The Founders were Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury, and King Henry VI. Chichele is the Archbishop who in Shakespeare's King Henry V. urges the king (quite in accordance with history) to vindicate his claims to the crown of France. Educated in all the prejudices of his age, he set his face against the followers of Wyckliffe; at the same time he protested against the encroachments of Rome, and was spoken of in Oxford as "the darling of the people, and the foster-parent of the clergy." He was deeply read in the law, and All Souls still bears the impress of his legal tastes.
The buildings are very extensive, and are grouped around three quadrangles. The first view (which gives also a glimpse of the Radcliffe and the Old Schools) shews the front of the North Quadrangle, as seen from St. Catherine Street, with the windows of the magnificent Codrington Library.
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But the Library is eclipsed, in general opinion, by the Chapel. "It is usually observed," says Chalmers, "that whatever visitor remembers anything of Oxford, remembers the beautiful Chapel of All Souls, and joins in its praises." It is characterised by dignity and simplicity, and its great reredos has a remarkable history. The Chapel was wrecked in Reformation days, and the remains of the reredos were covered with plaster in the reign of Charles II. In 1870 some workmen accidentally discovered, on removing some of the plaster, the ruins of the now forgotten reredos. It was then reconstructed, and the empty niches refilled with statues of Chichele, Henry VI., and the great ones of their time. The College also owns a fine sundial, the work of Sir Christopher Wren, who was one of its Fellows.
The four Bible-clerks, as is well known, are the only undergraduates. An All Souls' Fellowship is now what an Oriel Fellowship was in the early part of the nineteenth century, the blue ribbon of Oxford. Since its foundation in 1437 the following are a few of the eminent men who have been members of this Society:—Linacre, Sheldon, Jeremy Taylor, the poet Young, Blackstone, and Bishop Heber.