Page:Literary Landmarks of Oxford.djvu/153

 LINCOLN was founded early in the Fifteenth Century by a certain Bishop of Lincoln as "a little College of Theologians," instituted " to defend the mysteries of the Sacred Page, against those ignorant Laics who profane, with swinish snouts, its most holy pearls."

Lincoln's most distinguished son, perhaps, was the Theologian John Wesley, who went to it two centuries later, but it has had, nevertheless, strong literary Laics on its list.

Robert Sanderson, another Bishop of Lincoln, and himself a son of Lincoln College, certainly deserves a place in these records, as the accepted author of the "Preface to the Book of Common Prayer," beginning, "It hath been the wisdom of the Church of England," etc., and as the alleged author of the "General Thanksgiving," and of the "Prayer for All Conditions of Men."

He entered Lincoln in 1603, he was graduated in 1606, when he became a Fellow. Two years later he was appointed Reader in Logic. In 1646, he was Regius Professor of Divinity in the University. He was removed by the Parliament in 121