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of the age. With the acquisition of knowledge the love of knowledge increased in him; and the wish soon dawned of extending to others the intellectual benefits of which he was himself a partaker. The old chronicler, Hall, in speaking of the causes which led Henry the Sixth to found Eton College and King's College, Cambridge, says of him, "He was of a most liberal mind, and especially to such as loved good learning; and those whom he saw profiting in any virtuous science, he heartily forwarded and embraced." Still stronger in Henry's mind was the desire of marking his gratitude to God by founding and endowing some place of pious instruction and Christian worship. From "the stately brow of Windsor's height" he had often in boyhood gazed on the rich lowlands at its base, through which the Thames "wanders along its silver winding way." There, northward of the Castle on the opposite bank of the river, the little village of Eton, with its humble parish church, met his eye; and the sounds of devotion must often have been wafted thence at matins and at even-song to the ears of the devout king. It was on this spot that he resolved to found one of his intended Colleges; and no sooner had he taken on himself the government of his kingdom than he prepared to carry that resolution into effect. The first charter of foundation of Eton College was granted by Henry on the 11th of October, in the nineteenth year of his life and reign. The commencement of it deserves translation and perusal for the sake of the light which it throws on the primary objects and on the per sonal character of the founder :

"HENRY by the Grace of God, King of England and France and Lord of Ireland, to all to whom these Presents may come, Greeting.

"The triumphant Church that reigns on high, whose head is the Eternal Father, and to which hosts of saints minister, while quires of angels sing the glory of its praise, hath appointed as its vicar upon earth the Church militant, which the only-begotten Son of the same God hath so united to himself in the bond of eternal love, that He hath deigned to name her His most beloved Spouse; and in accordance with the dignity of so great a name, He, as a true and most loving Spouse, hath endowed her with gifts of His grace so ample, that she is called and is the mother and the mistress of all who are born again in Christ; and she hath power

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as a mother over each of them; and all the faithful honour her with filial obedience as a mother and a ruler. And through this worthy consideration sainted princes in bygone time, and most particularly our progenitors, have so studied always to pay to that same most Holy Church the highest honour and devout veneration, that, besides many other glorious works of their virtues, their royal devotion has founded not only in this our kingdom of England, but also in divers foreign regions, hostels, halls, and other pious places, copiously established in affluence of goods and substance. Wherefore we also, who, as the same King of kings, through whom all kings reign, hath ordained, have now taken into our hands the government of both our kingdoms, have from the very commencement of our riper age, turned it in our mind and diligently considered how, or after what fashion, or by what kingly gift suited to the measure of our devotion, and according to the manner of our ancestors, we could do fitting honour to that our same most Holy Lady and Mother, so that He the great Spouse of the Church should also therein be well pleased. And at length, while we thought these things over with inmost meditation, it has become fixed in our heart to found a College in the parish church of Eton, near Wyndesore, not far from the place of our nativity, in honour and in aidance of that our Mother who is so great and so holy. Being unwilling therefore to extinguish so holy an inspiration of our thought, and desiring with our utmost means to please Him, in whose hand are the hearts of all princes, in order that He may the more graciously lighten our heart, so that we may hereafter direct all our royal actions more perfectly according to His good pleasure, and so fight beneath His banner in the present Church, that after serving the Church on earth, we, aided by His grace, may be thought worthy to triumph happily with the Church that is in heaven, We, by virtue of these presents, and with the consent of all interested therein, do found, erect and establish, to endure in all future time, to the praise, glory and honour of Him who suffered on the cross, to the exaltation of the most glorious Virgin Mary his mother, and to the support of the most Holy Church, His Spouse, as aforesaid, a College to be ruled and governed according to the tenor of these presents, consisting of and of the number of one provost and ten priests, four clerks and six chorister boys, who are to serve daily there in the celebration of divine worship, and of twenty-five poor and indigent

scholars who are to learn grammar'; and also of twenty-five poor and infirm men, whose duty it shall be to pray there continually for our health and welfare so long as we live, and for our soul when we shall have departed this life, and for the souls of the illustrious Prince, Henry our father, late king of England and France; also of the Lady Katherine of most noble memory, late his wife, our mother; and for the souls of all our ancestors and of all the faithful who are dead: [consisting] also of one master or teacher in grammar whose duty it shall be to instruct in the rudiments of grammar the said indigent scholars and all others whatsoever who may come together from any part of our kingdom of England to the said College, gratuitously and without the exaction of money or any other thing."

It is indeed evident that King Henry had taken active steps towards the realisation of his pious purpose at even an earlier period of his reign, than the date of this Charter. He had before this purchased the advowson of the parish church of Eton, and his procuratory bears date on the 12th of September in his nineteenth year, by which instrument he empowered certain persons to act as his proctors, and to treat in his behalf with the Bishop of Lincoln, respecting the appropriation of the then parish church of Eton to the intended College: it being his design that the chapel of the College should be erected on the site of the old church, and that it should be the parish church of Eton as well as the College chapel.

