ROTHERHAM

IN CATHOLIC TIMES.

CHAPTER I.

ARCHBISHOP ROTHERHAM.

NASMUCH as this narrative will partly be concerned with important and interesting matters relating to the Parish Church, and particularly to two of its vicars, who came under the bann of the Act of Uniformity, 1662, a preliminary chapter is here offered, descriptive of that distinguished ecclesiastic, Archbishop Rotherham, who, as a native of Rotherham, was so devoutly and munificently instrumental in rendering this church one of the grandest in Yorkshire. It may seem strange to some readers for our narrative to start with an Archbishop, and finish with an Unitarian minister, but the connection will not fail to be worked out in the end.

The original family name of our Archbishop was Scott, or Scot. The portraits of him at the Bodleian Library and at Lincoln College, Oxford, describe him as Thomas de Rotherham, alias Scott. His father, Sir Thomas Rotherham, Kt., lived in a house in Jesus Gate, now College Street, Rotherham. Both father and mother were greatly honoured

and beloved by their son. His own account of his young self is to be read in the statutes of his College of Jesus :— "I was born in the town of Rotherham, and baptised in the church of the said town, and so, at that same place was born into the world, and also born again by the holy bath flowing from the side of Jesus, Whose name, O if I loved as I ought and would!" He also relates how, when he was a child. there came to reside at Rotherham—“ I know not by what chance, but I believe by God's favour (nescio quo fato sed credo gratia Dei)—a teacher of grammar learning." Under his care the promising youth was instructed. Young Thomas was early destined for the priesthood. The old church-though not then of the grand proportions he was destined ultimately to render it-rose in its eminence above his father's house; its cruciform construction, Norman pillars, and arcades, noble nave, and gorgeous altar, all helped profoundly to impress the devout scholar.

After some years of classical training at Eton, or Winchester, the promising youth was admitted, at the age of twenty, to King's College, Cambridge. Endowed with five years of collegiate training he was appointed provost of Wingham, near to Canterbury, and so was brought into close relations with the Archbishop. Becoming also, about the same period, chaplain to the great Earl of Oxford, he was from time to time thrown into the exciting and brilliant experiences of courts and camps. The Wars of the Roses made the path of a rising ecclesiastic difficult to tread, but in the end, when the fourth Edward had secured the throne, Provost Rotherham was made a Royal Chaplain, and his elevation in the church was thus assured. He added benefice to benefice, became Prebend of Lincoln and Salisbury, Archdeacon of Canterbury; and, in 1468, Provost of Beverley, and Bishop of Rochester.

Edward IV. made Rotherham Keeper of the Privy Seal, and an ambassador to the King of France. From the see of Rochester he was translated to that of Lincoln. He had previously been elected to the honourable post of Chancellor of Cambridge University. As wealth and privileges increased to him, his munificence to colleges, schools, churches and individuals became all the greater. To him, as Bishop

of Lincoln, appertained the visitation of Lincoln College, Oxford, and there is an interesting story, how, on his visit, the preacher took for his text, "Behold and visit this vine, and perfect that which thy right hand hath planted." The delicate hint was all sufficient. The episcopal patron lost no time in completing and endowing an additional quadrangle of Lincoln College, where his arms are to be seen carved on the walls, and within its sunny enclosure his own fingers planted a vine; an offshoot of which, in full luxuriance, may still be looked upon with especial admiration by any Rotherham visitor. The good Bishop, moreover, as we shall see, thoughtfully attached to his Rotherham College two presentations for Rotherham boys to Lincoln College.

THE ROTHERHAM BOY BECOMES ARCHBISHOP ROTHERHAM. The year 1480 witnessed the elevation of the erst Rotherham scholar to the highest ecclesiastical eminence, save one, by his appointment as Archbishop of York, and Legate of the Papal Hierarchy. In this capacity he performed the funeral rites, " Masse of requiem," over the Royal remains in St. George's Chapel, Windsor. With touching sympathy was the tendering of the Great Seal to the widowed Queen performed by him, as Shakespeare depicts : Archbp. For my part I'll resign unto your Grace The seal I keep; and so betide to me As well, I tender you and all of yours. Go, I'll conduct you to the sanctuary.

