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JOHN FELL (1625-1686)

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 242 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOHN See also:FELL (1625-1686)  , See also:English divine, son of See also:Samuel See also:Fell, See also:dean of See also:Christ See also:Church, See also:Oxford, was See also:born at Longworth in Berk-See also:shire and received his first See also:education at the See also:free school at Thame in See also:Oxfordshire . In 1636 he obtained a studentship at Christ Church, and in 164o he was specially allowed by See also:Archbishop See also:Laud on See also:account of his " known See also:desert," when wanting one See also:term's See also:residence, to proceed to his degree of B . A . He obtained his M.A. in 1643 and took See also:holy orders (See also:deacon 1647, See also:priest 1649) . During the See also:Civil See also:War he See also:bore arms for the See also:king and held a See also:commission as See also:ensign . In 1648 he was deprived of his studentship by the See also:parliamentary visitors, and during the next few years he resided chiefly at Oxford with his See also:brother-in-See also:law, Dr T . See also:Willis, at whose See also:house opposite Merton See also:College he and his See also:friends See also:Allestree and See also:Dolben kept up the service of the Church of See also:England through the See also:Commonwealth . At the Restoration Fell was made See also:prebendary of See also:Chichester, See also:canon of Christ Church (See also:July 27, 166o), dean (Nov . 30), See also:master of St See also:Oswald's See also:hospital, See also:Worcester, See also:chaplain to the king, and D.D . He filled the See also:office of See also:vice-See also:chancellor from 1666 to 1669, and was consecrated See also:bishop of Oxford, in 1676, retaining his deanery in commendam . Some years later he declined the primacy of See also:Ireland . Fell showed himself a most capable and vigorous See also:administrator in his various high employments, and a worthy See also:disciple of Archbishop Laud .

He restored in the university the See also:

good See also:order instituted by the archbishop, which in the Commonwealth had given See also:place to anarchy and a See also:general disregard of authority . He ejected the intruders from his college or else " fixed them in loyal principles." " He was the most zealous See also:man of his See also:time for the Church of England," says See also:Wood, " and none that I yet know of did go beyond him in the performance of the rules belonging thereunto." He attended See also:chapel four times a See also:day, restored to the services, not without some opposition, the See also:organ and See also:surplice, -and insisted on the proper academical See also:dress which had fallen into disuse . He was active in recovering church See also:property, and by his directions a See also:children's See also:catechism was See also:drawn up by See also:Thomas See also:Marshall for use in his See also:diocese . " As he was among the first of our See also:clergy," says See also:Burnet, " that apprehended the See also:design of bringing in popery, so hewas one of the most zealous against it . He was forward in making converts from the See also:Roman Catholics and Nonconformists . On the other See also:hand, it is recorded to his See also:honour that he opposed successfully the See also:incorporation of See also:Titus See also:Oates as D.D. in the university in See also:October 1679; and according to the testimony of See also:William See also:Nichols, his secretary, he disapproved of the Exclusion See also:Bill . He excluded the undergraduates, whose presence had been irregularly permitted, from See also:convocation . He obliged the students to attend lectures, instituted reforms in the performances of the public exercises in the See also:schools, kept the examiners up to their duties, and himself attended the See also:examinations . He encouraged the students to See also:act plays . He entirely suppressed " See also:coursing," i.e. disputations in which the See also:rival parties " ran down opponents in arguments," and which commonly ended in blows and disturbances . He was an excellent disciplinarian and possessed a See also:special See also:talent for the education of See also:young men, many of whom he received into his own See also:family and watched over their progress with paternal care . Tom See also:Browne, author of 'the Dialogues of the Dead, about to be expelled from Oxford for some offence, was pardoned by Fell on the See also:condition of: his translating extempore the 33rd See also:epigram from See also:Martial: " Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere cjuare; Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te .

