XV.— ST. JOHN BAPTIST COLLEGE.
HE College of St. John Baptist occupies the site and some of the buildings of
a Bernardine House founded by Archbishop Chichele in 1437, for the
Cistercian scholars studying at Oxford. By Letters Patent of Henry VI.
the Archbishop received leave to " erect a College to the honour of the
most glorious Virgin Mary and St. Bernard, in the street commonly called
North Gate Street, in the parish of St. Mary Magdalene, without the
North Gate. " The buildings consisted only of a single block facing
westwards, with one wing behind. The hall was built about 1502, and
the chapel consecrated in 1530. All of these remain in use. The hall was
enlarged and ceiled in the seventeenth century. The chapel, after being
decorated in the Laudian period, was unhappily restored in the earliest
period of the Gothic revival of the present century. It has, however,
recently been improved under the skilful hand of Mr. C. E. Kempe. The
monks had also a garden, leased at first part from University College and
part from Durham College. This garden, with later additions, is one of
the most beautiful features of the Oxford of to-day.
At the dissolution in 1539, the lands, buildings, and revenues of St. Bernard's College were given by Henry VIII. to his newly-founded College and Cathedral of Christ Church, in whose possession they remained unused some sixteen years. In 1555, the deserted buildings were restored to use, and the College re-founded under Letters Patent of Philip and Mary granted at the request of a rich and munificent London trader, Sir Thomas White, who had been Sheriff of London in 1547, and Lord Mayor in the year of Sir Thomas Wyatt's rebellion.
The College thus founded in 1555, was to be set apart for the study of the sciences of Sacred Theology, Philosophy, and good Arts, it was dedicated to the praise and honour of God, of the Blessed Virgin Mary His Mother, and St. John Baptist ; and the Society was to consist of a President and thirty graduate or non- graduate scholars. In 1557, both the scope and numbers of the original foundation were enlarged; Theology, Philosophy, Civil and Canon Law were now declared to be the subjects of study, and the number of Fellows and scholars was raised to fifty, of whom six were to be Founder's kin, two from Coventry, Bristol, and Reading schools, one from Tunbridge, and the rest from the Merchant Taylors' school in London.
During the present century its numbers have greatly increased and all its fellowships have been thrown open, but its connection with the schools designated by the Founder still remains.
During its earlier years Sir Thomas White watched over the institution which he had founded. The statutes which he gave were substantially those of New College, and this return to the scheme of William of Wykeham, which had been so largely adopted at Cambridge, shows that the alterations made by the founders of Magdalen, Corpus Christi, and Trinity, were not felt to be improvements. He nominated the first President, his own kinsman John James as Vice-President for life, and the earlier Fellows. He died on Feb. nth, 1566, and was buried with solemn ceremonial in the College chapel, where his coffin was found intact when that of Laud was laid beside it nearly a century later. A funeral oration was preached by one of the most brilliant of the junior Fellows, Edmund Campion, soon to win wider notoriety, and eventually to die a shameful death.
The most distinguished President of the sixteenth century was Toby Matthew, who rose to be Archbishop of York, a man of learning and wit and a skilful administrator. So long as the founder had lived, his tact had smoothed the difficulties of the transition from the Marian to the Elizabethan rule. Two at least of the earlier Presidents were deprived for asserting the Pope's supremacy, yet the change was managed without disturbance. But when the wise counsels of the founder could no longer be heard, and when the Papal Court had declared itself the bitter foe of Elizabeth, Fellow after Fellow retired, or was deprived, and joined the Roman party. For this cause no less than six members of the foundation are recorded within a few years to have been imprisoned. But before long the University was greatly influenced by Calvinist doctrines. It was from St. John's that the
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