No. 141
The Trusty Servant
Ad Portas, 23 rd April 2026
On Thursday 23 rd April, the school received the Bishop of Winchester ad portas. The ceremony began at the unusual time of 5.00 p. m. in advance of which the school formed up in Chamber Court under a beautiful blue afternoon sky. With the exception of Chawker’ s, whose designated position was in the northeast corner, the pupils enjoyed the shadow cast by Chapel and College Kitchen.
The Prefect of Hall, Henry Spoerri( Coll, 2021-26), delivered the following speech of welcome with great aplomb. The English translation of the opening paragraph has been italicised:
ad portas te excipimus, reverendissime pater in Deo, maiore sollemnitate quam antea. hodie te salutamus censorem huius antiqui collegii. series insignis episcoporum Wintoniensium te antecedit, quorum quattuor mentionem faciam. sicut fundator noster, Wilhelmus de Wykeham, in Hantonia eruditus es. educatione officiisque coactus es ut peregre ires--Lutetiam, ad omnes orbis terrarum regiones, ad multas patriae partes. rediisti nunc, velut ille, eo unde profectus es, ac summum in Hantonia officium ecclesiae suscepisti. censor huius Sanctae Mariae collegii munus summum geris, iudex ultimus legum a Wilhelmo de Wykeham abhinc plurimos annos statutarum.
speramus te potestatis utendae causam non habiturum esse ac, si necesse erit, intuiturum esse nos, discipulos collegii, benigne et aeque.
We welcome you at our gates, Right Reverend Father in God, more formally than on previous visits. Today we greet you as Visitor of this ancient College. You follow an impressive line of Bishops of Winchester, four of whom I shall mention:
Like our founder, William of Wykeham, your roots are in Hampshire. Your education and ministry have taken you overseas to Paris, to seven continents and to points around this country. Now, like Wykeham, you have returned whence you began and have assumed the highest ecclesiastical office of this county. As Visitor you hold the highest position in this College of St Mary, holding the ultimate interpretation of the Statutes laid down by Wykeham himself nearly 650 years ago. We hope that you have little cause to wield such authority and that should cause arise you will look kindly and fairly upon us, the pupils of the College.
Two years ago you came to the College following in the footsteps of another Bishop of Winchester. Your predecessor Edward Talbot delivered the original words of dedication for our War Memorial Cloister which you repeated on the occasion of the Memorial’ s
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