26l
ALL SOULS' COLLEGE.
262
The seniors drew more than the juniors, and the
jurists more than the artists. This arrangement, after
working in practice for many years, was sanctioned
in theory also by Archbishop Sheldon in 1666.
The Civil Wars of the reign of Charles I. were an evil time for All Souls' no less than for the other Colleges of the University. All its magnificent stores of plate went to replenish the Royal mint in New Inn Hall, and to re-appear as ill-struck shillings. No new fellows were elected, rents were unpaid, the buildings began to fall into disrepair. When the war ended, and the Parliamentary Visitors got to work on the University, as much as two years after the fall of Oxford, they found only eleven members of the College in residence. Warden Sheldon was summoned before them to ask whether he acknowledged their authority, and replied with frankness, " I cannot satisfy myself that I ought to submit to this Visitation." Next day a notice of ejectment was served upon him, and the day following the Chancellor Pembroke went with the Visitors to expel him. They found Sheldon walking in his little garden, read their decree to him, and then sent for the College buttery-book, out of which they struck his name, inserting instead of it that of Dr. Palmer, whom they had designated as his successor. Next they bade him give over his keys, and when he refused broke open his lodgings, installed Palmer in them, and sent the rightful owner away under a guard of musketeers, "followed as he went by a great company of scholars, and blessed by the people as he passed down the street. "
The old body of fellows being expelled, the Visitors proceeded to fill up the empty places by nominating masters of arts of Puritan tendencies. But in 1653 free elections re-commenced, and as the first fruits of their labours the new Fellows co-opted Christopher Wren. This greatest of all the Fellows of All Souls' was in residence for eight years, working from the very first year of his election at architecture, though astronomy and mathematics were also taking up part of his time. Ere he had been many months a Fellow, he erected the large sun dial, with the motto peretmt el imputantur, which now adorns the Library. Palmer, the intruding Warden, died in the very month of King Charles' return, and Sheldon peaceably took possession of his old place. But within two years he was called off to become Arch- bishop of Canterbury, and John Meredith reigned in his stead
Meredith's reign was short and uneventful. The College was not destined to see any more vicissitudes of importance till James II. imposed on it as head his disreputable protege Leopold Finch, son of the Earl of Winchilsea. Finch was an execrable warden, but the College flourished in spite of him. To his time belongs the munificent foundation of its library.
It was to Christopher Codrington that the College owes the magnificent library, which so far surpasses all its rivals in the University, save the Bodleian alone. Codrington was a kind of Admirable Creighton, poet and soldier, bibliophile and statesman. In the same year he gained military promotion for his gallantry at the siege of Namur, welcomed William III. to Oxford in a speech whose elegant Latinity softened even Jacobite critics, and undertook the government of the English West India Islands. He died at Barbados in 1 7 10, and left to his well-loved College 21,000 books, valued at ^6000, with a legacy of ,£10,000 to build a fit edifice to hold them, and a fund to maintain it. The Codrington Library,
niche over the entrance.— Mackenzie and Pugin.
