A history of the University of Oxford

by George C. Brodrick

On Monday, February 13, 1660, news was brought to Oxford that a ‘free Parliament,’ or Convention, was about to be assembled, and was hailed with great rejoicings as a sure presage of the coming Restoration. On May 29 Charles II. entered London, and in June a new set of Visitors appeared at Oxford to undo the work of their predecessors under the Commonwealth. This Visitation was issued at the instance, if not by the direct authority, of the Marquis of Hertford, who succeeded Richard Cromwell on his resignation in May on the King’s return, and who himself, dying in the following October, was succeeded by Clarendon. Wood draws a graphic picture of the various emotions pourtrayed in the countenances of the defeated and victorious parties at Oxford, the one plucking their hats over their eyes and foreseeing speedy retribution, the others with cheerful looks, and reinstating ‘all tokens of monarchy that were lately defaced or obscured in the University.’ Happily, the personal constitution of the commission was by no means exclusive, since at least eight of its members had submitted to the last Visitation, and held offices during the ‘usurpation,’ as it was now to be called. Their instructions, too, were mainly directed to a restitution of expelled Royalists, of whom the number had greatly dwindled in the interval, many having died or ‘changed their religion,’ while others, being married, were no longer eligible for college fellowships. It is said that not above one-sixth remained to be restored, but among these were several persons of considerable note. Sheldon had already regained the wardenship of All Souls’; Walker recovered the mastership of University; Oliver again became President of Magdalen; Yate, Principal of Brasenose; Newlin, President of Corpus; Potter, President of Trinity; Baylis, President of St. John’s; Mansell, Principal of Jesus; and Wightwick, Master of Pembroke. Reynolds was appointed in quick succession Dean of Christchurch and Warden of Merton, whence he was promoted to the see of Norwich in the following year. A large proportion of the fellows elected during the previous Visitation were allowed to keep their places, for which there were no rival claimants; others, though statutably elected, were turned out, but in some cases they were consoled with chaplaincies or other subordinate posts. Two or three months sufficed to complete these personal changes, but a royal letter re-established all the statutes and regulations in force before the ‘usurpation,’ including the oaths introduced under James I., and this letter, coupled with the Act of Uniformity passed in 1662, must have rendered the positions of many Puritans at Oxford practically untenable. By a clause in that Act, it was for the first time required that every person elected to a college fellowship should make a declaration of conformity to the liturgy of the Church of England in the presence of the vice-chancellor. Such a provision had a sensible effect in making Oxford once more a seminary of the clergy and country gentry, but there was no violent break in the continuity of its corporate life. For some little time after the Restoration, the University was in an unsettled state, and the students, released from the bondage of Puritan discipline, betrayed some pardonable excitement; but good order revived under a succession of prudent vice-chancellors, and Oxford, so long the battle-ground of rival parties in the State, enjoyed comparative repose under Charles II.

Extension of University buildings. Sheldonian Theatre

Several improvements in the external features of the city and University may be dated from this reign. Not the least was the erection of the famous Sheldonian Theatre for the performance of the annual Acts, now known as ‘Commemorations,’ and other academical solemnities. This building was founded by Gilbert Sheldon, who, having resumed the wardenship of All Souls’ in 1660, and become Archbishop of Canterbury in 1663, was elected Chancellor in succession to Clarendon in 1667. In common with many Anglicans of the Laudian school, Sheldon had long objected to the profanation of St. Mary’s Church involved in the use of it as a kind of academical town-hall for scholastic exercises and secular displays. Perhaps the contempt of the Puritans for sacred edifices had quickened the zeal of Royalists for their dedication to strictly religious purposes; at all events, the archbishop offered 1,000l. towards the construction of a suitable theatre, and, meeting with little support from others, ultimately took upon himself the whole cost, amounting to 25,000l. The mode in which the site was procured illustrates the change which was already passing over mediæval Oxford, now in process of conversion from a fortified into an open town. Though a great part of the walls was preserved, and the city gates survived for another century, the ditch was being filled up and new streets constructed along the course of it. Several houses adjoining the old ramparts were purchased on the north side of the Divinity School; Christopher Wren was engaged as the architect, and Streeter as the painter of the pictures which adorn the ceiling; and the building, having been commenced in 1664, was completed in 1669—the year in which the Divinity School was restored according to Wren’s designs. John Evelyn received a degree at the first academical festival held in it, and was as much impressed by the grandeur of the spectacle and the learning of the discourses as he was shocked by the vulgar ribaldry of the Terræ Filius. It is worthy of notice that in the address delivered on this occasion by Dr. South, as Public Orator, were ‘some malicious and indecent reflections on the Royal Society, as underminers of the University.’ That society, in fact, passed through much of its infancy, if it did not take its birth, at Oxford. Among its earliest and most influential members were Dr. Wilkins, the Warden of Wadham, Dr. Goddard, the Warden of Merton, and Dr. Wallis, a Cambridge man, who afterwards became Savilian professor of geometry in Oxford. These and others were in the habit of meeting for scientific discussions at Goddard’s lodgings, or Gresham College, in London, before the end of the Civil War, but about 1649 all three of them were settled in Oxford, where they found congenial associates in such men as William Petty, Robert Boyle, and Wren, and resumed their meetings in Petty’s or Wilkins’ lodgings, while the rest continued to meet in London.

