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
The vacant Fellowships are to be filled up in a month’s time, and no
Fellowship to remain vacant in future longer than one month.
Fifteen years later another set of Injunctions was issued by the
same Bishop. The Fellows are again enjoined to be diligent in their
studies, giving themselves to philosophy for three years following
their admission, and then going on to divinity. The unseemly behaviour
of Mr. Edmund Crispyne calls for special reprimand; he is to give up
blasphemy and profane swearing; he is not to let his beard grow, or
to wear plaited shirts, or boots of a lay cut; he is to be respectful
and obedient to the Provost and Dean, on pain of excommunication and
deprivation of his Fellowship. Mention is made of St. Mary Hall as a
place of education under the control of the College, but distinct from
it. The door opening from the College into the Hall is to be walled
up, and no communication between the two to be allowed henceforth. The
College is to appoint a fit person to be Principal of the Hall, who is
to provide suitable lectures for the instruction of the students there.
The Reformation makes but little mark in the recorded history of the
College. No difficulty was met with by the King’s Commissioner, Dr.
Cox, when he came in 1534 to require the acknowledgment of the Royal
supremacy. Four years later came the orders for depriving Becket of the
honours of saintship, and for removing his name from all service-books.
The thoroughness with which these orders were carried out is remarkably
illustrated at Oriel, where even in so obscure a place as the Calendar
prefixed to the Register of College Muniments, the days marked for
the observance of St. Thomas have been carefully obliterated. There
was, however, one member of Oriel, Edward Powell, who distinguished
himself by his opposition to the King’s policy. He had been Fellow of
the College from about 1495 to 1505; afterwards he became Canon of
Salisbury, and also held other ecclesiastical preferments. On the
first appearance of Luther’s writings he was selected by the University
as one of the defenders of orthodoxy, and recommended as such to the
King. When, however, the question of the King’s divorce arose, Powell
was retained by Queen Katherine as her ablest advocate; and from that
time he was conspicuous by his resistance to the King. In 1540 he
was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Smithfield for denying the Royal
supremacy, and for refusing to take the oath of succession.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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