PETER THE HERMIT, whose preaching aroused Europe to the first Crusade. GODFREY OF BOUILLON, its principal leader, saluted at the taking of Jerusalem as its king, though he would not accept the title, nor wear a crown. He carries on his shield the Jerusalem Cross. In his hand he holds an apple, having died, it is said, of poisoned fruit brought to him as a present of honour by the Emir of Cæsarea. LANFRANC, called, though an Italian, the first Norman Archbishop of Canterbury, as having been chosen for the see by William the Conqueror. He was reputed the ablest dialectician of his age; and, as Prior of the monastery of Bec, in Normandy, had founded the great school of Bec, which became the most famous in Europe. Under him the arrangement of the Offices of Divine Service made by Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, and known afterwards as the Use of Sarum, was generally adopted throughout the south of England. ST. ANSELM, Lanfranc's successor, celebrated for his resistance to the unscrupulous seizures of Church property by William Rufus, and to Henry I.'s claim to investitures. He is regarded as the first of the scholastic theologians, and is considered to have been the author of the argument called the Cartesian, which seeks to prove the existence of God from an innate idea, or from the conception of an All-perfect Being implanted in the mind of man. He carries a ship, in accordance with the legend that a ship in which he was embarked started a plank, but no water could enter. The Twelfth Century commences with Pope ADRIAN IV., Nicolas Breakspear, the only Englishman that ever filled the Papal throne. Next to him is ST. THOMAS à BECKET, Archbishop of Canterbury. His murder is indicated by the sword across his mitre. He is followed by ST. BERNARD, Abbot of Clairvaux, called Doctor Mellifluus, and accounted as the last of the Fathers, one of the most influential men of his day in Christendom, from the respect entertained for his genius, sanctity, and learning. From him the Cistercian monks took their name of Bernardins. Next is ST. HUGH, Bishop of Lincoln, and founder of the present cathedral, held in such honour that at his funeral John, king of England, and William the Lion, king of Scotland, held up the pall. His shrine at Lincoln was scarcely less thronged with pilgrims than that of St. Thomas à Becket at Canterbury. He has by his side a swan, the emblem of peaceful solitude, perhaps because his fame was known when he was still in the seclusion of the monastery of Chartreuse. Last in the century is MATILDA, Queen of Henry I., a supreme favourite with the English nation, as being niece of the Saxon Edgar Atheling, and as a Queen that used her influence in promotion of deeds of gentleness and mercy. The Thirteenth Century opens with ST. LOUIS IX., king of France, the Crusader. "Years roll away: again the tide of crime Has swept Thy footsteps from the favour'd clime. Where shall the holy Cross find rest? On a crown'd monarch's mailed breast: Like some bright angel o'er the darkling scene Through court and camp he holds his heavenward course serene." Historians agree in the high character which they give of this prince, and in their estimate of the benefits which he conferred on his people by his administration. He promulgated the feudal laws called the Establishments of St. Louis. The chapel afterwards called La Sainte Chapelle was built by him to receive what was believed to be the true Crown of Thorns, which he had obtained from Baldwin II., Emperor of Constantinople, and other relics which he had collected in the Holy Land. He holds a sceptre and a staff of justice; the nails from the Cross are in his right hand which is encircled by the Crown of Thorns, and on his sleeve is the red cross of the Crusader. ROGER BACON follows, the Franciscan Friar of Oxford, the Doctor Admirabilis, a man of transcendent genius, and far in advance of his age in learning of all kinds. For his skill in physical science he was esteemed a magician, and confined as such for many years to a monastery. Next is HUGH DE BALSHAM, Bishop of Ely. He had placed some secular scholars in St. John's Hospital, but transferred them to hospicia juxta ecclesiam Sancti Petri (now called St. Mary's the Less), thus founding Domus Sancti Petri. ROBERT GROSTETE, Bishop of Lincoln, is next in order, the intrepid reformer of abuses of Ecclesiastical patronage, Regal, Papal, and Monastic, alike. STEPHEN LANGTON, Archbishop of Canterbury, asserted the rights of the Church against King John, and the liberties of England, first against the King, and, when the King had made his peace with the Pope, against the Pope. It was mainly to his courage and prudence that England was indebted for Magna Charta. He was a diligent preacher and commentator on the Bible, which he is said to have first divided into chapters. Next is the Fourteenth Century with WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM, Bishop of Winchester, founder of New College, Oxford, and of Winchester College and School. King EDWARD II., the reputed founder of Oriel College, Oxford.t * Called a Main de Justice, "espèce de sceptre que le Roi portoit le jour de son sacre, au bout duquel est la figure d'une main."