A HISTORY OF THE COLLEGES, HALLS, AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS, ATTACHED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, INCLUDING THE LIVES OF THE FOUNDERS. BY ALEX. CHALMERS, F. S. A. ILLUSTRATED BY A SERIES OF ENGRAVINGS. VOL. II. J'OXFORD, PRINTED BY COLLINGWOOD AND CO. For J. COOKE and J. PARKER, Oxford; and Messrs. LONGMAN, HURST, REES, and ORME, London. CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE. a RICHARD FOX, the Founder of this College, was the son of Thomas Fox, and born at Ropesley, near Grantham in Lincolnshire, about the latter end of the reign of Henry VI. His parents are said to have been in mean circumstances; but they must at least have been able to afford him school education, since the only dispute on this subject between his biographers is, whether he was educated in grammar-learning at Boston or at Winchester. They all agree, that at a proper age he was sent to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was acquiring distinction for his extraordinary proficiency, when the plague, which happened to break out about that time, obliged him to go to Cambridge, and continue his studies at Pembroke Hall. After remaining some time at Cambridge, he repaired to the University of Paris, and studied divinity and the canon law, and here probably he received his Doctor's degree. This visit gave a new and im a According to Wood, who availed himself of some MSS. accounts of Fox preserved in this College, written by President Greenway, "the "Founder was born in an ancient house, known to some by the name "of Pullock's Manor." This house, he adds, was well known for many years to the Fellows of Corpus, who reverently visited it when they went to keep courts at their manors. To what was before recorded of Fox, Mr. William Fulman, a Scholar of Corpus, and an able antiquary, made many additions, with a view to publication, which he did not live to complete. His MSS. are partly in the library of this College, and partly in the Ashmolean Museum. Mr. Gough drew up a very accurate sketch of Fox's life for the Vetusta Monumenta. portant turn to his life, and introduced him to that eminence which he preserved for many years as a statesman. In Paris he became acquainted with Dr. Morton, Bishop of Ely, whom Richard III. had compelled to quit his native country, and by this Prelate he was recommended to the Earl of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII. who was then providing for a descent upon England. Richmond, to whom he devoted himself, conceived such an opinion of his talents and fidelity, that he entrusted to his care a negociation with France for supplies of men and money, the issue of which he was not able himself to await; and. Fox succeeded to the utmost of his wishes. After the defeat of the usurper at the battle of Bosworth in 1485, and the establishment of Henry on the throne, the latter immediately appointed Fox to be one of his Privy Council, and about the same time bestowed on him the prebends of Bishopston and South Grantham in the church of Salisbury. In 1487, he was promoted to the see of Exeter, and appointed Keeper of the Privy Seal, with a pension of twenty shillings a day. He was also made Principal Secretary of State, and Master of St. Cross, near Winchester. His employments in affairs of state both at home and abroad were very frequent, as he shared the King's confidence with his early friend Dr. Morton, who was now advanced to the Archbishopric of Canterbury. In 1487, Fox was sent ambassador, with Sir Richard Edgecombe, Comptroller of the Household, to James III. of Scotland, where he negociated a prolongation of the truce between England and Scotland, which was to expire July 3, 1488, to Sept. 1, 1489. About the beginning of 1491, he was employed in an embassy to |