Attention has justly been drawn to the time of Henry's life when he addressed himself to this great work; and it has been truly observed in honour of Eton College, and its sister foundation King's College, Cambridge, "that they were not erected to atone for former acts of injustice, cruelty, and murder, or the enormities of a licentious and profligate life, which have too often been the principal, if not the sole causes of the erection of religious houses, and the forming collegiate societies. Many of these foundations may be said to have been laid in rapine, in sacrilege, and in blood: and the structures were considered by those who caused them to be erected, as permanent acts of penitence and remorse." 2 But Henry's royal munificence

1 Grammatica. This formed the first part of the Trivium of the Schoolmen, and treated of the ancient languages exclusively.

2 Ackerman's History of the Colleges of Winchester, Eton, &c., p. 7.

proceeded from the love of good, and not from the fear of ill. "And," as the same historian of our public schools observes, "it is also to the honour of this founder, and his colleges, that when his piety and love of learning had suggested the magnificent designs, the means for ending them were not, as too often happened in similar foundations, obtained from plundering other establishments, nor from the forfeited estates of subjects condemned for treason; of whom there were so many examples, and which he was advised to do, his coffers being by no means in an overflowing state; or from the patrimony of minors, who, as his wards, were at his mercy, but whose rights he protected by his justice: on the contrary, the ample provision he made for the completion of his munificent designs were from his own demesne lands, and the estates of some of the alien priories, which, founded in England, were appropriated to religious houses abroad, and several of them in places which were confederated in active hostilities against him, and, therefore, withdrawn by their own acts and deeds from his protection. These endowments he accordingly assumed, as supreme lord of the land; not, as his rapacious successor, Henry the Eighth, afterwards did, for secular purposes, to say no worse of them; but, on the united principles of justice and humanity, from which he never deviated, he continued them in perpetuity to purposes of the same religious spirit, but far superior utility."

Thus did King Henry the Sixth in the early part of his life and reign, a period which, though saddened by defeat abroad, and troubled by factions at home, was a period of tranquillity compared with the War of the Roses, which soon followed, show that his truly noble ambition was "to enlarge the boundaries of religion and science in the bosom of peace." Nor did he ever abandon this his earliest undertaking. The civil war which soon broke out, and the temporary ruin of the House of Lancaster, prevented him from establishing his Colleges on the full scale of princely grandeur which he had designed. But, "what he was enabled to do, he did well;" and he left Eton and King's so far firmly planted, that they have flourished for four hundred years in efficiency and renown even beyond the most exalted expectations, in which their royal Founder could ever have indulged."

In the passage already translated and quoted from the original charter of Eton, King Henry speaks of the "Hostels, halls, and

other pious places," then existing in England, and "copiously established through the devotion of his royal progenitors in affluence of goods and substance." Numerous places of religious education had already been endowed, both by royal and private founders, in England before Henry's time; but the magnificent foundations of William of Wykeham, at Winchester and Oxford, were the examples which King Henry principally followed. His uncle and tutor, Cardinal Beaufort, had, as Bishop of Winchester, been the Visitor of Winchester College and New College, Oxford; and Beckington, who became Bishop of Bath and Wells, and Lord Chancellor of England, one of Henry's favourite statesmen, had been educated on Wykeham's foundation. Their influence over Henry would naturally lead him to make careful inquiry into the constitution of Winchester and New College, and would predispose him to take William of Wykeham as his chief model; nor could he have selected a nobler one. He resolved, like Wykeham, that the school which he founded, should be connected with a College in one of the Universities, whither the best of the foundation scholars of his school should proceed to complete their education, and where a permanent provision of the amplest nature should be made for them.

The College which he founded at Cambridge for this purpose, and to which he gave the name of King's College, was the largest and most splendidly endowed collegiate foundation in that University. Henry ordained that it should comprise a Provost, and seventy Fellows or Scholars, who were to be supplied from Eton, as vacancies occurred in their number. His final design for the Collegiate body at Eton (for, the scheme of the original charter was considerably modified by him), was, that it should consist of a Provost, ten fellows, ten chaplains, ten clerks, sixteen choristers, an upper and an under master, seventy scholars, and thirteen servitors. These were to form the members of the foundation; but a careful examination of Henry's charters shows that he not only designed Eton to be a College where gratuitous instruction and maintenance should be provided for indigent scholars, and whence King's College at Cambridge should be recruited, but that he contemplated Eton becoming (as it speedily did become) a central place of education, whither the youth from every part of England should resort.

The state of literature in England and indeed in Europe in