not appear to have stopped there long, aud completed his studies at Paris, where, it is supposed, he obtained his doctor's degree.

At Paris Fox became acquainted with Morton, Bishop of Ely, by whom he was recommended to the notice of the Earl of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII. He performed many services for Henry during his struggle for the throne, and was promoted to the see of Exeter two years after the battle of Bosworth Field. The Bishop was subsequently employed in many places of dignified civil trust; and, as a recompense for his able conduct and firm integrity, was promoted to the see of Winchester, and appointed keeper of the privy seal. The University of Cambridge likewise elected him their chancellor, which office he filled for two years. During the whole reign of Heury VII. the Bishop maintained an uninterrupted influence at court; and so free was his character from the cold and unsocial bigotry too frequent among the high-seated churchmen of his era, that he often condescended to take a share in festive ceremonies, and is said to have entirely contrived the pageantry prepared in honour of the nuptials of Prince Arthur and Catharine of Spain.

Shortly after Henry VIII. mounted the throne the power of Wolsey eclipsed the pretensions of every competitor, and Fox retired from political life. The man who preserves court-favour through one whole reign, has little right to charge fortune with instability. It is probable that the Bishop quitted state-business with contented dignity; for he was mature in honour, and oppressed with many infirmities, but it was impossible for him to avoid mortification when he reflected that he had himself laboured to introduce to the notice of the king the man whose rising star compelled him to seek the shade.

It was now that Fox entered with extensive zeal on those pursuits which have entitled him to the gratitude of posterity. He employed vast sums in building additions to the cathedral at Winchester, and enlarged his designs concerning a donation to Oxford. So early as the year 1513, he had purchased lands, with the intention of erecting a college for a certain number of mouks

monks and secular scholars. He had even begun the buildings, when Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter, persuaded him to extend his plan, and to construct an edifice of a more generally useful character. Accordingly, in 1516, he obtained a licence from Henry VIII. to found a college for students in divinity, philosophy, and arts.

The whole intended building was completed during his life; and the statutes were formed in 1527, by which the society was made to consist of a president, twenty fellows, twenty scholars, two chaplains, two clerks, and two choristers. The foundation of Bishop Fox took place at a momentous era in the annals of literature. The revivers of elegant letters were now endeavouring to introduce a knowledge of the classics as a necessary part of schoollearning. The founder of Corpus Christi was one of the most potent friends of this enlightened undertaking. He appointed two lectures for Greek and Latin, and invited the most accomplished scholars to the shelter of his new establishment. Thus did the munificence of Fox bestow an immediate, as well as durable, benefit on those pursuits which have added dignity to public manners, and have produced grand reformation in the national church. Bishop Fox died, blind and aged, but with all the serenity which springs from an uninjured conscience, in 1528, and was buried in a chantry built by himself in Winchester cathedral.

The benefactors to this college are not very numerous, and consist chiefly of members of the society, with the principal, exception of Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter, who contributed six thousand marks, besides land.

Corpus Christi College (dedicated, in the original charter, to the praise and honour of God Almighty, the most holy Body of Christ, the blessed Virgin Mary, and various saints,) stands to the east of Christ Church, and to the west of Merton. The whole design of the founder consisted of one spacious quadrangle, with its attendant chapel, hall, and library; but various buildings have been added since for the accommodation of the increasing VOL. XII.

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number of students. The front is solid and handsome, having a battlement along the top, and a lofty square tower in the centre, ornamented with three empty canopied niches. There is much simplicity and beauty in the whole appearance of the quadrangle. The hall stands on the east, and the library on the southern side. In this latter division is placed a whole length statue of the founder, decorated with the emblems of pontifical dignity. A battlement, which gradually rises to an apex on the more remote side, forms a judicious finish to the top, and a rich canopied niche is placed on this face of the building. The size of the quadrangle is 101 feet by 80; and the centre is ornamented by a curious cylindrical dial, constructed in 1605, by Charles Turnbull, a fellow of Corpus Christi.

