Oriel College

“ The buildings of Oriel, which face Oriel Street, are not coeval with the foundation. The first quadrangle, with its elaborate battlements, dates from 1620–1637. The inner quadrangle has buildings of 1719, 1729 and later dates. The modern extension on Cecil Rhodes’s foundation faces High Street. Early in the 19th century a number of eminent men associated with Oriel gave the college its well known connexion with the “Oxford Movement.” Edward Copleston, elected fellow in 1795, became provost in 1814. ”

“ For in the first half of the nineteenth century there was a revival of spirituality, and men followed the lead, not of a Wycliffe, an Erasmus or a Wesley, but of Keble, Pusey and Newman. Oriel College, whose fellowships were confined neither to members of the college nor, in most cases, to candidates from certain places, was the centre whence men like Hurrell Froude, Keble’s pupil, preached their doctrine of reaction ”

“ He was entered at Oriel College, then under Copleston, on 3 Nov. 1823, and began residence with the highest school reputation in January 1824. In 1825 he won an open scholarship at Trinity College, and in the same year was elected to the Ireland scholarship, of which he was the first holder. He took a first class in classical honours in 1827, and in December 1828 was elected to a fellowship at Balliol. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1832, and practised upon the western circuit. ”

“ But as for the accommodation assigned to him in the early colleges, it was very inferior indeed to that which every graduate at Trinity or St. John's expects to find in our time. The Provost of Oriel in 1329 was permitted by the statutes to dine apart if he pleased, and to reside outside the precincts of the college if he chose to provide for himself another residence ”

“ On account of his absence from Oriel College for a longer time than was allowed, his fellowship was declared vacant on 20 Dec. 1554.
Declining to accept the religious changes of the reign of Elizabeth, he retired to the continent and settled at Louvain. Soon afterwards he visited Rome with William (afterwards Cardinal) Allen and Dr. Vendeville. On his return to Flanders he co-operated with Allen in establishing an English college at Douay, and he advanced the first sum of money for that purpose (Dodd, Church Hist. ii. 100) . ”

“ He was educated at home, and at the age of fifteen he gained a scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and two years afterwards the chancellor's prize for Latin hexameters upon ‘Marius amid the ruins of Carthage.’ His Latin poetry was remarkably good, and a Latin epistle which he addressed to a friend in his seventeenth year will bear comparison with Gray's or Milton's. After proceeding B.A. in 1795 he was invited by the authorities of Oriel to fill a vacant fellowship for which none of the candidates were considered good enough. ”

“ Oriel and its chapel are among the places for religious pilgrimage in Oxford. As Lincoln draws from all parts of the world those who reverence the name of John Wesley, so the Oxford Movement and the Anglican Revival had their starting-point, and for some time their centre, in Oriel. The connection of the College with the Movement was not in either case a mere accident; the Oxford Revival, at any rate, was profoundly influenced by the personality of Newman, and Newman, both by attraction and by repulsion, was largely what Oriel made him. ”

“ After his father’s death in 1828 he was sent to a school of a pronounced evangelical type at Redlands, Bristol, and went in 1833 to Wadham College, Oxford, then an evangelical college. He took first-class honours in 1836, and in 1838 was elected fellow of Oriel. One of his contemporaries, Richard Mitchell, commenting on this election, said: “There is such a moral beauty about Church that they could not help taking him.” He was appointed tutor of Oriel in 1839, and was ordained the same year. ”

“ The members of the University are divided into those who are on the foundation and those who are not. Those on the foundation are the dean, president, master, warden, according to the charter of the College; the fellows, scholars, called demies at Magdalene, and post-masters at Merton; chaplains, bible-clerks, servitors, at Christchurch and Jesus. The qualifications for these advantages vary; but leading colleges—Oriel and Balliol—have set an example likely to be followed of throwing fellowships and scholarships open to the competition of the whole university, so that the best man may win. ”

“ Under Edward II. Exeter College was founded, and linked from the beginning with the west country, by the simultaneous co-foundation of a school, and the rule that all the scholars should thence be drawn. Decent poverty and love of learning were the other qualifications of a scholar. Then followed Oriel, with Edward II. as its founder, the advowson of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin as part of its support, and its name derived from the Hall of La Oriole, which it received early, and soon afterwards occupied. Its library was the first college library ”

“ Going westward to Antioch, it was pleasant to find other women who had taken their degrees, and were now teaching Greek and Latin. One of the graduates, employed as a teacher of mathematics, had won her own education in the college by teaching one year,—sometimes in distant district-schools,—and studying the next. At Oberlin, the picture was still more inspiring: for Oberlin has, I suppose, more pupils than any college in the land, if we except Michigan University; and one-half of them are girls and women. The practical working of this college is beautiful to see. ”

“ Our Oregon colleges have thus far written no mean records. You may find on any campus in the State a pure democracy. The standard is merit, not wealth or influence. What a man is establishes his position. Large members of the students are self-supporting and from humble homes. The idle spending of money is rare. It sounds strange indeed to say, in these days of college extravagance, that at our State University $350 will provide all the needs for a college year, for a man or woman, comfortably. ”

“ Here we only wish to point out that the university movement grew out of a high-school agitation, and that this was the result of a deep-seated desire on the part of representative citizens to have a school of higher grade within their midst, both on account of its benefit to the town, and because they naturally preferred to educate their sons and daughters at home. It is noteworthy that several of the leaders in the university movement had, twelve years before, been students of Columbia College. ”

