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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