nt where the last
Gothic meets the early Renaissance. Nicholas Close has commonly been
considered to be the architect. He was a man of Flemish family, and for
a few years held the cure of the parish of St. John Zachary, which
church stood on the west side of Milne Street, and probably so close to
it that the high altar of the church was on ground afterwards enclosed
within the western bays of the Ante-Chapel. Close, in 1450, was
appointed to the See of Carlisle, and in 1452 transferred to Lichfield.
He certainly received from the King the grant of a coat of arms for his
services, but it might fairly be said that John Langton, Master of
Pembroke College, and Chancellor of the University, who also had the
title of "Surveyor," a term generally admitted to be synonymous with
architect, has an equally strong claim. But Mr. G. G. Scott, in his
essay on English Church Architecture, says "the man who really should
have had the credit of conceiving this great work was the master-mason,
Reginald Ely, appointed by a patent of Henry VI to press masons,
carpenters, and other workers." According to Mr. Scott's view, "Close
and his successors did the work which in modern days would be done,
though less efficiently, by a building committee. But they were
ecclesiastics, not architects; it is the master-mason, not the more
dignified 'surveyor,' to whom the honour of planning the building should
be attributed."

Royal Benefactors

[Illustration: LOOKING EAST FROM PROVOST STALL]

BESIDES the founder, whose misfortunes hindered the completion of his
work, four successive kings aided in its erection. When Henry was taken
prisoner at St. Albans in 1455, the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick
promised to supply funds for the college buildings. For a time they kept
their word, and some part of the L1,000 a year promised by Henry from
the Duchy of Lancaster continued to be paid; but the defeat of the King
at the battle of Towton in 1461 and the subsequent overthrow of the
Lancaster dynasty checked progress. "After a long time spent in hiding
in secret places, wherein for safety's sake he was forced to keep close,
he was found and taken, brought as a traitor and criminal to London, and
imprisoned in the Tower, and eventually suffered a violent death. He was
buried at Chertsey Abbey, but his body was afterwards removed to Windsor
Castle."[3] Still, the idea was there, and it remained for a later
generation only to imitate and complete. In 1