Rich. III., Act. II., Scene IV.

The favour to the Queen greatly incensed the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III., and the Archbishop was sent to the tower. After the release of his Grace, Richard is well represented as craftily airing his piety under episcopal countenance :

Lord Mayor.

Buck.

See where his Grace stands

'tween two clergymen !

Two props of virtue for a Christian prince,
To stay him from the fall of vanity:

And see, a book of prayer in his hand.

Our Archbishop happily took no part in the Coronation of this elvishmark'd usurper. After Bosworth Field,

celebrated by the defeat of Richard and his vain cry, "A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!" the Archbishop, under the new reign, appears to have had a relaxationperhaps wittingly so-from high official functions. His thoughts turned to his long cherished purpose of building a noble college in his native town. Towards its endowment he obtained the valuable impropriation of Almonbury. He had also ample resources of his own to carry out the laudable design. As a prince of the church he owned no less than fourteen baronial residences and their estates, and his almost royal palace, York Place, at Whitehall.

THE RED COLLEGE OF ROTHERHAM.

When Rotherham's greatest son became Archbishop of York, he did not forget his own early privileges. In grateful memory of his educational advantages under that old grammar teacher, he erected the College of Jesus in his native town. He provided admirable arrangements for the collegiate buildings, and made liberal provisions and wise directions for the educational and religious training of the students. The staff included a provost, a teacher of grammar learning, a teacher of church music and singing, and a teacher of "the art of writing and reckoning." These teachers were all priests, who had the instruction of six resident scholars, along with the pupils from the district round, who were taught free. The Rotherham Board School with free education was thus anticipated 400 years ago! Moreover, the liberal founder formed a superior library, which included a wonderful collection for the time, even one hundred or more printed books. He thus showed his enlightened welcome of the new printing press, then starting on its world-transforming career. This library was thrown freely open to all readers, thereby veritably anticipating Rotherham's modern Free Library.

Pic

That old Red College-hence the saying "As red as Rotherham College "-rises before our mental vision. ture the present "College Inn" forming one side of a quadrangle-and would that the white plaster had never covered the rich red brick beneath-and another similar range of buildings opposite, where some of us can remember ancient

remains ere the shops were erected; and construct on the site of the Court House a handsome block of the main erection, fronted with a fine Italian Portal, the relic of the same to be seen still in Boston Park, and then enclose the whole by elaborate and lofty iron railings and gate-way fronting Jesus Gate, with porch and chapel on either side the interior, and you get some general conception of the Archbishop's College.

Those who have seen the old brick colleges of Cambridge, with their stone facings, can the better call to the imagination the Rotherham College. Of course there were attached orchards, fields, pastures, pigeon-houses, and stables. The endowments were large and ample for all requirements, and might in time have doubled and trebled on the original sum of £1,500 a year of our money. That noble foundation was, in fact, such a Provincial College, as our large centres, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Aberystwyth, have, of late years only, been erecting for the rising and multiplying generation.

Can we not realise the holy fascination of that reverent and joyous old Catholic worship? Can we wonder it maintained such an absorbing hold and influence over its devotees of all ages and classes? Only slow and gradual and intermittent was the progress of the Reformation movement in this country, and we are not to be surprised. In our enlightenment we certainly prefer that our white-robed young choristers, sitting in those same old black-oak miserecorde seats of the Parish Church should sing the same beloved Psalms in our English tongue, and their Christmas Anthems of the Holy Mother and Child, and not to the Virgin as Mater Dei. All the same, by our remembering how ninety and more per cent. of the population were totally uneducated, and very superstitious, we shall the better appreciate how the influences of the Catholic altar and sacred adornments, the golden and other sacerdotal vestments, the mystic elevation of the "Host," the stately processions and other ceremonials, had all such controlling and fascinating influence over the popular mind. As an illustration of that Catholic devotion, let one quotation from our Archbishop's will end this chapter"I disown, now and ever, everything that is repugnant to the spouse of Christ, His holy church, for as a true Christian