Canterbury College, Oxford

Canterbury College, Oxford was a University of Oxford college owned and run by Christ Church Priory, Canterbury. The Priory first sent 4 monks to study in Oxford in 1311, in a hall it had bought there near the church of St. Peter-in-the-East, but the actual college was founded in 1362 by Simon Islip, archbishop of Canterbury, in the parish of St. Edward. It was to consist of twelve students (initially 4 monks and 8 "secular clerks" - ie students who were not monks), under a warden, who would be a monk chosen by the Priory's prior and admitted by the archbishop. Its endowment was granted in 1363, and included the church of Pagham, Sussex, along with (initially) eight Oxford houses' rents and a portion of the rents from Woodford, Northamptonshire and Worminghall, Buckinghamshire, where the Priory had manors. Other endowments came in 1373, 1380, and 1392, eventually coming to about £86 a year, although these all gradually disappeared.

The licence to acquire land for building was only given in 1364 and, although a year later Islip pulled out the monks and turned the warden into a secular clerk (called John Wiclif), Islip's successor William Edington put the monks back in place and had the pope expel all the secular clerks in 1370. One more monk was added in 1383, with the Priory paying for all 5 monks' maintenance at 10 pennies per week per monk. One of its students from Canterbury Priory was Thomas Chillenden, later Prior of the monastery. Rooms were rented to other Benedictine monasteries' members, including Rochester, Coventry, Battle, Peterborough, and Evesham, though all inmates were to a greater or lesser extent subject to Gloucester College's 'prior studentium'. In 1426 the 'prior studentium' complained that Canterbury College's students were breaking Benedictine rules on eating meat. Just after being dissolved, the college's hall, chapel and other buildings were acquired by Christ Church.

ources

* [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=40175 'Houses of Benedictine monks: Canterbury College, Oxford', A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 2 (1907), pp. 68.] Date accessed: 31 October 2007.