form by a piece of pleasantry, translated Lucian's lively dialogue called ICAROMENIPPUS, he could find no student in the university capable of transcribing the Greek with the Latin". His edition of the Greek testament, the most commodious that had yet appeared, was absolutely proscribed at Cambridge: and a programma was issued in one of the most ample colleges, threatening a severe fine to any member of the society, who should be detected in having so fantastic and impious a book in his possession". One Henry Standish, a doctor in divinity and a mendicant frier, afterwards bishop of Saint Asaph, was a vehement adversary of Erasmus in the promotion of this heretical literature; whom he called in a declamation, by way of reproach, Græculus iste, which soon became a synonymous appellation for an heretic. Yet it should be remembered, that many English prelates patronised Erasmus ; and that one of our archbishops was at this time ambitious of learning Greek". Even the public diversions of the court took a tincture from this growing attention to the languages, and assumed a classical air. We have before seen, that a comedy of Plautus was acted at the royal palace of Greenwich in the year 1520. And when the French ambassadors with a most splendid suite of the French nobility were in England for the ratification of peace in the year 1514, amid the most magnificent banquets, tournaments, and masques, exhibited at the same palace, they were entertained with a Latin interlude; or, to use the words of a cotemporary writer, with such an "excellent Interlude made in Latin, that I never heard the like; the actors apparel being so gorgious, and of such strange devices, that it passes my capacitie to relate them.". y Ibid. EPIST. 139. dat. 1512. p. 120. Henry Bullock, called Bovillus, one of Erasmus's friends, and much patronised by Wolsey, printed a Latin translation of Lucian, ig A.Yadav, at Cambridge, 1521, quarto. 2 Ibid. EPIST. 148. dat. 1513. p. 126. See Erasmi OPERA, tom. ix. p. 1440. Even the priests, in their confessions of C Cavendish, MEM. Card. Wolsey, p. 94. edit. 1708. 8vo. Nor was the protection of king Henry the Eighth, who notwithstanding he had attacked the opinions of Luther, yet, from his natural liveliness of temper and a love of novelty, thought favourably of the new improvements, of inconsiderable influence in supporting the restoration of the Greek language. In 1519, a preacher at the public church of the university of Oxford, harangued with much violence, and in the true spirit of the antient orthodoxy, against the doctrines inculcated by the new professors and his arguments were canvassed among the students with the greatest animosity. But Henry, being resident at the neighbouring royal manor of Woodstock, and having received a just detail of the merits of this dispute from Pace and More, interposed his uncontrovertible authority; and transmitting a royal mandate to the university, commanded that the study of the scriptures in their original languages should not only be permitted for the future, but received as a branch of the academical institution". Soon afterwards, one of the king's chaplains preaching at court, took an opportunity to censure the genuine interpretations of the scriptures, which the Grecian learning had introduced. The king, when the sermon was ended, to which he had listened with a smile of contempt, ordered a solemn disputation to be held, in his own presence at which the unfortunate preacher opposed, and sir Thomas More, with his usual dexterity, defended, the utility and excellence of the Greek language. The divine, who at least was a good courtier, instead of vindicating his opinion, instantly fell on his knees, and begged pardon for having given any offence in the pulpit before his majesty. However, after some slight altercation, the preacher, by way of making some sort of concession in form, ingenuously declared, that he was now better reconciled to the Greek tongue, because it was derived from the Hebrew. The king, astonished at his ridiculous ignorance, dismissed the chaplain, with a charge, that he should never again presume to preach at court. In the Erasm. EPIST. 380. tom. iii. Ibid. p. 408. grammatical schools established in all the new cathedral foundations of this king, a master is appointed, with the uncommon qualification of a competent skill in both the learned languages f. In the year 1523, Ludovicus Vives, having dedicated his commentary on Austin's DE CIVITATE DEI to Henry the Eighth, was invited into England, and read lectures at Oxford in jurisprudence and humanity; which were countenanced by the presence, not only of Henry, but of queen Catharine and some of the principal nobility. At length antient absurdities universally gave way to these encouragements. Even the vernacular language began to be cultivated by the more ingenious clergy. Colet, dean of saint Paul's, a divine of profound learning, with a view to adorn and improve the style of his discourses, and to acquire the graces of an elegant preacher, employed much time in reading Gower, Chaucer, and Lydgate, and other English poets, whose compositions had embellished the popular diction. The practice of frequenting Italy, for the purpose of acquiring the last polish to a Latin style both in eloquence and poetry, still continued in vogue; and was greatly promoted by the connections, authority, and good taste, of cardinal Pole, who constantly resided at the court of Rome in a high character. At