To.whichhe immediately replied with the well-known lines:—" I do not love you, Dr Fell, But why, I cannot tell, But this I know full well, I do not love you, Dr Fell." 1 ' J . T . Browne, See also:

Works (9th ed. by J . See also:Drake), iv . 99-too; T . See also:Forde, Virtus rediviva (1661), to6 . See also:JOHN Delinquents, however, were not always treated thus mildly by Fell, and See also:Acton See also:Cremer, for the See also:crime of courting a wife while only a See also:bachelor of arts, was set as an See also:imposition the See also:translation into English of the whole of See also:Scheffer's See also:history of See also:Lapland . As vice-chancellor, Fell himself visited the drinking taverns and ordered out the students . In the university elections he showed See also:great See also:energy in suppressing corruption . Fell's See also:building operations almost rivalled the plans of the great ecclesiastical architects of the See also:middle ages . In his own college he completed in 1665 the See also:north See also:side of See also:Wolsey's great quadrangle, already begun by his See also:father but abandoned during the Commonwealth; he rebuilt in 1672 the See also:east side of the Chaplain's quadrangle " with a straight passage under it leading from the See also:cloister into the See also:field," occupied now by the new Meadow Buildings; the lodgings of the canon of the 3rd See also:stall in the passage uniting the Tom and Peckwater quadrangles (c . 1674); a See also:long building joining the Chaplain's quadrangle on the east side in 1677–1678; and lastly the great See also:tower See also:gate, begun in See also:June 1681 on the See also:foundation laid by Wolsey and finished in See also:November 1682, to which the See also:bell " great Torn," after being recast, was transferred from the See also:cathedral in 1683 .

In 167o he planted and laid out the Broad Walk . He spent large sums of his own on these works, gave £5oo for the restoration of See also:

Banbury church, erected a church at St Oswald's, Worcester, and the parsonage house at See also:Woodstock at his own expense, and rebuilt Cuddesdon See also:palace . Fell disapproved of the use of St See also:Mary's church for See also:secular purposes, and promoted the building of the Sheldonian See also:theatre by Archbishop See also:Sheldon . He was treasurer during its construction, presided at the formal opening on the 9th of July 1669, and was nominated with See also:Wren See also:curator in July 1670 . In the theatre was placed the University See also:Press, the See also:establishment of which had been a favourite project of Laud, which now engaged a large See also:share of Fell's energy and See also:attention, and which as curator he practically controlled . " Were it not you See also:ken Mr Dean extraordinarily well," writes See also:Sir L . See also:Jenkins to J . See also:Williamson in 1672, " it were impossible to imagine how assiduous and drudging he is about his press."2 He sent for type and printers from See also:Holland, declaring that " the foundation of all success must be laid in doing things well, which I am sure will not be done with English letters." Many works, including a See also:Bible, See also:editions of the See also:classics and of the See also:early fathers, were produced under his direction and editing; and his press became noted not only in England but abroad . He published annually one See also:work, generally a classical author annotated by himself, which he distributed to all the students of his college on New See also:Year's day . On one occasion he surprised the Press in See also:printing surreptitiously See also:Aretino's Postures, when he seized and destroyed the plates and impressions . Ever " an eager defender and maintainer of the university and its privileges," he was hostile to the Royal Society, which he regarded as a possible rival, and in 1686 he gave an See also:absolute refusal to See also:Obadiah See also:Walker, after-wards the Roman See also:Catholic master of University College, though licensed by See also:James II., to See also:print books, declaring he would as soon " See also:part with his See also:bed from under him " as his press . He conducted it on strict business principles, and to the See also:criticism that more great works were not produced replied that they would not sell .

He was, however, not free from fads, and his new spelling (of which one feature was the substitution of i for y in such words as See also:

des, dales, maiest) met with great disapproval . Fell also did much to encourage learning in the university . While still a young man at Christ Church he had shown both his zeal and his charity by See also:reading gratuitously with the poor and neglected students of the college . He bore himself a high reputation as a Grecian, a Latinist and a philologist, and he found time, in spite of his great public employments, to bring out with the collaboration of others his great edition of St See also:Cyprian in 1682, an English translation of The Unity of the Church in 1681, editions of See also:Nemesius of Emesa (1671), of See also:Aratus and of Erato- sthenes (1672), See also:Theocritus (1676), See also:Alcinous on See also:Plato (1677), St See also:Clement's Epistles to the See also:Corinthians (1677), See also:Athenagoras (1682), Clemens Alexandrinus (1683), St See also:Theophilus of See also:Antioch (1684), 2 Cal. of See also:State Pap . Dom., 1672, p . 478, and 167o, p . 26 . Grammatica rations sive institutions logicae (1673 and 1685), and a See also:critical edition of the New Testament in 1675 . The first volumes of Rerum Anglicarum scriptores and of Historiae Britannicae, &c. were compiled under his patronage in 1684 . He had the See also:MSS. of St . See also:Augustine in the Bodleian and other See also:libraries at Oxford generously collated for the use of the See also:Benedictines at See also:Paris, then preparing a new edition of the father . Fell spent such large sums in his building, in his See also:noble See also:patron-See also:age of learning, and in charities, that sometimes there was little See also:left for his private use .

