mended him strongly to his son and successor. But al though he retained his seat in the privy-council, and con tinued to hold the privy-seal, his influence in the new reign gradually abated. Howard, earl of Surrey and lord' treasurer, had been his rival in Henry the Seventh's time, and learned now to accommodate himself to the extrava gant passions of his new master, with whom he was for a considerable time a confidential favourite; and the celebrated Wolsey, who had been introduced to the king by Fox, in order to counteract the influence of Surrey, soon - became more powerful than either. After remaining some time in office, under many mortifications, our prélate, together with archbishop Warham, retired from court in 1515. Such was the political life of bishop Fox, distinguished by high influence and talent, but embittered at length, by the common intrigues and vicissitudes to which statesmen are subject. His retirement at Winchester was devoted to acts of charity and munificence, although he did not now for the first time appear as a public benefactor. He had bestowed large sums on the repairs of the episcopal palace' at Durham, while bishop of that see, and on every occasion of this kind discovered a considerable taste for architecture. In 1522 he founded a free-school at Taunton, and another at Grantham, and extended his beneficence to many other foundations within the diocese of Winchester. But the triumphs of his munificence and taste are principally to be contemplated in the additions which he : built both within and without the cathedral of Winchester. Of these we shall borrow a character from one whose fine enthusiasm cannot be easily surpassed. "It is impossible to survey the works of this prelate, either on the outside of the church, or in the inside, without being struck with their beauty and magnificence. In both of them we see the most exquisite art employed to execute the most noblé and elegant designs. We cannot fail in particular of admiring the vast but well-proportioned and ornamented arched windows which surround this (the eastern) part, and give light to the sanctuary; the bold and airy flying * The Historian of Winchester re: marks, that no higher proof of the consideration in which the king held him can be adduced, than that he was chosen to be sponsor to the young prince, who was afterwards Henry VIII. Dr. Milner also contests Mr. Gough's opinion that he was not sponsor, but baptised the young prince. buttresses that, stretching over the said ailes, support the upper walls; the rich open battlement which surmounts these walls; and the elegant sweep that contracts them to the size of the great eastern window: the two gorgeous canopies which crown the extreme turrets, and the profusion of elegant carved work that covers the whole east front, tapering up to a point, where we view the breathing statue of the pious founder resting upon his chosen emblem, the Pelican. In a word, neglected and mutilated as this work has been during the course of nearly three centuries, it still warrants us to assert, that if the whole cathedral had been finished in the style of this portion of it, the whole island, and perhaps all Europe, could not have exhibited a gothic structure equal to it *." His last appearance in parliament was in 1523; he had then been nearly five years deprived of his sight, which he never recovered. Wolsey endeavoured to persuade him to resign his bishopric to him, and accept of a pension, but this he rejected, asserting, according to Parker, that "Tho' by reason of his blindness he was not able to distinguish white from black, yet he could discern between true and false, right and wrong; and plainly enough saw, without eyes, the malice of that ungrateful man, which he did not see before. That it behoved the cardinal to take care not to be so blinded with ambition as not to foresee his own end. He needed not trouble himself with the bishopric of Winchester, but rather should mind the king's affairs.' His last days were spent in prayer and meditation, which at length became almost uninterrupted both day and night, He died Sept: 14, 1528, and was buried in the fine chantry which he built for that purpose in Winchester cathedral, immediately behind the high altar, on the south side. During his residence here, he was indefatigable in preach+ ing, and exciting the clergy to their duty. He was also unbounded in his charities to the poor, whom he assisted with food, clothes, and money; at the same time exer Milner's History of Winchester, vol. II. p. 19, 20. On the top of the wall which he built round the presbytery, he placed, in leaden chests, three on a side, the bones of several of the West Saxon kings and bishops, and some later princes, who had been originally buried behind the high altar, or in dif ferent parts of the church, with their names inscribed on the face of the chest, and a crown on each. But the havock of fanaticism in the late civil war deranged the bones, which were collected again as well as circumstances permitted, 1661. Gough, Vetusta Monumenta, vol. II. plate L. cising hospitality, and promoting the trade of the city, by a large establishment which he kept up at Wolvesey, of two hundred and twenty servants. "His character," says Mr. Gough, may be briefly summed up in these two particulars: great talents and abilities for business, which recommended him to one of the wisest princes of the age; and not less charity and munificence, of which he has left lasting monuments." Of his writings, we have only an English translation of the "Rule of St. Benedict," for the use of his diocese, printed by Pinson, 1516, and a Letter to cardinal Wolsey, the subject of which is the cardinal's intended visitation and reformation of the clergy. Fox expresses his great satisfaction at any measures which might produce so desirable an effect. The general and respectful style of this letter either affords a proof of Fox's meek and conciliatory temper, or suggests a doubt whether our historians have not too implicitly followed each other in asserting that Wolsey's ingratitude was the principal cause of his retiring from court. That Wolsey was ungrateful may be inferred from the preceding quotation from