Oxford, in particular, these united endeavours for establishing a new course of liberal and manly science, were finally consummated in the magnificent foundation of Wolsey's college, to which all the accomplished scholars of every country in Europe were invited; and for whose library, transcripts of all the valuable manuscripts which now fill the Vatican, were designed '. But the progress of these prosperous beginnings was soon obstructed. The first obstacle I shall mention, was, indeed, f Statuimus præterca, ut per Decanum, etc. unus [Archididascalus] "eligatur, Latine et Græce doctus, bonæ famæ," &c. STATUT. Eccles. Roffens. cap. xxv. They were given Jun. 30, 1545. In the same statute the second master is required to be only Latine doctus. All the statutes of the new cathedrals are alike. It is remarkable, that Wolsey does not order Greek to be taught in his school at Ipswich, founded 1528. See Strype, ECCL. MEM. i. Append. xxxv. p. 94. seq. Twyne, APOL. lib. ii. § 210. seq. Probably he was patronised by Catharine as a Spaniard. Erasm. EPISTOL. Jodoco Jonæ. Ibid. Jun. 1521. i Wood, HIST. UNIV. OXON. i. 249. but of short duration. It was however an unfavourable circumstance, that in the midst of this career of science, Henry, who had ever been accustomed to gratify his passions at any rate, sued for a divorce against his queen Catharine. The legality of this violent measure being agitated with much deliberation and solemnity, wholly engrossed the attention of many able philologists, whose genius and acquisitions were destined to a much nobler employment; and tended to revive for a time the frivolous subtleties of casuistry and theology. But another cause which suspended the progression of these letters, of much more importance and extent, ultimately most happy in its consequences, remains to be mentioned. The enlarged conceptions acquired by the study of the Greek and Roman writers seem to have restored to the human mind a free exertion of its native operations, and to have communicated a certain spirit of enterprise in examining every subject: and at length to have released the intellectual capacity of mankind from that habitual subjection, and that servility to system, which had hitherto prevented it from advancing any new principle, or adopting any new opinion. Hence, under the concurrent assistance of a preparation of circumstances, all centring in the same period, arose the reformation of religion. But this defection from the catholic communion, alienated the thoughts of the learned from those pursuits by which it was produced; and diverted the studies of the most accomplished scholars, to inquiries into the practices and maxims of the primitive ages, the nature of civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, the authority of scripture and tradition, of popes, councils, and schoolmen: topics, which men were not yet qualified to treat with any degree of penetration, and on which the ideas of the times unenlightened by philosophy, or warped by prejudice and passion, were not calculated to throw just and rational illustrations. When the bonds of spiritual unity were once broken, this separation from an established faith ended in a variety of subordinate sects, each of which called forth its respective champions into the field of religious contention. The several princes of christen dom were politically concerned in these disputes; and the courts in which poets and orators had been recently caressed and rewarded, were now filled with that most deplorable species of philosophers, polemical metaphysicians. The public entry of Luther into Worms, when he had been summoned before the diet of that city, was equally splendid with that of the emperor Charles the Fifth. Rome in return, roused from her deep repose of ten centuries, was compelled to vindicate her insulted doctrines with reasoning and argument. The profound investigations of Aquinas once more triumphed over the graces of the Ciceronian urbanity; and endless volumes were written on the expediency of auricular confession, and the existence of purgatory. Thus the cause of polite literature was for awhile abandoned; while the noblest abilities of Europe were wasted in theological speculation, and absorbed in the abyss of controversy. Yet it must not be forgotten, that wit and raillery, drawn from the sources of elegant erudition, were sometimes applied, and with the greatest success, in this important dis pute. The lively colloquies of Erasmus, which exposed the superstitious practices of the papists, with much humour, and in pure Latinity, made more protestants than the ten tomes of John Calvin. A work of ridicule was now a new attempt: and it should be here observed, to the honour of Erasmus, that he was the first of the literary reformers who tried that species of composition, at least with any degree of popularity. The polite scholars of Italy had no notion that the German theologists were capable of making their readers laugh: they were now convinced of their mistake, and soon found that the German pleasantry prepared the way for a revolution, which proved of the most serious consequence to Italy. Another great temporary check given to the general state of letters in England at this period, was the dissolution of the monasteries. Many of the abuses in civil society are attended with some advantages. In the beginnings of reformation, the loss of these advantages is always felt very sensibly: while the Luther, Op. ii. 412. 414. |