Description

This is the first modern study of William Waynflete, powerful and influential bishop of Winchester from 1447 to 1486. He was one of the great educationalists and patrons of learning of late medieval England, and his career was dominated by his interest in education (which included close involvement with Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford), particularly by his concern with the teaching of grammar. He played a leading role in some of the changes which transformed education in 15th-century England: the emergence in Oxford and Cambridge of new and larger colleges; the influence of continental humanist ideas which reshaped English thought and learning; the introduction of the teaching of Greek; the composition of new grammars; and the introduction of printing as a means of disseminating the new learning. Coincidentally, his involvement with new foundations led to the construction of several magnificent and often innovative buildings.
This study is a corrective to the view that the medieval church was corrupt and in need of reform; it supports recent research revealing the truth to be more complex, with bishops both politically and pastorally active in varying degrees. Waynflete himself was politically linked to Henry VI and the Lancastrian administration. As this biography records, most of his career was spent in southern England; however, he retained close links with his native county, Lincolnshire, and his extensive commitments there are also fully considered.