PART II. Its condition at the commencement teenth cen tury. CHAP.Y. regard to the convenience of a few than to extended utility; for though possessed of a revenue amounting to nearly onethird that of the great priory at Barnwell, a house of the same order, it never maintained more than five or six canons, while the priory, though noted for its profuse hospitality and sumptuous living, often supported five or six times the number'. But with the commencement of the sixteenth of the six- century, under the misrule of William Tomlyn, the condition of the hospital had become a scandal to the community, and in the language of Baker, who moralises at length over the lesson of its downfall, the society had gone so far and were so deeply involved 'that they seem to have been at a stand and did not well know how to go farther; but their last stores and funds being exhausted and their credit sunk, the master and brethren were dispersed, hospitality and the service of God (the two great ends of their institution) were equally neglected, and in effect the house abandoned',' Such being the state of affairs, the bishop of Ely, at this The proposed time James Stanley, stepson to the countess,-had nothing to urge in his capacity of visitor against the proposed suppression of the house, and gave his assent thereto without demur: but the funds of the society were altogether inEndowments adequate to the design of the countess, who proposed to erect the lady Mar on the same site and to endow a new and splendid college, Bew college and she accordingly found herself under the necessity of revoking certain grants already made to the abbey at WestKing Henry minster. To this the consent of king Henry was indispensable; and the obtaining of that consent called for the exercise of some address, for the monarch's chief interest was now centred in his own splendid chapel at Westminster. The task was accordingly confided to Fisher, who conducted it with his usual discretion and with complete succes. "T:A second Solomon,' as the men of his age were wont to style him, was now entering upon the evil days' and years in which he found no pleasure: he responded however to la dissolution set apart by garet for the gives his as STATUT isadvantage and co aid college,' and dee weekly commons sh The amount now £v Fisher was only t the same amount 1. the fellows of Mic.. we can only infer as an indispensable observed also that commons at St. J. the general rise in latter foundation 1530. Long a fellows of the sa nomy had done · of the courtier the college, ki observing that persons so 1. little land and : The univ had gone 1 fectionate' manner, CHAP much appay'd' ad been three days His consent having anting to enable the ..and everything would Is a satisfactory accomis could be duly drawn A within little more than was borne to rest by his As composed her epitaph'; Corrigiano, the Florentine es in what has been charac venerable figure that the , who had already preached ..t now devolved to render a e mother. 's listened as he described, emotion the genuineness of mazni, quem locus iste foret; ! Quem leeus iste sacer celebri celebrat polyandro, Illins en gentrix hac tumaatur humo! Cui relat Tanquil Titus hanc super astra reportet), I Cedat Penelope, carus Ulixis amor;| Huic Abigail, velut Hester, erat pietate secunda: En tres jam proceres nobilitate pares! etc. etc. Skelton's Works, by Dyce, 1 195. Dean Stanley, Historical Memorials of Westminster Abley, p. 164: More noble and more retrel tam in any of her numerous portraits, ber egy well lies in that chapel, for to ber the King, her son, owed everv. thing. For him she lived. To end the Civil Wars by his marriage with Fazabeth of York she counted as an by duty. On her tomb, as in ber life, her sceond and third biar la Lave no place. It the hera a emblems only of her first yout: fl kve, the father of Henry vit. She wis always "Margaret Richmonì” Ibid. p. 165. APY. which none could doubt, the manner of her life'. On the ears of the present generation, much that most edified and moved the audience he addressed, falls doubtless somewhat strangely. We hear with more of pity than of admiration the details of her devout asceticism,-of her shirts and girdles of hair, her early risings, her interminable devotions and countless kneelings, her long fasts and ever-flowing tears, but charity recalls that in features like these we have but the superstitions which she shared with the best and wisest of her contemporaries, while in her spotless life, her benevolence of disposition, and her open hand, may be discerned the outlines of a character that attained to a standard not often reached in that corrupt and dissolute age. the founds Bon of ST. With the death of his patroness the troubles