The charming account of Corpus, its studies, and its youthful society, contributed by Mr. Justice Coleridge to Stanley’s Life of Arnold, is so well known that it hardly requires more than a passing reference; but, to complete my series of glimpses of the College at different periods of its history, it may be well to revive the recollections of the reader by a few brief extracts. “Arnold and I, as you know” (and, as we may add, the two Kebles, John and Thomas), “were undergraduates of Corpus Christi, a College very small in its numbers and humble in its buildings, but to which we and our fellow-students formed an attachment never weakened in the after course of our lives. … We were then a small society, the members rather under the usual age, and with more than the ordinary proportion of ability and scholarship: our mode of tuition was in harmony with these circumstances; not by private lectures, but in classes of such a size as excited emulation and made us careful in the exact and neat rendering of the original, yet not so numerous as to prevent individual attention on the tutor’s part, and familiar knowledge of each pupil’s turn and talents. … We were not entirely set free from the leading-strings of the school; accuracy was cared for; we were accustomed to vivâ voce rendering and vivâ voce question and answer in our lecture-room, before an audience of fellow-students whom we sufficiently respected. At the same time the additional reading, trusted to ourselves alone, prepared us for accurate private study and for our final exhibition in the schools. One result of all these circumstances was that we lived on the most familiar terms with each other; we might be—indeed we were—somewhat boyish in manner and in the liberties we took with each other: but our interest in literature—ancient and modern—and in all the stirring matters of that stirring time, was not boyish; we debated the classic and romantic question; we discussed poetry and history, logic and philosophy; or we fought over the Peninsular battles and Continental campaigns with the energy of disputants personally concerned in them. Our habits were inexpensive and temperate: one break-up party was held in the junior common-room at the end of each term, in which we indulged our genius more freely, and our merriment, to say the truth, was somewhat exuberant and noisy; but the authorities wisely forbore too strict an inquiry into this.”
Soon after Arnold was elected Fellow of Oriel, in the autumn of 1815 a scholar was elected at Corpus, William Phelps, afterwards Archdeacon of Carlisle, whose published letters[247] contain abundant information about the social condition and studies of the College. Phelps did not, like Arnold, possess those intellectual and social charms which captivate undergraduate society, and it is plain that he was in restricted circumstances. But he speaks enthusiastically of the friendliness, tolerance, and good humour which pervaded the small society of undergraduates (only nine members of the foundation at that time, namely, six undergraduate scholars, the remaining scholars being then B.A.’s or M.A.’s, and three exhibitioners; besides the six gentlemen-commoners, who dined at a separate table, and shared with the Bachelors a separate common-room), and he is constantly recurring in terms of respect and appreciation, which bear evident marks of sincerity, to the friendliness, helpfulness, and competence of the two tutors, as well as to the kindly interest shown in their juniors by the other senior members of the College. The relations were those of a large and harmonious family. “There are no parties or divisions here as at other Colleges; each desires to oblige his neighbour. The Fellows are not supercilious, the scholars are respectful. There is only one establishment that rivals ours in literature, which is our neighbour Oriel.”
Through the combined action of the Parliamentary Commissions of 1852 and 1877, the constitution of the College has been largely altered. By the reception of commoners, though it still remains a small College, the number of its undergraduate members has risen from about twenty to about seventy. The county restrictions have been removed from the Fellowships and scholarships, all of which are now entirely open. The number of Fellowships (from which the obligation to Holy Orders has been now removed) has been diminished, while that of the scholarships has been increased. And, in the spirit of the original intentions of the founder, a considerable proportion of the revenues has been devoted to the creation or augmentation of University Professorships. If, by the operation of these changes, the College has lost something of its unique character, it may be hoped that it has proportionately extended its sphere of usefulness.
XIII.
CHRIST CHURCH.
By the Rev. R. St. John Tyrwhitt, M.A., formerly Rhetoric Reader of Christ Church.
For the purposes of this volume we apprehend that the history of Christ Church, Oxford, means chiefly its academical history, which begins in 1524 with the foundation of Cardinal College by Wolsey, in the ancient Priory of St. Frideswide’s. All his buildings and other works were stopped by his fall in 1529; and three years afterwards “bluff Harry broke into the spence” with his usual vigour, and refounded Cardinal College, to which he gave his own name, calling it “King Henry the Eighth his College.” Then he suppressed it, and re-constituted the whole foundation, November 4th, 1546; removing the new see of Oxford (erected at Oseney in 1542) to St. Frideswide’s, the then church, with the style of “The Cathedral Church of Christ in Oxford.” This foundation comprised a Dean and Canons, with other capitular or diocesan officers, besides an academic staff, and probably numerous scholars of different ages. The ancient church has had a twofold character ever since. It is the Cathedral of the diocese, but it is also the College chapel; and as the Dean of Christ Church is always present, and the Bishop of Oxford very seldom, academic uses and appearances rather prevail over the ecclesiastical, in a way which may have been the reverse of satisfactory to more than one occupant of the see of Oxford.
But the connection between the Chapter and the College cannot be severed; and as Christ Church certainly would not be itself without its most ancient buildings, some account of its ecclesiastical foundations (of almost pre-historic antiquity) seems highly advisable before we attempt to chronicle it as a seat of learning.