun till some years later. Hawksmoor had designed them in three stories with two galleries, but in 1740 the college felt some doubts about this arrangement and consulted Gibbs (Hawksmoor having died in 1736). His advice to scrap 'the Attick and its gallery' was accepted. (fn. 189) The work still lagged and on 28 Aug. 1748 it was agreed 'that proper Workmen be employed to finish ye Library with all Expedition'. John Franklyn, the dilatory carpenter, was discharged, and a contract made with Richard Tawney to finish the shelves (9 Dec. 1748). (fn. 190) In 1750, twenty-five bronze vases and twenty-four bronze 'bustoes' of college worthies were ordered from Cheere to decorate the top of the shelves. (fn. 191) On 19 Apr. 1750 a contract was signed with Mr. Roberts of Oxford for the stucco work. He made the ceiling 'with the same mouldings and guiloch as are expressed in his drawings and specimens', the keystones of the windows and the founder's arms in the recess. He also designed and executed ornamental panels in the ceiling, between the windows and over the bookcases; these, though greatly admired in the 18th century, were swept away early in the 19th. (fn. 192) Finally in 1751 a marble bust of the founder by Roubiliac was placed over the main door (fn. 193) and the library was painted a 'bright olive colour'. (fn. 194) The Codrington account was closed in 1756, by which time £12,101 0s. 5d. had been spent. (fn. 195)

The NW. wing was remodelled and the existing spiral stair built in 1838. The Anson reading-room was added in 1866. The storeroom was built in 1909.

The Grand Dormitory

In his letter of 1715 Hawksmoor says little of the Grand Dormitory, and from his silence it may be inferred that he had not yet designed the twin towers: these first appear in the copperplate of 1717 (No. 2), and were probably added to compensate the loss of the 'Turrets'. (fn. 196) The central block and the south tower were begun at the same time as the library, apparently from the building fund and lesser donations. (fn. 197) The north tower and its staircase were begun in 1720, being paid for by a donation of £786 by General Stewart. (fn. 198) Hawksmoor's design was, with a few trifling exceptions, faithfully executed. In the centre lies the common room, which is vaulted with plastered brick cross vault. It is curious that the windows of common room, alone in all the new buildings, are unashamedly classical; several designs in Hawksmoor's hand for Gothicizing them exist in Worcester Library, but they were not adopted. (fn. 199) The fine panelling is original. The marble fire-place was inserted in 1790. (fn. 200) Over the common room are two sumptuous sets of four rooms each, designed for the chaplains; their internal arrangements are still as originally planned. (fn. 201) The south block was probably begun in 1724; it was paid for by Sir Nathaniel Lloyd, who contributed £1,200 and his fellowship for four years (£142 10s. in all). (fn. 202) Hawksmoor's plan was followed except in two particulars. The fire-places were placed in the centre of the building instead of on the back wall, thus allowing the main chambers to have windows facing both east and west, and giving the small rooms fire-places backing on the chamber fire-places. Secondly 'a break of 6 foot long (was) made out from ye back front of Sir Nat. Lloyds buildings, whereby the 6 little back Rooms (were) so much enlarged'. (fn. 203) The original disposition of the rooms survives in the two upper floors. The bottom floor has been completely remodelled and now comprises a passage from hall to common room (made in 1811), (fn. 204) a pantry, and a smoking room. A coffee room was added on the east in 1824 (fn. 205) —previously the present pantry had been the coffee room (since 1792) (fn. 206) —and rebuilt on a larger scale in 1896. The north block was begun in 1720, when the Duke of Wharton contracted with Townesend for its erection at a cost of £1,103. (fn. 207) The duke never paid and the college had some difficulty in extracting the sum from his very embarrassed estate on his death. The money was, however, at last recovered in 1751. (fn. 208) The building had meanwhile been finished from other resources in 1748. (fn. 209) The number of resident fellows was by this time very small and standards of comfort had risen. The two upper floors were therefore each arranged as a single suite of five rooms, the staircase at the north end of the building being omitted. (fn. 210) The bottom floor has since been converted into a reading-room for the Codrington.

