Editing Oriel College, Oxford (section)

== History ==
=== Middle Ages ===
On 24 April 1324,<ref name="FD">Christopher and Edward Hibbert's ''The Encyclopedia of Oxford'' at p. 291 gives the date as 24 April, with the wording "Adam de Brome, obtained from King Edward II, licence". [[Jeremy Catto]]'s article about Brome in the ''[[Dictionary of National Biography|Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'' gives the date as 20 April, with a similar wording. Rannie's ''Oriel College'' at p. 4 has "On April 28, 1324, [[Letters patent|Letters Patent]] issued by the King giving licence"</ref> the Rector of the [[University Church of St Mary the Virgin|University Church]], [[Adam de Brome]], obtained a licence from [[Edward II of England|King Edward II]] to found a "certain college of scholars studying various disciplines in honour of the Virgin" and to endow it to the value of £30 a year.<ref name="TEO">[[Christopher Hibbert|Hibbert, Christopher]], ''The Encyclopedia of Oxford'' London: [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] (1988) pp. 291–295.</ref> Brome bought two properties in 1324, Tackley's Hall, on the south side of the [[High Street, Oxford|High Street]], and Perilous Hall, on the north side of [[Broad Street, Oxford|Broad Street]], and as an investment, he also purchased the [[advowson]] of a church in [[Aberford]].<ref name="OCR" />{{rp|5}}

[[File:Oriel College Charter.jpg|thumb|left|300px|The college charter of 1326 given by [[Edward II of England|Edward II]].

The concluding nine words give the date as 21 January in the nineteenth year of his reign.]]
Brome's foundation was confirmed in a charter dated 21 January 1326, in which the Crown, represented by the [[Lord Chancellor]], was to exercise the rights of [[Visitor]]; a further charter drawn up in May of that year gave the rights of Visitor to [[Henry Burghersh]], [[Bishop of Lincoln]], as Oxford at that time was part of the [[diocese of Lincoln]]. Under Edward's patronage, Brome diverted the revenues of the University Church to his college, which thereafter was responsible for appointing the Vicar and providing four chaplains to celebrate the daily services in the church.<ref name="OCR" />{{rp|6–11}} The college lost no time in seeking royal favour again after Edward II's deposition, and [[Edward III of England|Edward III]] confirmed his father's favour in February 1327, but the amended statutes with the [[Bishop of Lincoln]] as Visitor remained in force.<ref name="OCL">
Varley, F.J., ''The Oriel College Lawsuit, 1724–26'' [http://www.oahs.org.uk/oxo/vol%206/Varley.doc Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society, Oxford] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614094048/http://www.oahs.org.uk/oxo/vol%206/Varley.doc |date=14 June 2007 }}  ([[DOC (computing)|DOC]]).
</ref> In 1329, the college received by royal grant a large house belonging to the Crown, known as La Oriole,<ref name="TBO">{{cite book |last=Sherwood |first=Jennifer |author2=Nikolaus Pevsner |title=The Building of England: Oxfordshire pp.176–180 |year=1974 |publisher=Penguin/Yale University Press |isbn=0-300-09639-9}}</ref> on the site of what is now First Quad.<ref name="TI">
Pantin, W.A., ''Tackley's Inn'' [http://www.oahs.org.uk/oxo/vol%207/Pantin.doc Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society, Oxford] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614094045/http://www.oahs.org.uk/oxo/vol%207/Pantin.doc |date=14 June 2007 }}  ([[DOC (computing)|DOC]]).
</ref> It is from this property that the college acquired its common name, "Oriel"; the name was in use from about 1349. The word referred to an ''oratoriolum'', or [[oriel window]], forming a feature of the earlier property.<ref name="TEO" />

In the early 1410s several fellows of Oriel took part in the disturbances accompanying [[Thomas Arundel|Archbishop Arundel]]'s attempt to stamp out [[Lollardy]] in the university; the Lollard belief that religious power and authority came through [[piety]] and not through the hierarchy of the Church particularly inflamed passions in Oxford, where its proponent, [[John Wycliffe]], had been head of [[Balliol College, Oxford|Balliol]]. Disregarding the provost's authority, Oriel's fellows fought bloody battles with other scholars, killed one of the [[Chancellor of Oxford University|Chancellor]]'s servants when they attacked his house, and were prominent among the group that obstructed the Archbishop and ridiculed his censures.<ref name="OUAS" />

