In 1447, the See of Winchester became vacant by the death of Cardinal Beaufort, and the King at once recommended William Waynflete for election. He was elected within a few days, and was consecrated at Eton on the 13th July of the same year. Immediately after his elevation to the Episcopate, he seems to have set himself to promote the interests of learning, and to provide for a need which his experience as a schoolmaster had impressed upon his mind, by a foundation in the University of Oxford. Early in 1448, before his enthronement at Winchester, he obtained from the King a license to found a Hall for a President and fifty scholars, to be called St. Mary Magdalen Hall.[197] At the same time he obtained, for a term of years, a site and buildings which occupied the ground now covered by the new Examination Schools, and in two or more of the halls included in this property he placed his new society, of which he chose John Hornley to be the first President. In 1456 Waynflete became Chancellor, and on his elevation to that position he at once conceived the idea of improving his foundation at Oxford, by converting it from a Hall into a College, and by providing it with a better habitation and more ample endowments. For this purpose, having obtained the necessary permission from the King, he acquired for the Hall the buildings, site, and property belonging to the ancient Hospital of St. John Baptist. The property of the Hospital included the tenements which the members of the Hall had until this time inhabited. The Hospital itself was a non-academical institution, having for its purpose the care of pilgrims and the relief of the poor.[198] It had been in existence before the reign of John, from whom, while he was still known as Count of Mortain, its Master and Brethren had received benefactions; and it had been endowed, and perhaps refounded, by Henry III. The existing Master and Brethren retired upon pensions, the poor inmates of the Hospital were duly provided for, and the Hospital was united to the College, which Waynflete founded by a charter of June 12th, 1458. The members of the Hall, with the exception of Hornley, who retired to make way for William Tybarde, the first President of the College, were transferred to the new foundation, and the Hall ceased to exist.