Notes for Members 2006–2007 - St Edmund's College - University of ...

8 The College and its Membership
constructing a two-storey building which will accommodate up to another
18 students. All members of the College are requested to respect the
building area which is bounded by safety fencing and when using the
crossing point to observe all the directions that are given by the Contractor’s
staff, as this is for everyone’s safety.
The College is dedicated to St Edmund of Abingdon (c. 1180–1240),
probably the first Oxbridge don to be canonised. Avoiding the improbable
pieties of traditional hagiographers, the details below are drawn from C. H.
Lawrence, St Edmund of Abingdon (OUP, 1960).
Born into a merchant family, he went to Oxford to grammar school and
later to both Paris and Oxford Universities to study ‘arts’. After a number of
years he turned to theology, studying again at both universities and
becoming a Master in theology at Oxford. During this period he composed
his ‘‘Mirror of Religious’’, which concluded with the injunction to live
‘honourably, amicably and humbly’ in community. While at Oxford he was
appointed Treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral, which was then being built.
In 1233 he was elected Archbishop of Canterbury and was consecrated in
1234. In a time when clerics provided the equivalent of a Civil Service, he
was often in the affairs of state, and was widely regarded as a very fair and
just man who could be trusted. He was able to mediate in 1234 between the
King and rebellious nobles on the Welsh border, so avoiding a civil war.
He went to France in 1240, almost certainly on the way to Rome for an
official visit, when he was taken ill and died on 16 November at Soisy. He
is buried at Pontigny, between Troyes and Auxerre.
Some of his actions strike one today as out of key with those expected of
a saint, as when he excommunicated the Earl of Arundel for impounding
two of his hounds which had strayed on to the Earl’s land during hunting,
but in this he was a man of his time.
His epitaph can be drawn from a paragraph of Lawrence: ‘But it was not
as a statesman or even as a zealous pastor that he became the object of a
widespread cultus after his death. He appealed to the popular imagination
because he satisfied the profound conviction of a simple people that those
who ruled the Church should be learned, humble and holy men.’
1.2 MEMBERS OF THE COLLEGE
There are several categories of membership. Since much of the terminology
used in referring to members dates back several centuries, and can seem
very daunting when first encountered, a brief explanation is given here.
(See also Section 2.4.)
1.2.1 Fellows
The word ‘Fellow’ (Latin: socius) originally meant a man who lived off the
college endowment and who shared with his ‘fellows’ a corporate
responsibility for the teaching and welfare of the paying students or
‘commoners’. It is the body of Fellows (Fellowship) which constitutes St