page_title: Lincoln College, Oxford
section_title: Founding
hierarchical_section_title: Lincoln College, Oxford / History / Founding
caption_attribution_description: English: Richard Fleming, Archbishop of York
context_page_description: Lincoln College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, then Bishop of Lincoln.
  Notable alumni include John Radcliffe, Nobel Prize winner Howard Florey, Edward Abraham, Norman Heatley, John le Carré, Rachel Maddow, Theodor Seuss Geisel, Nevil Sidgwick, current UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak and John Wesley. Roland Berrill, an Australian barrister, and Dr. Lancelot Ware, a British scientist and lawyer, founded Mensa at Lincoln College in 1946. Lincoln College has one of the oldest working medieval kitchens in the UK.
context_section_description: Richard Fleming founded the College in order 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 end, he obtained a charter for the College from King Henry VI, which combined the parishes of All Saints, St Michael 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.
  Despite insufficient endowment and trouble from the Wars of the Roses (for their charter was from the deposed Lancastrian), the College has survived and flourished thanks to the efforts of its fellows 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, secured the College's safety by attracting donors. By 1436, the College had seven fellows. 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 1478, with a new charter from King Edward IV.
caption: Richard Fleming, founder
exif: {}