tor has to represent, be so accurately or so beneficially understood and represented.

"Under similar advantages, and with an enlightened and encouraging protection bestowed on genius and the arts, it may not be too sanguine to indulge a hope, that, prodigal as nature is in the perfections of the human figure in this country, animating as are the instances of patriotism, heroic actions, and private virtues, deserving commemoration, sculpture may soon be raised in England to rival the ablest productions of the best times of Greece."

FOUNDATION OF

MAGDALEN HALL AND COLLEGE, OXFORD. From the Life of William of Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester, and Chancellor. By Richard Chandler, D. D.

The long continuance of the war with France had engrossed the attention, and exhausted the finances, as well of individuals as of the public. The university of Oxford lamented its empty halls and inns; and the condition of the scanty number of students, which still resorted to it, was from poverty, neglect, and the difficulty of obtaining instruction, truly deplorable. Indigent clerks had one while received assistance from customary and voluntary stipends, or exhibitions, chiefly the bounty of rich churchmen; but these, instead of residing, as formerly, on their preferments, lived in the houses of the great, or expended their revenues at the court. a synod of the clergy held at London (1438), Archbishop Chichele

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had procured the renewal of a decree, that ecclesiastical benefices. should be conferred only on persons who had taken their degrees; yet few of them fell to the lot of academies. Many belonged to monasteries and cathedrals, or collegiate churches, and were supplied by vicars and hirelings with knowledge proportionate to their salary. Many were bestowed by the Pope; and the university afterwards solicited archbishop Bourchier to resist this usurped power, as the bane of literature. A dispensation purchased at Rome indulged the pluralist, protected the non-resident, or admitted the beardless youth to the first offices of the church. So numerous were the discouragements and so abject was the fortune of the Oxford scholars, that it was common for them to beg from house to house. We are told that in this reign the university of Paris, which flourished, broke off its ancient connexion with that of Oxford, as beneath its notice.

The attention of Waynflete had been directed to the two universities by their alliance to the colleges of Winchester and Eton. He had observed the low estate of the scholars, clerks, and pitied their condition. On his advancement to the see of Winchester he became intent, says Budden, on demonstrating that he was equal to his new dignity, and that his possessing it would be of general advantage to the community. He studied in what manner he could most usefully oblige, not only his contemporaries but posterity. A fervent desire to increase knowledge in a country then scarcely beginning to emerge from barba

rism, animated him, and he justly decided, that to promote letters was to be a public benefactor. Waynflete appears to have conceived early, a warm regard for the university at which he was educated, and to have been connected with it by constant friendly intercourse. Duke Humphrey was an encourager of learning, and a collector of books. He had added to a present of nine volumes, which he made to the university of Oxford, one hundred and twenty in 1439, and one hundred and thirty-five in 1443. He had promised more, perhaps his whole library, publicly, in an assembly of the doctors and masters in the congregation-house, and often afterwards privately by their messengers; and had confirmed his donation, as they were assured, on testimony deserving credit, a little before his death. When that happened, they were unwilling to lose his valuable gift; they requested Waynflete to exert his power, at which they professed to rejoice, in their behalf, and to endeavour to obtain it for them from the king; not doubting but he, naturally disposed to be gracious, would be influenced by his intercession, and that of other good men, in their favour. They intimated that more promises had been made by the duke, about which it was better to be silent. Waynflete was not as yet a bishop. They celebrate his approved love for his Alma Mater; and their letter is remarkable for the affectionate terms in which it is conceived.

King Henry had resided at Queen's College, Oxford, with his uncle Beaufort, who, proud as he was, had deemed it not unworthy

of his high birth and station, to instruct him with other boys as their school-master. He had condescended to be styled the Founder of All Solen College, established by the munificence of Chichele for forty poor and indigent scholars, clerks, to pray for Henry V. the Duke of Clarence, those who had perished in the war with France, and for the souls of all the faithful defunct. He had bestowed on it the lands of some of the alien priories, which had been surrendered by the archbishop and clergy as a propitiatory offering to his father in 1414, when he was petitioned by parliament to seize their revenues. He is represented as ever friendly to Oxford, and we are told, that Waynflete endeavoured to persuade him to erect a college there: but he replied, "Rather at Cambridge;" declaring his wish, if possible, to continue two universities in this king. dom.