Growth of æsthetic tastes and social refinement

Other facts attest the variety of intellectual life and interests at Oxford during the same period. Evelyn speaks of an organ as placed in the upper gallery of the theatre, and of ‘excellent music, both vocal and instrumental,’ as part of the programme at the opening of the Sheldonian Theatre. The earliest order for the apportionment of seats assigns that very gallery ‘for the performance of music,’ while it allots places to ladies, strangers, and ‘Cambridge scholars.’ Thenceforth music played a considerable part among academical recreations, and a taste for the belles-lettres and the fine arts was rapidly developed. In 1677, the Arundel marbles were presented to the University by the Earl of Arundel, mainly owing to the assiduous exertions of John Evelyn; on May 24, 1683, the Ashmolean Museum was opened, and in the next month Convocation accepted Elias Ashmole’s gift of all his ‘rarities,’ consisting of valuable collections in natural history and antiquities. A certain air of literary dilettantism was characteristic of the same age at the University as well as in the metropolis. Under a statute passed in 1662, bachelors of Arts were required, before inception, to recite from memory two Latin declamations of their own composition, and from this period may be dated the gradual triumph of Literæ Humaniores over scholastic disputations in the examination-system of Oxford. Versification in Latin now became a favourite pastime of Oxford scholars, and many poems of doubtful Latinity on the politics or philosophy of the day were composed there during the latter half of the seventeenth century. In the meanwhile, modern notions of comfort were beginning to modify the old austerity of college life. The earliest of Oxford common-rooms was instituted at Merton College in 1661, and sixteen years later Anthony Wood mentions ‘common chambers’ together with alehouses (of which there were said to be above 370), and the newly established ‘coffea-houses,’ as contributing to the decay of ‘solid and serious learning.’ College gardens, too, received far more attention than before, and we may still trace on Loggan’s maps and plans the geometrical designs upon which these little plots were ingeniously laid out by the Caroline landscape-gardeners, though Magdalen ‘water walks’ retained their native wildness.

First visit of Charles II.

Charles II. twice visited Oxford, where his presence and example could scarcely have been conducive to virtue or decorum among the students. His reign is marked by frequent interference with the freedom of college elections, in the form of attempts to use fellowships as rewards for his favourites or the relations of old cavaliers, though in more than one instance he gracefully retracted his mandate. When he arrived at Oxford from Salisbury, in September 1665, the plague was at its height in London. There he remained until the following February, lodging, as usual, at Christchurch, while the Queen was accommodated at Merton, residing in the very rooms in which her mother-in-law, Henrietta Maria, held her Court during the Civil War. Miss Stuart, afterwards Duchess of Richmond, occupied a fellow’s rooms in the same college, and another set was assigned to Barbara Villiers, Lady Castlemaine, and afterwards Duchess of Cleveland. In these rooms, on December 28, 1665, was born her son, George Villiers, afterwards Earl of Northumberland and Duke of Grafton. It is stated in the college register that bachelor fellows and scholars were turned out of their chambers to make room for the Court, and that as there were more ladies than students in the chapel, ‘ordinary prayers’ were used in the service.

Second visit of Charles II. Parliament assembled and dissolved at Oxford

Sixteen years had elapsed before Charles II. again visited Oxford, in the spring of 1681, to open the last Parliament ever held in the city, supposing that Whig members would there be subjected to loyalist influences, and more amenable to his own dictation. The supposed discovery of the ‘Popish Plot’ in 1678 had provoked a fresh outburst of Protestant enthusiasm and bigotry. An Act had been passed disabling all Papists, except the Duke of York, from sitting in either House of Parliament, and was quickly followed by a Bill to exclude the Duke of York from the succession. To arrest the progress of this Bill, two Parliaments had been dissolved by the King, and that summoned to meet at Oxford lasted but a week. The King journeyed thither surrounded by his guards of horse and foot, while the Exclusionist leaders were escorted by hosts of friends and armed retainers. On this occasion, the schools of geometry, astronomy, and Greek were fitted up for the House of Lords, the Convocation House being adapted to receive the Commons. The Commons again brought in the Exclusion Bill. The King met it with a strange proposal that, after his own death, the government should be carried on in James’s name by the Prince of Orange as Regent. The Commons persisted with the Bill, whereupon the Parliament was suddenly dissolved by the King, who had quietly put the crown and robes of state into a sedan chair, got into it himself, and surprised both Houses by his sudden appearance to close the session. During this short crisis, anti-Papist sentiments found expression among the gownsmen, but we may safely assume that a majority of graduates were secretly in favour of the King against the Exclusionists. Anthony Wood, remarking on the decline of students in 1682, attributes it to three causes. The first is the constant expectation of another Parliament to be held at Oxford, and the fear of being turned out to make room for members. The second is that ‘all those that we call Whigs’ (a name just invented) ‘and side with the Parliament, will not send their sons for fear of their being Tories.’ The last is that the University, like the Episcopal bench, labours under the suspicion of a leaning towards Popery.

Doctrine of passive resistance adopted by the University. Expulsion of Locke