Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/179

ST, MARY THE VIRGIN, OXFOKD. 1;}] The king is told that " without the siipphes of timber, for uliich their tliaiiks were due to him, and the assistance that had been derived from other (juarters, no j)lace would have long remained for the respectable celebration of any Scholastic Acts." ^ Another correspondent is told that the Church of St. Mary is so near destruction that "it must shortly fall to the ground, if the hands of artisans be not empio3'ed in counteracting the effects of its decay ;"^ and to another it is described to be in such a state, "ut ruinse potius quani statui merito dici judicarique possit." ^ To John Alcock, Bishop of Ely, it is ui-ged, that, " if Scholastic Acts are for the future to be celebrated in this church, " non modo in aliqua ejus parte extruere, vei-um totam ipsam Ecclesiam (lapideos tantummodo muros excipimus) de novo a3dificare necesse erit."^ And in hke manner the Bishop of Winchester is, in the letter addressed to him, informed, that " the church is so seriously affected by the great age of its beams, and of all other things, which no buildings can be firm or durable without, that it would often be enough to frighten any who might chance to enter it, durint;; a storm." ^ All ahke complain of the deficiency of the necessary funds for effecting the desired restoration. To the king it is represented, " that the means of the petitioners w^re insuffi- cient to meet charges of such magnitude, and that if they were to lay out far more than they possessed on so large an edifice, they could scarcely hope to carry even the smallest portion of it to completion." ^ The archbishop is informed, that " the pecuniary means of the University were much reduced, as sveW from the recent erection of the New Divinity School at a very great expence, as from the paucity of distinguished persons who might replenish the academical coffei-s on their admission to degrees ; " and it is also alleged, that " the parishioners being 'multum tenues ' — 'tarn exiles et jejuni, ut ab ahis opes exigere quam ad hoc tedificium aliquas suas conferre malint,' unless the petitioners would depart from the practice of their predecessors, they could not for the honour and credit of the University decline to undertake the burthen of rebuilding the Church.'*' * ' No. 352. » No. 351. » No. 357. ' No. 361. = No. SGi. '■> No. 351. ^ No. 360.