CHAPTER V.

THE DIOCESE OF OXFORD.

Down to our own time, Oxford remained one of the new dioceses of the English Church, having been set up by Henry VIII. by way of compensation for his confiscation of the monastic properties. Before 1542 Oxford belonged to the enormous diocese of Lincoln; but in that year the new see was created, and Robert King, the last Abbot of Oseney, was made first Bishop of Oseney, and the Bishop's stool set up in his magnificent abbey church of St. Mary.

This Abbey of Oseney, which had been founded by Robert D'Oilgi in 1129, and rebuilt in 1247, was, like St. Frideswide's, a house of Augustinian Canons, but far larger. It was, indeed, one of the finest abbeys in England, its principal cloister being as large as Tom Quad, and its church no less than 352 feet by 100, with double aisles, and twenty-four altars. Gardens and courts, and comely outbuildings, ran along the side of the river; in every corner a busy life went on among the orieled windows and high-pitched roofs, within the fretted cloister, the schools and libraries, the refectory, and the kitchen, whither a conduit brought the water from the river side. A great gate looked on to the high road; and the abbot's lodgings were so spacious that six men could walk abreast up the steps which led into his hall. Yet others were not forgotten; besides the guest-house, there was a building reserved for poor clerks.

But Henry's mania for destruction could not let the Abbey stand. In 1546 he moved the see to St. Frideswide's, reconstituting the old Priory, which Wolsey had turned into a college, as both college and cathedral. The doom of Oseney was pronounced, and in that year the demolition began.

In 1566 Agar's map represents Oseney Abbey as still standing, but roofless; in 1644 a good deal remained, but Charles I. used the greater part to complete the fortifications of Oxford against the Cromwellians; in 1718 the abbot's chamber and the great stone staircase were all that was left. In Dr. Johnson's time a few ruins could still be seen, of which the great man said (at a time when such sentiments were uncommon)--"Sir, to look upon them fills me with indignation." At the present day the remains are almost invisible; they consist of a portion of a building attached to the mill, a fragment of the foundations of the gateway at the end of the same building, a small portion of the wall near the great gate, a few loose fragments of masonry, and some encaustic tiles. Bishop King's window in the cathedral gives one a vague reminder of its former aspect; and only the bells, which were transferred to Christ Church, remain intact. Thus perished the first cathedral church of the see of Oxford.

Of it there now remains no memory Nor any little monument to see; By which the traveller that fares that way, That once she was may warned be to say.

Apart from questions of vandalism, the destruction of this the first cathedral of Oxford was an egregious piece of waste and folly. Such places have been only too much needed by the University--indeed the need was felt a few years after the destruction--and vast sums have been spent in the erection of immeasurably inferior buildings. If Oseney Abbey, with its crowd of beautiful outbuildings along the water side, had been converted into a college, it would have been of immense use, and every other college now extant insignificant compared with it. Of all the headstrong and wanton actions of an irreverent age, the destruction of Oseney was one of the most wicked; and, as the train moves into Oxford railway station, the stranger may remember that the present approach to the old city is only so hideous because the glorious old abbey has given place to a collection of gasholders, coal-heaps, railway-sidings, modern tombstones, and obscene jerry-buildings.

The diocese of Oxford now includes the deaneries of Aston, Burcester, Chipping-Norton, Cuddesden, Deddington, Dorchester (Oxon), Henley, Witney, Woodstock, and Oxford City, together with the counties of Berks and Bucks.

=Robert King= (1542-1557), the first Bishop of Oseney and of Oxford, and the last Abbot of Oseney and of Thame, began life as a Cistercian monk. On the conversion of his abbey into a cathedral, he continued, as bishop of the new see, to preside; but he had already, seven years before, been raised to the episcopate, as suffragan of Lincoln, under the title (conferred by the Pope) of Bishop of Rheon in the province of Athens. He seems to have taken the Reformation pretty easily, passing through all the changes under King Henry, King Edward, and Queen Mary. He died at an advanced age in 1557, and was buried in Christ Church Cathedral. He left considerable riches to his nephew Phillip King, "which it seems," says Fuller, "was quickly consumed, so that John King, Bishop of London (son of Phillip), used to say he believed there was a fate in abbey money no less than in abbey land, which seldom proved fortunate, or of continuance to the owners." He is supposed to have built "Bishop King's House" in Rose Place.

