The only portion of the original plan executed was the chapel. The importance of King’s College chapel is not only architectural; is due not only to the fact that it was begun before the Italian classical revival as a monument of English Gothic, and completed in the full blaze of the renascence, but that it marks a chapter in the history of English religion. The church built for the old worship was consecrated for the new; the first stone was laid by Henry VI. in the presence of great catholic prelates, the oaken screen--perhaps the finest woodwork in the country--bears the monogram of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn[181] twined with true lovers’ knots. In the third place “this immense and [Illustration: KING’S COLLEGE CHAPEL AND THE FELLOWS’ BUILDINGS The South door of the Chapel is seen to the right in the picture, and the Fellows’ Buildings, constructed in 1723, are on the left. The Fountain with a statue of the founder, Henry the Sixth, was designed by H. A. Armstead, R. A.] glorious work of fine intelligence,” as Wordsworth calls it, remains one of the very finest monuments of Perpendicular architecture; and that beautiful English feature the fan-vaulting, which is to be seen in the Tudor chapel at the Guildhall, in Henry VII.’s chapel at Westminster, and at S. David’s (now ruinous), is here carried out over a larger area than anywhere else.[182] That branching roof Self-poised, and scooped into ten thousand cells Where light and shade repose, where music dwells Lingering, and wandering on as loth to die-- Like thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof That they were born for immortality. So writes Wordsworth; and the stained glass windows, the most ‘complete and magnificent series’ in the country says Carter, probably inspired Milton’s --storied windows richly dight, Casting a dim religious light. There let the pealing organ blow, To the full voic’d quire below, In service high, and anthems clear, As may with sweetness through mine ear, Dissolve me into ecstasies, And bring all Heav’n before mine eyes. On the death of the Lancastrian monarch, Edward IV. sequestrated the building funds, but returned a thousand pounds later, and Richard III. contributed £700; but it is Henry VII. who brought the work to completion. King’s is the only college in the university which receives only those students who intend to read for honours, and until 1857 its members could claim the _B.A._ degree without presenting themselves for examination.[183] The college was, almost immediately upon its foundation, exempted not only from archiepiscopal and episcopal control but also from the general jurisdiction [Illustration: KING’S COLLEGE CHAPEL INTERIOR FROM THE CHOIR]