*

Adjoining to the grounds in which Christ Church walks are formed is a large building, erected at the beginning of the eighteenth century, by Dr. Turner, for the reception of students. This building is noble, decorous, and chaste, but contains no allusion to the architectural character of the original and more important parts of the edifice. In the centre is a pediment, supported by four Ionic pilasters; the windows, and other divisions, are entirely ornamented. Dr. Turner also formed a cloister in the adjacency of his new building, which is now used as a burialplace; but this liberal benefactor was himself interred in the College chapel.+

On the eastern side of the college, bordering on Merton Grove, apartments were built in the year 1737, for six gentlemen commoners, the utmost number allowed by the statutes.

The Library which Bishop Fox formed and endowed, with the

noble

This battlement formed no part of the founder's plan, and was not constructed till the reign of James I.

Dr. Turner was president from 1688 to 1714; and is said by Whiston to have prevented an injury to his fortune by evading the oath of abjuration. 'He was a man of most beneficent mind, and left the bulk of his large property to public and charitable uses. In addition to other favors, he bestowed the sum of 60001. on this College.

noble view of exalting the literary pursuits of his country, and in which Erasmus passed so many hours of tasteful study, remains nearly in its ancient state. It is commodious, but plain. No doubt but the correct judgment of the bishop and his advisers readily taught them that the best ornaments of a library are its books. Among these are a set of the Aldine Classics, collected by the founder; and the manuscripts of Bryan Twyne and Fulman, writers on the Antiquities of Oxford. There are two ancient portraits of the founder in this library; and his arms are inserted in the screen over the doorway.

The interior of the Hall has undergone considerable alterations, with the exception of its Gothic roof. It is in size fifty feet by twenty-five feet, and is now lined with wainscotting.

The chapel is divided into two compartments, the inner of which, seventy feet in length, and twenty-five in breadth, has a floor of black and white marble, with ornamented stalls, and a screen carved in cedar wood. The roof is of wainscot, with interspersed gilding. Little of this can be expected to remain as left by the founder, for the pious visitors appointed by Edward VI. committed indiscriminate havoc on the interior of collegiate places of worship. The chief present embellishments of the chapel were arranged in 1676, the expense of which was defrayed by the members of the society. The altar-piece has, however, been very lately presented by Sir Richard Worsley, and once formed a part of the collection of the Prince of Condé at Chantilly. The subject is the Adoration, painted by Rubens, and it is certainly one of the best productions of that delightful master.

A gallery has recently been constructed between the president's lodgings and the chapel, in which is placed an interesting picture of the founder, when he was aged and blind, by Corvus, a Fleming. In the same gallery, also, are portraits of the seven bishops who were sent to the Tower by command of James II. Among several curiosities preserved in the college is the crosier of the founder,

Twelve prelates, and many other men of much distinction, have.

profited by the foundation of Corpus Christi. The following appear to deserve particular remark :-Jewell, Bishop of Salisbury, one of the most amiable controversial writers of a tempestuous era. Dr. Richard Pococke, Bishop of Meath, the Oriental traveller. Dr. John Rainolds, an excellent scholar, and contemporary at college with Jewell, Dr. Turner, the liberal benefactor before noticed. Basil Kennet (fourteenth president of Corpus) the valuable writer on the Antiquities of Rome. Richard Edwards, an early dramatic writer, whose piece called Palomon and Arcite afforded so much pleasure to Queen Elizabeth, when it was performed in Christ Church Hall, Oxford *. Brian Twyne. Hales. Dr. Fiddes, the learned biographer of Wolsey. Anstis, the herald. Sir Ashton Lever, and Thomas Day, Esq. an amiable man and a useful writer.

No alteration has been made in the number of fellows and scholars appointed by the founder.

CHRIST (or CHRIST'S) CHURCH.

The magnificence of Cardinal Wolsey's spirit was evinced in every walk of expenditure. The splendour of his domestic establishments, and the dignified pageantry with which he uniformly appeared in public, raised the envy of his contemporaries; but the princely liberality with which he encouraged the arts, and inculcated a love of letters, at a period when learning was strug gling against disrepute, and would, perhaps, have sunk into a second

The performance of this comedy was interrupted by a serious accident; a" scaffolding" fell down, and three men were killed on the spot. The queen is said to have been much affected by this event; but her sorrow was easily alleviated, for the power of the comic poet was so great, that it soon "made her laugh, whether she would or no." Two evenings were employed in the representation of the drama, and the queen was "filled with such won derful pleasure, that she called to her the author, and promised what she would do for him, and talked to him in the most familiar way."-Peshall apud Wood