In connection with Bishop Smith’s benefaction, we may note here the singular fatality which has led the College in successive ages to quarrel with its benefactors. Writing in 1570, Subrector Robert Parkinson says, “Bishop Smith would have given to our College all that he afterwards gave to Brasenose (founded by him in 1509) had he agreed with the Rector and Fellows that then were.” With Smith’s change of plans, part of Darby’s benefaction went, for he also founded a Fellowship in Brasenose. Sir Nathaniel Lloyd was a chief benefactor in the early eighteenth century to All Souls in Oxford, and to Trinity Hall in Cambridge: in three successive drafts of his will he takes the trouble to write, “I gave £500 to Lincoln College, which was not applied as I directed: so no more from me!” Lord Crewe, our greatest benefactor of modern times, well deserving the title of “our third founder,” was almost provoked[166] to recalling his benefaction. A quarrel with John Radcliffe diverted from Lincoln College the munificence which doubled the buildings of University College and provided for the erection of the Radcliffe Library, the Infirmary, and the Observatory. Other instances, both remote and recent, might also be cited. Having now brought the history of the endowments of the College to that point where their application within its walls can be conveniently described, it is necessary to leave the annals of the College for a time and consider its organization, as it was arranged for by Rotheram’s statutes, modified slightly by subsequent benefactions. The College was to consist of (I) the Rector; (II) Fellows; (III) Chaplains; (IV) Commoners; (V) and Servants. (I) To the Rector was, of course, in general terms committed the government of the College and its members. But he was allowed large limits of absence from College; and he was to be capable of holding any ecclesiastical benefice in conjunction with his rectorship. In the founder’s intention, therefore, the headship of the College was to be an office of dignity, and the holder set free from the ordinary routine of college work. It was also to be a reward of past services to the College, because only a Fellow, or ex-Fellow, was eligible for the office. (II) The Fellows were to be thirteen in number, counting the Rector as holding a Fellowship; and consequently, when augmented by Darby, sixteen. Provision was made for the increase of their number if the revenues of the College could bear it; but this provision seems never to have been acted on. The corresponding provision for diminution of the number of Fellowships to eleven, to seven, to five, and even to three, was, however, from time to time had recourse to; and as a rule, the circumstances of the College have not permitted of the extreme number of Fellowships being filled up.[167]