BALLIOL COLLEGE

The college, occupying the corner between the lane on the east of St Mary Magdalene’s Church and Broad Street, is Balliol. It was founded by Devorguilla, wife of John de Balliol[1] father of the Scottish king[2] of that name, about 1262. It was not then a college in the modern sense of the word – that is, an institution for the pursuit of learning where masters and students live in common. It was merely a hostel for sixteen poor scholars and was ruled by two procurators. Bishop Richard Fox[3] raised the institution to collegiate status in the early sixteenth century.
The buildings are largely modern and uninspiring, but the walls of the old hall – now the library – and the old buttery which has been in­corporated into the master’s lodgings, date from the fifteenth century.
John Wyclif[4] was master for a year. Cardinal Morton,[5] one of Henry VII’s[6] archbishops of Canterbury, and Cuthbert Tunstall,[7] bishop of Durham in Reformation times, were students here. (From Goulder, Pilgrimage Pamphlets: Oxford & Cambridge, 1963)

Despite the Wyclif connection (he was Master in 1360), Balliol stood against Henry VIII’s religious innovations with more determination than any other college, only sealing their oath accepting the Royal Supremacy (of the English Church) after adding the words ‘as far as divine law and the orthodox faith allows’. Later, Robert Persons, who led the Jesuit mission to England with St Edmund Campion, converted to Catholicism while Bursar in 1575. Blessed Thomas Pilcher, a Fellow 1577-8, became a priest and was martyred in Dorchester (in Dorset) in 1587; St Alexander Briant, martyred with St Edmund Campion at Tyburn, had also been associated with Balliol.

In the 19th Century it produced two great Catholic converts from among its Fellows: W.G. Ward and Newman’s friend Frederick Oakley. Henry, Cardinal Manning was an undergraduate here before his conversion, and his portrait hangs in the Hall (see also under ‘Merton’).

For more on the history of Balliol College, see their site.

The Catherine Wheel Inn, the inn where two Catholic priests and two laymen were seized, later to be executed, in 1589, had its site on the part of Balliol College opposite St Mary Magdalen’s church (in fact, directly opposite the alter of St Catherine of Alexandria in that church). With the Star Inn, the Swan Inn, and the Mitre (still standing in the High Street), it was a regular venue for the Mass under the Elizabethan persecution. The inn continued to be a Catholic centre, serving as a venue for Gunpowder Plot conspirators, and for those of the Cavalier Plot of 1648. It was absorbed by Balliol College in 1714, and eventually demolished.

Outside the college is the site of the burning of Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley: this is marked on the road; a plaque on the wall of Balliol accompanies it.

[1] Died 1269.
[2] Reigned 1292-1296. He surrendered to Edward I (reigned 1272-1307) and abdicated. He died in 1315.
[3] 21 Bishop of Exeter 1487-1492, of Bath and Wells 1492-1494, of Durham 1494­-1501, of Winchester 1501-1528.
[4] Died 1384. Master of Canterbury Hall 1365-1366. Some authorities hold that this John Wyclif was not identical with the notorious heresiarch.
[5] Bishop of Ely 1479-1486, archbishop of Canterbury 1486-1500. Cardinal 1493. St Thomas More (lived 1478-1535) was a page in his household. This would explain why More was an undergraduate at Canterbury Hall-the house of studies run by the monks of the cathedral priory of Canterbury.
[6] Reigned 1485-1509.
[7] Bishop of London 1522-1530, of Durham 1530-1559. He was deprived in 1553, restored by Mary, and deprived again by Elizabeth I (reigned 1558-1603) in the year of his death.