Sir Christopher Wren: His Family and His Times: With Original Letters and a Discourse on Architecture Hitherto Unpublished. 1585-1723.Phillimore, Lucy
History
Sir Christopher Wren: His Family and His Times: With Original Letters and a Discourse on Architecture Hitherto Unpublished. 1585-1723.
Phillimore, Lucy
Great Britain -- History -- Stuarts, 1603-1714 -- Biography; Wren family; Wren, Christopher, Sir, 1632-1723
With the great men Latin was probably the common tongue, but with the
artizans he must have talked in French, and have either possessed or
acquired no small mastery of the language and of the technical terms of
their various trades. The 'observations' were either never hammered into
the shape Wren wished, or else were subsequently lost or copied by
someone else, as frequently happened to one so careless of his own fame
as was Wren. In January 1666, the English Ambassador was recalled from
Paris, and the war began between England, and the Netherlands with
France for their ally.
[_A THANKOFFERING._]
Pembroke Chapel was meanwhile completed, and
'being beautified with splendid and decorous furniture and amply
endowed with an annual revenue, was upon the feast of S. Matthew'
(the Bishop's patron saint) '1665, solemnly consecrated and
dedicated by Bishop Wren in person and by his Episcopal authority
to the honour of Almighty God. A noble and lasting monument of the
rare piety and munificence of that great and wise Prelate and in
every point accorded to his character, which was so well known that
the sole nomination of the founder was a sufficient account of the
magnificence of the foundation. Before evening service the
exterior or outer chapel and the cloister leading to it (a new
fabrick of Sir R. Hitcham's foundation) were by his Lordship also
consecrated for places of sepulture for the use of the Society,
together with a cell or vault at the East end of the chapel under
the altar for a dormitory for his Lordship.'[105]
Bishop Wren must have looked with joy on the completion of his
thankoffering, and may have guessed, as he surveyed its beautiful
proportions, that he had set his nephew, its young architect, on the
road to fame. Very little is told us of the latter years of Wren's
Episcopate; one or two stories are given in the 'Parentalia' and then
contradicted, but it seems he kept his old firmness. In 1662 he held the
second Visitation of his Diocese and the articles of inquiry and
directions show no change in his opinions and no deference to Puritan
notions. It was by a stretch of his power as Visitor that he admitted
Dr. Beaumont to be master of Peterhouse, though the college had
nominated two other deserving persons, of whom Cosin was one. The choice
proved, in the end, a very wise one. He could be lenient also when he
thought it right, and admitted several Fellows of Jesus College who came
to him, in some fear of a refusal, for institution. He 'was very fair
and civil towards them, despatched them without the usual height of the
fees and persuaded them to studiousness and peace against all
animosities.' So says a contemporary letter quoted in the 'Parentalia.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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