. . .
The same reason hath made them, in almost all places in the
University, alter the times of prayer, and the hour of dinner (which
used to be 11 o'clock) in almost every place (Christ Church must be
excepted); which ancient discipline and learning and piety strangely
decay." Hearne was critical rather of past history than of present-
day rumour; he records complacently (in 1706) that at Whitchurch,
when the dissenters had prepared a great quantity of bricks "to erect
a capacious conventicle, a destroying angel came by night and spoyled
them all, and confounded their Babel." Hearne would by no means have
approved of the Methodist principles of six members of his hall in
the next generation, who were expelled for their religious views
(1768). A furious controversy, with many pamphlets, raged over them,
and the Public Orator of the University wrote a bulky indictment of
them, which was answered by another pamphlet with the picturesque
title of "Goliath Slain." Pamphleteers were more free in their
language in those days than they are now.
The hall has always been a strong religious centre, and plays a very
useful part in the University--by giving to poor men, seeking Holy
Orders, a real Oxford education, based on the true Oxford principle
of community of life.
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