Oxford (England) -- History; University of Oxford -- History
[Illustration: Wadham College, from the Gardens]
In 1262 the Penitentiarian Friars or Brothers of the Sack, so called
because they wore sackcloth, obtained from Henry III. a grant of land
which formed the parish of S. Budoc and lay to the west of the property
of the Franciscans. The Order was soon afterwards suppressed and the
Franciscans acquired their house and lands.
The brethren of the Holy Trinity also made a settlement in Oxford
(1291). Their house, afterwards known as Trinity Hall, was situated
outside the East Gate (opposite Magdalen Hall). They also acquired the
old Trinity Chapel adjoining and the surrounding land.
The Trinitarians had, besides, a chapel within the East Gate, which was
purchased by Wykeham to make room for New College.
The Crossed or Cruched Friars, after one or two moves, settled
themselves in the parish of S. Peter's in the East.
The older religious Orders were presently stimulated by the example and
the success of the friars to make some provision for the education of
their monks. But they never aimed at producing great scholars or learned
theologians. Historians of their Order and canonists who could transact
their legal business were the products which the monastic houses
desired.
A Chapter-General held at Abingdon in 1279 imposed a tax on the revenues
of all the Benedictine monasteries in the province of Canterbury with a
view to establishing a house at Oxford where students of their Order
might live and study together. John Giffard, Lord of Brimsfield, helped
them to achieve their object.
Gloucester Hall, adjoining the Palace of Beaumont, had been the private
house of Gilbert Clare, Earl of Gloucester, who built it in the year
1260. It passed to Sir John Giffard, who instituted it a "nursery and
mansion-place solely for the Benedictines of S. Peter's Abbey at
Gloucester." The buildings were afterwards enlarged to provide room for
student-monks from other Benedictine abbeys. Of the lodgings thus
erected by the various abbeys for their novices, indications may still
be traced in the old monastic buildings which form the picturesque south
side of the large quadrangle of Worcester College. For over the doorways
of these hostels the half-defaced arms of different monasteries, the
griffin of Malmesbury or the Cross of Norwich, still denote their
original purpose.
[Illustration: Gateway, Worcester Gardens]
At the dissolution, the college was for a short while made the residence
of the first bishop of Oxford. After his death it was purchased by Sir
Thomas White, and by him converted into a hall for the use of his
College of S. John. Gloucester Hall, now become S. John Baptist Hall,
after a chequered career, was refounded and endowed in 1714 as Worcester
College out of the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes. In the latter half
of the eighteenth century the hall, library and chapel were built and
the beautiful gardens of "Botany Bay" were acquired.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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