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From the Portrait in the Bedien bra baterd

University, for cultivating the new literature in the service of the old Church. At all events, it was destined to throw into the shade every thing which Christendom had as yet possessed in educational institutions.* How strange then, how significant is it, that the very means by which he sought to rear these new props of the Church, should have so eminently contributed to hasten the fall of the old building! It is well known, that the confiscation of several smaller ecclesiastical endowments, for the benefit of Wolsey's College, was made a precedent for the subsequent great spoliations of the Church; although, in this instance, every thing was done with the approval of the Roman Pontiff, and absolutely none of the rights and ordinances of the Church were violated by it. Like cases had also occurred in earlier times; but just now, it was an extremely hazardous measure, even for a friend and master, to move but a stone of the tottering building.

Be that as it may, in the year 1524 and 1525 no less than two and twenty Priories and Convents were done away with. Their revenues, amounting to two thousand pounds a year, were, by Papal bulls and a Royal privilege, bestowed upon a College for secular clergy, to be erected in Oxford under the name of Cardinal College. The number

* For the history of Wolsey's foundations in Oxford and Ipswich, I refer my readers to Wood, and Wolsey's Biographical His

torians. Documents may be found in the Monasticon, in Rymer and Wilkins.

of its members was to amount to sixty Canonists and forty Priests; whose chief duty, beside divine service, was to consist in various academic studies, but especially, in classical and biblical Philology, and in giving instruction. For the latter purpose the College had, attached to it, ten endowed professorships :-in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew ; Theology, Canon and Civil Law, and Medicine. Beside the posts of the actual Canonists, a certain number of subordinate situations, stipends, &c., were also to be founded, so that the members of this Institution would have been not less than a hundred and sixty. Lastly, Wolsey founded, at the same time, a great school at Ipswich, to be connected with his College, nearly as Wykenham's School at Winchester with New College, and Eton School with King's College. The first stone of Cardinal College was laid in 1525 by Wolsey himself, after which the building proceeded rapidly. In the first year alone its expenses, (which Wolsey drew from his own resources,) amounted to about eight thousand pounds; at that time an enormous

sum.

The Kitchen was completed first, and whoever has seen it, cannot be surprised that its size and splendor gave rise to a good deal of mockery among the envious. "He began with a College, and ended with a cook's shop," was the [Latin] sarcasm of some one. A more serious meaning is to be found in the following allusion to his diverting money from other corporations to the

service of the College:* That house shall not stand, founded by plunder: If it fall not, some other plunderer shall get it.

The buildings rose on the site of the ancient Abbey of St Frideswide, whose beautiful Church was to serve as Chapel to the College. Wolsey, meanwhile, sought far and near for men worthy of being installed in such a dwelling, and capable of cooperating in so vast a scheme. He engaged at last Tyndal and Frith from Cambridge; Vives who had long taught in Oxford; and, from the Continent, Johannes de Colonnibus; Nicholaus de Burgo; Petrus Garcias de Lalo; Niclaus Kratzer, the Bavarian Mathematician; Mathous Calpurnius, a Greek; and several others; and the completion of his gigantic projects, both as to Oxford and as to Ipswich, was shortly expected, when, in the year 1528, his sudden fall brought the whole to a stop.

§ 129. Remarks upon Wolsey after his fall.

Whatever may be said about Wolsey's demeanor in misfortune, it is but just to remark that almost to his last moment, solicitude for his Oxford foundations most frequently and most deeply occupied his thoughts. The earnest and touching letters upon this subject which he addressed partly

* "Non stabit illa domus aliis fundata rapinis ;
Aut ruet, aut alter raptor habebit eam."