university of Oxford at large. He founded no less than three colleges, two at Oxford, one at Higham Ferrers, while there is reason to believe that he suggested and inspired the foundation of Eton and of King’s College. His first college at Oxford, in perishing, gave birth to St John’s College, which now holds its site. This was St Bernard’s College, founded by Chicheley under licence in mortmain in 1437 for Cistercian monks, on the model of Gloucester Hall and Durham College for the southern and northern Benedictines. Nothing more than a site and building was required by way of endowment, as the young monks, who were sent there to study under a provisor, were supported by the houses of the order to which they belonged. The site was five acres, and the building is described in the letters patent “as a fitting and noble college mansion in honour of the most glorious Virgin Mary and St Bernard in Northgates Street outside the Northgate of Oxford.” It was suppressed with the Cistercian abbeys in 1539, and granted on the 11th of December 1546 to Christ Church, Oxford, who sold it to Sir Thomas Pope in 1553 for St John’s College.
The college at Higham Ferrers was a much earlier design. On the 2nd of May 1422 Henry V., in right of the duchy of Lancaster, “hearing that Chicheley inflamed by the pious fervour of devotion intended to enlarge divine service and other works of piety at Higham Ferrers, in consideration of his fruitful services, often crossing the seas, yielding to no toils, dangers or expenses ... especially in the conclusion of the present final peace with our dearest father the king of France,” granted for 300 marks (£200) licence to found, on three acres at Higham Ferrers, a perpetual college of eight chaplains and four clerks, of whom one was to teach grammar and the other song ... “and six choristers to pray for himself and wife and for Henry IV. and his wife Mary ... and to acquire the alien priory of Merseye in Essex late belonging to St Ouen’s, Rouen,” as endowment. A papal bull having also been obtained, on the 28th of August 1425, the archbishop, in the course of a visitation of Lincoln diocese, executed his letters patent founding the college, dedicating it to the Virgin, St Thomas à Becket and St Edward the Confessor, and handed over the buildings to its members, the vicar of Higham Ferrers being made the first master or warden. He further endowed it in 1434 with lands in Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire, and his brothers, William and Robert, gave some houses in London in 1427 and 1438. The foundation was closely modelled on Winchester College, with its warden and fellows, its grammar and song schoolmasters, but a step in advance was made by the masters being made fellows and so members of the governing body. Attached was also a bede or almshouse for twelve poor men. Both school and almshouse had existed before, and this was merely an additional endowment. The whole endowment was in 1535 worth some £200 a year, about a fifth of that of Winchester College. Unfortunately, All Souls being a later foundation, the college at Higham Ferrers was not affiliated to it, and so fell with other colleges not part of the universities. On the 18th of July 1542 it was surrendered to Henry VIII., and its possessions granted to Robert Dacres on condition of maintaining the grammar school and paying the master £10 a year, the same salary as the headmasters of Winchester and Eton, and maintaining the almshouse. Both still exist, but the school has been deprived of its house, and the Fitzwilliam family, who now own the lands, still continue to pay only £10 a year.
All Souls College was considerably later. The patent for it, dated 20th of May 1438, is for a warden and 20 scholars, to be called “the Warden and College of the souls of all the faithful departed,” to study and pray “for the soul of King Henry VI. and the souls of Henry V., Thomas, duke of Clarence, and all the dukes, earls, barons, knights, squires and other nobles and subjects of our father who during the time and in the service of our father and ourselves ended their lives in the wars of the kingdom of France, and for the souls of all the faithful departed.” For this, the king granted Berford’s Hall, formerly Charleston’s Inn, which Chicheley’s trustees had granted to him so as to obtain a royal grant and indefeasible title. Richard Andrews, the king’s secretary, like Chicheley himself a scholar of Winchester and fellow of New College, was named as first warden. A papal bull for the college was obtained on the 21st of June 1439; and further patents for endowments from the 11th of May 1441 to the 28th of January 1443, when a general confirmation charter was obtained, for which £1000 (£30,000 at least of our money) was paid. It is commonly represented that the endowment was wholly derived from alien priories bought by Chicheley from the crown. In truth, not so large a proportion of the endowment of All Souls was derived from this source as was that of New College. The only alien priories granted were Abberbury in Oxfordshire, Wedon Pinkney in Northamptonshire, Romney in Kent, and St Clare and Llangenith in Wales, all very small affairs, single manors and rectories, and these did not form a quarter of the whole endowment. The rest, particularly the manor of Edgware, which made the fortune of the college, was bought from private owners. Early in 1443 the college was opened by Chicheley with four bishops in state. The statutes, not drawn up until the 2nd of April 1443, raised the number of the college to forty. Like the college buildings, they are almost an exact copy of those of New College, mutatis mutandis. The college is sometimes described as being different from other colleges in being merely a large chantry to pray for the souls of the dead warriors. But it was no more a chantry than the other colleges, all of which, like the monasteries and collegiate churches, were to pray for their founders’ and other specified souls. Indeed, All Souls was more of a lay foundation than its model. For while at New College only twenty out of seventy fellows were to study law instead of arts, philosophy and theology, at All Souls College sixteen were to be “jurists” and only twenty-four “artists”; and while at New College there were ten chaplains and three clerks necessarily, at All Souls the number was not defined but left optional; so that there are now only one chaplain and four bible clerks.
Ten days after he sealed the statutes, on the 12th of April 1443, Chicheley died and was buried in Canterbury cathedral on the north side of the choir, under a fine effigy of himself erected in his lifetime. There is what looks like an excellent contemporary portrait in one of the windows of All Souls College, which is figured in the Victoria County History for Hampshire, ii. 262. (A. F. L.)
CHICHEN-ITZA, or Chichen, an ancient ruined city of
Yucatan, Mexico, situated 22 m. W. of Valladolid. The name
is derived from that of the Itza, a tribe of the great Mayan
stock, which formerly inhabited the city, and chichen, having
reference probably to two wells or pools which doubtless originally
supplied the inhabitants with water and are still in existence.
The history of the city is unknown, though it is regarded as probable
that it preserved its independence long after the Spaniards
had taken possession of the rest of the district. The area covered
by the ruins is approximately 1 sq. m., and other remains are
found in the neighbouring forest. (See Central America: Archaeology.)
CHICHESTER OF BELFAST, ARTHUR CHICHESTER,
Baron (1563–1625), lord-deputy of Ireland, second son of Sir
John Chichester of Raleigh, Devonshire, by Gertrude, daughter
of Sir William Courtenay of Powderham, was born at Raleigh
in May 1563, and was educated at Exeter College, Oxford.
He commanded a ship against the Spanish Armada in 1588, and
is said to have served under Drake in his expedition of 1595.
Having seen further service abroad, he was sent to Ireland at
the end of 1598, and was appointed by the earl of Essex to the
governorship of Carrickfergus. When Essex returned to England,
Chichester rendered valuable service under Mountjoy in the
war against the rebellious earl of Tyrone, and in 1601 Mountjoy
recommended him to Cecil in terms of the highest praise as the
fittest person to be entrusted with the government of Ulster.
On the 15th of October 1604 Chichester was appointed lord-deputy
of Ireland. He announced his policy in a proclamation
wherein he abolished the semi-feudal rights of the native Irish
chieftains, substituting for them fixed dues, while their tenants
were to become dependent “wholly and immediately upon his