After Queen Elizabeth had kept the see vacant for ten years, =Hugh Curwen= (1567-1568), a "moderate papist," according to Fuller, who had been made Archbishop of Dublin by Queen Mary, and now wished to end his days in peace, was translated to Oxford. "Very decrepid, broken with old age and many state affairs," he died next year. Whereupon Elizabeth kept the see vacant for twenty-one years more, "out of pure devotion to the leases, as some writers say."

=John Underhill= (1589), Rector of Lincoln College, and one of Queen Elizabeth's chaplains, was next appointed, "being persuaded," says Willis, "on certain considerations, to accept it in the way of a better." But it proved "very much out of his way; for ere the first-fruits were payed he died in great discontent and poverty about the beginning of May 1592."

Again Elizabeth, who had already taken away some of the best estates from the bishopric, kept it in her hands the third time (1592-1604): "who," says Willis, "constituting no bishop forty-one years of her forty-four, disposed of its income to her courtiers as she thought fit, giving whatever they had a mind to ask; though, as some writers remark, it proved miserably fatal to them, particularly to her great favourite the Earl of Essex."

With =John Bridges= (1604-1618) commences the unbroken succession of Bishops of Oxford. It is suggested by Fuller in his "Worthies" that "the cause that church was so long a widow was the want of a competent estate to prefer her"; but at this time, Elizabeth being dead, the endowment of the see had been increased; and henceforward occupants for it were found. Bridges is known to history mainly from his name appearing at the head of the title-page of the first two Marprelate tracts. He was then, 1587, Dean of Sarum, and had written a temperate reply to the Puritan pamphleteers who were pouring violent abuse upon Episcopacy. Martin Marprelate seized upon his book, "A Defence of the Government Established in the Church of England," and headed the "Epistle" and the "Epitome" with, "Oh read over D. John Bridges, for it is a worthy worke." He was a good Bishop.

=John Howson= (1619-1628) was a great controversialist of the time, his four sermons against the Pope's supremacy having, according to Fuller, "made him famous to all posterity." He was one of the original members of Chelsea College, an institution founded by James I. "to afford divines leisure and other conveniences to spend their time wholly in controversy." Mercifully this terrible design soon gave way, and Chelsea College became Chelsea Hospital. Bishop Howson was translated to Durham in 1628, where he died at the age of ninety-five.

=Richard Corbet= (1628-1632) was "a distinguished wit in an age of wits, and a liberal man amongst a race of intolerant partizans." But perhaps his liberality (which did not prevent him, by-the-way, from carrying out the Laudian discipline with a high hand) was due to his own easy way of living: for he and his chaplain were wont to lock themselves in the wine-cellar and be merry. He seems to have been a genial, kind, generous, and spirited prelate; sincere and affectionate in private life, he was, says Gilchrist, "correct, eloquent, and ingenious as a poet." At least he was a man of character. From 1632 to 1635 he was Bishop of Norwich.

=John Bancroft= (1632-1641), Master of University College, and nephew of the Archbishop of Canterbury of that name, was a great benefactor to the see. Being a single man he devoted his money to this purpose; and besides many financial acquisitions, he built an episcopal palace at Cuddesden at the suggestion of Archbishop Laud. This palace, the first since the time of Edward VI., was finished in 1634, and burnt down ten years later by Colonel Legg, to prevent its becoming useful to the parliamentary forces. It lay in ruins till the time of Bishop Fell.

=Robert Skinner= (1641-1663) was translated from Bristol. He was imprisoned in the Tower by the Puritan party, and remained in obscurity during the Commonwealth; but he was one of the few who continued to ordain. At the Restoration, being then over seventy, he was translated to Worcester.

=William Paul= (1663) and =Walter Blandford= (1665) did nothing memorable.

