Oxford (England) -- History; University of Oxford -- History
They begged, after the approved manner of the great church-builders of
the Middle Ages, from the archbishop downwards, and their begging was so
successful that they built the nave, as we now have it, and the chancel.
In order to secure an appearance of uniformity, the architect
unfortunately altered Adam de Brome's chapel, encasing the outer walls
in the new style, and inserting larger windows. Not content with this,
he likewise converted the old House of Congregation by substituting a
row of large for two rows of small windows, giving thereby a false
impression from the outside, as if the upper and lower stories were one.
The University had no right to the use of S. Mary's. The church was
merely borrowed for sermons and meetings of Congregation, just as S.
Peter's in the East was borrowed for English sermons and S. Mildred's
for meetings of the Faculty of Arts. For the University in its infancy
had little or no property of its own. It could not afford to erect
buildings for its own use. The parish churches, therefore, were used by
favour of the clergy, and lectures were delivered in hired schools.
The need for some University building was, however, severely felt. At
last it was provided for in a small way. "That memorable fabric, the old
Congregation House," and the room above it were begun in 1320 by the
above-mentioned Adam de Brome, at the expense of Thomas Cobham, Bishop
of Worcester. The latter had undertaken to enlarge the old fabric of S.
Mary's Church by erecting a building two stories high immediately to the
east of the tower, on the very site, that is, on which the University
had previously endeavoured to found a chantry. He intended that the
lower room should serve primarily as a meeting-place for the
Congregations of regent-masters, and at other times for parochial
purposes. The upper room was to be used partly as an oratory, and partly
as a general library. But the good bishop's books, which were to form
the nucleus of this library, met with the same fate as Richard de
Bury's. His executors pawned them to defray the expenses of his funeral,
and to pay his debts. Oriel College at their suggestion redeemed the
books, and being also the impropriating rectors of the church, they
claimed to treat both building and library as their own property. But
the masters presently asserted their supposed rights by coming "with a
great multitude" and forcibly carrying away the books from Oriel, "in
autumn, when the fellows were mostly away." They lodged the books in the
upper chamber, and Oriel presently acknowledged the University's
proprietary rights.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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