Phoenix-squares

Occasionally in his schemes he showed greater zeal than prudence . He was the originator of a See also:

mission to See also:India which was warmly taken up by the East India See also:Company . He undertook himself to See also:train as missionaries four scholars at Oxford, procured a set of Arabic types, and issued from these the Gospels and Acts in the See also:Malay See also:language in 1677 . But this was scarcely the best method of communicating the See also:gospel to the natives of India, and the mission collapsed . He affected to despise public See also:opinion, and was masterful and despotic in his dealings with others, especially with those upon whom he was conferring favours . Having generously undertaken at his own See also:charge to publish a Latin version of Wood's History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford, with the See also:object of presenting the history of the university in a manner worthy of the great subject to See also:European readers, and of extending its fame abroad, he arrogated to himself the right of editing the work . " He would correct, alter, dash out what he pleased . . . .He was a great man and carried all things at his See also:pleasure." In particular he struck out all the passages which Wood had inserted in praise of See also:Hobbes, and substituted some disparaging epithets . He called the philosopher's See also:Leviathan " monstrosissimus " and " publico damno notissimus." To the printed remonstrance of Hobbes, Fell inserted an insulting reply in the History to " irritabile illud et vanissimum Malmesburiense See also:animal," and to the complaint of Wood at this usage answered only that Hobbes " was an old man, had one See also:foot in the See also:grave; that he should mind his latter end, and not trouble the See also:world any more with his papers." In small things as in great he loved to See also:rule and See also:direct . " Let not Fell," writes R . See also:South to R .

See also:

Bathurst, " have the fingering and altering of them (i.e. his Latin verses), for I think that, bating the want of siquidems and quinetiams, they are as good as his See also:Worship can make." Wood styles him " a valde vult See also:person." He was not content with ruling his own college, but desired to govern the whole university . He prevented See also:Gilbert Ironside, who " was not pliable to his See also:humour," from holding the office of vice-chancellor . He " endeavoured to carry all things by a high hand; scorn'd in the least to See also:court the Masters when he had to have anything pass'd the convocation . Severe to other colleges, See also:blind as to his own, very partiall and with good words, and flatterers and tell-tales could get anything out of him." According to Bishop Burnet, who praises his See also:character and his See also:administration, Fell was " a little too much heated in the See also:matter of our disputes with the dissenters." " He had much zeal for reforming abuses, and managed it perhaps with too much See also:heat and in too See also:peremptory a way." " But," he adds, " we have so little of that among us that no wonder if such men are censured by those who love not such patterns nor such severe task-masters." And Wood, whose adverse criticism must be discounted a little on account of the See also:personal dispute,—after declaring that Fell " was exceeding partial in his See also:government even to corruption; went thro' thick and thin; grasped at all yet did nothing perfect or effectually; cared not what See also:people said of him, was in many things very See also:rude and in most pedantic and pedagogical,"—concludes with the See also:acknowledgment, " yet still aimed at the public good." See also:Roger North, who paid Fell a visit at Oxford, speaks of him in terms of See also:enthusiasm:—" The great Dr Fell, who was truly great in all his circumstances, capacities, undertakings and learning, and above all for his superabundant public spirit and See also:goodwill . . . .0 the felicity of that age and place when his authority swayed ! " In November 1684, at the command of the king, Fell deprived See also:Locke, who had incurred the royal displeasure by his friendship with See also:Shaftesbury, and was suspected as the author of certainseditious See also:pamphlets, of his studentship at Christ Church, summarily and without See also:hearing his See also:defence . Fell had in former years cultivated Locke's friendship, had kept up a See also:correspondence with him, and in 1663 had written a testimonial in his favour; and the ready compliance of one who could on occasion offer a stout resistance to any invasion of the privileges of the university has been severely criticised . It must, however, be remembered in extenuation that the legal status of a person on the foundation of a collegiate See also:body had not then been decided in the law-courts . With regard to the See also:justice of the proceeding Fell had evidently some doubts, and he afterwards expressed his regret for the step which he was now compelled to take . But such scruples, however strong, would, with a man of Fell's See also:political and religious opinions, yield immediately to an order from the See also:sovereign, who possessed special authority in this See also:case as a visitor to the college; and such subservience, however See also:strange to See also:modern notions, would probably only be considered natural and proper at that See also:period . Fell, who had never married, died on the loth of July 1686, worn out, according to Wood, by his overwhelming public duties .

