Oxford and Its Colleges page 2

Exeter (1314) and Oriel (1324) were both daughters of Merton, and intended, like their mother, to be bulwarks against the Friars. But it was to the influence of a Franciscan Friar that the college founded by Lady Dervorguilla, Balliol, owed its creation (c. 1260). The object of Queen's was purely charitable and local, the education of poor boys and the endowment of north countrymen (1340). Shortly afterwards, in order to train secular clergy to fight the heresies of Wycliffe and to reform the Church, William of Wykeham founded the College of S. Mary Winton (1370). Great architect and great administrator, he elaborated in his college statutes the rule of Merton, and systematised the arrangement of college buildings, chapel, hall and quadrangle, so that New College, as it was called, became the type of all subsequent foundations. Lincoln (1427) was founded by Bishop Fleming with the same purpose of combating the followers of Wycliffe. The College of All Souls (1348) and S. Mary Magdalen (1474) were both daughters of New College.

Magdalen, founded by W7illiam of Waynefleet, surpasses even her beautiful mother in architectural loveliness. The Bell Tower was built when Wolsey was bursar. From its summit each May Morning the chapel choir sings a hymn to commemorate its completion. Magdalen played a notable part in English history when its Fellows refused to accept a president at the dictation of James II, who was endeavouring to convert Oxford into a Roman Catholic seminary. The recalcitrant Fellows were expelled, and their places filled by James's nominees. The college yearly celebrates the day, October 25, 1688, on which James, too late to save his crown, restored the ejected Fellows. Magdalen has numbered amongst its alumni three heirs-apparent to the Throne, the son of Henry VII, the son of James I, and, in recent times, the present Prince of Wales.

Corpus Christi was intended by Bishop Foxe to promote the study of the New Learning; which was further encouraged by Wolsey's College. Brasenose was founded to combat it (1509). The Brazen Nose Knocker in the old hall which it supplanted is still preserved in the College Hall. The founders of Trinity (1555) and S. John's (1555) were inspired by the Catholic reaction, whilst the papist founders of Wadham (1613), Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham, showed their disgust at the Gunpowder Plot by the Anglican framework of their benefaction (1609). One of its earliest students was Admiral Blake. Jesus, the first Protestant college, dates from 1571. Pembroke (1624), famous as the college of Dr. Johnson, was a reconstruction of the old Broadgates Hall. Hertford College was added in the nineteenth century. By the close of the eighteenth century the University was tending to become a close Anglican community restricted to the upper classes. The democratic expansiveness of the ensuing age has changed all that, as is shown by the foundation of Nonconformist colleges, Mansfield and Manchester; of Ruskin Hall for working-class students; and the new Jesuit foundation, Campion Hall. The admission of women students to full membership of the University in 1920 followed upon the establishment of Somer-ville Hall, Lady Margaret Hall, S. Hugh's and S. Hilda's Halls, at the end of the nineteenth century. Oxford is famous also for its gardens, and the Botanic Garden, opposite Magdalen, founded in 1632, was the first of its kind in England. Those of New College, Wadham and Exeter are typical.