The Cloister

Hawksmoor originally designed 'a Portico and Gate (next ye Great Piazza) after ye Roman Order, to shew that we were not quite out of Charity with that manner of Building'. The college rejected this inconsistency and the copperplate of 1721 (No. 4) shows substantially the present design, which is Gothic outside (with a 'Lanthorn' over the gate which 'Rises in ye Monastick manner'—I quote Hawksmoor) (fn. 211) and classical inside. The north alley, with its plain plaster ceiling, was built in 1728 with £100 given by Sir Peter Mews. (fn. 212) The gate with its 'lanthorn' and the south alley, with its elegant vault, were built in 1734; (fn. 213) the Hon. Dodington Greville, who gave £750, was the chief contributor. (fn. 214) Each alley of the cloister was built in four bays instead of three as in the copperplate, and various pinnacles and statues were, on Hawksmoor's own suggestion, omitted from the gate. (fn. 215) Hawksmoor also designed the iron gate; he was paid one guinea. (fn. 216)

The Hall

Over the plan of the hall, kitchen, &c., Hawksmoor was of two minds. He rather wished to place the door of the hall at its west end, thus economizing space by making the passage between hall and chapel serve also as the hall screens. But as the kitchen and offices had to be at the east end, the practical objections were considerable. In his original designs he submitted both alternatives. In the copperplates also he shows in No. 3 the hall with an apse at the west end and the screens at the east, in No. 1 the screens at the west end. The kitchen and offices in both designs are unnecessarily spacious. Building was first seriously considered in 1729, when Sir Nathaniel Lloyd offered a loan of £1,000 at 5 per cent. (subsequently remitted by his will). (fn. 217) At this stage Townesend produced a design whereby the buttery was to be under the hall and the kitchen at the east end of hall was to communicate with the screens at the west end of hall by an underground passage. (fn. 218) Clarke justly remarked of this perversely ingenious plan that 'there are too many stairs to be gone up and down' and suggested what is substantially the present plan. (fn. 219) The designs were drawn by Hawksmoor, (fn. 220) and on 4 Apr. 1730 the contract was signed with Townesend. (fn. 221) The old hall, kitchen, and buttery were pulled down (the larder had already been demolished in 1724). The new buildings are externally a replica of chapel reversed. Between chapel and hall is a passage, elegantly vaulted in Bibury stone, occupying one bay; the space over it is annexed to the cockloft over the bursary. The hall with its screens corresponds to chapel proper, the buttery to the nave of antechapel, and the kitchen to the south aisle; over buttery and kitchen are four sets (for the clerks and choristers), originally accessible only via the gallery of the screens from the first landing of the south stair of Sir Nathaniel Lloyd's building, but since 1753 also from the kitchen yard. (fn. 222) The hall has a coved plaster ceiling of unconventional design and a stone screen; the door and the carved panel over it were inserted in 1754. (fn. 223) The marble fire-place and panelling were presented by Clarke. (fn. 224) In 1782 a marble statue of Blackstone by Bacon was erected in hall, but it was moved to antechapel in 1817 and thence in 1872 to the Codrington, where it now stands. (fn. 225) The stained glass in the windows dates from 1895–6. The buttery is a charm ing oval room, vaulted with a dome in Bibury stone carved with rosettes. The cost of these buildings was £3,138 16s. 1d. (fn. 226)

The college still hoped to complete its scheme by rebuilding the front quadrangle. It may be noted that the rebuilding of the hall, buttery, and kitchen looks forward to this consummation. The grand vaulted passage between chapel and hall, which now ends ignominiously with a small door, was intended to lead into a cloister, spanning the new front quadrangle, which was to replace the east range of the old quadrangle. The south fronts of chapel and hall would not have been made so meticulously uniform—even to an ornamental panel to balance Wren's sundial—had they not been intended to form a single façade. The south wall of the kitchen has been left blank, so that the east range of the new quadrangle could be built against it. Lloyd actually offered money for the work, but on such onerous terms that the college was obliged to refuse. (fn. 227)

One task remained. In 1753 'the Warden's Stable, ye College Woodhouse and the necessary House' were rebuilt by Townesend. (fn. 228) The present necessary house, with its elegant classical portico, probably dates from this time. The other buildings, including the manciple's house, which is in a nondescript Gothic style, more probably date from a second rebuilding in 1828. (fn. 229) The present Warden's stable, or rather garage, lies on a tenement, Ing Hall, which was only acquired (from Magdalen College) in 1776, (fn. 230) and forms the lane which now gives access to the kitchen from the street. In 1765 the 'large circle of turf' was laid 'in ye Great North Quadrangle'. (fn. 231)

Footnotes