archbishop Parker, but Fox's discovery of it, there implied, was long subsequent to his leaving the court; and it is certain that in the letter now mentioned, and in another written in 1526, he addresses the cardinal in terms of the utmost respect and affection. Of these circumstances Fiddes and Grove, the biographers of Wolsey, have not neglected to avail themselves, but they have suppressed all notice of his offer to Fox respecting the resignation of the bishopric. The foundation of Corpus Christi college was preceded by the purchase of certain pieces of land in Oxford, belonging to Merton college, the nunnery of Godstow, and the priory of St. Frideswyde, which he completed in 1513. But his design at this time went no farther than to found a college for a warden and a certain number of monks and secular scholars belonging to the priory of St. Swithin, in Winchester, in the manner of Canterbury and Durham colleges, which were similar nurseries in Oxford for the priories of Canterbury and Durham. The buildings for this purpose were advancing under the care of William Vertue, mason, and Humphrey Cook, carpenter and master of the works, when the judicious advice of Hugh Oldham, bishop of Exeter, induced him to enlarge his plan to one of more usefulness and durability. This prelate, an emi nent patron of literature, and a man of acute discernment, is said to have addressed him thus: "What! my lord, shall we build houses, and provide livelihoods for a company of monks, whose end and fall we ourselves may live to see? No, no, it is more meet a great deal, that we should have care to provide for the increase of learning, and for such as who by their learning shall do good to the church and commonwealth." These arguments, strengthened probably by others of a similar tendency, induced Fox to imitate those founders who had already contributed so largely to the fame of the university of Oxford. Accordingly, by licence of Henry VIII. dated Nov. 26, 1516, he obtained leave to found a college for the sciences of divinity, philosophy, and arts, for a president and thirty scholars, graduate and not graduate, more or less according to the revenues of the society, on a certain ground between Merton college on the east, a lane near Canterbury college (afterwards part of Christ-church), and a garden of the priory of St. Frideswyde on the west, a street or lane of Oriel college on the north, and the town wall on the south, and this new college to be endowed with 350 yearly. The charter, dated Cal, Mar. 1516, recites that the founder, to the praise and honour of God Almighty, the most holy body of Christ, and the blessed Virgin Mary, as also of the apostles Peter, Paul, and Andrew, and of St. Cuthbert and St. Swithin, and St. Birin, patrons of the churches of Exeter, Bath and Wells, Durham, and Winchester, (the four sees which he successively filled) doth found and appoint this college always to be called CORPUS CHRISTI College. The statutes are dated Feb. 13, 1527, in the 27th year of his translation to Winchester, and according to them, the society was to consist of a president, twenty fellows, twenty scholars, two chaplains, two clerks, and two choristers. But what conferred an almost immediate superiority of reputation on this society, was the appointment of two lectures for Greek and Latin, which obtained the praise and admiration of Erasmus and the other learned men who were now endeavouring to introduce a knowledge of the classics as an essential branch of academic study. With this enlightened design, the founder invited to his new college Ludovicus Vives, Nicholas Crucher the mathematician, Clement Edwards and Nicholas Utten, professors of Greek; Thomas Lupset, Richard Pace, and other ا. men of established reputation. This, Mr. Warton observes, was a new and noble departure from the narrow plan of academical education. The course of the Latin lecturer was not confined to the college, but open to the students of Oxford in general. He was expressly directed to drive barbarism from the new college, barbariem e nostro alveario pro virili si quando pullules extirpet et ejiciat. The Greek lecturer was ordered to explain the best Greek classics, and those which Fox specified on this occasion, are the purest in the opinion of modern times. But such was the temper of the age, that Fox was obliged to introduce his Greek lectureship, by pleading that the sacred canons had commanded, that a knowledge of the Greek tongue should not be wanting in public seminaries of education. By the sacred canons he meant a decree of the council of Vienne, in Dauphiny, promulged so early as 1311, which enjoined that professorships of Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic, should be instituted in the universities of Oxford, Paris, Bononia, Salamanca, and the court of Rome. This, however, was not entirely satisfactory. The prejudices against the Greek were still so inveterate, that the university was for some time seriously disturbed by the advocates of the school-learning. The persuasion and example of Erasmus, who resided about this time in St. Mary's college, had a considerable effect in restoring peace, and more attention was gradually bestowed on the learned languages, and this study, so curiously introduced under the sanction of pope Clement's decree of Vienne, proved at no great distance of time, a powerful instrument in effecting the reformation. Those who would deprive Clement of the liberality of his edict, state his chief mo tive to have been a superstitious regard for the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, because the superscription on the cross was written in these languages.' FOX (HENRY), LORD HOLLAND, the first nobleman of that title; was the second and youngest son of the second marriage, of sir Stephen Fox, and brother of Stephen first earl of Ilchester. He was born in 1705, and was chosen one of the members for Hendon, in Wiltshire, on a vacancy, in March 1735, to that parliament which met Jan. 23, 1734; and being constituted surveyor-general of 1 Chalmers's Hist. of Oxford.-Life in Biog. Brit. and especially that by Mr. Gough, in the Vetusta Monumenta.-Wood's Colleges and Halls.-Ath. Ox. vol. I.-Jortin's Erasmus, &c. |