“ The independent college is not the method that has prevailed in the West. When the inspiration to higher education for women arrived west of the Alleghanies, conditions, especially lack of resources, practically necessitated coeducation. Oberlin, founded in 1834, was the first fully coeducational institution of college grade in the world. In 1841 three women received from it the bachelor's degree, the first to get it. ”

“ The religious influences are Congregational, but the institution is not a denominational one. It stands on an independent basis, embodying clear and pronounced educational ideas of its own. It is attaining a growth as one of the distinctive institutions of Oregon, and its prosperity seems assured." In connection with the university is an academy for young ladies, some of the students of which also take the college course. ”

“ At this time more than fifty pupils attended school in the church building. It was decided to erect a school house on a favorable site, and Richmond Cheadle was appointed agent at a salary of one hundred dollars a month for two months to raise $4,000 with which to construct the building. Also, a request was sent to the Baptist Home Missionary Society for a bell and text books as were used in the New England schools. At a meeting held February 15, 1850, the board of trustees decided to name the school the Oregon City College. ”

“ Ought not our people to cultivate in our boys and girls, young men and maidens, during the four college years, love of home and loyalty to State, and a sense of responsibility for its welfare? What of the wisdom in having large numbers go abroad for undergraduate work? Our home institutions need to be developed to be worthy of the best that Oregon can do for its youth.
It is indeed enriching to our State-life that from year to year students return bringing home something of the wealth of thought and culture from the great colleges. ”

“ The institution struggled on, but in 1856–7 some of its most advanced students left it to go to the better endowed eastern colleges. This led the trustees and president to make a special effort, and Marsh went to New York to secure further aid, leaving the university department in the charge of Rev. H. Lyman, professor of mathematics, who associated with him Rev. C. Eells. The help received from the college society and others in the east, enabled the university to improve the general régime of the university. ”

“ During the 6o's, J. W. Johnson, later the first president of the University of Oregon, served four years as principal. In 1922 its name was changed to Linfield College. The following song, copyrighted in 1917, was a belated original production for so old a school:
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To You We're Always True With purpose true as heart of oak that stand beside her door, With heart as pure as snow-crowned hills that look her campus o'er, Our college stands for all that's true in learning, work, or play; For truth and right, we'll win the fight, we'll win for you today. ”

“ After five years of preparation, of painful and strenuous effort, this institution takes a step in advance. The idea of education has taken a higher form of development the academy has become the college." Upon President Marsh personally fell most of the work. He had to outline the policies for the future, to map out the courses of study, set the proper standards for a college education, educate public opinion to appreciate and accept such standards, provide funds for an enlarged work, and do most of the advanced teaching himself. ”

“ A new era opened for Catholic education in Oregon in Oct., 1859, when twelve Sisters of the Holy Names arrived from Montreal and opened at Portland St. Mary's academy and college, which as the mother-house of the community in the province of Oregon has for half a century played an honourable part in the educational work of the north-west. In August, 1871, a school for boys, called St. Michael's College, was opened with 64 pupils. Its first principal was Father Glorieux, now Bishop of Boise. In 1875 we find the pupils publishing a college paper, The Archangel . ”

“ For these reasons this veteran institution of learning has always had a strong hold upon the affections and substantial support of the people, until now, when it can rely on the largest endowment fund contributed to any college in the state by the people of the state. ”

“ Some of these institutions died early; others, as at Monmouth and Corvallis, were merged into state institutions. A few survive as Christian academies and colleges.
Among those which perished were the Clackamas "female seminary" at Oregon City, a college at Eugene, and academies at Sheridan and Santiam. Among the surviving schools are Willamette University, Pacific University, Albany College, and McMinnville College. To this last was turned over the remnant of the property of that Oregon City college, whose early history is given in these letters. ”

“ Reed College is undenominational and non-sectarian, but the authorities regard religion as wholesome and essential to human life. Religious meetings are regularly held accordingly, under the direction of the institution. It is a college of arts and sciences. In its efforts to elevate college standards, it was the first institution in Oregon to announce its refusal to admit special students, preparatory students, or other students on condition. ”

“ Her graduates are admitted for graduate or professional
PACIFIC UNIVERSITY 11
study in all the leading colleges and universities in the land.
If Garfield's conception was a true one, that Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and himself as a student on the other end was all that was needed to make a college, then must it not be true that the value of a college must be measured at least as much by the devotion and learning and character of its instructors and the fine quality of the young men and women which it turns out, as by its costly equipment and size of its student body? ”

“ Thirty-five miles southwest of Cleveland, and some distance inland from Lake Erie, is Oberlin, where, in a fertile and prosperous district, is the leading educational foundation of Northern Ohio—Oberlin College—named in memory of the noted French philanthropist, and established in 1833 by the descendants of the Puritan colonists, to carry out their idea of thorough equality in education. It admits students without distinction of sex or color, and has about thirteen hundred, almost equally divided between the sexes, occupying a cluster of commodious buildings. ”

“ Step by step the free school was opened to girls, and gradually institutions for the higher education of women were established, the pioneer college which opened its doors to the fair sex being Oberlin, in Ohio, in 1833. The advance since then has been great, and at the opening of the twentieth century there was not a college west of the Alleghanies which denied to woman the full advantages of education, while the same was the case in many of the older colleges of the East. ”