The Greek College, established in 1699, was a short-lived attempt to create a separate learning institution for Greek Orthodox students at the University of Oxford, England during the 17th century, when there was regular contact between Eastern Orthodoxy and the various Protestant churches.
During the seventeenth century and the first quarter of the eighteenth, Anglicans showed considerable interest in the Greek church, and this interest was reciprocated. In 1616, Cyril Lucaris, then Patriarch of Alexandria, commended a young priest, Metrophanes Critopoulos, to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
At his own expense, Archbishop George Abbot sent Metrophanes to Oxford to study theology at Balliol College. On his return east, Metrophanes, in spite of an unfavorable report from Abbot, continued to enjoy the praise of Cyril Lucaris and rose to be, in his turn, the Patriarch of Alexandria.
That Metrophanes was not the only Greek who wanted to study in England at that time is shown, for instance, by an appeal made in 1621 to the king, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishop of London by two others—Gregory, Archimandrite of Macedonia, and Katakouzenos, who asked to be sent to Oxford to study philosophy and theology.
Nathaniel Conopius, another protege of Lucaris, who fled from Constantinople when his patron was murdered, was also at Balliol and was expelled from there by the Puritans in 1648.
In 1676, the Archbishop of Samos, Joseph Georgirenes, went to England and built a church in Soho Fields for the Greek community in London. He then visited Oxford in July 1677 to raise money for the completion of that church. Anthony Wood, a celebrated English historian and antiquary, wondered whether the Archbishop was not also in Oxford in connection with a scheme for creating a Greek college in the city at Gloucester Hall.
“At that time,” wrote Wood, “there was great talk of converting Gloucester Hall into a college for the educating of 20 or 30 Greeks in Acadentical learning.” In any case, it was Georgirenes who wrote a letter to William Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, apparently around 1682, in which he requested that about twelve scholars from Greece constantly be in England “to be instructed and grounded in the true doctrine of the Church of England, whereby they may be able dispensers thereof, and so return into Greece aforesaid to preach the same.”
The highest levels of the Anglican hierarchy appeared to show some sympathy and interest in the proposal for a Greek college. However, nothing more came of the initial idea or discussions for the next ten years.
Then, early in 1692, the idea reappeared under Dr. Benjamin Woodroffe, the Canon of Christ Church College in Oxford. His interest in the Greek Church can be traced as far back as his twenties. He was allegedly behind the scheme mentioned by Anthony Wood, as discussed in Oxford in 1677, for creating a Greek college at Gloucester Hall.
Gloucester Hall had for years been in a state of decay. Under the principalship of Dr. Byrom Eaton, it had become empty of any students, and its buildings had fallen into disrepair. Now, on August 15, 1692, Woodroffe became the principal. Workmen began making repairs on the buildings immediately.
August 15th was a Monday, and on the following Saturday, the new principal wrote to Edward Harley, the 2nd Earl of Oxford, about the Greek scheme. He wanted to interest the Levant Company (Company of Turkish Merchants) in it as soon as possible.
In fact, before the month of August was over, Woodroffe appeared before the Court of the Levant Company, explained the scheme, and got the court’s grant of free passage on the company’s ships for Greek students.
Within six weeks of his institution, Woodroffe’s scheme for a Greek college hall had taken shape. Twenty famous Greeks were sent from Antioch and Constantinople to reside at the college.
Gloucester Hall was not, however, intended to be just a Greek college. Ordinary Oxford undergraduates were to live there, too. From a blueprint for the hall that Woodroffe sent to Harley in February 1693, it is evident that while the Greeks were to be accommodated in one part of the hall and the ordinary undergraduates in another, both parties were to share in the use of the hall, chapel, and library.
The Greek scheme seemed to be off to a racing start, but after this initial thrust, nothing seemed to have happened for a long time. In fact, the scheme was lampooned in Latin elegiac verse, which compared the college to an Oxford ale-house called Rump Hall, making fun of the fact that the Greek scheme was hanging fire and the students showed no sign of coming. This was in June 1693.
The first students to receive free passage from the Levant Company did not arrive until early in 1699.
The project eventually failed in 1705 due to the objections of the Greek Orthodox Church. There are only fifteen Greeks reported as members, although Greeks attended Oxford both before and after the existence of the college.
