references, perceived at the first glance, that great research had been made among antique repositories; and it might be presumed that some few at least of the documents which recorded the acts of the Bishop's life, would also relate various circumstances tending, if we may so express it, to give such a breadth to his history as to include some of the strongest illustrations of the contemporary state of society. We were not, therefore, prepared to expect, in this elegant and costly volume, one of the very driest, dullest performances on which antiquarian industry was ever wasted. To a few of the inhabitants of the city which contains the Bishop's monument, to the very few individuals in England who are intent on general ecclesiastical topography, and to as many persons as may feel an interest, on any account, in the history of Magdalen College, Oxford, the book may recommend itself by such minute local and chronicled facts as they alone will know how to appreciate; and it is the most reasonable to suppose it was intended for them exclusively, since it could hardly be possible for even the author to fancy such a detail of local popish cares and institutions, as a great part of the work consists of, could have the smallest interest for general readers.

It begins with the utmost gravity of antiquarian labour concerning the name and the rank in life of the Bishop's father, the great and controverted question of which of the colleges of Oxford he went to,and the period of his changing his name from Patten, or Barbour, to Waynflete, the name of his native town in Lincolnshire. This town itself is brought in afterwards for its proper quantum of description; and the stone figures on the tomb there of Richard Patten, the Bishop's father, are minutely investigated, exhibited in an engraving, and subjected to a disquisition relative to the indications afforded, in the dress of the principal figure, of the quality of the said Richard Patten. Was he a merchant or a gentleman ? He is adjudged to have been the latter. The rings, the gir die, purse, and knife, bespeak not a vulgar person.' a rather curious case of legislative interference is mentioned; and in the tone of censure, perhaps from forgetting that lawmakers must naturally estimate the utility' of their office by the fulness of the statute-book.

6

And here

• It had been usual for shoes or boots to end in pikes, designed to be tied at the knee with laces of silk, or with,chains of silver sometimes gilded: which foppery lasted in England from 1382 to the third of Edward the Fourth, when it was ordained by statute that no person under a lord should have them exceeding two inches in length. It seems that Richard Patten survived this reform; his shoes witnessing in their pikes a restriction, which, as productive of no public utility, has been pronounced appressive, and an infringement on personal liberty. p. 247.

Having made laudable attainments in 'polite literature, philo sophy and divinity,' such as they were, (for, as Dr Chandler justly asks, what were these before the Reformation?") the young scholar entered into the holy orders of the Romish church; and the biographer has traced him, in the episcopal register of Lincoln,' from the year 1420 to 1426, in the progress of aco lyte, sub-deacon, and presbyter.

The first considerable step in the ascent towards the high station he ultimately attained, was his appointment as Master of Winchester school, which had been founded by Bishop Wykeham. This office, which combined great labour, dignity, and responsibility, had an assigned rate of emolument, which gives a curious view of the learned founder's speculations on the future maximum price of corn, (for such, according to modern notions, it would have been, even if the value of money had not fallen,)-of his intentions as to the philosophic moderation of the successive occupants of the office, and of that grave petty regulation of trifling circumstantials, which is so characteristic of superstitious nations and ages.

He' (Wykeham) has allowed the master weekly commons, the same as the fellows and chaplains; to wit, twelve pence in plentiful years; an increase to thirteen, fourteen, and sixteen pence, when wheat shall happeni to be at the high price of two shillings a bushel, and no further: also, every Christmas, eight yards of cloth, about one shilling and nine pence the yard, the price limited for the warden, fellows, and chaplains; the colour not to be white or black, russet or green; and this he is to have made into a decent robe, reaching to his heels, with a hood, the robe to be trimmed with fur, for which he is allotted three shillings and four pence. They are all inhibited from selling, pawning, or giving away their livery within five years from the time of their receiving it. The stipend for teaching is ten pounds.' p. 14.

His worthy and efficient conduct for eleven years, in this situation, was made known to King Henry VI., who was projecting a seminary of learning at Eton, and determined to give the chief direction of it to Waynflete, who, after a few years, was promoted from the capacity of master to that of provost, with a stipend of thirty pounds per annum. The account of the ceremonies attending this promotion is followed by a most learned controversial history of the additions then made by him, and afterwards religiously retained, in his armorial bearing. There is something so venerable and imposing in the very diction of this subject, that we are rather reluctant to profane it by quoting even so much as the first sentence of the important statement, as follows:

The arms of the family of Patten, alias Barbour, were a field fusily ermine and sable; Waynflete, as provost, inserted on a chief of the second, three lilies slipped argent; being the arms of the college.'

From his first entering on the brighter stage of his fortunes, he had never ceased to be the object of the royal attention; and if such a thing could at that time be secured by learning, integrity, and exemplary wisdom and industry in discharging the duties of an important office, there appears no ground for suspecting that Master William,' as royal familiarity, it is reported, would sometimes call him, made primary use of any other means. The consequence, however, was such, as it would, in modern estimation, be worth while to employ all conducive means to obtain; for he was appointed, with an eager baste in the process, on the king's part, though with due reluctance on his own, to the see of Winchester, left vacant by the famous Cardinal Beaufort, who died miserably in his palace in that city, the 11th of April, 1447, at a great age, and immensely rich." Waynflete's unanimous election by the ecclesiastics of Winchester was speedily announced to him by two of them, deputed to wait on him at Eton; and they must have been exceedingly affected and instructed by the manner in which he received the news.

He protested often, and with tears, and could not be prevailed on to undertake the important office to which he was called, until they found him, about sun-set, in the church of St. Mary; when he consented, saying, he would no longer resist the divine will?'

