As the first stage of this project, the Edwardian reredos and 17th-century wood panelling were removed and the Rubens installed in their stead behind the altar in April 1964. The painting was so big that the raised floor of the chapel's east end, required by the 1448 "Founder's Will", would have to be levelled so as to prevent the baroque artwork obscuring the bottom of the Tudor east window. However, twenty fellows and the honorary fellow E. M. Forster signed a letter urging the college to reverse its plan and "admit that it has made a mistake"; the levelling of the floor nevertheless went ahead. The newly refitted east end opened in 1968 and proved highly controversial, with the "Architects' Journal" criticising it as "motivated not by the demands of liturgical worship but by those of museum display."