S.T.P. her first reader, who was succeeded therein by Dr Cosin master of Benet', as he was by William Burgoign afterwards master of Peterhouse, and he by Erasmus about the year 1512. She likewise gave rules and statutes for the choice of her reader and for the 5 discharge and performance of the duties of his place, and endowed her lecture with twenty marks per annum payable by the abbot and convent of Westminster, which house she had endowed with revenues to the value of £87 per annum.

The same day and year2 she instituted the like reader at Offord with allowance of the same salary and almost under the same rules with that of Cambridge, and nominated and appointed one John Roper S.T.P. to be her first reader there.

10

15

In the 20th year of the same reign3, October 30th, she founded a perpetual public preacher at Cambridge, with stipend of £10 per annum payable by the abbot and convent of Westminster, whose duty was to preach at least six sermons every year at several churches (specified in the 20 foundation) in the dioceses of London, Ely and Lincoln; and one John Fawn S.T.B. is appointed her first preacher by the original foundation.

This is that John Fawn, who has been styled president of the university, a title that has been wondered at, 25 but not explained. The meaning I suppose was this, John Fawn was vice-chancellor an. 15145 (for Fuller and the tables he follows are mistaken); the same year bishop Fisher resigned the chancellorship, and at the bishop's desire and with his advice Wolsey bishop of 3 Lincoln was chosen chancellor: during the vacancy and till Wolsey should accept, Fawn did rather preside, than properly could be styled vice-chancellor of the university, and therefore in their letters to Wolsey, as a greater compliment to that great man, Fawn styles himself only presi- 35 dent of the university, till the chancellor elect should give

1 Regrum acad.

2 Ex charta fundationis.

3 Ex charta fundat.

4 V. Statuta vetera acad. Tit. de

6

electione cancellarii, etc. de præsi

dente vel vicecanc.

5 Regrum acad. an. 1514.

6 Liber oratoris publici.

30

him leave to be his deputy. But these compliments were lost, for Wolsey, notwithstanding the great and almost mean application that was made to him, refused to accept, by a letter, which under some show of humility sufficiently 5 discovers a secret latent pride, though he had not yet arrived near the height of his greatness: and so the university the same year, with indignation as well as gratitude, chose bishop Fisher' their perpetual chancellor, or for term of his life, and Dr Fawn might resume his title of 10 vice-chancellor, if he continued so long, for he did not continue out the whole year, having been in office some part of the last.

This foundation of a public preacher was peculiar to Cambridge, for though Mr Wood' seems to suspect she 15 had done somewhat of the same kind at Oxford, yet there could be no ground for that suspicion: for neither in her will (where she enumerates all her charities) does she say anything of such a preacher, nor in the original foundations, which were all lodged by bishop Fisher amongst 20 the archives of St John's college together with the king's several licences for the several foundations, is there any mention of a preacher at Oxford.

It is probable she might have had such intentions, but was prevented by a greater design, undertaken about this 25 time, in the foundation of Christ's college by the advice and persuasion of bishop Fisher, who after the foundress by her statutes was appointed visitor for his life. This foundation has been placed in the year 1505. The statutes were not given, nor the foundation perfected, till the year 30 following. The original obligation of John Syclyng (last master of God's house and first master of Christ's college) is yet extant under his hand and seal, for the observing of the foundress' statutes, by not procuring or causing to be procured, or not using being procured, any dis35 pensation from the apostolic see, or (as much as in him was) not suffering his fellows to make use of them, bearing date Septembr. 5 an. 22 Hen. 7mi, from which day and year, I suppose, and not sooner, the government 2 Antiq. Oxon. Lib. II. p. 33.

1 Liber oratoris publici.

3 Inter archiva coll. Joh.

and statutes of that college took place and begun to be in force.

And because the bishops of Ely had yet kept up some claim or show of power, there was a grant' obtained from James bishop of Ely, whereby he gives leave to the 5 master, fellows and scholars, to celebrate divine offices, etc. in their college chapel which had been already consecrated, and to change the parish feast from St Andrew's day to the day of the feast of the resurrection of our Lord: and by another grant of the same date, at the instance of the 10 foundress, he exempts the college from episcopal and ordinary visitation, for himself and successors for ever.

