similarity of the vaulting to that of the Divinity School in Oxford enables us to fix the date pretty accurately at 1480.

Another characteristic feature of the church was made at this time, to wit, the fine chantrey tomb, called the Watching Chamber, but very probably the third and last "shrine" of the patron saint. The cloisters were also reconstructed, and, in order to make room for their eastern side, the western aisle of the south transept was destroyed.

We are able to fix the date of the great north window of the north transept, and of the commencement of vaulting in its northern bay, because they were paid for out of a bequest of a monk, James Zouch, who died in 1503, and is buried under the window. One may conjecture that the whole of the church would have been vaulted in a style similar to that of the choir, if the dissolution of the priory had not come, and left this one bay as a pathetic little protest against the sweeping reconstructions of Cardinal Wolsey.

Indeed Wolsey, who in 1524 created Christ Church as a college, did nothing but harm to Christ Church as a church. It used to be thought that he had thrown the vault over the choir, and even that he had built the palpably early English spire!—an idea which throws a curious light upon the architectural knowledge of our grandfathers. But, alas for his reputation, the only work connected with the church that can with certainty be attributed to him is the destruction of one half of the nave. For, in order to build the great quadrangle now known as "Tom Quad," he demolished its three western bays, and was apparently only prevented from carting away the whole church by his sudden fall from the royal favour in 1529. His scheme for "Cardinal College," as Christ Church was at first called, was one of extreme magnificence; and he began—much to the amusement of Oxford—with the splendid kitchen, still in daily use. Tom Quad gives one some idea of the scale on which he formed his plans: it, however, has never been properly finished, as it is too large and too much inhabited to be fit to receive the cloister for which it was designed. The real cloisters are of much more modest dimensions. Wolsey destroyed one side of them in order to build the college Hall.

In justice, however, to Wolsey it must be stated that he commenced to build a new chapel along the north side of Tom Quad, which, judging by the foundations that some draining operations in the canon's gardens have recently disclosed, would have rivalled the chapel of King's College, Cambridge, in size, and have been about 100 feet longer than the actual length of the cathedral. To this the Aubrey MSS. (written about 1670) refer:—"Ye foundations of that famous begun Chapel or Cathedral of Cardinal Wolsey which went towards the blue Boare in Oxford and pulled down by Dean Fell about 1671." Aubrey also mentions that the height of the walls of this chapel was seven feet at the time of Wolsey's disgrace. The west end ran in a line with the front of the octagonal turrets in St. Aldate's Street, and the walls reached nearly to Fell's passage into Peckwater.

To the sixteenth century belong also the flat wooden roofs of the nave and transepts, and perhaps the concealment of the lantern story of the tower.

The Reformation, apart from the usual destruction of altars, furniture, plate, and ornamental work generally, is chiefly remembered in the history of the church by the demolition of St. Frideswide's shrine. Anthony à Wood says of the third shrine that, "being adored till the dissolution of the religious houses, it was then, 30 Henry VIII. [A.D. 1538], amongst others, taken down, and all the offerings conveyed into the King's Treasury." We give an account of the curious incidents connected with the demolition in our description of the shrine itself.

An inventory taken in the last year of Henry VIII.'s reign is interesting for the glimpse it gives us of the rich ornaments which even then survived, and must have made so vast a difference in the appearance of the church. They were confiscated, no doubt, as being "monuments tending to idolatrie and popish or devill's service, crosses, censars, and such lyke fylthie stuffe," to quote the curious phrases used by Bishop Horne of the plate of Trinity College.

There were eight altars in the aisles and body of the church, in addition to the high altar. The furniture then remaining of the high altar and choir was catalogued (only that the spelling was obscurer) as follows:—"Upon the high altar a here-cloth, 40s. Item, two altar-cloths, one of olde diaper, and the other of fine linen cloth. Item, a mass-book and a desk. Item, a great sacring bell. Item, 4 high latten candlesticks. Item, a canopy with a pix of copper. Item, 4 desks with two cloths of old silk. Item, a pair of organs, with a turned chain to the same. Item, 2 forms. Item, a canopy over the Dean's head of old silk. Item, 15 antiphoners and 9 grayells." After some more books comes:—"Item, a foot-cloth for the high altar of old tapestry." All the hangings of the side altars are enumerated, besides their vestments, candlesticks, etc. Thus the south choir aisle had "4 hangings for above and beneath the altar, whereof two of white satin Bruges, and the other two of yellow and red," and two altar-cloths; St. Lucy's Chapel had "two altar-cloths of old diaper, two hangings for the altar for above and beneath, the one of old needle-work, and the other of buckram"; the four altars on the north of the choir were hung with "dornaxe," diaper, yellow and white baundkin.

The description of some of the fourteen copes sounds very beautiful, for instance:—"2 copes of red silk, woven with sunbeams of gold;" "one cope of blue silk, woven with flower de luce, roses, and crowns of gold, and a whole suit to the same." There were also copes of purple and red, branched with gold, of red and white flowers, bordered with clouds, of red and green, of velvet and baundkin, and chamlet; and many suits of vestments besides; and tunicles, albs, and amices for the choristers.

The inventory also contains, among other items, heavy silver bowls and other vessels belonging to the "house plate," and the "church plate," which we here give in the original spelling:—"A pixe of the ymage of God, gilte, weing 33 oz. It^m. a highe standing pixe w^th a cover gilte, weing 23 oz. dim. It^m. a crosse w^th Mary and John and a fote to the same gilte, weing 114 oz. It^m. a ship [incense-boat] and a spone gilte, weing 12 oz. dim. It^m. two bassings parcell gilte, weing 92 oz. It^m. a halliwater [holy water] bokett, and a sprinkell, whitt syluer, weing 33 oz., 2 greatt sensors, and a litle sensor, whit syluer, weing 170 oz. It^m. two crowetts [cruets] of whit syluer, weing 8 oz. It^m. a little paxe gilte, weing 3 oz.; 4 chalesses, gilte, w^th patentts, weing 95 oz. It^m. 3 chalesses w^th patentt, whit syluer, weing 50 oz. It^m. a litle cros, parcell gilte, weing 51 oz. It^m. a crismatory gilte, not weighted. It^m. 2 gospells, plated w^th syluer of thonesyde [the one side], not weighted. It^m. two maces for the preuelege, plated w^th syluer vppon yeron [iron], not weighted. It^m. two virge roddes, plated w^th syluer vppon yeron, not weighted; 4 rectors staves, the haadds of syluer wherof two gilte, not weighted. It^m. two stavis for the crosse, plated with syluer, not weighted."

When, in 1546, St. Frideswide's became the cathedral church of the four year old diocese of Oxford, the momentous change in its character left no mark upon its architecture. The