This school was set up by the bishop of Winchester, William of Wykeham in
1382. It was the first of a new tradition of English
Public Schools. It was set up with the intention of providing an educated
elite who could run the state. According to John Milner in his History,
Civil and Ecclesiastical, and Survey of the Antiquities of Winchester (1809)
"a temple of Apollo, the deity of learning stood near the sire of the
present college". This was set up by the Romans when they were trying
to supress druidry. They wanted to supplant it with their own priesthood.
They set up a series of centres in what became the Old Foundation of bishoprics
whenthey were christianised. Margaret Murray points out in The Divine
Kings of England that as they totalled thirteen, the bishops would collectively
constitute a coven.
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