The endowments of this college need not be related, being all specified in the foundress' will, and though it appears from thence that she herself was very liberal, 15 having bestowed good lands and manors of her own, yet the abbey of Creyke which was given her by Henry the Seventh, and God's house which was the foundation of Henry the Sixth, did go a good way and pretty deep in this foundation: and therefore the master and three fellows 20 of the old foundation (for there were no more) John Scot, Edward Fowke, and Thomas Nunne were continued members of the new college; and Henry the Sixth is, I suppose, yet commemorated as a founder or benefactor in that society; as William Bingham, first founder of God's house, 25 near the place where King's college old buildings now stand, either is or ought to be.

Having done thus much for the schools of learning, she had some reason to think she had done enough, and therefore her other charities were intended at the religious 30 house at Westminster, where her son had projected a sumptuous chapel for his own interment, and where she herself intended to lie. This according to the humour of the age was intended for the health and good of her soul, by having masses and dirges said there for its rest and 35 happiness. But having communicated her design to bishop Fisher the great director of her charity, he suggested to her (what indeed had been suggested by him before the Regrum Stanley, an. 1506.

1 Dat. Decemb. 12 an. 1506.

3 Ex regro coll. Lib. rub.

foundation of Christ's college) that the religious house at Westminster was already wealthy enough (as it was the richest in England) and did not want support or maintenance; that the schools of learning were meanly endow5 ed, that the provisions for scholars were very few and small, and that colleges' were yet wanting towards their maintenance; that by such foundations she might have two ends and designs at once, that she might thereby double her charity and double her reward, by affording 10 as well supports to learning as encouragements to virtue.

The good lady, who had all reverence for her confessor and was all obedience to her guide, was easily prevailed with to alter her purpose, but being under some ties and engagements to her son in their common designs at West15 minster, nothing could be done without his consent, which she was nice in asking. The same person that gave the advice, undertook this nice and invidious employment, and being armed with the princess' letters, he applied to the king with so much prudence and dexterity, that he ob20 tained his consent for altering her design.

The king's letter is yet extant to that purpose, and it is a very tender and affectionate letter, dated Greenwich July 17th; the year is not mentioned, but it must have been towards the conclusion of his reign, for he was then 25 declining and his sight so much appayr'd, or he so unfit for such business, that he protests on his faith, he had been three days, or he could make an end of his letter; and yet it is not over long. This as it gave occasion to Christ's college, so it was the first step towards the foundation of 30 St John's.

I have already said, she had been solicited by some men of character of the other university to place her remaining charities upon Oxford; who these men were does not appear, further than they were of her family or in her 35 service, and therefore, though they be not named, I will suppose Dr Wilford to have been one, who having been her last confessor, might be ambitious to do as much for his own body, as bishop Fisher had done at Cambridge.

This is certain, they had gone so far with their constant importunity and unwearied persuasions that she had been determined to that place, had not the same good bishop who influenced her counsels most intervened, and by more powerful arguments, and particularly by pointing out the 5 melancholy state of the old house, had turned her thoughts back upon Cambridge'.

Surely the brethren of this house must have been under some fatal blindness or given up by providence to infatuation for their sins, otherwise they could not have rushed 10 thus blindly upon their own ruin. Could they have seen, they had the fate of a religious house brought home to their own doors in the nuns of St Radegund, who for the like crimes that they were now guilty of were suppressed and dissolved, and a college erected upon their fall. 15 This was yet of recent memory and an instance almost glaring before their eyes; these loose votaries or their children might be yet living, and could have told them what had befallen that house for their dissolute living; to be guilty of such loosneess after so late a caution was 20 to provoke or defy their own ruin, and was certainly the utmost height of infatuation.

And yet so it was; great excesses were charged upon them, whereof they were too guilty, and though I cannot doubt but their guilt was aggravated, yet they were cer- 25 tainly very dissolute in their lives and prodigal in their expenses, not in charity or hospitality which they were obliged to by their rule and order, but in excess and riot and in gratifying their own sinful lusts. When these expenses could not be maintained by their ordinary reve- 30 nues and annual income, the moveables of their house were sold or pawned, nor were their sacred vessels spared, or indeed longer sacred, but were sold and prostituted with their other furniture: and when these would not satisfy (as nothing is enough for lust and riot), their lands and 35 settled estates were at last alienated or engaged for large sums of money, as the college account says, for more than all their lands being sold were really worth, which

1 Liber rub.

2 Charta fundat. Liber rub. 3 Ex regro coll. Lib. rub.