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SI. Nicholas' Hospital, Salisbury. 



of the Bible and older fathers, and were opposed to the Mendicant 

 Schoolmen, who accepted the Bible as their text-book, yet drew 

 their conclusions from philosophy and by philosophical methods. 

 At the head of these Biblicists in Paris now was William de St, 

 Amour ; at the head of the Mendicants, not only in Paris, but 

 throughout Europe, was Thomas of Aquino. The very year in 

 which Bridport founded his college (1261) died Pope Alexander IV., 

 the great patron of Mendicants : but Louis IX. (Saint Louis), 

 hardly a less patron of the same party, was still King of France. 

 In the popedom of Alexander IV. it had required great courage for 

 William de St. Amour to bring out his work, " The Perils of the 

 Last Times " : he was summoned to Rome, opposed by Thomas of 

 Aquino, tried, and sent into exile in France, where he continued till 

 Alexander's death. 



Now the fact that Bishop Bridport chose the name of Valli- 

 Scholares for his new college seems to indicate that he espoused 

 the cause of the old learning, the cause of William de St. Amour, 

 in this controversy. And the fact that Bishop Bingham had en- 

 couraged the foundation of Friar Preachers, or Dominicans — the 

 first Mendicant order — at Wilton, about 1245, shows that he was 

 disposed to favour the rival school, that o£ the new learning, or of 

 St. Thomas of Aquino. 



But the University of Oxford had its internal troubles as well as 

 the University of Paris. The latter, on occasion of a fray with the 

 municipal authorities, had closed its doors, and issued forth into the 

 country, where it had set up its staff in different towns, nay, had 

 even been invited over by Henry III. to Oxford. In this it was 

 exactly imitated by Oxford. That university had at this time come 

 into collision with the town, and dispersed its students. Upon this 

 occasion many went to Cambridge : but others migrated to Salisbury. 

 In Salisbury they must have attended the Cathedral services, then 

 presided over by Ralph Heytham, as chancellor. But as it was 

 with the full concurrence of the chapter that Bishop Bridport 

 established his new college in 1261, we must not think that there 

 was any bickering between the Cathedral students of theology and 

 those of the new Valley College, or College de Vaux. We do not 