of bishop Fisher began. In conjunction with seven others he had been appointed executor for the purpose of carrying out her designs: his coadjutors were Richard bishop of Winchester, and Charles Somerset lord Herbert; Thomas Lovell, Henry Marney, and John St. John, knights; and Henry Hornby Charter of and Hugh Ashton, clerks. On the ninth of April, 1511, the executors proceeded to draw up the charter of the LEGE 1511 foundation, setting forth the royal assent together with that of the pope, and of the bishop and convent of Ely, whereby the old hospital was formally converted into a perpetual college unius magistri, sociorum et scholarium ad numerum quinquaginta secularium personarum vel circa, in scientiis liberalibus et sacra theologia studentium et oraturarum: it being also ordained that the college should be styled and called St. John's College for ever, should be a body corporate, should have a common seal, might plead and be impleaded, and purchase or receive lands under the same name. At Robert Shor- the same time Robert Shorton was elected first master, and James Spooner, John West, and Thomas Barker, fellows, on the nomination of the bishop of Ely, of the said college'. Of the above-named executors, the four laymen appear ton, first Characters 1 The Sermon has been twice edited; in each case by fellows of St. John's College in the last cen tury by Baker, and in the present by Dr Hymers. Baker-Mayor, p. 68. mother's petition in a very but, as Baker informs us, that 'he declares on his fa or he could make an end of been readily given, nothi countess to proceed with b seem to have been progr plishment, when, before *: up and ratified, king Henry two months after, the co side in the great abbey. Skelton sang her elegy. sculptor, immortalised L terised as 'the most be abbey contains. Upu the funeral sermon for like tribute to the men A large gathering མ མི in thrilling tones and v the scheme. of Wolsey as 'a -ly well able to Lea the design of the lady at this time but little Hornby, formerly fellow of ne Peterhouse, alone appears the scheme, and it soon would mainly devolve the eng accomplishment, in spite of the indifference of many, design of the greatest bener known. But at the very apprehension began to appear. thed by the lady Margaret, beca tal, amounted annually to y to that of King's in the was well known however that pid 527. • linker-Mayor, p. 78. PART II. CHAP.. it depended entirely on the royal pleasure whether the executors would be permitted to carry into full effect a become sub- scheme, which, though there could be no doubt of the Ject to the roval dis pusal Apparent entradic original lence. executrix's design, had never received the final legal ratification; the young monarch, to use the language of Baker, 'not having the same ties of duty and affection, was under no obligation to make good his father's promises; and having an eye upon the estate, had no very strong inclination to favour a design that must swallow up part of his inheritance'. The executors indeed already found considerable cause for thin the perplexity in the fact, that in the royal licence above referred to, granted Aug. 7, 1509, the revenue which the new society was permitted to hold (the statute of mortmain notwithstanding'), over and above the revenues of the hospital, was limited to fifty pounds. But as the licence also permitted the maintenance of fifty fellows and scholars, and it was evident that so large a number could not possibly be supported on an income of £130 a year, the executors were fain to hope that the royal generosity would provide the most favorable solution of the difficulty thus presented, and determined on the bold course of carrying on the works as though nothing doubting that the intentions of the countess would be respected. A new difficulty however met them in another quarter, in the reluctance exhibited by Stanley to Stanley the take the final steps for dissolving the old house. The of the los influence of his mother-in-law could no longer be brought to bear upon him, and though as the promulgator of the statutes of Jesus College and founder of the grammar school attached to that foundation, it might have been hoped that he would not be wanting in sympathy with the new scheme, he was evidently little disposed to favour it. The fact that he was visitor of the hospital, and that its suppression might appear to reflect on his past remissness, partially accounts perhaps for his disinclination, but the explanation must Iris charme mainly be sought in his personal character. From his boyhood he had evinced if not actual incapacity, at least considerable averseness to study; but with so splendid a prize as a bishopric 1 Baker-Mayor, p. 62. Bishop dissolution Let. |