occasion, are the purest, and such as are most esteemed even in the present improved state of antient learning. And it is at the same time worthy of remark, that this liberal prelate, in forming his plan of study, does not appoint a philosophy-lecturer in his college, as had been the constant practice in most of the previous foundations: perhaps suspecting, that such an endowment would not have coincided with his new course of erudition, and would have only served to encourage that species of doctrine, which had so long choaked the paths of science, and obstructed the progress of useful knowledge. These happy beginnings in favour of a new and rational system of academical education, were seconded by the auspicious munificence of cardinal Wolsey. About the year 1519, he founded a public chair at Oxford, for rhetoric and humanity, and soon afterwards another for teaching the Greek language; endowing both with ample salaries 9. About the year 1524, king Henry the Eighth, who destroyed or advanced literary institutions from caprice, called Robert Wakefield, originally a student of Cambridge, but now a professor of humanity at Tubingen in Germany, into England, that one of his own subjects, a linguist of so much celebrity, might no longer teach the Greek and oriental languages abroad: and when Wakefield appeared before the king, his majesty lamented, in the strongest expressions of concern, the total ignorance of his clergy and the universities in the learned tongues; and immediately assigned him a competent stipend for opening a lecture at Cambridge, in this necessary and neglected department of letters'. Wakefield was afterwards a preserver of many copies of the Greek classics, in the havoc of the religious houses. It is recorded by Fox, the martyrologist, as a memorable occurrences, and very deservedly, that about the same time, Robert Barnes, prior of the Augustines at Cambridge, and educated at Louvain, with the assistance of his scholar Thomas Parnell, explained within the walls of his own monastery, Plautus, Terence, and Cicero, to those academics who saw the utility of philology, and were desirous of deserting the Gothic philosophy. It may seem at first surprising, that Fox, a weak and prejudiced writer, should allow any merit to a catholic: but Barnes afterwards appears to have been one of Fox's martyrs, and was executed at the stake in Smithfield for a defence of Lutheranism. . But these innovations in the system of study were greatly discouraged and opposed by the friends of the old scholastic circle of sciences, and the bigoted partisans of the catholic communion, who stigmatised the Greek language by the name of heresy. Even bishop Fox, when he founded the Greek lecture above mentioned, that he might not appear to countenance a dangerous novelty, was obliged to cover his excellent Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxon. i. 245. 246. But see Fiddes's Wolsey, p. 197. Wakefield's Oratio de Laudibus trium Linguar m, &c. Dated at Cambridge, 1524. Printed for W. de Worde, 4to. institution under the venerable mantle of the authority of the church. For as a seeming apology for what he had done, he refers to a canonical decree of pope Clement the Fifth, promulged in the year 1311, at Vienne in Dauphine, which enjoined, that professors of Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic, should be instituted in the universities of Oxford, Paris, Bononia, Salamanca, and in the court of Romet. It was under the force of this ecclesiastical constitution, that Gregory Typhernas, one of the learned Greek exiles, had the address to claim a stipend for teaching Greek in the university of Paris". We cannot but wonder at the strange disagreement in human affairs between cause and effect, when we consider, that this edict of pope Clement, which originated from a superstitious reverence annexed to two of these languages, because they composed part of the superscription on the cross of Christ, should have so strongly counteracted its own principles, and proved an instrument in the reformation of religion. The university of Oxford was rent into factions on account of these bold attempts; and the advocates of the recent improvements, when the gentler weapons of persuasion could not prevail, often proceeded to blows with the rigid champions of the schools. But the facetious disposition of sir Thomas More had no small share in deciding this singular controversy, which he treated with much ingenious ridicule. Erasmus, about the same time, was engaged in attempting these reformations at Cambridge: in which, notwithstanding the mildness of his temper and conduct, and the general lustre of his literary character, he met with the most obstinate opposition. He expounded the Greek grammar of Chrysoloras in the public schools without an audience*: and having, with a view to present the Grecian literature in the most specious and agreeable 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 Y. His edition of the Greek Testament, the most commodious that had yet appeared, was absolutely proscribed at Cambridge; and a programma was "Quem præterea in nostro Alveario collocavimus, quod SACROSANCTI CANONES commodissime pro bonis literis, et imprimis christianis, instituerunt ac jusserunt, eum in hac universitate Oxoniensi, perinde ac paucis aliis celeberrimis gym.. nasiis, nunquam desiderari." Statut. C.C.C. Oxon. ut supr. The words of this statute which immediately follow, deserve notice here, and require explanation. "Nec tamen Eos hac ratione excusatos volumus, qui Græcam lectionem in eo SUIS IMPENSIS sustentare debent." By Eos, he means the bishops and abbots of England, who are the persons particularly ordered in pope Clement's injunction to sustain these lectures in the university of Oxford. Bishop Fox, therefore, in found 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 friar, 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 heretica, 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 "." 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 d. 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 courte. In the 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. 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 b. 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, but of short duration. It was however an unfavourable circumstance, that in the midst of this Erasm. Epist. p. 408. f Statuimus præterea, 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, h Erasm. Epistol. Jodoco Jonæ. Ibid. Jun. 1521. i Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxon. i. 249. 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 com. munion 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 christendom 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 specu Luther, Op. ii. 412. 414. |