Page:Oxford men and their colleges.djvu/210

 255

ALL SOULS' COLLEGE.

256

the name that he gave to his foundation, which, copying the last words in the above cited foundation- charter, became known as the " Collegium Omnium Animarum Fidelium Defunctorum in Oxonia." . . . When all was complete he went through the form of handing over the foundation to his young godson Henry VI., and of receiving it back from the King's hands as co--founder. Hence comes the con- stant juxtaposition of their names in the prayers of the College.

STALL FINIAL, ALL SOULS' CHAPEL. — Pugin.

For the first century of the College's existence the succession of Wardens and Fellows was very rapid. The shortness of their tenure of office is easily ex- plained ; a Fellowship was not a very valuable posses- sion, for beyond food and lodging it only supplied its holder with the " livery " decreed by the founder, an actual provision of cloth for his raiment. A Fellow's commons were fixed on the modest scale of "one shilling a week when wheat is cheap, and sixteen- pence when it is dear. " The annual surplus from the estates was not divided up, but placed in the College strong-box within the entrance tower, against the day of need. Moreover, as the Fellows were lodged two, or even in some cases three, in each room, the accom- modation can hardly have been such as to tempt to long residence. The acceptance of preferment outside Oxford, or even an absence of more than six months without the express leave of the College, sufficed to vacate the Fellowship ; and since every member of the foundation was in orders, it naturally resulted that the "jurists " drifted up to London to practice, while the " artists " accepted country livings. Only those Fellows who were actually studying or teaching in the University held their places for any length of time.

In the reign of Henry VII,, when the Renaissance began to make itself felt in Oxford, All Souls' had the good fortune to produce two of the first English Greek scholars, Linacre and Latimer. The name of the latter is forgotten— the present age remembers no Latimer save the martyr-bishop ; but Linacre's memory is yet green. With Grocyn and Colet he stands at the head of the roll of Oxford scholars, but in his medical fame he is unrivalled. His contemporaries " questioned whether he was a better Latinist or Grecian, a better grammarian or physician ; " but it is in the last capacity that he is now remembered. He was elected to his Fellowship at All Souls' in 1484, resided four or five years, and then went to Italy, where he tarried long, taught medicine at Padua, and then returned to England to found and preside over the College of Physicians. The two Linacre professorships were both endowed by him. . ..

The first touches of information as to the life of the fellows which are found in the College archives come from a letter of Archbishop Cranmer. The visitor complains that 'Fellows have been seen ( 1541) clad not in the plain livery which the pious founder devised, but in gowns gathered round the collar and arms, and quilted with silk ; they have been keeping dogs in College ; some of them have hired private servants ; others of them have engaged in " compotationibus, ingurgitationibus, crapulis et ebrietatibus. " All these customs are to cease at once. It is to be feared that the good Archbishop was as unsuccessful in sup- pressing these smaller sins and vanities, as he most certainly was in dealing with the evil of corrupt resignations.

It was in the reign of Warden Warner, under