-Dictionnaire de l'Academie Françoise. The College was founded by Adam de Brom, Edw. II.'s almoner, who, to secure for it protection and patronage, made it over to the King with the name and the rights of Founder. MARIA DE VALENCE, Countess of Pembroke, foundress of Pembroke College, Cambridge. WILLIAM BATEMAN, Bishop of Norwich, founder of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. THOMAS BRADWARDINE, celebrated as Doctor Profundus, an acute theologian and mathematician, and for a short time (June to August) until his death, Archbishop of Canterbury. He holds in his hand his treatise De Causa Dei contra Pelagianos. The representatives of the Fifteenth Century are HENRY CHICHELE, for 29 years Archbishop of Canterbury, founder of All Souls' College, Oxford, and of St. Bernard's College, Oxford, which was succeeded in 1555 by the College of St. John the Baptist. MARGARET OF ANJOU, the queen of Henry VI., who began the foundation of a college in Cambridge which was completed by Elizabeth, queen of Edward IV., and bears memorial of its two foundresses in its name of "the Queens' College of St. Margaret and St. Bernard." THOMAS à KEMPIS, the reputed author, but probably only one of many transcribers, of the De Imitatione Christi, a treatise which has been translated into every language in Christendom, and prized as a heritage of the Church in all lands. King HENRY VI., founder of Eton College, and of "the King's College of our Lady and St. Nicholas in Cambridge." JOHN ALCOCK, Bishop of Ely, founder of Jesus College, Cambridge. Of the Sixteenth Century the central figure is The LADY MARGARET, Countess of Richmond and Derby, mother of king Henry VII, foundress of Christ's and St. John's Colleges, and of the Lady Margaret's Professorships of Divinity at Oxford and Cambridge. A memoir of this noble lady is given in Nos. XIX., XX., XXII., XXIII., of the Eagle, of dates March and June, 1864, and March and June, 1865. She wears, in accordance with the usual representation of her, the habit of a nun,* and carries in her hand a model of a building, as foundress of our College. On the left of the Lady Margaret is the able and courageous JOHN FISHER, Bishop of Rochester and Cardinal, the Lady Margaret's Confessor, and, after her death, one of her executors. As it was owing to his advice that our College was founded, so it was owing to his exertions that, notwithstanding the rapacity of her dependants and of king Henry VIII., endowments were secured for it. He himself founded four fellowships and two scholarships, gave to the College plate and vestments for the Chapel, and bequeathed to it, besides other property, his noble library. "It was thought the like was not to be found againe in the possession of any one private man in Christendom."† He had built the Fisher Chantry in the old Chapel for his own burial. But he was sent to the Tower by Henry VIII. and beheaded, on the charge of denial of the king's supremacy. His bequests were all lost to the College. He framed statutes for the College, and holds a book of Statuta in his hand. On the Lady Margaret's right is NICOLAS METCALFE, chaplain to Bishop Fisher, and appointed, in 1518, master of the recently opened College. During the twenty years of his mastership he administered the revenues with great care, and trained up a succession of scholars equal to any in Europe. On the left of Bishop Fisher is SIR JOHN CHEKE, fellow of the College, the first Regius Professor of Greek in the University, and Public Orator, afterwards tutor to Henry VIII's son, Prince Edward. Amongst his pupils at St. John's were * See Hymers' edition of Bishop Fisher's Funeral Sermon on the Lady Margaret, Baker's Preface, p. 16. † Baily's Life and Death of That Renowned John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, p. 186. He was the third Master. The College was formally opened on July 29, 1516; see Hymers' edition of Bishop Fisher's Funeral Sermon on the Lady Margaret, Appendix, p. 256. |