In 1442, [[Henry VI of England|Henry VI]] sanctioned an arrangement whereby the town was to pay the college £25 a year from the [[fee farm]] (a type of feudal tax) in exchange for decayed property, allegedly worth £30 a year, which the college could not afford to keep in repair. The arrangement was cancelled in 1450.<ref name="MO">Crossley, Alan (editor), [https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol4/pp3-73 'Medieval Oxford'], ''A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 4: The City of Oxford'' (1979) — Oxford University Press via British History Online {{ISBN|0-19-722714-7}}.</ref>{{rp|53}}

=== Early Modern ===
[[File:Oriel College 1675.jpg|left|thumb|1675 [[engraving|copper engraving]] of the college, looking east across the front entrance and First Quad; on the left is the tiered garden where Second Quad would be built.]]

In 1643, a general obligation was imposed on Oxford colleges to support the [[Cavalier|Royalist cause]] in the [[First English Civil War|English Civil War]]. The King called for Oriel's plate, and almost all of it was given, the total weighing {{nowrap|29 lb. 0 oz. 5 [[pennyweight|dwt]]}}. of gilt, and {{nowrap|52 lb. 7 oz. 14 dwt}}. of "white" plate. In the same year the college was assessed at £1 of the weekly sum of £40 charged on the colleges and halls for the fortification of the city.<ref name="OCR" />{{rp|101–102}} When the [[Oxford Parliament (1644)|Oxford Parliament]] was assembled during the Civil War in 1644, Oriel housed the executive committee of the [[Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council|Privy Council]], Parliament being held at neighbouring [[Christ Church, Oxford|Christ Church]].<ref name="BCW" /> Following the defeat of the Royalist cause, the university was scrutinised by the Parliamentarians, and five of the eighteen Oriel fellows were removed. The Visitors, on their own authority, elected fellows between 1648 and October 1652, when without reference to the Commissioners, John Washbourne was chosen; the autonomy of the college in this respect seems to have been restored.<ref name="OCR" />{{rp|105}}

In 1673 James Davenant, a fellow since 1661, complained to [[William Fuller (bishop)|William Fuller]], then Bishop of Lincoln, about Provost Say's conduct in the election of Thomas Twitty to a fellowship. Bishop Fuller appointed a commission that included the [[Vice-Chancellor]], [[Peter Mews]]; the Dean of Christ Church, [[John Fell (clergyman)|John Fell]]; and the Principal of [[Brasenose College, Oxford|Brasenose]], Thomas Yates. On 1 August Fell reported to the Bishop that:<ref name="OCR" />{{rp|108–110}}
<blockquote>When this Devil of buying and selling is once cast out, your Lordship will, I hope, take care that he return not again, lest he bring seven worse than himself into the house after 'tis swept and garnisht.</blockquote>
On 24 January 1674, Bishop Fuller issued a decree dealing with the recommendations of the commissioners—a majority of all the fellows should always be present at an election, so the provost could not push an election in a thin meeting, and fellows should be admitted immediately after their election. On 28 January Provost Say obtained from the King a recommendation for Twitty's election, but it was withdrawn on 13 February, following the Vice-Chancellor's refusal to swear Twitty into the university and the Bishop's protests at Court.<ref name="OCR" />{{rp|108–110}}

[[File:Oriel College 1733.jpg|right|thumb|1733 copper engraving of the college, looking south, after the completion of [[John Robinson (1650–1723)|Bishop Robinson's]] and Provost Carter's buildings in Second Quad]]
During the early 1720s, a constitutional struggle began between the provost and the fellows, culminating in a lawsuit. In 1721, Henry Edmunds was elected as a fellow by 9 votes to 3; his election was rejected by Provost George Carter, and on appeal, by the Visitor, [[Edmund Gibson]], then Bishop of Lincoln. The provost continued to reject candidates, fuelling discontent among the fellows, until a [[writ of attachment]] against the Bishop of Lincoln was heard between 1724 and 1726. The opposing fellows, led by Edmunds, appealed to the original statutes, claiming the Crown as Visitor, making Gibson's decisions invalid; Provost Carter, supported by Bishop Gibson, appealed to the second version, claiming the Bishop of Lincoln as Visitor. The jury decided for the fellows, supporting the original charter of Edward II.<ref name="OCL" />

In a private printing of 1899, Provost Shadwell lists thirteen [[Gaudy|Gaudies]] observed by the college during the 18th century; by the end of the 19th century all but two, the [[Feast of the Immaculate Conception]] and the [[Purification of the Virgin]], had ceased to be celebrated.<ref name="OCR" />{{rp|241}}

