Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 49.djvu/449

 with Brittany in July 1486 (ib. xii. 285, 303, 316;, i. 480, 508, 516). He was present at the christening of Prince Arthur in September 1486 (Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles, pp. 104–5, Camden Soc.). In July 1489 he was a commissioner of peace in Leicestershire (, ii. 480).

The last years of Russell's life were chiefly spent in his diocese. About the end of 1483 he had been chosen chancellor of the university of Oxford, and, having been regularly re-elected down to his death, is reckoned the first of the perpetual chancellors (, Fasti, p. 64, Hist. and Antiq. i. 651). Mr. Maxwell-Lyte thinks Russell gave little attention to the university, and tells a story of how on one occasion, when invited to come to Oxford on his way north from London, he refused because he was travelling in ordinary riding attire, without the insignia of his office (Hist. Univ. Oxford, p. 376). But the conclusion seems to be scarcely justified by other facts. In May 1487 Russell resigned the chancellorship, but was pressed to take office again, and was re-elected, though not without opposition (, Fasti, p. 65). In 1488 he accompanied Henry VII on his visit to the university. He contributed to the repair of the common-law school in 1489, and his arms appear in the roof of the divinity school. An ordinance of Russell's on the duties of the bedells and the grammar masters is printed in ‘Munimenta Academica,’ pp. 362–3 (Rolls Ser.) Russell himself records that he was much troubled by heresy at Oxford, and, finding the ‘Doctrinale’ of Thomas Netter [q. v.] very valuable, made a collection of excerpts therefrom for the use of his successors at Lincoln. In 1494 Russell contemplated resigning his chancellorship; but, before his intention could take effect, he died at his manor of Nettleham on 30 Dec. 1494, and was buried in a chantry that he had built at Lincoln Cathedral. His will, dated on the day of his death, was proved on 12 Jan. following (, ii. 20).

Sir Thomas More describes Russell as ‘a wise manne and a good, and of much experience, and one of the best-learned men, undoubtedly, that England had in hys time.’ Several manuscripts that once belonged to Russell are preserved; the copy of Matthew Paris in MS. Royal 14 C. vii. contains his autograph; and the copy of the ‘Flores Historiarum’ in Cotton MS. Nero, D. ii., contains some marginal notes by him; a copy of ‘Cicero De Officiis’ in the Cambridge University library has an inscription that it was bought by Russell at Bruges on 17 April 1467; Cotton MS. Vesp. E. xii., a manuscript of the Latin poems attributed to Walter Map, has the autograph ‘Le Ruscelluy Je suis Jo. Lincoln, 1482’ (printed in facsimile in Nichols's ‘Autographs,’ 1829, plate 3). The same motto, with the device of a throstle and the roses, is figured in bosses at Buckden Palace. Russell's arms were azure, two chevronels or between three roses argent. His epitaph, which summarises his biography, begins: Qui sum, quæ mihi sors fuerat narrabo. Johannes Russell sum dictus, nomen servans genitoris. It is printed in many places (e.g. Life of Caxton, ii. 30; Grants of Edward V, p. xxxvi). Russell gave some books to New College library in 1468, and bequeathed 40l. to Winchester College.

Russell wrote: 1. ‘Super Jure Cæsaris et papæ’ 2. ‘Commentarii in Cantica.’ Bale says that he had seen these two. 3. ‘Lectura in sex libros Clementinarum.’ 4. ‘Injunctiones Monachis Burgi S. Petri,’ 1483, MS. Lambeth, 36. 5. ‘Excerpta ex Libro T. Waldensis de Sacramentalibus,’ MS. University College, Oxford. Russell says that he compiled this at Woburn in eight weeks and finished it in January 1492. Of more interest than the foregoing, which are all that Bale gives, are 6. ‘Propositio Clarissimi Oratoris Magistri Johannis Russell.’ This is the speech delivered by Russell on the occasion of his embassy in February 1470 to invest Charles the Bold with the Garter. This speech was printed with Caxton's type, No. 2, probably at Bruges by Colard Mansion for Caxton, though it has sometimes been regarded as an early production of Caxton's own press at Westminster. It consists only of four printed leaves with no title-page. Two copies are known to exist, one in the John Rylands library at Manchester; the other in the Earl of Leicester's library at Holkham. A facsimile of the first page is given in Blades's ‘Life of Caxton,’ vol. i. plate vii. The speech is reprinted in Dibdin's edition of Ames's ‘Typographical Antiquities.’ 7. ‘Two Speeches for the Opening of Parliament: i. For the intended Parliament of Edward V; ii. For the first Parliament of Richard II.’ Of this latter, which is imperfect, more than one draft exists. The speeches and drafts, which are in English, are printed in Nichols's ‘Grants of Edward V,’ pp. xxxix–lxiii, from Cotton. MS. Vitellius E. x. 8. In the same manuscript with these speeches are some Latin sermons, which may probably be by Russell.

[Gairdner's Letters and Papers illustrative of the Reigns of Richard III and Henry VII, Campbell's Materials for a History of Henry VII, Munimenta Academica (these three in Rolls Ser.); Nichols's Grants of Edward V (Camden Soc.);