We think that on the strength of this account, taken from an old record of unquestionable authority, Dr. Chandler should have boldly contradicted Dr. Badden, a laudatory and declamatory biographer of Waynflete at the beginning of the seventeenth century, who allows, it seems, with respect to this preferment, that Waynflete did not perhaps entirely abstain from availing himself of the power of illustrious persons;'whereas it is most evident from the testimony here quoted, that, so far from doing this, he would have 'protested' at the slightest reference to any such subject.

Winchester was retained by him throughout the remainder of his long life; and it is justly noticed as a very remarkable fact, that three prelates in succession held the same bishopric a hundred and nineteen years, the time between the consecration of Wykeham and the death of Waynflete. The last had it thirty-eight years and twelve days, one year less than Wykeham, and three than Beaufort.' It was a station of quite sufficient dignity to support a man's pretensions at court, and to give full scope for the effect of his talents. He obtained, however, the still prouder situation of High-chancellor in 1456, but resigned it in 1460, in order to be less dangerously involved in the dreadful contest that was then rising to its utmost fury. The duration of his episcopal life comprehended nearly the whole of

the most barbarous and calamitous period that England has known since the Conquest, a period in which the people, with perse vering and inexhaustible rage, tore one another to pieces, like rabid hounds or wolves, for a disagreement on the questionwhich it was of two families, of their own equal and wicked fellow-mortals, that they all belonged to. That Waynflete must have conducted himself, throughout this most disastrous period, with consummate prudence, in the better sense of that word, we think is evident from his experiencing not only impunity, but even respect and favour, from both the parties, and in all the vicissitudes, in that rancorous and destructive contest. Whatever proportion there might be of the policy of self-interest in his moderation, (a policy which, assuredly, no man was bound to abandon for the sake of the difference between a white and a red rose,- -a difference about as important, perhaps, as any between the claims of the two parties,) there must have been in the minds of both of them a firm conviction of his integrity. No hypocritical time-serving would have deluded the discernment, or commanded the respect, of either of the parties in their season of success. Least of all would it have beguiled the vindictive keenness of such a man as Richard, who did, however, treat the Bishop with respect, and even kindness, notwithstanding his unequivocal partiality to

the Lancastrian interest.

The Bishop was a very faithful member of the Romish church, and behaved himself with a dutiful consistency when appointed, with several other high ecclesiastics, on a commission to sit in judgement on the writings of Reginald Pecock, Bishop of Chichester, who had received holy orders at the same time, and from the same Bishop, as Waynflete; but had at length adopted the tenets of Wickliff, and preached zealously against the corruption of the higher clergy. The sentence had, however, rather less of vengeance in it than might have been expected from the spirit of the church, the ferocity of the times, the formidable tendency of the offensive novelties, and the rank and character of the class of persons most directly aggrieved. Those persons were such as, happily, we shall never see again.

The spiritual lords were then served on the knee, and had pompous retinues; some, it is related, appearing abroad with as many as fourscore attendants, their horses all bedecked with silver trappings. So splendid was the mitre when conferred on Waynflete: whose approved moderation, with the worthy uses to which he destined his revenue, was well adapted to conciliate the temper of his adversaries. He persevered in his wonted and unaffected humility. p. 43.

When a man dared to attack a most firmly compacted and

powerfully armed body of men like these; and to render, by his eloquence, the grandeur annexed to episcopacy a subject of public clamour and indignation,' we think he really should have been too much prepared for consequences to 'die of chagrin' when he was sentenced to sit in his pontificals, as Bishop of Chichester, at the feet of the archbishop, and to see his books delivered to the flames, in St. Paul's churchyard; besides undergoing other disgrace, and retiring to an abbey on a pension.'

But Waynflete is represented as having done perhaps as much mischief to the popish cause by his zeal in the promotion of learning, as all his other labours did it good; and the society of the college, (Magdalen) founded and endowed by him at Oxford, was conspicuous for producing zealous abettors of the Reformation. This college was sincerely intended as a service to learning, perhaps nearly as much as to popery. If there was an additional object, the perpetuating of the fame of the founder, that was, of course, according to the principles of human nature, a motive of far inferior force. This institution was the grand and favourite work of his life, and it will be the main preserver (second, perhaps we ought to say, to this immortal volume) of whatever reputation has become connected with his name. A large portion of the book is occupied with the plan, the progress, the numerous regulations, the distinguished officers, and the prosperous fortunes, of this institution which was cherished, watched over, and provided for, with the most affectionate solicitude to almost the last day of the founder's life, which was the 11th of August, 1486.-His will bequeaths his soul to Almighty God, the Virgin, Mary Magdalene, and the patron-saints of his cathedral,' and among sundry other arrangements, enjoins on his executors to cause five thousand masses, in honour of the five wounds of Christ, and the five joys of the Virgin Mary, to be celebrated on the day of his burial, the trental of his obit, and other days, as soon as possible, for his soul, and the souls of his parents and friends. A magnificent chapel, for his tomb, had been prepared in Winchester cathedral during his lifetime, with a waste of expence very strongly illustrating the prevalence of superstition, or vanity, or both, in the mind of a man so really desirous of promoting more public and liberal objects.

Our quota of dues to his character will have been fully paid, when we have added Dr. Chandler's finishing eulogium.

"I have met with no accusation of, or reflections on, Waynfleet, which I have not produced into open view. Humane and benevolent in an uncommon degree, he appears to have had no enemies but from party, and to have disarmed even these of their malice. His devotion was fervent without