Jesus College, founded on June 27, 1571,…
1571 CE
Jesus College, founded on June 27, 1571, when Elizabeth I issues a royal charter, is the first Protestant college to be founded at the university, and is the only Oxford college to date from Elizabeth's reign.
It is the first new Oxford college since 1555, in the reign of Queen Mary, when Trinity College and St. John's College were founded as Roman Catholic colleges.
The foundation charter names a Principal (David Lewis), eight Fellows, eight Scholars, and eight Commissioners to draw up the statutes for the college.
The commissioners include Hugh Price, who had petitioned the queen to found a college at Oxford "that he might bestow his estate of the maintenance of certain scholars of Wales to be trained up in good letters."
The college is originally intended primarily for the education of clergymen.
The particular intention is to satisfy a need for dedicated, learned clergy to promote the Elizabethan Religious Settlement in the parishes of England, Ireland and Wales.