both univerfities feem to have been reduced to the fame de-` plorable condition of indigence and illiteracy.

It is generally believed, that the reformation of religion in England, the most happy and important event of our annals, was immediately fucceeded by a flourishing state of letters. But this was by no means the cafe. For a long time afterwards an effect quite contrary was produced. The reformation in England was completed under the reign of Edward the fixth. The rapacious courtiers of this young prince were perpetually grasping at the rewards of literature; which being discouraged or despised by the rich," was neglected by those of moderate fortunes. Avarice and zeal were at once gratified in robbing the clergy of their revenues, and in reducing the church to its primitive apoftolical state of purity and poverty". The opulent fee of Winchester was lowered to a bare title: its amplest estates were portioned out to the laity; and the bishop, a creature of the protector Somerset, was contented to receive an inconfiderable annual ftipend from the exchequer. The bifhoprick of Durham, almost equally rich, was entirely dif folved. A favorite nobleman of the court occupied the deanery and treasurership of a cathedral with fome of its best canonries. The minifters of this abused monarch, by thefe arbitrary, difhoneft, and imprudent measures, only provided inftruments, and furnished arguments, for restoring in the fucceeding reign that fuperftitious religion, which they profeffed to deftroy. By thus impoverishing the ecclefiaftical dignities, they countenanced the clamours of the catholics; who declared, that the reformation was apparently founded on temporal views, and that the protestants pretended to oppose the doctrines of the church, folely with a view that they might fhare in the plunder of its revenues. In every one of thefe facrilegious robberies the intereft of

See Collier's ECCL. HIST. Records, lxvii. p. 80.

Burnet, REF. P. ii. 8.

learning

learning alfo fuffered. Exhibitions and penfions were, in the mean time, fubftracted from the ftudents in the univerfities'. Afcham, in a letter to the marquis of Northampton, dated 1550, laments the ruin of grammar schools throughout England; and predicts the speedy extinction of the univerfities from this growing calamity. At Oxford the public fchools were neglected by the profeffors and pupils, and allotted to the lowest purposes'. Academical degrees were abrogated as antichriftian. Reformation was foon turned into fanaticism. Abfurd refinements, concerning the inutility of human learning, were fuperadded to the just and rational purgation of christianity from the papal corruptions. The spiritual reformers of these enlightened days, at a vifitation of the laft-mentioned univerfity, proceeded fo far in their ideas of a fuperior rectitude, as totally to strip. the public library, established by that munificent patron Humphrey duke of Gloucester, of all its books and manufcripts'.

I must not, however, forget, as a remarkable fymptom of an attempt now circulating to give a more general and unreserved diffusion of science, that in this reign, Thomas Wilfon, originally a fellow of King's college in Cambridge, preceptor to Charles and Henry Brandon dukes of Suffolk, dean of Durham, and chief secretary to the king, published a system a rhetoric and of logic, in English. This display of the venerable myfteries of the latter of these arts in a vernacular language, which had hitherto been confined within the facred pale of the learned tongues, was esteemed

an innovation almost equally daring with that of permitting the service of the church to be celebrated in English: and accordingly the author, foon afterwards happening to visit. Rome, was incarcerated by the inquifitors of the holy fee, as a presumptuous and dangerous heretic.

It is with reluctance I enter on the bloody reign of the relentless and unamiable Mary; whofe many dreadful martyrdoms of men eminent for learning and piety, shock our fenfibility with a double degree of horrour, in the present softened state of manners, at a period of fociety when no potentate would inflict executions of fo fevere a nature, and when it would be difficult to find devotees hardy enough to die for difference of opinion. We must, however, acknowledge, that the enriched both univerfities with fome confiderable benefactions: yet thefe donations seem to have been made, not from any general or liberal principle of advancing knowledge, but to repair the breaches of reformation, and to ftrengthen the return of fuperftition. It is certain, that her restoration of popery, together with the monastic institution, its proper appendage, must have been highly pernicious to the growth of polite erudition. Yet although the elegant studies were now beginning to fuffer a new relapse, in the midst of this reign, under the discouragement of all these inaufpicious and unfriendly circumftances, a college was established at Oxford, in the conftitution of which, the founder principally inculcates the use and neceflity of claffical literature; and recommends it as the most important and leading object in that system of academical study, which he prescribes to the youth of the new fociety". For, befide a lecturer in philofophy appointed for the ordinary purpose of teaching the fcholaftic fciences, he establishes in this feminary a teacher of humanity. The bufinefs of this preceptor is described with a particularity not usual in the con