He was buried in the divinity chapel in the cathedral, below the seat which he had so often occupied when living, where a See also:

monument and an See also:epitaph, now moved elsewhere, were placed to his memory . "His See also:death," writes John See also:Evelyn, "was an extraordinary losse to the See also:poore church at this time"; but for himself Fell was fortunate in the time of his departure; for a few months more of See also:life would have necessitated a choice, most painful to a man of his character and creed, between fidelity to his sovereign and to his church . With all his faults, which were the defects which often attend eminent qualities such as his, Fell was a great man, " the greatest See also:governor," according to See also:Speaker See also:Onslow, " that has ever been since his time in either of the See also:universities," and of his own ccllege, to which he left several exhibitions for the See also:maintenance of poor scholars, he was a second founder . He was a worthy upholder of the Laudian tradition at Oxford, an enlightened and untiring patron of learning, and a man of exemplary morals and great piety which remained unsullied in the midst of a busy life and much contact with the world . A sum of See also:money was left by John See also:Cross to perpetuate Fell's memory by an See also:annual speech in his praise, but the Felii laudes have been discontinued since 1866 . There are two interesting pictures of Fell at Christ Church, one where he is represented with his two friends Allestree and Dolben, and another by Vandyck . The statue placed on the N.E. See also:angle of the Great Quadrangle bears no likeness to the bishop, who is described by See also:Hearne as a " thin grave man." Besides the learned works already mentioned Fell wrote the lives of his friends Dr See also:Henry See also:Hammond (1661), See also:Richard Allestree, prefixed to his edition of the latter's sermons (1684), and Dr Thomas Willis, in Latin . His Seasonable See also:advice to Protestants showing the See also:necessity of maintaining the Established See also:Religion in opposition to Popery was published in 1688 . Some of his sermons, which Evelyn found dull, were printed, including Character of the Last Daies, preached before the king, 1675, and a See also:Sermon preached before the House of Peers Dec . 22, z680 . The See also:Interest of England stated (1659), advocating the restoration of the king,' and The Vanity of Scoffing (1674), are also attributed to him . Fell probably had some share in the See also:composition of The Whole See also:Duty of Man, and in the subsequent works published under the name of the author of The Whole Duty, which included Reasons of the Decay of See also:Christian Piety, The Ladies Calling, The See also:Gentle-man's Calling, The Government of the See also:Tongue, The See also:Art of Contentment, and The Lively Oracles given us, all of which were published in one See also:volume with notes and a See also:preface by Fell in 1684 .

1 F . Maseres, Tracts of the Civil War, ii . 673 . University by Dr J . F(ell) (1695) ; Notes and Queries, See also:

ser. vi . 2, and ser. vii . 166; Calendars of State Papers, Dom . See also:Series (166o-1675) . Fell's books and papers were bequeathed by his See also:nephew Henry See also:Jones to the Bodleian library . A few of his letters are to be found in Add . MSS . Brit .

See also:

Mus . 11046, and some are printed in Life of James II., by Ch . J . See also:Fox, Appendix; Gent . Mag . 77, p . 633; See also:Academy, 8, p . 141; See also:Athenaeum for 1887 (2), p . 311; J . Gutch, Collectanea Curiosa, i . 269; and in Cal. of State Papers, Dom . Series .

(P . C .

End of Article: JOHN FELL (1625-1686)
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