Christian Faith; whereof the one at Cambridge to be called his college Royall of Our Ladye and St. Nicholas; and the other at Eton, beside Windsore, to be called his college of our Blessed Ladie."
The official correspondence of Thomas Beckynton, secretary of King Henry VI, and subsequently Bishop of Bath and Wells,[1] proves the anxiety of the King to make his foundation at Eton permanent. This Bishop Beckynton was consecrated to the see of Bath and Wells on 13th October 1443 in the old collegiate church at Eton. He sang his first Mass in Pontificalibus in the new church, not yet half finished, under a tent erected over the place where the founder had laid the first stone. The approval of the Pope for the establishment of the college was quickly obtained, but Henry desired that the Indulgences granted should be in a more permanent form than that in which they were first granted. These privileges, however ample, were limited to the lifetime of the founder. Writing to Vincent Clement, the King's agent on this matter, Beckynton says: "I would have you
- ↑ Rolls Series (Beckynton Correspondence), ed. by George Williams, B.D.