ftitutions given to collegiate bodies of this kind, and he is directed to exert his utmoft diligence, in tincturing his auditors with a juft relish for the graces and purity of the Latin language*: and to explain critically, in the public hall, for the space of two hours every day, the Offices, De Oratore, and rhetorical treatifes of Cicero, the inftitutes of Quintilian, Aulus Gellius, Plautus, Terence, Virgil, Horace, Livy, and Lucan; together with the most excellent modern philological treatises then in vogue, fuch as the ELEGANCIES of Laurentius Valla, and the MISCELLANIES of Politian, or any other approved critical tract on oratory or verfification'. In the mean time, the founder permits it to the discretion of the lecturer, occafionally to fubftitute Greek authors in the place of these. He moreover requires, that the candidates for admission into the college be completely fkilled in Latin poetry; and in writing Epiftles, then a favorite mode of compofition, and on which Erafmus, and Conradus Celtes the restorer of letters in Germany, had each recently published a diftinct fyftematical work. He injoins, that the students shall be exercifed every day, in the intervals of vacation, in compofing declamations, and Latin verses both

"Latini fermonis ornatu et elegantia "imbuendos diligenter curabit, &c." Statut. Coll. Trin. Oxon. cap. iv. Again, "Cupiens et ego Collegii mei juventutem "in primis Latini fermonis Puritate ac "ingenurarum artium rudimentis, conve"nienter erudiri, &c." Ibid. cap. xv.

y Ibid. cap. xv. A modern writer in dialectics, Rodolphus Agricola, is alfo recommended to be explained by the reader in philofophy, together with Ariftotle.

z Ibid. cap. xv. It may be also observed here, that the philofophy reader is not only ordered to explain Ariftotle, but Plato. Ibid. cap. xv. It appears by implication in the clofe of this ftatute, that the public lectures of the univerfity were now growing

lyric and heroic": and in his prefatory statute, where he defcribes the nature and defign of his foundation, he declares, that he destines the younger part of his establishment, not only to dialectics and philofophy, but to the more polite literature. The statutes of this college were submitted to the inspection of cardinal Pole, one of the chief protectors of the revival of polite letters in England, as appears from a curious paffage in a letter written by the founder, now remaining; which not only difplays the cardinal's ideas of the new erudition, but fhews the state of the Greek language at this period. My lord Cardinalls grace has had the overseeinge

of my ftatutes. He muche lykes well, that I have therein "ordered the Latin tonge [Latin claffics] to be redde to my "fchollers. But he advyfes me to order the Greeke to be "more taught there than I have provyded. This purpose I "well lyke: but I fear the tymes will not bear it now. I re"member when I was a yong scholler at Eton', the Greeke "tonge was growing apace; the studie of which is now "alate much decaid." Queen Mary was herself eminently learned. But her accomplishments in letters were darkened or impeded by religious prejudices. At the defire of queen Catharine Parr, fhe tranflated in her youth Erasmus's paraphrase on faint John. The preface is written by Udall, master of Eton fchool: in which he much extolls her dif tinguished proficience in literature. It would have been fortunate, if Mary's attention to this work had foftened her temper, and enlightened her understanding. She frequently fpoke in public with propriety, and always with prudence and dignity.

Lond. 1548. fol.