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Trinity College, Oxford

Sir Thomas Pope established Trinity College in 1555 with an eye on his eternal well-being - he wanted to ensure that he and his family would be remembered in the prayers and masses sung by college members.

Pope was an Oxfordshire native who rose to be Treasurer of the Court of Augmentation which dissolved the estates of the monasteries for Henry VIII.

Pope later became a trusted councillor to Mary I, and it was from the catholic Mary that he recieved approval for Trinity College. Pope was a devout Catholic himself, and the original charter of Trinity ruled that all Fellows must be take holy orders and remain unmarried, while following a monastic existence of study and contemplation.

Trinity was built on the site of the earlier Durham College, which was founded in 1286 to educate monks from the Cathedral Church of Durham Cathedral. The only surviving remnant of Durham College is the old Library (1421).

When a new cellar was built under the old hall of Durham College in 1618, the hall collapsed and had to be replaced with the present building.

Trinity underwent great disruption during the English Civil War; first they were forced to donate the college plate to King Charles, and then the college was cleared of its Fellows and students. Later a firmly Protestant Dean was appointed to head Trinity.

The college rebounded after the Restoration, and the reign of Charles II saw the building of new quarters for rich nobility (designed by Christopher Wren), and the establishment of the formal college garden.

Victorian architect Sir Thomas Jasckson added Front Quad with its great open spaces, and still later Jacobean cottages were incorporated into the University.

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Text © David Ross and Britain Express 2004