Lincoln College (in full: The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is situated in the centre of Oxford, backing onto Brasenose and, lying on Turl Street as it is, is the second oldest of the three Turl Street Colleges (Lincoln, Exeter, and Jesus). As of 2006, Lincoln had an estimated financial endowment of £69m.
The College was founded on October 13 1427 by Richard Fleming, then Bishop of Lincoln, (cadaver tomb in Lincoln Cathedral) to combat the Lollard teachings of John Wyclif. He intended it to be "a little college of true students of theology who would defend the mysteries of Scripture against those ignorant laymen who profaned with swinish snouts its most holy pearls". To this effect, he obtained a charter for the College from King Henry VI, which combined the parishes of All Saints, St Michael's at the North Gate and St Mildred's within the College under a rector. The College now uses All Saints Church as its library and has strong ties with St Michael's Church at the North Gate, having used it as a stand-in for the College chapel when necessary and has appointed its minister since 1427.
Encountering both insufficient endowment and trouble from the Wars of the Roses (for their charter was from the deposed Lancastrian), the College seems only to have survived thanks to tireless efforts by its fellows in gaining recognition of the college's validity and the munificence of a second Bishop of Lincoln, Thomas Rotherham. Richard Fleming died in 1431, and the first rector, William Chamberleyn, in 1434, leaving the College with few buildings and little money. The second rector, John Beke, saw the College's safety secured by attracting donors; the College had seven fellows by 1436. John Forest, Dean of Wells and a close friend of Beke's, donated such an amount that the College promised to recognise him as a co-founder; it did not keep this promise. His gifts saw the construction of a chapel, a library, hall and kitchen. After a pointed sermon from the incumbent rector, Thomas Rotherham was compelled to give his support and effectively re-founded it in the 1478, with a new charter from King Edward IV.
In the 18th Century Lincoln became the cradle of Methodism when John Wesley, a fellow there from 1726, held religious meetings with his brother Charles and the rest of Wesley's 'Holy Club', whom the rest of the university took to calling 'Bible-moths'. His appearances at College became less frequent after he departed for Georgia as a Missionary chaplain in 1735. Indeed, he took to signing his publications as "John Wesley, Sometime Fellow of Lincoln College". A portrait of him hangs in the Hall and a bust overlooks the front quad. The room where he is believed to have worked is also named after him and was renovated by American Methodists at the beginning of the 20th Century.
In the next century, Lincoln was the first college in Oxford (or Cambridge) to admit a Jewish Fellow, the Australian-born philosopher Samuel Alexander (appointed 1882).
Years after the success of his Cold War spy novels, novelist and Lincoln graduate John le Carré, himself a one-time spy, revealed that fictional spymaster George Smiley was modelled on former Lincoln rector Vivian H. H. Green. At least one other recent Lincoln Rector, Sir Maurice Shock, enjoyed a prior career in British intelligence, although there is little evidence to substantiate the college's reputation as a recruiting ground for spies.
The College was the first in Oxford or Cambridge to provide a Middle Common Room exclusively for the use of graduate students. Lincoln has admitted women since the 1970s.
In 2007, the College took the rare step of unveiling a commissioned portrait of two members of staff who were not fellows or benefactors of the College, in commemoration of their work. Chef Jim Murden and Butler Kevin Egleston have worked in the College's Kitchen and Buttery for 31 and 26 years respectively, as of 2008. Noted artist Daphne Todd was commissioned for the painting, who has had such notable sitters as HRH the Grand Duke of Luxembourg and Spike Milligan.
The College is known as being the setting for many literary works, such as Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure. C.P. Snow was inspired for his novel The Masters by the story of Mark Pattison, a fellow at Lincoln, whose enthusiastic hopes for Lincoln were frustrated by older, more conservative fellows of the college; Snow's story transposes the story to a Cambridge College. It has also been the setting for 3 episodes of Inspector Morse. Recently, Lewis has used Turl Street in front of the College for filming.
Academically, Lincoln has consistently been one of the top ten colleges in the Norrington Table since 2006, and at various points since the new millennium before then. It is notable that with such a small student body, its Norrington score is much more susceptible to fluctuation than larger colleges. Its library holds some 60,000 books and is a popular place for graduates and undergraduates alike to work, especially given that it is open until 2am most nights compared to the earlier closing time of the Bodleian and faculty libraries. It is kept up-to-date by regular purchases, and welcomes suggestions for books pertinent to studies. The upper reading room, or Cohen Room, has an elaborate plastered ceiling and the Senior Library (downstairs) holds some of the college's older books, including pamphlets from the English Civil War period, Wesleyana, and plays dating from the late 1600s and early 1700s, as well as a varied collection of manuscripts. The science library is also to be found downstairs. Access to the library is generally restricted to current students and staff at the college, although alumni may use the library if acceptable justification is provided.
As is common with Oxford colleges, the College has a longstanding rivalry with neighbour Brasenose College (which was also founded by a later Bishop of Lincoln). The two colleges share a tradition revived annually on Ascension Day. The story goes that, centuries ago, as a mob chased students at the University through the town, the Lincoln porter allowed in the Lincoln students but refused entry to the Brasenose member, leaving him to the mercy of the mob. An alternative is that a Lincoln man bested a Brasenose man in a duel. Either episode resulted in the Brasenose student's death, and ever since, on Ascension Day, Lincoln College has invited in members of Brasenose College every year through the one door connecting the two colleges, for free beer as penance. Since the nineteenth century, the beer has been flavoured with ivy so as to discourage excessive consumption.
The College has ties to Middlebury College in the form of the American college's Bread Loaf School of English, to which a clock donated by Middlebury stands in honour in the Porters' Lodge. The Bread Loaf School runs a summer graduate course at Lincoln, and a few students from Middlebury attend Lincoln as visiting students for a year through this connexion.
The College grace is read aloud at every formal hall, usually by a student. To encourage readers, students who read the grace twice in a term will receive a bottle of wine. The College grace is in Latin:
Benignissime Pater, qui providentia tua regis, liberalitate pascis et benedictione conservas omnia quae creaveris, benedicas nobis, te quaesumus, et hisce creaturis in usum nostrum, ut illae sanctificatae sint et nobis salutares, et nos, inde corroborati, magis apti reddamur ad omnia opera bona; in laudem tui nominis aeterni, per Iesum Christum Dominum nostrum, Amen.
Translated, this is rendered:
"Most gracious Father, who by thy providence rulest, in thy generosity feedest, and by thy blessing preservest all that thou hast created; bless us, we beseech thee, and these creatures for our use, so that they may be hallowed and of benefit to us, and we, strengthened thereby, may be rendered fitter for all good works; to the praise of thy eternal name, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen."