The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume VII. Cavalier and Puritan.
§ 2. Winchester
Winchester, the most ancient and conservative of all, was still governed mainly by the statutes of William of Wykeham. It had been distinctly menaced with dissolution by the Chantries act of 1547; but the actual result of the royal injunctions was little more, in the direction of reform, than to make the Latin or English version optional in the study of the text of the New Testament, although prescribing the use of the vernacular by the scholars at grace and at their devotions. The school continued to be recruited mainly from the diocese of Winchester and from the midland counties; it had educated Chicheley, Chandler (afterwards dean of Hereford), Warham and Grocyn; its loyalty never swerved. When King Edward visited the city in 1552, commoners and scholars had alike composed congratulatory verses; they did the same when the marriage of Mary and Philip was celebrated in their ancient cathedral; and, again, when Elizabeth visited the college in 1570. But, in 1560, the college petitioned successfully, along with Eton, to be allowed the use of the Latin Prayer Book; while the number and importance of its converts to Rome, in the latter part of the century, was a symptom that could not be disregarded. During James’s reign, more than one visitation, together with a series of injunctions issued by archbishop Bancroft, clearly indicate abuses, both in management and discipline, which betray the fact that the financial administration by the master and fellows was conceived on principles not a whit more disinterested than those of the commissioners of Edward VI.