Walk 9: Oxford
Figure 1: Photo of the Pelican in Corpus Christi College, Oxford, founded in 1517 by Bishop Richard Fox, a friend of Thomas More
John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor of England sent Thomas More to Oxford. He stayed in St Mary’s Hall, see Thomas More’s Vocation, pp. 17-20.
A stained-glass window of More can be found in the front of the magnificent dining hall of Christ Church.
In 1517 Richard Fox, who had been bishop of Durham, founded Corpus Christi College on humanistic principles and with the help of Thomas More. The Pelican who gives its own flesh as food for its offspring is a symbol of the Eucharist. It was used by Fox in Corpus Christi College, University of Durham, while he was bishop there.
The collection of books of William Grocyn was donated to Corpus Christi. Those books had been accessible to More. At the death of Grocyn, Thomas Linacre made an inventory of them. MS 23 copied for Grocyn in September 1499 is now kept in the college.
More was appointed High Steward of the University of Oxford in 1524. See Letter to the University of Oxford, 26 July 1524.
Thomas More Research 