=Hon. Nathaniel Crewe= (1671-1674) entered into holy orders in 1664; in the short space of five years he was Dean of Chichester, and two years after that Bishop of Oxford. He was an ambitious and restless man: in 1673 he had the boldness to perform the marriage ceremony between the Duke of York and Mary of Este, in defiance of the House of Commons. As a reward for this act, the Duke procured him the see of Durham, whither he was translated in 1674. At the Revolution, as a consequence of his political intrigues, he was excepted from the general pardon, and obliged to fly to Holland. But he afterwards made his peace; and, on the death of his elder brother, becoming Lord Crewe, he was the first man to be summoned to Parliament both as baron and bishop. He lived on till 1722.

=Hon. Henry Compton= (1674-1675), son of the Earl of Northampton, who died fighting by the king at Hopton Heath in 1644, was after the Restoration a cornet in the army before he took orders. He was conspicuous throughout his long life for his efforts to reconcile the dissenters with the Church of England, and for his opposition to Rome; he was the first to sign the declaration for the Prince of Orange on William's arrival in London. But at Oxford he was a bird of passage, being translated to London in 1675.

=John Fell= (1676-1686), the best known, and also the best of the Bishops of Oxford, was well-fitted to restore the traditions of the place; for his father Samuel Fell was Dean of Christ Church from 1637-1649, and had been elected student of the House as far back as 1601: thus John Fell must have had an intimate knowledge of the traditions of Christ Church as far back as the third interregnum of Elizabeth. A strong royalist, Fell kept in seclusion till the Restoration, when, in 1660, he was made Dean. He at once commenced to restore both the discipline and the buildings of the College. On his appointment to the Bishopric, he was permitted to retain the Deanery as well, in order "that he might better carry on his noble designs, which were so many that they contributed to wear him quite out and shorten his life." He employed Sir Christopher Wren to build Tom Tower, and finished the north side of Tom Quadrangle; he also built a new episcopal palace upon the ruins of the old one at Cuddesden. He founded ten exhibitions, and caused the University Theatre to be erected, and the Printing Press to be "advanced to a glory superior to any place in Christendom." He showed exemplary care in governing his diocese, and established daily prayers at St. Martin's (as the principal city church of Oxford) at eight in the morning and eight at night. His most important book is the "Life of Dr. Henry Hammond," 1660; he also wrote several theological books, edited St. Cyprian's works, and produced a well-known edition of the New Testament. He died in 1686, "having by a most pious unspotted single life left behind him an everlasting character," and was buried in the cathedral, where, in the ante-chapel, there is a monument to him. There is also a beautiful statue of him over the archway that leads past the deanery into Peckwater Quadrangle, by Mr. Bodley.

Anthony à Wood records of him that he was "the most zealous man of his time for the Church of England." Still John Fell had his weak points, as this same Anthony Wood had cause to know. For it so happened that Wood had mentioned Hobbes, the redoubtable author of the "Leviathan," in terms of great admiration, in his History and Antiquities of the University. Wood was himself a strong high-churchman, with (it had been said) a weakness for popery; in praising Hobbes he therefore acted with a generosity and fairness beyond his age. Fell, however, was not so liberal; he considered Hobbes no better than an atheist or a deist, and when one Peers was employed by Wood to translate his book into Latin, Fell got on the right side of the man, and made him alter all Wood's praises of Hobbes to expressions of abuse. The author of the "Leviathan," meeting the King in Pall Mall, got leave to reply, and hit the Bishop rather hard. Fell retorted with an answer that contained the famous description of Hobbes as _irritabile illud et vanissimum Malmesburiense animal_. Wood, of course, was furious, and the wretched Peers suffered at the hands of the muscular old Antiquary, so that "as Peers alway cometh off with a bloody nose or a black eye, he was a long time afraid to goe anywhere where he might chance to meet his too powerful adversary, for fear of another drubbing."

