Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Winchester: A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal SeeSergeant, Philip Walsingham
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Winchester: A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See
Sergeant, Philip Walsingham
Winchester Cathedral
#William of Wykeham# (1367-1404), whose name has become so identified
with Winchester Cathedral and College, was probably a native of the
village of Wykeham, near Litchfield. Born in 1324, after education at
Winchester and Oxford he was in 1346 presented to the king, Edward III.,
at the age of twenty-three, "with no other advantages than his skill in
architecture" and "the courtly attribute of a courtly person." In the
course of the next twenty-one years he rose rapidly, filling various
offices until he became Bishop of Winchester and Lord High Chancellor of
England. His first recorded appointment is to the clerkship of all the
king's works near Windsor, and in the same year he was surveyor of the
new buildings there, including the round tower and the eastern ward of
the Castle and a College to the west for the Order of the Garter,
occupying the site of the ancient Domus Regis, close to the present S.
George's Chapel. On one of the towers the inscription _This made
Wykeham_ may or may not be meant to convey a double meaning, but it is
certainly true that his architectural successes furthered his fortunes.
In 1357 he received the tonsure, and in 1360 was made Dean of S.
Martin's Le Grand, Archdeacon of Lincoln, Northampton, and Buckingham,
and Provost of Wells. In 1361 he commenced Queenborough Castle on the
island of Sheppey; this important edifice, covering over three acres of
ground, was demolished about 1650. The castles of Winchester,
Porchester, Wolvesey, Ledes, and Dover, with many others, are believed
to have been either entirely rebuilt, or at least enlarged, by him. He
was only ordained priest five years before his elevation to Winchester.
In 1394 he undertook the great reformation of the cathedral which is
dealt with in another part of this book. New College (Sainte Mary of
Wynchestre), Oxford, opened by Wykeham on April 14, 1386, effected
almost as great a revolution in university education as his famous
college at Winchester did for the training of boys. As Dr Ingram has
pointed out, the very title of "New" College which has clung to it shows
how completely a new collegiate system was established by its
foundation, which served as a model for future endowments. His
well-known motto--chosen when his growing dignity made it necessary for
him to possess armorial bearings--"Manners Makyth Man" has generally
been taken to mean that virtue alone is true nobility; Lord Campbell,
however, would have us rather interpret "manners" as the studied
etiquette of courts and the polished courtesy which Lord Chesterfield
held so important a factor in success. Willis styles it "a somewhat
radical sentiment at the time." In his own day the secular arts Wykeham
practised did not meet with universal approval, for Wiclif alludes to
him when he observes, "They wullen not present a clerk able of God's
word and holy ensample, but a kitchen clerk, or a penny clerk, or one
wise in building castles and other worldly doings." But despite this
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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