XIII.-CHRIST CHURCH.
RIGINALLY the foundation of Christ Church was due to the munifi"
cence of Cardinal Wolsey, who, recognising that the downfall of the
Monastic system in England was imminent, resolved to divert the
revenues of at least some of the regular clergy to the endowment of
secular clergy and the advancement of learning.
In 1524 Wolsey first gained possession of St. Frideswide's Monas- tery granted to him by King Henry VIII. and suppressed by Pope Clement VII. ; and this Pope by a Bull dated September, 1524, and confirmed by the King 7 January, 152*, allowed Wolsey to appropriate the revenues of many more of the smaller monasteries and to confer them upon his projected foundation.
In 1525 was laid the first stone of Cardinal College, which was entitled " Collegium Thomae Wolsey Cardinalis Eboracensis. "
For this the three Western Bays of St. Frideswide's Church were pulled down as well as the West side of the Cloister, because these interfered with the plan of the Great Quadrangle ; but Wolsey left untouched the Chapter House, the Prior's House, now the lodgings ot the Canon of the I I nd Stall, and the Refectory.
By 1529 the Kitchen, the East and South sides and nearly all the West side of the Great Quadrangle were built ; and by this time the first Dean, John Hygden, and a certain number of those who were to constitute the earliest Foundation were settled in the College.
But upon Wolsey 's attainder all he had destined for Cardinal College lapsed to the King, who in 1532 refounded it under the title of King Henry the Eighth's College ; of this also John Hygden was appointed Dean ; and he was succeeded by John Oliver.
In 1545 the King again took into his own power the College with all its possessions, and on 4 Nov., 1546, by letters patent, combined the lately created Cathedral of Oxford and the College just dissolved into one Foundation styled " Ecclesia Christi Cathedralis Oxon. ex fundatione Regis Henrici Octavi," of which the first Dean was Richard Cox. This Foundation began its corporate existence on 14 Jan., I54r-
Though the King had granted away many of the endowments intended by Wolsey for Cardinal College, he bestowed upon this his last foundation Peckwater Inn or Vine Hall together with Canterbury College in addition, so that the whole extent of the precincts on which Glides Christi, ' Christ Church, was established, has not changed from that day.
This Foundation, though shorn of much of the grandeur which Wolsey had designed, remained paramount in Oxford and practically unchanged for more than three centuries from 1547 to 1858. It consisted of : —
A Dean ; eight Canons ; a hundred Students, to whom one was added in 1663 ; eight Chaplains ; an
Organist ; eight singing men ; eight Choristers ; various subordinate officials. As the King died without having sanctioned any Statutes, the House was governed by the Dean and Canons, whose orders gradually crystallized into a traditional code.
With regard to the fabric between 1547 and 1858, the following additions were made to the buildings as Wolsey had left them : —
The Hall Staircase, under Dean Samuel Fell.
The North side of the Great Quadrangle and about three Bays of the West side ; a block of buildings at S. end of the Cloister facing the meadow ; the East side of the Chaplains' Quadrangle ; and Tom Tower, under Dean John Fell. Three sides of Peckwater Quadrangle, under Dean Aldrich.
1 This title is found at least as early as 1582.
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