If Waynflete did, indeed, at any time apply to Henry, as is related, and was unsuccessful, his own li-' beral hand was speedily extended to relieve literate distress. In 1448, the year after his advancement to the mitre, he obtained the royal grant, dated the 6th of May, impowering him to found a hall, to be called after the blessed St. Mary Magdalen, for the study of divinity and philosophy, at Oxford; to consist of a president and fifty poor scholars, graduates; the number to be augmented or diminished in proportion to their revenues; and to confer on them a right to use a common seal. This was accompanied with a license for one hundred pounds a year mortmain.

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It was the care of John Godmanston, an esquire of Essex, who is styled by Budden a great admirer of the fine arts, to procure a proper site for the intended edifice and society. An agreement was concluded on the 9th of June between him and Richard Vise, or Vyse, master, and the brethren of the hospital for the maintenance of poor and sick persons dedicated to St. John Baptist without the east gate, Oxford. They granted for a long term, all their lands and tenements enclosed by the way leading from the east gate to the street of St. John Baptist on the east, and to Horse-mullane, afterwards Logic-lane, on the west; having the High-street on the north, and St. John's-street, where is St. Alban-hall and Merton College, on the south. Of these tenements, in number nine, some with small courts and gardens, the four principal were Boster-hall, Hare-hall, Pencrych-hall, and Nightingale-hall. The first was one hundred and thirty-five feet long, and thirty-seven broad, and stood where afterwards was a house called the Scruple-office, in the High-street, on the west side of the Saracen's Head, now the Angel Inn. Hare-hall was seventyfive feet long, and sixty-six broad. They also let to him on the 20th, Hare or Nightingale-hall lane, three hundred and forty feet long, which they rented at two shillings a-year of the mayor and corporation of Oxford.

The bishop on the first of August constituted Simon Godmanston his attorney, to take seisin in his name; and John Godmanston, having made over to him Bostar and Hare-hall, with their gardens,

immediately united these premise s under the name of St. Mary Magdalen-hall. By his charter of foundation, dated the 18th, John Hornley, bachelor of divinity, a man of eminence, was appointed presi. dent; and thirteen masters of arts, with seven bachelors, were nominated to commence the new society. Among the latter were Simon Godmanston, John Foreman and Richard Berne, or Barne, Bernes, Barnes, Bernys, Barnys, or Baronys. On the 29th the president received possession of the hall by his attorney.The remaining premises were delivered over to him in like manner in the following year by John Godmanston. This person is mentioned by Budden, not only as a zealous promoter of the design, but as the pious donor of the site of the hall. I have been more particular in this detail, because I apprehend he was in the whole business merely an agent for the founder.

The scandalous lives of the mo-" nastic clergy, were a topic largely insisted on by Wickliffe and his followers. The visitations of his diocese by Waynflete as ordinary, had furnished him with evidence of their bad conduct, and its influence on his mind is explained by his own pen. He relates, that he had carefully inspected the traditions of the ancient fathers, and the various approved rules of the saints; and that he had been grieved, on a survey of their numerous professors, to find the institutions were no longer observed, as formerly, according to the intention of the founders; that, disturbed on this account, he had seen clearly, it were better for him to dispense his temporal goods

with his own hands to the poor, than to appropriate and confirm them in perpetuity to the uses of the imprudent, bringing danger on the souls of many by their violating his ordinances: but after long wavering, and most devoutly invoking the divine assistance, he had fixed his eyes inflexibly on the affording of aid and relief to poor scholars, clerks, living in the schools; with a firm hope that men of letters and science, fearing God, would, before others, observe his statutes; and had finally determined to lighten the burthen of their necessities, by lending to it the assistance of compassion to the best of his ability. With these sentiments, confiding in the great Maker of all things, who knows, directs, and disposes the wishes of those who trust in him, he resolved, out of the goods which the favour of his plenitude had bestowed on him in abundance, to establish, by royal and apostolic authority, one perpetual college, to be called St. Mary Magdalen College, in the university of Oxford, for poor and needy scholars, clerks; who should be required to study, and make proficiency in divers sciences and faculties; to the praise and glory and honour of Christ, his virginmother, the blessed St. Mary Magdalen, St John Baptist, the apostles Peter and Paul, St. Swithin the Confessor, and the other saints patrons of the cathedral of Win. chester, and of all saints; for the maintenance and exaltation of the Christian faith, for the profit of the church, and for the augmentation of divine worship, and of the liberal arts, sciences, and faculties.

