Robert_Woodlark

Robert Woodlark

Robert Woodlark (also spelled Wodelarke)[1] was an English academic and priest. He was the Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and the founder of St Catharine's College, Cambridge. He was also a professor of sacred theology at the University.[2]

Robert Woodlark. Coloured mezzotint

He was the son of Richard Woodlark of Wakerley, Northamptonshire. Robert Woodlark was one of the founding Fellows of King's College in 1441.[3] He was appointed Provost of King's in 1452, eventually being succeeded in 1479, by Walter Field.[4] He was surveyor of King's College Chapel during its building and master of the works there, 1452–5.

While Provost of King's, Woodlark began the preparations for the foundation of a new college, which he established in 1473.[5] He drew up the original statutes for the governance of the college and obtained a charter from Edward IV, 16 August 1475. His vision for the college was one populated by a small society of priests.[6] Indeed, Woodlark's original statutes expressly excluded the teaching of medicine or law. Woodlark did not contemplate undergraduates at the college, instead desiring a small community of senior scholars of theology and philosophy.[7]

Woodlark served as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 1459 to 1460, and again from 1462 to 1463.[8]

Woodlark never served as Master of St Catharine's, instead appointing Richard Roche as the college's first true master in 1475.[9]


References

  1. Roach, J.P.C (1959). A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 3: The City and University of Cambridge. Cambridge, UK: Victoria County History. pp. 415–420. ISBN 9780712902434.
  2. University of Cambridge; Heywood, J. (1855). Early Cambridge University and College Statutes. H.G. Bohn. p. 216. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  3. "Woodlark, Robert (WDLK441R)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  4. "List of Provosts" (PDF). King's College Cambridge. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
  5. "St. Catharine's College History". 9 July 2018. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  6. "St Catharine's Magazine 2010 | The College Library, Part One: 1473–1730" (PDF). 18 December 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 August 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2014.

Bibliography


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