=Samuel Parker= (1686-1687) was a typical specimen, of the place-hunter of the period. He was brought up a strict Puritan at Northampton, and, coming to Wadham College in 1656, when the Puritans were in power, he distinguished himself as "one of the most godly young men in the University," and was under the tuition of a rigid Presbyterian. Shortly after the Restoration, however, he changed his mind, and in 1663 he took orders, becoming "a zealous advocate of the Church of England." By 1686, however, he was the creature of James II., and was forced by that monarch upon Magdalen College, Oxford, as its President, in 1687, in the place of the lawful President, John Hough. At the installation only two of the Magdalen Fellows attended; the porter threw down his keys, the butler had to be dismissed because he would not scratch Hough's name from the buttery list, no blacksmith even could be found in Oxford to force the lock of the President's lodgings; and the whole University, which had suffered so much for the Stuarts, was alienated at last. Parker himself died very soon after, in the lodgings that he had unlawfully occupied. He lies buried in the ante-chapel of Magdalen, but no monument marks his grave. Antony Wood intimates that he would have become a Papist, but for his wife, who was unwilling to be parted from him; and he certainty wrote in defence of transubstantiation. Still, Parker, according to Mr. W.H. Hutton (_Social England_, iv. 421), was by no means a despicable man. As a philosopher in his _Disputationes de Deo_, and _Censure of the Platonick Philosophie_, as a satirist in his _Discourse of Ecclesiastical Polity_, and an ecclesiastical historian, he is eminent. "But most of all is he commended to modern thinkers by his little tract containing reasons for the abolition of the Test Act."

=Timothy Hall= (1688-1690), another of James II.'s creatures, was also originally a Nonconformist, but afterwards, "getting nothing," says Willis, "for his loss of a small living in Middlesex, he complied." Being a very obscure and inconsiderable person, and on no account for learning, no one took any notice of him. At the Revolution he fled from Oxford, and died "miserably poor at Hackney near London, and was buried in the church there without any memorial."

=John Hough= (1690-1699), the President of Magdalen whom King James had ejected, was the next bishop. He retained the Presidency during his episcopate. In 1699 he was translated to Lichfield, thence in 1717 to Worcester, where he died in 1743. He was, says Macaulay, "a man of eminent virtue and prudence, who, having borne persecution with fortitude and prosperity with meekness, having risen to high honours, and having modestly declined honours higher still, died in extreme old age, yet in full vigour of mind," fifty-six years after the eventful struggle with James.

=William Talbot= (1669-1715), father of Lord Chancellor Talbot, was translated to Salisbury in 1715, and to Durham in 1721.

=John Potter= (1715-1737), son of a linen-draper in Wakefield, wrote a well-known book on the "Antiquities of Greece." He was "a learned and exemplary divine, but of a character by no means amiable, being strongly tinctured with a kind of haughtiness and severity of manners." He became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1737.

=Thomas Secker= (1737-1758) came of dissenting parents, but was persuaded by the great Bishop Butler to abandon the study of medicine and to take orders in the Church. He was an estimable and able person, and in 1758 became Archbishop of Canterbury. His portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds is at Lambeth.

=John Hume= (1758-1766), Bishop of Bristol 1756: translated to Salisbury 1766.

=Robert Lowth= (1766-1777) was the author of a variety of works, including a "Life of William of Wykeham," and a "Short Introduction to English Grammar." His controversy with Warburton, and the "Letters" to which it gave rise, are well known. Of his "Isaiah" Philip Skelton said that "Lowth on the Prophecies of Isaiah is the best book in the world, next to the Bible." He was moved to London 1777, and he refused the Archbishopric of Canterbury.

=John Butler= (1777-1788) was a popular preacher and political pamphleteer; in reward apparently for his efforts in the latter function, Lord North advanced him to see of Oxford, though he was not a university man. Translated to Hereford 1788.

=Edward Smallwell= (1788-1799), St. David's 1783. The first bishop since Dr. Fell to remain faithful to the diocese.

=John Randolph= (1799-1807), regius professor of Greek and a trustee of the British Museum, was the author of many sermons and charges. One of his last works was a report of the progress of the National School Society. Translated to Bangor 1807, and to London 1809.

=Charles Moss= (1807-1811) avoided translation, and died shortly in the palace at Cuddesden, and "leaving his splendid furniture for the use of his successors."

=William Jackson= (1812-1815) was a prominent Oxford man, being regius professor of Greek and curator of the Clarendon Press.

=Hon. Henry Legge= (1816-1827) was a son of the Earl of Dartmouth; he had been Dean of Windsor, and in 1817 became Warden of All Souls, retaining the bishopric.

