The good lady, who had all reverence for her Confessor, and was all obedience to her guide, was easily prevailed with to alter her purpose; but being under some ties and engagements to her son, in their common designs at Westminster, nothing could be done without his consent, which she was nice in asking. The same person that gave the advice, undertook this nice and invidious employment; and being guarded with the Princess's letters, he applied to the King with so much prudence and dexterity, that he obtained his consent for altering her design. The King's * letter is yet extant to that * Archiv. purpose, and it is a very tender and affectionate one, See Append. dated, Grenewiche, July 17; the year is not mentioned, but it must have been towards the conclusion of his reign, for he was then declining, and "his sight so much appayred," or he so unfit for such business, that he protests, "on his faith, he had been three days, or he could make an end of his letter," and yet it is not over-long. This as it gave occasion to Christ's College, so it was the first step towards the foundation of St John's. 'Margareta Comitissa Richmond. habet quandam Cantariam, nomine Jhesus, ac Annunciationis B. Mariæ Virg., in ecclesia de Wymburne'. T. 7. die Augusti, An. Reg. primo. On the dissolution of the College at Wimborne, the School shared the same fate, but was refounded by Queen Elizabeth, an. reg. 5. [Hutchins' Hist. of Dorset, Vol. II. p. 540.] About 1492, the Lady Margaret is mentioned as maintaining certain well-born youths at their studies, under the auspices of one Maurice Westbury, an Oxford Academician. See Wood Antiq. Oxon. Lib. I. p. 237. Col. Jo. Lib. Rub. She had been solicited by some men of character of the other University, to place her remaining charities upon Oxford, who pointed out to her St Frideswide's Priory, as an easy way, and large field for such a foundation, and had gone so far with their constant importunity and unwearied persuasions, that she had been determined to that place, had not the same good 'Bishop, who influenced her devotion most, intervened, and by more powerful arguments, and particularly by pointing out the melancholy state and dissolute lives of the brethren of Old St John's House, turned her thoughts back upon Cambridge; and so St Frideswide's was reserved for the like or greater purposes, soon after undertaken by Cardinal Wolsey, upon the ruins of that Priory. Surely the Brethren of this House, must have been under some fatal blindness, or given up by Providence to infatuation for their sins; otherwise, they could not have rusht thus blindly upon their own ruin. Could they have seen, they had the fate 1 'Reverendus Episcopus Roffensis, vir non solum mirabili integritate vitæ, verum etiam alta et recondita doctrina, tum morum quoque incredibili comitate commendatus maximis pariter ac minimis. Atque his nominibus aliquando Regis Henrici, qui nunc Angliam moderatur, aviæ paternæ Margaretæ egregie charus, et a confessionum secretis. Cui Margaretæ auctor fuit ut in Academia Cantabrigiensi Collegia duo construxerit, et amplis possessionibus dotaverit. Quorum alterum Christo Servatori, alterum S. Joanni Evangelista consecravit. Solebat etiam ipse, pro sua facultate, bonæ spei adolescentes, maxime pauperiores, liberaliter ad studia nutrire.' Erasmus in Epist. Vide etiam Baleum de Script. Britan. fol. 654. of a Religious House, brought home to their own doors, in the Nuns of St Rhadegund, who for the like crimes, that they were now guilty of, were suppressed and dissolved, and a College erected upon their fall this was yet of recent 2 memory, and an instance almost glaring before their eyes. These loose Votaries or their children might be yet living, and could have told them, what had befallen that House, for their dissolute living; and to be guilty of such looseness, after so late a caution, was to provoke or defy their own ruin, and was certainly the utmost height of infatuation. Cart. Fund. And yet so it was; great excesses were charged Lib. Rub. upon them, whereof they were too guilty; and 2 The licence of King Henry VII. for suppressing the Nunnery and erecting the College, is dated June 12, 1496. It sets forth,-'Quod Domus sive Prioratus Religiosarum Mulierum Sanctæ Radegundis, ac terræ, tenementa....per negligentiam, atque improvidam et dissolutam dispositionem, et incontinentiam (occasione vicinitatis Universitati Cantebrigiæ) Priorissarum et Religiosarum Mulierum Domus antedictæ, in tantum dilapidata,......et subtracta existunt; ipsæque ad tantam inopiam et paupertatem sunt redactæ, quod Divina Obsequia, Hospitalitatem....manutenere et supportare, seu seipsas, quæ duæ tantum numero existunt (quarum una alibi professa, alteraque infans existit), aliqualiter sustentare seu relevare non valeant;'... and then empowers the Bishop of Ely-'quod Ipse de Domo prædicto quoddam Collegium de uno Magistro, et Sex Sociis, et certo numero Scholarium in Grammatica erudiendorum, et ad exorandum, et Divina singulis diebus, infra Collegium prædictum, pro prospero statu nostro, et Elizabethæ Reginæ Angliæ, Consortis nostræ charissimæ, charissimæque Matris nostræ Margareta-imperpetuum celebrandum-facere, fundare, et stabilire possit.' [Stevens, Vol. II. App.] though I cannot doubt, but their guilt was aggravated, yet they were certainly very dissolute in their lives, and prodigal in their expences, not in charity or hospitality, which they were obliged to by their rule and order, but in excess and riot, and in gratifying their own sinful lusts. When these expences could not be maintained by their ordinary revenues and annual income, the moveables of their House were sold or pawned, nor were their sacred vessels spared, or indeed longer sacred, but were sold and prostituted with their other furniture; and when these would not satisfy (as nothing is enough for lust and riot) their lands and settled estates were at last alienated or engaged for large sums of money, * Lib. Rub. as the College account *says, for more than all their lands being sold', were really worth; which for a good reason I cannot believe, because they had not then been worth their taking. So far they had gone, and so deep they were involved, that they seem to have been at a stand, and Idid not well know how to make further advances; but their last stores and funds being exhausted, and their credit sunk, the Master and Brethren were dispersed, hospitality and the service of God (the two great ends of their institution) were equally neglected, and in effect the House was abandoned. This being the condition of the old House, in a manner dissolved already by its own crimes, the best thing that could be done for it, was to dissolve it by 1 See Append. 'A Recitall of the Bishop of Rochester's love and care, &c.' authority, and to ingraft a College upon the old stock, that might bring forth better fruit. The first thing to be had towards this, was, the consent of the Bishop of Ely, both as reputed founder and undoubted diocesan: the present bishop was James Stanley, son of the late Earl of Derby; who being son-in-law to the Foundress, and probably promoted by her interest to that See, (the worst thing she ever did) his consent was easily had. The next thing to be procured was, the King's licence, and this from her own son, was as easily obtained. But before these could be had in due and legal form, the King dies, and ere much more could be done to purpose, the 2 Foundress (if she may be so styled before the foundation) likewise dies; and had she not lodged this trust in faithful hands, this great and good design must have died with her. She died, where she was buried, at Westmin- Anno 1509. ster, on the 29th of June, as noted in the College register, and in her epitaph composed by Erasmus, for which he had a reward of twenty shillings, as it is entered in a 'computus', or old book of accounts. Her Funeral Sermon was preached by Bishop Fisher, containing an ample character of that excellent person, with a large narrative of her charities and virtues to that Sermon, being printed, I shall refer for her further character, or let her own works praise her in the gates. : One instance of her piety has been omitted by that worthy prelate: she was admitted into the fra2 She survived her son about three months. |