rs massy proof,
And storied windows richly dight,
Casting a dim religious light"

of the "Royal Saint's" great chapel at Cambridge.

MAGDALEN COLLEGE (2) HISTORY

"Sing sweetly, blessed babes that suck the breast
Of this sweet nectar-dropping Magdalen,
Their praise in holy hymns, by whom ye feast,
The God of gods and Waynflete, best of men,
Sing in an union with the Angel's quires,
Sith Heaven's your house."
SIR J. DAVIES.

Magdalen College was founded by William of Waynflete, Bishop of
Winchester, who had been a faithful minister of Henry VI. He had
served as both Master and Provost of the King's own college at Eton
(and also as Master of Winchester College before), and from Eton he
brought the lilies which still figure in the Magdalen shield. As a
member of the Lancastrian party, he fell into disgrace when the
Yorkists triumphed, but he made his peace with Edward IV, whose
statue stands over the west door of the chapel, with those of St.
Mary Magdalene, St. John the Baptist, St. Swithun (Bishop of
Winchester), and the Founder. And the Tudors were equally friendly to
the new foundation; Prince Arthur, Henry VIII's unfortunate elder
brother, was a resident in Magdalen on two occasions, and the College
has still a splendid memorial of him in the great contemporary
tapestry, representing his marriage with Catharine of Aragon.

To the very early days of Magdalen belongs its connection with the
Oxford Reform Movement and the Revival of Learning. Both Fox and
Wolsey, successively Bishops of Winchester, and the munificent
founders of Corpus and of Cardinal (i.e. Christ Church) Colleges,
were members of Waynflete's foundation, and so probably was John
Colet, Dean of St. Paul's, whose learning and piety so impressed
Erasmus. "When I listen to my beloved Colet," he writes in 1499, "I
seem to be listening to Plato himself"; and he asks--why go to Italy
when Oxford can supply a climate "as charming as it is healthful" and
"such culture and learning, deep, exact and worthy of the good old
times ?" Erasmus' praise of Oxford climate is unusual from a
foreigner; the more usual view is that of his friend Vives, who came
to Oxford soon after as a lecturer at the new college of Corpus
Christi; he writes from Oxford: "The weather here is windy, foggy and
damp, and gave me a rough reception."

Colet's lectures on the Epistle to the Romans, perhap