Founders and Fellowship

This book traces the history of Exeter College, Oxford, from its first endowment by Walter Stapeldon, bishop of Exeter, in 1314 until the College's refoundation by Sir William Petre in the 1560s and the election of the zealously protestant Thomas Holland as head of the College in 1592, which brought Exeter's reputation as a fiercely catholic college to a definitive end. It is closely based on the sources, particularly the College's unpublished account rolls, and deals in detail with all aspects of College life during the period: the origins and careers of the fellows; books, studies and intellectual life; possessions and finances; the College site; the daily round, as reflected in the entertainment of visitors, relations with old members, the travels of the fellows, and the services held in the chapel; and the rise of the College's undergraduate population. The effects of the Reformation on the College are given particularly full treatment, and here, as at all points, the history of the College is related to the general history of the period, so that, for example, the effects of the Black Death and of the economic depression of the fifteenth century are seen in microcosm through the College's history. The richness of the sources has allowed Exeter's story to be told with a fullness not attempted in other comparable college histories and at the same time to be seen as part of the wider history of England.