=Charles Lloyd= (1827-1829). Had he not died at the early age of forty-five, Lloyd would have played a great part in the stirring times that were in store for the Church. He was, says Mr. Gladstone, "a man of powerful talents, and of character both winning and decided." He was Student and Tutor, then Regius Professor of Divinity and Canon of Christ Church, and had Sir R. Peel among his pupils and constant friends. Lloyd warmly supported the Roman Catholic Relief Bill in 1829. He was the first to publish the Prayer Book with red lettered rubrics.

=Hon. Richard Bagot= (1829-1845), translated to Bath and Wells. He graduated in 1803, and it is characteristic of his times that in 1804 he was fellow of All Souls, in 1806 rector of Leigh, and in 1807 canon of Windsor,--all within seven years of his matriculation at Christ Church. He was bishop at the time of the Oxford movement, and was reluctantly obliged to play a part in its history. He did not exactly please either side, but he behaved with great fairness and courtesy, as Newman bears witness in his _Apologia_. In 1845, being ruined in health by the worry of previous years, he was translated to Bath and Wells.

=Samuel Wilberforce= (1845-1870), translated to Winchester. This famous bishop was the third son of William Wilberforce, the great slave emancipator. At the early age of forty he was made bishop of Oxford, and he administered the diocese with wonderful ability for a quarter of a century, guiding it through the most difficult period, when the Tractarian storm was at its height, without offending either party. His extraordinary tact and charm enabled him to perform a valuable work for the Church by binding the various sections together at a time when party-feeling ran high. He was the most accomplished preacher in the English Church, one of the fore-most parliamentary orators of his day; "the most witty and genial of companions, he was the favourite of social life, and was equally irresistible in the drawing room or on the platform." As a theologian he was the inferior of his brother the Archdeacon; he wrote, however, several books, of which the best remembered are "Agathos" and "Rocky Island." He was killed by a fall from his horse when riding with Lord Granville in 1873.

=John Fielder Mackarness= (1870-1888) was recommended to the bishopric by Mr. Gladstone, having lost his seat in convocation through refusing to oppose the disestablishment of the Irish Church. He was a hard-working prelate of great courage and independence. When an attempt was made to force him to take proceedings against the rector of Clewer, he argued the case in person before the judges of the Queen's Bench, and at last won his case on appeal. On surrendering to the ecclesiastical commissioners the management of the Oxford bishopric estates, Dr. Mackarness paid them the sum of £1729, which he estimated that he had received in excess of his statutory income during the previous nine years. He had been made a fellow of Exeter College on taking his degree; he wrote several pamphlets, among them "A Plea for Toleration, in Answer to the 'No Popery' Cry, 1850." He resigned, owing to failing health, in 1888, and died in the next year.

=William Stubbs=, the present bishop, was translated from Chester in 1888, being already an Honorary Student of Christ Church. He is one of the leading historians of our time, and his Constitutional History has long been the standard work upon the subject.

* * * * *

Printed by Neill and Co., Ltd., Edinburgh.

FOOTNOTES

[Footnote 1: S. _Skeletons_; B. _Bones_; P. _Drain-pipe_.]

[Footnote 2: Mr. Park Harrison has collected some very interesting drawings from various Anglo-Saxon MSS., which afford striking parallels to the ornament on these and other capitals in the church. A reproduction of the drawing here referred to, and of others equally important, will be found in his "Pre-Norman Date."]

[Footnote 3: St. Frideswide: Two sermons preached in the Cathedral Church of Christ in Oxford, by H.G. Liddell, Dean of Christ Church, pp. 21-24.]

[Footnote 4: Mr. Rashdall's theory has, however, already been called in question by Mr. A.F. Leach, who (_National Review_, September 1896) asserts decisively that there were schools at Oxford even before Guimond's time, and that "Oxford is as much, there is every reason to believe, a natural growth from the schools and schoolmasters of St. Frideswide's as Paris from those of Notre Dame."]

[Footnote 5: Prior Robert published an abridgment of Pliny, addressed "to the studious, and especially to those in cloisters and schools." He also published another work on _Jacob's Marriage_, which he said he had written when he was himself a scholar and "a regent master."]

End of Project Gutenberg's The Cathedral Church of Oxford, by Percy Dearmer