733.—Oxford Cathedral.details

The magnificence of Cardinal Wolsey has become a by-word, and, as often happens in such cases, has by that very proof of its original fitness almost ceased to be of any practical value; in other words the term now rises habitually to the mind whenever the subject is before it, in place of, rather than as concentrating and explaining the circumstances and thoughts which originally gave currency to it. But if any one desires to revive the idea of that magnificence in all its primitive freshness of meaning, he need only visit Oxford. Near the southern entrance of the city, with its picturesque series of bridges across the Isis, or Thames, he will find a pile of building at first attracting his attention by its general architectural splendour, then by its extraordinary extent, the plan including a cathedral, two great quadrangles, and two courts; lastly by the individual interest attached to almost every separate feature, and more especially the Cathedral, the superb west front, the stately hall, and the entrance tower, in which hangs one of the most famous of English bells, Great Tom of Oxford.—That pile of building forms Christ Church College and Cathedral, the former being the establishment that Wolsey founded in grateful acknowledgment of the benefits he had derived from the university, and in redemption of the promise which he had consequently made at an early period of his prosperity, to bestow some lasting mark of his esteem upon the place. And splendid as is the edifice, important as are its uses, the one and the other represent but imperfectly the gigantic plan of its founder, which was and is an unprecedented instance of princely beneficence in a country of wealthy men and prodigal benefactors.

The best architects of the age were collected together to erect the buildings; and the society for whose accommodation they were to be reared, was to consist of one hundred and sixty persons, chiefly engaged in the study of sciences, divinity, canon and civil law, arts, physic, and literature. But the sunshine of royal favour in which the great Cardinal basked, became suddenly eclipsed by newer favourites; he fell even more suddenly and signally than he had risen.

The crowned despot, however, for once seems to have been moved in a good cause; and either Wolsey’s pathetic consignation of his cherished project to the royal care, or the entreaties of the University, caused him to save Christ Church and become its patron. Some years later he translated the see of Oseney, formed by himself out of the monastery of that name, to Oxford, and Christ Church became the Cathedral. At the same time the principal estates were granted to the chapter, on condition of their maintaining three public professors of Divinity, Hebrew, and Greek; one hundred students in theology, arts, and philosophy, eight chaplains, and a suitable choir. We have thought it necessary to give this short notice of the origin of the junction of the College with the Cathedral, which would otherwise have seemed unaccountable to those ignorant of their history; and, having done that, proceed to notice the structure that more peculiarly belongs to our present section.

Wolsey founded his college upon a site not only time-honoured, but made sacred by its early connection with the growth of Christianity in England, and, to some eyes at least, by one of those pious legends with which church history is so rife; it was on the site of the monastery of St. Frideswida, the church of which yet remained, that he began to build.

(p. 176)