Waynflete expended a consider

able sum on the embattled wall now enclosing the grove, the alterations of the hospital, and the fabric of his college; which has undergone some changes in a long series of years, not to mention the additional buildings, but still exists a curious monument of the age in which it was erected,

The portal or grand entrance of the quadrangle is decorated with the statues of the two founders of the hospital and college, and of their patron-saints; Waynflete kneeling in prayer; King Henry the Third; Mary Magdalen; and St. John Baptist. These all again occur, in small but elegant figures, over the great or western door of the chapel; Waynflete kneeling as before, and as he is represented on the seals of the ball and college; with bishop Wykeham on his right hand, (which is remarkable,) and Mary Magdalen in the middle. On each side of the chapel door, near the cloister, is an angel carved in relievo, holding a scroll, with difficult characters painted and gilded; one with the motto of the founder, (ff denot ing F)

ffecit mihi magna qui potens est!

the other with a passage from Genesis xxviii. 17.

Hic est domus Dei et porta celi;

right disposed according to the usage of the Romish church in giving the benediction. He is between two angels with wings, such as may be seen supporting the arms of Waynflete in the cloister, by the library, and in various other places. Portraits or busts of kings and bishops, now disregarded and without a name, adorn the inside of the chapel and hall, both which are spacious and handsome. Grotesque or emblematical figures, not understood by Dr. Budden, are disposed round the quadrangle. The spouts, roofs, windows and doors, have their carved-work. Toward the street is a monk in a cowl; as has been noticed, I think, at Lincoln or some other college. Among the armorial bearings are the royal, the rose with a radiated sun or star, the plume of ostrich feathers, the portcullis, and those of the see of Winchester and of the founder. The initials of his name (W W) occur in cypher; and his favourite lilies are frequently introduced.

The magnificence as well as piety of Waynflete was displayed in the chapel. The windows, after the fashion which had prevailed from the time of Henry the Fourth, were adorned with portraits and painting on the glass. It was rich in missals, manuals, martyrologies, antiphonaries, and books of devotion, some finely ornamented; in crosses gilded or set with precious stones, some enclosing a portion of the real wood; in chalices, of which one was given by president Mayew, and another by master Thomas Kerver; and in all sorts of sacred utensils, many valuable for the materials and of curious workman

ship; in copes and sacerdotal vestments, some of damask, velvet, and gold tissue, of various colours, decorated with pearls, and embroidered, some with the arms of Waynflete, some with lilies and other flowers, with birds, animals, and devices; with images representing angels and holy persons, the crucifixion, and scriptural stories; besides canopies, curtains, standards, streamers, linen, and a multiplicity of articles used by the Roman church in great abundance for the high altar, and the altars in the nave of the chapel, in all six; and for the chapel of the president. Two inventories of these sacred effects are extant; and mention is made of oblations before the image of St. Mary Magdalen, which probably graced the high altar.

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The art of printing, exercised at Mentz in Germany about the year 1442, had been rapidly propagated in other countries on the dispersion of its professors in 1402. It was established in England; and the version of Tully De Senectute by William Wyrcestre was published in 1481 by the famous Caxton, who had been recommended to King Edward by Earl Rivers, brother of his queen, and was permitted to set up his presses in Westminster Abbey. The Grammar of Leilont was probably printed at the same place, or at Oxford, or St. Albans, nearly at the same time. One of the epigrams prefixed to it by Carmelian, an ecclesiastic and poet-laureat in favour with the king, is addressed to Waynfete. A succession of eminent persons had pursued and promoted learning, especially on the continent, where authors had

greatly