=== Modern ===
[[File:Oriel College 1919 Photogravure.jpg|right|thumb|1919 [[photogravure]] of the college, looking south, after the completion of the Rhodes Building (in the foreground)]]

In the early 19th century, the reforming zeal of Provosts [[John Eveleigh (Oriel)|John Eveleigh]] and [[Edward Copleston]] gained Oriel a reputation as the most brilliant college of the day. It was the centre of the "[[Oriel Noetics]]" — clerical liberals such as [[Richard Whately]] and [[Thomas Arnold]] were fellows,<ref name=NO>''Newman's Oxford – A Guide for Pilgrims'', Ecumenical undertaking between the Vicar of Littlemore and the Fathers of the Oratory at Birmingham — (Oxonian Rewley Press, c. 1978), p. 10</ref> and during the 1830s, two intellectually eminent fellows of Oriel, [[John Keble]] and [[John Henry Newman|Saint John Henry Newman]], supported by [[Edward Bouverie Pusey|Canon Pusey]] (also an Oriel fellow initially, later at [[Christ Church, Oxford|Christ Church]]) and others, formed a group known as the [[Oxford Movement]], alternatively as the Tractarians, or familiarly as the Puseyites. The group was disgusted by the then Church of England and sought to revive the spirit of [[early Christianity]].<ref name="OXM">
Ollard, S.L., ''The Oxford Architectural and Historical Society and the Oxford Movement'' [http://www.oahs.org.uk/oxo/vol%205/Ollard.doc Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society, Oxford] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614094047/http://www.oahs.org.uk/oxo/vol%205/Ollard.doc |date=14 June 2007 }}  ([[DOC (computing)|DOC]])
</ref><ref>DeLaura, David, '[http://victorianweb.org/books/delaura/1.html The Oriel Inheritance]' (chapter one), ''Hebrew and Hellene in Victorian England: Newman, Arnold, and Pater'' (1969) — published by [[University of Texas Press]]. Retrieved on 30 September 2006</ref> Tension arose in college since Provost [[Edward Hawkins]] was a determined opponent of the Movement.<ref name="NO" />

During the [[World War I|First World War]], a wall was built dividing Third Quad from Second Quad to accommodate members of [[Somerville College, Oxford|Somerville College]] in St Mary's Hall while their college buildings were being used as a military hospital. At that time Oxford separated male and female students as far as possible; [[Vera Brittain]], one of the Somerville students, recalled an amusing occurrence during her time there in her autobiography, ''[[Testament of Youth]]'':

{{Blockquote|multiline=yes|
[...] the few remaining undergraduates in the still masculine section of Oriel not unnaturally concluded that it would be a first-rate "rag" to break down the wall which divided them from the carefully guarded young females in St. Mary Hall. Great perturbation filled the souls of the Somerville dons when they came down to breakfast one morning to find that a large gap had suddenly appeared in the protecting masonry, through which had been thrust a hilarious placard:

{{"'}}OO MADE THIS 'ERE 'OLE?"

"MICE!!!"

Throughout that day and the following night the Senior [[Common Room (university)#Oxford|Common Room]], from the Principal downwards, took it in turns to sit on guard beside the hole, for fear any unruly spirit should escape through it to the forbidden adventurous males on the other side.<ref>{{cite book|last=Brittain|first=Vera|author-link=Vera Brittain|title=Testament of Youth: An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900–1925|year=1933|publisher=Penguin Books|page=136|isbn=9780140188448}}</ref>}}

In 1985, the college became the last all-male college in Oxford to start to admit women for [[matriculation]] as undergraduates. In 1984, the Senior Common Room voted 23–4 to admit women undergraduates from 1986. The Junior Common Room president believed that "the distinctive character of the college will be undermined".<ref>''Cherwell Retropsective'' (1984 section) ''[[Cherwell (newspaper)|The Cherwell]]'' 24 November 1989 edition.</ref>

A second feast day was added in 2007 by a benefaction from George Moody, formerly of Oriel, to be celebrated on or near [[St George's Day]] (23 April). The only remaining gaudy had then been [[Candlemas]]; the new annual dinner was to be known as the St. George's Day Gaudy. The dinner is [[black tie]] and gowns, and by request of the benefactor, the main course will normally be goose.<ref>''Oriel News'' Issue 6 Summer 2007 published by the Oriel College Development Trust.</ref>