Everything about Walter De Merton totally explained
Walter de Merton (c.
1205 –
27 October 1277) was
Bishop of Rochester and founder of
Merton College, Oxford.
Life
Walter was born probably at
Merton in
Surrey or educated there; hence the surname. He came of a land-owning family at
Basingstoke; beyond that there's no definite information as to the date or place of birth. We know that his mother was
Christina Fitz-Oliver and his father
William, and that in 1237 both parents were dead, and Walter was a clerk in Holy orders. In 1241 Walter already held a number of livings in various parts of the country; in 1256 he was an agent for
Walter of Kirkham Bishop of Durham in a lawsuit; in 1259
prebendary of
St. Paul's,
London; and in 1262 prebendary of
Exeter and
canon of
Wells. Walter was also
prothonotary of the chancery in 1258; and in 1261
Henry III made him
chancellor, in place of
Nicholas of Ely.
It was in this same year that Walter first set aside two manors in Surrey for the priory at Merton, for the support of "scholars residing at the schools". This was the beginning of Merton College. In 1264 Walter drew up statutes for a "house of the scholars of Merton", at
Malden in Surrey; ten years later these scholars were transferred to
Oxford, and a permanent house established. Merton College, thus founded and endowed by Walter, is the earliest example of collegiate life at Oxford. Walter's statutes provided for a common corporate life under the rule of a warden, but as vows were to be taken and scholars entering a monastic order forfeited their scholarship, the college was really a place of training for the secular clergy.
While labouring for the establishment of Merton College, Walter was removed from the chancellorship when the
barons triumphed in 1263,
Freed of the responsibilities of government, Walter turned his attention to his college again. He redrafted the statutes and moved the scholars permanently to Oxford. They were established on the site of the parish church of St John whose
advowson he'd obtained in the early 1260s and where he'd been buying adjoining houses and halls since 1264.
For the last three years of his life Walter divided his time between his duties in Rochester and the supervision of his fledging academic house. It was on a journey back from Oxford in 1277, while fording the
Medway, that he fell from his horse; he died two days later on
October 27 1277 from the effects of the accident. He was buried in
Rochester Cathedral, and is described in the
Annales monastici as a man of liberality and great worldly learning, ever ready in his assistance to the religious orders.
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