The Colleges of Oxford: Their History and Traditions: XXI Chapters Contributed by Members of the Colleges
History
The Colleges of Oxford: Their History and Traditions: XXI Chapters Contributed by Members of the Colleges
University of Oxford -- History
Calendar_ for 1838 to be 102, in that for 1859 to be 122, in 1878
about 195, and in 1891 about 187.[85] That the College has been able
to count so many resident members is partly owing to the extension of
the College buildings, but much more to the modern Statute whereby all
members of the College are not necessarily required to live within the
College walls.
* * * * *
Notices of the domestic history of Balliol during the sixteenth,
seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries are surprisingly scanty. In the
following pages we have gathered together such particulars as we have
thought of sufficient interest to be recorded in a brief sketch like
the present. Early in the seventeenth century the life of the College
was varied by the presence of two Greek students, sent over by Cyril
Lucaris, the Patriarch of Constantinople, to whom England owes the
gift of the Codex Alexandrinus. One of these, Metrophanes Critopulos,
became Patriarch of Alexandria. The other, Nathaniel Conopios, we
are told “spake and wrote the genuine Greek (for which he was had
in great Veneration in his Country), others using the vulgar only,”
and was a proficient in music. He took the degree of B.D., and was
made Bishop of Smyrna. Evelyn remarks that he was the first he “ever
saw drink coffee, w^{ch} custom came not into England until 30 years
after.”[86] Our next note is of a different character. Soon after the
Scholars endowed by Tisdale[87] were established in Cesar’s lodgings,
a dispute arose between one of them, named Crabtree, and Ferryman
Moore, a freshman of three weeks’ standing. Crabtree called Moore an
“undergraduate” and pulled his hair; whereupon Moore drew his knife
and stabbed him so that he died. In the trial that followed Moore
pleaded benefit of clergy and was condemned to burning in the hand,
but at the petition of the Vice-Chancellor, Mayor, and other Justices,
received the Royal pardon on the 19th November, 1624,--the very year
in which the benefaction that had brought his victim to Balliol was
settled in its lasting home in Pembroke College.[88] A little later,
in 1631, we find one Thorne, a member of Balliol, preaching at St.
Mary’s against the King’s Declaration on Religion of 1628: he was
expelled the University by Royal order.[89] The famous John Evelyn,
who was admitted a Fellow Commoner of the College in May 1637, being
then in his seventeenth year, tells us that “the Fellow Com’uners in
Balliol were no more exempt from Exercise than the meanest scholars
there, and my Father sent me thither to one Mr. George Bradshaw,” who
was Master from 1648 to 1651. “I ever,” he adds, “thought my Tutor
had parts enough, but as his ambition made him much suspected of y^{e}
College, so his grudge to Dr. Lawrence, the governor of it (whom he
afterwards supplanted), tooke up so much of his tyme, that he seldom or
never had the opportunity to discharge his duty to his scholars. This
I perceiving, associated myself with one Mr.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account